The missionary linguist who lost his faith

Dan Everett travelled to the Amazon to convert the Piraha people. It didn’t go to plan.

Dan was a young Christian missionary, and his talent for linguistics put him on a mission to convert a small indigenous group called the Piraha in the Brazilian Amazon. He had to communicate with them first, and after arriving in their remote village, he got to work cracking their famously difficult language. Over the years he began to understand them, but the things they told him caused his worldview to fall apart.

Presenter: India Rakusen
Producer: Harry Graham

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