Standing on the plains 4,000 years ago, you watch a storm front roll in and believe with certainty that the thunder in your chest is the beating of enormous wings. This episode examines the Thunderbird through anthropological, historical, and indigenous sources, beginning with descriptions from Algonquian and Iroquois traditions where wingbeats create thunder and flashing eyes produce lightning. We look at its range from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast, petroglyphs near Twin Bluffs, Wisconsin dating back four millennia, and its role as a protector that demands veneration and gifts in return.

From there we follow the cosmic war between the Thunderbird and the underworld's horned serpents and underwater panthers, and the Pacific Northwest story of a Thunderbird battling a whale that researchers read as an encoded memory of the 1700 Ca ...