#127 Bear Grylls - Retelling Jesus' Life as a Thriller
Within Reason
Alex J O'Connor
4.9 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 26 October 2025
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Bear Grylls is a British adventurer, writer, television presenter and former SAS trooper who is also a survival expert. Widely known for his television series Man vs. Wild, he was also appointed as The Scout Association’s youngest-ever Chief Scout of the United Kingdom and Overseas Territories at the age of 35. His new book, The Greatest Story Ever Told, is a retelling of the life of Jesus through the eyes of five Gospel characters: Mary the mother of Jesus, Thomas, Peter, John, and Mary Magdalene.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Retelling Christianity in the First Person
12:36 - Faith and Doubt Come Together
16:46 - Did Bear’s Research Cause Doubt or Faith?
28:01 - Reconciling the Differences Between the Gospels
39:50 - On Not Putting Words in Jesus’ Mouth
48:59 - Where Alex’s Interest in the Gospels Began
55:24 - Travelling Back to the Time of Jesus: Where Would You Go?
Transcript
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| 0:30.2 | Bagrels. Sybil? Welcome to the show. I feel bad because it's taken about 50 minutes to get to this stage. |
| 0:38.7 | Mainly because of me, not your team have been amazing. |
| 0:42.5 | I've had all like the family dogs and everyone coming to join. |
| 0:46.1 | But I think we've basically relented, haven't we? |
| 0:48.5 | Yeah, I think it's great. |
| 0:49.7 | I like the fire. |
| 0:51.0 | You were teaching me about Birchwood and what I'll ever need to do if I'm ever in a survival |
| 0:54.2 | situation, how to start a fire. |
| 0:55.9 | Well, that's good. |
| 0:56.7 | I kind of figured like we're outside. |
| 0:58.8 | We've got Sybil to come and join us. We better have a fire lit and then it's all good. It's all very cozy, isn't it? It's all very good. I don't know. I kind of, I was saying to you before, I find if I have to do chat shows where it's like really in a studio, I find it all quite scary. |
| 1:15.3 | Yeah. |
| 1:15.4 | I find it quite intimidating. |
| 1:16.9 | I get really nervous about them. |
| 1:18.9 | But I do some, I do have to do them. |
| 1:20.5 | If you like promoting a show in the States, part of my work, so I kind of go and do it. |
| 1:25.0 | But this sort of thing is, first of all, love you, love all you do. |
| 1:29.0 | I think you're a brilliant man with a great brain and also a great heart. And I look at you as |
| 1:36.7 | like a truth seeker, which is wonderful, you know. So for me, this is kind of fun. So to be outside, |
| 1:44.6 | nice have a fire of the dogs. It's kind of this feels a happier place, less, less, less scary |
... |
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