MICROCOLLEGE: The Thoreau College Podcast

MICROCOLLEGE: The Thoreau College Podcast

by Thoreau College
EducationNatureSociety & Culture
Hildegard College - Matthew J. Smith ~ The Great Books & Education for Entrepreneurs
In this episode, we continue our exploration of the landscape of educational initiatives inspired by the Great Books model of pedagogy with a look at Hildegard College, a young microcollege based in Orange County, California, with founder and President Matthew J. Smith. Named after the 12th century abbess, mystic, and polymath Hildegard of Bingen, Hildegard College combines a ecumenical Christian faith-based approach to the Great Books curriculum with a practical engagement with the world of entrepreneurship, marrying the life of the mind with the love of action in the world in the context of an intimate learning community in a unique way. Founder and president Matthew J. Smith has a degree in Shakespeare studies from USC and recently published an article in ARC magazine called "The Quiet Surge of Alternative Micro-Colleges" that offers a fascinating analysis of microcolleges as a business proposition within the disrupted landscape of higher education, as well well as one of the most comprehensive surveys of participants in this emerging field, including both religious and secular organizations from across the political and cultural spectrum. Matthew and Hildegard College were early adopters of the term "microcollege" (or "micro-college") so it was great to have him on the podcast! LINKS - Hildegard College - https://www.hildegard.college/ Matthew Smith's Substack - https://matthewjamessmith.substack.com/ ARC Magazine - The Quiet Surge Of Alternative Micro-Colleges https://arcmag.org/the-quiet-surge-of-alternative-micro-colleges/ Thoreau College - https://thoreaucollege.org/
E92
Sep 7, 2026
1:03:10
Zena Hitz - The Catherine Project & St. John's College
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 made a life of participating in and building communities through reading and conversation. In our conversation, Zena tells the story of how the Catherine Project took share during the COVID lockdowns as people all over the country reached out seeking community, connection, and an a place to examine core questions of life and meaning. Since 2020, the Catherine Project has grown from a handful of people discussing literature over Zoom to over 2000 readers meeting up virtually and in person in dozens of tutorials and discussion groups, with more joining every year. This is a phenomenon that challenges the prevailing narrative that reading and engagement with the classics is dead and I really appreciated Zena's passionate articulation of how this model of education is deeply egalitarian and liberating, as well has sharing much in common with the engagement with manual labor and the natural world as practiced at Deep Springs and here at Thoreau College. Zena's vision of human flourishing characterized by community, conversation, and intellectual riches for all is very inspiring! Links - The Catherine Project - https://catherineproject.org/ St. John's College - https://www.sjc.edu/ "Culture is What Preserves Difficulty: An Interview with Zena Hitz" - https://catherineproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/mika-bresolin-2024-culture-is-what-preserves-difficulty-an-interview-with-zena-hitz.pdf "Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of the an Intellectual Life" - https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691178714/lost-in-thought Thoreau College - https://thoreaucollege.org/
E91
Aug 31, 2026
1:07:00
Rethinking "Mental Health" in Finland ~ Markus Raivio and the Kukunori Culture Houses
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 health and social isolation among young people and adults of all ages across Europe and beyond. At the heart of the Culture House movement is a model of mental and emotional well being called "Guided Functional Peer Support" (GFP), which Markus' website describes as "a new approach to mental healthcare that, by enabling those with moderate to severe mental health challenges to focus on skill-sharing and co-creation in the arts to build self-confidence, resilience, and community, severs the often-debilitating link between diagnosis, illness, and identity... An innovative combination of proven theories from occupational therapy, human development, and special education, GFP focuses first on hope and recovery by creating spaces called 'Culture Houses' in which clients, who are mainly transitioning from institutionalized to outpatient care, tutor and learn from each other based on personal strengths and interests. They create together, too, to strengthen a sense of agency and collaboration in a safe space. Trained mental healthcare professionals are present as facilitators and enablers – not therapists. Clients drive decisions such as (what) music is created or plays are written and performed." Thank you, Markus Raivio, for this conversation and your important work in this area, which everyone working with young adults knows is so urgently needed right now. LINKS - https://www.markusraivio.com/ https://www.ashoka.org/en-nrd/fellow/markus-raivio https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2022/06/07/in-the-happiest-place-on-earth-a-revolution-in-mental-health-care/ https://thoreaucollege.org/
