How Do You Take Pride In Farming? with Lee Hennessy

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Sony Music

Science, Self-improvement, Comedy, Education, Society & Culture

4.9 • 21.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2022

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When we first met Lee Hennessy, he introduced himself as “a farmer, doing farmer things, living the farmer life, who happens to be trans.” To round out our “Pride In Nature” series, we’re learning all about Lee’s life running Moxie Ridge Farm & Creamery, what it was like to come out after opening the farm, and what farming has taught him about sex and gender. A note to listeners: Lee’s work as a livestock farmer involves creating and selling animal products, including things like cheese, wool, and meat. If this topic is challenging or uncomfortable, we encourage listeners to approach the episode if/when they're ready and to visit Moxie Ridge's values to understand Lee's approach to making animal products. Lee Hennessy is the founder, farmer, and cheesemaker of Moxie Ridge Farm. Lee is a first-generation farmer and a transgender man with a surprising background in both wine and Hollywood. He lives and works in Argyle, NY and in his spare time he enjoys spending time with his goats, reading long fantasy series, learning to play instruments and singing. You can follow Lee on Instagram @hennessie. Want to know what Moxie Ridge Farm is up to? Follow them on Instagram @moxieirdgefarm. If you’d like to help finance a security system for Moxie Ridge Farm, you can donate to their GoFundMe – this piece explains why trans-owned farms like Moxie Ridge need security. Consider supporting Moxie Ridge’s Patreon, which will help support not only the maintenance and development of the farm, but also allow Lee to mentor future marginalized farmers. Join the conversation, and find out what former guests are up to, by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Love listening to Getting Curious? You can also watch Getting Curious—on Netflix! Head to netflix.com/gettingcurious to dive in. Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our associate producer is Zahra Crim. Our editor is Andrew Carson. Our socials are run and curated by Middle Seat Digital. Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com. Getting Curious merch is available on PodSwag.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Getting Curious. I'm Jonathan Van Ness and every week I sit down for a gorgeous conversation
0:05.5	with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious.
0:11.7	Oh, so curious.
0:16.4	Oh, so curious.
0:19.9	Oh, oh.
0:21.3	Anyway, I'm done doing that now. On today's episode, I'm joined by the one, the only Lee Hennessy.
0:27.2	Where I ask him, what's it like to be a farmer who happens to be trans?
0:32.0	Oh, welcome to Getting Curious. This is Jonathan Van Ness and have we got a special episode
0:37.9	for you. We are going to talk about something that I am obsessed with farming. We have to
0:43.1	welcome our guest to the show. The one, the only, the icon, also friend of the show,
0:48.2	Lee Hennessy, who is the owner and operator of Moxie Ridge, a small farm and creamery and
0:54.3	rural of Sydney, or who, by the way, has the most incredible cheese you've ever even thought
0:58.7	about having. I've had it myself so we can add cheese maker to the list.
1:02.9	Uh, Lee, how are you? I'm awesome. I'm so excited to be here. I've never been interviewed
1:09.5	by a two-time New York Times best seller before.
1:13.0	Are you like trying to make me blush first thing in the morning? I'm obsessed. Basically,
1:19.3	today I wanted to talk about you farming. Um, I feel like coming from inside the gender
1:26.2	diverse, uh, community myself and it's giving me like, you know the word trans form. Then
1:33.9	there's trans farm. And then I was like, honey, your a trans farmer, which is so cool.
1:43.3	Because it's a lot. I would imagine having a farm anyway, but then you have like this
1:49.6	gorgeous added intersectionality of being a gorgeous trans person, um, who is also a
1:56.3	farmer. You have like the most incredible story. I got to meet you in 2021 a long, long
	...

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