MICROCOLLEGE: The Thoreau College Podcast

On this episode of the Microcollege podcast, I spoke with Zena Hitz, one of the great contemporary advocates of the Great Books model of education and of the engaged intellectual life. Zena is a Tutor at St. John’s College and founder and president of the Catherine Project. She is the author of two books, Lost In Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life and A Philosopher Looks At The Religious Life. Starting with an immersion in the life of the mind during a Telluride Association Summer Program (TASP) at St. John's college when she was 17, Zena has ma...

For this episode of the podcast I spoke with Markus Raivio, a social entrepreneur and Ashoka Fellow who is leading a groundbreaking re-imagination of mental health care in the context of community in Finland. In our conversation, we explore Markus' journey from being a high school dropout and aspiring young musician and early experiences as a music producer, nurse, and music therapist. Today, Markus is the co-founder and CEO of Kukunori, a "national association for culture and well-being" in Finland, which is leading the creation of a diverse network of "Culture Houses" that are meeting the crises of mental...

For this episode we welcomed Professor Douglas Haynes into the studio at WDRT in Viroqua to discuss his beautiful new book Teaching Toward Slow Hope: Place-Based Learning in College and Beyond, published this spring by Johns Hopkins University Press. Douglas teaches English at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and also hosts the Monday sessions of "A Public Affair" on Madison's community radio station, WORT-FM.

Teaching Toward Slow Hope traces how students and educators across the Upper Midwest are remaking college into a place for connection, meaning, and collective resilience. In the book, Douglas talks about his own teaching...

For this episode of the podcast it was my great honor to speak with Abby Falik, one of the most articulate and passionate proponents of non-traditional developmental pathways for young adults in our time. Abby is a founder and futurist re-imagining how we animate, liberate and co-create. For two decades she has been a leading advocate and architect of a re-invented "gap year." In 2008 she founded Global Citizen Year (now known as Tilting Futures) and in 2022 she joined the Emerson Collective as an Entrepreneur in Residence to design a blueprint for taking the model to scale. A globally-respected entrepreneur...

In this special episode of the Microcollege Podcast, Ashley Fitzgerald and I interview each other for our respective platforms. Ashley is an environmental sociologist from Chicago who is co-founder of Doomer Optimism, which is a podcast, a Substack, and a growing eclectic community of people interested in localism, regenerative agriculture, cultivating meaning and community in the midst of technocracy, and generally seeking ways to imagine and build a hopeful future in spite of all the gathering doom and gloom. Ashley is also an educator in the microcollege vein - after a diverse education and young adulthood, Ashley and her...

On this episode we welcome back Ginie Servant-Miklos, founder and director of the Bildung Climate School in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to check in on how this initiative has evolved and also about her recent book, Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World as We Know it. The Bildung Climate School is in its third year and set to receive formal accreditation within Erasmus University Rotterdam, one of the great research universities of Europe. Deeply informed by the vision of "Bildung," the model of human development expressed in the Danish folk high schools, BCS seeks...

In this episode we learn about the John C. Campbell Folk School, located in Brasstown, North Carolina. Founded just over 100 years ago in 1925, the John C. Campbell Folk School was inspired by the Danish Grundtvigian folk high school tradition and established to serve the culturally distinctive, but economically depressed mountainous region of southern Appalachia. Today, it is one of the oldest and largest folk schools in North America and the guiding inspiration for dozens of younger folk schools around the country, including the Driftless Folk School here in Viroqua, Wisconsin.

In this conversation I speak with JCCFS...

On this episode of the podcast we speak with Thoreau College alumna Adeline Lyons and her collaborator Gabel Cramer about the diverse activities of the Youth Section of the Anthroposophical Society in North America, including the upcoming Youth Conference to be held August 3-7, 2026 in Fair Oaks California with theme "Courage: From Initiative to Idea to Initiative." We also discuss other conferences and gatherings organized by the Youth Section and Futuring Now, their journal of essays, poetry, and artwork published in hard copy thrice yearly (please subscribe!). We also discuss Gabel and Adeline's life and work at Free Columbia...

