Host Mary Swander takes a spin around Freemartin Town and reads the notes Paul, the Egg Man, has put into his cartons. Swander interviews Aidan Yoder, a Mennonite student and peace activist, home from his 11-day march for Gaza. Swander reads about sacrifice and service from Plain Interests, then concludes with her own monologue called Bring Back the Bluebirds. Music: Cluck Old Hen and Motherless Child. Connect with us on our new Substack pages where you will see photos and extras from the...

Farmer Sean Dengler describes his 90 minute commute to his farm. One day the drive became difficult. The Call-In Catastrophe processes recent storms and the plague of loneliness. Host Mary Swander reads her poem Scheherazade, and delivers her monologue about morel hunting. Connect with us on our new Substack pages where you will see photos and extras from the podcast: Mary Swander's Buggy Land And Mary Swander's Emerging Voices, showcasing young, diverse writers on current...

Listen to host Mary Swander interview author and agricultural antitrust expert Austin Frerick about his book called Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of American's Food Industry (Island Press.) Frerick tells the story of seven corporate titans, how they accumulated their wealth and rose to power to control most everything that we put in our mouths-from grain to dairy, coffee to berries, pork and slaughtering to groceries. How do we change this pattern? What new vision can we bring to...

The podcast explores spirits, the kind you want to lift in the winter, and the kind you want to drink year-round. And the kind that comes back to haunt you. Host Mary Swander explores the history of two bootlegged whiskeys: poitín in Ireland, and Templeton Rye in Iowa, and her connection to both. Readings from Plain Interest. And John K. Corless singing Noreen Bawn. Connect with us on our new Substack pages where you will see photos and extras from the podcast: Mary Swander’s Buggy...

Host Mary Swander reads her story Adeste Fideles in Chinese with musical accompaniment. Adeste Fideles in Chinese is the third in a series of handmade books published by Timothy Fay of Route 3 Press in Anamosa, Iowa, depicting the author's interactions with her Amish neighbors. This book captures a poignant Christmas story of multicultural exchange. More about Swander's books here.) Connect with us on our new Substack pages where you will see photos and extras from the podcast: Mary Swander's...

Ruby, our local chef and grossmommie, voices her concern about her grandchildren picking up new ideas in Indiana, and not enjoying Christmas dinner. Jane Yoder Short recounts how she grew up Mennonite, gardening and constructing bean tipis with a deep love of the dirt (or soil). Host Mary Swander tells stories about raising turkeys for the season and how the year comes to an end at the Bontrager's sorghum press down the road. Connect with us on our new Substack pages where you will see...

Mary Swander tells the story of buying her own tombstone. She reads from Plain Interests and The Budget about the proper conduct at funerals and wakes, and a deer hunting incident. Then she recites "May I Sleep in your Barn, Mister?" In the second half of the show, she tells about the Amish custom of singing hymns to ill and dying people. Ashokan Farewell by Annie Chapman Brewer (French horn) and her grandfather Keith (dobro). Gott ist die Liebe. Connect with us on our new Substack pages...

Host Mary Swander interviews two writers with new memoirs: Monica Leo (Hand, Shadow, Rod: The Story of Eulenspiegal Puppet Theatre. Ice Cube Press) and Lori Erickson (Every Step is Home: A Spiritual Geography. Westminister John Knox Press.) Both writers portray their travels-one with puppets, the other with spiritual exploration, to find excitement, fun, solace, and fulfilling careers on the road. Leo writes of her beginnings as a doll and puppet maker, to her steps into performance, to the...

Host Mary Swander interviews agronomists Russ Mullen and Jill Mortenson about creating a bio-sanctuary movement of undisturbed places of refuge, shelter, and food for wildlife. Mullen reads from his non-fiction piece about exploring a wetland on his family farm during childhood, then reflects on the disappearance of such environments in an age of industrial agriculture. Mortenson suggests ideas for urban sanctuaries and how the arts might promote the movement. Read Mullen's full essay at:...

Host Mary Swander reflects upon the wedding customs in her Amish neighborhood-from the difficulties of finidng a mate, to the services in the barn, to the reception for 500 people under the tent. Wedding stories and jokes by Duffy de France and Monica Leo. Music: What Shall I Wear to the Wedding, John? by Aunt Fanny Rumble and Albert Collins. Connect with us on our new Substack pages where you will see photos and extras from the podcast: Mary Swander's Buggy Land maryswander.substack.com And...

