Shows / Chesterton Radio
Chesterton Radio
Welcome to Chesterton Radio—where stories, ideas, and wonder meet. Discover original fiction, Father Brown mysteries, classic radio drama, literary deep dives, thoughtful conversations, and daily Morning Prayer inspired by G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, and the enduring tradition of Christian storytelling. Broadcasting from the little station on Commercial Street in Atchison, Kansas, Chesterton Radio offers a daily refuge from the noise of modern life. Whether you're drawn to timeless…
Episodes
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: The Great American Western
Still broadcasting from Irving, Texas, Daybreak saddles up for a ride through the golden age of the American Western. Today we return to the wide-open country…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak from Texas: What Would Chesterton Make of the Lone Star State?
Daybreak is on the road! This morning we’re broadcasting from Irving, Texas, near Dallas, and turning the whole show over to the Lone Star State. We travel…
Chesterton RadioThe Last Man Standing
Johnny Cash looks back on a life and asks what remains. Willie Nelson looks around, discovers that he is still here, and laughs. Two great American voices. Two…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: A Man Is More Than His Worst Sin
Good morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street. Today on Daybreak, we begin with Chesterton Radio’s new original Father Brown mystery, The Three…
Chesterton RadioThe Measure of a Man
In 1989, Star Trek: The Next Generation asked a question that no longer feels quite like science fiction: What makes a person a person? In “The Measure of a…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: The Soul of the Machine
For nearly a century, science fiction has been asking a question that suddenly doesn’t feel much like fiction: what happens when our machines begin to resemble…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: The Blue Lamp, Jack Benny & the Measure of Everything
Sunday begins with a deceptively simple question: What matters most? Today on Daybreak, we begin with Morning Prayer and the Gospel of Matthew 22:34–40, where…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: What Kind of World Is Worth Living In?
Good morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street. Today on Daybreak, we return to Friday night in 1987, when viewers could travel from the candlelit…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: Friday, First Pitches & the Advantages of One Leg
Friday has a character all its own. This morning at The Little Station on Commercial Street, we settle in with The Friday Collection, then turn to G. K…
Chesterton RadioThe Knight Before Picard
Long before he commanded the Enterprise, Patrick Stewart picked up a sword. In 1978, BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Night Theatre broadcast J. C. W. Brook’s…
Chesterton RadioThe Mysterious Traveler: This Is Your Stop
A train moves through the darkness. A stranger takes the seat across from you. His voice is calm, almost friendly. And then he begins to tell you a story. In…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: The Man Who Was Thursday — Twice
What happens when two radio productions take on one of G. K. Chesterton’s strangest books? This morning on Daybreak, we listen to two versions of The Man Who…
Chesterton RadioListen with Gilbert: All Aboard for Broadway
For one remarkable hour of radio history, the great musicals of Broadway and American operetta climbed aboard the train. The Railroad Hour brought Gordon…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: The Weather, the Wireless & a Piece of Chalk
Good morning from Chesterton Radio. Today on Daybreak, the weather turns deadly in the wonderfully atmospheric Midweek Theatre mystery The Weather for Murder—a…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: When Radio Became a Prayer
This morning at The Little Station on Commercial Street, we open the listening room with The Cave of Diamonds, a 1973 South African radio drama from Tuesday…
Chesterton RadioMarry for Murder: The Mystery of the Human Heart
In 1943, Suspense gave silent-screen legend Lillian Gish a voice in Marry for Murder. Thirty-two years later, CBS Radio Mystery Theater broadcast an entirely…
Chesterton RadioThe Hidden Face — The Art of the Manhunt
A man is convicted of murder. He escapes. Somewhere outside the prison walls lies the truth—and perhaps the only chance to prove his innocence. Victor…
