The Camino Podcast

Are some Caminos better-suited to meeting particular pilgrim needs than others? Any Camino can be transformative, of course, but it seems reasonable to offer, for example, that a pilgrim hungry for social connection would be better served following the Francés or the Portugués than the Camino de Levante. What about processing grief? For Chad Estes, a pilgrim from Boise, Idaho, the Via de la Plata...

This spring, Dave returned to Spain (along with a brief pass-through of France) to perform the annual work of updating and expanding the guidebooks. Over five weeks, he touched down on the Voie Littorale, the Camino del Norte, the Camino Lebaniego, the Camino de San Salvador (in both directions!), the Camino del Mar, and the Camino Inglés. Was it gorgeous? Absolutely! Was this kind of itinerary ad...

The Camino del Norte offers some of the most spectacular scenery of any pilgrimage, combining rugged coastal hills, sandy beaches, spectacular cities and small fishing villages. In this series, we will virtually walk the Norte together, bringing together experienced pilgrims and relevant experts in each episode. In this ninth part of the series, we're tackling four traditional guidebook stages, fr...

We don't know exactly how many non-religious people make the Camino annually, but it's unquestionably a sizable percentage. What inspires or compels atheists and agnostics to go on pilgrimage? To explore that question, this episode brings together Leonard Vance of Tucson, Arizona and Rhian Sasseen of Brooklyn, New York. Leonard is the author of An Atheist on Pilgrimage: Tales of Humanity from the...

You'll often hear the walk from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela described as "the full Camino." If that's the case, what would you call a 5500km route that begins in Ireland, makes a complete loop in France, and eventually winds up in the Italian Apennines? For Johannes Schwarz (www.4kmh.com), a Catholic priest from Austria, it's just another year. Schwarz completed the Via Colum...

Sure, you might have heard of the Camino Inglés, which has two possible starting points, in Ferrol and A Coruña. Ask an Irish pilgrim about that walk from A Coruña, though, and you're likely to hear a different name for it: the Celtic Camino. And there's a lot more to it than just those 75 kilometers. Back on the island, Irish pilgrims are hard at work developing and recovering a booming network o...

The tour of under-walked Italian cammini continues in this episode with a close look at two emerging routes: the Cammino di San Benedetto (www.camminodibenedetto.it) in Umbria and Lazio, and the Cammino di Sant'Antonio (www.ilcamminodisantantonio.org), which mostly spans Emilia-Romagna, the Veneto, and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia in the northeast. Paul Granville (paulscamino.com) of Brisbane, Australia...

The Camino del Norte offers some of the most spectacular scenery of any pilgrimage, combining rugged coastal hills, sandy beaches, spectacular cities and small fishing villages. In this series, we will virtually walk the Norte together, bringing together experienced pilgrims and relevant experts in each episode. In this eighth part of the series, we push onward from Avilés to Luarca, through a ser...

Before everything that followed--the 30+ years associated with and 4,000 miles walked on the Camino, the seed-planting for what would later become the American Pilgrims on the Camino, the founding of the world's only institute for pilgrimage studies at William & Mary, the countless research articles and presentations, and even literal knighthood--it all started with a moment of embarrassment. In t...

What if you could go on the Camino without leaving your home? Well, as it turns out, you can--and you can do it soon! Global Camino 2026 is coming up on January 10 and 11 (and if you're listening to this episode later, the annual event is always right around those dates), and it provides pilgrims around the world with an opportunity to walk together, from a distance, and then to share highlights o...

800 years ago, not-yet-Saint Francis was approaching the end of his 45 years, his body ragged from a life marked by illness and heavy usage, his eyesight all but gone. Those years, though, had been put to exceptionally good use, spurring the establishment of a Catholic order and ethical worldview that would profoundly influence both the Church and generations of exceptional leaders of all backgrou...

On May 20, 1521, Ignatius of Loyola was struck by a cannonball when trying to hold Pamplona against Franco-Navarrese forces. His left leg was wounded, his right shattered. And the city was lost. During the agonizing recovery process that followed, he experienced a profound religious transformation, setting in motion a process that would ultimately lead to the creation of the Society of Jesus, or t...

The Camino del Norte offers some of the most spectacular scenery of any pilgrimage, combining rugged coastal hills, sandy beaches, spectacular cities and small fishing villages. In this series, we will virtually walk the Norte together, bringing together experienced pilgrims and relevant experts in each episode. In this seventh part of the series, we continue westward through Asturias from La Isla...