On this episode of the Microcollege Podcast we return for an update from one of the most inspiring success stories of the emerging microcollege movement. Rooted in the beautiful island community of Sitka, Alaska among the fjords and temperate rainforest of the southeastern panhandle of Alaska, Outer Coast is inspired by Deep Springs College and nourished by the unique cultural heritage of the Tlingit people of that region. Since 2015, Outer Coast has been developing as a peer and fellow traveler of Thoreau College, and now has launched a full 2-year undergraduate program granting academic credits through the University of...

In this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Antón Barba-Kay, a philosopher and scholar whose life includes time as a student at St. John's College and as a professor at Deep Springs College. As a scholar, Antón has focused on exploring how the internet and digital technology in general have come to shape our inner lives and our experiences of reality. Rooted in classical and German philosophy, Dr. Barba-Kay engages with questions of aesthetics and interior formation as he articulates a view of digital technology as a "natural technology" - i.e. "a technology so intuitive as...

On this episode we chat with Dr. Troy Vine with the Ruskin Mill Centre for Practice in the United Kingdom about a new Master of Arts program in Transformative Learning that will be launching this fall, offering a unique opportunity to explore the contemplative model of science pioneered by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and practiced by Henry David Thoreau, Rudolf Steiner, and other out-of-the-box thinkers. Not only is this a different, more holistic way of doing science - it is also a pathway to inner transformation.

After gaining a doctorate in particle physics from University College London...

This is the 80th episode of the Microcollege podcast! To celebrate this milestone, we would like to do something a little different. For this episode we will be sharing an interview that took place live on WORT 89.9 FM, Madison, Wisconsin’s community radio station. On February 2, Douglas Haynes, host of the WORT show “A Public Affair," interviewed me and Grace Greenwald of the Springboard Foundation about the state of the microcollege movement, including the origins and development of Thoreau College.

Douglas was a great interviewer and this conversation serves as a reintroduction for myself and Thoreau College, as w...

In this episode I speak with Matt Voz and Shawn Lavoie, two leaders of the Youth Initiative High School, one of the key local partners of Thoreau College here in Viroqua, Wisconsin. This is a special conversation, as I participated in the founding of YIHS in 1996 when I was a teenager and subsequently returned to teach there for over 15 years alongside Matt and Shawn as we learned how to be teachers and build community together. Today, 30 years after it began, YIHS remains an unique and exemplary school and has served as a key influence on the development of Thoreau...

In this episode of the podcast we dip our toes into the turbulent waters of current events in a conversation with Esther Crotser and Livian Roth-Amodt, two former students of mine and recent graduates of the Youth Initiative High School, our partner Waldorf-inspired high school here in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Since graduating in 2024 from YIHS, where students play a major role in governing, funding, and promoting the school, Esther and Livian have been living in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St Paul. For the past year they have been involved with a variety of political and social causes, including work...

On this episode we talk with Dr. Kristen Case about Henry David Thoreau and the enduring pedagogical relevance of his life and writing, as well as about the Monson Seminar, a full-scholarship three-week residential course for highly-motivated Pell-eligible and first-generation college students pursuing creative and research-based projects based in Monson, Maine, and accredited through the University of Southern Maine. Kristen is the Executive Director and Lead Faculty of the Monson Seminar, which is entering its 5th year. She is a lifelong teacher in elementary, middle school, and university settings, as well as an award winning poet and an important...

L. Jackson Newell is an American historian and philosopher of higher education, specializing in the study and leadership of progressive colleges such as Antioch College, Berea College, and Deep Springs College. He has served as professor of educational leadership and dean of Liberal Education at the University of Utah, and as president of Deep Springs College.

