American essayist, poet and philosopher (1817–1862)
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A Note from James:In 1790, one of the easiest ways to get rich in America was the old-fashioned way: marry someone rich.George Washington did pretty well that way. Benjamin Franklin, meanwhile, was so deep in debt that he offered to marry a woman if her parents would mortgage their house to pay off his printing press debt. When they said no, he married someone else who had money.And back then, debt was not just annoying. It could land you in debtor's prison. Actual prison. And not just you—your wife and kids could go too.Fast-forward to the 1900s, and most Americans still were not buying stocks. Only a tiny percentage owned shares. Everyday people were gambling, playing the numbers, using dream-interpretation books to decide what lottery number to play, and trying to find some edge that would move them a little closer to security.My guest today, Joseph Moore, literally wrote the book on this: How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn't).The book is full of strange, funny, surprising stories about money in America: Franklin, Washington, debtor's prison, the Great Depression, bucket shops, real estate booms, FIRE, crypto, debt, index funds, and all the scams people keep falling for.But the bigger lesson is that the basic patterns have not changed as much as we think.People want security. People want freedom. People want hope. People want a way out. And whenever there is hope, there is usually someone selling a formula.Joseph has very little patience for the usual personal finance myths. Debt does not make you rich. Opportunity makes you rich. Real estate is not always a magic wealth machine. The stock market was not designed to be everyone's retirement plan. FIRE can work, but it can also become the CrossFit of personal finance. And optimism, marriage, mobility, risk, and solving other people's problems may matter more than almost anything else.If you think the rules for getting rich have changed completely, this conversation may convince you how little human nature has changed.Episode Description:Joseph Moore joins James to talk about the long, strange history of getting rich in America.His book, How to Get Rich in American History, looks at 300 years of financial advice—what worked, what failed, what people kept repeating, and what today's money culture keeps forgetting.The conversation starts in 1790, with George Washington, Martha Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Girard, debt, leverage, and debtor's prison. Joseph explains that many early American fortunes were built through risk, borrowed money, marriage, luck, and then—critically—de-leveraging over time.That becomes one of the core lessons of the episode: debt does not make people rich. Opportunity does. Debt is only a tool that allows someone to grab more of an opportunity than they otherwise could. But if the opportunity is not real, or the person cannot handle the risk, debt destroys them.James and Joseph then move into real estate. Joseph argues that real estate is a good way to build a modest middle-class fortune, but not usually the path to the biggest fortunes. In modern America, he says, real estate often functions as a short on the dollar, an income annuity in a low-dividend world, a tax shelter, and a way for ordinary people to use leverage they could not access anywhere else. But that does not make buying a house automatically smart. Renting versus buying depends on age, mobility, location, family needs, inflation, taxes, maintenance, transaction costs, and opportunity cost.The conversation then turns to the stock market. Joseph challenges the usual historical charts that claim anyone could have invested a fixed sum in 1929 and held forever. Most Americans could not invest that way. There were no index funds, mutual funds had high fees, and buying an index directly required enormous capital. Instead, everyday people went to bucket shops, bet on price moves, played the numbers, and treated gambling as a kind of financial hope.James and Joseph also discuss passive investing, shadow indexing, the rise of ETFs and 401(k)s, and the way the stock market has become a mass retirement promise. Joseph points out that this is historically new. For most of American history, no ordinary person would have expected to retire on the stock market.From there, the episode moves to FIRE: financial independence, retire early. Joseph has lived part of that story himself. He built enough wealth through rental real estate after 2008 to stop working for a period, only to discover that early retirement was not automatically fulfilling. He compares FIRE to CrossFit: extreme, demanding, sometimes powerful, sometimes injurious, and not a lifestyle most people actually want.The final section asks the big question: What has consistently worked?Joseph boils the lessons down to five pillars: solve other people's problems, take risks, move toward opportunity, marry well, and believe you can. James adds that optimism matters because it keeps people in the game long enough to get more shots on goal.The result is a conversation about money, but also about history, risk, luck, marriage, mobility, discipline, scams, and the difference between getting rich and staying rich.What You'll Learn:Why early American wealth often involved marriage, leverage, luck, and risk.How George Washington's marriage to Martha helped fund the Washington we remember.Why Benjamin Franklin's public advice about debt did not match his own early financial behavior.What debtor's prison meant in early America, including the risk to families.Why debt is a tool, not a wealth strategy by itself.Why opportunity—not debt—is what actually makes people rich.Why real estate can build middle-class wealth but rarely creates the biggest fortunes.How buying a home can reduce mobility and opportunity, especially for younger people.Why renting versus buying is situational, not a universal rule.Why most Americans historically could not invest in the stock market the way modern charts imply.What bucket shops and “the numbers” reveal about everyday financial hope.How passive investing changed the purpose of the stock market.Why stock-market concentration is not new, but mass participation is.Why FIRE can work mathematically and still fail psychologically.How older financial-independence stories often hid trust funds, inheritances, or outside support.Why inflation is one of the biggest risks to early retirement.Why getting rich and staying rich require different behavior.Why successful people often take risk early and reduce risk later.Why optimism is financially useful when it keeps people in the game.The five recurring pillars Joseph sees across American wealth-building history.Timestamped Chapters:[05:00] How to Get Rich in 1790James asks Joseph how someone got rich in early America, starting with George Washington, Martha Washington, and marriage as a financial strategy.[07:24] Stephen Girard and Benjamin Franklin's DebtJoseph compares Stephen Girard's leveraged rise with Franklin's messy early business debts.[10:29] Debt Does Not Make You RichJoseph explains that opportunity creates wealth, while debt simply lets someone reach for more of that opportunity.[11:23] Debtor's Prison Was RealJoseph explains why failing in the 1790s could mean prison not only for the debtor, but for the debtor's family.[12:25] The Real Estate MythJoseph argues that real estate can build modest wealth, but rarely creates the biggest fortunes.[13:43] Real Estate as a Short on the DollarJoseph explains modern real estate as an inflation bet, income annuity, tax shelter, and leverage tool.[15:22] You Need an EdgeJames argues that every bet has someone on the other side, which means investors need to know what their advantage actually is.[16:18] Beating the Market, Missing the MomentJoseph tells the story of shorting Jim Cramer stock pops, beating the market net of theory, losing to fees, and missing his daughter's first steps.[19:56] Shadow Passive InvestingJames and Joseph discuss hedge funds, index tracking, fees, and the way much of Wall Street quietly follows the same big benchmarks.[20:31] The Index RevolutionJoseph explains why Vanguard's 1976 index fund changed investing for ordinary Americans—and why passive investing may create new structural risks.[24:24] The Four Percent of Stocks That MatterJames and Joseph discuss stock-market returns, T-bills, concentration, and why a small number of companies drive most gains.[25:16] The Second Bank CrashJoseph compares modern market concentration to the 1830s, when the Second Bank of the United States made up a huge share of the stock market before collapsing.[26:21] The Stock Market as a Retirement PromiseJoseph explains why turning the stock market into a mass retirement strategy is historically new.[29:58] The Problem With “The Chart”Joseph criticizes the classic financial-advisor chart that assumes someone in 1929 invested a large sum, held forever, and never touched it.[31:17] Bucket Shops and Playing the NumbersJoseph explains how everyday people used gambling, bucket shops, and lottery-like games as financial hope when stock ownership was out of reach.[34:04] The Mean Moves Through TimeJoseph explains why history is not physics and why the “average” keeps changing as the economy changes.[35:49] Renting vs. BuyingJames and Joseph debate the homeownership myth, maintenance, taxes, transaction costs, mobility, family stability, and when buying can make sense.[41:02] FIRE and the Question of EnoughJames asks how much is enough in 2026, and Joseph explains why the answer depends on location, expectations, security, and lifestyle.[44:24] FIRE as the CrossFit of Personal FinanceJoseph compares FIRE to an extreme discipline that can work for some people but injure others if they push too hard.[45:38] Geoarbitrage and Selling the DreamJames and Joseph discuss moving somewhere cheaper, Instagram FIRE influencers, and the difference between living the dream and monetizing the dream.[46:00] The Long History of Financial IndependenceJoseph traces earlier versions of FIRE through Sylvester Judd, Thoreau, Emerson, and Helen and Scott Nearing.[49:17] Inflation and the FIRE RiskJoseph explains how Your Money or Your Life and bond-heavy financial independence strategies ran into changing interest-rate realities.[50:23] Five Pillars of Getting RichJoseph lays out the durable lessons: solve problems, take risks, move more, marry well, and believe you can.[53:43] Marriage, Optimism, and Staying in the GameJames and Joseph talk about supportive partnership, optimism, savings discipline, and why staying in the game increases opportunity.[56:11] The Line Between Optimism and RecklessnessJoseph distinguishes productive optimism from gambling and explains why control over outcomes matters.[58:28] Getting Rich vs. Staying RichJoseph explains why many wealthy people take risk early, then de-lever over time to keep what they built.[01:00:00] Leverage, Trading, and the Guy Who Never StopsJames and Joseph discuss extreme leverage, Bitcoin futures, Jesse Livermore, gamblers, and why some people cannot walk away.Additional Resources:Joseph Moore - History HelpsHow to Get Rich in American History - Book PageHow to Get Rich in American History - Google BooksNext Big Idea Club: “The Changing Rules for Getting Rich in America”Fast Company: “How the rules of getting rich in the U.S. change with every era”The Motley Fool Interview with Joseph MooreMeb Faber Show InterviewSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Daryl Williams Jr. was called a "detriment to student safety" his first year teaching. Two years later he was Teacher of the Year. He did it twice. On The Modern Man Podcast, Daryl sits down with Ted Phaeton to break down the transformation, the ceiling moment that made him walk away from his dream job, and the 3 Drivers of New Teacher Retention that any leader (in any industry) can steal. Daryl is an educator, speaker, author of 99% Human, 1% Amazing, and the founder of a teacher-retention consulting company he launched in 2021 after sitting in a principal's chair being told he couldn't earn more than $64K as a first-year assistant principal despite years of impact. His mission: guide a million students toward lives of choice, not circumstance. In this conversation: the terrible-teacher-to-2x-Teacher-of-the-Year transition (and what actually changed on the inside), the 99% Human / 1% Amazing framework (the DNA thesis that reframes your superpower), non-cognitive skills as the real predictor of long-term success (backed by University of Chicago research), the difference between settling and being content, the runaway question every operator needs to ask themselves — are you running to something or running from something — the 3 Drivers of New Teacher Retention (relevant far beyond education), the parent-teacher engagement research that fathers especially need to hear, and Daryl's signature line — everything is figure-outable. Chapters: 00:00 Detriment to student safety 01:28 Welcome brother — Ted's intro 02:02 Terrible teacher (everybody said so) 03:38 The transition — MVP over Rookie of the Year 05:22 What authentic leadership actually is 07:44 99% Human, 1% Amazing (the DNA thesis) 10:14 Ikigai and the trap of working only on your weaknesses 12:26 Who wrote the script? (Ted's reframe) 14:17 Chart your own path — Thoreau's rule 17:20 Non-cognitive skills as the real predictor of success 20:06 Growth mindset — Carol Dweck research + Chicago data 21:48 Settling vs. being content 23:30 Ted's own apartment-in-Greenville revelation (28 years old) 25:34 Daryl's ceiling moment — the $64K conversation 28:11 How to actually stop teacher turnover 30:37 The salary question (and what it reveals) 32:27 Change happens inside before outside 32:48 THE 3 DRIVERS OF NEW TEACHER RETENTION 33:57 Who needs to hear this most — teachers vs. leaders 36:02 Leaving loud (Mick Unplugged's frame) 37:17 Running to vs. running from 39:48 Parents — the question nobody's asked 42:49 The father-engagement research every dad should hear 44:28 Master the subjects that matter (grit, resilience, tenacity) 46:13 Ted on pledging a fraternity and "figure it out" 47:31 Where to find Daryl 48:58 The heaviest question — called for greater 50:34 Ted's recap
