Best Pilgri Podcasts (2024)

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Episode 83 - One for the Road 50:51

3M ago50:51

50:51

By design, the Camino of the present is a remarkably inclusive pilgrimage. All are welcome. Encouraged even. For many, this is one of its most cherished qualities. Inclusion does, however, bring certain complications. While cultural appropriation is a phenomenon that is much discussed, religious appropriation receives far less consideration, and Li…

1
Episode 82 - The Camino Primitivo, Part 4: From Lugo to the Francés 1:33:50

4M ago1:33:50

1:33:50

Well before the Camino Francés was considered safe to walk, there was the Camino Primitivo, linking Oviedo--the center of a small, Christian enclave that was holding out in the northwest corner of the Iberian peninsula--with Santiago de Compostela and the recently rediscovered relics of St. James. In this four-part series, we will virtually walk th…

1
Episode 81 - The Camino Primitivo, Part 3: What Shines Atop Alto del Acebo? 1:06:53

4M ago1:06:53

1:06:53

Well before the Camino Francés was considered safe to walk, there was the Camino Primitivo, linking Oviedo--the center of a small, Christian enclave that was holding out in the northwest corner of the Iberian peninsula--with Santiago de Compostela and the recently rediscovered relics of St. James. In this four-part series, we will virtually walk th…

1
Episode 80 - Keynote from the 2024 American Pilgrims Annual Gathering of Pilgrims 52:20

4M ago52:20

52:20

What makes the Camino special? We are often advised today to embrace the fact that it’s “your Camino,” to do it “your” way. While there is certainly some legitimacy to that perspective, it also risks diminishing some of the most meaningful and potent qualities of the experience, qualities that are embedded in the communal nature of pilgrimage. By t…

1
Episode 79 - The Camino Primitivo, Part 2: Asturias, Never Defeated! 1:25:01

5M ago1:25:01

1:25:01

Well before the Camino Francés was considered safe to walk, there was the Camino Primitivo, linking Oviedo--the center of a small, Christian enclave that was holding out in the northwest corner of the Iberian peninsula--with Santiago de Compostela and the recently rediscovered relics of St. James. In this four-part series, we will virtually walk th…

1
Episode 78 - The Camino Primitivo, Part 1: Walking the First Camino 1:30:44

5M ago1:30:44

1:30:44

Well before the Camino Francés was considered safe to walk, there was the Camino Primitivo, linking Oviedo--the center of a small, Christian enclave that was holding out in the northwest corner of the Iberian peninsula--with Santiago de Compostela and the recently rediscovered relics of St. James. In this four-part series, we will virtually walk th…

1
Episode 77 - In Praise of Donkeys 48:48

7M ago48:48

48:48

If you have walked the Camino, you've encountered donkeys. Sometimes they're looming on a field's far end, watching the world go by, a presence immediately recognizable even from a hundred meters. Sometimes, they're pressed against the barbed wire fence, curious and eager for engagement. And very, very occasionally, you'll see a pilgrim walking wit…

1
Episode 76 - Starting the Camino in England, Florida, and Texas 1:23:20

8M ago1:23:20

1:23:20

Over the last few years, there has been an exciting development, wherein the Santiago archdiocese has collaborated with other routes outside of Spain to offer official "alternative" starting points for the Camino de Santiago, allowing pilgrims to begin their journey closer to home, earn some kilometers towards the 100km requirement, and then pick u…

1
Episode 75 - The Year in Camino 2023 1:01:41

10M ago1:01:41

1:01:41

If you want to know what's happening on the Camino, ask a group or forum moderator. Those tireless, kind-hearted shepherds of Camino discourse perform one of the most thankless tasks of the online world, helping to ensure that new pilgrims can hit the Camino with confidence, and that experienced pilgrims can have a place to connect with a shared co…

1
Episode 74 - Following the Old Way to Canterbury 1:03:20

10M ago1:03:20

1:03:20

Beyond Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela, Canterbury stands out as perhaps the most significant pilgrimage destination for Christians in the Middle Ages. While Chaucer famously commemorated the route from London in the Canterbury Tales, pilgrims of course traveled from their homes, following a network of different trails. For centuries, o…

