The Carrying Stream

This episode's guest is Dr Clément Guézais, a French historian, lecturer at the University of Arras, and specialist of the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France. We discuss the alliance itself - its origins, its history, and its legacy - as well as the ways in which French and Scots have imagined, understood and misunderstood one another across the centuries. At its heart, this is a discus...

This episode’s guest is Robert Crawford, Emeritus Professor at the University of St Andrews and a distinguished poet. We discuss his work, which since the 1980s has played an important role in reshaping our understanding of Scottish literature in more multilingual and multicultural terms. We also speak about his engagement with Robert Burns and T. S. Eliot, as well as his interests in fields as va...

This episode's guest is Dr Petra Johana Poncarová, a native speaker of Czech who has become a distinguished scholar of Gaelic literature and an emerging, award-winning poet in Gaelic. We begin with Petra’s journey into the Gaelic language, before turning to her work on Derick Thomson and Rùraidh Erskine, two key figures of the twentieth-century Gaelic revival. We finish by talking about the presen...

This episode's guest is Kirsteen McCue, Professor of Scottish Literature and Song Culture at the University of Glasgow. We discuss the origins and history of Scottish folk music, and place particular emphasis on the Romantic era, when songs collected by figures such as Robert Burns became instrumental raw materials in the formation of modern music — from Haydn and Beethoven to the folk revival of...

This episode's guest is Dr Moira Hansen, whose PhD research explores the life and mental health of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet. We talk about Moira’s work on Burns, including her argument that he may have experienced bipolar disorder, and how this might have shaped his life, his relationships, and some of his best-known works — including "Tam o’ Shanter". It’s a thoughtful conversation...

This episode's guest is Billy Kay, the Scottish writer, broadcaster and lifelong advocate for the Scots language and the status of its speakers. Our conversation is, of course, in and about Scots, but we also journey further afield from the deep ties between Scotland and France to broader questions of Scotland's global identity. 03:30 – Billy Kay's upbringing as a Scots speaker and his inspiration...

This episode's guest is Taylor Strickland: a talented poet from the US who has learned Scottish Gaelic and recently won several awards for his superb translations of the 18th-century Jacobite poet, Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair. In 2025, Taylor also published his debut poetry collection, Dwell Time with Tapsalteerie Press. We cover a lot of ground in this conversation, from Taylor’s journey...

In this introductory episode, Dr Paul Malgrati presents his vision for The Carrying Stream and explains why he is launching a podcast devoted to Scottish words and ideas. Episode 0 sets out the ethos of the project and the kind of long-form conversations the podcast aims to make space for.