Radiant Whispers
50 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingAll we have to comfort, guide us and sustain us in this straggling path called life are the radiant whispers that we grasp as a distant “sunrise of wonder” in our spiritual practice, in great works of literature, music, art, and in nature and blue skies. These are the Radiant Whispers. That's what this podcast is about. We will talk about culture and society, about ancient and modern history, literature and art with dramatized readings of poetry, fables, theatre, novels and stories. Subscribe -let's find radiant whispers everywhere.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Psalm 27, Prayer Of The Aborted Baby
May 17, 2024 00:45 - 4 minutes - 9.19 MBPsalm 27 from the Bible was written over three thousand years ago by King David, "the sweet singer of Israel". It is a profound prayer of praise to God and a plea for protection and comfort in the most troubled and challenging of times. David contemplates the most outrageous and cruel destiny he can imagine: that of a child deliberately abandoned by his parents. "Even if my father and mother abandoned me, you will take care of me"... even if something as unimaginable and unnatural as being de...
Luvina, by Juan Rulfo
February 06, 2024 12:23 - 25 minutes - 28.3 MBA jewel of Spanish-language literature, quintessentially Mexican and universal at the same time. The story of a town that is all dust, loneliness and silence “where sorrow makes her nest”. Original story by Juan Rulfo read by Gabriel Porras Translation by Stephen Beechinor Production: Gabriel Porras and Andre Sosa @drorangeacademy Cover design by Ricardo Gil [email protected] Music: La Guanábana, by Los Parientes de Playa Vicente, from the album América Afroíndigena at freemusicarchive.com
Why celebrate Christmas?, by Nicky Gumbel
December 19, 2023 20:52 - 29 minutes - 40.4 MBEvery year, Christmas is the greatest celebration around the globe. No other event makes us get together as families and friends like Christmas. And yet, Christmas is also the worst time of the year for millions of lonely, hurting people. Commandeered by businesses and restaurants, Christmas celebrations often obscure Christ, whose birth is the original and best reason to celebrate Christmas. Find out why the birth of Christ deserves to be celebrated with all your heart. Programme presented ...
If Hamas Wins, We All Lose
December 04, 2023 01:22 - 36 minutes - 49.7 MBReducing the conflict in Gaza to a question of Palestinian-Israeli differences is an unforgivable mistake. The conflict that has been raging in Gaza for decades is the conflict between Islam and world civilisation, that is, between Islam and you and me, and each and every one of us who are not yet under Islam: not only Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Newagers and Hindus. Also homosexuals, transsexuals, feminists, atheists, agnostics, science, education, technology and progress and welfare for al...
The Daydreams of Atheism
October 27, 2023 03:40 - 38 minutes - 52.3 MBMy atheist friends love to cite Immanuel Kant, David Hume and Voltaire as leading thinkers who opened new horizons for humanity, freeing it from the religious prejudices that had enslaved it for centuries. But things were very different, and the writings of these three influential thinkers provided a framework that supported the slavery and exploitation of non-European races more than anyone else. We examine the great ambiguities of the Enlightenment and the main myths of atheism, such as The...
Jack and the Beanstalk, by Roald Dahl
September 18, 2023 17:06 - 7 minutes - 10.3 MBJack and the Beanstalk, by Roald Dahl This version of the classic children's story is way funnier... and it rhymes! Roald Dahl is a genius: his plot twists are mind-blowing, and that ending too! Brace yourself for a laugh-out-loud journey. Presented and produced by Gabriel Porras, professional voice actor (gabrielvoice.com). Cover design: Ricardo Gil ([email protected]). Copyright Roald Dahl Story Company Ltd Roald Dahl Nominee Ltd, 1982 Puffin Books, Penguin Random House 1984 Illustrati...
Snow White and the seven dwarves, by Roald Dahl
August 15, 2023 04:55 - 6 minutes - 9.47 MBA much funnier version of the children's story we all know...and written in rhyme! Only the fantastic Roald Dahl could twist the end like this. Get ready for a hilarious adventure! Presented and produced by Gabriel Porras, professional voice actor. Copyright Roald Dahl Story Company Ltd Roald Dahl Nominee Ltd, 1982 Puffin Books, Penguin Random House 1984 Illustration: Quentin Blake, 1982 ISBN: 978-0-141-37885-5 (Treat yourself to a copy. It's a beautiful book!) Visit the great Roald Dahl'...
