Hey CircleRound fans!
We've added stops to our 2025-2026 CircleRound Live Tour, and you're invited!
Join us for live episode recordings in Los Angeles on January 18th, Boston on February 7th and Cleveland on March 14th.
We can't wait to CircleRound with you live!
Get your tickets at wbur.org slash CircleRound.
Hi, Rebecca Shear here.
With the winter holidays upon us, the Circle Round team is taking time off to celebrate and to gear up for a bunch of live events in the new year, including new episode recordings in Los Angeles on January 18th, Boston on February 7th and Cleveland on March 14th.
Get your tickets at wbur.org slash circleround.
And now, enjoy this favorite story from the Circle Round archives.
We'll be back with a new episode soon.
Have you ever faced a challenge that felt pretty near impossible, yet you refused to give up?
We're about to meet a character who knows how you feel.
And when he refuses to give up, the results are dazzling.
I'm Rebecca Shear, and welcome to Circle Round, where story time happens all the time.
Today, our story is called Finding the Light.
It's inspired by traditional tales told among Alaska natives in the United States and First Nations communities in Canada.
Some really great people came together to bring you our folktale, including Kennedy Kanagawa, currently starring as Milky White in the hit Broadway revival of Into the Woods at the St
James Theatre.
So circle around, everyone, for Finding the Light.
Way up north, where glaciers gleam and mountains loom and the tundra stretches on for miles.
Summer days are long.
So long, the sun shines high in the sky past midnight.
And in the winter, well, in the winter there's hardly any sunlight at all.
In some places there's none whatsoever.
But once upon a time, long, long ago, The whole world was bathed in darkness all year round.
And during this time of eternal night, in a village way up north there lived a young man and his grandmother.
Grandmother, why is it always so dark in the world?
Why don't we have any light?
Well, my dear, way back when I was a young girl, We did have light.
In the summer, we enjoyed long, beautiful days filled with sun.
Some nights, the sun would never even set.
Then winter would come, and the sun would barely even rise.
Every year, we patiently waited for summer to return so that we could bask in all of that radiant, luminous light.
But then one summer...
The light never came.
The sun set and never rose again.
And from that day forward, or should I say that night forward, our world was trapped in darkness.
But what happened, Grandmother?
What happened to the light?
Nobody knows, my dear.
Nobody knows.
One day the light just vanished. disappeared without a trace.
Has anyone tried to find it and bring it back?
Oh, a few brave or foolish souls have ventured out onto the tundra to try and bring back the light, but none have succeeded.
They've either come back empty-handed or never come back at all.
The young man shivered, partly from the cold and partly from the thought of being forever lost in the wide open wilderness.
But then, all at once, he felt something warm stirring in his heart.
A tiny flame, a fire of determination.
Grandmother, I will bring back the light.
I will bring back day and night and summer and winter.
The world has been trapped in darkness long enough.
Grandmother furrowed her brow.
But how will you do it?
How will you know where to look and which way to go?
I don't know, but I'll figure it out.
Grandmother could see how resolute her grandson was, so she packed the young man a basket of food, then bundled him into the warmest parka they owned.
Good luck, my boy.
Stay safe.
And when you return, I look forward to seeing that light.
As the young man left his village and ventured into the inky black tundra, he squinted his eyes.
Wow!
And I thought the village was dark.
At least there we can light lamps to show us the way.
But out here in the wild, I can barely see a thing.
The young man walked until he could no longer feel his feet.
Then he dug a little cave in the snow, crawled inside, and went to sleep.
When he woke up, he found himself staring into a pair of glittering, round, black eyes.
Who's there?
Who are you?
Only a poor creature who ventured into your cave to find some warmth.
I hope I didn't startle you.
The young man blinked. trying to get a better look at his unexpected companion.
A raven!
You're a raven!
In the flesh.
And feather.
The raven ruffled its jet-black wings.
But tell me...
What's a human like you doing so far out on the tundra?
You'll freeze to death out here, unless the darkness makes you all loopy first.
The young man smiled.
Well actually, I've come out here to find the light and bring it back, so that the world is no longer trapped in darkness.
Oh, the light.
My grandparents tell wonderful stories about the light they saw when they were fluffy little chicks.
You really going to bring it back?
I am, if i can find it.
Do you know which way i should go?
