Bedtime World Tour

Bedtime World Tour
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Every night, Bedtime World Tour visits a different culture's oral tradition and tells one of its folktales — from the Arctic to the Amazon, East Asia to West Africa. Genuine, credited stories, retold in the same quiet, warm voice and ending not on a stated moral but on a single image to fall asleep to. Gentle enough for children, calming enough for the adults reading to them. Each episode is tagged by region and by how rare the tale is, so you always know which corner of the world you're in tonight.

Episodes

  1. 19h ago

    Maui Fishes Up the Land — Oceania & Pacific (Well-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

    Tonight we travel to the wide blue Pacific, to Aotearoa, for the story of how the youngest of five brothers pulled a whole country up out of the sea. Stowed away in his brothers' canoe, armed with an enchanted jawbone hook, Māui hauls up a vast shining land — and his impatient brothers, unable to leave it be, carve it into the mountains and valleys it wearsto this day. A tale of cleverness, patience, and the shape of the land itself. Māori tradition, Aotearoa (New Zealand). The fishing-up of the North Island — Te Ika-a-Māui,"the Fish of Māui" — is one of the best-known Māori myths. It was set down in Sir GeorgeGrey's *Polynesian Mythology* (1855), drawn largely from manuscripts by the Ngāti Rangiwewehichief Te Rangikāheke, and remains widely taught today (e.g. Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of NewZealand). Original prose retelling of the documented Māori account. A world folktale every night, told to help you fall asleep. Follow the show so tomorrow night's story finds you too. bedtime story, folktale, Maori, Aotearoa, New Zealand, Pacific, Oceania, Maui, Te Ika-a-Maui,sleep story, kids story, mythology, creation story

    Maui Fishes Up the Land — Oceania & Pacific (Well-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

  2. 1d ago

    Scheherazade and the Thousand Nights — Middle East & Persia (Well-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

    Tonight we travel to the old cities of Persia and Arabia for the tale that holds all the other tales inside it. A clever young woman marries a cold, grieving king and, night after night, tells him a story so wonderful that she always stops at dawn — leaving him unable to let the morning come. A gentle story about how a thousand and one nights of stories can open a heart that had closed for good. Arabic and Persian tradition — the frame story of *One Thousand and One Nights* (Arabic:*Alf Layla wa-Layla*), the great cycle of tales assembled across the medieval Islamic world from Persian, Arabic, Indian and other sources. Scheherazade (Shahrazād) and King Shahryarare its framing device, first widely known in Europe through Antoine Galland's early-18th-century French translation. A bedtime-gentle retelling of the frame tale. Original prose. A world folktale every night, told to help you fall asleep. Follow the show so tomorrow night's story finds you too. bedtime story, folktale, Persia, Arabia, Middle East, Arabian Nights, One Thousand and OneNights, Scheherazade, sleep story, kids story, storytelling, mythology

    Scheherazade and the Thousand Nights — Middle East & Persia (Well-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

  3. 2d ago

    The Hummingbird and the Forest Fire — Andean & Amazonian (Lesser-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

    Tonight we travel to the forests of South America for a very small story with a very large heart. As a forest fire rages and every great animal flees to watch it burn, one tiny hummingbird flies back and forth to the stream, carrying single drops of water —doing the little that she can. A quiet tale about courage, and the answer the smallest of us can always give. Quechua tradition, the Andes of South America. This parable of the fearless hummingbirdcarrying single drops of water against a forest fire is documented as a tale of theQuechua people, and was carried to the wider world by Kenyan environmentalist and NobelPeace laureate Wangari Maathai, who told it often as her own guiding story ("I will be ahummingbird"). It also appears in Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas's illustrated retelling*Flight of the Hummingbird* (2008). Original prose retelling of the Quechua parable. A world folktale every night, told to help you fall asleep. Follow the show so tomorrow night's story finds you too. bedtime story, folktale, Quechua, Andes, Amazon, South America, hummingbird, forest fire,sleep story, kids story, courage, doing what you can, Wangari Maathai

    The Hummingbird and the Forest Fire — Andean & Amazonian (Lesser-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

  4. 3d ago

    The Monkey and the Crocodile — South Asia (Well-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

    Tonight we travel to the warm rivers of India, where a monkey in a rose-apple tree drops sweet fruit to a passing crocodile, and an unlikely friendship grows across the water. But when the crocodile is sent to bring back the monkey's heart, it's quick thinking, not strength, that carries the day. A gentle tale about kindness, friendship, and keeping your wits in deep water. Indian tradition, South Asia. This is one of the most widely traveled of all Indian tales: it appears as the frame story of Book IV of the Panchatantra (the ancientSanskrit collection of animal fables), where the crocodile's wife covets the monkey's heart, and in the Buddhist Jātaka tales as "The Monkey's Heart" (Jātaka no. 208, inE. B. Cowell's *The Jātaka*, Cambridge, 1895). Folklorists classify it as ATU taletype 91, "The Heart of a Monkey." Original prose retelling. A world folktale every night, told to help you fall asleep. Follow the show so tomorrow night's story finds you too. bedtime story, folktale, India, South Asia, Panchatantra, Jataka, monkey and crocodile,sleep story, kids story, mythology, friendship, cleverness

    The Monkey and the Crocodile — South Asia (Well-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

  5. 4d ago

    The Three Billy Goats Gruff — Norway (Well-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

