People in my direct circle have asked many times why we chose “Views From the World Tree” for our podcast name. I enjoy answering this question a lot but I realized that many of our listeners and readers are not in our direct social circle so I want to take a moment and share the reasons behind the name.
A little background:
Adam and I have always been close. Even during the years when we were both busy with personal lives and not in direct contact I have always kept him and his family in my thoughts ( I assume he did the same though I have never actually asked him). It was with this closeness in mind that I reached out to him about launching a podcast. We have done blogs, twitch streams, youtube videos together in the past but have never done a project together and I really wanted to flex some creative muscle alongside my best friend (and cousin) Adam.
At the time that we started to brainstorm this project I had been doing a lot of searching into my familial roots. My family has a strong Scandinavian heritage and I was exploring many myths and traditions of the Norse people as a way to connect with this heritage. I also learned that Adam was also exploring similar topics and seeking his heritage in a similar way. (Sometimes the universe puts people on a similar journey so that they can come together and support each other, this seemed like one of those times to me). This journey of discovery and research cemented what would soon become the overarching theme of the show. We talked about, or I should really say Adam talked me into, a variety show where we discuss our hobbies, experiences, and curiosity with our audience. I was pushing for a nature focused show but I feel that Adam’s decision for the variety show really makes it into something special. You can thank him for laying down the backbone of how we would run the show.
We now had the what, and the how, of our show but the most important decision had to be made… we needed a name.
“… A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
~William Shakespeare
This decision was probably the most difficult decision that we made in regards to the show. I know that many will say that a name is just a name, but the pressure of finding one that we could run with petrified me. I had a full case of Creator’s Block, sometimes referred to as “Writers Block”, and was stuck. During one of our brainstorming sessions Adam came up with the idea of relating the title to Yggdrasil, which is the tree from Norse mythology that touches all realms of reality. Its branches reach into our mortal realm, the realms of the gods, the realms of the giants, and the realms of the dead. This tree is all encompassing of the human experience and a perfect backdrop for how our episodes would be organized, the perfect cover for a variety show about the human experience. This suggestion got the creative juices flowing and we discussed the idea of calling it “Views From the World Tree” in honor of the Yggdrasil theme from our earlier discussion.
Each episode is look at the human experienced as seen from our own little perch on the branches of the World Tree, or Yggdrasil itself.
*New episodes are released every Sunday with a different theme. We host on all popular podcast sites and look forward to sharing our view with you*