Culture
Pulse of the Planet Daily Audio
Masquerade at Your Doorstep
Jonkonnu revelers sing and dance through neighborhoods, visiting homes where their pageantry might be favored with a gift of money.
December 8, 2021Tourists Meet Bees
In Mexico, a successful project brings together volunteers and local beekeepers.
December 7, 2021Promotoras
Lessons learned from the people of Tijuana.
December 6, 2021Volunteer Tourism
It’s an important economic and cultural resource in many countries.
December 3, 2021Kids Science Destinations
Turning a museum into a Scavenger Hunt.
December 2, 2021Taiwan
Home of the largest pendulum on the planet.
November 30, 2021Chernobyl
Comrade, we get a whole lot of Levis this way!
November 25, 2021Thanksgiving Parade Balloons
What does it take to handle a four-story high balloon?
November 24, 2021Inflation Day
The sounds of a New York holiday tradition.
November 23, 2021First Thanksgiving
All the trappings of a traditional Native American meal.
November 4, 2021Bathing the Gods
Divine statues are bathed with milk, honey, and other symbolic offerings during the Hindu celebration of Diwali.
November 1, 2021All Saints’ Day in New Orleans – Holt Cemetery
Among the graveyards of New Orleans, Holt Cemetery is exceptional. Here, the dead are actually buried in the ground.
October 29, 2021Sounds of All Saints’ Day
A gospel song and a graveyard party: the unique sounds of New Orleans on the Day of the Dead.
October 6, 2021Canterbury Tales in Mexico
The fall, well-known as a time of animal migrations, is also a time of human pilgrimage.
October 5, 2021The Miraculous Statue
In Magdalena, Mexico, a statue of St. Francis Xavier draws thousands of worshippers on pilgrimage.
October 4, 2021Magdalena Pilgrimage
Every October, there’s a sixty mile pilgrimage to the Mexican village of Magdalena in honor of St. Francis.
September 30, 2021Marriage, Berber Style
Sights and sounds at an annual festival in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
September 29, 2021Time Capsule of an Ancient Practice
In the rituals performed by the Coptic Church, a Christian denomination with roots in Egypt, little has changed in eighteen hundred years.
September 28, 2021Festival of St. Lazarus
In the Brazilian state of Bahia, St. Lazarus day is a celebration that blends European and African heritages.
September 23, 2021Statues of Wonderland
Alice merits two statues in the park, and the caterpillar gets a make-over!
September 22, 2021Gabra – Well Songs
Amongst the Gabra people of northeastern Africa, the dry season provides an opportunity for a ritual gathering of work and song.
September 21, 2021Gabra – Dikhir
Dikhirs are spiritual chants intended to maintain harmony in world of the Gabra people.
September 20, 2021Gabra – Out is Out
For the men of the Gabra, nomadic life demands separation from their families but it also affords an opportunity for friendship and freedom from social pressures.
September 17, 2021Gabra – Order and Disorder
In the traditions of the nomadic Gabra people, order is kept through strict attention to ritual observances.
September 16, 2021Gabra – Small Dry
Songs sung by these nomadic herders reflect a joy shared in togetherness amidst a harsh environment that demands separation.
September 15, 2021Gabra – Night Music
In the east African Desert, women of a nomadic tribe fill the evening air with song.
September 14, 2021Kuarup- Remembrance and Wrestling
The highlight of the 2-day Kuarup festival is a much anticipated but surprisingly non-competitive wrestling match.
September 13, 2021Kuarup- Ritual
For residents of the upper Xingu region of the Brazilian Amazon, the souls of the dead are at the center of an annual ceremony of dance and song.
September 10, 2021Kuarup- Reunion
The Kuarup ceremony is cause for reunion among the nine villages which inhabit the upper Xingu region of the Brazilian Amazon.
September 9, 2021Casting Off Our Misdeeds
This ancient Jewish New Year’s tradition is an exercise in shedding the spiritual debris of the past year.
September 8, 2021A Blast of the Ram’s Horn
The call of the shofar marks the start of the Jewish New Year and reminds observers to look inward.
September 7, 2021High Holy Days
The week following Rosh Hashanah is when Jews repent for their transgressions of the previous year.
September 3, 2021Celebration for a Nation of Immigrants
A festival imported to America from Ghana is a way of remembering the past, while contributing to the future.
September 2, 2021Sound and Silence
The Ga people of Ghana remember the pain of famine and the celebration of harvest.
September 1, 2021Tobacco Auction – Thumbs Up
A veteran auctioneer explains the intricacies of his craft.