Ruck the Way

Ruck the Way is a podcast about the sacred work that happens when you put one foot in front of the other. Hosts Gabe (a former Army infantry officer turned coach) and Chris (a Scotland-based guide, coach, and ministry leader) have spent the last decade walking ancient paths together across continents—discovering that pilgrimage is a physical journey for a spiritual purpose , and that something real gets unlocked “on the way.” Each episode feels like the kind of honest conversation you only have while walking beside someone: stories, faith, healing, and the weight we all carry— what’s in your rucksack . We’ll explore “thin spaces” and “moments of reckoning,” talk about the brain science behind why walking helps us process (yes, really), and share guest stories of struggle, joy, and transformation. Our tagline says it best: Let the walk do the work. So slow down to the “three-miles-an-hour life,” and co

Ruck the Way is a education podcast hosted by Gabe Smith and Chris Furr, with 36 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 81. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Gabe Smith and Chris Furr hosts Ruck the Way, a education show with 36 episodes published.

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  Episode #36

  #36: RUCK RELOADED: The History & Mystery of Celtic Christianity

  Aug 17, 202642 minS1

  Ruck Reloaded! We look back into the deep history and spiritual mystery behind the ancient pilgrimage routes of Scotland and Northern England. Exploring the roots of Celtic Christianity, they trace how early missionary movements spread from Ireland across Western Europe through figures like St. Patrick, St. Columba, St. Oswald, and St. Cuthbert. The hosts discuss the unique, missional nature of Celtic monastics—who embraced relational hospitality, wilderness retreat, and living in rhythm with nature—and contrast their journey with modern life. Uncovering the sacred significance of Holy Island (Lindisfarne) and St. Cuthbert's Way, Gabe and Chris invite listeners to reflect on stepping back from control, embracing physical discomfort, and discovering spiritual renewal through pilgrimage. Compelling Moments: 00:00 | Introduction to Rock the Way and the Passion for History 01:31 | Chris’s Life as a Collector of Interesting Things 02:23 | Amplifying the Hiking Experience Through Ancient Stories 03:46 | Saint Patrick and the Explosion of Christianity in Ireland 05:44 | Understanding the Concept of Missional Communities 09:13 | The Hardcore Faith of Monks in Coracles 11:40 | The Era of Anglo-Saxons and the Worship of Norse Gods 13:21 | King Oswald: The "Return of the King" and Tolkien's Inspiration 17:23 | The Battle of Heavenfield and the Dedication to Christ 19:47 | Saint Aiden’s Challenge: Spreading the Gospel with Gentleness Know more about our cause: rucktheway.com Subscribe to our Podcast: youtube.com/@RucktheWay Meet the founders: rucktheway.com/about

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  Episode #25

  #35: LOUD DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE LEADING: RJ CASWELL ON QUIET INFLUENCE

  Aug 10, 202657 minS1

  UPCOMING PILGRIMAGE: https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage ON THE TRAIL THIS EPISODE The last time Gabe, Chris, and RJ Caswell were in the same room, it was a Charlotte brewery, a pint, and a conversation nobody wanted to end. This episode is what happened when they finally decided to hit record. RJ has covered a lot of ground. A master's in counseling. Eight years pouring into teenagers as a school counselor. A nonprofit counseling practice he founded from scratch, bylaws and all. Twelve years as executive pastor of a large multi-site church — the one job he was certain wasn't for him, and the one where he learned to lead a six-and-a-half-million-dollar organization. Now he leads Mission Charlotte, equipping nonprofit and ministry leaders across the region. Different rooms, different titles, one constant: RJ has spent his whole life figuring out people. Chris names it best late in the conversation — a golden thread of relationship running through every single mile. What makes this one worth your walk is how generously RJ tells it. He talks about the mentor he wishes he'd had, and how that gap became the reason he now says yes to coffee with twenty-somethings all over Charlotte. He talks about learning that purpose and a paycheck were never meant to be rivals. He names the word he's still working out — loyalty — and what it looks like to aim a strength well. He tells about a season of unemployment when he connected three other people to jobs, and says he'd do it again tomorrow. And he lets us in on the quiet joy of finding himself, in midlife, baking bread at the kitchen counter because he wanted to make something he could hold in his hands. If you've ever suspected that the gift you give away most freely is the one you're worst at using for yourself, lace up. This walk is for you. Worth adding to your pack • Give and Take, Adam Grant — the research behind what RJ lives instinctively, including the trap of the giver who never asks. • Working Identity, Herminia Ibarra — on midlife career transition, and why you act your way into a new identity rather than think your way in. • How to Know a Person, David Brooks — seeing others as a learnable craft, not a personality trait. • Emotional Intelligence 2.0, Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves — a practical on-ramp to the self-awareness RJ calls pivotal. • Halftime, Bob Buford — the classic on moving from success to significance in the second half. Connect with RJ • LinkedIn (the best place to reach him) — linkedin.com/in/rj-caswell-704 • Mission Charlotte — missioncharlotte.org • Faith Driven Jobs — faithdrivenjob.com

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  Episode #34

  #34: Madeline Smith : who are you becoming?

