In this episode I speak with Matt Voz and Shawn Lavoie, two leaders of the Youth Initiative High School, one of the key local partners of Thoreau College here in Viroqua, Wisconsin. This is a special conversation, as I participated in the founding of YIHS in 1996 when I was a teenager and subsequently returned to teach there for over 15 years alongside Matt and Shawn as we learned how to be teachers and build community together. Today, 30 years after it began, YIHS remains an unique and exemplary school and has served as a key influence on the development of Thoreau College. Founded as a Waldorf-inspired initiative, YIHS has remained connected with this global educational movement while taking the curriculum in distinct and innovative directions. YIHS students actively collaborate with faculty and parents as full citizens and stakeholders to staff committees and make decisions, to fund and represent the school to the public, and to clean and maintain the school. YIHS has also crafted a way to survive and thrive as an independent school in a small rural community while offering a dynamic and broad curriculum by welcoming a large number of part time teachers, supported by an experienced core staff. The school has also developed a profound expeditionary learning curriculum to support the cultivation of character and wisdom in the context of community.

Matt Voz is the Administrator of the Youth Initiative High School, as well as a teacher of humanities, automechanics, and physical education and one of the house parents of the YIHS Boarding House. Hailing from western Minnesota, Matt holds a BA in History from the University of Minnesota-Morris and a MA in Agrarian History from Iowa State.

Shawn Lavoie is the YIHS Faculty Chair, as well as a teacher of humanities, Spanish, and circus arts. He grew up in Massachusetts and received a BA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago and an MA in Arts Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Today, Shawn also teaches aspiring and practicing Waldorf high school teachers through the Great Lakes Waldorf Institute.

Youth Initiative High School - www.yihs.net

Great Lakes Waldorf Institute - https://www.greatlakeswaldorf.org/

Kaleidoscope - the YIHS Podcast - https://www.wdrt.org/kaleidoscope/

Thoreau College - https://thoreaucollege.org/

In this episode of the podcast we dip our toes into the turbulent waters of current events in a conversation with Esther Crotser and Livian Roth-Amodt, two former students of mine and recent graduates of the Youth Initiative High School, our partner Waldorf-inspired high school here in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Since graduating in 2024 from YIHS, where students play a major role in governing, funding, and promoting the school, Esther and Livian have been living in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St Paul. For the past year they have been involved with a variety of political and social causes, including work with the Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Committee (MIRAC).

Since the start of 2026, Esther and Livian and the groups they are working with found themselves on the main stage of contemporary history as the eyes of the country and the world turned to Minneapolis as a result of the ICE enforcement surge and subsequent violence and unrest in that city. In our conversation, we talk about the work they have been doing and how their education at Youth Initiative prepared them to be able to respond constructively and resiliently and to take on leadership roles in this complex environment as engaged and passionate youth leaders. Towards the end we also discuss the Singing Resistance Movement, which is introducing Community Singing to the protests in Minneapolis as a tool of solidarity building and psychic resilience.

Youth Initiative High School - https://www.yihs.net/

Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee - https://www.miracmn.com/

GoFundMe for Janet (Esther's friend who was detained and then released by ICE) - https://gofund.me/dfd163256

Singing Resistance Songbook - https://docs.proton.me/doc?mode=open-url&token=407BQZDEPG#3JsVHndYmmhy

Singing Resistance on CNN - Anderson Cooper 360 - https://www.facebook.com/reel/1264918162211154

Thoreau College - https://thoreaucollege.org/

On this episode we talk with Dr. Kristen Case about Henry David Thoreau and the enduring pedagogical relevance of his life and writing, as well as about the Monson Seminar, a full-scholarship three-week residential course for highly-motivated Pell-eligible and first-generation college students pursuing creative and research-based projects based in Monson, Maine, and accredited through the University of Southern Maine. Kristen is the Executive Director and Lead Faculty of the Monson Seminar, which is entering its 5th year. She is a lifelong teacher in elementary, middle school, and university settings, as well as an award winning poet and an important Thoreau scholar. In this conversation, we explored Kristen's recent book Henry David Thoreau's Kalendar: Charts and Observations of Natural Phenomena, published in 2025 by Milkweed Editions. This beautiful book presents a fascinating project from the last years of Thoreau's life for the first time, namely an ambitious effort to chart and document both natural and inner seasonal phenomena across multiple years in a graphic visual form. Using this rich source material, Kristen's essays present a stimulating interpretation of Thoreau's most mature and seasoned vision of how to live a meaningful and grounded life here on Earth.

The Monson Seminar - https://www.themonsonseminar.org/

Henry David Thoreau's Kalendar - https://milkweed.org/book/henry-david-thoreaus-kalendar

The Mountain School - https://www.mountainschool.org/

Thoreau College - https://thoreaucollege.org/

L. Jackson Newell is an American historian and philosopher of higher education, specializing in the study and leadership of progressive colleges such as Antioch College, Berea College, and Deep Springs College. He has served as professor of educational leadership and dean of Liberal Education at the University of Utah, and as president of Deep Springs College.