On this episode, we're talking about an intellectual movement that changed the world — and was born right here in the Boston area. From Walden Pond to "Self-Reliance" to one of the first great feminist thinkers, Transcendentalism produced enduring literature and revolutionary ideas. Princeton professor Peter Wirzbicki is here to explain it all. Zoo360. A.J. Brown drama. Have feedback on this episode or ideas for upcoming topics? DM me on Instagram, email me, or send me a voice memo. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Henry David Thoreau was not a traditional Christian, and yet he was a deeply, profoundly religious man. In this episode, Jacke talks to Lydia Willsky-Ciollo about her book Wildness: Henry David Thoreau and the Making of an American Theology, which describes how Thoreau's experiences in nature helped him imagine and develop a distinctly American theology of the wild. PLUS Douglas Clark (The Will in English Renaissance Drama) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL OFFER! For a limited time, enter promotion code SHIP26 to get free domestic or international shipping! (Available in the U.S., Canada, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Iceland, Estonia, Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand.) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Misbehave, make something beautiful, and try to win.” — Curtis White's motto for resistance How to say no to fascism? Curtis White, the literary thinker dubbed “the splendidly cranky utopian,” has published what he calls a “manifesto” of “resistance.” On Resistance, the 75-year-old White told me, is his last work of non-fiction. He still has worlds to invent, novels to write. Enough with the manifestos. But don't expect a program. On Resistance is more of an anti-manifesto. “That's not for me to say,” White responds when asked what, exactly, we're supposed to do to resist fascism. His resistance is cultural. It's an attitude. Borrowing from Ted Gioia's subversive history of music, White likes the idea of “psychic treason.” Its patron saints are the first dropouts, romantics like Wordsworth and Coleridge who rejected the military, clergy and family to write poetry in the countryside. But On Resistance isn't simply sixties nostalgia. White, a veteran of Berkeley and the Haight, prefers the Nietzschean imperative to forget the past and move on to the next joyful deed. So the only good manifesto is the anti-manifesto. If you want to say no to fascism, become a cranky utopian. Or at least pick up On Resistance. Five Takeaways • Psychic Treason. White's resistance is not conventionally political — Trump appears once or twice, party politics not at all. Borrowing “psychic treason” from Ted Gioia's Music: A Subversive History, he argues that the arts are subversive by nature: sometimes formally, sometimes by allying with social movements. His founding example is the Romantics, the first dropouts — Wordsworth and Coleridge refusing the military, the clergy, and the family estate to write poetry in the countryside, declaring cultural war once the church was out of the way. The treason White wants is the one the arts commit constantly, whether or not anyone calls it politics.• Not Nostalgia — Nietzsche. The sixties made White: Berkeley in high school, San Francisco after, and the formative discovery that his country “had lied to me” and was indifferent to whether he lived or died. But On Resistance opens with the confession “I am living in a world that no longer exists” — and refuses to make anyone else live there. One chapter is bluntly titled “Forget The Beatles.” His position is Nietzschean: move on to the next joyful deed. And the rot, he insists, didn't start with Trump but with Reagan — the decades-long withdrawal of public money from public goods, education above all.• The Three False Resistances. The book's first half is ideology critique: our culture says resistance is unnecessary because it has already been provided — by philanthropy, virtuous corporations, and liberalism. White's exhibits: Steve Jobs Buddha-branding the counterculture to sell machines to people who thought they were subverting something; the “big green” foundations (via Mark Dowie) taking over grassroots fights and defanging them; the Gates Foundation vaccinating children against polio downwind of a polluter it was invested in. Philanthropy, he argues, self-limits to protect the source of its own wealth. Patagonia may be the quiet exception that proves the rule.• Dropping Out, Together. White's alternative is dropping out — plural: doing something else, and doing it with other people. The organic farms and farmers markets that have created communal well-being in most American cities; FC2, the author-run press he co-founded with Ronald Sukenick, past its fiftieth anniversary; the thriving-but-invisible independent presses — Graywolf, Coffee House, Rochester's Open Letter — for which he's now plotting a group Substack. The obstacle is the money jail: everyone's struggle for money limits what it is possible to do. The goal isn't overturning the status quo. “What we need right now is companions.”• Misbehave, Make Something Beautiful, Try to Win. White's motto since The Middle Mind — the making beautiful needn't be art; the trying to win is where misbehavior gets socialized. His lineage runs Thoreau, Whitman, William Carlos Williams, and above all John Berger: Marxist, art critic, poet, writer of lively living books. His Marxism, such as it is, is the humanist 1844 Manuscripts — alienation, not expropriation — via Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man. And the book itself is the argument: playful and fierce, a performance that moves like a novel, reinvigorating worthy old ideas rather than hunting new ones. At 75, it's his last nonfiction — written in a spirit of play, to be left in one. About the Guest Curtis White is a novelist and social critic whose books include Memories of My Father Watching TV, The Middle Mind, The Science Delusion, and Living in a World That Can't Be Fixed. Called by Elle “the most inspiringly wicked social critic of the moment,” he is co-founder, with Ronald Sukenick, of FC2, the publisher of innovative fiction run collectively by its authors, and taught English for many years at Illinois State University. His new and, he says, final work of nonfiction is On Resistance: A Manifesto (Melville House, August 11, 2026). He lives in Port Townsend, Washington. References: • On Resistance: A Manifesto by Curtis White (Melville House, August 11, 2026). Jeffrey St. Clair: “a trail guide through our disorienting and perilous political landscape.”• Music: A Subversive History by Ted Gioia — the source of “psychic treason” and the argument that the arts subvert by nature.• The Middle Mind by Curtis White — where the motto was coined: misbehave, make something beautiful, and try to win.• Jon Taplin in Rolling Stone — the recent essay asking whether the counterculture can rise again, and a recent Keen On conversation in the same key.• One-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse — the Western Marxist tradition, via the 1844 Manuscripts, that taught White to worry about alienation rather than expropriation.• FC2 — the author-run press of innovative fiction White co-founded with Ronald Sukenick, now past its fiftieth year. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 3,000 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting. WebsiteSubstackYouTube
Send us Fan MailWhat if your teen's complaint of "I'm bored" is not something to fix? It's something to encourage?In this episode of The Conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein explores the value of unstructured downtime for adolescents. Drawing on neuroscience — including Marcus Raichle's research on the brain's default mode network — Amy explains how boredom activates self-reflection, empathy, imagination, and creative problem-solving, all essential for teen identity development.Amy shares personal reflections on rest, unpacks why over-scheduling and screen time crowd out this vital internal reflection, and offers practical contemplative practices parents can invite teens to try, from sensory awareness exercises to "sauntering" inspired by Thoreau. Tune in for a compelling case to protect unstructured time this summer — and give your teen the space to simply be.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode please leave a review! Your review supports our podcast to reach more educators and share the importance of creating more conscious classrooms. We are committed to sharing insights that transform outlooks and inspire with what's possible. Subscribe so you don't miss a single episode and Review so your friends can listen too. Visit Inner Strength Education for more on the great work of the Conscious Classroom. Bringing mindfulness, compassion, and systems thinking to empower young minds. Get your copy of the award-winning, #1 bestseller The Conscious Classroom: The Inner Strength System for Transforming the Teenage Mind.
A thought from Thoreau.
Mary Morrissey unpacks Thoreau's line about advancing confidently — and the setup inside it that almost everyone skips. She explains why the universe can't cash a vague check, why most people set goals for what they think they can have instead of what they want, and how confidence works more like electricity than magic. This episode will challenge you to give your imagination something worth building.Source: Moving Forward with Confidence | Mary MorrisseyHosted by Sean CroxtonFollow me on InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
For decades, cabins around Maine's North Pond were burgled by someone who took food, books, and propane — and fixed the doors on his way out. Locals called him the North Pond Hermit, and plenty of them doubted he existed at all. Then, one April night in 2013, a silent alarm at a summer camp brought a game warden face to face with a man carrying stolen groceries and a secret almost too big to believe. What he told police that night launched one of the strangest criminal cases in Maine's history — and left an entire state arguing over what, exactly, he was guilty of. Julie and Kaycee unravel how he pulled it off, what it cost the people around that pond, and the one question the courts never fully answered. 00:44 Show Intro And Setup 01:06 Caught In The Kitchen 03:32 North Pond Burglar Legend 07:34 Pine Tree Camp Sting 10:14 Who Is Christopher Knight 12:43 Hidden Camp And Winter Routine 16:11 Survival By Burglary 20:00 Close Calls And Capture 21:44 Jail Fame And Finkel Interviews 23:57 Court Program And Sentencing 26:58 Stillness And Final Thoughts 30:36 Outro And Takeaway Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreaon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcast Email us! thecruxsurvival@gmail.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/ Get schooled by Julie in outdoor wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/ REFERENCES: "Christopher Thomas Knight," Wikipedia (accessed July 2026) — biographical overview, camp details, 2012 cabin encounter, Bellavance discovery. Finkel, Michael. *The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit.* Knopf, 2017. (Primary source for Knight's account of the woods years.) Finkel, Michael. "The Strange & Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit," *GQ*, August 2014. "Why the North Pond Hermit Hid From People for 27 Years," *National Geographic* interview with Michael Finkel, 2017 — family background, Hughes quote, Thoreau comparison, camp location. "'North Pond Hermit' Knight completes specialty court program," *Kennebec Journal / CentralMaine.com*, March 23, 2015 — sentencing, Mills and McKee quotes, Pine Tree Camp surveillance and arrest details, Willard-Robinson quote. "North Pond Hermit accepted into alternative sentencing program," *Sun Journal*, September 14, 2013 — indictment, Co-Occurring Disorders Court terms, DA Maloney statements. "North Pond Hermit out of jail, doing well in alternative program, DA says," *Bangor Daily News*, November 22, 2013 — release date, program conditions, statute-of-limitations point. *State v. Knight*, Maine Supreme Judicial Court, 2016 (via FindLaw) — plea structure, sentence, restitution figures, vacated $1,125, dissent on victim impact. "'North Pond Hermit' balks at paying costs for removal of campsite," *Portland Press Herald*, April 26, 2016 — Perkins-Vance arrest details, restitution appeal, songs/documentary/marriage-proposal detail. "10 Years Ago, the Mystery of the North Pond Hermit was Solved," Q106.5 (Townsquare Media Maine), April 2023 — local lore, unlocked doors, thief repairing damage. "A Q&A with The Stranger in the Woods author Michael Finkel," *Down East Magazine*, March 2017 — Finkel's reporting process, ~500 journalists, "dilettante." Hazlitt interview with Michael Finkel, 2017 — camp construction (magazine floor, propane kitchen, single chair), forest density. "Book Review: The Stranger in the Woods," *Real Change News*, August 23, 2017 — forensic evaluation ("complete competency"; possible Asperger's, depression, schizoid personality disorder), "stillness" quote. "Christopher Thomas Knight: The North Pond Hermit," HubPages/Discover — $395 detail, spare-key method, "I just walked away" attribution. (Secondary aggregator; cross-check flagged above.) Byrd, Richard E. *Alone.* 1938. (Basis for the Antarctic comparison.) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
