The Tension in the Political Environment Today's World

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I think home is a thing that many modern educated people don't have. I know it happens all around the world, but it feels to me like a particularly American experience. They're not sort of rooted to one place, or if they are, it's only for a generation or two. When I talk to Italians or maybe people in rural France, or, I don't know, people in Asia or Africa, that's quite different. One of the defining things in their identity is place.

James Rebanks's family has raised sheep in the same small English village for at least four centuries. There are records of people with his same last name going back a few hundred more. Even his sheep are rooted in place: their DNA is from Viking times. It's enough to make anyone feel insignificant--and according to Rebanks, that's a wonderful thing. Listen as the author of The Shepherd's Life speaks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the deep pleasures and humbling privilege of being a sheep farmer.