E90
Aug 28, 2026
57:27
Douglas Haynes - Teaching Toward Slow Hope
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 experiences at a regional public university and also shares four inspiring examples of place-based education at different colleges and universities in Wisconsin and Michigan, three of them public institutions. These stories and Douglas’ reflections about the role of higher education in the lives of young people today make this book both moving and highly practical for anyone working on the revitalization of higher education, whether they are inside an existing organization or starting something new. Douglas Haynes is a nonfiction writer, poet, and teacher. In addition to Teaching Towards Slow Hope, his 2017 nonfiction book Every Day We Live Is the Future: Surviving in a City of Disasters is a cautionary tale of urban inequality and the climate crisis that recounts two Nicaraguan families’ quests to reinvent their lives in Managua, one of the world’s most disaster-prone cities. Douglas’s essays and journalism have appeared in Orion, Longreads, Michigan Quarterly Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Progressive, Civil Eats, Boston Review, North American Review and dozens of other publications. Douglas grew up in Iowa and Illinois and studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He went on to study literature and languages in Germany, Ireland, and Guatemala while working as a dishwasher, farmhand, freelance writer, and English teacher. He returned to WI to teach English at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, as well as creative writing and environmental humanities. Teaching Toward Slow Hope - https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53868/teaching-toward-slow-hope "A Public Affair" on WORT-FM - https://www.wortfm.org/tag/douglas-haynes/ Douglas' Personal Website - https://www.douglas-haynes.com/ Jacob Hundt & Grace Greenwald about microcolleges on WORT - https://rss.com/podcasts/thoreaucollege/2599918/ Driftless Field School on WORT - https://www.wortfm.org/teaching-eco-literacy-in-the-driftless-bioregion/ Northland Collaborative - https://northlandcollaborative.org/
E89
Jul 27, 2026
1:02:20
Abby Falik - The Flight School
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 and thought leader, she thrives at the interface where inner growth drives societal change. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, NPR and PBS, and she serves as a Fellow at Stanford and Advisor at Harvard Business School. In this fascinating conversation, Abby problematizes the concept not only of a "gap year," but also the very notion of "education." Instead of a school in any conventional sense, the Flight School School offers a globally networked community mentors and young people engaged in a yearlong Fellowship which "reimagines the gap year as a Launch Year—a rebellious rite of passage," setting the stage for adulthood in a rapidly transforming world. In the words of the Flight School website, "Through inner work, wise accompaniment, and immersive travel, Fellows are seen, stretched, and supported in asking: Who am I beyond my achievements? What breaks my heart? What lights me up? How do we build what comes next? Our campus is in the cloud. Our community spans continents. Our curriculum is rooted in relationship, ritual, retreat, and reflection. The Fellowship is our lab – and just the beginning. As a convener and catalyst, we’re taking what we learn and offering it freely—to anyone ready to fly." The Flight School - https://theflightschool.org/ Abby's Substack - "Taking Flight" - https://abbyfalik.substack.com/ Tilting Futures (Formerly known as Global Citizen Year) - https://tiltingfutures.org/ Thoreau College - https://thoreaucollege.org/
E88
Jul 14, 2026
53:48
Doomer Optimism - Ashley Fitzgerald
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 husband Patrick relocated to Uruguay where they started the Rizoma Field School, which introduced American university students to rural life and the practice of sustainable agriculture in that country. She is now back in her hometown of Chicago, where she is raising her three children and continuing the work of the Rizoma Field School with high school students at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. Thank you, Ashley for a lovely conversation and for sharing it on our podcast! Rizoma Field School - https://rizomafieldschool.com/ Doomer Optimism Substack - https://substack.com/@doomeroptimism Doomer Optimism Podcast - https://doomeroptimism.substack.com/s/doomer-optimism-podcast Thoreau College - https://thoreaucollege.org/
