the story pilgrim

James Harkin: Curious Fairways

Send us a textJames Harkin, co-host of the hit podcast No Such Thing As A Fish and Head Researcher on BBC’s QI, joins me for a walking, and golfing, conversation about curiosity, childhood, and how a life quietly takes shape.We met at Deane Golf Club, the course where James learned the game as a boy, and played a round while talking through his early years in Bolton, school days, falling sideways into research, and ending up at the sharp end of British comedy and television.Between missed putts and gentle rivalry, James reflects on how curiosity becomes a craft, how knowledge and passion turns into a career. The power of saying no, and taking a risk can be a good thing.This is not a studio interview. It’s a walk, a game, a life in motion.Season Two of the story pilgrim turns towards people, walking with those who shape how I think, work, and notice the world.buen camino, and keep listening.

Lagos: Between Things

Send us a textLagos: Between Things is a quiet walking reflection recorded on the edges of a hotel, between flights, between seasons, between certainty and whatever comes next.There’s nothing performative about this walk. No attempt to decode Lagos or turn the city into a backdrop for insight. Instead, this episode sits in the in-between: raising the bar for the story pilgrim, wondering why connection is harder to cultivate than ideas, and asking what it really takes to invite people to walk and talk without hiding behind roles, status, or polish.This is a conversation about momentum, hesitation, and the strange vulnerability of asking others to join you when the path isn’t clearly marked. It’s also a gentle invitation — to listeners, to future walkers, to anyone who’s been circling a question rather than answering it.If you’re standing between what was and what might be, this one walks beside you rather than ahead.buen camino, and keep listening.

I Am Here

Send us a textThere are moments in life when something you’ve quietly hoped for arrives, and then disappears before you can even hold it. In this intimate spoken reflection, I sit still for once, without footsteps or ambient sound, to explore what happens in that fragile space between joy and loss.This filler episode isn't about walking, but about being. I am here. It's about the strange in-between, when you think you want something, prepare for it, tell yourself not to get attached, and then find yourself utterly changed by its arrival… only to watch it vanish. What follows isn’t grief, exactly. It’s something quieter. A pause. A numbness. A moment when language fails, but awareness doesn’t.Hopefully with warmth, a little bit of wit and most certainly honesty, I reflect on how these private moments ripple through love, friendship, and creative life, how they shape the stories we tell and the people we become. There’s mention of awards and recognition, but only as backdrop; the real story lies in learning to stand still, to accept uncertainty, and to whisper, despite everything: I am here.“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” — Rainer Maria Rilkethe story pilgrim — sharing sacred stories on the pilgrimage through life.

Olly Mann: Designed Wit

Send us a textBroadcaster, columnist and podcast pioneer Olly Mann joins me for a heartfelt walk through Letchworth Garden City — the town that shaped his voice, his worldview, and, eventually, his marriage.As we stroll through tree-lined streets and past Edwardian ideals, Olly reflects on growing up in Letchworth, attending St Christopher School, and his early rise as “the voice of the voice” on the school newspaper. We talk about the strange fate of childhood friendships, how meeting Helen Zaltzman at Oxford changed everything, and how he found his footing at the dawn of podcasting.Along the way, I ask him when he’s felt heard, what’s still ahead, and whether the goldfish rumour is true.It’s a delightful episode full of warmth, wit, and memory — and the perfect way to close Season One.

Santo Domingo de Silos: Sad Hill

Send us a text“There are two kinds of people in this world… those who remember, and those who forget.”At Sad Hill Cemetery in northern Spain—a once-forgotten film set brought back to life—memory takes centre stage. In this episode, I walk through Santo Domingo de Silos and into the story-soaked silence of Sad Hill, where fiction, history, and grief blur at the edges.I meet Nick and Noah, a father and son from Belgium making a quiet pilgrimage in memory of Nick’s brother, Tim. I speak with Sergio Garcia and Raquel from the Asociación Cultural Sad Hill, who led the painstaking restoration. And I sit down with Clemente, an 82-year-old shopkeeper whose life has spanned dictatorships, revolutions—and one unforgettable Western.This isn’t nostalgia. It’s not tourism. It’s something older. A reminder that some places—real or imagined—hold onto the stories we can’t let go.