1
Episode 73 - Our Body Is a Healing Machine 1:07:32

10M ago1:07:32

1:07:32

79 rounds of chemotherapy. 4 radical surgeries. 60% of her liver, ten inches of her colon, 2 inches of her stomach, her right lung, and part of her throat--all gone. And yet, however one measures it, Edie Littlefield Sundby (www.themissionwalker.com), author of The Mission Walker, is a living miracle. After being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 20…

1
Episode 72 - The Via Podiensis, Part 10: Pushing on to Saint-Jean 1:38:44

1+ y ago1:38:44

1:38:44

Let's walk the Via Podiensis together! Whereas many of the pilgrim interviews on the podcast take a thematic approach, focusing on a few big picture issues, this series of episodes will dig more into the specifics of walking. In this tenth and final episode in the series, we finally make it to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, thanks to the combined wisdom …

1
Episode 71 - The Via Podiensis, Part 9: Roman Ruins, If You Want To 58:41

1+ y ago58:41

58:41

Let's walk the Via Podiensis together! Whereas many of the pilgrim interviews on the podcast take a thematic approach, focusing on a few big picture issues, this series of episodes will dig more into the specifics of walking. In this ninth episode in the series, the Pyrenees are finally breaking the horizon as we continue southward from Condom to A…

1
Episode 70 - The Via Podiensis, Part 8: Duck! 1:13:03

1+ y ago1:13:03

1:13:03

Let's walk the Via Podiensis together! Whereas many of the pilgrim interviews on the podcast take a thematic approach, focusing on a few big picture issues, this series of episodes will dig more into the specifics of walking. In this eighth episode in the series, we carry on southward from Moissac with pilgrims Dennis and Laurie Brooke of Tacoma, W…

1
Episode 69 - The Via Podiensis, Part 7: Kill Them All, Let the Historians Sort It Out 1:24:38

1+ y ago1:24:38

1:24:38

Let's walk the Via Podiensis together! Whereas many of the pilgrim interviews on the podcast take a thematic approach, focusing on a few big picture issues, this series of episodes will dig more into the specifics of walking. In this seventh episode in the series, we finally leave Cahors in the rearview mirror and cross the halfway point en route f…

1
Episode 68 - The Via Podiensis, Part 6: Superlative Overload in the Célé Valley 1:28:18

1+ y ago1:28:18

1:28:18

Let's walk the Via Podiensis together! Whereas many of the pilgrim interviews on the podcast take a thematic approach, focusing on a few big picture issues, this series of episodes will dig more into the specifics of walking. In this sixth episode in the series, we make our third and final walk between Figeac and Cahors, this time following the GR6…

1
Episode 67 - Three Decades of Pilgrim Stories 1:01:05

1+ y ago1:01:05

1:01:05

Dr. Nancy Louise Frey was looking for a topic for her doctoral research when she stumbled into Santiago de Compostela around Saint James Day and discovered a very different sort of pilgrimage than she had previously considered. This set in motion a complicated and extensive process of field work, and ultimately culminated in one of the essential Ca…

1
Episode 66 - The Via Podiensis, Part 5 - Rocamadour 1:34:24

1+ y ago1:34:24

1:34:24

Let's walk the Via Podiensis together! Whereas many of the pilgrim interviews on the podcast take a thematic approach, focusing on a few big picture issues, this series of episodes will dig more into the specifics of walking. In this fifth episode in the series, we find ourselves back in Figeac, for the second of three route options leading pilgrim…

1
Episode 65 - The Via Podiensis, Part 4: The Price of Wine Is Eternal Vigilance 1:17:22

1+ y ago1:17:22

1:17:22

Let's re-walk the Via Podiensis together! Whereas many of the pilgrim interviews on the podcast take a thematic approach, focusing on a few big picture issues, this series of episodes will dig more into the specifics of walking. In this fourth episode in the series, we arrive at the major decision that pilgrims face on the Via Podiensis: which rout…

