262: Linley Dixon: A Good Life Grows in Healthy Soil

No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp

Lee Camp

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 555 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What does it mean to live a good life in a world increasingly disconnected from the land that sustains it? Before Linley Dixon became co-director of the Real Organic Project, she spent years in academia studying plant pathology and soil microorganisms, peering through microscopes at the unseen relationships beneath our feet. But a passion for organic farming and the well-being of workers and the planet led her into her current role as an activist in a farmer-led movement working to restore integrity to the practice of Organic Farming. Linley offers us a vision of human flourishing rooted not in speed, efficiency, or endless consumption, but in patience, stewardship, and radical generosity. She explains why healthy soil lies at the heart of authentic organic farming, why the word “radical” is actually a botanical term, and why she believes true change begins when ordinary people are willing to tell difficult truths. ⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Show Notes, Resources, and Transcript⁠ for abridged episode with Linley Dixon⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join NSE+⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ — our subscriber-only community — for ad-free listening, member-only bonus content, and early access to live show tickets. Your membership helps make No Small Endeavor sustainable. No Small Endeavor: An award-winning podcast that asks what it means to live a good life. Through conversations with leading thinkers across theology, philosophy, psychology, politics, and the social sciences, we explore human flourishing, meaning and purpose, faith and culture, science and religion, virtue and character, religion and spirituality, community, and the practices that help shape a good life grounded in truth, beauty, and goodness. Follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@nosmallendeavor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Host Lee C. Camp: Lee has worked as a professor of theology & ethics for more than 25 years, teaching and writing on topics of faith & politics, inter-religious dialog, and human flourishing at the intersection of theology, moral philosophy, and social sciences. Follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@leeccamp ⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Lee C. Camp and this is no small endeavor, exploring what it means to live a good life.
0:07.0	We know how to farm organically. It's just that the marketplace is not set up to allow us to thrive.
0:17.0	That's Linley Dixon, co-director of the Real Organic Project, a farmer-led movement working
0:23.8	to restore integrity to the practice of organic farming.
0:27.6	It's really hard to be radical, to be first.
0:31.6	And I think that the farmers right now are saying something very radical, which is that our livelihoods
0:36.6	depend on organic meaning something.
0:39.1	And so we have to fix this problem.
0:42.2	We discussed the path that led Lindley from academia to activism and a beautiful, though challenging,
0:47.2	way of life as a farmer.
0:49.0	Oh, gosh, is the food good?
0:51.2	Like, once you have a real carrot from your local farmer or berry or tomato, it's just like
0:57.1	you don't go back. Oh, coming right up. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and
1:04.0	hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become
1:09.4	when life makes other plans.
1:11.4	I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change.
1:16.0	We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes.
1:21.9	You can have opinions, you can have like a strong stance.
1:27.1	And then there's your body having its own program.
1:31.8	Listen to a slight change of plans wherever you get your podcasts.
1:38.0	Starting something new is not just hard. It can be terrifying. What I discovered was that having
1:43.3	the right partners was crucial.
	...

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