There are many sources to learn more about the Camino de Santiago: guidebooks, books, travel magazines, TV or radio programs, the experience of pilgrim friends and blogs like this one, and if you are reading us, it means that we are a very good source. The technological and internet development allows us to have a lot of information in different media, and in this article we want to talk about the best podcast to inspire you to do the Camino de Santiago.

What is a podcast?

As always, defining concepts. The RAE does not include this anglicism in the dictionary, although it does show it in its “word observatory”. A podcast can be defined as a broadcast or multimedia file, especially an audio file, designed primarily to be downloaded and listened to on computers or portable players. In fact, if we analyze the words that compose it, “pod-” refers to Apple devices where you listen to audios, and “-cast” comes from the English verb “to cast”, which means to broadcast.

A man with headphones

For years the range of topics that we can find in the podcasts is very wide, and from radio stations and other media, The use of these servicesis very widespread as a convenient way to reach the public, as they are available at any time, and can even be downloaded and postponed for listening. As it could not be otherwise, the Camino de Santiago is a topic that arouses great interest, and is also present in radio, television, press and podcasts. In relation to this last support, the one that interests us, we can find exclusive podcasts about the Way of St. James, and others that simply dedicate specific chapters to talk about the First European Cultural Itinerary. Did we hear any?

El Camino People

El Camino People is a website about the Camino de Santiago that gives support, information and other facilities to pilgrims, a kind of forum where you can find passionate pilgrims like you. Recently created by the pilgrim Jose Mari Ardanaz Ezcurdia, thanks to him and his website, initiatives of interest for the Jacobean routes are carried out, such as the recent event “…”. La Puerta del Camino: I International Meeting of Pilgrims Online“event, in which we participated.

A pilgrim sitting on a bridge

One of the initiatives of El Camino People is to give a voice to the people, people and pilgrims of the Camino de Santiago through its podcast, which you can find on its website under the tab “The People”. As good old Jose Mari says about his podcast, “Here we reveal one of the great mysteries of the Camino de Santiago. An ingredient that you will only find in it. The ingredient that makes it as mythical as dragons, as legendary as unicorns: its people, their experiences and their reasons to measure themselves with the Camino de Santiago.”. The highlights of his podcasts are his guests, as in each episode he presents the personal stories of pilgrims who want to share their paths, experiences and initiatives.

El Camino de las Estrellas

Another podcast, in this case the compilation of all the episodes broadcasted on Radio Nacional de España (RNE) within the program “El Camino de las Estrellas”. Although it was on the air between 2014 and 2015 on RNE’s Radio 5, it is currently off the air, although. on RNE’s website we have available the forty episodes broadcasted, each lasting five minutes, where the writer from Pamplona Txema Berruete Cilveti presents different topics: the Compostela, the Templars, the needles, the damn backpack, etc… as you can see, topics of interest or curiosity for every good pilgrim.

We will transmit what we feel, our experience. But to feel it intensely, it is necessary to walk through it. We invite you to walk step by step along the Path of the Stars.”.

This is how Txema, with his warm voice, urges us to walk the Camino de Santiago, and as he says in the first chapter, by way of presentation, we will walk with him the The French Way of St. James from Roncesvalles in 31 stages.

La Escóbula de la Brújula

La Escóbula de la Brújula is a podcast whose subject matter is not exclusive to the Camino de Santiago, as it is dedicated to history, legends and traditions in general. Directed by Jesús Callejo, his team, made up of David Sentinella, Carlos Canales, Marcos Carrasco, Juan Ignacio “Maese” Cuesta and Francisco Izuzquiza, is dedicated to talking in entertaining gatherings about the fascinating topics that history hides, and there is a lot of that in the Jacobean culture.

The origin of the game of the goose, magical Jacobean places, the Camino de Santiago in the emergence of today’s Spain,… These and other questions are answered in each episode, in addition to talking about publications and broadcasts from other media about the Jacobean event, such as Javier Sierra’s series “Other worlds“series, which we also echoed. With more than 400 programs under its belt, La Escóbula de la Brújula is available on the Podium Podcast website.

The people responsible for the Compass Eschobula

Podcasting in the world

There are many more podcasts, even at international level and in several languages and accents, for example in English, as in Ireland, where there is a strong Jacobean tradition, we can find several of them. Also in Italy, with many Italian pilgrims on our routes, we can discover the experiences of journalists and pilgrims who, like us, love the Camino de Santiago. We can travel to Argentina and also get to know the impressions of its pilgrims, and we can even travel to South Korea. As we can see, the Camino de Santiago is something that has no borders.

Pilgrimage on the airwaves

The podcasts are, as you can see, a very good option to get information about the Camino de Santiago at any time, for example, on the way to work, during the siesta, before going to bed or on the way itself. Available on their own websites or on others such as Itunes, Ivoox, Youtube or Spotify, there is no excuse to learn, walk and enjoy the Camino de Santiago. We are convinced that this selection of our best podcasts will encourage and inspire you to do your next Camino de Santiago.