What if your national anthem wasn’t tied to a land—but to a melody?
In this episode, we explore “Gelem, Gelem,” the powerful Romani anthem that unites 12 million people across more than 30 countries—without a flag, without borders, and without a nation.
The Romani people (often misnamed as “Gypsies”) have walked for over 1,500 years, migrating from Northern India through Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and all across Europe. Along the way, they carried something more powerful than land: music.
🎶 Discover how Djelem, Djelem was born from a haunting folk melody and the words of a Holocaust survivor, Žarko Jovanović.
🎻 Learn how Romani music shaped genres like flamenco, Balkan brass, Jazz Manouche, and classical violin traditions.
🎬 And explore how cinema—from Time of the Gypsies to Gadjo Dilo—captured the beauty, chaos, and survival of a people defined by sound, not soil.
As a musician and professor at Berklee College of Music, I invite you into the story of an anthem with no country—and a people who turned exile into art.
🛤️ Walk with us — and hear the anthem of no-land.
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In June 2022, something tiny arrived in Australia and began systematically attacking the continent’s bee populations. For over a century, Australia had remained the last safe haven on Earth, completely untouched by the world’s most devastating bee killer. Their strict biosecurity had protected millions of colonies while other nations watched helplessly as their bees died. But that perfect protection finally cracked. What followed was the largest agricultural emergency response in the country’s history—a desperate, multi-million dollar battle against an enemy barely visible to the naked eye. After one full year, the results were absolutely massive. But they weren’t what anyone expected, and they changed everything scientists thought they knew about continental protection.
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Forrest Gander, Laurie Bolger, SJ Fowler and Rachel Segal Hamilton.
Pulitzer prize-winning poet Forrest Gander discusses the Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowships. An initiative which awards $50,000 to poets of literary merit appointed to serve in civic positions to enable them to create projects that enrich the lives of their neighbours, through responsive and interactive poetry activities.
In awarding Laurie Bolger The Moth Poetry prize, Nobel Laureate Louise Glück said, “I respond to poems that surprise me”. Laurie reflects on the impact of this assessment of her poetry, and explains why her first full poetry collection, Lady, is like a romcom blockbuster.
Marking the arrival of this year’s European Poetry Festival, its founder and director, SJ Fowler, joins The Verb to share his approach to bringing poets together to create new work. With a little help from Ian, he performs one of the poems – Levels of Care – that he co-wrote for the festival with Latvian poet Krišjānis Zeļģis.
Writer and editor Rachel Segal Hamilton who specialises in photography, assesses the marriage of photography and poetry with two new examples of the form – A Difficulty Is A Light by Rebecca Norris Webb, and The Dereliction by Liz Berry and Tom Hicks.
Presented by Ian McMillan
Produced by Ekene Akalawu
Source: BBC Radio 4 – The Verb, Forrest Gander, Laurie Bolger, SJ Fowler, Rachel Segal Hamilton
🧶 A poor girl. An impossible task… and a terrible bargain. In the end, only a name can save her.
We think of Rumpelstiltskin as a simple children’s tale. But what if I told you this story is older than the Brothers Grimm? Older than castles, kings—even older than writing itself?
🔔 Subscribe to The Resurrectionists → / @theresurrectionists
🕯️ In this episode of The Resurrectionists, we peel back the golden threads of Rumpelstiltskin to reveal a mythic pattern stretching back 4,000 years—through Bronze Age metalworkers, biblical demons, and the ancient belief that names hold power.
📜 What if the little man wasn’t just a trickster—but a memory of something divine? Something dangerous? A story so old, it remembers when fire and metal changed the world.
⏱️ Chapters:
03:38 – The Grimm Version (But Older Than You Think)
05:59 – Spinning, Fate, and Alchemy
07:07 – The First Metalworkers: Gods or Something Else?
09:02 – The Ultimate Price
10:27 – The Power of the Secret Name
13:10 – A Divine Language of Creation
📚 Sources & Further Reading:
– Durham & Lisbon Folklore Study (BBC Summary): https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35358487
– Comparative phylogenetic analyses uncover the ancient roots of Indo-European folktales — ResearchGate:
https://www.researchgate.net/publicat…
– No Fairy Tale: Origins of Some Famous Stories Go Back Thousands of Years — Science News:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/n…
– Rumpelstilzchen: The Name of the Supernatural Helper and the Language of the Gods — Academia.edu:
https://www.academia.edu/5428826/Rump…
– Tehrani, J.J. (2016) The Phylogeny of Little Red Riding Hood – Royal Society B
– The Name of the Supernatural Helper – Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index (ATU 500)
– The Testament of Solomon – translated by F.C. Conybeare, 1898
– Alchemy and Mysticism – Alexander Roob (Taschen)
– Solomon and the Construction of the Temple – Jewish Virtual Library
– The Watchers in the Book of Enoch – Oxford Biblical Studies
👁️ Watch Next:
– “The 5,000-Year-Old Secret Behind Jack and the Beanstalk” → • The 5,000-Year-Old Secret Behind Jack and …
– “Rapunzel Was Real?” → • Was This Woman the Real Rapunzel?
– Explore more Fairy Tale Origins → • Fairy Tale Origins
🕸️ Let’s Connect:
📸 Instagram: / the_resurrectionists_yt
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