Newell accepted the presidency of Deep Springs College in 1995.[9][4] During his tenure, he led an $18 million capital campaign, rebuilt the physical plant, and recharged the endowment. After nine years, he returned to teaching in the University of Utah's Honors College.

He studied liberal arts and sciences at Deep Springs College and the University of California, Davis, then finished his BA degree at Ohio State University in history. He spent his college summers as a mule packer and crew chief fighting forest fires at Glacier, Crater Lake, and Grand Canyon National Parks. Newell earned his MA degree at Duke University in American history with a divinity school minor. He taught for six years at Clemson University, Deep Springs College, and the University of New Hampshire before returning to Ohio State where he completed his PhD as the Thomas Holy Fellow focusing on the history and philosophy of higher education.

He has also published a major study of progressive institutions, Maverick Colleges: Fourteen Notable Experiments in American Undergraduate Education, and edited the refereed journal, The Review of Higher Education.

Deep Springs College: https://www.deepsprings.edu/

Thoreau College: https://thoreaucollege.org/

Melanie Lenehan is the Principal and CEO of Fircroft College, a unique publically supported adult education institution located in the West Midlands in Birmingham, England's second largest city. The college was founded in 1909 by George Cadbury, Jr., a Quaker industrialist and philanthropist, who was one of the pioneers of the art and science of milk chocolate. Cadbury's educational vision was strongly influenced by the Danish folk high school model which emphasizes cultivating the development of a strong sense of personhood and belonging through non-competitive adult education in the context of small residential learning communities with multiple opportunities for formal and informal interactions, ranging from classes, to shared meals and group singing. The students of Fircroft College are most often adults older than traditional college age who have experienced significant setbacks or disruptions in their lives, including addiction, mental health issues, or disadvantages arising from poverty or legal status.

In our conversation, Mel and I spoke about her experiences as a child of Irish immigrants growing up in London who was the first person in her family to attend university, as well as the origins of Fircroft College and its connections to the Danish folk high school movement. Finally, Mel introduced one of her most important sources of inspiration, namely, the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and the approach for working the poor and dispossessed that he articulated as "the Pedagogy of the Oppressed."

Links:

Fircroft College - https://www.fircroft.ac.uk/

Thoreau College - https://thoreaucollege.org/

In this episode of the podcast I spoke with Mette and Lars Højland, a Danish couple with decades of experience in folk high school education who are exploring new ways to take the essence of this transformative pedagogy beyond the walls of formal institutions and beyond the borders of Denmark, including to China and other lands. Mette grew up within the world of free schools and folk high schools inspired by the ideas of N. F. S. Grundtvig, the 19th century Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, and instigator of the folk school concept. Drawing on 22 years of teaching in several folk high schools, Mette has written a short and engaging book entitled What you say, makes me think: Folk high school from within, which uses anecdotes from her own teaching and insights from Grundtvig and other thinkers to explore the sometimes enigmatic core elements of folk high school pedagogy and to propose ways that it might be adapted to other arenas. Lars, on the other hand, is a parish priest in the Danish national church who applies Grundtvigian models to act as what he calls a "spiritual co-walker," i.e. a conversation partner who seeks to help you in the direction the spirit wants to carry you in particular."

Together, Mette and Lars are co-founders of an organization called "Menneske Først – LifeDialogues," which works to promote and teach a kind of "home folk high school," in the form of structured conversation evenings that bring together neighbors and strangers for ice breakers, food, singing, discussion, and, above all, human-to-human encounters in a time when this is all too rare. The name "Menneske Først" can be translated as "Human First!", a ringing maxim from NFS Grundtvig emphasizing our core humanity about sectarian divisions and polarizations of all kinds.

Links -

Menneske Først - LifeDialogues - https://lifedialogues.dk/en/

Thoreau College - https://thoreaucollege.org/

Lamplight is a free three week summer program located in rural northern Alabama where teens practice leadership and service by running the camp themselves and doing projects for their community. Along the way, campers learn real-world skills and how to live together as a community. This unique program is rooted by a strong sense of place and is inspired by the educational ideas of L.L. Nunn, founder of Deep Springs College and the Telluride Association, as well as by the radical folk school model of the Highlander Folk School. In addition to the summer program, Lamplight is part of the Sand Mountain Cooperative Education Center (SMCEC), which promotes cooperative models of education and economic life. On this episode of podcast, founding camper and current staff member Kayleigh Johnson and returning staff member Julia Machlin give us the scoop.