1
Episode 64 - A Way of Traveling Without Moving 48:32

1+ y ago48:32

48:32

Imagine that it is your dream to run an albergue, and then that opportunity comes knocking in the middle of COVID. Do you make the leap? And then imagine that you dive in headfirst, alive with all of the dreams and possibilities of what will be. Even as the pandemic ebbs, though, your reopening is first delayed by family obligations, and then thwar…

1
Episode 63 - The Via Podiensis, Part 3 - Stolen Relics and Closed Mines 1:33:04

1+ y ago1:33:04

1:33:04

Let's walk the Via Podiensis together! Whereas many of the pilgrim interviews on the podcast take a thematic approach, focusing on a few big picture issues, this series of episodes will dig more into the specifics of walking. In the third part of this series, we journey today from the Lot River to the Célé River, and from the village of Estaing to …

1
Episode 62 - The Via Podiensis, Part 2 - The Aubrac Mood 1:04:03

1+ y ago1:04:03

1:04:03

Let's walk the Via Podiensis together! Whereas many of the pilgrim interviews on the podcast take a thematic approach, focusing on a few big picture issues, this series of episodes will dig more into the specifics of walking. In this second episode in the series, Melinda Lusmore of I Love Walking in France (www.ilovewalkinginfrance.com) joins to di…

1
Episode 61 - Some Things Are Literally Priceless 57:23

1+ y ago57:23

57:23

The Camino that we see and experience today didn't just happen. It reemerged in the second half of the 20th century gradually and then suddenly, through the concerted efforts of devoted visionaries and caretakers like O Cebreiro's Elías Valiña Sampedro. We pilgrims from the English-speaking world are only privy to glimpses of that history, but Laur…

1
Episode 60 - The Via Podiensis, Part 1 - A Saint and His Very Good Dog 1:20:01

1+ y ago1:20:01

1:20:01

Let's walk the Via Podiensis together! Whereas many of the pilgrim interviews on the podcast take a thematic approach, focusing on a few big picture issues, this series of episodes will dig more into the specifics of walking. In this first episode in a new series, Chloe Rose Stuart-Ulin of www.solocamino.com joins to discuss getting started on the …

1
Episode 59 - Who Are These Dead Guys? 1:03:01

1+ y ago1:03:01

1:03:01

Have you ever walked around a cathedral, slack-jawed and amazed, trying to take it all in but realizing you were only scratching the surface? Maybe that happened in Santiago de Compostela. The good news is that Anne Born can tell you what you're missing. Her book, If You Stand Here: A Pilgrim's Tour of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, is pa…

1
Episode 58 - In Pursuit of Wild Geese 1:04:44

1+ y ago1:04:44

1:04:44

The Camino de Santiago has often been characterized as a sort of palimpsest--a foundation upon which layers of stories have been created and shared over the years. As new dominant narratives take hold, older ones fade to the margins, less obvious but still visible to those who can learn to see the signs. In The Way of the Wild Goose: Three Pilgrima…

1
Episode 57 - Muslim on the Camino 51:05

3+ y ago51:05

51:05

In 2007, Sedat Çakır set out to walk the Camino de Santiago. Before he departed, he decided to seek out a pilgrim blessing from the local bishop in Amsterdam. There's nothing particularly unusual about that story... aside from the fact that Sedat is a Sufi and the Camino, of course, has a very complicated history with Islam! While Sedat set out ori…

1
Episode 56 - Banaras and Pandharpur: Two Indian Pilgrimage Shrines 1:23:39

3+ y ago1:23:39

1:23:39

So you think the Camino is crowded? You should check out pilgrimage in India. It holds the record for the largest single-day attendance at a pilgrimage event--an estimated 50 million people at the Kumbh Mela in 2019. This episode explores pilgrimage in India through a closer examination of two sacred cities: Banaras and Pandharpur. Dr. Diana Eck, a…