What if the hive is not merely a colony, but a field of intelligence?In this special Listening Field conversation, we welcome beekeeper, teacher, and author Jacqueline Freeman into a deep exploration of communication with honeybees.After moving to a biodynamic farm in southwest Washington and beginning her beekeeping journey in 2001, Jacqueline quickly sensed that conventional approaches did not honor the true nature of bees. Over time, through reverent observation and heartfelt presence, she began to experience the hive as something far more than a biological system. She encountered bees as conscious collaborators, responsive partners, and teachers of collective intelligence.In this conversation, we explore:• What it means to communicate with bees• How a bee-centric approach reshapes beekeeping practices• The difference between managing bees and being in relationship with them• What bees reveal about cooperation, sovereignty, and collective consciousness• How humans can re-enter sacred partnership with the more-than-human worldJacqueline's work bridges biodynamic agriculture, natural beekeeping, and lived experience of interspecies communication. Her internationally distributed book, Song of Increase, opened the hearts of thousands to a more compassionate and participatory way of being with honeybees.Together, we listen into the subtle field of the hive — and consider what becomes possible when we approach bees not as resources, but as wise elders guiding us toward a more coherent world.Whether you are a beekeeper, a gardener, or simply someone who senses that communication in the living world runs deeper than we've been taught, you are warmly invited.The Song of the Hive is part of the 2026 Listening Field Series, ONE's year-long exploration of communication in the more-than-human world.Jacqueline Freeman is a beekeeper, teacher, and author devoted to restoring respectful partnership between humans and honeybees. She and her husband Joseph moved to their biodynamic farm in southwest Washington in 2001, where Jacqueline began keeping bees and quickly sensed there must be a more compassionate way to care for them—one that honors their innate intelligence and the way bees live in the wild.Over the years, Jacqueline developed and teaches a bee-centric approach that blends natural beekeeping practices with direct observation and deep relational presence. Her work invites beekeepers to shift from managing bees to being in conscious partnership with them.She is the author of Song of Increase: Listening to the Wisdom of Honeybees for Kinder Beekeeping and a Better World (Sounds True), now published internationally in multiple languages, and co-author of What Bees Want: Beekeeping as Nature Intended, a practical guide to creating natural habitat and supporting thriving colonies.Jacqueline has spoken at the Organic Beekeepers Conference, Women in Agriculture gatherings, and treatment-free beekeeping conferences across North America and Europe. She appears in the documentaries Queen of the Sun, Dancing with Thoreau, and the French film Abeilles: La Voix des Ruches. Through the USDA, she has worked with rural farmers and beekeepers in the Dominican Republic using historic, respectful beekeeping methods.Before dedicating her life to bees, Jacqueline founded a holistic health center and a women's crisis center, and served on faculty for a Structural Integration school. In 2003, she and Joseph founded a school of Equine Structural Integration.At the heart of her work is a simple but profound premise: bees are not livestock or commodities, but conscious collaborators. Through careful attention, humility, and partnership, Jacqueline invites us to rediscover what becomes possible when we meet honeybees as teachers.Learn more about Jacqueline at her website: https://www.spiritbee.com/Support the show
This is Heather Hansman's third appearance on the podcast, and if you've been listening for a while, you know how much her work has shaped my own understanding of the West. Heather is an award-winning journalist and the author of "Downriver" and "Powder Days"—two books I reference constantly—and she's back today to talk about her brand-new book, Fierce Country: The Untold Story of Three Women Who Ignited America's Love for the Wild, which hits shelves the same day this episode is released. "Fierce Country" tells the stories of three women who were pivotal in shaping how we think about recreation and conservation today, yet whose stories have largely gone untold: Georgie White, one of the first Grand Canyon river guides; Anne LaBastille, an off-the-grid Adirondack guide and pioneering climate scientist; and Dolores LaChapelle, a legendary powder skier and environmental philosopher whose ideas helped launch the deep ecology movement. These are three complicated, larger-than-life characters, and Heather weaves their wild adventures together with her own personal story in a way that makes the book resonate no matter who you are. As always with Heather's work, it introduced me to ideas I didn't even know I needed to be thinking about. Heather and I talked about how she chose these three women and why their stories were left out of the history most of us learned, and we dug into some of the big ideas woven throughout the book—the heroine's journey versus the hero's journey, the superwoman myth, and the surprising research on men and women in outdoor sports. We discussed the double standards that outdoorswomen face, especially as parents, and the culture of harassment that unfortunately still exists in the outdoor world. We also chatted about Heather's recent investigative reporting on bots gaming the recreation.gov permit system, the importance of journalism and speaking truth to power, and how five years of living with these women's stories has changed the way Heather moves through the world. I loved this conversation, and I can't recommend "Fierce Country" highly enough—the book is out today, so be sure to click through to the episode notes and grab a copy. --- Heather Hansman Fierce Country: The Untold Story of Three Women Who Ignited America's Love for the Wild Heather's First and Second M&P episodes Full episode notes and links: mountainandprairie.com/heather-hansman-3 --- THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: Mountain & Prairie is listener supported via Patreon, and brought to you with support from the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust, MIRASOL: Looking at the Sun, Patagonia Books, the Rye Resurgence Project for their generous sponsorship. --- TOPICS DISCUSSED: 0:00 - Introducing Heather Hansman (again) and highlighting Patagonia books 7:00 - Book number three 8:08 - Overview of Fierce Country 12:05 - Why these women 16:22 - Georgie and Anne on the wild 19:31 - Anne vs. Thoreau 23:08 - Constraint drives creativity 26:12 - Driven by hardships 28:58 - The heroine's journey 30:45 - Female and male differences 35:40- To scold or not to scold 41:41 - Pitching the book 44:08 - Outward Bound 46:56 - Recreation.gov 50:07 - Slowing down 56:48 - Bad feminism 1:04:50 - What's next for Heather --- ABOUT MOUNTAIN & PRAIRIE: Mountain & Prairie - All Episodes Mountain & Prairie Shop Mountain & Prairie on Instagram Upcoming Events About Ed Roberson Leave a Review on Apple Podcasts
The whole gang is back together to catch up. Andy recaps his Field Notes–filled wedding, starts a new job, and falls down a serious wristwatch rabbit hole — from Bluetooth-modded Casio F-91Ws to a Draplin x Timex Scout. Johnny's loving a $30 Asvine piston-filler, a possibly haunted Cedar Pointe, and a Rhodia Goalbook in Peacock, while Tim is deep in World Cup fever and cheap-but-good Pen+Gear black pencils. Plus: Blackwing's 250 drop, Nahvalur's Fireworks Nautilus, and a locked-in promise that next episode is a Pencil Primer all about wood. For this episode, we recorded video, available to Patreon subscribers! If you're a patron, head over to see our faces and visual examples of many of the things we discuss. And if you're not a patron, join us at any level and you can see this and other supplemental content at any time!Show Notes & LinksMurchie's Tea (Victoria, BC) — Scottish breakfast blendForestChoice #2 pencil — still $5 a pack at Pencils.comField Notes Explore America: Northern California — Golden Gate National Recreation Area edition (with Big Sur and Muir Woods)Range Leather notebook coverBound to Be Beautiful by Bari Zaki — from Bari Zaki Studio in ChicagoNo Man's SkyAsvine P90 piston-fill fountain pen (~$30)Organics Studio Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass inkGeneral's Cedar Pointe #1Baron Fig x Caroline Weaver Archer pencilRhodia Goalbook in PeacockJames Corden's live after-match World Cup show on TubiThe Art of Simple Living by Shunmyo MasunoReplica J. Thoreau & Son pencil from The Shop at Walden PondMoleskine Cahier XL notebook — $9.99 at WalmartCasio F-91W and the Ollee Watch Bluetooth mod (~$60)Casio Vintage series — calculator, world-time, and the Alien wrist-communicator lookalikeTimex Weekender, Timex Expedition, and a Draplin Design Co. x Timex ScoutFitbit Air ($99) — strap-only tracker people pair with analog watchesPaper & Pencil (Chicago) custom Stationery Day Field Notes — including a stamp-collecting editionDelfonics Rollbahn Micro — the impossibly tiny new size, found at MaidoThe Blackwing 250 Collection — red, white, and blue pencils, plus the 250-box with a gold one (only 50 sets)Musgrave America250 Cedar Box Set — 2 dozen red, white, and blue Ceres pencilsField Notes: The Founding DocumentsNahvalur Nautilus Fireworks limited editionPen+Gear round black #2 pencils — back-to-school find at WalmartPanini World Cup sticker album — $2 packs, 450+ stickers
Heather Hansman publishes her 3rd book today, "Fierce Country: The Untold Story of Three Women Who Ignited America's Love for the Wild." Heather joins the River Radius as a returning guest to talk about the subjects of her book: Georgie White, Anne LaBastille and Dolores LaChapelle. We also get into her travels to learn about these three people, how going through the complete collection of one person helped clarify details, how writing a book is a multi-year commitment, her own feelings about the book and the nervous tension she rides as her book publication date arrives. Heather is a longtime river runner and river guide, and is the author of the recent article exposing many details about the current river permitting system. Her writing is funny and serious and deep, and our conversation lets her share with us her journey of writing this excellent book about rivers, people, boats, wild places, ecological theories, and the bias that gets in the way of understanding our natural systems. Heather Hansman website "Fierce Country" Book Tour @hhansman "Wreck Dot Gov" (article about the river permit system) Previous River Radius Episode with Heather Hansman Apple Podcasts Previous River Radius Episode with Heather Hansman Spotify SPONSORSPoudre River Fund NRS NRS PFD for Whale Foundation Whale Foundation THE RIVER RADIUSWebsiteRunoff signup (episode newsletter)InstagramFacebookApple PodcastSpotifyLink Tree
On today's show, host Douglas Haynes highlights a unique Wisconsin education program called the Driftless Field School at Thoreau College. He speaks with two educators, Benjamin Bernard-Herman and Margot Higgins about how their program engages the most pressing questions of our time, like climate change and inequality, and teaches students to revitalize their relationships to land and communities. The Driftless Field School is a five-and-a-half week long summer immersion program that offers place-based environmental education. They focus on the “bioregion” of the Driftless, the unique area of the Midwest that was never glaciated. Rather than imagining places as defined by state boundaries or urban centers, bioregions emphasize biological, geological, and cultural similarities. In the Driftless, this means engaging students on issues of energy and ethanol, issues that are deeply rooted in the region but are equally global environmental issues. They also talk about how their courses engage students in developing ecological literacy, the ability to notice the world around them. Students learn to sleep outside, take care of sheep, grow their own food, and more, all with an eye toward reciprocity. They also learn how to conduct oral histories, sing, and be a citizen in a place no matter where they go. Benjamin Bernard-Herman is a PhD candidate in the department of anthropology at the University of Illinois, Chicago. His research is based in Wisconsin’s Driftless Region, and focuses on the values that sustain small-scale farmers in conditions of economic and environmental precarity. He earned an MA in the social sciences, with a concentration in anthropology, from the University of Chicago, and a BA in sociology and anthropology from Swarthmore College. He was the 2023-24 scholar-in-residence at Thoreau College, and has returned to Thoreau College to teach every year since; this is his third year teaching for the college’s Driftless Field School program. Dr. Margot Higgins is a professor in the Sustainability and Environmental Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, where she instructs courses on topics including Environmental Justice, Food Politics, Political Ecology, and Environmental History. She earned an MA in Human Development and a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California-Berkeley, as well as an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana, and a BA in American Studies and Art from Colby College in Maine. In addition to her focus on the Driftless Region, Margot's research and teaching have taken her from Norway and California to Montana and Alaska, where she first started teaching college students in a backcountry field program in 2005. This is her second summer teaching the summer field course at Thoreau. Featured image of students at the Driftless Field School. Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Teaching Eco-Literacy in the Driftless Bioregion appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.
