S2E1 - Welcome to Season Two: Reflections, New Directions, and What's Ahead

This is a short introduction to Season Two of Story Medicine: a moment to mark the beginning of a new season.

It includes reflections on the experience of launching Story Medicine and making Season One; as well as the sharing of exciting news about the show's growing international reach, and two new developments for Season Two: a move to fortnightly episodes, and the launch of the Story Medicine Circle - a small, regular Zoom group for listeners who want to work through the integration practices together, in community. 

The first full episode of Season Two follows at 7:30am on Friday 20th March 2026.

Transcript

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Welcome to Story Medicine. I'm Joe Summerfield. And welcome to season two. I want to take a moment to mark the end of season one and the start of something new. Over the course of making the past 20 episodes, my alignment to this work has grown exponentially. Every story I've sat with, every archetypal pattern I've tried to decode, every episode I've published, all of it has deepened my conviction that this is important, that these stories offer something essential, at a time when grounding and time-tested wisdom are much needed. And personally, I find the work deeply nourishing. I'm so grateful to have had the purpose and the deadlines, because they've kept me committed to the practice of finding and journeying with these stories. I feel nourished by them, and it's gratifying to feel like the quality of my output has improved as the format has settled in. It's also wonderful to receive feedback from you, the listener. To see steadily increasing download numbers, emails coming in, and reviews, it's been really encouraging. I've been so excited to see that Story Medicine has so far found listeners in over 30 countries, including Singapore, Zimbabwe, Reunion Island, Guatemala, Slovenia, South Korea, and Belize. So a heartfelt greeting to each of you wherever you are. I love this sense of community not defined by borders but by curiosity and possibly by a longing for depth and connection. And that these stories move across such different cultures and landscapes and ways of life, yet the themes they carry a shared vocabulary of the human being. So, thank you for listening, for sharing, for writing to me. It means more to me than I can easily say. Now, looking ahead to season two, there's something I've been thinking about. In all honesty, creating an episode of Story Medicine takes considerably more time than I had imagined that it would. Researching stories, finding authentic sources, learning about cultural context, rewriting the story for the podcast, writing and rewriting and rewriting the analysis and recording and editing. It basically takes all week squeezed around my clinical practice. I want to keep offering this, and if I want to do that, I need to make sure it's sustainable. And I also want to explore how to really make the most of the offering for those interested. So I would like to announce a couple of changes for this season. Each episode of Story Medicine contains three integration practices. Specific, carefully designed exercises drawn from the medicine of each story to help you move that story's wisdom from your head into your lived experience. That's what makes the wisdom real. And what I've heard from more than one listener is that people see the value in the practices but don't tend to complete them. Life gets in the way. There's no structure, no accountability, no one to do it alongside. And of course, it is an optional extra. I want people to enjoy this podcast in whatever way works for them personally, even if it's just as a bedtime story, or as an accompaniment to washing the dishes. You don't have to do the practices. But if you look at the full body of season one, nineteen full story episodes, three practices each, that's nearly sixty structured personal development practices with full explanations, drawing on Jungian psychology, on ancient wisdom, on sematic and experiential approaches, available to anybody with a podcast app. This is an extraordinary resource, like a structured personal development course, but completely free. And most of it is sitting untapped. So one of the changes for this season will be the launch of the Story Medicine Circle, a small regular Zoom group where we will gather together to sit with the story of the previous week, to discuss its medicine, and to work through the integration practices. Together, in community, with the accountability and the conversation that makes the difference between an interesting idea and a lived experience. Details on how to join will be on the podcast page on my website soon, and I'll include the link in the episode notes when it's set up. For the time being, if you'd like to register your interest, just drop me a message. Alongside this, in season two, I plan to move from weekly to fortnightly episodes, one episode every two weeks. This rhythm will help make the show more sustainable for me to run. It will give you more time to live with each episode before the next one arrives. And it will give me the time to facilitate the online story medicine circles for those of you who want to make the most of each episode in that way. So, every two weeks starting from this week. The first episode of season two is coming up shortly. We're traveling to ancient Persia to a story from Fidoski's Shahnameh, one of the great epic poems of world literature. It's the story of a child abandoned on a mountain and raised by a mythical bird, and a love story set against a forbidden bloodline that results in a birth that couldn't happen through any ordinary means. I can't wait to share it with you. This is Story Medicine Ancient Tales and Their Wisdom for Modern Life. Let's begin season two.