Chesterton RadioThe Axe in the Orchard
What does it mean to love something—and is love enough to keep it alive? In Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, a family returns to an estate filled with…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: When Radio Gave the Day a Shape
There was a time when you didn’t search a catalog for something to hear. A program arrived at a particular hour—and you made room for it. This morning on…
Chesterton RadioArch Oboler: Radio with the Lights Out
Arch Oboler understood something fundamental about radio: what you cannot see may be more powerful than what you can. From the psychological darkness of Lights…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: The Worlds We Hear
The Worlds We Hear Good morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street. On this 100th World Mission Sunday, Daybreak considers the remarkable power of…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: Flying Cars, Dinosaurs & Radio After Midnight
Good morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street. It’s a wonderfully varied Saturday edition of Daybreak. Tesla says the flying-car future is…
Chesterton RadioOscar Wilde on the Radio: A Birthday Broadcast
Oscar Wilde was born on October 16, 1854. Tonight, the lights are on at the little station on Commercial Street, and we’re celebrating his birthday the way…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: The Radio Play Isn’t Dead
Why are people still listening to radio plays made decades ago—and listening by the millions? This morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street…
Chesterton RadioDarkness at Pemberley: When the Detective Knows—but Cannot Prove It
🎧 Listen to the complete play: What happens when the detective solves the murder—but cannot prove it? In this Saturday Night Theatre Companion, we return to…
Chesterton RadioThe Voice of Flora Robson: Listen with Gilbert
Christmas Eve, 1950. A 25-year-old Richard Burton takes the microphone as David Copperfield. Boris Karloff becomes the sinister Uriah Heep. And as the…
Chesterton RadioShadow of Murder: The Forgotten Woman Behind a Saturday Night Theatre Favorite
🎧 Listen to Shadow of Murder first: A murder mystery in the Scottish Highlands. A writer hidden behind more than one name. And a BBC radio drama that, more…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: Why Are Millions Still Listening to Old Radio Plays?
Why are decades-old radio dramas attracting millions of listens today? This morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street, we begin with Chesterton…
Chesterton RadioWhen Sherlock Holmes Became Real | Conan Doyle’s Strangest Case | Saturday Night Theatre Companion
🎧 Listen to the play first—or listen afterward:Conan Doyle’s Strangest Case — Saturday Night Theatre (6 January 1996)Listen to Conan Doyle’s Strangest Case…
Chesterton RadioA Haunted House, a Living Tradition
Good morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street. On today’s Daybreak, we look at the remarkable growth of the Newman Guide and what it may tell us…
Chesterton RadioFrom Flywheel to The Forge
More than twenty years ago, Alex and Stephen Kendrick helped make a little movie called Flywheel with a church, a small budget, volunteer actors, and an idea…
Chesterton RadioOur Lady of Fatima: The Miracle, the Message, and Broken Mary
In 1917, three shepherd children outside the village of Fatima reported encounters that would become one of the most remarkable stories of the twentieth…
Chesterton RadioBehind the Mike: How Radio Made the Invisible World
What really happened on the other side of the microphone? In the autumn of 1940, NBC Blue did something wonderfully unusual. Behind the Mike, hosted by…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: The Impossible Room
A locked room. A murdered man. Witnesses who insist no one could have entered or escaped. And yet someone did. On today’s Daybreak, we enter the ingenious…
Chesterton RadioThe Red Planet: The Most Frightening Thing on Mars Is an Order
In 1954, millions of BBC listeners climbed aboard the Discovery and set out for Mars. What they found there was far more disturbing than little green men…
Chesterton RadioDeath in Ecstasy: Murder at the Sacred Flame
A bored journalist steps inside the mysterious House of the Sacred Flame. A beautiful and wealthy woman is chosen for the evening’s ritual. She drinks from the…
Chesterton RadioSo, You Want to Stay Married?