Newell accepted the presidency of Deep Springs College in 1995.[9][4] During his tenure, he led an $18 million capital campaign, rebuilt the physical plant, and recharged the endowment. After nine years, he returned to teaching in the University of Utah's Honors College.

Melanie Lenehan is the Principal and CEO of Fircroft College, a unique publically supported adult education institution located in the West Midlands in Birmingham, England's second largest city. The college was founded in 1909 by George Cadbury, Jr., a Quaker industrialist and philanthropist, who was one of the pioneers of the art and science of milk chocolate. Cadbury's educational vision was strongly influenced by the Danish folk high school model which emphasizes cultivating the development of a strong sense of personhood and belonging through non-competitive adult education in the context of small residential learning communities with multiple opportunities for formal...

In this episode of the podcast I spoke with Mette and Lars Højland, a Danish couple with decades of experience in folk high school education who are exploring new ways to take the essence of this transformative pedagogy beyond the walls of formal institutions and beyond the borders of Denmark, including to China and other lands. Mette grew up within the world of free schools and folk high schools inspired by the ideas of N. F. S. Grundtvig, the 19th century Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, and instigator of the folk school concept. Drawing on 22 years of teaching in s...

Lamplight is a free three week summer program located in rural northern Alabama where teens practice leadership and service by running the camp themselves and doing projects for their community. Along the way, campers learn real-world skills and how to live together as a community. This unique program is rooted by a strong sense of place and is inspired by the educational ideas of L.L. Nunn, founder of Deep Springs College and the Telluride Association, as well as by the radical folk school model of the Highlander Folk School. In addition to the summer program, Lamplight is part...

Elizabeth (Libby) Sanders is the Executive Director of Camphill Academy, which offers tuition-free higher education in anthroposophic inclusive social development. Her academic work at the intersection of ecology and spirituality in America initially led her to the Camphill movement in 2011. In the interim, she has conducted research on public policy and disability services, models of communal living, inclusion in communal contexts, and critical anthroposophic research methodologies alongside her work in Camphill. Libby lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with her partner, Clayton, and their cats.

https://camphill.edu/

https://research.camphill.edu/

Ivey Patton, founder of Gap Year Basecamp, is a passionate advocate for transformative travel experiences. As a dedicated gap year counselor helping young adults plan and thrive on travel adventures around the world, she guides young people through the complexities of independent travel and helps them choose from the vast number of amazing gap programs and opportunities.

After college and a decade of world travel, Ivey settled with her family in Durango, Colorado, where she’s worn many hats: teacher, small business owner, summer camp founder, and ski instructor. Fueled on caffeine and enthusiasm, she’s happiest when...

Kroka Expeditions is a non-profit wilderness expedition school and organic farm that fosters a living relationship with the natural world and the development of skilled, compassionate, and community-minded young people.

Working with youth ages 9 to 19, Kroka provides unique wilderness programs centered around the cultivation of consciousness and altruistic will. The container of multi-day expeditions traveling through wild places is one that pushes us as human beings to experience vulnerability and reliance on community (both human and non-human). In return, we are rewarded with humility, compassion, elation, a sense of reverence for the natural world, and a deep...

Jennifer is dedicated to work that builds strong and connected communities. She is the Founder of a non-profit network of barter-based folkschools called LifeSchoolHouse that began n Nova Scotia, Canada. This platform for grassroots skills sharing creates stronger mor interconnected neighborhoods and reduces the impact of social isolation by offering nourishing spaces where neighbors can learn, connect, and thrive. This project has been scaled globally and Jennifer is the first person in Atlantic Canada to receive the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship for her work.

Jennifer and her partner are also growing a new social enterprise in Nova Scotia...

Chris Higgins is Professor and Chair in the Department of Formative Education in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College where he co-directs the BA program in Transformative Educational Studies and the Ph.D. program in Formative Education. A philosopher of education, he has written on the existential dimensions of teaching and learning, the idea of education as a public good; humanism and liberal learning; imagination and aesthetic education; practice and vocational formation, and the experimental tradition in higher education. He is the author of two books, The Good Life of Teaching: An Ethics of...