1
Episode 55 - Beverly's Story 50:59

3+ y ago50:59

50:59

Beverly Chalman of Tennessee set out to walk the Camino Francés with her daughter in June 2019. Traveling from Tennessee to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port was an exhausting process, with overnight stops in New York City and London, and that first day of walking was similarly taxing. It was on the second day, though, when her pilgrimage veered in a life-ch…

1
Episode 54 - A Pilgrimage to Lourdes 1:24:10

3+ y ago1:24:10

1:24:10

163 years ago, the Virgin Mary is said to have made a series of appearances before a young Bernadette Soubirous in a grotto in the French Pyrenean town of Lourdes. Some 200 million pilgrims and 70 "official" miracles later, Lourdes stands as one of the world's major Catholic pilgrimage sites, known in particular for that association with miraculous…

1
Episode 53 - Pilgrimage and the Environment 1:33:04

3+ y ago1:33:04

1:33:04

A major part of the power and magic of pilgrimage is how it immerses us in the natural world. While the physical shrines are human built, they're often situated in places of natural splendor. In that way, pilgrimage and the environment are inextricably connected. This episode is a deep dive into that relationship from a few different perspectives. …

1
Episode 52 - Tales from Two Houses in Santiago 1:15:31

3+ y ago1:15:31

1:15:31

Right now, as we all long to be able to travel to Santiago de Compostela once more, many of us are thinking about our absence from that sacred place. What about those who remain present in Santiago, though--those who have organized their lives to a considerable degree around attending to pilgrims as they arrive in the city. What have their lives be…

1
Episode 51 - Rewalking the Camino Inglés 51:58

3+ y ago51:58

51:58

Let's walk the Camino Inglés together! As in the series on the Camino Francés, this episode features conversations among three experienced pilgrims as they sling stories from the road, share personal highlights, and gnash teeth about route changes. Dave is joined this time by Johnnie Walker, author of the Confraternity of Saint James's guide to the…

1
Episode 50 - Facing Our Colonial Legacies 1:25:25

3+ y ago1:25:25

1:25:25

After learning about pilgrimage's potential as a peace-building initiative in Episode 49, we now turn to its capacity to promote reconciliatory efforts within a colonial context. Academic and religious leaders are doing this work right now, and this episode focuses on initiatives coordinated by Dr. Matthew Anderson in Canada (www.somethinggrand.ca)…

1
Episode 49 - Peace Building Through Pilgrimage 59:17

3+ y ago59:17

59:17

Pilgrimage has the power to change the world and we're only just beginning to understand its potential. One aspect of this is pilgrimage as a peace-building initiative: an act that can help span cultural and religious divides and promote reconciliation. Dr. Ian McIntosh is part of a growing body of researchers studying this phenomenon, and he docum…

1
Episode 48 - Rewalking the Pilgrimage to Finisterre and Muxía 1:13:11

3+ y ago1:13:11

1:13:11

Let's re-walk the Camino together! Whereas many of the pilgrim interviews on the podcast take a thematic approach, focusing on a few big picture issues, this series of episodes will dig more into the specifics of walking. After having completed our full re-walk of the Camino Francés, we'll follow our many pilgrim peers onward to the coast, walking …

1
Episode 47 - Into the Thin 54:14

4y ago54:14

54:14

In his upcoming pilgrim memoir, Into the Thin: A Pilgrimage Walk Across Northern Spain, author Stephen Drew (www.authorstephendrew.com) narrates how he was called to the Camino Francés in the wake of a year that he characterizes as an "emotional crucifixion." In this extended discussion of his journey, Stephen speaks to companionship on the Camino,…

1
Episode 46 - The Newest Guidebooks to the Camino Francés 1:09:35

4y ago1:09:35

1:09:35

From a guidebook perspective, it's a great time to be a pilgrim. On the Camino Francés, in particular, there is a growing assortment of outstanding and complementary guidebooks, along with a wealth of other support materials to help inform one's pilgrimage. Over the last year, two new contenders have joined the array of English-language offerings: …