What Jesus taught and why, by Paul Johnson
July 18, 2023 18:33 - 23 minutes - 32.1 MBA lucid and easy-to-understand view of how ground-breaking Jesus' message was in his world (and ours). Jesus once said that the greatest display of love is sacrificing oneself for your friends, but by "friends," he meant every single person, regardless of our differences in nationality, race, religion, opinion, age, gender, blindness, or wisdom. Understand how and why we all fit in his comforting embrace. Credits: Programme produced and recorded by Gabriel Porras at gabrielvoice.com and radi...
Is paradise a luxury brothel?
June 15, 2023 19:02 - 49 minutes - 67.5 MBAccording to Islam, Paradise is a luxury brothel. As many as six Suras (chapters) of the Quran are devoted to this notion, with sensuous descriptions of steamy pleasures for those who gain entrance. And these descriptions are further enhanced by numerous hadiths. Sadly for all of us, only terrorists who die in jihad qualify for immediate access, which explains why they are so eager to blow themselves (and others) up. And Muslim women are not invited to Paradise because they would only spoil t...
Islam Hates Women
May 24, 2023 12:50 - 45 minutes - 63.2 MBA billion women live under the shadow of Islam today (that's almost one in eight human beings walking the planet today). And all the evidence from fourteen centuries of Islamic history and theology points to the uncomfortable fact that Islam hates women. We examine numerous texts from the Qur'an and hadiths of Sahih al-Bukhari to illustrate the thesis. Credits and references: Programme written, produced and hosted by Gabriel Porras at gabrielvoice.com and radiantwhispers.com Cover: Carte P...
The Cross And The Machine, by Paul Kingsnorth
April 20, 2023 02:23 - 37 minutes - 68.7 MBPaul Kingsnorth is an English intellectual and environmentalist who has written novels, essays and poetry, contributing to publications such as The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, Le Monde, New Statesman, Granta and BBC Radio and Television. His spiritual quest was passionate and diverse. As he says, The Cross and the Machine is "an essay-length account of my journey from atheism to Orthodox Christianity, via Buddhism, witchcraft and other strange twists." It is a beautiful, ...
How The LGBTQ Agenda Is Forced On Us
March 24, 2023 02:03 - 44 minutes - 61.7 MBWe are all surprised by the rapid advance of transgender ideas and LGBTQ ideology. Although their proposals are controversial and have no historical or scientific basis, they penetrate all layers of society. Learn how they infiltrate businesses, universities, schools and governments worldwide. Programme written, recorded and presented by Gabriel Porras, a professional communicator at gabrielvoice.com and radiantwhispers.com Music: "Balance" by Invisible Choirs at artlist.io If you are int...
The Disappearance Of Women
February 22, 2023 20:29 - 41 minutes - 57.6 MBA programme written, presented and produced by Gabriel Porras, professional philosopher, journalist and voice actor. Music: "Gone with the winds", by Veaceslav Draganov on artlist.io ******* Learn more about this URGENT topic by following these links: The Story of Helena Kerschner, who regrets having “transitioned” as a teenager: https://youtu.be/Ibq3ld087Y4 The Irish Bill to remove the words "woman", "mother", and more from legal language: https://4w.pub/ireland-to-strip-maternity-law/...
The Switchman by Juan José Arreola
January 25, 2023 17:31 - 18 minutes - 25.4 MBA masterpiece of the Latin-American imagination. Juan José Arreola is one of the greatest writers of the XX Century in Spanish, one of the first to dare to abandon realism. He is the greatest precursor of Magical Realism. As Professor George D Schade says: Whatever the subject of his satire, Arreola most often achieves his effects by a deliberate jumbling of phantasy and reality, a mingling of the logical and the absurd, a blend of imaginative frivolity and Orwellian grimness. CREDITS Pro...