In this episode of That's So Hindu, Mat McDermott talks with Professor Jeffrey D Long (Elizabethtown College) about the deep roots and growing presence of Hinduism in the United States. We explore the history from the colonial period to modern American spirituality, and how Western leaders and intellectuals have been influenced by Hindu thought for the past 250 years In this episode:The early awareness of Indian influence in America dating back to the 1600sThe role of founding fathers like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in engaging with Indian texts and ideasAmerican perceptions of Hindu concepts, including reincarnation and caste, in the 18th and 19th centuriesThe transcendentalist movement, Emerson and Thoreau's fascination with Hindu philosophy, and its influence on American cultureThe emergence of Hindu organizations and the impact of Swami Vivekananda's arrival in the USThe relationship between Western philosophical traditions and Hindu thought, highlighting influences from Greece to AmericaThe evolution of Hindu-American identity and the modern resurgence of Hindu pride and pride in its philosophical heritageTimestamps: 00:24 - Jeffrey Long's bio and his book “Hinduism in America” 01:05 - Personal connection to Hindu practices and history in America 01:41 - Early Indian influence in colonial America 02:09 - American figures and their interest in Hindu texts 03:05 - The growth of Hindu temples across the U.S. 04:01 - The convergence of Hindu migrant communities and American-born Hindus 05:14 - The rise of non-Indian Hindus in America 07:19 - Historical references to Hindus in the 1600s 08:05 - Indian sailors and early Asian presence in America 10:24 - Founding fathers' fascination with Hindu philosophy 11:47 - Deism, Jefferson's Bible, and early American religious diversification 13:10 - Influence of Benjamin Franklin and Quaker spirituality 14:04 - George Washington and early American religious tolerance 15:01 - Reflections on religious pluralism in the founding era 16:43 - Indian influence and references in early American literature 17:19 - Public perception and common knowledge of Hinduism in early America 18:05 - Education and awareness of Hindu beliefs among common people 19:57 - Stereotypes and misconceptions of Hinduism in the 19th century 20:49 - Mythologies around Jesus' travels in India 21:16 - Broad understanding and stereotypes of Hindu beliefs 22:50 - Challenges and pushback against religious pluralism 24:15 - Influence of Transcendentalism on American thought 25:39 - Emerson's interest in Hindu texts and nature spirituality 29:57 - The Theosophical Society and wave of Indian nationalism 32:20 - Vivekananda's groundbreaking impact at the World Parliament of Religions 39:12 - The first influential Indian teachers in America before Vivekananda 44:39 - Western expectations of Swami Vivekananda's appearance and presentation 48:52 - The role of Vivekananda in inspiring Indian independence and pride 50:48 - The potential for a renewed dialogue between Eastern and Western philosophies Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode of That's So Hindu, Mat McDermott talks with Professor Jeffrey D Long (Elizabethtown College) about the deep roots and growing presence of Hinduism in the United States. We explore the history from the colonial period to modern American spirituality, and how Western leaders and intellectuals have been influenced by Hindu thought for the past 250 years In this episode:The early awareness of Indian influence in America dating back to the 1600sThe role of founding fathers like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in engaging with Indian texts and ideasAmerican perceptions of Hindu concepts, including reincarnation and caste, in the 18th and 19th centuriesThe transcendentalist movement, Emerson and Thoreau's fascination with Hindu philosophy, and its influence on American cultureThe emergence of Hindu organizations and the impact of Swami Vivekananda's arrival in the USThe relationship between Western philosophical traditions and Hindu thought, highlighting influences from Greece to AmericaThe evolution of Hindu-American identity and the modern resurgence of Hindu pride and pride in its philosophical heritageTimestamps: 00:24 - Jeffrey Long's bio and his book “Hinduism in America” 01:05 - Personal connection to Hindu practices and history in America 01:41 - Early Indian influence in colonial America 02:09 - American figures and their interest in Hindu texts 03:05 - The growth of Hindu temples across the U.S. 04:01 - The convergence of Hindu migrant communities and American-born Hindus 05:14 - The rise of non-Indian Hindus in America 07:19 - Historical references to Hindus in the 1600s 08:05 - Indian sailors and early Asian presence in America 10:24 - Founding fathers' fascination with Hindu philosophy 11:47 - Deism, Jefferson's Bible, and early American religious diversification 13:10 - Influence of Benjamin Franklin and Quaker spirituality 14:04 - George Washington and early American religious tolerance 15:01 - Reflections on religious pluralism in the founding era 16:43 - Indian influence and references in early American literature 17:19 - Public perception and common knowledge of Hinduism in early America 18:05 - Education and awareness of Hindu beliefs among common people 19:57 - Stereotypes and misconceptions of Hinduism in the 19th century 20:49 - Mythologies around Jesus' travels in India 21:16 - Broad understanding and stereotypes of Hindu beliefs 22:50 - Challenges and pushback against religious pluralism 24:15 - Influence of Transcendentalism on American thought 25:39 - Emerson's interest in Hindu texts and nature spirituality 29:57 - The Theosophical Society and wave of Indian nationalism 32:20 - Vivekananda's groundbreaking impact at the World Parliament of Religions 39:12 - The first influential Indian teachers in America before Vivekananda 44:39 - Western expectations of Swami Vivekananda's appearance and presentation 48:52 - The role of Vivekananda in inspiring Indian independence and pride 50:48 - The potential for a renewed dialogue between Eastern and Western philosophies Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Henry David Thoreau wrote, "The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." With every choice, we're trading the moments of our life for something. The Vedic tradition asks: what is it actually worth – material prosperity? Liberation? Bhakti Vedanta points higher — divine love, connection with the very origin of your existence. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore the meaning of Krishna's Lila, which may sound like mythology or a fairy tale. But at the pinnacle of Vedantic thought, after hundreds of thousands of Sanskrit verses building a complete philosophy of existence, we arrive here: Krishna is the origin and sustainer of all that is. And beyond that — his intimate love makes one forget all worldly attachments and gives the highest fulfillment the soul can find. Srimad Bhagavatam 10:31.9-16 ******************************************************************** LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN! Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@WisdomoftheSages LISTEN ON ITUNES: https://podcasts/apple.com/us/podcast/wisdom-of-the-sages/id1493055485 CONNECT ON FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/wisdomofthesages108 *********************************************************************
Henry David Thoreau wrote, "The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." With every choice, we're trading the moments of our life for something. The Vedic tradition asks: what is it actually worth – material prosperity? Liberation? Bhakti Vedanta points higher — divine love, connection with the very origin of your existence. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore the meaning of Krishna's Lila, which may sound like mythology or a fairy tale. But at the pinnacle of Vedantic thought, after hundreds of thousands of Sanskrit verses building a complete philosophy of existence, we arrive here: Krishna is the origin and sustainer of all that is. And beyond that — his intimate love makes one forget all worldly attachments and gives the highest fulfillment the soul can find. Srimad Bhagavatam 10:31.9-16 ******************************************************************** LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN! Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@WisdomoftheSages LISTEN ON ITUNES: https://podcasts/apple.com/us/podcast/wisdom-of-the-sages/id1493055485 CONNECT ON FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/wisdomofthesages108 *********************************************************************
Start Your Transformation Now In this episode of The Jim Fortin Podcast, Jim draws on an unexpected pairing — Henry David Thoreau's timeless wisdom and the mechanics of Amazon's fulfillment system — to reveal why most people never advance confidently in the direction of their dreams. The culprit isn't a lack of ambition or effort — it's the deeply ingrained belief that one must know how to create an outcome before taking the first step. Jim illustrates how the moment someone clicks "buy now" on Amazon, they hand the process over to an intelligent system they don't understand, and trust it completely. Yet when it comes to their own desires, most people do the opposite — worrying, strategizing, and attempting to micromanage a delivery they were never meant to orchestrate. This episode offers a paradigm shift that could change everything — and a single affirmation listeners can begin habituating today. What You'll Discover in This Episode: (00:00) The Thoreau challenge — Jim opens with Henry David Thoreau's call to advance confidently in the direction of one's dreams, and poses the central question of the episode: why don't most people actually do it? (02:53) The real reason dreams stall — Jim identifies the core obstacle: not knowing how to create a desired outcome. When people can't see the path, they stop moving — and this episode dismantles that pattern entirely. (06:18) The Amazon metaphor — Jim uses the mechanics of ordering on Amazon to show how effortlessly people trust an invisible, complex system to deliver results — and why they should extend that same trust to the universe. (10:36) Stop micromanaging the delivery — Jim humorously illustrates what it would look like to try to control every step of an Amazon delivery, making plain how absurd — and counterproductive — it is to do the same thing when pursuing a life goal. (15:06) It's not your job to know how — Jim shares his own shift from being "the king of how" to trusting that the universe is far more capable of orchestrating outcomes than the analytical mind ever could be. (22:17) Action + trust, not action + worry — Jim explains why taking physical action while simultaneously worrying and strategizing cancels out results, and what it looks like to act from a place of aligned consciousness instead. Listen, apply, and enjoy! Transformational Takeaway Most people abandon their desires not because the dream is too big, but because they can't see the path and have mistakenly made it their job to map every step. The universe doesn't need help figuring out how to deliver — it only needs to know what is wanted. Jim offers this affirmation to begin habituating: I do not know how [my desire] will come, and that is fine with me. The universe has channels I cannot see, and I am open to all of them. Let's Connect: Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | LinkedIn LIKED THE EPISODE? If you're the kind of person who likes to help others, then share this with your friends and family. If you have found value, they will too. Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts so we can reach more people. Listening on Spotify? Please leave a comment below. We would love to hear from you! With gratitude, Jim
¿Te gustaría recuperar las horas que el teléfono te roba cada día sin que te des cuenta? ¿Poder estar con tu gente en una cena, en un parque, sin esa necesidad nerviosa de mirar la pantalla cada dos minutos? La mayoría intenta arreglarlo con trucos: apagar notificaciones, dejar el móvil fuera del dormitorio. Y durante unos días parece que funciona... hasta que vuelves exactamente al mismo sitio. En este episodio resumimos Minimalismo Digital (Digital Minimalism, 2019), de Cal Newport, profesor de informática que nunca ha tenido una cuenta en redes sociales. Su tesis es clara: tu relación con la tecnología no la vas a arreglar con fuerza de voluntad. Lo que necesitas es una filosofía completa basada en lo que de verdad valoras. Newport explica que estas aplicaciones no son neutrales: hay miles de millones de dólares invertidos para que mires la pantalla un rato más. Dos fuerzas lo hacen posible: el refuerzo positivo intermitente (el botón de like funciona exactamente igual que una máquina tragaperras) y el ansia de aprobación social que las redes han secuestrado de tu cerebro prehistórico. El propio cofundador de Facebook lo admitió. No es tu culpa. Es el modelo de negocio de ellos. En este episodio vas a llevarte: ✅ Por qué los trucos no funcionan y qué filosofía sí resuelve el problema de raíz ✅ Las dos fuerzas psicológicas que te tienen enganchado al móvil, diseñadas a propósito ✅ La nueva economía de Thoreau: el costo de una herramienta digital medido en vida, no en dinero ✅ Por qué la soledad es una necesidad que estás dejando de cubrir (y qué le pasó a Lincoln) ✅ Cómo recuperar la conversación real y un ocio que de verdad te llene Este episodio abre un nuevo bloque de cuatro semanas dedicadas a atención y enfoque.
In this episode, I explore Henry David Thoreau's essay Walking and what it can teach us about becoming better readers. Thoreau believed that walking could be transformed into something deeper than exercise—a practice of attention, presence, and discovery. I argue that reading can undergo the same transformation. I'll share four different reading speeds, explain why most readers spend too much time moving too fast, and discuss how to turn reading from information consumption into something closer to contemplation. I'll also share a book recommendation and a few updates from the community.Send Me a Text Message with Your Questions
Portland's Business Struggles and Las Vegas's SCHEDULE JBS 6-19-2026.1900 LAGrowth. Guest: Jeff Bliss. High taxes and progressive policies in Portland are driving a corporate exodus, including Under Armour, as business districts empty. Conversely, Las Vegas is thriving, highlighted by the opening of a massive four-story In-N-Out on the Strip. The segment also covers California's proposed wealth tax and calls to nationalize AI. 1Ethics Investigations into the Newsom Administration. Guest: Jeff Bliss. Governor Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, face investigations regarding millions in "behested payments" from entities like PG&E to her media company. While Newsom dismisses the probe as political weaponization, critics suggest these payments indicate potential undue influence and significant ethical scandals within the administration. 2Critique of Middle East Ceasefire Strategy. Guest: Richard Epstein. Epstein argues that recurring ceasefire declarations are merely strategic devices for rearmament rather than genuine steps toward peace. He criticizes current negotiation styles for alienating allies and failing to pursue the unconditional surrender of adversaries, which he believes is the only stable solution for regional security. 3Supreme Court Rulings on Gun Rights and Drug Use. Guest: Richard Epstein. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that marijuana use alone does not justify the categorical stripping of a citizen's Second Amendment rights. Epstein critiques the court's narrow reliance on originalism, suggesting a "police power" analysis should instead determine if a person poses an immediate physical threat. 4Economic Resilience in D.C. and Lancaster County. Guest: Jim McTague. A drop in gasoline prices has boosted consumer spending at retail stores and supermarkets. While D.C. remains popular with tourists, employers are struggling to find workers with specialized technical skills. Meanwhile, the housing market remains robust at the high end despite higher interest rates. 5Italian Defense Pressures and the Summer Heatwave. Guest: Lorenzo Fiori. Italy's government is balancing NATO's demands for increased military spending against rising energy costs. Simultaneously, a record-breaking heatwave reaching 104°F in Milan is straining public resources, prompting Fiori to recommend the cooler Garfagnana region for its fresh environment and traditional bean and cabbage soup. 6SpaceX's Aggressive Launch Schedule and Innovation. Guest: Bob Zimmerman. Gwynne Shotwell indicates that SpaceX's Starship may begin operational flights and orbital refueling tests by year's end. The company is also demolishing older facilities at Vandenberg for new launchpads, while private startups advance 3D-printed rockets and orbital satellite rescue missions to assist aging telescopes. 7Mars Discoveries and Cosmological Mysteries. Guest: Bob Zimmerman. The discovery of galaxies devoid of dark matter is challenging fundamental astronomical theories. On Mars, the Curiosity rover has reached smooth ground after five years of rocky terrain. Additionally, orbiters have detected multiple dust devils and potential frost and ice in the planet's equatorial regions during winter. 8Literary Giants of the New England Renaissance. Guest: Bruce Nichols. This segment explores the intense relationship between Hawthorne and Melville, who dedicated Moby Dick to Hawthorne. While Ralph Waldo Emersonoften criticized their dark worldviews, these authors, alongside Walt Whitman and Margaret Fuller, were instrumental in inventing a uniquely original and enduring American literary voice. 9Thoreau's Performative Solitude at Walden Pond. Guest: Bruce Nichols. Henry David Thoreau built his famous cabin on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Contrary to his image as a total hermit, Thoreau was quite social, often walking into town for fresh-cooked meals and laundry. He eventually spent years refining his journals into the masterpiece Walden. 10The Struggles and Triumphs of Louisa May Alcott. Guest: Bruce Nichols. Louisa May Alcott supported her family because her father, Bronson Alcott, failed to earn a consistent living. She served as a Civil War nurse, dealing with horrific casualties before contracting a severe illness she attributed to mercury poisoning. Her 1868 novel Little Womenfinally resolved the family's debts. 11The Literary Legacy and Final Days of the Alcotts. Guest: Bruce Nichols. Following the success of Little Women, Alcott resisted fan demands for her protagonist to marry Laurie, choosing an independent path. As the circle aged, both Emerson and Bronson Alcott suffered significant cognitive decline, with Louisa providing essential financial and personal support until her death in 1888. 12Diplomatic Strains and Escalation Risks in Ukraine. Guest: Anatol Lieven. European leaders are divided over initiating direct negotiations with Russia as the war remains stuck on the ground. While some advocate for offering Putina "golden bridge" to claim a symbolic victory, others argue for continued pressure, despite the constant risks of accidental or nuclear escalation. 13The Rise of Andy Burnham in UK Politics. Guest: Anatol Lieven. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is emerging as a formidable potential successor to Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Though Burnham enjoys strong regional support, he faces daunting national issues, including the funding crisis in the NHS and Britain's inability to borrow like the United States. 14A Vision for Governance Reform in Canada. Guest: Conrad Black. Biographer Conrad Black and billionaire Stephen Jarislowsky have proposed recommendations to streamline Canadian governance by reducing duplicated bureaucracy. They argue that Canada's public service is top-heavy and that lowering corporate and personal taxes is essential for maintaining economic growth and competitiveness with the United States. 15CISA's Mission to Protect Critical Infrastructure. Guest: Francis Rose. Acting Director Nick Anderson explains CISA's role as a vital clearinghouse for cyber threat information across federal and private sectors. Since 85% of critical infrastructure is privately owned, CISA focuses on information exchange to prevent bad actors from moving laterally to disrupt water or power supplies. 16
Thoreau's Performative Solitude at Walden Pond. Guest: Bruce Nichols. Henry David Thoreau built his famous cabin on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Contrary to his image as a total hermit, Thoreau was quite social, often walking into town for fresh-cooked meals and laundry. He eventually spent years refining his journals into the masterpiece Walden. 101929 EMERSON OLD MANSE
Preview for Later Today: Bruce Nichols reveals the entrepreneurial side of Henry David Thoreau, who significantly improved his family's pencil-making business. By researching German techniques and developing better graphite-boring methods, Thoreau created market-leading pencils. Despite his technical ingenuity, he eventually turned away from commerce toward a life of contemplation and letters at Walden.
