Episode 327: The Power of Story and "Galahad and the Grail" with Malcolm Guite
The Literary Life Podcast
Angelina Stanford
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2026
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on The Literary Life Podcast, we have a special episode in which our hosts Angelina Stanford, Thomas Banks, and Cindy Rollins and joined by poet, priest, scholar, and musician Malcolm Guite. Together they discuss not only Father Guite's newest book, Galahad and the Grail, but also the underlying ideas of why stories matter and what power they have in our lives. Malcolm Guite shares some thoughts on the value of both metrical poetry and the ballad form, as well as his own composition habits. He retells the Arthurian legend his own mother told him as a child and how this story is a powerful picture of the Gospel. Other topics they explore are how we see gospel echoes in "pre-Christian" stories, what it is like to have people find new layers of meaning in your writing,
Join us again next week for an episode from the vault on Tolkien's "Why Read Fairy Stories," which will be followed by an additional "update" episode on the same essay with Jenn Rogers.
Don't forget to check out everything going on over at HouseofHumaneLetters.com to stay up to date on all the upcoming new summer classes and webinars! Cindy also has some exciting things happening at MorningTimeforMoms.com, including registration for her summer discipleship group.
And for the full show notes on this episode, please visit https://theliterary.life/327.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is not just another book chat podcast. |
| 0:21.6 | Lifelong reader Cindy Rollins joins teachers Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks for an ongoing conversation about the skill and art of reading well. |
| 0:32.6 | Explore the lost intellectual tradition and discover how to fully enter end to the great works of literature. |
| 0:40.2 | Learn what books mean while delighting in the sheer joy of imagination. Each week, we will rescue |
| 0:47.1 | story from the ivory tower and bring it to your couch, your kitchen, and your commute. The literary life is for everyone because in the |
| 0:55.9 | words of Stratford Caldecott, to be enchanted by story is to be granted a deeper insight into |
| 1:02.2 | reality. Join us for an ever-unfolding discussion of how stories will save the world. |
| 1:09.7 | This is the Literary Life Podcast. |
| 1:30.9 | Hello and welcome to the Literary Life podcast. |
| 1:35.5 | I'm Angelina Stanford, and today we have a very special episode for you. |
| 1:43.6 | I didn't want to take up any of Malcolm Geith's precious time, so I am recording the introduction after the fact. So I'm here with the mysterious Mr. Banks as always, |
| 1:48.1 | but also our beloved blonde bombshell herself, |
| 1:52.7 | Cindy Rollins, has returned for this episode as well. |
| 1:56.0 | I'm so excited to introduce you to this very fun |
| 1:59.6 | and hopefully enlightening conversation. |
| 2:02.6 | Malcolm Gait needs no introduction. |
| 2:04.9 | Poet, priest, scholar, folk musician, living legend, hobbit, all the things that you |
| 2:13.4 | could think of. |
| 2:14.5 | He turned out to be just as delightful as we had hope. He's here officially |
| 2:19.1 | to talk about his brand new release, Galahad and the Grail, and we do talk about that book, |
| 2:24.8 | but we also talk about a larger conversation about poetry and narrative poetry and the imagination |
| 2:31.8 | and symbolic readings and whether or not pre-Christian is even a category that makes sense. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Angelina Stanford, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Angelina Stanford and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.