All episodes of The Next Big Idea

The Next Big Idea · 2026-09-07 · 52 min · 8,146 words

What Can Henry David Thoreau Teach Us About Work?

Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Why times can differ in your player

I'm Caleb Bissinger, and this is the Next Big Idea. It's Labor Day. A time to mourn the end of summer. Buy things on sale, and celebrate the American worker. By not working.

Today on the show, we're going to sing a song of praise for one of the great American workers. Henry David Thoreau Now you may be thinking, Thoreau? The guy who lived alone in the woods? Doing Nothing?

What's he gotta do with work? A great deal, it turns out, as I learned from my 2023 conversation with philosopher John Cagg about his book, Henry at Work. Thorough on making a living. Cag and his co-author, Jonathan Van Bell. Argue that

That is the first couple of minutes. The rest is $1.49.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (52 minutes, 8,146 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 5 episodes for $3.49, and monthly plans are cheaper still.

get it now

Ready in under two minutes.

credits never expire

Packs go up to 1,000 episodes. Need more? Email contact@podmenti.com and we will make you one.

One episode is up to 4 hours of audio; a longer one counts as one more for every started 4 hours. Secure checkout by Stripe. Paying once needs no account: we create one from your email. By paying you agree to the terms.