There is a state in New England where ancient mountains rise above the treeline into bare Arctic tundra, where sheer granite summits look out over oceans of forests, and where one of the fastest wind speeds ever recorded was once clocked here at 231 miles per hour. But New Hampshire is also the place where Thoreau came to reflect, Thornton Wilder was inspired to write his seminal play Our Town, and the oldest summer stock company in America stills performs in an 18th century barn. New Hampshire is art and adventure, natural wonders and quintessential charm. But most of all, like the state's nickname suggests, it is a place to live free and to the fullest.In today's episode we set off on a seven-day road trip through three of the state's most rugged and fascinating regions - from backpacking in the White Mountains and scrambling up waterfalls to discovering art inspired by nature, and nature infused with an artistic eye. Get ready for the Live Free Road Trip.Highlights include:Hiking the Presidential Traverse - three days, and four peaks above 5,000 feet, including Mt Washington, the highest (and windiest) summit in New England.Discovering the ‘business class of backpacking' staying in the Apallachain Mountain Club's backcountry huts - three-course dinners, epic views, and cosy beds.Finding out about the MacDowell Institute, a legendary artists' residency founded in 1907, whose past guests include Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, James Baldwin, Thornton Wilder and hundreds of other world-class artists.Hiking Mount Monadnock - reputedly the second most climbed mountain in the world after Mount Fuji, with views across New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts. Hear why this was one of Thoreau's favorite hikes!FIND OUT MOREProduced in collaboration with Lonely Planet: LonelyPlanet.comFind inspiration, itineraries and everything you need - including how to book this exact road trip - at visitnh.gov (Visit New Hampshire) or follow them on social at @VisitNHThank you to our guests:Marielle Fibish, senior outdoor guide at the Appalachian Mountain Club.Find out more at: outdoors.orgBen Cote, Newport local and outdoor fanatic. Connect with him at tracylibrary.orgMichelle Stahl, Executive Director at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture. Find out more at monadnockcenter.orgKnow Someone Who Needs This?If this episode lit something up in you, do me a favour — send it to just one person. One friend, one family member, one person who needs a little wonder in their life right now. Or go old school and tell someone about it over a cheeky pint. Every single share genuinely moves the needle.FOLLOW US:Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcastFacebook: @armchairexplorerpodcastCONNECT WITH US:If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you're reading this on right now. It helps us grow the show, and continue to bring these stories to you.Armchair Explorer is written and presented by Aaron Millar. Audio editing and sound design by Charles Tyrie. Produced by Armchair ProductionsMentioned in this episode:Check out the Smart Travel PodcastThis week's show is supported by the new Smart Travel Podcast. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Check out Smart Travel at the Link below:Smart Travel PodcastCheck out all of our other travel podcasts from around the worldThis podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world's best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape.com. For advertising or sponsorship opportunities across the network, see the link below.Voyascape Podcast Network
Never miss a story: Sign up for our newsletter! This week, we look at the life and legacy of Henry David Thoreau, who has been called the godfather of the environmental movement. We interview the directors of a new Ken Burns documentary about Thoreau, his evolution as a thinker, philosopher of the natural world and abolitionist. Affordable solar power could be coming to a balcony near you. That is, if Pennsylvania lawmakers legalize so-called "balcony solar." A festival celebrating frogs returns to Central Pennsylvania. Nippon Steel's new investment in U.S. Steel's Pittsburgh-area plants prompts questions. We're independent and non-profit, and we don't receive funds from WESA, WPSU or any other radio station. So we must turn to you, our listeners, for support. Take action today so we can continue to keep you informed. Donate today. Or send us a check to: The Allegheny Front, 67 Bedford Square, Pittsburgh, 15203.
Never miss a story: Sign up for our newsletter! In this special bonus episode, we're talking with the co-directors of the new Ken Burns documentary, Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau has been called the patron saint of early environmental thought in the U.S., from his transcendentalist writings of the mid-19th century to his decision to live a secluded life at a cabin on Walden Pond in Massachusetts. The three-part film, now streaming on pbs.org, the PBS app, and on Prime Video, examines Thoreau not just through the lens of American history, but it also asks what his work means to us in our current era. The film was directed by brothers Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers, both frequent collaborators with Ken Burns, who is an executive producer along with Don Henley. The Allegheny Front's Reid Frazier spoke with the Ewers brothers about the film. We're independent and non-profit, and we don't receive funds from WESA, WPSU or any other radio station. So we must turn to you, our listeners, for support. Take action today so we can continue to keep you informed. Donate today. Or send us a check to: The Allegheny Front, 67 Bedford Square, Pittsburgh, 15203.
Thoreau said that Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. Today let us go through a few points on "Career Growth Beyond Titles & Promotion"Titles follow value; they rarely create it.Real growth often happens sideways, not upward.Depth of skill creates long-term leverage.Promotions are milestones, not the purpose.Capability compounds quietly over time.You can email me at AgileMalayali@gmail.com and connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinodn/ You can also join our Telegram Learning GroupFollow on Instagram @AgileMalayaliAlso checkout my other Podcasts Other PodcastsPahayan Talks Malayalam PodcastVayanalokam Malayalam Book PodcastEnglish Podcast Penpositive OutclassYouTube ChannelsPahayan Talks Youtube ChannelAgile Malayali YouTube ChannelPenpositive YouTube Channel
The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk www.LearningLeader.com New Book -- The Price of Becoming www.LearningLeader.com/Becoming Austin Kleon is the NYT bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work, and Keep Going. He's a writer who draws, a former librarian, and one of the most original thinkers on creativity working today. His new book is Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again. This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver. Key Learnings Stay light. Bill Murray told ballplayers that if you stay light, loose, and relaxed, you can play at the highest level. Same with acting, writing, anything. Austin keeps a photo of Bill in his studio as a reminder. Play is the work. A lot of Austin's best work requires a sense of play. It's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Go to the analog desk first. Austin has a digital desk and an analog desk. Nothing electronic is allowed at the analog desk. He starts there with nothing and sees what comes. Most people never give themselves the time, space, and materials to make something of what's swirling inside them. People want to watch someone who is activated. "People will pay every night to show up and see somebody believe in themselves." (Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth) The market for something to believe in is infinite. (Hugh MacLeod) The world is full of people just doing their thing. They're hungry to see someone on fire for something. The writer's job: take what everyone is thinking and put it into words. "You gave me the words" is the highest compliment a reader can give. Effortless is earned. People say the Friday newsletter looks easy. Austin's reply: Do it every Friday for 13 years, then call me. A place to put things makes you notice more. Thoreau took morning walks knowing he'd write later, so he paid closer attention. Carry a camera, and you start seeing shots everywhere. Live for the living, not for the writing. There's a tension between living your life and documenting it. Don't lose yourself to the feed. Your attention is the most valuable thing you have. Everyone wants to take it. The real challenge of modern life is making sure you're the one who decides where it goes. The best teachers are perpetual students. You realize what you know and don't know only when you try to teach it. Toggle between knowing and not knowing. The moment you think you know what you're doing, the work gets stale. You start running on routine instead of need. To be an amateur is to be a lover. The French root means "lover of." An amateur does it out of love, not material reward. Every great CEO should be put in a room with a four-year-old. They'd both learn something. Kids knock the pompous certainty right out of you. "I don't know. How do you think we should figure it out?" Austin's kids taught him it's less important to know everything than to know how to find out. The leader isn't the one who speaks while everyone listens. The leader listens, asks questions, stays curious, and wonders how everyone is doing. Look for who's having fun, not who's successful. Fun is underrated. Serious people have a serious time. Do it with lightness and it's contagious. "A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play." (Lawrence Pearsall Jacks) He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he's doing and leaves others to decide whether he's working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both. Ask "What does the universe want to show me today?" A useful fiction. Tell yourself the world is trying to send you messages and suddenly you see a hundred of them. Have the toy before you know what you'll do with it. Austin buys typewriters, then asks what to make. Get the bicycle first. In six months you'll know what kind you actually want. Steal an idea someone only did once and turn it into a whole thing. Austin saw a single typewriter interview, made it a series, and has done more than 20. Put the human hand in the work. Austin decided 20 years ago to make it obvious a human made his stuff. In the age of AI, it stands out more than ever. People want the imperfection. Writing is thinking. People think you gather your ideas then write them down. The act of writing is the act of figuring out what you actually think. That's the hard part. Differentiate yourself by reading a book outside your field. Swim a little further out than everyone else and you find new water. Focus on what you can control. A writer controls only what's between the covers. Did you do a good job? Were you clear? Were you helpful? The rest isn't up to you. Austin's champagne moment a year from now: his kids flourishing. The older he gets, the less the books mean and the more his family does. Reflection Questions Where is your analog desk? Do you have a space with no screens where you go to make something of what's swirling inside you? Are you activated? When people watch you work, do they see someone on fire for it, or someone just going through the motions? What's one idea from outside your field you could steal this week? Where could you swim a little further out and find new water? More Learning #676: Jesse Cole - Built for the Fans, Obsession & Excellence#687: Jim Collins - What to Make of a Life#241: Austin Kleon - How to Steal Like an Artist Podcast Chapters 00:00 The Price of Becoming - Pre-Order Now! 01:33 Meet Austin Kleon 02:53 The Bill Murray Photo: Stay Light 05:42 The Analog Desk: Where the Real Work Starts 08:51 People Want to Watch Someone Activated 15:22 Why "It Looks Easy" Is the Whole Point 16:28 The Newsletter as a Forcing Function to Notice 20:46 Who Owns Your Attention? 24:39 How Austin's Kids Became His Teachers 29:06 Why the Best Creators Stay Amateurs 31:33 Curiosity Is the Real Leadership Skill 34:09 What Does the Universe Want to Show Me Today? 35:02 Look for Who's Having Fun, Not Who's Successful 38:30 Do You Love to Write, or Love to Have Written? 41:00 The Typewriter Interviews: Stealing an Idea Done Once 47:18 The Interplay of Analog and Digital 49:02 AI and Why the Human Hand Wins 51:23 The Champagne Question: Family Flourishing 55:47 Walk-Ins Welcome 58:06 EOPC
In this episode, we discuss the life and legacy of Henry David Thoreau. An essayist and poet, Thoreau lived a provocative life in which he endeavored to escape the limitations of human society by exploring the wider, wilder natural world. He was a naturalist, land surveyor, pencil maker, abolitionist, and student of Indigenous American culture [...]
