In this month’s episode of The Hagstone, Chaise Levy sits down with Scott Richardson-Read to trace the living force of story shapes nations, roots itself in land, and moves through communities as something more than metaphor. Beginning with the claim that “all we ever really have is story,” the conversation travels from Scottish political identity to digital worlds, from local hillsides to role-playing tables, asking what holds people together when institutions falter.
Drawing on folklore, landscape memory, online gaming culture, and oral storytelling practice, they explore story as a form of belonging. We track how shared imaginative space also for identity to be tested, inhabited, and transformed. The episode considers how a wide variety of otherworlds can function as contemporary mythic terrain, how communal storytelling generates a kind of “group body,” and how the teller becomes less an author than a mouthpiece for something moving through the room.
Ultimately, the conversation gestures toward a radical reorientation: imagination is not escape, but participation. Story is not distraction, but ground. What would it mean to recognize narrative not as illusion, but as the medium through which reality becomes livable, contested, and enchanted?
New Theme Music: Taliesin, written and performed on Tenor Guitar and Mandolin by Chaise Levy
Scott Richardson-Read is a working-class writer, folklorist, and alternative cultural historian with a deep connection to Scotland’s folk heritage. As the creator of Cailleach’s Herbarium, a platform dedicated to reviving and preserving Scottish folk traditions, Scott has spent years researching and sharing the stories, practices, and beliefs that define the working-class and animistic roots of Scottish culture. His work reflects a blend of deep archival exploration, oral history, and personal experience in the landscapes of Scotland.
With a background steeped in human rights, ecology, activism, and traditions, Scott’s writing bridges the past and present, offering fresh insights into the enduring significance of folk belief. Through his decades-long journey, he continues to advocate for the preservation of Scotland’s sacred sites and cultural heritage.
When not writing, Scott is often found exploring Scotland’s wild spaces, old libraries, and archives, drinking tea with his cats, or engaging with the vibrant communities keeping traditions alive.
You can find Scott’s work on his website Cailleachs Herbarium or in his incredible 2025 book Mill Dust and Dreaming Bread: Exploring Scottish Folk Belief and Folk Magic.