Episode 102 - Walking in Southern Italy Southern Italy, a region long overlooked by contemporary pilgrims, demands our attention. In the midst of a growing network of long-distance walking routes, two stand out. First is the Via Francigena Sud, a continuation of the historic pilgrim road linking Canterbury and Rome, leading southward through Monte Sant'Angelo, Bari, and Brindisi, en route to Santa...

The Camino del Norte offers some of the most spectacular scenery of any pilgrimage, combining rugged coastal hills, sandy beaches, spectacular cities and small fishing villages. In this series, we will virtually walk the Norte together, bringing together experienced pilgrims and relevant experts in each episode. In this sixth part of the series, Austin Cooke, a Norte veteran, guides us into Asturi...

In this historic 100th episode of The Camino Podcast, the spotlight turns to safety, both on the Camino and at home. Andrea Parraga Penalver and Juan Manuel Aragon Garcia, representatives of the AlertCops app, explain how the app works and why every pilgrim should have it installed on their phone when walking in Spain. After that, Rebecca Martinez, a moderator of the Camino de Santiago - Women 50+...

The Camino del Norte offers some of the most spectacular scenery of any pilgrimage, combining rugged coastal hills, sandy beaches, spectacular cities and small fishing villages. In this series, we will virtually walk the Norte together, bringing together experienced pilgrims and relevant experts in each episode. In this fifth part of the series, Nik from Australia joins to discuss the route throug...

Rome's Jubilees, occurring every 25 years (with some extraordinary Jubilees mixed in for good measure, are traditionally associated with universal pardon, offering a special opportunity for the remission of sin and debt. This year's Jubilee, initiated by the late Pope Francis, centers on the theme of hope--Pellegrini di Speranza. In this episode, Bret Thoman (stfrancispilgrimages.com), author of T...

Episode 97 - How Pilgrimage Changed the World Dr. Kathryn Hurlock's new book, Holy Places: How Pilgrimage Changed the World, examines 19 different pilgrimage sites around the world. Some are quite familiar, like Santiago, Rome, and Jerusalem; others, though, receive far less attention, like Muxima, Ratana Pa, and Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. In this discussion, Kathryn unpacks her book's subtitle, di...

At the 2025 Gathering of Pilgrims in Vancouver BC, an event co-hosted by the Canadian Company of Pilgrims and American Pilgrims on the Camino, Rebekah Scott (www.peaceableprojects.org) delivered a keynote presentation titled "Wisdom of the Elders: A Bridge We Cross Together." She shares the centerpiece of that presentation, her "ten commandments" for pilgrims, in this conversation, including lesso...

On Saturday, 8 February 2025, Dave spoke at the Spring Gathering of the Canadian Company of Pilgrims' Victoria Chapter, about the reconciliatory potential of pilgrimage, building around the three definitional forms of reconciliation: 1) To restore to friendship or harmony, 2) To cause to submit to or accept something unpleasant, and 3) To make consistent or congruous, e.g. to reconcile an ideal wi...

Dr. Nora Berend's newly-published El Cid: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Mercenary (tinyurl.com/elcidcampeador) offers an updated study of the (in)famous epic hero, more myth than man at this point, and his ongoing relevance to Spanish history and politics. In this episode, Dr. Berend discusses what we actually know about the man's life, his transformation as a defining figure of the Reconqu...

The Camino del Norte offers some of the most spectacular scenery of any pilgrimage, combining rugged coastal hills, sandy beaches, spectacular cities and small fishing villages. In this series, we will virtually walk the Norte together, bringing together experienced pilgrims and relevant experts in each episode. In this fourth part of the series, we travel through the region of Cantabria, from Cas...

Why not consider Canada for your next pilgrimage? In this episode, two pilgrimage leaders discuss how the country can be seen, and its histories more richly accessed, on paths bridging the past and present. Brad Aaron Modlin (www.bradaaronmodlin.com) shares insights from his semester abroad program in Quebec, following the Chemin des Outaouais (www.chemindesoutaouais.ca) and Chemin des Sanctuaires...

The Camino del Norte offers some of the most spectacular scenery of any pilgrimage, combining rugged coastal hills, sandy beaches, spectacular cities and small fishing villages. In this series, we will virtually walk the Norte together, bringing together experienced pilgrims and relevant experts in each episode. In this third part of the series, we carry on the walk from Gernika, continuing throug...