Yoruba Proverbs with Bidemi Ologunde

In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores the fascinating history of Yoruba astronomy, stargazing, and sacred traditions, examining how generations of Yoruba people observed the Sun, Moon, and stars to understand the passage of time, anticipate seasonal changes, guide agricultural activities, and interpret the spiritual world. How did ancient Yoruba communities understand celestial phenomena...

In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores the enduring influence of Yoruba spirituality on African diaspora religions across South America, the Caribbean, and the United States, tracing how the transatlantic slave trade carried Yoruba religious beliefs, practices, and traditions into new cultural environments. How did enslaved Yoruba communities preserve their spiritual heritage under the har...

In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores how ancient societies may have understood lightning, metallurgy, agriculture, rivers, forests, and other powerful natural forces through both practical observation and sacred cosmology. Using Yoruba traditions surrounding Ṣàngó, Ọ̀ya, Ògún, Òrìṣà Oko, Ọ̀sányìn, and Ifá as a central framework, the episode examines how technological knowledge, environme...

Wèrè èèyàn ní ńwípé irú òun ò sí; irú ẹ̀ pọ̀ ó ju ẹgbàágbèje lọ. Wọ́n ńpe gbẹ́nàgbẹ́nà ẹyẹ àkókó ńyọjú. “Yan àkàrà fún mi wá ká jìjọ jẹ ẹ”; àìtó èèyàn-án rán níṣẹ́ ní ń jẹ́ bẹ́ẹ̀. Yíyé là ńyé Òkóró sí tí à ńpè é nígi obì; obì tí ì bá so lórí ẹ̀ ní ńya abidún. A bímọ kò gbọ́n, a ní kó má ṣàá kú; kí ní ńpa ọmọ bí àìgbọ́n? In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores five Yoruba proverbs about humi...

San là ń rìn; ajé ní múni pá kọ̀rọ̀ Sesere ń dá gọ́ọ́bú; oníkamẹ́sàn-án ń gbé ṣíbí Sún mọ ọ̀hún, sún mọ́ ìhín; bí a bá kan ògiri ilé-e baba ẹni, ṣe là ń dúró gbọin-gbọin “Ta ní ḿbẹ níbẹ̀?” làgbẹ́ fi ńsán ìbàntẹ́ wọ̀lú Ta ní ńjẹun tájá ńjùrú?” In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores five Yoruba proverbs about debt, ambition, resilience, public conduct, and social boundaries. What happens whe...

In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores five Yoruba proverbs about stubbornness, humility, careful judgment, aging, and reputation. When does determination become destructive obstinacy, and how can we recognize the limits of our own expertise? What does it mean to move through life with greater gentleness, and how should experience change the way we respond to age, responsibility, and publi...

Email: contact@bolog.io In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde  explores how Yoruba families can discuss depression, anxiety, grief, addiction, trauma, and emotional exhaustion without framing every struggle as weakness, spiritual failure, or poor upbringing. How can relatives respond without gossip, ridicule, or instant diagnosis, and how can therapy, medication, prayer, pastoral care, traditional...

Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde examines what respect looks like now through a Yoruba lens, asking how greetings, discipline, voice, consent, caregiving, and boundaries are being renegotiated across generations. When does respect become fear? How can elders guide without silencing? How can young people speak honestly without discarding cultural wisdom? This ep...

Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores five Yoruba proverbs about reputation, courage, borrowing, unemployment, and honor. What happens when public disgrace only reveals private neglect? Why do some people confront the weak while avoiding their equals? When does borrowing become a costume rather than support? Through historical context and modern anecdotes,...

Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores five Yoruba proverbs about limitation, empathy, responsible speech, credibility, and reputation. What happens when a small weakness disrupts a powerful system? Who suffers quietly while others continue as though nothing has happened? How should elders, leaders, parents, and professionals speak when their words carry pub...

Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores five Yoruba proverbs about restraint, humility, equality, sudden wealth, and personal responsibility. What does it mean for the owner of the land to tread gently? Why should status give way to necessity during difficult moments? How do we tell the difference between surface resemblance and real equality? Through histori...

Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores five Yoruba proverbs about greed, wisdom, human limitation, interdependence, and the revealing nature of sudden success. Why does an elder lose dignity when appetite overpowers restraint? Why does privilege sometimes create even more hunger? What happens when intelligent people forget the limits of knowledge? Through hi...

Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com

Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com

Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com

Check out host Bidemi Ologunde 's new show: The Work Ethic Podcast , available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts . Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com

Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com

Check out host Bidemi Ologunde's new show: The Work Ethic Podcast , available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts . Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores the contemporary concept of "Jápa" in terms of migration, home, and the new Yorùbá identity, asking what it means to leave, what it costs to stay, and how Yorùbá families are redefining home acros...

Check out host Bidemi Ologunde's new show: The Work Ethic Podcast , available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts . Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores a timely conversation about clout, narcissism, gossip, fake expertise, fake displays of wealth, cyberbullying, and digital self-control. What does it mean to carry Yoruba values into a world ruled by algori...

Check out host Bidemi Ologunde's new show: The Work Ethic Podcast , available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts . Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores the tension between the "soft life" ideal and the hard choices people make around money, hustle culture, image, debt, and integrity. What happens when success becomes a performance? When does ambi...

Check out host Bidemi Ologunde's new show: The Work Ethic Podcast , available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts . Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde follows the Yoruba language across continents: from Nigeria to Brazil, Cuba, the Caribbean, the U.K., and the U.S., and asks what happens when AI enters the story circle. Can a “virtual council of elders” help prese...

Check out host Bidemi Ologunde's new show: The Work Ethic Podcast , available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts . Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde traces how Yoruba cosmology understands contact with "sky beings," from Ọ̀run and Ayé, Odùduwà’s chain, Ọ̀ṣun's skyward journey, and Ṣàngó's thunderstones to folk accounts of night-flying àjẹ́, t...

Check out host Bidemi Ologunde 's new show: The Work Ethic Podcast , available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts . Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com

Check out host Bidemi Ologunde's new show: The Work Ethic Podcast , available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts . Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores what Jagun Jagun (a 2023 Netflix film) reveals about power, honor, fear, and Yoruba memory. Why do some leaders inspire loyalty while others only command obedience? What is the difference between being fear...

Check out host Bidemi Ologunde's new show: The Work Ethic Podcast , available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts . Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde explores a timely question for Yoruba language and culture in the digital age: can artificial intelligence truly preserve òwe , or can it only imitate their form? What happens when proverbs are separated from elders...