What you can gain from a fairy tale fool?

This issue of Sreda online magazine introduces a new series of podcasts dedicated to folklore, legends, and fantastic stories, produced in collaboration with the Tolk audio platform. Each issue will feature readings of fairy tales from different cultures and explorations of the meanings with which they are filled.
In this final episode of this series, we turn to the Russian fairy tale about Emelya the Simpleton. What is the sacral meaning of the phrase "at the pike’s behest, and at my request"? Is the folkloric image of a fool so simple, and how is this character connected with the otherworld?s?