In 1947, Carleton E. Morse—the creator of One Man’s Family and I Love a Mystery—turned his attention to a deceptively simple question: What actually keeps a…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: The People in the Small Back Rooms
Some of the most consequential work in the world happens in rooms nobody notices. On today’s Daybreak, we cross the Atlantic to Nigel Balchin’s wartime world…
Chesterton RadioGuilty Party: When the BBC Let You Solve the Murder
Long before interactive television, podcasts, or true-crime games, the BBC tried something wonderfully audacious: it handed a fictional murder investigation to…
Chesterton RadioDeath at the Dolphin: Murder in the House of Shakespeare
A ruined London theatre. A mysterious benefactor. A playwright with a vision. And a small glove said to have belonged to Hamnet Shakespeare, the only son of…
Chesterton RadioSunday Daybreak: The Invitation
What do we do when we are invited into something larger than ourselves? On this Sunday edition of Daybreak, Matthew’s parable of the wedding feast leads us…
Chesterton RadioListen with Gilbert: A Child’s Christmas in Wales
Welcome to Listen with Gilbert, Chesterton Radio’s guide to the stories, performances, and recordings that reward a closer listen. In this episode, we enter…
Chesterton RadioThe Snark Returns at Eleven
The Snark Returns at Eleven Boris Karloff—the voice behind some of cinema’s most memorable monsters—goes hunting for something altogether stranger. In this…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: When the Bears Became Legend
Mike Ditka has died at 86, just as Chesterton Radio publishes The Bears Came Down from Chicago, our new American epic poem about the extraordinary 1985 Bears…
Chesterton RadioThe Last King of Soldier Field
Mike Ditka has died at 86. But before “Da Coach” became a Chicago legend, he was a young champion under George Halas, a warrior sent away, and finally the man…
Chesterton RadioWhat Is Education For? | Daybreak — October 9
What is education actually for? On St. John Henry Newman’s feast day, Daybreak looks at Newman’s vision of education, the new 2026–27 Newman Guide, and what…
Chesterton RadioCitizen Kane: The Man Who Had Everything — Except What He Wanted
Before Citizen Kane, Orson Welles conquered radio. Then, at just twenty-five, Hollywood gave him extraordinary freedom to make his first motion picture—and he…
Chesterton RadioThe Robot, the Marble, and Michelangelo
Can a robot sculpt a masterpiece? In Carrara, Italy, ROBOTOR is using industrial KUKA robots, powerful milling spindles, and sophisticated software to carve…
Chesterton RadioN. C. Hunter: The Quiet Dramatist of Postwar England | Saturday Night Theatre Companion
Once, N. C. Hunter was one of the notable playwrights of the British stage. His plays attracted actors such as John Gielgud, Edith Evans, Sybil Thorndike…
Chesterton RadioThe Suicide Club: Bored with Life
Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Suicide Club begins with Prince Florizel of Bohemia searching London for adventure—and leads him into a secret society where…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: Breakfast with Don McNeill
Before morning television, podcasts, and endless scrolling, millions of Americans began the day with Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club. Today on Daybreak, we listen…
Chesterton RadioEvery Golden Nugget
There was a time when you couldn’t summon any song ever recorded with a tap. You turned on the radio—and waited. And every once in a while, something…
Chesterton RadioDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The Monster You Cannot See
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has become one of the great myths of modern culture. But beneath the potions and…
Chesterton RadioCops and Robbers: When Real Detectives Walked Into a Radio Play
In 1956, CBS Radio Workshop tried something remarkable. Instead of giving actors another carefully scripted detective drama, CBS created a fictional crime…
Chesterton RadioNerf Guns, Rare Books & The 39 Steps
Good morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street. On today’s New Daybreak, a Chesterton Academy marks the Battle of Lepanto in a wonderfully…
Chesterton RadioLepanto: The Battle, the Rosary & Chesterton’s Great Poem
On October 7, 1571, hundreds of galleys met at Lepanto in one of the great naval battles of history. The Holy League, commanded by the young Don John of…
Chesterton RadioWin One for the Ravens
Benedictine College entered the fourth quarter against rival Baker University trailing 32–17. What followed had almost everything a football storyteller could…
Chesterton RadioPeter and the Wolf: When the Orchestra Told the Story
Before screens filled every quiet moment, a voice, a record player, and an orchestra could create an entire world. In this edition of Listen with Gilbert, we…
Chesterton RadioDaybreak: At the Gates of Dawn
This morning on Daybreak, we step into one of the most remarkable chapters of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows: “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.” Rat…
Chesterton RadioCan We Build the Village Again?
Can We Build the Village Again? What would it mean to rebuild Christian culture—not as an argument or a political program, but as an actual place? Around Clear…