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What's the podcast? 
It's. 

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All going to be alright in the 
end. 

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You've got some worries, my dear
Little rest your busy minds. 

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Because it's. 
Finally, time the stories from 

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now and then. 
Hello everybody, and welcome 

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back to Stories from Now and 
Then. 

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My name is Captain Blunderface 
and today we are in the craft 

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room of the old library with 
Story Swiftina and Deborah 

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Caddis, and we're making art. 
I'm using paper straps to make a

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diorama of stages and 
microphones. 

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It's going very well. 
Stages and microphones. 

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That's very cool. 
And Deborah Caddis is over there

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doing a portrait of all three of
us. 

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Oh, he's done. 
Let's have a look. 

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Deborah Caddis Why is Story 
Swiftina so tall in this 

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picture, and why am I so short? 
Oh, I love it. 

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He really captured me. 
Why am I tiny in this? 

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Is that little thing actually 
me? 

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I'm way taller than Story 
Swiftina in real life. 

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You are not. 
We're basically the same height.

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We aren't even in the same 
height neighborhood. 

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We are not in the same height 
postal code because of how far 

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up I am. 
Deprecatus, can you just not 

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draw me so small? 
He said he's accurate to his 

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vision. 
We'll get back to Deprecatus's 

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artistic vision, but before we 
start our true story about a 

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real artist, we have a shout out
for Soren and Molly. 

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Soren is five and Molly is 2. 
Soren's hobbies are practicing 

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his ninja moves and Molly loves 
to build things and say let's 

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get to work. 
So Soren and Molly, today's 

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story is for you. 
And with that, we would like to 

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request a true story from 
Nicola. 

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Please take it away. 
You know, I've been feeling so 

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artsy this week as well. 
I've been doing drawings and 

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paintings, playing around with 
different colours, and it's so 

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funny because the story this 
week is a very special story 

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about a very special artist. 
An artist who sneaks through 

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cities in the darkness, leaving 
pictures on walls that make 

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people stop and think and smile 
and wonder. 

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Are you ready? 
Let's begin Once Upon a time. 

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Well, the time is now happening 
right this very moment. 

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Somewhere in the world there is 
an artist called Banksy. 

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But here's the strange and 
wonderful thing Nobody really 

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knows who Banksy is. 
Is Banksy a man or a woman? 

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Tall or short, Young or old? 
Does Banksy have brown hair or 

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red hair or no hair at all? 
Nobody knows. 

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It's the greatest art mystery in
the whole wide world. 

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What we do know is this. 
Banksy makes pictures appear on 

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walls in the middle of the 
night, when everyone is 

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sleeping, when the streets are 
empty and quiet. 

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And these aren't just any 
pictures. 

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Oh no. 
They're clever pictures, funny 

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pictures, pictures that make you
think about important things in 

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new and surprising ways. 
The kind of art Banksy makes is 

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called street art, or sometimes 
graffiti. 

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It means painting on walls and 
buildings instead of on paper or

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canvas. 
Some people think it's 

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wonderful. 
Some people think it's naughty. 

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But almost everyone agrees 
Banksy's pictures make the world

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more interesting. 
Let's go back to when it all 

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began, at least as far as we 
know, long ago in the 1990s, 

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which isn't that long ago. 
In a city called Bristol in 

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England, there was a young 
person who loved to draw and 

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paint. 
This person looked at the grey 

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walls of the city and thought, 
these walls are so boring and 

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plain. 
What if I could make them tell 

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stories? 
What if I could make them speak 

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now? 
In those days, if you wanted to 

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paint big pictures on walls, you
had to work very, very quickly. 

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The police didn't like people 
painting on walls, even if the 

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pictures were beautiful. 
So St. artists had to be fast as

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foxes. 
Most St. artists used spray 

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paint cans to make their 
pictures. 

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But spray painting is slow. 
When you're trying to make 

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something detailed and clever. 
You might get caught before you 

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finished. 
So the young artist called 

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Banksy discovered something 
clever. 

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They learned to use stencils. 
Do you know what a stencil is? 

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It's a piece of card or paper 
with shapes cut out of it. 

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You can hold the stencil against
a wall, spray paint over it, and

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when you pull the stencil away, 
there's your picture. 

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With stencils, Banksy could 
create detailed pictures in just

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a few minutes. 
So pictures started appearing on

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walls in Bristol. 
A rat wearing a crown. 

