Walden
Book by Henry David ThoreauWikipedia
277
MENTIONS
28
EPISODES
25
PODCASTS
Search complete. 277 mentions across 28 episodes found for "Walden".
Sep 9, 2026
Eddie PineroHOST
Incredible.
Eddie PineroHOST
But what are you doing about it? Because there's this equilibrium we have to create and maintain as we navigate our day-to-day lives, and no one addresses this, in my mind, better than Thoreau in Walden when he states, "If you've built your castles in the air, your work need not be lost.
Eddie PineroHOST
That's where they should be.
Eddie PineroHOST
Now put foundations under them." He addresses the very nature of creation, of dreaming, right? He says, you know, there's an element of idealism and aspiration, but you have to marry that with pragmatism.
Jared YamamotoPANELIST
The author of
Eric Von HaesslerHOST
Walden.
Eric Von HaesslerHOST
Didn't he write about how Monica Lewinsky should go to...
Eric Von HaesslerHOST
Did he write the book Leaves of Grass? Yes.
Eric Von HaesslerHOST
He was kind of a hippie of his day.
Eric Von HaesslerHOST
I've never read anything by him.
Jared YamamotoPANELIST
I think you've probably read Walden.
George ClarkPANELIST
No,
Tami SimonHOST
Now, at the age of 85, he's releasing a new book.
Tami SimonHOST
It's called The Cure at Walden Pond: A Guide to Recovering Our Humanity.
Tami SimonHOST
Friends, stay with us.
Tami SimonHOST
[upbeat music] Sweater weather is upon us.
Tami SimonHOST
Indeed.
Tami SimonHOST
Indeed.
Tami SimonHOST
What inspired you to write about Thoreau and Walden Pond?
Thomas MooreGUEST
Well, uh, partly, I, I, uh, moved to New England, I think in 1985, quite a while ago, and, um, you know, he's a neighbor, you know? I mean, he's about...
Mark CirinoHOST
I'm your host, Mark Ciorino, with Michael von Kannon producing.
Mark CirinoHOST
Today, we present the first of our two episodes devoted to Walden and other writings by Henry David Thoreau as we interview its editor Jedediah Britton Purdy.
Mark CirinoHOST
In part one, we discuss Thoreau, his world and his career, what his project was with Walden, and the various lenses through which to view it.
Mark CirinoHOST
Jedediah Britton Purdy is professor of law at Duke University.
Mark CirinoHOST
His books on environmental themes include After Nature and This Land is Our Land.
Jedediah Britton PurdyGUEST
Thanks, Mark.
Jedediah Britton PurdyGUEST
Good to be here.
Mark CirinoHOST
Oh, it's great to see you, Jed, and we're looking forward to discussing your edition of Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Other Writings.
Caleb BissingerHOST
Cagg and his co-author, Jonathan Van Bell, argue that Thoreau is the great rebel critic of the American work ethic.
Caleb BissingerHOST
He didn't go to Walden in 1845 to escape work.
Caleb BissingerHOST
He went there to figure out what work is for.
Caleb BissingerHOST
The answers he found will surprise you.
5 MINS LATER
Caleb BissingerHOST
Am I getting that right? Is that your view of Thoreau, that we've gotten him wrong? Very
John KaagGUEST
much so.
John KaagGUEST
I mean, we think about him as a writer principally, but we oftentimes forget that the real work of Walden was the act of sustaining himself, of growing his own food, of making his own clothes, of providing his own shelter.
John KaagGUEST
of being self-reliant in the way that Ralph Waldo Emerson describes in that famous essay, Self-Reliance.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Thus I caught two fishes as it were with one hook.
speaker_1NARRATOR
The scenery of Walden is on a humble scale, and, though very beautiful, does not approach to grandeur, nor can it much concern one who has not long frequented it or lived by its shore; yet this pond is so remarkable for its depth and purity as to merit a particular description.
speaker_1NARRATOR
It is a clear and deep green well, half a mile long and a mile and three quarters in circumference, and contains about sixty-one and a half acres; a perennial spring in the midst of pine and oak woods, without any visible inlet or outlet except by the clouds and evaporation.
speaker_1NARRATOR
The surrounding hills rise abruptly from the water to the height of forty to eighty feet, though on the southeast and east they attain to about one hundred and one hundred and fifty feet respectively, within a quarter and a third of a mile.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Some consider blue to be the color of pure water, whether liquid or solid.
speaker_1NARRATOR
But looking directly down into our waters from a boat they are seen to be of very different colors.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Walden is blue at one time and green at another, even from the same point of view.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Lying between the earth and the heavens, it partakes of the color of both.
speaker_3NARRATOR
Chapter One: Economy.
speaker_3NARRATOR
When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself on the shore of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only.
speaker_3NARRATOR
I lived there two years and two months.
speaker_3NARRATOR
At present, I am a sojourner in civilized life again.
45 MINS LATER
speaker_3NARRATOR
Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others? Finding that my fellow citizens were not likely to offer me any room in the courthouse, or any curacy or living anywhere else, but I must shift for myself, I turned my face more exclusively than ever to the woods, where I was better known.
speaker_3NARRATOR
I determined to go into business at once, and not wait to acquire the usual capital, using such slender means as I had already got.
speaker_3NARRATOR
My purpose in going to Walden Pond was not to live cheaply, nor to live dearly there, but to transact some private business with the fewest obstacles.
speaker_3NARRATOR
To be hindered from accomplishing which for want of a little common sense, a little enterprise and business talent appeared not so sad as foolish.
Paul NeshaHOST
there's wood involved
Beth LawlerHOST
sweet vindication Walden it's Walden it's called Walden and then the subtitle is or life in the woods
Paul NeshaHOST
Walden's
Vin KokaHOST
Pond, yeah.
Jonathan SchoolerGUEST
Sure.
Jonathan SchoolerGUEST
Well, you know, of course, the classic book on this was Thoreau, Walden Pond.
Jonathan SchoolerGUEST
right, where he basically took an entire year and spent much of it by himself in the pond, just really engaging in musing and in reverie, which is sort of the term for this taking delight in being left with our own thoughts.
Jonathan SchoolerGUEST
And I think that I think that we've lost the appreciation of reverie that, you know, in every spare moment, people are picking up their phone.
Jeff SnyderHOST
Yeah, apparently.
Jeff SnyderHOST
And, you know, coincidentally, I just finished... reading again, Thoreau's Walden, and he had a very interesting story.
Jeff SnyderHOST
I'm sure you know Thoreau very well.
Jeff SnyderHOST
He actually went off for two years, two months, and two days and was out on his own.
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