Golpo | Stories From Around the World

Are you happy? What makes you happy? Who makes you happy? How does happiness impact your life? Here is a story that will take on a journey to find happiness. Here is a story that will help you talk about happiness and why it's critical to our wellbeing. To me, staying in the realm of story-verse gives me immense happiness. Working on a story, telling it, talking about storytelling, enabling so...

Folktales are unkind to women and female characters. You cannot pick up a folktale to tell without passing it through the gender lens. At the face of it, this is a story that I wouldn't tell. But today I am. There are many things about this story that's disturbing. I have included it in this podcast, just because it IS an important story that we should listen and talk about. Here are a few...

How far is the Sun from you? When is it the farthest? When is it the closest? Does it seem close and far at the same time? The Sun, is a Chinese Tale that is versatile in the classroom. From Primary, to Middle to Senior School, this ONE story can be told and retold to introduce, teach and reinforce concepts of Sun, Latitude - Longitude, Solar Energy, Time, Distance and Trignometry! This is an exam...

This is a story for YOU, the Storytellers (closeted, learner, aspiring, amateur, professional) who listen to this podcast. The ones who tell stories to children, to families at dinner tables and colleagues & clients at business meetings. The ones who I imagine are spreading the story dust gathered from this podcast across classrooms, living rooms and boardrooms. Here is a story that will warn...

Which is the one story that teaches you about the dangers of lying? Was it The Boy Who Cried Wolf? Teaching someone to say the truth is a tricky task. Understanding what is a lie and when is it okay to lie and when not is even tougher. Have you ever wondered when and how did you learn to lie? Yes, I am assuming that like me, you too have sinned and lied at some point of time in your life. To be hu...

The 8th Donkey is MY story! I am the protagonist and I have lived like him for years, feeling ashamed of my weakness with numbers. I have struggled for years with mathematics, find it difficult to remember numbers, count, manage money and talk about it with people. I have lived for years telling myself that I am a DONKEY when it comes to numbers! The 8th Donkey is a gentle tribute to the defencele...

I am sure you have heard this story in some form or the other. Two Goats on the Bridge is a popular fable that has been used to reminder listeners about conflict. I have been telling it to trigger conversations and stories. Earlier this week in a #BusinessStorytelling Training, we simulated this story with an intimate listening and storytelling experience. The bridge is transformed into a story br...

When standing at the crossroads, which is the right way? If you ask me, I will always tell, it's "The Storied Way" ! What do I mean by that? Well, here is a story just for that! The Right Way is a story that I have pulled out from my workshop & training content material. In my business / organisational / corporate trainings I often use tales such as this one. I call them 'Bridg...

A little bird enters a flying contest, flying against the mighty falcon. What do you do when you are in a competition & you know that the odds are against you? Would you strive to win, play fair, or find any means to end up as winner? What you choose is YOUR choice. The Flying Contest is a story that throws up interesting conversations on contrasts, comparisons and competitions. The Flying Con...

The Knee-High man took me back to school when I first heard the word Pygmy. I am not sure if I heard it in a good way, or did someone use it as an insult. You see, I didn't grow up beyond 5 feet. But that didn't stop me from winning a beauty pageant at 18! This story from the African-American tradition of stories has travelled with the people across the seas. I can see this story as a stri...

This is one of those stories that is a riot to perform before children. It's a clever tale that is both hilarious as is serious. If told well, this story will fit in to business conversations where risk is a topic of discussion. Listen to A Drop of Honey and tell me what do you think! A small word of caution for the stories in the podcast. In no way am I ‘moralising’ any of these stories. I am...

For the longest time, I didn't tell this story because its so popular. The Stone Soup is every storyteller's favourite and listeners had heard this one somewhere or the other. I told this story for the first time in 2018 at a corporate event. I was invited to tell a story and bring the employees together in a dialogue. Listen to my version of The Stone Soup, in today's podcast. This st...