For this episode of the Microcollege podcast we welcome Ezra Sullivan, of the Threefold Education Foundation in Chestnut Ridge, New York, one of the major centers of anthroposophical work and study in North America. This fall, Ezra will be leading an innovative new semi-individualized learning program called the Youth Co-Lab. This program aims to "rethink how society could reflect the nobility of the human soul" and is structured around three interconnected pillars:

Born in Los Angeles, Ezra Sullivan...

Over the past several months, Thoreau College has marked several milestones in our growth and development. As of this year, we are now able to offer transferable college credits for our summer and gap semester programs through a new partnership with Prescott College. And this summer we will be welcoming several students from Oberlin College and Stanford University to Wisconsin as interns and participants in our July Driftless Field School program through exciting new partnerships with those schools. Find out more about Thoreau College and apply to the Metamorphosis Gap Semester on our website www.thoreaucollege.org

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Stanton Davis is the Head of Voice and Speech at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, where he serves as speech and dialect coach for the graduate and undergraduate actors. Previously, he served in similar roles at Temple University's Theatre Department and SUNY New Paltz where he taught voice, acting, Shakespeare, dramatic literature, and stage combat.

Stanton received his MFA in acting from the University of Delaware's Professional Theatre Training Program, and his BFA from the University of Utah Actor Training Program.

Stanton has worked professionally as an actor (stage, film...

For this episode of the podcast I spoke with Craig Holdrege and Ryan Shea of the Nature Institute in Ghent, New York about the theory and practice of a very different way of doing science, informed and inspired by the work of the great German poet, scientist, and statesman, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In contrast to the reductionist paradigm of science as it is often practiced elsewhere today, the Goethean approach seeks a perspective on nature characterized by wholeness and interconnection through a sensitive and self-aware methodology in which the relationships between the phenomena and the observer are not...

On this episode of the podcast we talk with Grace Greenwald, Research Director at the Springboard Foundation for Whole Person Learning about the white paper she recently researched and wrote entitled "Distinctive Pedagogies that Address the "Meaning Crisis' in Higher Education:" Case Studies from Microcolleges and Living-Learning Institutes." This study is a marvelous new resource for the growing Microcollege Movement, featuring case studies of 4 exemplars of this new field: Thoreau College, Outer Coast, the Tidelines Institute, and the Seguinland Institute. Applying concepts from the work of cognitive scientist John Vervaeke on the "meaning crisis," Grace explores ways in which...

This week on the podcast we spoke with Drs. Rutger Engels and Ginie Servant-Miklos, who recently staged the "Bildung Climate School," a part-type summer pilot program in Rotterdam, the Netherlands that draws inspiration from the model of the Danish folk high school as described by Lene Rachel Andersen in The Nordic Secret as well as from the microcolleges in the United States. Carefully structured from a research perspective to test pedagogical strategies and program impacts for future prototypes and initiatives, the Bildung Climate School brought together students from differing tracks of the Netherlands' highly stratified post-secondary education system for 2...

In this episode of Microcollege, we speak with Felipe Medina and Jakob Seidler, two of the co-founders of Suna Barichara, an aspiring microcollege and educational center located in a remarkable rural community and dry tropical forest biome in the mountains of Colombia.

According to their website, Suna Barichara is "a living education platform created to support people become the authors of their lives and weave futures of connection and reciprocal flourishing of life. This is what we mean by growing whole... Suna offers an open registry and series of learning routes, that grant locals and visitors the...

Join us this week for a conversation with Hannah Schwartz about her life devoted to the service of community and people with disabilities in the context of the Camphill Movement. She was a founder and longtime leader of the Heartbeet Lifesharing Camphill Village in Hardwick, VT and is now engaged with the founding of a new community called Riverflow, in Monkton, VT. Riverflow aspires to create wholeness in life for everyone who is part of and connected to the community. United by meaningful work, community members with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities form friendships, gain vocational skills, and...

