#358: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2017

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Have you ever just wanted to get in your car, drive off into the middle of nowhere, leave behind the hustle and bustle of civilization, and just be by yourself? Well, in 1986 a man named Christopher Knight did just that and lived alone in the Maine woods without any, any human contact for 27 years until he was discovered in 2013. My guest today wrote a biography — "The Stranger in the Woods" — about this man who locals called “the Hermit of the North Pond.” His name is Michael Finkel and today on the show we discuss how Chris survived alone in the Maine woods by himself, but more importantly, why Chris wanted to be by himself for so long. By looking at the life of one of the modern world's last true hermits, Michael and I explore the idea of hermitage, solitude, and why being an individual requires you to be alone.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
0:13.9	[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
0:14.9	Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.
0:18.4	Have you ever wanted to get into your car, drive off to the middle of nowhere, leave behind
0:22.6	the hustle and bustle of civilization, and just be by yourself?
0:26.0	Well, in 1986, a man named Christopher Knight did just that and lived in the main woods
0:30.9	without any human contact, any human contact, for 27 years until he's discovered in 2013.
0:36.3	My guest, Dave, for a biography, the stranger in the woods about this man who locals called
0:40.2	their hermit of the North pond.
0:41.7	While his name is Michael Finkl, the day on the show, we discuss how Chris survived
0:45.5	in the main woods alone by himself.
0:48.0	The more importantly, we discuss why Chris wanted to be by himself for so long.
0:52.4	And by looking at the life of one of the modern world's last true hermit,
0:56.0	Michael and I explored the idea of hermitage, solitude, and why being individual requires you to be alone.
1:01.6	After the show's over, you're going to want to go off the woods and be by yourself,
1:05.1	but before you do that, go check out the show notes at at a-wim.is-hermit.
1:08.7	[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
1:12.0	Mike Finkl, welcome to the show.
1:13.9	Thanks, happy to be here.
1:14.9	So you wrote an interesting book, it's sort of a hybrid of looking at the life of a hermit named Chris Knight.
1:21.2	We're going to talk about him, but also exploring the ideas of solitude and being alone.
1:26.0	And is that important to being a human, being individual?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Art of Manliness, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Art of Manliness and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.