Uncle Scott Reads

On this final episode it is time to talk about anxiety over illness. We all suffer a bit of hypochondria and so it's time to deal with it. Then let's listen to another short story from the late 1800's about a high-born man's fascination with a trapeze artist, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich.

Let's talk about our kindred relationship with the animal kingdom as we drift to sleep. What about imagining peace and harmony with our favorite animal sleeping next to us? Then let me read A Yellow Dog by Bret Harte

Do you ever ask, "who am I?" Are we just the person our family and friends want us to be? Let me talk to you about the question of identity and belonging and then read to you a story by Louis Gould called X: A Fabulous Child's Story.

Do you notice how angry and vitriolic people's responses have become. What is this over-the-top anger that gets triggered in ourselves? If your anger or someone elses anger is keeping you awake, let me talk you to sleep and help you release the anger event that is keeping you awake. I'll read Guy de Maupassant's story The Wreck. It's romantic ... at least in that 1800's European sort of way.      

A beautiful story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is recited after some thoughts about always pleasing others. It is impossible, so I spend some time helping you adjust your thoughts and expectations about the reality of disappointing others.

This podcast is designed to put you to sleep. Hopefully this story won't have the opposite effect. Alexander Pushkin writes about an undertaker. I've taken this opportunity to speak about death and grief - things that can keep us awake.

Dorothy Parker wrote this story in 1928. In it she waits by the telephone for a man to call her. Let's explore the uncomfortable task of waiting and the challenge of unfulfilled longing. It's a good thing to wait. It can make us better people.

Let me own the problem of patriarchy, apologize and then read you to sleep with a story by Katherine Mansfield called, The Stranger.

Let me talk you down from your negative thoughts about your body while I read this classic short story from James Baldwin called The Rockpile.

Let's talk about the illusion of control and our attempts to manipulate people and circumstances. We need to exercise grace, strength and even when other people's junk spills over onto us. Let me read Hunter Quartermain's Story, a character from King Solomon's Mines which influenced the Lost World genre, as well as the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and India Jones.

On this episode I help you deal with anger, anxiety or grief over a parent before reading this story by Charles Dickens called A Poor Relation's Story

I'll talk you down from your anxieties about romance and then read a short story by Edith Wharton called The Other Two.

Here we still ourselves to listen to the divine silence before hearing a story by Guy de Maupassant called The Necklace

Here I read a section of Maya Angelou's book "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". The story is about Mrs. Flowers. But first I address unhelpful comparisons we make between ourselves and others.

I address the issue of anxiety and depression in young persons before reading Ladies and Gentlemen by Joyce Carol Oates

Listen to this classic short story by Jack London, but first I help you to indulge gratitude. It's good to stop and be thankful before going to sleep.

I talk about the troubles and anxieties you experiences with close friends or the lack thereof. Then I read Julie Romain by Guy de Maupassant

Whereupon I speak to your inner critic to shut them up. Then I read a short story by Tillie Olson called I Stand Here Ironing

Whereby I help to shut down those conversations you're having in your head and then read A Horseman in the Sky by Ambrose Bierce

Whereupon I read The Great Carbuncle, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, but not before chatting calmly about financial concerns you carry and inviting you to set them aside.

I reflect on the sacred Celtic view on thresholds. Then I read First Confession by Frank O'Connor

Your problem is not as big as you think, take my word for it. And let me read The Elephant's Child to you. It's by Rudyard Kipling.

Here I will disabuse you of our excessive focus on productivity. You are not primarily designed for productivity. On this episode I read A Day in the Country by Anton Chekhov

Here I talk about the beauty of being "in between." You are between today and tomorrow, in a liminal space. Then I read a fabulous short story by Pearl Buck

In this episode, I'll tell you why I like to smoke a pipe and assure you that trouble appear to inflate at night, then I read The Bet by Anton Chekhov

Premier of a podcast to help you fall asleep, where I try to assure you that you are going to be OK. Then I will read Araby, by James Joyce, and will do it so cleanly and gently you won't be able to stay awake.