In Episode 209 of Wild & Waking, I’m joined by Jack Thomas, a self-taught regenerative farmsteader, food and homesteading educator, printmaker, writer, and founder of ACRE, the Agrarian Co-Learning & Resiliency Exchange. Together, we explore what it means to build a resilient, politically conscious agrarian life beyond the tradwife fantasy - and why growing food, raising animals, baking bread, caring for the land, and creating a softer life do not have to come packaged with right-wing politics, patriarchy, or religious fundamentalism.
Our conversation digs into the tradwife pipeline, political identity in rural America, class consciousness, white privilege, vibes-based voting, and the contradictions between the policies many rural voters support and the values they practice in their own communities. Jack offers a compelling leftist alternative to tradwife culture: a life rooted in food resiliency, domestic meaning, agrarian skills, mutual aid, political freedom, and interdependence. We also talk about why farmers need healthcare and economic security, how political messaging shapes rural identity, and what it really takes to change hearts and minds without abandoning nuance, safety, or personal boundaries.
We also explore the loneliness of being queer, progressive, liberal, or leftist in agricultural and rural spaces and the importance of creating politically aligned communities both online and in real life. Jack shares the vision behind ACRE (Agrarian Co-Learning & Resiliency Exchange), their upcoming UnTrad podcast, and the possibility of building rural communities centered on co-learning, preparedness, food sovereignty, creativity, and collective resilience. This episode is an invitation to stay open, resist becoming calcified in our beliefs, hold both sacred rage and whimsy, and keep building the world we actually want to live in - one garden, conversation, community, and tiny tomato at a time.
In this episode, we explore:
- Jack’s evolution from a conservative upbringing in rural Georgia to life as a queer, AuDHD leftist farmsteader in Vermont
- Career reinvention, identity evolution, and the “career ego deaths” that helped Jack connect art, education, regenerative agriculture, and community building
- How COVID disrupted the cultural checklist and sparked personal, political, and professional awakening
- The rise of the tradwife movement and why its promise of softness, certainty, domesticity, and belonging can feel so seductive
- Reclaiming homemaking, food production, homesteading, and slower living without embracing patriarchy or right-wing politics
- The anti-tradwife alternative: food sovereignty, mutual aid, political agency, interdependence, and agrarian resilience
- How class identity, poverty, grit, white privilege, and rural culture shape political beliefs
- The disconnect between rural values, voting patterns, and policies affecting farmers, healthcare, labor, and economic security
- The loneliness of being queer, progressive, liberal, or leftist in rural and agricultural spaces
- Why politically aligned community can create safety, belonging, and more honest connection
- The vision behind ACRE, the Agrarian Co-Learning & Resiliency Exchange
- Building online communities that lead to real-life relationships, regional gatherings, and mutual support
- Jack’s experience with political de-radicalization and helping people question inherited belief systems
- Jack’s upcoming UnTrad podcast and its vision for a more inclusive, resilient agrarian future
- Resisting ideological calcification and staying open to growth, change, and small ego deaths
- Holding sacred rage and whimsy at the same time
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Join Emily and Kelsey Anderson for VeilFall, an intimate Samhain and Full Hunter’s Moon women’s retreat happening October 23–26, 2026, at Blue Star Retreat Center in Columbia Falls, Montana, near Glacier National Park.
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VeilFall