The hearts true home by Simon Edwards
December 20, 2022 18:26 - 11 minutes - 16 MBExtract from the final chapter of the book "The Sanity of Belief - Why faith makes sense" by Simon Edwards. A great, very readable and valuable book which you can buy in paperback or ebook version here: https://amzn.eu/1CkIRAt Simon Edwards is a member of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA) team, who do excellent work communicating the teachings of Jesus Christ through the big cultural questions of our day (such as science, suffering, the meaning of life, homosexuality and many...
The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs
November 07, 2022 20:53 - 30 minutes - 41.8 MBPresented y produced by Gabriel Porras, professional voice actor. Original text by WW Jacobs published in 1902 in his collection “The Lady of the Barge”. Music: “Reflections”, by Ian Post, at artlist.io Listen to more great stories like this one on radiantwhispers.com also available on your favourite podcast platform
The Danger of the Stupidity by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
September 20, 2022 22:22 - 7 minutes - 14 MBPodcast presented and produced by Gabriel Porras, professional voice artist. Text taken from 'After Ten Years' in Letters and Papers from Prison (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works/English, vol. 8) Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010, edited by Gabriel Porras. Music: "The Surprise", by Kristian Sensini, on artlist.io. If you want to know more about the admirable pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, look for his books "Life in Community" and "The Cost of Discipleship". There is also a beautifu...
Work is love made visible by Khalil Gibran
August 15, 2022 01:49 - 5 minutes - 7.22 MBPodcast presented and produced by Gabriel Porras, professional voice actor. Text and Translation are taken from the book "The Prophet", by Gibran Khalil Gibran, in the public domain. Music: "Devotion", by dear gravity, on artlist.io
If gender is fluid, why not age too?
July 20, 2022 18:49 - 26 minutes - 36.7 MBWritten, presented and produced by Gabriel Porras, professional voice actor. Music: "Wants to know", by Bodysurfer, at freemusicarchive.org. "Morning Mist", by We Dream of Eden, at artlist.io Stings by Orange Free Sounds, orangefreesounds.com Links that will give you a much broader perspective on this issue: Read the stories of people who have had gender reassignment surgery and have lived to regret it every day. You can start here: Jeffrey, repentant transgender: https://youtu.be/r09cDP...
The Three Little Pigs - by Roald Dahl
May 31, 2022 01:49 - 7 minutes - 10 MBPresented and produced by Gabriel Porras, professional voice actor. Copyright Roald Dahl Story Company Ltd Roald Dahl Nominee Ltd, 1982 Puffin Books, Penguin Random House 1984 Illustration: Quentin Blake, 1982 ISBN: 978-0-141-37885-5 (Treat yourself to a copy, it's a beautiful book!) Visit the great Roald Dahl's website here: www.roalddahl.com Music:
The Lessons Of Porn
May 03, 2022 15:29 - 22 minutes - 30.9 MBWritten, presented and produced by Gabriel Porras, professional voice actor. Music: “Wants to know”, by Bodysurfer at freemusicarchive.org Stings from Orange Free Sounds, orangefreesounds.com Links that will give you a much better picture of this topics: Fight the New Drug is a non-religious, non-legistlative, not for profit organisation producing fantastic materials: https://fightthenewdrug.org Exodus Cry is a channel with more than one hundred videos on YouTube. Watch their documentar...
