📚 Get the book from this episode: The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

📖 Read it for free at this link.

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## Description

It’s the fourth Sunday of the month, so it’s story time! This week I read John Ruskin’s fairy tale The King of the Golden River. Last time we heard Ruskin tell us that art should ennoble us and make us better people, so now let’s see if his own story can do that. Two cruel brothers, Hans and Schwartz, ruin the beautiful Treasure Valley with their greed, while their little brother Gluck is kind to a strange visitor, melts down his golden mug, and meets the King of the Golden River himself. Who will reach the source of the river, and what makes water truly holy? This episode’s video includes new illustrations and animations of the story’s scenes.

“The water which has been refused to the cry of the weary and dying is unholy, though it had been blessed by every saint in heaven; and the water which is found in the vessel of mercy is holy.”

Chapters:

00:00 Hook: “Whoever shall climb to the top of that mountain”

00:24 Intro: paid subscriptions and book links

02:36 Why John Ruskin and The King of the Golden River

04:25 Chapter I: South-West Wind, Esquire, visits the Black Brothers

21:29 Chapter II: Gluck meets the King of the Golden River

33:06 Chapter III: Hans sets off for the Golden River

43:39 Chapter IV: Schwartz sets off for the Golden River

48:11 Chapter V: Little Gluck’s journey

56:23 Closing thoughts

Wisdom in the Best Books and Films: bite-sized nuggets of truth from great books and films, used to help us become better people. Hosted by Jake Bair.

Read or listen on Substack: https://wisdominbestbooks.substack.com

⭐ Paid subscription: https://wisdominbestbooks.substack.com/subscribe

Questions, recommendations, or comments: [email protected]

If you enjoyed this, please subscribe and share it with someone who’d like it.

## Tags

The King of the Golden River, John Ruskin, fairy tale, short story read aloud, Gluck, Treasure Valley, Victorian literature, kindness, mercy, greed, classic literature, audiobook, Wisdom in the Best Books and Films

📚 Get the book from this episode: The Seventh Gate by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

“I never meant for this to happen.” In The Seventh Gate, the final book of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman’s Death Gate Cycle, Alfred tries to step out of the blame, and Jonathan won’t let him. In this episode I wrap up our Death Gate series with a story from a job where I handled radioactive materials, and a lesson my dad taught me when I was five: you have to mean not to.

“Mistakes do not require malice to require repair. You may not have meant to cause the problem, but once you know about it, you have to mean not to leave it there, and you have to mean not to repeat it.”

Chapters:

00:00 Hook: “You have to mean not to”

00:12 Intro: wrapping up the Death Gate Cycle

02:20 The Seventh Gate: Alfred and Jonathan

03:12 A story about radioactive materials at work

04:04 “You have to mean not to”

05:19 The lesson: mistakes require repair

05:52 Closing

Wisdom in the Best Books and Films: bite-sized nuggets of truth from great books and films, used to help us become better people. Hosted by Jake Bair.

Read or listen on Substack: https://wisdominbestbooks.substack.com

Questions, recommendations, or comments: [email protected]

If you enjoyed this, please subscribe and share it with someone who’d like it.

📚 Get the book from this episode: Lectures on Art by John Ruskin. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

📖 Read it for free at this link.

Subscribe at:

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📚 Get the books from this episode: Into the Labyrinth by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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Please subscribe on Substack where subscribers get more content starting November 2026! The link to subscribe is:

📚 Get the book from this episode: A Collection of Essays by George Orwell. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

Link to the full story.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: The Hand of Chaos by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful by Edmund Burke. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Serpent Mage by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the books from this episode: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens, Serpent Mage by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Selected Short Fiction by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

Link to the story.

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📚 Get the books from this episode: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, In Defense of Sanity: The Best Essays of G. K. Chesterton by G. K. Chesterton. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

Link to the miniseries.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

🎬 Get the show from this episode: Our Mutual Friend (1998). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Selected Short Fiction by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

Link to the short story.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

🎬 Get the show from this episode: Bleak House (2005). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

🎬 Get the show from this episode: Little Dorrit (2008). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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Link to “Enriching Your Marriage" by James E. Faust.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

Link to the talk I mentioned.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Selected Short Fiction by Charles Dickens. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Light of the Mind, Light of the World: Illuminating Science Through Faith by Spencer A. Klavan. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

Link to Theological Episode mentioned in intro.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Newton: Philosophical Writings by Isaac Newton. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

Link to the book.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Return of the God Hypothesis by Stephen C. Meyer. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo by Galileo Galilei. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

Link to the full Letter.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: The Faith of a Scientist by Henry Eyring. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Link to full lecture, English translation near end of document:

https://www.cis.org.uk/serve.php?filename=scb-27-2-felipe-bourdon-and-riaza-2.pdf

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers by Max Planck. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Selected Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

Link to the Materialism Podcast:

Link to the Shape Memory Alloy video:

Also check out episode 9 of the Materialism Podcast for an in depth discussion on Shape Memory Alloys!

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📚 Get the book from this episode: The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Merlin by Stephen R. Lawhead. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

Link to Materialism podcast episode I did:

Link to the Pendragon Cycle TV series:

https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-pendragon-cycle?contentProgram=The%20Pendragon%20Cycle%20%7C%20All%20Access%20Members%20Watch%20Episodes%201%20%26%202&contentType=Show&elementPosition=2&location=Home%20Tab&row=0&rowType=Home%20Featured%20Carousel

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📚 Get the book from this episode: The Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

Link to the poem:

https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_thomas.htm

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Merlin by Stephen R. Lawhead. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-pendragon-cycle?contentProgram=The%20Pendragon%20Cycle%20%7C%20All%20Access%20Members%20Watch%20Episodes%201%20%26%202&contentType=Show&elementPosition=2&location=Home%20Tab&row=0&rowType=Home%20Featured%20Carousel

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📚 Get the book from this episode: The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Merlin by Stephen R. Lawhead. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: The Once and Future King by T. H. White. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the books from this episode: Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead, The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Walk in the Light & Twenty-Three Tales by Leo Tolstoy. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

For more on the Tolstoy mixup and attempted resolution see:

https://flatlanderfaith.com/2014/12/12/ruben-saillens-vs-leon-tolstoy/

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📚 Get the book from this episode: The Trinity by Augustine of Hippo. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Christmas Karol by Faith Moore. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the books from this episode: Christmas Karol by Faith Moore, Classic Novels from the Show. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

This episode is an interview I was able to do recently with Faith Moore! To find out more about Faith, look her up on her website:

https://faithkmoore.com/

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📚 Get the book from this episode: An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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📚 Get the book from this episode: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C. S. Forester. Buying through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and this podcast.

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