Lamplight: https://www.lamplightsummer.org/

Sand Mountain Cooperative Education Center: https://www.coopeducation.org/

Thoreau College: https://thoreaucollege.org/

Our Guests:

Kayleigh Johnson is from the small town of Douglas, Alabama, located within Marshall County. When she was twelve, she became involved with Lamplight as part of their very first group of campers. Throughout the years Kayleigh has become more involved with Lamplight and is now a staff member. Outside of Lamplight, Kayleigh is working towards her general business degree as a freshman at the University of Alabama, where she later hopes to continue on to law school. Kayleigh aspires to combine everything Lamplight and college will teach her, into a career as a non-profit lawyer who stands up for worker-owners everywhere. This aspiration stems from working with SMCEC and other non-profits in contact with SMCEC. One of her favorite memories from Lamplight was in her last year as a camper when her and two other campers plus one staff conspired to purchase the staircase and charge everyone a toll to use it during the real-world simulation experiment.

Julia Machlin hails from Ithaca, the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, where she first developed a passion for student led education. After completing undergrad, she found herself toggling between working in education and the Labor Movement, including teaching Social Studies in East Harlem, and working with various workers centers, and SEIU in hopes to find a marriage between two worlds working towards student and worker empowerment. It wasn't until she found Lamplight and the work of the Sand Mountain Cooperative Education Center (SMCEC) where she discovered a niche and intersection of people trying to solve similar problems. For the last four years, Julia has been a returning Lamplight Staff member, and now sits on the board of SMCEC. She is also one of the creators on Glow and Grow, a coopertivelt structured fundraising program that grants writes for burgeoning nonprofits in Alabama, and trains students to simultaneously be worker owners and grant writers. Some of her favorite SMCEC memories include getting Frank Hurricane to perform at the 2025 Brick and Barn Conference, and holding fundraisers in her friend's Brooklyn Bars. When she isn't in Alabama or Ithaca, Julia can be spotted in New York, completing her Masters in Education at Teachers College at Columbia University. She looks forward to a future of building worker power by way of empowering students in and out of the classroom.

Elizabeth (Libby) Sanders is the Executive Director of Camphill Academy, which offers tuition-free higher education in anthroposophic inclusive social development. Her academic work at the intersection of ecology and spirituality in America initially led her to the Camphill movement in 2011. In the interim, she has conducted research on public policy and disability services, models of communal living, inclusion in communal contexts, and critical anthroposophic research methodologies alongside her work in Camphill. Libby lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with her partner, Clayton, and their cats.

https://camphill.edu/

https://research.camphill.edu/

Ivey Patton, founder of Gap Year Basecamp, is a passionate advocate for transformative travel experiences. As a dedicated gap year counselor helping young adults plan and thrive on travel adventures around the world, she guides young people through the complexities of independent travel and helps them choose from the vast number of amazing gap programs and opportunities.

After college and a decade of world travel, Ivey settled with her family in Durango, Colorado, where she’s worn many hats: teacher, small business owner, summer camp founder, and ski instructor. Fueled on caffeine and enthusiasm, she’s happiest when exploring on foot, wild swimming, and eating breakfast at foreign cafes.

Gap Year Launchpad Brussels 2025: https://www.unschooladventures.com/trips/gyl-2025/

GYL Brussels 2026: https://www.gapyearbasecamp.com/brussel-summer-2026

Program Schedule: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/2/d/1Ox9MhXuPY8Px5JRZ9R9VLT-wAr8yqKIOzRPzotbMDgA/edit?usp=sharing&urp=gmail_link

Kroka Expeditions is a non-profit wilderness expedition school and organic farm that fosters a living relationship with the natural world and the development of skilled, compassionate, and community-minded young people.

Working with youth ages 9 to 19, Kroka provides unique wilderness programs centered around the cultivation of consciousness and altruistic will. The container of multi-day expeditions traveling through wild places is one that pushes us as human beings to experience vulnerability and reliance on community (both human and non-human). In return, we are rewarded with humility, compassion, elation, a sense of reverence for the natural world, and a deep feeling of belonging.

Grounded on 120 beautiful acres of forest, wetland, and farmland in Marlow, NH, the Kroka Village has grown over the years to become an intentional community of residential staff, a biodynamic farm, and a basecamp that supports the magic of learning and growth to happen. Offering 8-weeks of summer programs, spring and fall programs for school groups, and two semester programs, the Kroka Village is a bustling place!

Ezra Fradkin: A New England native, Ezra grew up in an intentional community in Amherst, Massachusetts. After high school Ezra attended Kroka’s Ecuador Semester and went on to study sustainable food systems at Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, VT. He completed an MA in Regenerative Economics at Schumacher College (UK) in 2021. Ezra joined the Kroka team in 2016 has since held roles from expedition leader, program administrator, campus manager and is currently serving as a co-director.

Liz Jordan: Liz joined Kroka 4 years ago, and is currently the semester director. She grew up in northern Virginia, and has worked as an educator--in classrooms, in the wilderness, and in yoga studios--throughout her adult life. Liz has studied many things in formal classroom settings, but feels the most alive and joyful when moving her body outside and crafting. Liz currently lives in Vermont with her husband, their 2 children and other adorable creatures.

Kroka Expeditions: https://kroka.org/

Thoreau College: www.thoreaucollege.org

Driftless Folk School: www.driftlessfolkschool.org