Uncivil Savant Podcast

About Uncivil Savant Podcast

The complete audio version of my regular posts. Notes from the Way, words from the woods, waters from the springs. carolineross.substack.com (https://carolineross.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Caroline Ross

Category

religion & spirituality · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

28 Jan 2024

Latest episode

5 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

116 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Oct 2026

   Episode 116 - Retrace Your Steps

   The tchk tchk tchk of the wren in the crabapple tree supplies the sound effect for my mind as it skips across the surface of things. I pick up another thought and skim it. It flies away too fast for me to notice where it sinks. No matter, another thought lies glistening on the strand, unconsciousness lapping centimetres away. I take another and throw it out across the morning lake, carelessly. When I look down, it’s still in my hand, how can that be? I throw it again and clearly see it fly towards the far shore but I can still feel its heft in my palm. OK, then. This thought is with me for the day. I pocket it, make some tea and then sit here to write to you. Uncivil Savant is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Unfocus Separate screens in everyone’s hands are the dissipation of focus, literally, ‘focus’ being the hearth fire in Latin (Hestia, in Greek). Our screens are like millions of tiny flames, no good to warm anyone, easy to burn ourselves with; like lighters compared to the home fire, or even to the modern stove. Glittering devices with a flicker rate that somehow stops me from remembering anything I read on them, whereas I have no such problem with paper. Eleanor Robins (https://open.substack.com/users/272006-eleanor-robins?utm_source=mentions) pointed this common feeling out on her visit to my summer workshop and it explained the strange vacuity I experience after consuming writing on a screen, contrasting with the satiety I feel after devouring a book. Even the television shared at least some of the hearth function when there was only one in each house which everyone had to gather around if they wanted to watch a programme. ‘With a coal fire,’ my sister said while we were camping recently, gathered around the firepit, ‘our backs were always cold so we huddled close by the fireplace.’ Since central heating arrived the dispersed heat feels subliminal and we do not know it in our bodies, it’s ambient, calorific, muzak. Proliferating screens are the death of story. Cold backs are the seeds of epics. The fear of being sent away from the warmth (physical, divine, metaphorical) developed our imaginative capacities. A good yarn to share in the hand1 (https://carolineross.substack.com/p/retrace-your-steps#footnote-1) or the mind2 (https://carolineross.substack.com/p/retrace-your-steps#footnote-2) was a sure way to a seat at the hearthside. My heart asks me to retreat from light emitting diodes and retrace my steps to the candle, the window and the hearth. Or better still, to walk out into the light. This post was first published with full transcript, images, footnotes and links here on Substack (https://carolineross.substack.com/p/retrace-your-steps) on 29th September 2026. Get full access to Uncivil Savant at carolineross.substack.com/subscribe (https://carolineross.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

2. 

   22 Sept 2026

   Episode 115 - How to Open an Invisible Door

   The sun refuses to relinquish summertime hours, the bumble bees on the marjoram flowers are not complaining. We take our breakfast bowls outside and move the metal chairs into the light beside the crab apple tree. Morning warmth feels like a blessing. Like the British weather, I am aware my tone here swings through its own distinct phases including pastoral, prophetic, practical and poetic.1 (https://carolineross.substack.com/p/how-to-open-an-invisible-door#footnote-1) Thanks to dear Dougald Hine (https://open.substack.com/users/1997022-dougald-hine?utm_source=mentions) for last week’s conversation over a dodgy Zoom link, but a strong hearty energetic connection, today some more thoughts can coalesce into words, possibly in all four of those tones. I am advocating, as always, for real work, especially with your hands, by ordinary folk, with science, soil, soul, hospitality, home-making (https://brocantealison.substack.com/p/housekeeping-as-creative-discipline), even with beer. Personally I’d prefer bread to beer, but one is the solid and one the liquid of an ancient collaborative culture formed by grain, water, time and yeast. Thanks to paying subscribers I can keep Uncivil Savant going with no financial barrier to access. Thanks so much for your ongoing support. This podcast was first published with full transcript, photos, links, footnotes and more on here on Substack (https://carolineross.substack.com/p/how-to-open-an-invisible-door) on September 16th 2026. I don’t use AI in any aspect of my research, writing or creative work. I am a member of Writers Against AI (https://www.writersagainstai.net/). Thanks for reading and listening to Uncivil Savant. (https://carolineross.substack.com/) Get full access to Uncivil Savant at carolineross.substack.com/subscribe (https://carolineross.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

3. 

   6 Sept 2026

   Episode 114: The house that Trust Built

   Opening Today’s 6am lineup went like this: robin, gull, pigeon, me. The set list was lost; no matter, we improvised. A scant hour of song for the holiday weekend. For three months I’ve been away with trees and rock, gums and roses. Turns out the beauty is in the doing, the being, the singing, the making moves, turning our energies towards real life. The classes were full, we painted ourselves as much as the paper, we turned nettles to rope, strangers to friends. Eleanor Robins (https://open.substack.com/users/272006-eleanor-robins?utm_source=mentions) brought memory to the land and in glad shade we all remembered. We came to our senses. Rosie Whinray (https://open.substack.com/users/113174145-rosie-whinray?utm_source=mentions) joined us out west, met the bats, brought her hat, took some photos, swum in the pond, and oh how we talked at last, in the real. Dartmoor had old news for me: take care of yourself, of others, of home and relationships. Foster trust, the granite said, attend to the heart, honour your ancestors, outreach to the horizons, be curious. The Variscan Orogeny (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variscan_orogeny)1 (https://carolineross.substack.com/p/the-house-that-trust-built#footnote-1) was completely clear on this: Obey the Muse and know yourself, to thine own selves be true. This summer, bereft at the world and mourning beauty, I went dark, as in AWOL, also dark as in Goth, and as in The Dark Mountain Project (https://open.substack.com/users/191486019-the-dark-mountain-project?utm_source=mentions) 2 (https://carolineross.substack.com/p/the-house-that-trust-built#footnote-2). A potent mixture of French Black Gaze (https://loadedradio.com/a-complete-blackgaze-guide/) and trust3 (https://carolineross.substack.com/p/the-house-that-trust-built#footnote-3) somehow brought me back to my senses. Then yesterday I woke up, woke bang up, wide awake, right in the middle of my life. A small, well-proportioned house in my dawn dream, welcoming, stocked with books, jars of food and hand made things, with the sound of someone playing Northumbrian small pipes in the air. The tune is called ‘The House that Trust Built’. Thanks to paying subscribers I can keep Uncivil Savant going with no financial barrier to access. Thanks so much for your ongoing support. This podcast was first published with full transcript, photos, links, footnotes and more on here on Substack (https://carolineross.substack.com/p/the-house-that-trust-built) on August 31st 2026. I don’t use AI in any aspect of my research, writing or creative work. I am a member of Writers Against AI (https://www.writersagainstai.net/). Thanks for reading and listening to Uncivil Savant. (https://carolineross.substack.com/) Get full access to Uncivil Savant at carolineross.substack.com/subscribe (https://carolineross.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

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