Paula Gooder: the women of the nativity

A GodPod Christmas special with storyteller and theologian Paula Gooder.

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

Nativity scene in the style of Eithiopian icon.

Contemporary Ethiopian nativity icon.

It’s the GodPod Christmas special! Today, Graham, Michael and Jane, are joined by Dr Paula Gooder. Together they speak about the stories of women in the New Testament, including the ones that make up the nativity.

Dr Paula Gooder is a New Testament scholar and Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. She is also the author of numerous best-selling books – including Phoebe, Lydia, and her latest offering, Women of the Nativity: an Advent and Christmas Journey in Nine Stories – within which she fuses her extensive biblical knowledge with her masterful story-telling skills.

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Seen & Unseen Aloud

21 November 2025

1 min read

Alan Bennett, rationality and the Budget

New episode. Listen to articles by Roget Standing, Alister McGrath, and Annika Greco-Thompson.

Natalie Garrett

Natalie produces and narrates The Seen & Unseen Aloud podcast. She's an Anglican minister and a trained actor.

In the style of a Raeburn portrait, a set of young people lounge around on their phones looking diffident

Enlightened disagreement (with apologies to Henry Raeburn).

Nick Jones/Midjourney.ai.

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About the episode

This week we start with Roger Standing's review of Alan Bennett's latest film, The Choral; then Alister McGrath unpacks the terrain between the "Age of Reason" and the era of "post-truth" and finally Annika Greco Thompson discusses the possible Christian response to financial (in)security, in the lead up to the UK's Chancellor announcing the Autumn Budget.

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Graham Tomlin
Editor-in-Chief