E87
Jul 9, 2026
1:32:56
Pedagogies of Collapse - Ginie Servant-Miklos
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 to empowers young people drawn from all sectors of post-secondary education in the Netherlands to "face sustainability challenges with resilience, creativity, and care" in the context of "an interdisciplinary learning community, combining science, hands-on skills, and personal development to prepare the next generation for a just and sustainable world." Ginie is an experienced experimental educator and a scholar with a broad range of expertise, as well as a passionate practitioner and promoter of martial arts. She pulls no punches in her book and in our conversation about the dire situation we are in as a species and about how challenging it is to be a young person coming of age today. But her message, and the mission of the Bildung Climate School, is ultimately about hope and an embrace of the most profound facets of what it means to be human. Her work and writing is deeply marked by her own life experiences and the ideas of her intellectual heroes, including Simone de Beauvoir, Paulo Freire, Viktor Frankl, and Hannah Arendt, whose work we discuss in this conversation. Ginie Servant-Miklos is an engaged environmental educator with fifteen years of experience in education practice, research, and advocacy. She currently holds an Associate Professorship with an Education Profile at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Her research and education work focuses on developing innovative pedagogies for societal impact. She developed the Experimental Pedagogics educational design framework, is the Director of the Bildung Climate School and the author of "Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World as We Know It". She is a Leadership Fellow of the Comenius Network for educational innovators in the Netherlands. She is the founder and chair of the board of the FairFight Foundation, an organisation that provides girls and women from Zambia, Zimbabwe, and India with the mental and physical benefits of martial arts practice, as well as educational support. Ginie is a vocal activist for sustainability and gender equality, advocating for change through public engagements like TEDx talks, debates, podcasts, and other digital media outlets. Ginie obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Kent, an LLM in International Law from Kent Law School, an MA in International Relations from Sciences Po Lille, a PhD in Education Philosophy and Psychology from Erasmus University Rotterdam, and a post-doctoral research grant in Sustainability Education from Aalborg University in Denmark. She was also a visiting professor in Experimental Pedagogics at Tyumen University in Russia. Bildung Climate School - https://www.bildungclimateschool.com/ Pedagogies of Collapse - https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/pedagogies-of-collapse-9781350400498/ https://thoreaucollege.org/
E86
Jul 2, 2026
1:02:11
John C. Campbell Folk School - Bethany Chaney and Annie Fain Barralon
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 instructor and Programming Development Manager Annie Fain Barralon and Executive Director Bethany Chaney about this inspiring history and about what it is like to participate in a multi-day course in folk arts, craft, music, or dance on their beautiful campus in far western North Carolina. We talk about who attends and teaches these courses, as well as about opportunities for young people to spend longer periods at the Folk School such as their Work Study and Student Host programs (see links below). Finally, Annie Fain talks about what it is like to work as a creative artist in the context of a living folk arts tradition, walking the fine line between original innovation, cultural exchange, and loyalty to heritage. Annie Fain Barralon is a native of the crafts and music/dance community of Brasstown, North Carolina and the John C. Campbell Folk School's Programming Development Manager. She teaches a variety of classes at the school including book arts, clawhammer banjo, and several styles of dance–Appalachian clogging/flatfooting, English waltz clog, Northwest Morris, and Bal Folk (learned when she married into a French family). Annie Fain plays banjo and banjo uke for the all-woman string band, Blue Eyed Girl, and has danced with both Loafers Glory Clog Morris and the Green Grass Cloggers. She sells her handmade books, greeting cards, and original watercolors regionally and is