Shows / What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka Podcast
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka Podcast
The show that explores what makes Sri Lanka Sri Lankan.
Episodes
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka’s First Lambakanna Kings Part 2 | The Guardians
After the ruinous excesses of the last Vijayan kings, Sri Lanka’s Lambakanna were to rule for two periods, the first lasting 369 years. But how did they rescue…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka’s First Lambakanna Kings Part 1 | The Kingdom That Walked On Water
It was the mastery of water that powered the Anuradhapuran Kingdom, but how did its first Lambakarna kings ensure so rapid a development of its technology as…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastShrews, Mice, Rats, Gerbils And Squirrels | Hearing From Sri Lanka’s Eminent Plebs
Sri Lanka, like ancient Rome, has strict - albeit invisible - notions of caste and class. And class, not being exclusively human, is no less apparent within…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka’s Skinks | Inscrutable Angels
Sri Lanka’s skinks have a degree of subtleness that propels that immaterial attribute into the outer galaxy - fallen angels, perfect for being not what they…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastKuveni | The Quest for Sri Lanka's First Queen
She was the pin-up of her times – but was it about the island’s first queen that caused so much disquiet, even now, and where might you still find her?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastMy Missing Sapphire Tiara | A Bit Of A Think Outside A Sri Lankan Water Board
Sri Lanka’s gems are as perfect a thing for first nights as they are for crowns, thrones, diadems - and even my missing tiara. But should it be enough to…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastHomes From Home | Sri Lanka's Fifty Best Hotels
Sri Lanka’s auberge actuaries estimate that the island has well over 2,500 hotels. But if you had to stay in just fifty, which ones would you be most blessed…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastEscape I The Sri Lankan Reading List
Few other countries are currently producing as much world-class literature as Sri Lanka. So which novels should you read? srilankapodcast.com
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka’s Sea Mammals | The Mermaid That Wasn’t
Which sea mammals can Sri Lanka rightly claim as its own – and did the Portuguese really find a mermaid on the shores of Mannar 500 years ago?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastThe Great Dynasty | A Super Pod History Of The Kings Who Made Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s first kings laid the indispensable foundations of an entire island-nation state, their achievements evident in almost every aspect of life today…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastImperial Flavours | Travels With Sri Lanka’s Colonial Spices
Some of Sri Lanka’s most beloved spices came in the ships of the Portuguese, Dutch, and British – but why were they brought here, and how did they throw off…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastReticent Flavours | Finding Sri Lanka’s Most Secret Spices
Sri Lanka’s secretive off-stage spices are every bit as treasured as its most famous ones. But what are they, and how are they used?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastThe Taste Trade | A Journey Around Sri Lanka’s Merchant Spices
Few people ever packed light as they headed to Sri Lanka. But what are the spices that arrived in the carry-on baggage its visiting traders, travellers and…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastThe Golden Trinity | Sri Lanka’s Three Great Spices
Three spices hold the key to every dish in Sri Lanka. But which ones are they and why does their consequence stretch far beyond the humble kitchen?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastMagic | Growing Money in Sri Lanka
Enslavement is a condition that takes time to undo. So how did it help to make a spice garden in the jungles of Sri Lanka?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastHidden Trails I Stepping Off The Beaten Path In Sri Lanka
What really makes Sri Lanka tick? Perhaps these 5 very local cameos might provide a clue. srilankapodcast.com
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSpace, The Perehera - and Danby | Festival Frolics in Sri Lanka
Enochlophobia may be one of ageing’s more agreeable symptoms – but what do you do about it when the Kandy Perehera is in full swing? srilankapodcast.com
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastThe Mathematics Of Mortality I Measuring Time In Sri Lanka
How long is life, and what might you usefully do with the later bits? srilankapodcast.com
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastThe Wicked Monarchs of Sri Lanka I Part 2
It’s often said that to rule, you must be ruthless to excess. But exactly what were the excesses created by these final Sri Lankan kings as to earn them a…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastThe Wicked Monarchs of Sri Lanka I Part 1
Spoiled for choice, selecting the naughtiest monarchs of Sri Lanka is an arduous job. But why does the list begin with its founding father, and a later queen…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastWalking The Dogs | Sauntering Down A Red Sri Lankan Carpet
If walking the dogs is anything, it has to be “Ordinary Special,” especially when taken down a path of flame tree flowers. But of all these flamboyants, which…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka’s Bears, Buffaloes & Boars | The 3 Great “B’s”
Of Sri Lanka’s bears, buffaloes and boars, which animal is its Bach? Which its Bhrams? And which is its heroic Beethoven?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastTwinkle | A Guide To Sri Lanka’s Gems; Where To Find Them, When To Wear Them
With over 75 gemstones - from Hot Pink Sapphires to Sherry Topaz - found in its ancient rock strata, where can you see them and when should you wear them?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSecret Kandy Part 5 | The 200-Year-Long War
