MICROCOLLEGE: The Thoreau College Podcast

Nov 05 2024 65 ep. 58 mins 7
MICROCOLLEGE: The Thoreau College Podcast artwork

MICROCOLLEGE is an exploration of the crisis in higher education and the innovative projects and thinkers working to address it, with a special focus on the human-scaled, place-based, meaning-oriented learning communities we call "microcolleges."

The podcast is hosted by Jacob Hundt, Founder of Thoreau College, a micro college rooted in the Driftless Region of rural southwestern Wisconsin, inspired by the model of Deep Springs College, Waldorf education, and Henry David Thoreau. This podcast is for thoughtful, motivated teenagers and young adults who are disappointed by the options available to them in post-secondary education, as well as their teachers, parents, counselors, and mentors, and anyone interested in the quality of higher education and its role within our culture.

Listeners will be introduced to new ideas and alternative opportunities for post-secondary education, as well as thoughtful criticism of mainstream models and practices at colleges and universities. Listeners will discover exciting educational programs to apply to, books to read, and thinkers to learn more about.

Learn more about Thoreau College and the microcollege movement at https://thoreaucollege.org/

  Education  Science
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Episode #64: Craig Holdredge, Ryan Shea - Goethean Science, Nature Institute, Ghent, NY

Nov 05 2024 67 mins  
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 else

Episode #63: Grace Greenwald - Pedagogies to Address the Meaning Crisis

Nov 01 2024 57 mins  
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

Episode #62 - Drs. Rutger Engels, Ginie Servant-Miklos - Bildung Climate School, Rotterdam, NL

Oct 30 2024 69 mins  
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. Care

Episode #61: Felipe Medina, Jakob Seidler - Suna Barichara, Colombia

Oct 08 2024 54 mins  
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 au

Episode #60: Hannah Schwartz - Riverflow Community, Monkton, VT

Oct 01 2024 48 mins  
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 aspir

Episode #59: Patrick Doyle - Wendell Berry, Metamorphosis, Theater

Sep 11 2024 54 mins  
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/Reser

Episode #58: Megan Durney, Kim Vaughan - Threefold Community Farm, Chestnut Ridge, NY

Aug 06 2024 61 mins  
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 far

Episode #57: Dr. Dan McKanan: Camphills, Intentional Communities, and the Spiritual Roots of Radical Change

Jul 17 2024 66 mins  
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 communi

Episode #56: Dr. Richard Kyte - Finding Your Third Place

Jun 18 2024 66 mins  
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

Episode #55: Eric Schwarz - College for Social Innovation, Boston, MA

Jun 10 2024 62 mins  
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. C