Patrick Doyle is a theater-maker, director, writer, poet, and dancer, who has spent a life time turning old buildings into theaters. Patrick is also a certified Waldorf teacher and thrilled to be bringing a new rendition of this production of GIVEN to Viroqua with the Thoreau College students.

RSVP on Facebook for the event here: https://www.facebook.com/share/EvgL6sWBFZV3arrg/

Reserve tickets here: https://thoreaucollege.ludus.com/index.php

This week on the podcast I speak with Kim Vaughan and Megan Durney of the Threefold Community Farm in Chestnut Ridge, NY, just outside of New York City. Threefold Community Farm is one of the key centers for the practice of biodynamic agriculture, as well as the training of biodynamic farmers through the Pfeiffer Center. Biodynamic agriculture is a spiritually-informed model of farming flowing from the work of Rudolf Steiner and it has had a big impact as one of the original forms of organic agriculture. Join us to learn more about the rich cultural community in which the...

This week's guest on the Microcollege podcast is Dr. Dan McKanan, a professor at the Harvard Divinity School who is one of the foremost American scholars of biodynamic agriculture and the Camphill communities, two influential movements applying the ideas of Rudolf Steiner in practical fields. In our conversation, we learn about Dan's own formative experiences in intentional communities with spiritual roots and a focus on radical social transformation, as well as the ways in which elite universities like Harvard sometimes fail to live up to their calling to help young people find their way to lives of service.

On today's episode we discuss the concept of "third places" with Dr. Richard Kyte, author of the forthcoming book Finding Your Third Place: Building Happier Communities (and Making Great Friends Along the Way). What is a "third place"? According to Dr. Kyte: "Your first place is home, your second place is work, and your third place is where you go to socialize. As more of our lives are spent online and in digital spaces, these often overlooked "Third Places" play a crucial role in keeping our communities vibrant."

Join me for a fascinating conversation with a longtime...

In this episode of the Microcollege podcast, join me for a fascinating conversation with Eric Schwarz, Co-Founder and CEO of the College for Social Innovation (CFSI), which offers semester-long immersive service learning internships in partnership with community organizations in the Boston area, as well as on college campuses throughout the northeast and midwestern United States. CFSI participants are primarily current college students who receive a semester of college credit from one of several partner universities, while living with other CFSI students and participating in supportive workshops and courses. This year, CFSI is also launching a version of their programming...

Today's guests are Andrea de la Cruz and Nathaniel Williams, leaders in the area of educational courses and the youth movement at the Goetheanum, located in Dornach, Switzerland. The Goetheanum is a remarkable building, a masterpiece of modern architecture nestled in the green foothills near Basel. It is also an organization that lies at the heart of anthroposophy, the spiritual and cultural movement flowing from the life and work of Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Waldorf schools. As such, the Goetheanum is home to a variety of artistic, scholarly, and social activities, as well as educational programs for youth...

For this episode, we step back to explore some of the current thinking and research on the subject of human flourishing with our guest Brendan W. Case who is Associate Director of Research at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University's Institute for Quantitative Social Science. Brendan brings a unique perspective to this topic as a Doctor in Theology and our conversation ranged broadly to include such topics as the advantages and pleasures of being a generalist, the crisis of loneliness in the lives of young people and seniors, and the difference between flourishing and happiness. Stick around to...

Blake Boles is one of the leading voices in the world of unschooling and a passionate advocate for alternative approaches to education of all kinds. He is the founder and director of Unschool Adventures, a travel program for self-directed learners, and is the author of Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?, The Art of Self-Directed Learning, Better Than College, and College Without High School. Blake and his work have appeared on The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, BBC Travel, Psychology Today, Fox Business, TEDx, The Huffington Post, USA Today, NPR, and the blogs of...