Protected by a necklace of high mountains and surrounded by dense jungle ideal for guerrilla warfare, the Kandyan kingdom’s natural defences helped it…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSecret Kandy Part 4 | Where The Grass Is Greener
City though it is, Kandy - sequestered within high mountains and deep valleys – has numerous secretive wild pockets of utter bewitchment. But where will you…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSecret Kandy Part 3 | Five Forgotten Stories
Kandy is much more than its city. And in an arc of land that spreads to the north are five places that tell stories of the kingdom that are almost entirely…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSecret Kandy Part 2 | God & Mammon
The Vatican City of Sri Lanka, Kandy, is a place built on religion, money, politics, faith, power, morality - and some of the most striking temples anywhere in…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSecret Kandy Part 1 | Down City Streets
Kandy’s deeper history is a byzantine tale of kings, caste, money, and religion. Here, history is not dead; not even sleeping or dazed. It is instead ever on…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastDeath, The Drama Queen | A Walk with Henning Mankell
Is death like checking in at The Ritz? Or is it more agreeable still?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastLa Petit Mort | On Buggering On In Sri Lanka
If you are English, do you really need sex? Can you not encounter la petite mort simply upon waking up?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastThe Kerfuffle In The Kitchen | Getting Picky in Sri Lanka
If too many cooks spoil the broth, what ingredients best make it all up?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka’s Extinct Mammals | In Search Of A Lost World
Sri Lanka was once home to tigers, lions, rhinos and hippos. But where are they to be found today? And what might disappear next?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka’s Founding Vijayan Kings Part 6 | The Tainted Crown
It was a counterfeit lookalike king who presided over the bloodbath collapse of the Vijayan dynasty that had ruled Sri Lanka for over 600 years. How did things…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka’s Founding Vijayan Kings Part 5 | A Merry-Go-Round of Spinning Sovereigns
As a third and fourth Tamil invasion subjugated Sri Lanka, who were the feisty avenging kings who rescued it from the suspicion that things are never so bad…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka’s Founding Vijayan Kings Part 4 | The Time of Sorrows
Barely 300 years into its nationhood, Sri Lanka was invaded twice. Why was it that no one saw the turmoil that lay ahead, and who were its conquerors?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka’s Founding Vijayan Kings Part 3 | Heaven on Earth
Two great Sri Lankan kings ruled in quick succession – Pandu Kabhaya and Devanampiya Tissa. How did this double windfall hasten the tiny kingdom to burst into…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka’s Founding Vijayan Kings Part 2 | Dancing on Knives
How did Sri Lanka, barely 7 decades old, survive the death of its founding father, Vijaya, and its first recorded civil war, which erupted over the death of…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka’s Founding Vijayan Kings Part 1 | The Making of Nirvana
Sri Lanka’s first recorded monarch established a family that would rule for over half a millennium, and a nation that flourishes to this day. But how did that…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastA Sri Lankan Garden Companion | The Gardens & Plantations of The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel
From the Red Road to the Galagedera Gap, the two dozen acres around The Flame Tree Estate and Hotel demonstrate feral gardening at its best. So what might you…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastA Little Bit of Expert | Panning For Skills In Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, the expert is there right next to you - on the train, in the street, everywhere in fact. But what happens when you seek one in a doctor’s waiting…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastThe Lovely Now | The Glad Psychology of Sri Lankan Rain
It rains. And it rains. But why are Buddhism and rain quite so beautifully compelling, especially here in Sri Lanka?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastThe Moriyan Monarchs | A Super Pod History of Sri Lanka’s Regicide Regime
Under its Moriyan kings, Sri Lanka soared to unequalled heights of artistic excellence. New ideas and philosophies had flourished. So why was it that – overall…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lankan Politics | A Family Art
Sri Lanka may have lost its last king in 1815, but since Independence, its leading families have more than made up for the difference. Who are they – and what…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastMudras | How To Talk In Sri Lanka Without Actually Saying A Word
Lord Buddha is famous for his many-faceted hand gestures - or mudras. But which were the main ones, and what do they actually mean?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka At Its Earliest Part 3 | Voyaging to Wonderland With The First Sri Lankans
From people to orchids, lions to river fish – how was Sri Lanka first settled? And what happened to its earliest inhabitants?
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka At Its Earliest Part 2 | The Island That Floated Away
The simple fact that Sri Lanka is an island has determined the country’s character; for “islands,” as Richard Dawkins remarked, “are natural workshops of…
What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka PodcastSri Lanka At Its Earliest Part 1 I The Great Conundrum
In almost every aspect of its existence, Sri Lanka defies logic - yet still it spins a potent and inexplicable magic. So how exactly did it get to be like…