The core structural shift described in this episode is the integration of AI as an active workflow actor within managed service environments, not simply as an isolated tool. This mechanism alters the governance and accountability requirements for MSPs, as AI now interacts directly with core business platforms and operational data. Companies like Microsoft are embedding AI features—such as Copilot and a legal AI agent—across productivity and security environments, while reports from Axios Future of Cybersecurity and The Register highlight that AI activity is increasingly touching managed identity, email, data, and security infrastructures. The episode's primary evidence centers on the adoption of AI-driven productivity and legal tools within Microsoft 365, with broad rollout timelines targeting early June. Microsoft's deployment of legal AI agents in Word—as outlined by The Register and Thoreau—demonstrates that AI is being implemented to review contracts, draft language, and check citations, embedding itself into sensitive business workflows. Additionally, Proofpoint's formation of an MSP business unit around 365 security further reflects this shift, consolidating risk and workflow management where client data, identity, and security converge. Supporting developments reinforce this trend of workflow centralization and accountability ambiguity. Vendors are introducing dashboards—such as Anthropic's Claude code agent view—that offer improved visibility into AI-driven processes; however, as noted, visibility alone does not constitute governance. The emergence of platforms like Halo PSA and features from JumpCloud exemplify the market response, where vendors and MSPs are being forced to tighten control and monitoring around AI-driven work, including automation, ticketing, and remediation workflows. The episode notes that unmanaged automation creates governance risks that operators must close. The practical implication for MSPs is a set of new operational burdens: rising margin pressure from unpriced AI governance work, contract risk if responsibilities for AI-generated actions remain undefined, and new demands for auditability, evidence retention, and workflow documentation. Providers must build inventories not only of AI tools but also the workflows they touch, define explicit service scope, and establish pricing models for governance functions. The operational tradeoff is an increasing need for infrastructure and process maturity, as the expectation of transparent, accountable AI-driven work is now a baseline for client trust and risk management. 00:00 Managed AI Risk 03:50 Scope or Absorb 06:03 Four MSP Pressures 08:35 Why Do We Care? Supported by: MoovilaHaloPSA JumpCloud
Vivemos fugindo do tédio como se ele fosse perda de tempo. Mas e se for exatamente o contrário? Neste episódio, você vai descobrir como o excesso de estímulo está sabotando sua capacidade de pensar, e por que aqueles momentos “vazios” podem ser o espaço onde surgem suas melhores ideias. Prepare-se para rever sua relação com o silêncio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello, Puzzlers! Today: A.J. & Greg present puzzling puzzles to each other.Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals.Subscribe to Hello, Puzzlers! wherever you get your podcasts! And come join our growing puzzle community over on Patreon, where you can find bonus episodes and other exclusive content!Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas.The show is produced by Claire Bidigare-Curtis.Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Send us Fan Mail"What happens when the inventor of the Video Sales Letter meets AI? Jon Benson joins us for a conversation that will change how you think about creativity, copy, and your business."In Episode 271 of Navigating the Customer Experience, host Yanique Grant sits down with Jon Benson, the pioneering copywriter and entrepreneur who invented the Video Sales Letter (VSL) the format that became the backbone of modern digital marketing. Since 2010, Jon has been quietly working at the intersection of AI and persuasion science, partnering with early AI companies as far back as 2015 to teach machines the nuances of high-converting copy. Today, he's the creator of BNSN (pronounced "Benson"), a proprietary AI copywriting platform built exclusively for ethical marketers who want to attract their ideal customers not just anyone with a credit card.But before any of that, Jon was a graphic designer who nearly lost his life. At 38 years old, he suffered a heart attack a consequence of obesity, stress, and burning the candle at both ends. His recovery led him to write a bestselling book on fitness transformation, which launched him unexpectedly into the world of internet marketing and copywriting. It's one of the most compelling origin stories you'll hear, and it sets the tone for everything Jon has built since.In this episode, Jon and Yanique explore:
We kick off the Pencil Primer — a new series for anyone who wants to start at the beginning of pencildom. This installment traces graphite from the legendary Borrowdale lightning strike of 1564 to Nicolas-Jacques Conté's clay-and-graphite breakthrough during the Napoleonic Wars, plus the Thoreau family's role in standardizing the American pencil grade scale and a tour through HB-to-9B. Plus, Tim's into a Bill Frisell biography, Johnny's writing with a sparkly Narwhal "raspberry cheesecake" pen that looks like, uh, something else, and Andy debuts booklet.lol — a vibe-coded book tracker. Patreon subscribers can watch the video version.For this episode, we recorded video, available to Patreon subscribers! If you're a patron, head over to see our faces and visual examples of many of the things we discuss. And if you're not a patron, join us at any level and you can see this and other supplemental content at any time!Show Notes & LinksErasableRead a transcript of this episode at Erasable ScribeErasable PatreonErasable Facebook groupErasable Discord inviteEpisode referencesEpisode 57: “The F Bomb”Podcasts / mediaDrug Storyr/pencilsLetterkennyBooksBill Frisell, Beautiful DreamerExcellent Advice for Living by Kevin KellyAutomatic Noodle by Annalee NewitzA Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky ChambersPencil / stationery / book artsCumberland Pencil MuseumNicolas-Jacques Conté (Britannica)Henry David Thoreau (Britannica)Guild of Book WorkersGeneral's Layout PencilSTAEDTLER WOPEXDerwentPhotography / camera stuffMicro Four NerdsPetaPixelApps / sites / companiesbooklet.lolPeople / artists / companiesWillie NelsonCharlie CrockettBill FrisellJHS PedalsYour HostsJohnny GamberPencil Revolution@pencilutionAndy WelfleWoodclinched@awelfleTim Wasem@TimWasem
Hello, beautiful souls! Welcome back to the Angels & Awakening Podcast. I'm your host and author, Julie Jancis. Friends, Thomas Moore is back — and I have to tell you, I have been reading his books since I was 14 years old. Literally took them to the pool every summer. They are beat up and sun-faded and I treasure every single one. Thomas has written over 30 books on soul, beauty, and the art of living — and his newest, The Cure at Walden Pond, is a love letter to Henry David Thoreau and what his life at the pond still has to teach us today. This conversation was everything. In This Episode [00:14] Why Thomas fell in love with Thoreau — and how he discovered he wasn't just a naturalist [06:09] How Thoreau felt lost, built a tiny house by the pond, and found his cure [08:26] Julie opens up about her own season of restlessness — achieving everything and still feeling misaligned [10:42] "Every life needs a broad margin around it" — what Thoreau learned from doing nothing in the mornings [13:06] What Thomas's own days look like — a creative household of a writer, a painter, and a musician [17:32] AI, humanity, and what the Native Americans would have done before going to the moon [29:00] Why Thoreau wasn't a minimalist — the real meaning of simplicity as crystallization of the self [36:19] Following the wind: Thomas entering a monastery at 13, leaving at 26, and always staying available for what's next [38:00] Thomas's personal angel experience — a cement truck, a traffic circle, and what he believes saved him [41:04] Why the Irish confuse birds with angels — and the old monastic story that explains it [48:31] "Inorganic and lumpish" — reading Thoreau's words live and what they mean for us today [52:00] Beauty as soul nourishment — and the painter who said "whenever science makes a new invention, I will paint an angel" Connect with Thomas Moore
What if nothing in your life is ordinary—and every single moment is quietly extraordinary? In this episode, we explore the idea that life itself is a miracle, not just in a poetic sense, but through both scientific understanding and spiritual insight. We reflect on powerful perspectives from thinkers like Einstein and Thoreau, and unpack how shifting the way we see our lives can completely transform the way we experience them. When we begin to view even the smallest moments through this lens, something changes—we become more present, more alive, and more connected to it all.We also dive into simple, grounded practices that help us embody this way of living, like gratitude and meditation. How can we train our minds to focus on what feels expansive instead of what feels limiting? And what would your day look like if you genuinely treated each interaction, each breath, as something sacred? Together, we explore how to move from autopilot into intentional living—and how embracing the miracle of life can open the door to deeper peace, joy, and fulfillment.