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A policeman with flowers instead
of bullets. 

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Each picture told a story 
without using any words at all. 

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People would walk past these 
walls they'd seen 100 times 

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before, and suddenly there would
be something new, something to 

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make them stop and look and 
think. 

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Who made this? 
They would wonder. 

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Where did it come from, they 
would ask, but Banksy never 

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told. 
Banksy stayed secret and silent 

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and mysterious. 
And then the pictures began to 

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spread, not just in Bristol, but
in other cities too. 

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London, the great big capital 
city, started seeing Banksy's 

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art appear on its walls. 
Then other countries in America,

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France, Australia, the Middle 
East, all around the world, 

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Banksy's pictures would suddenly
appear like flowers blooming 

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overnight. 
Each picture had a message. 

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Some were funny, making people 
laugh at silly things. 

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Some were serious, making people
think about wars and poverty and

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unfairness. 
Some were simply beautiful, 

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bringing colour and joy to grey 
city walls. 

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One picture is of rats doing 
human things, holding signs, 

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wearing clothes, working 
together. 

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Why rats, people wondered, 
Because some said rats are 

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clever survivors, living in 
cities alongside humans, often 

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unseen and ignored, just like 
street artists. 

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Another picture is of a maid 
who's lifting up the corner of a

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wall like it's a curtain, 
sweeping dirt underneath it, as 

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if the whole wall is just 
pretending to be clean. 

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And oh, the picture that's maybe
the most famous of all. 

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A little girl reaching up, up, 
up toward a red heart-shaped 

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balloon that's floating away. 
So simple, so sweet, but it 

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makes everyone who sees it feel 
something tender in their heart.

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People began to notice something
else about Banksy's pictures. 

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They often appeared in places 
that needed beauty most, on 

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broken walls, in poor 
neighborhoods, in cities torn by

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conflict, in places where people
had forgotten to look for 

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beauty. 
Banksy seemed to be saying art 

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shouldn't only be in fancy 
galleries where you have to pay 

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to see it. 
Art should be for everyone, 

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right there on the street where 
you walk every day. 

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But here's where the story gets 
even more interesting, because 

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Banksy stayed anonymous. 
That's a big word, but it just 

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means keeping your name and your
face a secret. 

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All sorts of funny things 
started happening. 

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Art galleries wanted to sell 
Banksy's work. 

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We'll make you famous, we'll 
make you rich, they said to the 

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mysterious artist. 
But Banksy would paint pictures 

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right on the walls of the 
galleries at night without 

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permission, just like painting 
on city walls. 

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Or Banksy would send paintings 
to be sold, but then do 

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something surprising with them. 
Once, Banksy made a picture that

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sold at an auction for over 
£1,000,000. 

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That's more money than most 
people see in their whole lives.

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And just as the sale finished, 
just as someone had paid all 

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that money, the picture started 
shredding itself. 

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It had a hidden machine inside 
the frame that cut the picture 

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into strips. 
Everyone gasped. 

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Was it ruined? 
Was it a joke? 

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But Banksy seemed to be saying 
the art isn't just the picture, 

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it's the story, the surprise, 
the moment when something 

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unexpected happens. 
And funnily enough, that 

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shredded picture became even 
more valuable because now it 

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came with an amazing story. 
Another time, Banksy made a 

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whole show, a pretend theme park
called Dismaland, like 

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Disneyland but gloomier and 
stranger and full of art that 

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made you think about sad things 
in the world. 

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But it was also funny. 
And when the show was over, 

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Banksy gave all the materials to
people to build shelters for 

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refugees, for people who'd had 
to leave their homes because of 

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war or danger. 
You see, Banksy doesn't just 

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make art to be pretty. 
Banksy makes art to make people 

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think, to help people who need 
help, to point out things that 

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are wrong in the world, but in a
way that's clever and 

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interesting instead of just 
angry or bossy. 

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Of course, not everyone loves 
Banksy's work. 

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Some building owners get angry 
when they find paintings on 

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their walls. 
That's vandalism, they say. 

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That means damaging property 
without permission. 

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And they're not entirely wrong. 
Banksy doesn't ask permission 

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before painting. 
But other building owners are 

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thrilled. 
They put clear covers over the 

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Banksy on their wall to protect 
it. 

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They know that having a Banksy 
makes their building special, 

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makes people come to see it, 
makes their part of the city 

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more interesting. 
It's a puzzle, isn't it? 

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When does painting on a wall 
become art instead of just mess?

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When does breaking the rules 
become something valuable? 

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These are the questions Banksy 
makes us think about. 

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Now you might be wondering, why 
does Banksy stay secret? 

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Why not show everyone who you 
are and take credit for your 

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amazing art? 
Well, there are a few reasons, I

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think. 
First, if everyone knew who 

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Banksy was, it would be hard to 
paint on walls at night without 

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getting caught. 
The mystery helps Banksy keep 

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working. 
Second, when you don't know who 

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made the art, you think more 
about the art itself, about what

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it means, what it's saying, 
instead of thinking about the 

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person who made it. 
And 3rd, and this might be the 

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most important reason, staying 
mysterious makes the whole thing

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more magical. 
Every time a new Banksy appears,

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it's like a surprise present 
from an invisible friend. 

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It's like finding treasure when 
you weren't even looking. 

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People have tried so hard to 
discover who Banksy really is. 

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Reporters have investigated. 
People have made guesses and 

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theories and wild imaginings. 
Some say Banksy is a man from 

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Bristol. 
Some say Banksy is actually a 

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group of people working 
together. 

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Some say Banksy is someone 
famous who wants to make art 

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without everyone making a fuss 
about it. 

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Some say Banksy is actually a 
famous musician in disguise. 

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But Banksy never confirms or 
denies anything. 

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Banksy just keeps painting, 
keeps creating, keeps making the

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world think and wonder. 
Even today, right now, this very

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minute, there might be a Banksy 
appearing somewhere in the 

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world. 
Someone might be seeing it for 

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the first time, stopping in 
surprise, taking a picture, 

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calling their friends. 
Come, see, come look. 

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A new Banksy appeared. 
And that's the beautiful thing 

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about Banksy's art. 
It doesn't belong to anyone. 

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You can't lock it in a house or 
hide it in a safe. 

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It's there for everyone who 
walks by, rich or poor, young or

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old. 
Anyone at all can see it and 

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think about it and feel 
something from it. 

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And So what can we learn from 
the story of Banksy? 

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We learn that art can happen 
anywhere. 

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It's not just in museums and 
galleries, but it can be right 

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there on the street. 
We also learn that art can say 

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important things without using 
any words. 

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A picture of a girl with a 
balloon can make us think about 

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hope and loss. 
A picture of rats can make us 

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think about who we ignore in our
cities. 

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00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:12,079
A picture of flowers instead of 
bullets can make us think about 

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choosing kindness, and we also 
learn that beauty can appear in 

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unexpected places. 
The boring wall you pass every 

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00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:29,520
day might surprise you tomorrow 
with something wonderful painted

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on it overnight. 
Maybe Banksy will stay 

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mysterious forever and the art 
will keep appearing like magic, 

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making the world just a little 
bit more interesting and 

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beautiful, one spray painted 
picture at a time. 

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Either way, I hope the story of 
Banksy can inspire you to think 

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about what you could create to 
make your corner of the world 

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more interesting and more 
beautiful as well. 

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And that's our story. 
Thank you so much Nicola. 

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We are all ready to hang up our 
art now on the bulletin board. 

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Oh, actually Deborah Katz is 
adding something. 

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She's drawing around the little 
blender face. 

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It's you and you're wearing AT 
shirt of yourself. 

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That's why you are so small. 
You were just on a T-shirt. 

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Wait, I'm on a T-shirt. 
Wait, I'm wearing AT shirt of 

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myself. 
That's actually really good. 

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It's extremely good. 
Remember, if you'd like a shout 

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00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:41,680
out, send us Adm on Instagram at
Stories from now and then tell 

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us your name and something you'd
love. 

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You could have a future episode 
dedicated to you. 

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And also send us a picture of 
your art, we want to see it. 

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And don't forget to follow us 
wherever you find your podcasts 

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00:18:53,360 --> 00:18:57,480
so you'd never miss an episode. 
Stories From Now and Then is 

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00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:01,160
narrated by Nicola Ward, music 
by Captain Blunderface, who is 

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played by Evan Weeb, and Story 
Swiftina, played by Mallory 

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Weeb. 
Thanks for tuning in and we'll 

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see you all next time on. 
Stories from now and then.