What Can Henry David Thoreau Teach Us About Work?

Henry David Thoreau was a philosopher, poet, and pencil-maker. He was a great resigner and, above all, a superb writer whose masterpiece, "Walden," is considered by many to be America's first environmentalist manifesto.

But John Kaag has a different view.

"Thoreau's attempt to 'get back to nature,'" he and co-author Jonathan Van Belle wrote in their book, Henry at Work: Thoreau on Making a Living, was an "attempt to get away from the capitalist rat race." By resigning from that race, Thoreau was, in a sense, reclaiming life—he was making a conscious choice about what to respect and where to tap meaning. "The abiding message of 'Walden,'" according to John and Jonathan, is that "the frenetic busyness of modern life should never be confused with the essential business of living."

In this episode, which first aired in July 2023, John Kaag and Caleb explore Thoreau's life and career, and they come away with surprising lessons about why we work and how we can make it more meaningful — how we can, in Thoreau's words, "live deliberately."

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