Goldilocks and the three bears by Roald Dahl
March 17, 2022 16:38 - 8 minutes - 11.4 MBPresented and produced by Gabriel Porras, professional voice actor. Copyright Roald Dahl Story Company Ltd Roald Dahl Nominee Ltd, 1982 Puffin Books, Penguin Random House 1984 Illustration: Quentin Blake, 1982 ISBN: 978-0-141-37885-5 (Treat yourself to a copy, it's a beautiful book!) Visit the great Roald Dahl's website here: www.roalddahl.com Music: "Kazoo Zoo” by Down Old Country Lane, at artlist.io
Little Red Ridding Hood and the Wolf by Roald Dahl
February 28, 2022 20:56 - 5 minutes - 4.39 MBLittle Red Ridding Hood and the Wolf by Roald Dahl Presented and produced by Gabriel Porras, professional voice actor. Copyright Roald Dahl Story Company Ltd Roald Dahl Nominee Ltd, 1982 Puffin Books, Penguin Random House 1984 Illustration: Quentin Blake, 1982 ISBN: 978-0-141-37885-5 (Treat yourself to a copy, it's a beautiful book!) Visit the great Roald Dahl's website here: www.roalddahl.com Music: "Happy to be happy", by Dapun, at artlist.io
Cinderella by Roald Dahl
February 06, 2022 01:47 - 6 minutes - 12.1 MBPresented and produced by Gabriel Porras, professional voice actor. Copyright Roald Dahl Story Company Ltd Roald Dahl Nominee Ltd, 1982 Puffin Books, Penguin Random House 1984 Illustration: Quentin Blake, 1982 ISBN: 978-0-141-37885-5 (Treat yourself to a copy, it's a beautiful book!) Visit the great Roald Dahl's website here: www.roalddahl.com
Sunstone by Octavio Paz
January 05, 2022 18:33 - 31 minutes - 43.5 MBSunstone is the longest and perhaps the most extraordinary poem by the extraordinary poet Octavio Paz. Sunstone is an epic poem, long and passionate, like a golden mantle in which to take shelter. A hypnotic torrent of images and signs dazzle and enchant us as we pass through each verse. The imagination is left spinning, intoxicated with pleasure. Sunstone is made up of hendecasyllables because hendecasyllables are the measure of the sonnet, the love poem par excellence in Latin languages. An...
You Don't Hear The Dogs Barking?
November 30, 2021 19:08 - 13 minutes - 11.2 MBAn old man carries on his shoulders his only son, who’s been wounded. He has to cross a mountain in the dead of night, to get to the next village, where there may be a doctor to look after him. Both their lives unravel in the journey. A masterful and heartbreaking story of the father-son relationship. Original story by Juan Rulfo read by Gabriel Porras Translation by Stephen Beechinor Production: Gabriel Porras Music: La Guanábana, by Los Parientes de Playa Vicente, from the album América...
The Teachings Of Jesus
November 01, 2021 20:43 - 26 minutes - 36.1 MBThe Sermon on the Mount is a collection of Jesus' teachings to a group of simple people who followed him everywhere. It is not a theological dissertation for intellectuals, nor a discourse delivered in some elegant college or palace of the time. It is, as the title implies, a talk on the mountain. In direct, simple and often incandescent language, Jesus rewrites everything people knew about God up to that point. These words have been so influential that with them Jesus founds a new period in ...
The Hero´s journey
September 22, 2021 21:14 - 27 minutes - 27.4 MBIf you have ever thought of writing a novel, a short story, a film script, a play, take advantage of this sequence of twelve steps known as The Hero's Journey. This is the path that the hero follows to earn the treasure, the throne, the hand of the princess. A journey we can also follow in everyday life, and which we illustrate here step by step with the plot of three admirable stories: The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix and Harry Potter. Enjoy it!
The Power of Myths
August 01, 2021 22:21 - 31 minutes - 23.9 MBWe all need myths. Myths are foundational stories that give us life, and without them, we die. Myths are great truths disguising as stories. Human beings need myths because we are stories made of stories, poems decanted from poems, beings created and nurtured by stories and poems. The second season of Radiant Whispers kicks off in mythical and heroic fashion.
Human Voices In The Stars
September 30, 2020 19:34 - 12 minutes - 17.4 MBDid you know human voices are travelling in interstellar space right now, beyond the confines of our Solar System? This is a fascinating story of human achievement and endeavour, and a tribute to the unique power of the human voice, “our exquisitely individual and intimate footprint in the universe”.
Demosthenes Howls At The Sea
August 31, 2020 20:30 - 13 minutes - 18.5 MBDemosthenes Howls At The Sea by Gabriel Porras
Plato: Allegory of the Cave
July 31, 2020 16:31 - 17 minutes - 23.4 MBAt the beginning of chapter VII of his seminal work The Republic, Plato talks of a group of people who live in a cave, enslaved with chains around their neck and feet. They have never left the cave; the dark and humid walls of the cave, and the stale air inside, are all they know and breathe. They have never seen the outside world; all that their eyes ever witness are the shadows cast on the cave wall by a bonfire that burns behind their backs. Join me as we ponder on this beautiful allegor...
