Joseph Campbell appeared on the animated show, Rick and Morty, in an episode titled "Full Meta JackRick." Voiced, by one of the show's creators, Dan Harmon, who has also been a vocal supporter of Campbell's work, Campbell helps the characters out of issues they are having with a villain named Story Lord. Click here to hear the show's creators talk about Campbell's inclusion in the episode. The episode can be purchased through the iTunes...

Spanish artist, Ana Montiel, has created an immersive art exhibit inspired by Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey at Galería OMR near Mexico City. Montiel is best known for creating large color-field paintings that ruminate on consciousness and spirituality. Her exhibit, titled INITIATION, is divided into three segments, each lasting a month: Departure, Limbo, and Transfiguration. To read more about Montiel and the exhibit, click here.

George Miller and Tilda Swinton, director and star of "Three Thousand Years of Longing," pointed to Joseph Campbell and his mythological work at a press conference for the film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival 2022. To watch the questions where the filmmakers bring Campbell into the conversation, click here. George Miller had been a long time amplifier of Campbell and his work, creatively using it in his films for decades. "Three Thousand Years...

Legendary actor Viola Davis cites Joseph Campbell and his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, as being instrumental to her journey in an interview with Oprah Winfrey for a Netflix special titled Oprah + Viola. Davis also points to Hero as one of the five books that have helped her through life on Winfrey's web site. Davis's interview with Oprah is available on Netflix. Her recommendation of Hero is available on Winfrey's site...

[caption id="attachment_2205" align="alignleft" width="300"] Source: Courtesy of Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble[/caption] Wind Ensemble Director at Dartmouth College, Brian Messier, has arranged a performance titled “The Hero’s Journey.” The performance centers on the archetypal story of a protagonist’s progression in the face of obstacles, an artistic trope popularized by Joseph Campbell. The performance was given February 19, 2022 in Spaulding Auditorium at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. According to The Dartmouth, "Messier said the...

[caption id="attachment_2198" align="alignleft" width="300"] Bluehousestudio/AdobeStock[/caption] In an article for the Psychiatric Times, H. Steven Moffic, MD, an award-winning psychiatrist, a prolific writer and speaker, cited Joseph Campbell and the Hero's Journey as a reference point for navigating the pandemic era of Covid-19. Moffic received the one-time designation of Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association in 2002. He is an advocate for mental health issues relate to climate instability,...

[caption id="attachment_2195" align="alignleft" width="300"] photo by Beth Garrabrant[/caption] In an article for The Washington Post, Peter Manseau, curator of American religion at the Smithsonian, outlined the journey musician Taylor Swift takes in her 2012 breakup ballad “All Too Well” through the lens of Joseph Campbell's monomyth. He states, "In its own way, “All Too Well” tells a story not unlike myths of yore. It dabbles not in mythology, per se, but in the so-called...

In his memoir, titled WILL, actor Will Smith credits Joseph Campbell's work as being key to his career and life. According to an article by Jane Mulkerrins in The Times, Smith "credits his film career trajectory to Joseph Campbell’s theory of the monomyth, the “hero’s journey” that can be found in all world cultures. Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), became Smith’s “second literary love affair” — after Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. It is...

The website GameFreaks365 reports that the upcoming game, Last Soul, uses the work of Joseph Campbell as the basis of the game's story. The article states that the game will be an action-packed shooting platformer starring BOP, the world’s last remaining soul battling Cyber-Being and takes place in an enormous universe that is influenced by Star Wars, Tron Legacy, Mario, Sonic, and Megaman, as well as Neon Abyss. Tony Munoz, the lead developer on the game, states, "I took...

Actor Andrew Garfield pointed to his reading of Joseph Campbell while preparing to play Spider-Man in a recent article by US Magazine. The article states: "I’d been reading the mythologists, Joseph Campbell and James Hillman,” Garfield told The Guardian in December 2016. “And when I took on Spider-Man, I thought, ‘Holy s—t! This is exquisite and terrifying and incredible. I have been given the responsibility of reaching my hand out from the big screen and...

[caption id="attachment_2179" align="alignleft" width="287"] Gorick Ng[/caption] An article from Forbes on Harvard Career Advisor, Gorick Ng, has the author and advisor point to Joseph Campbell and his Hero's Journey as a template for prospective job hunters when navigating interviews. The article states, "The hero’s journey is a storytelling framework inspired by the work of Joseph Campbell. Ng suggests that the same framework used in artistic forms of storytelling like movies and novels can be...

[caption id="attachment_2174" align="alignleft" width="300"] (courtesy Apple TV+)[/caption] In discussing season two of his Apple TV+ show, Ted Lasso, actor Jason Sudeikis pointed to Joseph Campbell. Referring to his character's arc in the new season, "Sudeikis revealed: “It’s our Empire Strikes Back or the middle of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey." To read the full article on the second season of Ted Lasso and to read Sudeikis's comment in context, click here.