Where and how you hear / read a story is an excellent way to interpret a story. Take this story for example: I read this first in an anthology of food tales. When I read the story in context of food tales, I was reminded of the significance of food and it being a cultural indicator. When I went looking for another version of this story, I discovered it on a website that seeks to preserve the cultu...

I remember this story from a long time ago. Back in the day our favourite sport was doing better than a classmate. How can we outdo the other, a competitor on the sports field, in the classroom or on stage. We were all trying to draw our lines longer to make the others shorter. I think the memory of that life triggered the thought behind this story for me. Perhaps Emperor Akbar had a similar dilem...

What's common about common sense? How do we acquire them? Do we inherit or learn them? Do we share a set of common sense? Or does each one of us develop a sense that is most common and obvious to us? If these questions baffle you then today's story is for you! In this episode I retell the Jamaican version of Anansi & the Drum of Common Sense We all need our share of common & uncomm...

I love the mystery and suspense in this story. It almost runs like a thriller! Make this a companion story with Hans Christian Andersan's Shilling and here you have a story that can trigger conversations about money, its history, its purpose and its management. What's the value of money, how we earn it, spend it, share it, grow it and preserve it.  Listen to this story to discover some add...

Today's episode is a gentle tribute to the people of Syria and Turkey who suffered one of the greatest disasters of the century. The news and sights coming in the aftermath of the earthquake are devastating. This story comes from Aleppo in Syria, one of the parts worst affected by the earthquake. A few weeks ago we had a Turkish story on the podcast and today, this wisdom tale from Syria is a...

The title of the story drew me to it. This story spoke to the story trainer in me. When I started my journey as a storyteller, I had no plans to become a trainer, a facilitator or a story coach. But here I am, working with school teachers, businesses, not-for-profits and corporations helping them ‘learn’ storytelling. **** 𝙂𝙤𝙡𝙥𝙤: 𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝘼𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚...

The Language of the Birds takes me back to my 9th grade Physics class where I first studied Sound. If you are a science teacher, you would love this one! You would also like this story if you are a Language teacher! Or someone who has a patient ear for languages & linguistics. Listen more closely and this story would remind you of endangered languages. The Language of the Birds is also a story...

 Tails is an interesting story that triggers conversations in the Science & English Classroom. If you are a teacher looking for stories, here is one! Are there people, habits, practices that are tailing you down? What kind of a tail would you like to shed today? Or is there is a discussion waiting to happen between the old and the new? Let this classic evolution story (Odisha, India) spark a c...

This story will compel you to the think of the phrase 'fruits of labour'. Rooted in the native philosophy of Taoism, this Chinese Fairy Tale will ask you to consider the question who bears the fruit and who enjoys it? This story, like every other story in this podcast is a conversation starter. It touches upon complex ideas likes haves versus have-nots, the balance of power and influence,...

A New Year could mean different things to different people. For you a new year may be your birthday, the turn of the calendar year or the financial year, a new beginning or a day when you leave the old to begin the new. This week, I have the perfect new year story that you can listen & share in the classroom, living room or the boardroom. The Twelve Months is a Greek Folktale with a predictabl...

Creation Myths are an important reminder that we exist for a reason. It is a special kind of story that binds our existence with the place where we belong. It helps us validate that the balance between the earth and us is sacred for all times. The Story of the Earth & Sky at one level is a Creation Myth, a Nature Tale that tells us about how the world came to be the way as it is today. At anot...

As I watched Lionel Messi lift the FIFA World Cup after 36 years, I couldn’t help but think of the stories that he grew up listening to! Did the stories of his childhood shape him to be the player he is? I realised that I don’t have an Argentinian Story and so I went looking for one. And this is the ONE that instantly spoke to me. The Legend of Marianna, her stories and golden nuggets reminded me...

The Legend of Gwashbrari is a very interesting story. If you surrender to the charm of a love story, you will see this one as a story of love & deception. A story about about the bold & the beautiful. But there are other ways to listen to the story.  With themes of #love #deception #trust #rejection #gender #conflict #hierarchy #superiority #challenge #competition #surrender The Legend of...