Pablo Neruda: Odes to life
June 30, 2020 19:20 - 13 minutes - 18.7 MBThree of my favourite poems from Neruda’s luminous collection Elementary Odes. Enjoy!
I survived COVID-19
May 29, 2020 18:57 - 19 minutes - 26.4 MBI'm one of the blessed ones who survived the coronavirus attack. What brought me through that problematic trance, and what lessons did I learn? I share everything here with my best wishes. Credits: Written, presented and mixed by Gabriel Porras, professional voiceover artist Music: SIHOUETTE OF TIME’S IDEA, by Mid-Air Machine at www.freemusicarchive.org SOFT SHINE ON pad by Mike Russell at MRC.com HORIZON, by Josh Leake at Artlist.io
Love conquers death - The last days of Jesus on earth
April 12, 2020 16:12 - 36 minutes - 50.1 MBThis is the Easter story: the last days of the most influential character in history, narrated with masterful detail and emotion by the Greek physician Luke, in chapters 22 to 24 of his Gospel. A dramatized reading in contemporary English that brings to the text nuances and drama that you may not have noticed before. Whether you have read it many times, or never, take this opportunity to remember -or discover for the first time- the meaning and significance of Jesus' last days on Earth. Cred...
When no one listens to you, Chekhov
January 31, 2020 13:55 - 20 minutes - 28.8 MBDo you ever feel so lonely and sad that you don't know where to turn? In moments like these, the best medicine the world can offer you is not money, sex or power, but love - a single compassionate person who'd be willing to listen to you. Today we read a moving story by Anton Chekhov that illustrates the anguished yearning we all sometimes have to speak to someone. The story is entitled Misery, and it takes us back to an old St. Petersburg covered in snow. Enjoy!
The Desert Oddysey
December 28, 2019 19:45 - 19 minutes - 26.7 MBDo you know what happened to Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus right after Christmas? They all became refugees. They were already dirt poor and homeless; now, they also became fugitives. Today we do a very different take on the Christmas story. God is in great mortal peril. Joseph and Mary – two kids who are barely 18 and 12 years old, most likely – have to cross six hundred miles (one thousand Kms) of lethal desert to save baby Jesus from the tyrant who wants to kill him. Incredibly, astonishi...
Noah's Ark
November 27, 2019 11:09 - 35 minutes - 49.1 MBDid you know that there are dozens and dozens of stories of a great flood in the most diverse and disparate cultures, from Japan to the Maya, from Babylon to Polynesia, from the Eskimos to the Australian Aborigines and Africa? Noah's Ark is the story of a vast ecological catastrophe caused by human blindness. Do you think this may be a relevant story nowadays? I believe it could be the most compelling and urgent story for our time, and I hope you’ll agree with me once we read it together to...
The Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl
October 09, 2019 15:45 - 16 minutes - 23 MBBuenos días and welcome back to Radiant Whispers! Today it's all sheer fun and wild imagination with the big and spiky Roald Dahl, surely one of the most beloved writers of all time. And rightly so - who hasn't been thrilled, amused and delighted by his stories? They're just so quirky, vibrant and delightful that they stand on a class of their own. Dahl is one of those geniuses that are so ahead of the game that everybody else -Hollywood included!- is out of breath trying to catch up with the...
A book of fabled creatures
September 04, 2019 15:58 - 28 minutes - 39.1 MBJuan José Arreola is one of the greatest Latin-American writers of the XX Century, one of the first to dare to abandon realism. This is how Professor George D Schade introduces Juan José Arreola and Bestiary, his "Book of Fabled Beasts": Arreola jabs at complacency and ruthlessly exposes pompous and hypocritical attitudes. He takes a depressing view of most human relationships, and in a large number of his stories and satires he chips away at love and its illusions… Whatever the subject ...