“Pessimism is not fatalism. Fatalism is the belief that things will always necessarily be worse. Pessimism is the belief that things will probably get worse. Within that ‘probably,' it opens up space for action.” — Gal Beckerman In the first months of Trump II, Gal Beckerman watched American society do something that shocked him: comply. In one pathetic example after another, prominent law firms, universities, and senior federal employees buckled to every Trumpian whim. America appeared unable to resist authoritarianism. There were no dissidents. Thus How to Be a Dissident. Beckerman's new manual of resistance is inspired by history's more insistent dissenters — from Mandelstam and Solzhenitsyn to Navalny, Ai Weiwei, Thoreau, Havel, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, and demonstrators on the streets of Minneapolis. The quiet manifesto focuses on what Beckerman considers the ten most essential qualities of how to be a dissident: Be alone. Be pessimistic. Be funny. Be reckless. Be watchful. Pessimism, above all. Not fatalism — the belief that things will always necessarily be worse — but the belief that things will probably get worse. Optimism, in Beckerman's mind, undermines urgency and thus enables passivity. Pessimism forces resistance. It's the first lesson in how to be a dissident. Five Takeaways • Moral Nausea: Beckerman's term for the feeling most of us recognise but most of us suppress: seeing something wrong — a neighbour treated badly, a homeless person in a terrible situation, a dead child in a newspaper — and knowing ourselves somehow implicated. Most of us swallow it back down. We don't do anything. We try not to think about it. The dissident is the person who doesn't. What separates them, Hannah Arendt argued after studying Germans who resisted the Nazis, is a single question: can I live with myself? If the answer is no — if living with myself would mean living with a murderer — the dissident acts. That question, and the refusal to avoid it, is what makes a dissident a dissident. • The Pre-Political: Havel's definition of where dissidence begins: not in ideology or revolution, but in the defence of whatever allows a human life to feel normal. For Havel, it started with a rock band — the Plastic People of the Universe, arrested for playing unauthorised concerts in communist Czechoslovakia. They weren't political. They sang about drinking beer. But they were gathering people together outside state sanction, and that was enough. For Iranian dissidents: being able to drive unaccompanied, or not cover one's hair. For the Tiananmen tank man: getting home to make dinner. The dissident defends those pre-political conditions — the normal life — when the state moves to violate them. • Mandelstam's Answer: Osip Mandelstam composed a poem mocking Stalin in the early 1930s — at the height of Stalin's repressive era — and never wrote it down. He repeated it to his wife, Nadezhda, night after night in bed until she had memorised it. When it reached the secret police, he was arrested and brought to the Lubyanka. The interrogator asked: why did you do this? He could have denied it. Blamed his wife. Said it was a game of telephone. Instead he said: I wrote it because I hate fascism. It's as simple as that. Beckerman opens the book with this moment because it captures the dissident at their most elemental — a man who, when asked the Arendt question, answered honestly. • Navalny Goes Back: After being poisoned by Putin and spending months recovering in Germany, Navalny returned to Russia, knowing almost certainly that in the best case he would be in prison for a very long time, and that Putin would most likely find another way to kill him. Which he did. Why go back? Navalny's answer, in his memoir: he had made a promise to the Russian people. How could he stand on the sidelines while asking others to sacrifice so much? The scene Beckerman describes from the prison: Navalny finds a moment away from the cameras, pulls his wife Yulia aside, and tells her he's accepted that he's probably not getting out alive. She says: I know. I've thought the same thing, and I've accepted it. He kisses her. He needs to know she isn't engaging in magical thinking. Optimism, in this context, would not have helped him. • Be Pessimistic: Beckerman's most counterintuitive prescription, and his favourite. The assumption is that anyone engaged in quixotic world-changing behaviour must be an optimist. Beckerman argues the opposite. Pessimism — not fatalism — is healthier. The distinction matters: fatalism says things will always necessarily be worse. Pessimism says things will probably be worse. The “probably” leaves room for action. If you assume someone else will solve climate change, or that authoritarianism will inevitably collapse, you wait. The pessimist acts now, with what time they have, because they know things probably won't work out otherwise. It is, Beckerman suggests, akin to accepting death: the ultimate pessimistic reality we all face, which is also the only thing that makes each day matter. About the Guest Gal Beckerman is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of How to Be a Dissident (Crown, April 21, 2026), The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas, and When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry (Sami Rohr Prize winner). He has a PhD from Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn. References: • How to Be a Dissident by Gal Beckerman (Crown, April 21, 2026). • Nadezhda Mandelstam, Hope Against Hope — the memoir Beckerman calls one of his favourite books. • Alexei Navalny, Patriot — the memoir Beckerman draws on for the prison scene with Yulia. • Episode 2869: Jacob Mchangama on The Future of Free Speech — the companion episode on the crisis of free speech that contextualises this one. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,900 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting. WebsiteSubstackYouTube
Someone tried to harvest Christian's voice for AI training. The pitch was polished, the project sounded real. But when she responded with ten professional questions, the conversation ended. Permanently.In this Deep Dive on Episode 275, Christian connects that experience to her conversation with Erik and Christopher Ewers, the brothers behind the PBS documentary Henry David Thoreau. Chris Ewers argues that every technological revolution has felt like the end of the world — the Industrial Revolution, digital cameras, and now AI. Each time the tool became indispensable. Then Christian pulls in Thoreau himself — the man who railed against the railroad and then rode the train 70 times. He used the tool deliberately.In this episode, you'll hear:The full story of the suspicious voice-over job offer and the ten questions that ended it.Why Christian's VO business is declining while her filmmaking and podcasting are thriving.Chris Ewers's case for why AI is the digital camera revolution all over again.Thoreau's “cost of a thing” quote and why it hits differently in the age of AI.The contradiction of Thoreau and the train — and what “live deliberately” actually means now.Jeff Goldblum at the mic and George Clooney saying “tell me if I suck” — what AI will never replace.Timestamps:0:00 What George Clooney Told the Directors0:18 Show open0:28 The Ethan Caldwell story2:33 Where I stand with AI3:49 The Ewers Brothers and the revolution that always comes5:09 Clip: Chris Ewers on AI and the digital camera revolution7:15 Thoreau, technology, and the train he swore he'd never ride9:25 What “live deliberately” actually means9:44 What Ethan Caldwell's silence reveals10:45 Goldblum, Clooney, and what machines can't replicate11:59 ClosingListen & Follow:Apple Podcasts: tinyurl.com/DocFirstAppleSpotify: tinyurl.com/DocFirstSpotifyYouTube: tinyurl.com/DocFirstYouTubeAmazon Music: tinyurl.com/DocFirstAmazonSupport the show on Patreon: tinyurl.com/DocFirstPatreonAbout the Guests (from DF Episode 275):Erik Ewers: Director, Editor. Ken Burns's senior editor for 33+ years. Multiple Emmy winner. Based in New Hampshire.Christopher Loren Ewers: Director, DP. 20+ years behind the camera. Based in the NYC metro area.About Henry David Thoreau (PBS):A three-part, three-hour documentary. Executive produced by Ken Burns and Don Henley. Narrated by George Clooney. Voices by Jeff Goldblum (Thoreau), Ted Danson (Emerson), Meryl Streep, and Tate Donovan. Available now on PBS and PBS Documentaries on Amazon.Resources:Henry David Thoreau (PBS, 2026) | Walden by Henry David Thoreau (1854)Hear Part 1: Episode 274, “I Didn't Know Myself: Erik & Chris Ewers on Ken Burns, PBS & Thoreau”Hear Part 2: Episode 275, "Erik & Chris Ewers on PBS Funding, AI & Directing Goldblum, Clooney & Streep"Connect:Ewers Brothers: ewersbrothers.comErik Ewers: @melonhd | linkedin.com/in/erik-ewers-38122729Chris Ewers: @christopher_loren_ewers_dp | linkedin.com/in/christopherewersChristian Taylor: @meetchristiantaylor I linkedin.com/in/meetchristiantaylorAll platforms: linktr.ee/doc1st
After returning to Russia, Kropotkin was captured and imprisoned. But his life took many turns from there, and in 1902 he published his book book “Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution.” Research: "Peter Alekseevich Kropotkin." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, Gale, 1998. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631003701/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=ed5ae018. Accessed 23 Mar. 2026. Adams, Matthew S. “Rejecting the American Model: Peter Kropotkin’s Radical Communism.” History of Political Thought , Spring 2014, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Spring 2014). https://www.jstor.org/stable/26227268 Avrich, Paul, Miller, Martin A. "Peter Alekseyevich Kropotkin". Encyclopedia Britannica, 4 Feb. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-Alekseyevich-Kropotkin. Accessed 23 March 2026. Avrich, Paul. “Kropotkin in America.” International Review of Social History , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , April 1980 , pp. 1 – 34 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000006192. Davis, Mike. “Kropotkin and Climate Change.” Transnational Institute of Social Ecology. 1/4/2018. https://trise.org/2018/01/04/kropotkin-and-climate-change/ Kinna, Ruth. “Kropotkin's Theory of Mutual Aid in Historical Context.” International Review of Social History , AUGUST 1995, Vol. 40, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44583751 Kropotkin, P. “Fields, Factories, and Workshops: or Industry Combined with Agriculture and Brain Work with Manual Work.” G.P. Putnam’s Sons. New York and London. 1913. Kropotkin, P. “Memoirs of a Revolutionist.” London. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. 1906. Kropotkin, P. “Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution.” New York. McClure Phillips & Co. 1902. Kropotkin, Peter Alexeievich. "Memoirs of a Revolutionist." Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, Gale, 2006, pp. 11-13. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3456600019/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=f35f5dcf. Accessed 23 Mar. 2026. Kropotkin, Peter. “Anarchism.” Encyclopedia Britannica 11th 1911. Kropotkin, Peter. “The Conquest of Bread.” New York. Vanguard Press. 1926. Macauley, David. "Anarchism." Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, edited by J. Baird Callicott and Robert Frodeman, vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2009, pp. 38-40. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3234100023/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=d3a1d4db. Accessed 23 Mar. 2026. Montpetit, Mathilde. “Peter Kropotkin’s Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1899).” The Public Domain Review. 1/13/2026. https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/kropotkin-memoirs/ Moron, Gary Saul. “Kropotkin’s dead goose.” The New Criterion February 2022. Prince P. A. Kropotkin. Nature 106, 735–736 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/106735a0 Quinn, Adam. “’Abolish the Monopolizing of the Earth’: Nature, Science, and the Environmental Politics of Transnational Anarchism.” Radical History Review. Issue 145 (January 2023). DOI 10.1215/01636545-10063606 Saytanov, Sergey V. “The Anarchist Who Stood Up to Lenin and the Bolshevik Coup of October 1917.” History News Network. July 19, 2015. https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-anarchist-who-stood-up-to-lenin-and-the-bolshe Vollaro, Daniel. “When Anarchists Speak of Thoreau.” The Thoreau Society Bulletin, Spring 2016, No. 293 (Spring 2016). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44651625 Wills, Matthew. “Peter Kropotkin, the Prince of Mutual Aid.” JSTOR Daily. 2/4/2025. https://daily.jstor.org/peter-kropotkin-the-prince-of-mutual-aid/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Peter Kropotkin was incredibly influential in the development of anarchism in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Part one of this subject focuses on the formative moments in his early life that contributed to his becoming an anarchist communist. Research: "Peter Alekseevich Kropotkin." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, Gale, 1998. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631003701/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=ed5ae018. Accessed 23 Mar. 2026. Adams, Matthew S. “Rejecting the American Model: Peter Kropotkin’s Radical Communism.” History of Political Thought , Spring 2014, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Spring 2014). https://www.jstor.org/stable/26227268 Avrich, Paul, Miller, Martin A. "Peter Alekseyevich Kropotkin". Encyclopedia Britannica, 4 Feb. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-Alekseyevich-Kropotkin. Accessed 23 March 2026. Avrich, Paul. “Kropotkin in America.” International Review of Social History , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , April 1980 , pp. 1 – 34 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000006192. Davis, Mike. “Kropotkin and Climate Change.” Transnational Institute of Social Ecology. 1/4/2018. https://trise.org/2018/01/04/kropotkin-and-climate-change/ Kinna, Ruth. “Kropotkin's Theory of Mutual Aid in Historical Context.” International Review of Social History , AUGUST 1995, Vol. 40, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44583751 Kropotkin, P. “Fields, Factories, and Workshops: or Industry Combined with Agriculture and Brain Work with Manual Work.” G.P. Putnam’s Sons. New York and London. 1913. Kropotkin, P. “Memoirs of a Revolutionist.” London. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. 1906. Kropotkin, P. “Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution.” New York. McClure Phillips & Co. 1902. Kropotkin, Peter Alexeievich. "Memoirs of a Revolutionist." Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, Gale, 2006, pp. 11-13. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3456600019/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=f35f5dcf. Accessed 23 Mar. 2026. Kropotkin, Peter. “Anarchism.” Encyclopedia Britannica 11th 1911. Kropotkin, Peter. “The Conquest of Bread.” New York. Vanguard Press. 1926. Macauley, David. "Anarchism." Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, edited by J. Baird Callicott and Robert Frodeman, vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2009, pp. 38-40. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3234100023/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=d3a1d4db. Accessed 23 Mar. 2026. Montpetit, Mathilde. “Peter Kropotkin’s Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1899).” The Public Domain Review. 1/13/2026. https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/kropotkin-memoirs/ Moron, Gary Saul. “Kropotkin’s dead goose.” The New Criterion February 2022. Prince P. A. Kropotkin. Nature 106, 735–736 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/106735a0 Quinn, Adam. “’Abolish the Monopolizing of the Earth’: Nature, Science, and the Environmental Politics of Transnational Anarchism.” Radical History Review. Issue 145 (January 2023). DOI 10.1215/01636545-10063606 Saytanov, Sergey V. “The Anarchist Who Stood Up to Lenin and the Bolshevik Coup of October 1917.” History News Network. July 19, 2015. https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-anarchist-who-stood-up-to-lenin-and-the-bolshe Vollaro, Daniel. “When Anarchists Speak of Thoreau.” The Thoreau Society Bulletin, Spring 2016, No. 293 (Spring 2016). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44651625 Wills, Matthew. “Peter Kropotkin, the Prince of Mutual Aid.” JSTOR Daily. 2/4/2025. https://daily.jstor.org/peter-kropotkin-the-prince-of-mutual-aid/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Even with Ken Burns and Don Henley attached, funding a PBS documentary is brutal. So what hope do the rest of us have?Erik and Christopher Ewers get real about PBS funding, AI's impact on filmmaking, and how they landed George Clooney, Jeff Goldblum, Ted Danson, Tate Donovan and Meryl Streep for their new PBS documentary Henry David Thoreau.In Part 2 of this conversation, the Ewers Brothers open up about the financial realities of documentary funding, even with Ken Burns and Don Henley attached, why Chris sees AI as the next revolution instead of the apocalypse, how broadcast is giving way to streaming, and the stories behind casting some of Hollywood's biggest voices. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.In Part 2, you'll learn:— Why having Ken Burns and Don Henley as executive producers doesn't make funding easy and who actually made the Thoreau film possible— Chris's case for why AI is the digital camera revolution all over again, not the death of filmmaking— The best professional advice Chris ever received and why it will never change— How Chris kept his mouth shut on a commercial set with Jeff Goldblum and how that silence led to Goldblum voicing Thoreau— The story of how Don Henley quietly recruited George Clooney as narrator and Clooney's reaction when asked how long he'd known Henley— Ken Burns's advice on directing Meryl Streep: “You don't.”— How streaming is changing episode length and why “the director's cut” isn't what it used to be.— Erik's approach to pre-planning edit cuts for PBS broadcast time slots without sacrificing the story— Why Ken Burns treats his mentorship like tough love — and why Erik is grateful for it— One thing filmmakers need to know about getting a documentary on PBSTimestamps:0:00 Introduction1:21 Unpacking the Thoreauvian mindset2:46 Thoreau's prescience on consumerism3:50 Erik on Thoreau's “cost of life” quote and the iPhone4:40 Thoreau and the birth of the Industrial Revolution6:03 Christian's advice: think from the end back6:50 Chris on the state of the industry — Industrial Revolution to AI10:20 Christian: as a voice actor, AI is a challenge10:53 The best professional advice Chris ever received11:36 Christian on the struggle to fund the next film12:54 Money is always the biggest hurdle13:15 How the Ewers Brothers fund PBS docs without federal money14:49 Ken Burns's two binders of rejection letters15:07 The Movies That Made Us — encouragement for indie filmmakers16:26 The reality: it's hard for everybody17:52 Erik on Ken Burns's legacy projects and the privilege of the brand20:58 Erik on earning the gift — Ken's tough love mentorship22:00 Broadcast vs. streaming — why episode length is changing23:52 Erik's editing strategy for PBS time slots25:37 Celebrity voice talent — how they landed Jeff Goldblum27:43 Don Henley's connections — Ted Danson and Meryl Streep29:09 The George Clooney reveal — “If Don Henley calls, you say yes”30:43 What it's like to direct celebrity voice talent30:55 Jeff Goldblum in the booth — pure instinct31:26 Ken Burns's advice on directing Meryl Streep31:52 George Clooney: “Tell me if I suck”32:42 DocuVue Deja Vu — Erik's picks and Chris's all-time favoriteDocuView DejaVu Picks:Erik Ewers: Crumb (1994), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991), Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011), The Thin Blue Line (1988)Christopher Loren Ewers: Man on Wire (2008)Christian Taylor: Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy (Netflix, 2024)This episode is supported by Virgil Films Entertainment.About the Guests:Erik Ewers — Director, Editor. Ken Burns's senior editor for 33+ years. Multiple Emmy winner. ACE Eddie Award winner (The Roosevelts, 2015). Based in New Hampshire.Christopher Loren Ewers — Director, DP. 20+ years behind the camera. Commercial clients include Apple, Coca-Cola, Tiffany & Co., Stella Artois, Volvo, Peter Millar. Based in the NYC metro area.About Henry David Thoreau (PBS):A three-part, three-hour documentary — the first full-length documentary biography of Thoreau. Executive produced by Ken Burns and Don Henley. Narrated by George Clooney. Voices by Jeff Goldblum (Thoreau), Ted Danson (Ralph Waldo Emerson), Meryl Streep (Lidian Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Mary Merrick Brooks, Maria Thoreau), and Tate Donovan (William Ellery Channing). Available now on PBS and PBS Documentaries on Amazon.Resources Mentioned:— Henry David Thoreau (PBS, 2026)— Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy (Netflix, 2024)— The Movies That Made Us (Netflix)— Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau (1854)Listen & Follow:Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/DocFirstAppleSpotify: tinyurl.com/DocFirstSpotifyYouTube: tinyurl.com/DocFirstYouTubeAmazon Music: tinyurl.com/DocFirstAmazonSupport the show on Patreon: tinyurl.com/DocFirstPatreonConnect:Ewers Brothers Productions: ewersbrothers.comConnect with Christian Taylor on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/meetchristiantaylorAll Documentary First platforms: linktr.ee/doc1st
Ep. 229 (Part 2 of 2) | In part 2 of our What is Real Greatness Series podcast with Margaret Cullen, author of Quiet Strength, Margaret continues to enlighten us about equanimity: its power, its wisdom, and its practice. She relates some of the history of equanimity—first considered a supreme virtue in Stoicism, then passed on to Sufism and Judaism—and explains that throughout time, equanimity (and humility) have always been an integral part of people who have made a true difference in the world. Margaret talks about how humor can break the spell of our trance (“when we lose equanimity, we get caught in a trance, believing in something that has us prisoner—humor breaks the spell”), and, in the spirit of “The Serenity Prayer” (“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference”), she encourages us to make peace with what we can realistically do and let the rest go.While Part 1 of this dialogue focuses on the power of equanimity in relation to the big picture and what is going on now politically, in Part 2 Margaret looks at practicing equanimity in personal relationships and in our individual lives. She marvels at Thoreau's equanimous approach to his own death, and shares that she has found forgiveness to be the most important equanimity tool in relationships. “We reclaim our wisdom when we say ‘I'm sorry,'” Margaret explains. Margaret's deep and nuanced understanding of the power and practice of equanimity is inspiring and illuminating, and bringing this virtue to our attention as a pragmatic tool we can use is also incredibly timely, leaving us with a sense of hope and empowerment. Recorded January 14, 2026.“What aids in my equanimity more than anything else is self-forgiveness.”Topics & Time Stamps – Part 2Welcome teacher, what am I supposed to be learning? (00:59)How humor can break the spell that holds us prisoner (03:03)The relationship between equanimity and peace (05:17)The praise and blame algorithm has exponentially increased our reactivity (08:14)Equanimity was a supreme virtue in Stoicism; the Stoics passed it on to the Sufis, who passed it on to Judaism (11:11)Thoreau's equanimous approach to death (12:24)Nature's effect on one's equanimity (13:29)Equanimity is an integral part of true change makers, also humility (14:27)What practice would Margaret most recommend to cultivate equanimity? (17:19)Making peace with what you can do and letting the rest go (21:03)Practicing equanimity in relationships (22:13)Using self-forgiveness as an equanimity tool (23:44)In relationships, softening where we're most triggered helps more than imposing ideals of how we should be (26:25)One key flavor of equanimity is non-defensiveness (28:51)Resources & References – Part 2Margaret Cullen, Quiet Strength: Find Peace, Feel Alive, and Love Boundlessly Through the Power of EquanimitySwami Beyondanda on the Deep Transformation podcast: Laugh Yourself Sane, Enlighten Up & Awaken to Cosmic Comic ConsciousnessMaimonides introduced the concept of equanimity to JudaismStoicism, a philosophical movement & practical guide to living originating in ancient GreeceWhen asked about facing death, Thoreau said, “One world at a time.” Henrietta Christian Wright, American Men of LettersSri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of YogaSufi teacher Habīb Boerger, “Rather than making the ego your boss, make it your personal assistant”The Serenity Prayer (Reinhold Niebuhr's original version)Richard Davidson & Daniel Goleman, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and BodyPaul & Eve Ekman's Cultivating Emotional Balance training“We could not help contrasting the equanimity of Nature with the bustle and impatience of man. His words and actions presume always a crisis near at hand, but she is forever silent and unpretending.” – Henry David Thoreau---Margaret Cullen, a Licensed Psychotherapist (MFT), has been at the cutting edge of translating contemplative trainings into universal and accessible formats in mainstream settings ranging from elite military to maximum security prisons. She was one of the first certified Teachers of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR); is the founder of Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance; and is co-developer of Compassion Cultivation Training at the Stanford School of Medicine (with Thupten Jinpa). Margaret also co-developed Mindfulness Based Attention Training for military spouses with neuroscientist Amishi Jha at the University of Miami, and is the founder of Compassion Corps, offering free compassion and mindfulness programs to under-resourced communities around the world. Margaret is a Fellow of the Mind & Life Institute.---Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell
In 1854, when the escaped slave Anthony Burns was captured in Boston and returned in chains to slave-owners in Virginia, despite riotous resistance on the dock in Boston, Henry David Thoreau himself was shattered. Lewis ... The post Thoreau Meets ICE appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
durée : 00:03:33 - Le Fil philo - À l'approche des vacances, Laurence Devillairs vous invite à suivre Henry Thoreau en pleine forêt, dans sa cabane au bord d'un lac. Une expérience pour rompre avec le quotidien, éveiller ses sens et retrouver une vie plus authentique et vivante, sans pilote automatique !
Directors Erik Ewers & Christopher Loren Ewers join us to discuss their new film, Ken Burns Presents: Henry David Thoreau. Erik & Christopher talk about their rediscovery of Thoreau's place in American history, their process for capturing his story, and why Thoreau's views of his own time might resonate with those seeking to make sense of the modern world. The two-part series premieres on PBS March 30-31, so make sure to check your local listings and tune in! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
Clay's conversation with Erik and Christopher Ewers, the directors of the upcoming three-part documentary on the life and achievements of Henry David Thoreau, the New England radical and the author of Clay's favorite American book, Walden. Five years in the making, with dozens of interviews and fabulous footage of Concord, Massachusetts, and the environs of Thoreau's famous cabin at Walden Pond, this documentary will be the definitive treatment of Thoreau. The directors tell Clay that he is, as they put it, "all over the film," as one of the more significant talking heads. Thoreau was one of the most original and morally courageous of American writers. He denounced slavery with a pure flame of disgust, opposed America's war of expansion against Mexico, defended John Brown after he raided Harpers Ferry, and even suggested some careful monkeywrenching in his book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Thoreau went to the woods to live deliberately and to undertake an experiment in simplicity and minimalism. He wrote some of the most famous sentences in American history, including, of course, "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." This podcast was recorded on February 13, 2026.
Bhakti Yoga wisdom from the Srimad Bhagavatam, one of the foundational texts of Vedic philosophy, meets a powerful reflection from Henry David Thoreau about shaping the "atmosphere through which we look." In this episode of Wisdom of the Sages, Raghunath and Kaustubha explore how spiritual practice refines the lens of consciousness itself. Their discussion leads to the gopīs—the cowherd women of Vrindavan whose hearts and minds were completely absorbed in Krishna, whom the Srimad Bhagavatam presents as the highest example of devotion in bhakti yoga. From Thoreau's call to simplify life to reflections on sacred places like Govardhan Hill, the conversation explores how devotion, meditation, and spiritual wisdom transform the way we perceive the world and deepen our relationship with the Divine. ******************************************************************** LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN! Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@WisdomoftheSages LISTEN ON ITUNES: https://podcasts/apple.com/us/podcast/wisdom-of-the-sages/id1493055485 CONNECT ON FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/wisdomofthesages108 *********************************************************************
Guest host Russ Eagle interviews Clay about his ambitious downsizing project. For several decades, Clay has explored the world of Thoreau's great book Walden, which calls on us to reduce the clutter of our material lives to open our spiritual arteries. Simplify, simplify, and minimize, says Thoreau. Finally, Clay decided to undertake the purge. So far, he has given away 3,000 books to a public library system in east central North Dakota, with plans to donate at least 2,000 books a year for the next 5 years. The question is, is Thoreau right that there is liberation in repurposing excess material baggage, that one crosses an invisible boundary, and that it is possible in this way to achieve a higher order of being? Towards the end of the conversation, Clay explains how the downsizing project inspired him to make a Mind Map of the authors and subjects that still matter greatly to him. With the help of ChatGPT, Clay produced a manuscript featuring 52 of his intellectual heroes, with appropriate AI-generated portraits of each author. This episode was recorded on January 18, 2025.
Why did Henry David Thoreau care so much about pencils—and why did some phone numbers keep ringing long after they were disconnected? In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro wander into two stories that shouldn't be connected… but somehow are. First, we look at the surprising industrial legacy of Henry David Thoreau, long before Walden Pond. As a young man working in his family's pencil business, Thoreau applied chemistry, precision, and quiet rebellion to fix America's worst pencils—changing how graphite was processed, how pencils were graded, and why most pencils are still yellow today. It's a story about innovation, independence, and how financial stability made room for deep thinking… and eventually, deliberate living. Then, the episode takes a darker turn. During the 1960s and 70s, people across the U.S. reported receiving phone calls from businesses that had been closed—sometimes for decades. Funeral homes. Pharmacies. Local shops. Callers insisted they had just spoken to someone on the line. Engineers found nothing. Phone companies found no active service. The FCC investigated. No explanation stuck. What emerged instead was something stranger: the idea of telecom afterimages—echoes of human habit lingering in old copper wire. Conversations without ghosts. Voices without intent. Systems that didn't quite know how to forget. This episode explores how infrastructure remembers, how absence isn't always clean, and why the most unsettling stories are often the quietest ones—ordinary conversations that shouldn't exist, but somehow do. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices