MICROCOLLEGE: The Thoreau College Podcast

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 structure...

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 l...

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 who...

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 her...

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 fro...

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 spirit...

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 onli...

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...

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 movem...

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 Hig...

This week on the Microcollege podcast we explore the deeply important and little discussed question of who the farmers of the future will be and how they will be educated. Our guest is Christine Deck, co-owner of the Deck Family Farm in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Together with her husband John and their 5 kids, Christine runs a diversified organic farm that is also a remarkable residential hands-...

Philip Francis is the Director and Co-Founder of the Seguinland Institute, an innovative gap year program provider located in beautiful Georgetown, Maine. Philip is a native son of the region, where his parents settled to become homesteaders under the influence of Scott and Helen Nearing, authors of the early 20th century back-to-the-land classic Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply...

For the 50th Episode of the Microcollege Podcast, we checked back in with one of our favorite guests from the first few months of the show. Lene Rachel Andersen is one of the stimulating and ambitious thinkers we have met during this remarkable journey. A native of Denmark, Lene is an economist, futurist, Bildung activist, and author of many books in Danish and English. The occasion for this conve...

Jill Nephew, technologist and founder of Inqwire, joins the podcast for a thorough discussion on different forms of intelligence, questions of meta-crisis in the modern world, and solutions. Inqwire: https://www.inqwire.io/ Some books mentioned in this episode: The Art of Memory by Frances Yates The Book of Why by Judea Pearl Western Estoericism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Wouter J. Hanegraaf Wh...

Liz Rog believes in singing together as an ancient technology for belonging, a simple and powerful tool for restoring our connection in community. She sings with all ages, teaching simple songs that can be woven into the seasons of the year and the changes and challenges of our lives in play, at bedsides, at rallies and in rituals. Liz delights in helping folks rediscover their ancestral birthrigh...

Philippe Mesly is a writer and translator whose work examines intersections of political economy, religion, and environmental issues. He is also a trained horticulturalist and craftsperson. Julia Henderson is a writer whose work examines the intersections of religion and philosophy, with particular emphasis on Christian mysticism. She currently lives in Toronto with her cat, Duck. Explore the Orga...

Chris Barlow joins the podcast to talk about the High Mountain Institute in Leadville, Colorado and wax poetic on the importance of gap year experiences and alternative educational opportunities for young people in our time. Chris hails from Tennessee and has held myriad roles at HMI dating back to 2005 when he worked as a Spanish apprentice and English teacher. After a number of years working in...

Keri McWilliams joins the podcast for Gap Year Exploration Month, October 2023, to talk about the breadth and variety of Gap Year experiences a young person can find! Keri McWilliams joined the Gap Year Association as the organization’s Executive Director in January 2022. Born and raised in Montana, Keri currently resides in Missoula, MT where she also serves as an adjunct professor at the Univers...

The High Desert Center runs gap year programs for adventurous spirits from their home base in Paonia, Colorado, and extending out into Mexico, India, and other environs around the world. High Desert students learn to grow and prepare their own food, explore mindfulness practices practical folk arts, crafts and skills, all while living communally and engaging with rural and traditional lifeways and...

Ben Samuels & Max Feigelson are current Deep Springs College students who have joined the podcast this week to discuss their experiences at the infamous Deep Springs College cattle ranch campus for cowboy philosophers and future world leaders. Both Ben & Sam attended Bard High School in New York City. In the podcast, they remark on the drastic differences between Deep Springs and most othe...

Gordon S. Jones, NAS, Provost, Trustee, and Professor. M.Phil, Political Science, George Washington University; MA, Education, Stanford University; BA, U.S. History, Columbia University; adjunct faculty at Utah Valley University and Salt Lake Community College; co-founder of United Families of America (now United Families International). Served as staff to members and committees of the U.S. House...

Dawn Breeze is a creativity advocate, change agent, and internationally awarded artist, living and working in Germantown, NY. She consults on creativity and leadership with global organizations and progressive institutions, as well as with individual entrepreneurs and leaders. Breeze is committed to building community through creativity. Her social projects include: Place Corps, a progressive educ...

Jenny Finn has designed structures that foster vitality in people, communities, and organizations for nearly 30 years. She holds a Ph. D. in Sustainability Education and is a co-founder of Springhouse Community School in Pilot, Virginia. Jenny's research, mentoring, and teaching invites people to strengthen the relationship they have with themselves in order to serve the world with greater clarity...

Evan Edwards pioneered the Thoreau College Residency from August-December 2020, when he served as the “Captain of Nourishment” – drawing on deep experience as a professional chef to plan, cook, and serve meals for Thoreau College Semester Program students and staff, while also processing produce from Thoreau College gardens and helping students plan meals for their residential houses. In addition,...

Ethan Kobayashi-Hsieh is a practice researcher, theatre practitioner and transformational facilitator working in the intersection between actor training and 4E cognitive science. He is the co-founder of The Integrative Approach and Methodology of Active Transformation (TIAMAT), as well as the Artistic Director of 5tomidnight, an arts organization stretching across Taiwan, Indonesia and Japan, wher...