  Aug 3, 202658 minS1

  There wasn’t a day when I remember being better. But there was a day when I remember checking on him, and he was almost too light to feel.” — Madeline, on the slow lifting of depression On the Trail This Episode Some conversations you prepare for. This one, Gabe has been walking toward for nineteen years. In part two of our Daughters series, Gabe welcomes his daughter Madeline to the trail — a Gen Z college student, certified personal trainer, brand-new podcast host, and a young woman who has already packed and unpacked her life more times than most of us will in a lifetime. Born in South Carolina, raised barefoot in South Africa, uprooted at eleven, and now finding her own footing after her first year away from home, Madeline has thought hard about what it means to belong somewhere. Her answer reframes the whole question. Home, she says, was never the house. It was the people. And if that’s true, then every goodbye is less an ending than a handing-off — you carry what you became with them into whatever comes next. But this is not a tidy conversation. Madeline walks us into the hardest stretch of her story: the three-month gap between one life ending and the next beginning, when depression and anxiety arrived before she had names for either, and a thought she never asked for showed up on a back road in South Carolina. What happened next — a father pulling the car over, taking her hands, and refusing to let the lie stand — is one of the most quietly holy moments we’ve had on this show. Chris turns the microphone toward Gabe mid-episode to ask what it’s like to hear your daughter tell that story back to you. What follows is a father and daughter on the same path, walking at the same pace, for a little while in front of all of us. There is also levity: a rental car meeting a South African curb, an AI-generated Father’s Day card featuring strangers as family, and a party trick nobody saw coming. A NOTE FOR FELLOW TRAVELERS This episode includes an honest discussion of anxiety, depression, and a passing thought of self-harm experienced in childhood. It is handled with care and hope, but please listen when you have the room for it. If any part of your own story is close to the surface right now, you don’t have to walk it alone — in the U.S. you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, any hour of any day.

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  Episode #33

  #33: Daughters, Part One: Foraging the Journey with Maren Furr

  Jul 27, 20261h 1mS1

  “We long for security and to feel like we are on fully stable ground… but that is what God calls us to — to trust him. And it's not trust if you know at all times where you're stepping.” — Maren Furr On the Trail This Episode This summer, both of our households have adult daughters home from university — so we're walking a two-part series simply called Daughters. In Part One, Chris sits down (about thirty feet away) with his daughter Maren Furr, a newly minted twenty-one-year-old and theology student at the University of Edinburgh. Maren has lived a whole pilgrimage already: born in North Carolina, a childhood in France, tween years back in the States, and now teenage and university years in Scotland. That road has left her with what she calls a “split heart” — always slightly longing for the place she isn't — and a rare gift for seeing the world from more than one angle. The conversation finds its shape in an unexpected place: foraging. Maren has taken up gathering elderflower, dandelions, and (cautiously) mushrooms from the forest near home, and it becomes the episode's living metaphor — for a season of life spent out in the world discovering what's nourishing and what's poisonous, working hard for small harvests, and learning that abundance isn't always better. From there the trail winds through studying theology at a secular university, becoming okay with not knowing, embracing mystery as an act of trust, art as a balm for a wrestling mind, and what it looked like for her parents to raise third-culture kids with room to struggle and space to become. What's in Your Rucksack Why “where are you from?” is the hardest question a third-culture kid can be asked — and how a split heart becomes a gift What foraging in a Scottish forest taught Maren about slow work, small harvests, and the beauty of toil What happens to your faith when you study theology at a big secular university — and why Maren says it's the best thing that could happen to it Life isn't a line, it's a spiral: why coming back around to the same struggles is normal — and holy A father-daughter exchange on raising kids across three cultures, letting them struggle, and keeping your eye on thirty, not eighteen Maren's current favorites: burned CDs, Celtic animation, elf monologues, and a second run at The Lord of the Rings Keep Walking With Us Walk with us in person: explore upcoming pilgrimages at rucktheway.com Trail Notes: subscribe to our newsletter at rucktheway.com for reflections between episodes Share the trail: if this conversation walked with you, pass it along to a friend — especially a parent of a young adult or a student wrestling with big questions Support the journey: Ruck the Way is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift at rucktheway.com keeps these conversations on the trail.

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  Episode #33

  #33: Daughters, Part One: Foraging the Journey with Maren Furr

  Jul 27, 20261h 1mS1

  <p>“We long for security and to feel like we are on fully stable ground… but that is what God calls us to — to trust him. And it's not trust if you know at all times where you're stepping.”<br />— Maren Furr<br /><br />On the Trail This Episode<br />This summer, both of our households have adult daughters home from university — so we're walking a two-part series simply called Daughters. In Part One, Chris sits down (about thirty feet away) with his daughter Maren Furr, a newly minted twenty-one-year-old and theology student at the University of Edinburgh.<br />Maren has lived a...

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