What Makes the Best Utopia? | Fate & Fabled

Utopias are the everything bagel seasoning of myth devices because they are born out of something everyone everywhere can relate to: the desire for a better existence, even one currently out of our mortal reach.

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Hosted by Dr. Moiya McTier & Dr. Emily Zarka, FATE & FABLED explores the stories and characters of mythologies from all around the world - why they came to be and how they impact us still today.

Host: Moiya McTier, PhD
Writers: Moiya McTier, PhD
Director: David Schulte
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Producer: Thomas Fernandes
Editor / Animator: Steven Simone
Illustrator: Sophie Calhoun
Script Editors: Emily Zarka, PhD & Moiya McTier, PhD
Fact Checker: Yvonne McGreevy
Additional Footage: Shutterstock
Music: APM Music
Executive in Charge (PBS): Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming (PBS): John Campbell

Fate & Fabled is produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.
Descriptive Audio & Captions provided by The Described and Captioned Media Program

[CausticLemons]

This discussion made me think utopia is not a place but a people. When people have empathy, respect, kindness, courage and all those good values we strive to live by then there is utopia.

[suzannestrickland]

I love how you reasoned out all the aspects of your utopia.
Your reasoning for who played what roles was well thought out.

I love how you can cover SO many different beliefs and cultures without bashing or belittling any of them.

10/10 content. I am so glad I found Monstrum and have stayed to see how things evolved from there.

[violetlight]

Honestly, Star Trek's future is probably the closest to an achievable utopia. Yes, there are still problems and dangers, but everyone in the Federation can pursue their dreams, free from worry of getting enough food, affording their home, etc. Jake Sisko can decide out of the blue that he wants to be a writer, and he can go ahead and do it! His grandfather runs a restaurant for fun! Not everyone's going to be in Starfleet, but the Federation is a society *worth* fighting the Borg for!

[elizabethdavis]

Please consider doing a companion video on dystopias

[danielkover]

When I was young, I was quite taken with James Gurney's Dinotopia. I spent hours dìving into his books about a utopia where humans and dinosaurs coexisted in harmony. It wasn't a perfect world, but they managed. In his imaginative world, dinosaurs hade there own languages and published their own books, such as The Care and Feeding of Humans. Dinosaurs, being so ancient, had great wisdom to share with humans, and the humans had their energy and ingenuity to share with the dinosaurs. I also just love Gurney's artwork; it's so engaging. If you happen to have never heard of Dinotopia, I recommend picking up the books. I'm not sure how many he made, but I owned two: Dinotopia, and its sequel, The World Beneath.

[youremakingprogress]

I love the note you ended on - that utopia doesn't mean a lack of hardship or conflict, but the ability to overcome them. I like to say that happiness isn't like ice skating at a rink - always flat, with no variation, everything always perfectly in place; that's a very fragile happiness that ends as soon as anything changes. Happiness is instead like surfing - the waves are always changing, and it's our ability to navigate these changes and stay upright despite the difficulty that makes life fun and fulfilling.

[StephMcAlea]

My favourite idea of Eutopia is Afallen/Avalon. A sunlit meadow with peaceful animals, bubbling brooks, and tall trees. The Morrigan or Bloduedd is a tall, naked tattooed red haired goddess who spreads love and comfort as she passes.

Every day is a warm summers day, each nighttime a warm spring night with scented winds and your family and friends keeping your place at a nearby table.

[frederickhidayat]

I'm half way in and I know illustrators and editors have done a great job, they greatly picture the utopia !

[Auryce]

Betterhelp has broken my brain. Upon hearing the end with, “You might be wondering why we need therapy in utopia…” I had expected it to lead into a betterhelp ad

[LittleBitVic]

I hope this is just the beginning of an already beloved addition to Storied! Seeing Dr. McTier and Dr. Zarka have fun while teaching fables, parables, and the overall moral has been a delight as an amateur scholar fascinated by world cultures, myths, and history. I look forward to learning more, especially if some detailed deep dives are part of the journey.

[eomguel]

6:26 I love how you incorporate the notion of inclusion and acceptance of everyone and everything in this utopia. It reminds me of an Italian author who has thoroughly studied Dante Alighieri's work, especially the Divine Comedy. Speaking about Paradise as Dante imagines it, she says it can be very accurately described by a modified version of the French Revolution's motto. Instead of "liberty, equality and fraternity, " Dante's Paradise is better described as "liberty, diversity and and fraternity." In contrast to the Purgatory, where all the spirits sing in unison in a monotonous choir, in Paradise each spirit sings to their own melody creating a mystical and glorious harmony of immense beauty. It's brilliant because each individual's nature is celebrated and, if you think about it carefully, liberty and equality contradict one another, whereas diversity fits much better, allowing for individual freedom, whilst countering abuse and hierarchy with fraternity. That's the utopia I aspire to.

[FlagCutie]

I just started, but I had to comment on your beautiful dresses!

[blond-so]

This honestly couldn’t be more perfect timing with writing a TTRPG Utopia

[tumejorpose]

Alright...loving these descriptions and illustrations!!

[hannahchristinah]

Nerd moment: "Utopia" is likely a pun on BOTH "good place" (eu-topos) and "no place" (ou-topos). It seems More may have intentionally omitted either vowel (o or e), inventing a whole new, highly ambiguous word to describe his fictional island.

[johnwalsh]

As a very lazy anarchist I am drawn to the Big Rock Candy Mountain a paradise for hoboes where food and drink is free and
pre-cooked and no one tells you what to do.

[germanomagnone]

I saw the beautiful three-part TV miniseries inspired by the book Dinotopia created by the imagination of the author and illustrator James Gurney. personally it is very nice to see where dinosaurs are not the "usual monsters" devouring humans (the carnivores), but to see that (the herbivores and omnivores) are the "pillars" of the law and the large pterosaurs which are the "guardian angels" of the island.

[rukbat]

The show The Good Place does a great job of exploring the idea of utopias and what one should look like!

[Tygertyger]

Living island, eh? This tracks with Marvel comics' X-Men -- Krakoa, the mutant nation, is a living island and is portrayed as a flawed utopia.

[dawntavishflynn]

Some people do want anarchy in their utopia, thank you very much