Explore every episode of the podcast What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka Podcast

Despite all temptations, Sri Lanka has never been very good at merely waiting for the end of the world.  But why is that, and what does it have to do with barbarians and a Hollywood monk?

No other thing, except perhaps Buddhism itself, water technology or Sri Lanka’s island status, has had so marked an impact on the country as cinnamon.  But what did Michael Ondaatje have to say about it that will set you free? 

Rich, salty, earthy, savoury, sharp – gorgonzola is not a cheese common to Sri Lanka, and yet its mere anticipation calls to mind on the island the seven stages of living.  And of them all,  how can you ever manage to make the last, last?

Like the cavalry of old, they raced on to rescue a stricken kingdom from itself.  But what did the Lambakanna dynasty really achieve – and why were they overthrown?

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.

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? 

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?

She was the pin-up of her times – but was it about the island’s first queen that caused so much disquiet, even now, and where might you still find her?

Is life really what you best hear when you're absolutely still?  And if so, does knowing the names of different trees help at all?

There's more to Sri Lankan cats than their famous leopard.  What happened to its lions, and which beast breaks such wind as to call to mind Jean Patou’s famous perfume, 'Joy'?    srilankapodcast.com

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?

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

The destruction of the 1500-year-old Anuradhapuran kingdom fell due – but was it destroyed by problems of its own making – or by a force so overwhelming that no power could ever hope to withstand?

The Lambakanna king, Sena II, pulled victory from disaster.  Sri Lanka became one of the dominant powers in the Indian Ocean.  So how did it get from there to the doors of desolation in barely 125 years?

How was it that, even as life seemed at its easiest, the plush and kind middle years of later Lambakanna rule almost came to an abrupt halt - courtesy of an Indian invasion?  

King Manavanna was to restore the fortunes of the returning Lankbranaka dynasty, and his succeeding sons were to rule as if the kingdom merited nothing but the best.  But was the Anuradhapuran kingdom really that safe?

As the Lambakanna kings retook their throne for a second innings, how was it that rice, that most ordinary of all crops, was to power the last glorious golden age of the one-island state? 

Enochlophobia may be one of ageing’s more agreeable symptoms – but what do you do about it when the Kandy Perehera is in full swing?    srilankapodcast.com

“To be or not to be,” is the refrain of several Sri Lankan government departments – but how can they – or that -  free you from suffering?  From cravings?  From any need to cling to things?

Given Sri Lanka’s remarkable facility for naturalising anything it takes a fancy to, counting its spices is a sure way to stir debates about everything from guilt and history to life expectancy and truth.  Hear some of this, as we lay out a jungle spice garden all of our own at The Flame Tree Estate in the mountains beyond Kandy.

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?

“A series of dreadful shrieks as if coming from a soul in great agony of torment,” wrote an anguished twitcher of the Sri Lankan Spot-bellied Eagle Owl.  But is it alone sounding so fierce?  What other owl howls might you encounter in Sri Lanka?

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?

Sri Lanka may be Sapphire Centre as far as the world is concerned – but where exactly might you now find its greatest stones, and what stories have they to tell?      srilankapodcast.com

Is May the moment to forsake madness and put aside all but the best supporting gods?

Is it possible to reverse-engineer the last 5 decades and make Sundays special again?  Perhaps.    srilankapodcast.com

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?

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 seven greatest wonders from ancient times include a palace to escape death, a dish, a book, and a fortress.  But what made them so fundamental – to the nation and the world – as to earn their place in history?

A tree – and a trio of stupas are among ancient Sri Lanka’s greatest wonders.  But why are any of these so important – not just to the island, but to the world?

Despite their iconic status, the original seven wonders of the ancient world pale in comparison to the seven wonders of ancient Lanka, the subject of the next three podcasts.    But why include Panda Wewa, a reservoir now lost in the jungle?

What might you discover within the sprawling plantation gardens that disappear off into the jungle around Sri Lanka’s Flame Tree Estate & Hotel?     srilankapodcast.com

What might you find as you amble gently around a home garden, wrapped in green and red, at Sri Lanka’s The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel?     srilankapodcast.com

What was it in the fatal combination of new money, old suspicions, religious strife, mercenaries and regicide that brought the last Moriyan kings to ruin?

Family dramas nearly unsettled the first Moriyan kings until King Moggallana took over.  Or so it seemed.  What was it about the choices he made that so brutally undermined his successors?

Famed for building the 8th wonder of the ancient world in Asia, what drove the great Moriyan king, Kashyapa, to plunge a sword into his own body?

After decades of occupation and state madness, a great new Anuradhapura king set about putting things right.  But how did he end up as the poster boy of the most notorious assassinations in world history?

What is it about Sri Lanka’s lion – cherished by the Moriyan kings at Sigiriya and elsewhere – that so perfectly captures one of the country's most critical national traits?

When King Kashyapa took up residence in Sigiriya, he triggered a party that, like the ancient world itself, raced to its corporeal end with all the aplomb of the last serving of the lost martini on board the Titanic.  But what made it so extraordinary?   srilankapodcast.com

Kandy guards its remarkable story so well that it is all too easy to miss.  Yet squirrelled away behind its traffic jams and shop hoardings, history is not dead; not even sleeping or dazed. It is instead ever on the lookout.    srilankapodcast.com

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?  

Forget elephants and even leopards.  What are the five great mammals of Sri Lanka that most people overlook to their eternal cost, and what story do they have to tell?    srilankapodcast.com

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?

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

Whatever else is happening in the world, here there is a cake for tea, and birdsong from dawn to dusk.  But what else might you find?    srilankapodcast.com

It’s often said that to rule, you must be ruthless to excess.  But exactly what were the excesses created by these final Sri Lankan kings as to earn them a place on a list of wicked monarchs?    srilankapodcast.com

Spoiled for choice, selecting the naughtiest monarchs of Sri Lanka is an arduous job.  But why does the list begin with its founding father, and a later queen who made a kitten out of Henry VIII of England?    srilankapodcast.com

Die-hard individualists fail to fault the remarkable variation among Sri Lanka’s different species of monkeys and lorises.  So what are their arboreal secrets?     srilankapodcast.com

Of Sri Lanka’s bears, buffaloes and boars, which animal is its Bach?  Which its Bhrams?  And which is its heroic Beethoven?

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?