Well, according to my grandparents legends, you must head to the south.
You'll know it when you get there.
But wait.
The raven plucked out one of its feathers and placed it in the young man's hand.
Take this with you, it will help you on your journey.
Thank you, raven.
It's a beautiful feather, But what do I do with it?
It's simple, my friend.
You put it on.
But this feather's only as big as my hand.
How can I put it on?
The raven's eyes twinkled.
Don't you worry about that.
You'll know what to do when the time comes.
Now off you go, and good luck.
Then the raven spread its wings and flew out of the cave before soaring up toward the endless pitch black sky.
What do you think?
Will the young man find the light?
And how might the raven feather come in handy?
We'll find out what happens after a quick break.
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Welcome back to Circle Round.
I'm Rebecca Shear.
Today, our story is called Finding the Light.
When we left off, a young man up north was determined to bring back the light that had gone missing from the sky years ago.
On his travels he met a raven who offered him a feather and told him to head south.
The young man tucked the feather in the pocket of his parka then began heading south.
After hours of trudging through the darkness, he reached a tall, snowy hill.
And when he scrambled and clambered to the top, he made a very surprising discovery.
This hill, it's shaped like a ring.
It's perfectly round and sloping down toward a deep hollow inside.
I wonder what's down there.
As the young man cast his eyes downward, he saw an astonishing sight.
Light!
That must be light!
Indeed.
Down in the middle of the ring of snow was a flickering, blazing ball of yellow and orange and red.
The young man sat on his backside and slid down the hill.
As he neared the bottom of the hollow, he realized he was seeing the light through a window, the window of a little hut.
The hut was surrounded by snow on all sides, and standing outside the hut was an old man.
The old man was stooped over and shoveling snow.
The young man watched as the aged fellow thrust his shovel into the ground, then flung heap after heap of snow onto the tall hill all around him.
That explains it.
This old man's mound of snow is blocking light from the rest of the world.
Wow, he must have been shoveling a long time to make a hill this high.
Suddenly, the old man stopped shoveling and turned toward the young man.
Hey, you!
What are you doing here?
The old man sounded angry, but the young man was not afraid.
How about I answer your question with one of my own?
Why are you building up this snow hill and hiding all the light from the rest of the world?
Hiding the light?
Is that what you think I'm doing?
I'm just clearing the snow from my doorway.
Maybe so, but you're keeping the light for yourself.
I can see it in your hut.
The old man glanced toward his hut.
Then he glared at the young man.
All right, fine.
Maybe I am keeping the light for myself.
But can you blame me?
What do you mean?
You see, I grew up in a village far, far north of here.
And when I was a young man, we'd have these endless summer days.
So long and glorious, sometimes the sun would never set.
I've heard about those days from my grandmother.
They sound positively magical.
And they were.
But then winter would come and the sun would disappear.
It was nighttime all day long.
So I came up with a plan to steal the light, to have my own personal summer every day of the year.
And now I do.
The old man exploded into peals of laughter.
As he doubled over, hooting and hawing and clutching his sides, the young man made a split-second decision.
He lunged forward and made a dash for the hut.
The old man was laughing so hard he didn't notice the young man sneak inside, nor did he notice him grab the ball of light and tuck it into his parka.
Quietly and quickly, the young man took off running.
But he didn't get far before.
The old man recovered from his laughing fit and saw that his hut had gone dark and the light was missing.
Stop, young man.
Stop.
You come back here with my light.
It isn't your light.
It belongs to all of us.
The old man began chasing the young man, but the young man didn't stop.
The young man ran until his legs felt like jelly.
Still, when he glanced over his shoulder, he saw the old man was in close pursuit.
This old man is faster than I expected.
Oh, if only I could fly away from here so that he doesn't catch up with me.
Wait a minute.
Maybe I can fly.
Remembering the raven's gift, the young man reached into the pocket of his parka and plucked out the feathers.
He tucked the feather behind his ear, and do you know what happened next?
In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a raven!
Clutching the ball of light in his claws, the young man flapped his wings and took off into the sky, leaving the old man far behind and far below.
You come back here with my light!
Come back!
But the young man did not come back.
Instead, he soared through the air.
As he flew, he tore off a hunk of light from the ball and flung it down to Earth.
In a flash, that part of the Earth lit up, radiant and bright in the light of day.