[caption id="attachment_2171" align="alignleft" width="300"] (courtesy Netflix)[/caption] According to The Escapist Magazine, Joseph Campbell has had more than one influential effect on the popular franchise, Masters of the Universe.  In an article from Darren Mooney, the magazine sates: As the narrative behind the action figures came into focus, it drew from the work of Joseph Campbell. “Joseph Campbell’s concepts about myths and legends and icons are ingrained in all artists’ mentality,” recalls designer Mark Taylor. “If...

[caption id="attachment_2167" align="alignleft" width="225"] via gratefulweb.com[/caption] According to GratefulWeb.com, musician Georgia English is releasing an illustrated album, Pain and Power, that documents English’s personal trauma healing through the lens of Joseph Campbell's Hero’s Journey tradition. In the article, English states: “I wrote this album and book in a time when I felt I had fallen into the belly of an unidentifiable beast. Digging into Joseph Campbell’s writing and learning more about this global archetype...

Filmmaker, Zack Snyder shared concept art from his 'Justice League' project that envisions Bruce Wayne meeting Green Lantern John Stewart for the first time. He accompanied the image with a quote from Joseph Campbell about the importance of adversity and changing one’s perspective. The quote is from the Joseph Campbell Foundation production, Sukhavati - A Mythic Journey. To read Campbell's quote and learn more about Sukhavati, click here.

Writer, Jonah Schuhart discussed comments made by Robert Downey Jr. about the resolution of his Iron Man character, where Downey nods to Joseph Campbell and his work around the hero. Quoting Downey, Schuhart writes, "...Iron Man is just a taste of the determined hero we see at the end of 'Avengers: Endgame.' It's why he says those same words, 'I am Iron Man' just before sacrificing himself. He is accepting the role of a...

[caption id="attachment_2154" align="alignleft" width="217"] Ini Archibong’s “Ritual Calendar” (2017), a black granite monolith inset with 31 droplets of white marble. Its serene silhouette is intended to instill a sense of veneration, a spirituality that transcends cultures. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Ini Archibong. Credit...Daniel Kukla...The New York Times[/caption] Designer Ini Archibong discussed Joseph Campbell and storytelling in a personal reflection for The New York Times as part of a series called The Big Ideas in which...

[caption id="attachment_2151" align="alignleft" width="300"] (Netflix)[/caption] Zack Snyder's epic zombie action film, Army of The Dead, features a scene in its final moments where a key character quotes Joseph Campbell, crediting the mythologist by name. The popular website, Screen Rant, cited the quote stating, "Shortly before he staggers to the bathroom on the plane Vanderohe shares a toast with the air hostesses in which he shares a quote from literature professor Joseph Campbell: "It is...

[caption id="attachment_2148" align="alignleft" width="300"] HEATHER MCILVAINE-NEWSAD (Tri States Radio)[/caption] Heather McIlvaine-Newsad, commentator for Tri States Public Radio, recently told listeners: "I hope that the stories we tell about this historic time reflect what the late Joseph Campbell called the hero’s journey.  Campbell was an American professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who during the Great Depression spent five years reading sacred texts and stories from religious traditions the world over. He identified several...

[caption id="attachment_2145" align="alignleft" width="300"] This image released by Disney Plus shows Pedro Pascal, as Din Djarin, right, with The Child, in a scene from "The Mandalorian," premiering its second season on Friday. (Disney Plus via AP)[/caption] Jef Rouner of the San Francisco Chronicle has offered readers recommendations on films to watch in 2021 to celebrate Star Wars Day, May 4. Rouner highlights Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth (1988) as a top choice. Rouner...

According to The Aspen Times, "...a group of 39 bilingual students at Basalt Middle School, spread across three classes, the kids are mostly non-native English speakers and mostly immigrants, all telling their own stories through a springtime “visual journaling” program led by the nonprofit VOICES. Throughout March, students learned about the concepts in Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” storytelling template and used them to write their own stories focused on a big change in their...

Gregory Lawrence of the pop Culture site, COLLIDER, has applied Joseph Campbell's description of the hero's adventure to the spoof film, Spaceballs, to make his case that the spoof film is a stronger successor to the Star Wars franchise than Episode IX, The Rise of Skywalker. In the article, Lawrence states, "Campbell’s monomyth structure ends with our heroes returning to their base reality having changed. In Rise of Skywalker’s ending, we see Rey go not...

Blood Cultures, a collective of musicians, artists, and DJs, cited Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Dan Harmon as philosophical influences on the writing of their new project. "Concepts like the shadow, the hero’s journey, archetypes and the collective unconscious in which they exist all fascinate me and have been the foundation of the philosophy and writing of this chapter of the project," they said in an interview with Spin.com. To read the article about...