a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. Bethany Chaney is Executive Director of the John C. Campbell Folk School. Prior to joining the Folk School, Bethany served more than 25 years in a variety of non-profit and public service roles, specializing in resource development, strategic planning, and community and economic development programming. She is an award-winning writer, a former NC Arts Council Fellow, and an avid maker of pine needle baskets, a craft she first nurtured as a Folk School student. In 2025 she was named by Country Living Magazine as a Top 100 Design Influencer as an arts advocate. John C. Campbell Folk School - https://www.folkschool.org/ JCCFS Work Study & Student Host Programs - https://www.folkschool.org/programs/student-host-and-work-study/ Find a Folk School near you! Folk School Alliance - https://www.folkschoolalliance.org/ Driftless Folk School - http://www.driftlessfolkschool.org/ Thoreau College - http://thoreaucollege.org/
E85
Jun 11, 2026
52:49
Anthroposophical Youth Movement - Adeline Lyons and Gabel Cramer
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 (Philmont, NY) and the Threefold Youth CoLab (Chestnut Ridge, NY), two anthroposophical artistic and life sharing organizations in New York State that have appeared previously on the podcast. Join us for a refreshing conversation with two visionary young people taking the lead on curating spaces for deep conversation and creative work around questions of vocation, meaning, spirituality, and the deep work we are called to do in our time. Adeline Lyons lives and works in the Threefold Community outside of New York City. She is involved as community organizer and event planner, a coworker of the North American Youth Section, editor, writer, and stage artist. She received a degree in Creative Writing from UW-Madison, and is also an alumna of Thoreau College! She keeps a Substack: @writingaworld Gabel Cramer is the director of development at Free Columbia, a community arts initiative that weaves together creativity, artistic practice, accessibility, and education. Along with this, he is an organizing member of the North American Youth Section, helping to run the finances, put on conferences, and collaborate with other passionate young people. He is sometimes a musician, sometimes a potter and sculptor, and often busy cooking, growing plants, and undertaking fun projects. After getting a master’s degree in community development and planning, he has found great meaning in his work in the intersection of community, art, youth, education, and spirit, though often wondering how to bring it all into balance in his own life. For North American Youth Section: nayouthsection.org For Futuring Now: https://www.nayouthsection.org/initiatives-1/futuring-now For Courage conference: nayouthsection.org/courage To support the Courage conference: nayouthsection.org/donate Threefold Youth CoLab: threefold.org/youth Free Columbia Residency Program: https://www.freecolumbia.org/residency-program
E84
Jun 7, 2026
58:37
Reyn Hutten, Lulah Entwistle - Outer Coast, Sitka, Alaska
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 Alaska Southeast suitable for an Associates Degree or transfer to a 4 year school. Join me as I speak with Outreach Lead Reyn Hutten and pioneer 2nd Year student Lulah Entwistle about entering higher education after growing up in a rural place, about the role of service learning in the context of tight knit local community, about the value of robust student self-governance, and about the impact of incorporating indigenous languages, storytelling, and culture into a full microcollege curriculum. Reyn Hutten is the Outreach Lead and periodic Summer Seminar Program Director at Outer Coast and has been in Sitka at Outer Coast for nearly 3 years. Hailing from the small island community of Wrangell, AK, Reyn is a long-time believer in (and beneficiary of) holistic, community-based, in-situ learning in southeast Alaska. She has focused on community building and education from many angles, including through her B.A. in ecology with a focus on the Arctic at Dartmouth College, as a field program coordinator, and as a ski and sea kayak coach. Reyn finds vibrance in many of life’s little moments but especially when moving her body outside, cooking, tinkering and connecting with people. Lulah Entwistle grew up homeschooled on a biodynamic farm in Middle Tennessee, where her family grew food to sustain themselves and ran a small CSA. When she is home, Lulah likes to ride her horses, play with the goats, and help on the farm. She is currently studying at Outer Coast and is in the process of finding a place to go next. For the past two years she has been walking around Sitka, listening to music and watching the mountains.
E83
Apr 17, 2026
1:12:01
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