The Song of Wisdom
August 02, 2019 12:39 - 9 minutes - 12.8 MBThe Song of Wisdom is one of the oldest poems in world literature. It ponders how men are willing to face indescribable risks to descend into the bowels of the earth in tiny baskets or flimsy ropes to find treasure in hidden places that not even the penetrating gaze of the falcon will ever see; where not even the fearsome lion would ever dare to enter. Human beings will face any danger, overcome all fears and defy the most harrowing darkness in search of riches… but wisdom - which is the grea...
Axolotl, by Julio Cortázar
July 19, 2019 19:54 - 18 minutes - 25.9 MBToday we open our space to a brilliant Franco- Argentinian writer: Julio Cortázar. We listen to one of his most celebrated stories, inspired by one of the most beautiful and enigmatic amphibians on Earth: the tiny Axolotl. Axolotl is a meditation on that mortal danger that loneliness is for us human beings. We see a lonely man disintegrate; we are witnesses to the way loneliness, the lack of friends and relationships that keep us mentally sane, can precipitate us into a pit of alienation whe...
The Circular Ruins, by Jorge Luis Borges
July 05, 2019 18:32 - 21 minutes - 38.8 MBThe story we read today is by a true giant of Latin American and world literature, the Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges. The Circular Ruins is a masterpiece of fantasy literature, and deals with how dreams are manifested in reality… Borges' launching pad is a passage from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll in which Tweedledee draws Alice's attention to the sleeping Red King, and claims that she is nothing but a character in the King's dream.
Daniel in the lions' den
June 18, 2019 15:47 - 28 minutes - 52.4 MBThe story we read today takes us back to the mythical city of Babylon, that great capital on the banks of the Euphrates, acclaimed for those legendary hanging gardens that were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The prophet Daniel was transported there as a prisoner when he was only 12 or 13 years old, after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, in the year 587 BC, at the end of a terrible siege that lasted two years. His remarkable intelligence and supernatural gift to inte...
Tale of the Unknown Island, by José Saramago
June 05, 2019 08:49 - 50 minutes - 92.2 MBToday I will read you a perfect story by the Portuguese José Saramago. Saramago won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998, after the publication of his novel Blindness, which is the most disturbing dystopia I have ever read. I promise you that all those apocalyptic TV series and movies that you've seen, where life in the future becomes impossible for the protagonists, pale before the stark but frighteningly real and credible world that Saramago manages to create. And he does not resort to an...
Job — Calamity is not a punishment
May 22, 2019 08:53 - 36 minutes - 66.2 MBToday I am going to read you a fragment of an old text that is considered -and I quote- "one of the most noble works of world literature": the Book of Job. This is the story of a very wealthy man who lived 3,000 years ago, in the Bronze Age (the days of King David and King Solomon, the Iliad and the Odyssey 3,000 years ago)... The Book of Job is so splendidly well written that many experts place it on the same exalted plane as the works of Aeschylus and Sophocles, Dante, Milton and Goethe. Te...
The Night of the Ugly Ones, by Mario Benedetti
May 15, 2019 20:33 - 13 minutes - 24.2 MBToday I have the pleasure of reading you a story by the great Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti. It is a great example of Benedetti's genius to create in just four or five pages a world of great emotional intensity. I sincerely hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed recording it.
The King of Spain, my cousin
April 25, 2019 21:20 - 15 minutes - 28.3 MBToday we talk about the thorny issue of identity and race in Latin America. In 2019 we remember 500 years since the beginning of the conquest of America at the hands of the Spanish conquistadores, and the new Mexican government is demanding from Spain today an apology for the events that occurred 500 years ago...
Chesterton on dandelions & gratitude
April 17, 2019 17:45 - 15 minutes - 27.8 MBToday I’m reading you a text by the brilliant GK Chesterton, he of The Adventures of Father Brown and a great metaphysical thriller entitled The Man who was Thursday. Chesterton's prose and thought are dazzling, so you have to take it in little sips, often gasping with open mouth, because his mind is full of light and colours. The passage that I am going to read to you is from the last chapter of Chesterton’s Autobiography, and it talks about deep, transforming gratitude...even for those litt...
Radiant Whispers? What’s that?
April 10, 2019 23:00 - 4 minutes - 7.4 MBWhat is this podcast about? What are these "Radiant Whispers”?