What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka Podcast

When sleeping rough in the jungle, keep a mongoose by your feet.  Guarantors of safety, the little beast is the most overlooked contender for being Man’s Best Friend. But of the many that exist throughout the world, which ones will you find in Sri Lanka?  

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 its smaller mammalian world – its rodents, and rodent-like cousins: its rats, shrews, gerbils, mice, and squirrels.

Scientists - and most especially fastidious taxonomists – are giddily divided about quite how many of Sri Lanka's mammals are endemic: 19? 40?  But as their arguments rumble on, what are these mammals that have caused so much consternation, and where are you most likely to see them?

Protected by a necklace of high mountains and surrounded by dense jungle ideal for guerrilla warfare, the Kandyan kingdom’s natural defences helped it withstand repeated invasions. But what was this long-forgotten mountain war, fought for almost 200 years? 

City though it is, Kandy - sequestered within high mountains and deep valleys – has numerous secretive wild pockets of utter bewitchment.  But where will you find them – and what will you find when you get there?

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 forgotten.  What are they, and why do they matter?

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 the world.  But which ones should you visit?

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 the lookout. So what should you look out for?

Packing a punch quite out of proportion to its size, Sri Lanka is distinctive and magnificent in the most Byzantine of ways.  But what is it that makes it so special – and how did it all begin?

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.  But who were they?  Where did they come from?  And where did they go?

Lord Buddha is famous for his many-faceted hand gestures.  But which were the main ones, and what do they actually mean?

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 are they up to today?

Why is it always better to have your hair cut under frangipani trees?

Despite its understated fame, Galagedera’s high street, like those of most Sri Lankan towns and villages, is booming.  As high streets die all around the world, how is it that this one is so alive and well, and bursting with shops, shoppers, services, and action?  

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 to choose from – and why?

Sri Lanka’s 14 great rivers describe, along their winding courses, the whole history of the island, throughfares crammed with remembered journeys, feasts, technology, alliances, nature, gems, spices and religion.  What are the stories they might tell us today?

Who are the gods and ghosts that can still be heard whispering in this little-visited town on Sri Lanka’s eastern seaboard?

Sri Lanka was ruled by hundreds of kings and a handful of queens for over 2,000 years.  But which of them were among its six most egregious baddies – and why?

Is death like checking in at The Ritz?  Or is it more agreeable still?

Who was Chinta | And why does her death – and life – matter quite so much?

A hiding place for kings, a turning point for invaders: what is it about this lofty hilltop jungle village that makes the ordinary quite so beautiful?

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?

Rescuing the nation from civil war and chaos, how was it that the returning Lankbranaka dynasty would then preside over the kingdom’s utter devastation, the like of which the island had never before endured? 

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?

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 seem. But how can you ever tell them apart?