What happens when work becomes little more than a paycheck, food becomes something we expect to appear in a grocery store, and home becomes mostly a place of consumption? In this episode, Brian Williams speaks with sociologist, professor, and farmer Jeffrey Dill about the dignity of work, the discipline of living within limits, and what farming can teach us about family, freedom, and responsibility. Drawing on his experience with a regenerative beef and pork farm in Pennsylvania, Jeff considers what industrial efficiency gives us and what it can quietly take away: connection to land, craft, neighbor, and the formative power of labor itself. Their conversation ranges from Adam Smith and Wendell Berry to care work, fatherhood, household life, and raising young men who understand that a good life is larger than a career. Listen for a thoughtful invitation to recover work as something that forms us, not merely something that pays us. Jeff also reflects on folding laundry as a discipline, time outdoors with family as a delight, woodworking as a craft, and the love of God and neighbor as the calling that gathers the rest of life together. The conversation closes with W. H. Auden and a reminder that meaningful lives are built through ordinary acts of work, love, service, and fidelity. About the GuestJeffrey Dill is an Affiliate Professor of Sociology and Liberal Studies in the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University. He received his B.A. in English from Wheaton College and his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Virginia, where he was a Bradley Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. His research focuses on questions of pluralism and difference in educational systems, moral and citizenship education, and socialization processes in schools. He is author of The Longing and Limits of Global Citizenship Education: the moral pedagogy of schooling in a cosmopolitan age. His work has been published in Social Forces, the Journal of Moral Education, Society, and The Huffington Post. When not teaching, he is busy helping to run Wyebrook Farm, a sustainable beef and pork farm in Honey Brook, PA. Guest LinksDr. Jeffrey Dill | Templeton Honors College at Eastern University | https://templeton.eastern.edu/jeffrey-dill Wyebrook Farm | https://www.wyebrookfarm.com/ Episode References & Resources BooksAn Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations — Adam SmithEspecially Book I and Smith’s discussion of the division of labor through the example of pin-making. Standing by Words — Wendell BerryIncludes the essay “Poetry and Marriage: The Use of Old Forms,” discussed in the episode in connection with limits, commitment, freedom, and form. Ox-Cart Man — Donald Hall, illustrated by Barbara CooneyA portrait of the seasons and rhythms of agricultural and household life in New England. Essays, Encyclicals & Poems Laborem Exercens (On Human Work) — Pope John Paul IIDiscussed in connection with the dignity of work, the distinction between the subjective and objective dimensions of work, and the priority of human persons over capital. “Poetry and Marriage: The Use of Old Forms” — Wendell BerryA reflection on how limits and forms, rather than simply restricting human freedom, can make certain goods possible. “As I Walked Out One Evening” — W. H. AudenThe poem Jeff reads and reflects upon at the conclusion of the conversation. Connect with the Humanitas InstituteHumanitas Institute | https://humanitasinstitute.orgX | https://x.com/HIClassicalEdInstagram | https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_instituteFacebook | https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute
