MICROCOLLEGE: The Thoreau College Podcast

Muhammad Bassyouny and Ahmed Yehia are two of the founders (along with Alaa Ahmed) of Nour Holistic Education, which immerses students in the tradition, nature, and the ancient lifeways and wisdom of the Bedouin people living in the sacred region around St Catherine's monastery, on the slopes of Mt Sinai in Egypt. Drawing upon influences as diverse as Deep Springs College, the Danish folk high sch...

Ana and Justin from Gull Island Institute talk the importance of place-making in the landscape of higher education, including at their new initiative Gull Island Institute located in the Vineyard Sound, off the coast of Massachusetts. Raised in Maine, Ana Isabel Keilson has taught previously at the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies at Harvard University, as well as Deep Springs College, Colum...

Brandon and Maurielle reflect on their experiences at Thoreau College versus other more traditional institutions of higher education. Brandon also compares his experiences at Deep Springs College. Maurielle McGarvey is a theater artist and filmmaker from Houston, Texas. She is passionate about facilitating site specific creative opportunities for local communities. In addition to being a proud Tho...

Pavel Cenkl is the Director of Learning and Land, and Head of Schumacher College in Totnes, United Kingdom and previously served as the Dean of Sterling College Vermont. Pavel has worked for more than two decades in higher education in America and has always been drawn to colleges and universities whose curriculum fully integrates learning with practice and thinking with embodiment. Schumacher Col...

Dawn is a fellow with Fielding Graduate University's Marie Fielder Center for Democracy, Leadership and Education and is currently in the final stages of her Ph. D. journey. Dawn's area of focus combines her work as the facilitator of the Folk School Alliance and her study of transformational learning for social justice. The Folk School Alliance began in 2013 and includes over ninety North America...

Linda Conroy is a bioregional herbalist, herbal and traditional food educator and a community organizer. She dedicates her life to connecting with the green world as well as sharing the wisdom of the earth. Her primary mentors are the plants who never cease to instill a sense of awe in her daily life. Linda has a certificate in permaculture design, which she completed through the International Ear...

Zak Stein studied philosophy and religion at Hampshire College, and then educational neuroscience, human development, and the philosophy of education at Harvard University. While a student at Harvard, he co-founded what would become Lectica, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to the research-based, justice-oriented reform of large-scale standardized testing in K-12, higher-education, and business.​He is...

Miles Iton tells the story of the founding of the Lo-Fi Language Learning microcollege and the influences that shaped him and the program's pedagogy. The mission of the Lo-Fi Language Learning microcollege is "to modernize men's educational experiences and career prospects in the Humanities by designing a liberal arts experience around a pedagogy based on the five pillars of hip-hop; breaking, DJ'...

Rickey Glen Thomas "RT" preaches the gospel of draft animal power and agrarian education, describing a pedagogy borne from the musings of Wendell Berry. Rick Thomas is a horseman, farmer, author and educator who heads the Sterling College Wendell Berry Farming Program, located in Henry County, Kentucky. Sterling College: https://www.sterlingcollege.edu/ Wendell Berry Farming Program: https://www.s...

Kotaro Aoki describes his journey to merge the western liberal arts tradition with eastern contemplative and philosophical practices at his school Kotowari in Aizu Prefecture, Japan. 般社団法人 'KOTOWARI' "that which remains unchanging underneath the surface of change" Kotaro Aoki is the founder and director of KOTOWARI, an educational organization based in Japan. He has years of experience in des...

Mike Haasl of Rhinelander, WI joins Jacob for a discussion on the importance of responsible land stewardship, and the development of skills and capacities that might help a person acquire land without breaking the bank. Mike Haasl is a homesteader, engineer, and author living in northern Wisconsin. He studied and partied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked is an engineer for many yea...

Reinoud Meijer and Noam Hitsch join us from Sweden to talk about the International Youth Initiative Program, with special attention to the meaning and practice of the word "initiative". Reinoud Meijer (Born 1975 in Amersfoort, the Netherlands) has been involved with youth and education for many years. He organized, facilitated, initiated and founded a number of youth conferences, projects, and ini...

Eddy and Rose riff on the true identity of William Shakespeare. Eddy Nix is a Viroqua resident and proprietor of Driftless Books and Music, possibly Wisconsin's largest used bookstore, located in a 100-year old tobacco warehouse. He is a Shakespeare aficionado who has also worked as a teacher and theater director, and is currently the lead publisher at Ramshackle Press. Rose Bruce is a Viroqua res...

Chris Knapp is a father, homesteader, environmental educator and founder of Maine Local Living School. He is passionate about sharing pathways into relationship with the human and more-than-human communities through hand craft, homesteading arts and deep listening. Chris is endlessly fascinated by the exploration of why the world is as it is and the human potential for creativity and positive chan...

Laura Marcus weaves together a beautiful web of her educational and professional experiences, from her public school upbringing in Indianapolis, employment at Deep Springs College, to the founding of her own educational initiatives as an adult. Laura is committed to a vision of education that integrates the active life with the life of the mind. As co-executive director of Tidelines Institute and...

Vilhelm Skoglund is the secretary-general of Effective Altruism Sweden. In October 2022, Vilhelm and Effective Altruism Sweden launched Future Academy, a five month long free program aimed to equip university students and young professionals from around the world with the thinking, skills, and resources they will need to pursue ambitious and impactful careers. He has several board positions within...

Ilana Redstone outlines her work and approach towards tackling polarization on college campuses and beyond. Ilana Redstone is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Founding Faculty Fellow at UATX, and the Faculty Director of The Mill Center at UATX. She is the co-author of “Unassailable Ideas: How Unwritten Rules and Social Media Shape Discourse i...

Marcus Ford breaks down what makes a microcollege different from a small-liberal arts college, and talks about Flagstaff College, a microcollege initiative in Flagstaff, Arizona. Marcus Ford, Ph. D. is the co-founder of Flagstaff College and a retired professor from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. He is the author of several books, including Beyond the Modern University: Toward...

Dave, Justys, and Jacob trade tales of transformational wilderness experiences, and discuss the origins and importance of expeditionary learning as a field. Dave Puig has been a wilderness instructor for fourteen years, leading expeditions in the desert, the Arctic, the wondrous Northwoods, and into the minds of authors, social critics, and high school students. He developed the expedition-based L...

Eric and Brenna Anglada describe the origins of the Catholic Worker Movement and the more recent organization Nuns and Nones. Brenna Cussen Anglada is a founding member of the St. Isidore CW Farm in southwest Wisconsin, home of the Ho Chunk, Meskwaki, Sauk, and many other nations. She serves as the Religious Communities Liaison for the N&N Land Justice Project, and works with the Catholic Nati...

Lene Rachel Andersen expresses the importance of Bildung philosophy, describing its origins in 18th-century Denmark and impact on Scandinavian societies through to the present day. Lene Rachel Andersen is a Danish author, economist, futurist, and philosopher, President of Nordic Bildung, and co-founder of Global Bildung Network. https://www.nordicsecret.org/ Nordic Metamodern Podcast Global Bildun...

Jacob is joined by Frank and Emily of Outer Coast College to talk their story in Sitka, microcolleges, place-based education, and more. Frank Eccher is the College Launch Lead at Outer Coast in Sitka, AK, where he is charting a course to accreditation for the launch of Outer Coast College in fall 2024. Originally from a small town in Colorado, he has written on trout conservation and wilderness na...

John Vervaeke and Jacob discuss the importance of thinking, dialogue, and meaning, and explore ways to overcome the barriers we face today in understanding these facets of our humanity in the context of education for young adults and beyond. John Vervaeke, PhD, is an award-winning lecturer at the University of Toronto in the departments of psychology, cognitive science and Buddhist psychology, who...

Thoreau College is now accepting applications for our Spring 2023 Semester Program, a full time, in-person program incorporating intellectual work, manual labor, fine arts and folk skills, wilderness expeditions, and community self-governance. This is a perfect program for young adults who are mature, tenacious, curious, collaborative, open, idealistic, and ready to get their hands dirty literally...

Jonas Søvik joins the podcast and shares his experience as a student at a Danish folk high school, and the impact he think the folk high school model and the Bildung tradition can have around the world. Jonas Søvik is a 23-year old Danish university student currently studying psychology. Prior to entering university, he spent a year at the Vrå Folk High School in Vrå, Denmark where he experienced...