What an incredible year. There was certainly dark stuff, but if you were ever in doubt there was plenty to revel in, welcome to the highlights from a unique and far-reaching year on the podcast.

You’ll hear highlight selections from our guests throughout 2025, accompanied by some of the music they often played or sung themselves, and the sounds of Country as we travelled across multiple continents, countries and languages.

This year featured a record 54 episodes, 4 with bilingual editions, and over a dozen bonus extras and vignettes. Most episodes were conversations, with 5 panels too, 1 documentary style production, 1 fan mail episode and this highlights reel.

There were 67 guests, around half Aussie and half international, almost all of them on-location, just under a quarter First Nations, and from all walks of life.

Once again listening to it all in one place today has been incredible. I hope you enjoy it too.

And I hope you’ve enjoyed the podcast as a whole this year. As another year ends, huge thanks to all you generous subscribers and other supporting listeners, for making it possible. I’ll continue my shout outs, exclusives and other bonus bits next year, and as we enter the podcast’s 10th year, I’ll reach out with a few new things too.

Thanks also for your wonderful correspondence this year. And to everyone who sheltered, fed and generally cared for us throughout the year, around Australia, Guatemala and the States, thank you.

With enormous thanks also, to all the wonderful musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.

And finally, thanks so much for listening.

The track list for this episode, identifying the people, places and tunes, is in the chapter list.

Chapter markers.

Title image: Glacier National Park, on Blackfeet Nation, northern Montana USA (pic: Anthony James).

Find more:

To access the full catalogue of episodes, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode) or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks again for listening, have a wonderful festive season and see you in 2026!

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Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!

Aníbal de Paz was a young man in Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, when I was a young man living there at the turn of the century. He had been born into war in the 80s, became a runner for the resistance as a boy, was a teenager as peace broke out in the 90s, and in his 20s, when we met and became friends, he was driver and confidant for his father, Don Ceferino de Paz González, my guest in episode 286, when he became Mayor.

Aníbal carries a presence of hard-won wisdom, born of a unique life, with a prominent Maya Achí father, and quietly formidable mother. And he speaks with such poetic sensibility, though scarcely literate in the formal sense.

All this comes to the fore all the more, as we’ve just spent the day at the ancient Mayan city of Tikal, along with Anibal’s wife, Q’eqchí woman Josefina Choc Tiul, and their wonderful daughters. It was the children’s first visit.

At the end of an exhausting day, both our families settled into bed, while we headed out to have one last conversation, plenty of it we’d never talked about, before saying our farewells. They were to head back to Fray before the dawn.

You’re about to hear a deeply felt and observed profile of a life, a country, and in many ways, a global dynamic that many of us are feeling more acutely these days. It is raw and real, hopeful and instructive, about power, choices of life and death, and how to navigate generational shifts in times like these.

It’s my privilege to have landed in the midst of Aníbal’s story through a couple of narrow windows, yet wide enough to be able to share this with you now.

It was still noisy on the street out front, near the town of El Remate in El Petén province. So we soon moved down to the beautiful Lake Petén Itzá, via a now permanently flooded jetty, and found a boat.

Thanks again to old mate from those first Guatemala times, Dana ‘Patricio’ Scott, for so generously translating and speaking the Spanish in English.

Recorded 18 January 2025.

Title image: Aníbal on the jetty the day before (pic: Anthony James).

See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.

Music:

Salta Montes, by Migra (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.

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Support the show

The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!

NOTE: This version of this week’s episode is in Spanish. You'll find the English translated version in your podcast feed too.

Aníbal de Paz era un joven en Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, cuando yo era joven y vivía allí a principios del siglo. Había nacido en la guerra de los años 80, se convirtió en un mensajero para la resistencia de niño, era adolescente cuando se firmaron los Acuerdos de Paz en 1996, y unos años después, cuando nos conocimos y nos hicimos amigos, fue chófer y confidente de su padre, Don Ceferino de Paz González, mi invitado en el episodio 286, cuando asumió la alcaldía.

Aníbal posee una presencia de sabiduría adquirida con esfuerzo, fruto de una vida única, con un prominente padre Maya Achí y una madre discretamente formidable. El habla con una sensibilidad poética también.

Todo esto se hace aún más evidente, ya que acabábamos de pasar el día en la antigua ciudad Maya de Tikal, a unos 300 km o 6 horas en coche al noreste de Fray, junto con la esposa de Aníbal, la Q'eqchí Josefina Choc Tiul, y sus maravillosas hijas. Era la primera visita de las niñas.

Al final de un día agotador, nuestras familias se acostaron, mientras el y yo salíamos para tener una última conversación antes de despedirnos. Ellos debían regresar a Fray antes del amanecer.

Están a punto de escuchar un perfil profundamente sentido y observado de una vida, un país y, en muchos sentidos, una dinámica global que muchos de nosotros estamos sintiendo con mayor intensidad estos días. Es abierto y real, esperanzador e instructivo, sobre el poder, las decisiones de vida o muerte, y cómo afrontar los cambios generacionales en tiempos como estos. Es un privilegio haber sido una parte en la historia de Aníbal, y a compartir esto con ustedes ahora.

Grabado al Lago Petén Itzá, el 18 de enero de 2025.

Gracias a Dana ‘Patricio’ Scott por traducir esto para la versión en inglés.

Foto principal: Aníbal y la lancha en la cual hablábamos.

Vea más fotos en la página web del episodio y, para ver más del detrás de cámaras, conviértase en oyente colaborador a continuación.

Música:

Salta Montes, de Migra (fuente: Artlist).

Regeneration, de Amelia Barden.

The RegenNarration playlist.

Send us a text

Support the show

The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!