Good morning, everybody.
Rise and shine.
The young man flew until he was in darkness again.
Then he threw down another hunk of light. and created another day.
He did this again, and again, and again.
Sometimes the young man waited a while before tossing down another piece of light.
In doing so, he created the long nights of winter.
But sometimes he flung the light down quickly, over and over and over, thus creating the long days of summer.
When the young man finally reached his village, he descended to the earth and tossed the very last bit of light high up into the sky.
Immediately, everything came into view.
The people, the huts, the glittering snow.
The villagers burst into a cheer.
Then the young man took off his feather, turned from his raven form back into a human and ran straight into the warm, welcoming arms of his grandmother.
I did it, Grandmother!
I brought back the light!
We see that, my dear, at long last.
Thanks to you, we see the light.
Ever since then, the lands far up north have seen both light and dark.
After a cold, sunless winter come the long golden days of summer when everyone gets to share and bask in the light.
Now it's your turn.
Thanks to the sun, we have four seasons.
Winter, spring, summer, and fall.
Pick one of them and think about things you love doing during that season.
Then find a piece of paper and draw a picture of all your favorite winter spring, summer or fall things to do.
Share your artwork with someone you have fun with.
And if you like, share it with us.
Grown-ups, you can snap a photo of your kiddo and their drawing.
This week's story Finding the Light was adapted by me, Rebecca Shear.
It was edited by Circle Round's supervising producer, Nora Sachs.
Our original music and sound design is by Eric Shimalonis.
Our artist is Sabina Han.
Want to color while you listen?
Sabina has created a black and white picture for every single Circle Round story and you can color them in.
Grownups.
You can download more than 180 Circle Round coloring pages on our website wburorg slash circleround.
Special thanks to this week's actors, Theodore Chin, Jessica Rao, Dawn Ursula, and Kennedy Kanagawa.
Kennedy Kanagawa plays the endearingly lovable cow Milky White in the new Broadway revival of Into the Woods at the St
James Theatre.
Our featured instrument this week was the electric guitar.
You can learn more about this electrically amplified stringed instrument and see a photo of Eric Shimalonis playing it on our website.
Again, that's wbur.org slash circleround.
And while you're there, you can find links to the Circle Round picture books the Circle Round t-shirt, coloring book, tote bag and water bottle.
You can also find transcripts for every single Circle Round story, in case you'd like to print them out and act them out yourself.
And grown-ups.
If you enjoy what you hear on Circle Round, please write us a five-star review on your favorite podcasting app and tell your friends about the show.
You can also follow us on social media.
On Instagram and Facebook, we are at Circle Round Podcast.
Circle Round is a production of WBUR, Boston's NPR news station.
I'm Rebecca Shear.
Thanks for circling round with us.
Now that you've made it to the end of this Circle Round episode, we want to know what's your favorite Circle Round story.
Thousands of fans just like you have been telling us about the Circle Round stories they like best.
Take a listen.
Maybe one of their favorites is one of yours, too.
My name's Alice and I'm from Portland and my favorite Circle Round story is because my favorite part is when the devil gets stuck to a tree.
My name's Luke and I'm from Portland, Oregon.
My favorite circle round is Stella and the Dragon where Stella has 100 kids and they're so playful.
My name is Hayes, and I live in Phoenix, Arizona.
And my favorite story is Strong Mind and Kind Heart.
And I like the part when Strong Mind wakes up in the creaky old shack.
Hi, my name is Felicity.
I live in Seattle, Washington.
And my favorite Circle Round story is all of them.
My name is Joanna.
And I live in Kansas.
My favorite Circle Round episode was Stella and the Dragon.
And my favorite part was when Stella said, I am Stella the Powerful.
My name is Nora from Ollie, Virginia.
And my favorite Circle Round story is The Cobbler's Soul.
And my favorite part is when the devil gets stuck on the stool and he can't get up.
My name is Simon from Aldi, Virginia, and my favorite story is The Cobbler's Soul.
And my favorite part is when he shakes all the apples down the tree and he just keeps shaking them on and on and on.
Did someone mention a story you've missed?
Not to worry.
Grownups.
You can find all of our Circle Round stories, plus links to the Circle Round Club, picture books, coloring pages and oh so much more on our website wburorg slash circleround.