    Tonight we climb into the steep green hills of Norway, where three goat brothers —all named Gruff — must cross one old wooden bridge to reach the summer grass. The trouble is what waits beneath it. A classic tale of nerve, patience, and looking out for your brothers, told soft and slow for the end of the day. Norwegian folktale, "De tre bukkene Bruse," collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsenand Jørgen Moe in *Norske Folkeeventyr* (1841–44); first English translation byGeorge Webbe Dasent, *Popular Tales from the Norse* (1859), which gave the goats the name "Gruff." Aarne–Thompson–Uther tale type 122E. Original prose retelling. A world folktale every night, told to help you fall asleep. Follow the show so tomorrow night's story finds you too. bedtime story, folktale, Norway, Scandinavian, billy goats gruff, troll, bridge,Asbjornsen and Moe, sleep story, kids story

    The Three Billy Goats Gruff — Norway (Well-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

  6. 5d ago

    The Rabbit in the Moon — Mesoamerica (Lesser-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

    Tonight we travel to Mesoamerica for the story of why, on a clear night, you can find the shape of a small animal in the moon itself. A tired old traveller walks the roads testing the hearts of the creatures he meets — and it's the one with nothing to give who gives the most. A gentle tale about generosity, and the quiet way the sky decided to remember it. Aztec / Nahua tradition, Mesoamerica — the moon-rabbit is deeply rooted in Mesoamerican belief. This is the well-documented Quetzalcóatl version: the feathered-serpent god, walking the earth in human form, is offered food by a humble rabbit and honors it byraising its likeness to the moon. (A separate Aztec variant, in the Florentine Codex, has the gods fling a rabbit at the moon's face.) Original prose retelling. A world folktale every night, told to help you fall asleep. Follow the show so tomorrow night's story finds you too.

    The Rabbit in the Moon — Mesoamerica (Lesser-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

  7. 6d ago

    How Stories Came to the World — West Africa (Well-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

    Tonight we travel to Ghana for the tale of how stories came to belong to people atall. Long ago the sky-god Nyame kept every story locked in a box, until the spider Anansi offered to buy them — for a price no one thought could be paid. A story about cleverness, a little help from someone wiser, and why, to this day, we call them spider stories. Akan / Ashanti tradition, Ghana — the *Anansesem* ("spider tales") cycle. Classic documented source: R.S. Rattray, *Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales* (Oxford, 1930);popularized in English by Gail E. Haley, *A Story, A Story* (1970, Caldecott Medal).The four tasks (Onini, Osebo, the Mmboro, Mmoatia) and the gum-doll trick are standard; Anansi's wife Aso appears as a helper in documented variants. Original prose retelling. A world folktale every night, told to help you fall asleep. Follow the show so tomorrow night's story finds you too. bedtime story, folktale, West Africa, Ghana, Anansi, Ashanti, spider stories,Anansesem, sleep story, kids story, mythology

    How Stories Came to the World — West Africa (Well-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

  8. Jul 25

    Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom — West Africa (Lesser-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

    Tonight we return to Ghana for the day the spider Anansi tried to keep every scrap of wisdom in the world in a single clay pot — all for himself. It's his own small son who shows him what wisdom really looks like. A gentle tale about humility, and why there's a little wisdom in everyone.A world folktale every night, told to help you fall asleep. Follow the show sotomorrow night's story finds you too. Akan / Ashanti tradition, Ghana — part of the *Anansesem* (spider-tale) cycle. The pot of gathered wisdom, the too-tall tree, the son Ntikuma's advice to tie the pot on his back, and the wisdom scattering to all the world are the standard, widely documented elements. Original prose retelling. A world folktale every night, told to help you fall asleep. Follow the show so tomorrow night's story finds you too. bedtime story, folktale, West Africa, Ghana, Anansi, Ashanti, wisdom, Ntikuma, sleep story, kids story, humility

    Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom — West Africa (Lesser-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

  9. Jul 24

    The Ebony Horse — Persia (Lesser-Known) | Bedtime World Tour

    Tonight we travel to old Persia for the tale of a horse that was not a horse at all —a horse of smooth black wood that could carry a rider up past the rooftops and thebirds, out over the whole sleeping world. A curious prince, a faraway princess, and aflight home through the morning light. A story about wonder, and about coming home. A world folktale every night, told to help you fall asleep. Follow the show so tomorrow night's story finds you too. Persian tale from the *One Thousand and One Nights* (the Arabian Nights). Aarne–Thompson–Uther tale type 575, "The Prince's Wings." Features the Persian princeQamar al-Aqmar and the flying mechanical ebony horse; part of the repertoire of theMaronite storyteller Hanna Diyab (told to Antoine Galland, 1709), with an earlieranalogue in the Indian *Panchatantra*. Original prose retelling, gentled for bedtime. bedtime story, folktale, Persia, Arabian Nights, One Thousand and One Nights,ebony horse, flying horse, sleep story, kids story, wonder, sleep story, sleep stories

    The Ebony Horse — Persia (Lesser-Known) | Bedtime World Tour
  • 9 Episodes

About

Every night, Bedtime World Tour visits a different culture's oral tradition and tells one of its folktales — from the Arctic to the Amazon, East Asia to West Africa. Genuine, credited stories, retold in the same quiet, warm voice and ending not on a stated moral but on a single image to fall asleep to. Gentle enough for children, calming enough for the adults reading to them. Each episode is tagged by region and by how rare the tale is, so you always know which corner of the world you're in tonight.

Information

  • Creator
    Bedtime World Tour
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    9
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Bedtime World Tour
  • Show Website
    Bedtime World Tour