You Tube Theology

Podcast | Part 2

The Beatitudes

Just what are The Beatitudes? This podcast, which bookends the documentary series The Climb, explores the radical, remarkable words of Jesus in these countercultural blessings.

They appear early in the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible – eight short, startling declarations that begin with the word ‘blessed’, and which still feel fresh and remarkable today.

Jesus, on a hillside, talking to a crowd of regular people, starts to turn the world's assumptions upside down. He declares a blessing on the poor in spirit, the meek, the mourners, the persecuted. Not the powerful. Not the successful. Not the righteous in any way the world would recognise.

These are sayings that have fascinated, troubled and inspired readers for 2,000 years, from every part of the planet. Properly understood, they carry radical implications for how we treat one another, how we organise our societies and what we dare to call human flourishing.

This podcast gathers some remarkable voices to sit with these enigmatic words, to ask what they meant then, and what on earth they might mean now.

Luke Walton, Reel Issues Films

May 2026

WITH THANKS TO Contributors Sam Wells, Rebekah Eklund, Chine McDonald, Jolyon Mitchell and host Luke Walton

FILM EDITOR Wojciech Duczmal 
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS FOR REEL ISSUES FILMS Luke Walton, Neville Pierce 
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER FOR REEL ISSUES FILMS Hatty Haines
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Simon Egan 
PRODUCER Olwyn Silvester 
DIRECTOR Christopher Payne 
PRODUCTION COMPANIES Reel Issues Films, Bedlam Productions