1
Episode 45 - Santiago vs Teresa 53:21

4y ago53:21

53:21

In 17th-century Spain, Santiago faced his greatest threat to date. While the Reconquista was well in the past, his new rival was a Carmelite nun, born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, but known to history as Teresa of Avila. Soon after Teresa died, and well before she was canonized, a movement grew to elevate her to serve as co-patron saint of S…

1
Episode 44 - How to Write a Pilgrimage Memoir 59:36

4y ago59:36

59:36

If you've been called to the Camino, odds are that you've also been called to write about your pilgrimage. Whether your goal is to write for yourself, cementing lessons learned; to write for your friends and family, laying bare a difficult-to-explain experience; or to pursue publication, the underlying impulse is likely the same--to endeavor to tra…

1
Episode 43 - The Winter Pilgrim & North American Pilgrimage 1:14:09

4y ago1:14:09

1:14:09

Ann Sieben, aka the Winter Pilgrim, is a mendicant pilgrim and a founder of the Society of Servant Pilgrims. Over the last 13 years she has walked 43,000 miles through 55 different countries. In this episode, we discuss her pilgrimage origins, the development of her identity as a 'mendicant' pilgrim, and her crossing of the Darién Gap. Special atte…

1
Episode 42 - The CoronaCamino 1:18:26

4+ y ago1:18:26

1:18:26

Seemingly every aspect of life has been upended by the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic and that includes pilgrimage. This episode examines the interrupted journeys of four pilgrims, along with a look at the impact of the Camino Forum on the decision-making process of those pilgrims and many others. While that might sound like a bleak episode on the s…

1
Episode 41 - The Crossway 58:36

4+ y ago58:36

58:36

By Dave Whitson

1
Episode 40 - The Camino in Novel and Poem 55:02

4+ y ago55:02

55:02

By Dave Whitson

1
Episode 39 - The Camino Francés, Part 5 1:11:51

4+ y ago1:11:51

1:11:51

By Dave Whitson

1
Episode 38 - The Kumano Kodo 54:38

5y ago54:38

54:38

There are two UNESCO World Heritage pilgrimage routes--Spain's Camino de Santiago, of course, and Japan's Kumano Kodo. The latter's long and storied history rival's the former's, but it has only really appeared on the radars of Western pilgrims over the last decade or so. Like the Camino, the Kumano Kodo is really a series of connected routes, orie…

1
Episode 37 - Phil Cousineau's Art of Pilgrimage 57:21

5y ago57:21

57:21

Phil Cousineau's The Art of Pilgrimage is an international bestseller in at least ten languages and for more than two decades it has served as an introduction and handbook for many pilgrims on how to get the most out of their journey. In this episode, Phil reflects on the book's impact and offers deep insights into the phenomenon of pilgrimage, inc…

1
Episode 36 - The Story of Galicia 55:31

5y ago55:31

55:31

Galicia, the northwest corner of Spain and the home of Santiago de Compostela, is beloved by most pilgrims. It is a place ensconced in legend, with stories ranging from its Celtic origins to the persistence of witches and the Santa Compaña. This episode explores the region's history and stories. Dr. Sharif Gemie, author of Galicia: A Concise Histor…

1
Episode 35 - From Vézelay to Heaven 54:53

5y ago54:53

54:53

Edwin Mullins has spent the better part of his life associated with the Camino de Santiago, with his first book on the subject--The Pilgrimage to Santiago--appearing in 1974. In his more recent publication, The Four Roads to Heaven: France and the Santiago Pilgrimage, Mullins lays out the history and highlights of the four major Chemins de Saint-Ja…

1
Episode 34 - How Strange It Will Be To Come Home 1:04:23

5y ago1:04:23

1:04:23

While walking the Camino de Santiago is demanding in and of itself, the completion of pilgrimage poses a special challenge. The mixed emotions a pilgrim often feels when arriving in Santiago are often a precursor to the prolonged slump that can occur at home. This episode focuses on the process of return, and the steps a pilgrim can take to make th…

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