Host Mary Swander interviews Environmental Historian Professor Heather Roller from Colgate University with her student assistants Anna Miksis and Katie Moser. Roller discusses her research in the Amazon and award-winning books on the region, then turns to her current project A Social and Environmental History of Agrichemicals. She travelled to Iowa to interview farmers, to take their oral histories and discover the reasons many have turned to organic farming. Roller is also working in the...

Host Mary Swander provides background on the research and production of her new play Squatters on Red Earth, a peaceful encounter in the middle of the white settler land grab. Swander details her interactions with both the people of the Amana Colonies and the Meskwaki Settlement. These two groups, wanting nothing more than to remain hidden from the outside world, had a positive experience together in the early settlement days-all the while genocide whirled around them. Laura Hudson Kittrell...

Mary Swander announces a new logo and name for the podcast to coordinate with her Substaack page: Mary Swander's Buggy Land. Reflections on Amish elections and "The Lot." Comments on raw milk and a gardening adventure burying art objects. Connect with us on our new Substack pages where you will see photos and extras from the podcast: Mary Swander's Buggy Land maryswander.substack.com And Mary Swander's Emerging Voices, showcasing young, diverse writers on current...

Host Mary Swander interviews Christopher Weatherly, a licensed social worker and Ph.D. candidate at Washington University in St. Louis. Weatherley discusses his research on mental health issues for farmers and others in the rural environment. He details the social, economic, and atmospheric challenges farmers and rural youth face, and the availability of care they receive. Includes a discussion of the arts and how they serve as an emotional outlet. Connect with us on our new Substack pages...

Spring returns to Freemartin on the wings of purple martins. Host Mary Swander describes the birds' behavior and habitats, their houses and the ways the Amish feed these birds. A neighbor traces the journey of a button from an old factory on the Mississippi River to the beak of a purple martin, to South America and back. Scenes from an Amish reunion in a one-room school house and a Mennonite child's discovery of a book on world mythology, a text that sends her on a journey of her own world...

Two Practical Farmers of Iowa storytellers are featured-Arlyn Kauffman and DaQuan Campbell. Kauffman, from an Amish/Mennonite community, tells of crashing the manure tank on his Uncle Morris' farm. And Campbell, from Waterloo, IA, tells how a regular customer gave him the confidence to start an urban cooperate vegetable production venture. Connect with us on our new Substack pages where you will see photos and extras from the podcast: Mary Swander's Buggy Land maryswander.substack.com And...

Callers to the KLUU Radio Call-in Catastrophe show voice their concern about sink holes and the state legislature proposal to lift child labor and safety laws, allowing children to work in the meat packing plants and in the mines. Swander explores the use of manners in communal societies, then an Amish "greasy hand" gives tips on keeping an old Maytag washer running with vaseline. Connect with us on our new Substack pages where you will see photos and extras from the podcast: Mary Swander's...

In response to Mary Swander's Amish home butchering stories, Buggy Land listeners tell their own tales of procuring and butchering meat and fish. Rebecca Hawkins Valadez, Denny Coon, Larry Harris and Gene Zdrazil take center stage, connecting their stories to home, food, family and community.

It's home butchering time in Buggyland. Mary Swander visits her Amish neighbors, remembering the butcher shops of her youth, the making of braunschweiger, and the lost community of families working together to put up their own meat-all lost arts that stand in contrast to the practices of our modern food system. A four-legged furry creature comes to the party.

Mary Swander writes of her Christmas with her Amish neighbors in Buggy Land, from attending their celebration in their one-room school, to singing carols with them on her porch. Music by the South East Iowa Symphony Orchestra and Iowa Wesleyan University Choir.

Host Mary Swander interviews Ranae Lenor Hanson about her new book: Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress. A personal health crisis, stories from environmental refugees, and our climate in danger prompt a meditation on intimate connections between the health of the body and the health of the ecosystem.

Host Mary Swander puts out a call to listeners for critter stories and gives instructions to make a pitch on the website: www. agarts.org. Swander tells the story of Old Order Amish neighbor Abram Yutzy demolishing a damaged room with just a hammer. Eventually, his large family joins him to pull the nails from the boards and romp with Swander's puppy. Reflections on waste, co-operation and living in a communal society. Ask Ruby segment on "Amish Paradise" and harmonica bands.

Host Mary Swander interviews Angela Tedesco, author of the new book Finding Turtle Farm: My Twenty-Acre Adventure in Community-Supported Agriculture. (University of Minnesota Press). Tedesco traces her life as a vegetable farmer, from accessing land, to developing a viable CSA business, to transitioning her property at the end of her career. She discusses the nuts and bolts of a CSA, the organic methods she used and the way she improved her soil, the research she conducted, and how she turned...