TRADITIONALISM & THE PERENNIAL WISDOM | Free Radical Podcast #59 | Kenneth Oldmeadow, Dec. 3, 2025

About this episode

This episode features a conversation with Kenneth Oldmeadow about traditionalism and the perennial wisdom found in diverse spiritual traditions.

In this episode of the Free Radical Podcast, we sit down with Kenneth (Harry) Oldmeadow—author, scholar, and lifelong explorer of the world’s wisdom traditions. Carried to India as a baby and raised there through his first decade, Oldmeadow’s early immersion in a tapestry of cultures and faiths helped shape a life devoted to understanding the world’s spiritual inheritances. His later studies in history, politics, literature, and cinema—along with extensive travel across Europe, North Africa, and the subcontinent—widened that horizon even further. With more than fifteen books, award-winning research, and decades of teaching behind him, he brings an entire library’s worth of perspective to the table. Together, we wander into the heart of perennialism: the possibility that an eternal, unchanging truth breathes through the world’s diverse spiritual forms. From the paradox of a reality that is at once timeless and ever-unfolding, to the role of myth, symbol, and art as gateways to the inner life, this conversation opens like a many-petaled mandala. We explore the dance between exoteric and esoteric knowing, the gifts and hazards of modernity, and the subtle places where traditions…

People in this episode

Host: Swami Padmanabha

Guest: Kenneth Oldmeadow

Topics covered

• traditionalism
• perennial wisdom
• spiritual traditions
• myth and symbol
• modernity
• diversity

Keywords

• perennialism
• spiritual inheritances
• cultural exploration
• wisdom traditions
• exoteric
• esoteric
• myth
• symbol
• art

Mentioned in this episode

Places: India, Europe, North Africa

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