The Camino Podcast

Imagine walking on the Camino with a parent, a child, or a spouse. Many pilgrims are making their adventure all the more intense by mixing family with pilgrimage, and this episode examines that experience. First, Capitan Bradley (author of Man of a Certain Age) and Brianna Hill describe walking the Camino Francés as a father-daughter duo. Then, Bob and Cindi Klee reflect on their time spent walking the same route together as a married couple. Both pilgrim pairs offer some suggestions for those aspiring to make a similar trek.

The Camino Francés cuts through a region rich in history and legend, and those two are interwoven in the two great epic poems set in part along the way: The Song of Roland and the Poem of El Cid. John K. Moore Jr., an Associate Professor of Spanish and Camino expert helps to contextualize these poems--and the Camino--within their historical era, highlighting the way that Roland, El Cid, and even Santiago fit within the Christian reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula.

The Camino inspires a lot of stories. Why? Brian Bouldrey, a senior lecturer in Northwestern University's English Department and the keynote speaker at this year's APOC National Gathering, suggests in this episode that, for modern pilgrims, storytelling offers a new way of "walking" back home. Meanwhile, Mathew Kuefler, a medieval history professor at San Diego State University, shares some stories from O Cebreiro's peak in the Middle Ages, focusing in particular on the Eucharist miracle and claims of the Holy Grail. (Download Dr. Kuefler's article on the subject here: http://tinyurl.com/jcxhltj)

Have you ever dreamed--maybe a fleeting thought, maybe a nagging desire--of uprooting yourself from wherever "home" is and relocating to the Camino? This episode focuses on two pilgrims who made the move. In 2005, Rom Bates and his wife Aideen moved from Ireland to Moissac, France, in order to open a gite d'etape--Gite Ultreia--on the GR-65 (http://www.ultreiamoissac.com/). A year later, Rebekah Scott and her husband Paddy left Pittsburgh, USA and established the "Peaceable Kingdom" in Moratinos, Spain, on the Camino Francés (http://moratinoslife.blogspot.com/). Rebekah has subsequently published her first novel, The Moorish Whore, which focuses on an 11th century Castilian princess who lived in Sahagún, along the Camino. Rom and Rebekah share stories on making the move, getting new homes established abroad, and living on the road to Santiago.

Jack Hitt's Off the Road: A Modern-day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route into Spain is one of the earliest English-language pilgrimage accounts from the contemporary resurgence of the Camino, focused on Jack's walk in 1991. It also became a source of inspiration for Emilio Estevez's film, The Way, and readers of the book will quickly recognize characters and patches of dialogue in the movie. Jack offers a number of reflections on his experiences on the Camino in 1981, 1991, and 2013, as well as some insights into the nature and meaning of pilgrimage. The episode also features an interview with Jessica Johnson, who has walked the Francés, Norte, Primitivo, Salvador, and Portugués, and is now planning a pilgrimage on the Camino Ignaciano. Our conversation focuses on the issue of safety along the Camino, and particularly for solo women travelers.

If your Camino begins in St Jean Pied-de-Port, or Roncesvalles, or even Pamplona, then it also begins in the Basque Country. Spread across southern France and northern Spain, the Basque Country is the ancestral—and contemporary—homeland of the Basque people, an indigenous European ethnic group with a long and fascinating history. To gain some understanding of what makes the Basques unique, this episode features an interview with Mark Kurlansky (www.markkurlansky.com), author of The Basque History of the World, as well as Joxelu of Beilari, an albergue located in St. Jean Pied de Port (www.beilari.info).

This episode focuses on two central annoyances of the pilgrimage experience: blisters and snoring. While we can continue to dream of a world in which neither exists, reality demands that we pursue strategies to both prevent and treat these maladies. To help us out, John Vonhof, author of Fixing Your Feet (http://www.fixingyourfeet.com/), shares strategies for achieving optimal foot health, while Dr. Soroush Zaghi of Stanford University (http://www.sleepsurgeon.com/) offers insights into snoring.

David Landis and Anna Dintaman are the co-authors of two guidebooks, Village to Village Guides to the Camino de Santiago (hikingthecamino.com) and the Jesus Trail in Israel (jesustrail.com). They share their background as guidebook authors, and also their perspectives as experienced hikers and trailblazers in the Middle East. Beyond the Jesus Trail, they have also worked extensively with the Abraham Path Initiative, a long-distance walking route that spans many countries in the region (abrahampath.org). This episode also features an episode with Gary Yee, who shares his reflections from his pilgrimage on the Camino Francés last summer (gyeephotography.com).

Landon Roussel's recently-published On the Primitive Way (http://www.ontheprimitiveway.com/) tells the story of his relationship with his brother, Cory--a relationship long strained by Cory's struggles with addiction--and their pilgrimage on the Camino Primitivo. In this episode, Landon talks more about his experience on the Primitivo and the ways that pilgrimage offers room for healing and reconciliation. He's followed by Rachel Grimes, who shares some stories from her pilgrimage on the Camino Francés, and some thoughts specifically on common Camino expressions, like "the Camino provides." Finally, Dave offers some thoughts on 2015 pilgrim statistics from Santiago, and the rise of the Americans.

While legends surround Santiago, or St. James the Elder, the historical record has very little to say about him. What do we actually know? Dr. Harold Attridge, a Sterling Professor of Divinity at Yale Divinity School, brings us up to speed on the Apostle James. Then, Merka Martin shares some stories from her recent pilgrimage on the Camino Francés. The episode concludes with some reading suggestions for fictional works set on the Camino de Santiago.

Phil Volker and Annie O'Neil describe their new documentary film, Phil's Camino (http://philscamino.com/), focused on the story behind Phil's pilgrimages in Vashon Island, Washington and on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, all while living with stage 4 cancer. The film is currently in the final production stages and is running an Indiegogo campaign, Finishing Funds for Phil's Camino (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/finishing-funds-for-phil-s-camino#/), to support the effort.

Sandy Brown, the author of the brand new guidebook to Italy's Way of St. Francis (http://tinyurl.com/ptpfvx8) and the Caminoist blog (http://caminoist.org/) describes this emerging pilgrimage and reflects on the guidebook-writing experience. Maria Slade, a high schooler, shares some moving stories from her pilgrimage over the summer on the Via Podiensis in France. And, Zina Bell offers some gear advice!

Today's episode features three guests: Cheryl Grasmoen, the board chair of the American Pilgrims on the Camino, talks about how APOC (http://www.americanpilgrims.org/) supports American pilgrims and the Camino more broadly. Steve Watkins (http://truthalongtheway.com/) offers some stories from his recent pilgrimage on the Camino Francés. And, Christina Collins espouses the virtues of sarongs.

An introduction to the Camino Podcast, featuring an overview of the program's focus on the Camino de Santiago and pilgrimage more broadly. Dave shares three personal stories from the road, focused on pilgrimages in Spain, Italy, and Norway