8.15.25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the reading of the New York Times for Friday,
August fifteenth, twenty twenty five. As a reminder, Radio I
is a reading service intended for people who are blind
or have other disabilities that makes it difficult to read
printed material. Your reader for to day is Blanca Michael Ward.

(00:22):
We begin with Merriam Webster's word of the day meander. Meander,
a verb spelled m E A N D e R.
What it means to meander is to follow a winding
or intricate course that is one with a lot of
turns and curves, or to walk slowly without a specific goal, purpose,

(00:48):
or direction. Examples. We spent the afternoon meandering around the
seaside town the river meanders through the canyon Marion Webster's
word of the day meander. We continue with the New
York Times best sellers in combined print and ebook non

(01:11):
fiction in first place. Knew this Week Coming Up Short
by Robert B. Reich, an economist who served in three
presidential administrations, gives his perspective on his generation's impact on democracy, society,
and the economy. In second place. Two weeks on the

(01:35):
list on Power by Mark R. Leavin, The Fox News
host considers various facets of power and its effect on history.
In third place, knew this week One Nation Always Under
God by Tim Scott, the Republican Senator from South Carolina,

(01:58):
depicts the influence Christianity had on some prominent people and institutions.
In fourth place, knew this week Disney Adults by A. J. Wolfe,
an exploration of the subculture of loyal fans composed of
grown ups of the Disney films, merchandise, and theme parks.

(02:23):
And in fifth place, two hundred fifty five weeks on
the list, The Body Keeps the Score by besil Vandercolk,
How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments
for recovery. We continue with the New York Times bestsellers
in combined print and ebook fiction. In first place, knew

(02:46):
this week Accomplice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Mahrr,
the third book in the Assistant and the Villains series.
Avery Sage might be Falling for the Kingdom's most terrifying
vis In second place, knew this week The Fallen and
the Kiss of Dusk by Carissa Broadbent, the fourth book

(03:09):
in the Crowns of Noxia series and second book of
the shadow Born duet in third place, ten weeks on
the list, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Red in the summer
of nineteen eighty Joan Goodwin begins training with a group
of candidates for Nassau Space Shuttle program. In fourth place,

(03:31):
seventeen weeks on the list, Project Hail Mary by Andy
Weir Ryland Grace awakens from a long sleep, alone and
far from home, and the fate of humanity rests on
his shoulders. And in fifth place, Knew This Week Scarred
by Emily McIntyre, the second book in the Never After series,

(03:57):
Lady Sarah Beetrow developed an attraction for one of the
men she intended to kill. We continue with today's headlines
from the front page of The New York Times. Frantic
week of diplomacy for Zelenski sought a voice, if not
a seat, in Trump talks. Settler attacks hit Palestinians in

(04:22):
the West Bank, one hundred thirty assaults a month, Intimidation
from Israeli outposts as the world focuses on Gaza. Study
deciphers the inner voice of patients severed from speech. Potential
risks and banks shift toward crypto Ohio farm enclave is

(04:46):
mecca for Maha mom skeptics from the right and left,
striving for political harmony. A facelift, not a facelift that
not even a mother could love. Uproar after makeover of
a sacred statue, we begin with this story how a

(05:12):
call from Trump ignited a frantic week of diplomacy by Ukraine.
This was written by Constant Mehut. President Vladimir Zolensky of
Ukraine was returning from the frontline last week when he
joined a pivotal call with President Trump. Hours earlier, mister

(05:33):
Zelensky had visited soldiers defending Ukraine's northeastern Sumi region against
Russian ground assaults. Now stopping in the small city of Romney,
he listened on a secure line with other European leaders
as mister Trump outlined Russia's proposal to end the war Moscow.

(05:56):
Mister Trump told them was ready to halt hostilities under
a deal involving a territorial exchange between Russia and Ukraine.
According to a Kiev based European diplomat and a top
Ukrainian official who were briefed on the call and spoke
on the condition of anonymity, to discuss sensitive information. Seeing

(06:21):
a chance to broke her peace, mister Trump told those
on the line that he would meet one on one
with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to try to
seal an agreement. Mister Trump had just brought into play
two of Kiev's deepest fears, that it would be forced
to seed land to Russia as part of a peace deal,

(06:43):
and that mister Putin would be given a way out
of his diplomatic isolation. It was a direct challenge to
Ukraine's core principles that territorial issues be addressed only after
a cease fire and that no deal be concluded without Kiv.
After mister Selensky left the call, he recorded his usual

(07:06):
evening address to Ukrainians, trying to project optimism. I spoke
with President Trump, he said, speaking from a playground in
Romney as the sun set behind him. Russia now seems
to be more inclined toward a cease fire. The pressure
is working, but he cautioned, the key is to ensure

(07:28):
they don't deceive anyone in the details, neither US nor
the United States. What followed was a week of frantic
diplomacy as Ukraine scramble to avoid being sidelined in the
negotiations and prevent Russia from dictating the terms of peace talks.
Mister Selensky spoke with nearly thirty world leaders, while his

(07:52):
top advisers met online and in person with senior European
and American officials to press their case. In doing so,
Ukraine turned to a tactic honed over more than three
years of war, rallying partners through repeated behind the scenes
calls and meetings to keep a seat at the negotiating table. Crucially,

(08:16):
Kiev learned leaned heavily on its European allies to form
a united front and relay its message to the Trump administration.
The goal was to build a common position with the
Europeans and a way to communicate it to Trump. Alexander
krav the director of the North America Program at the

(08:38):
Kiev research group Ukrainian PRISM, said in an interview, the
Europeans have been really useful in helping Ukraine get back
to the table. Ukraine's first task was to determine exactly
what Moscow had proposed in the war. Mister Trump had
been vague on the call. The officials briging on it

(09:00):
said leaving it unclear which territories might be swapped. Would
it involve large areas such as the Ukrainian control part
of the Eastern Dambas region for Russian occupied land in
the south, or smaller strategic sites like the Russian held

(09:20):
Sephorisania nuclear plant for a Ukrainian city. Mister Zelenski instructed
his top aids to clarify the situation. They got a
call last Thursday with European counterparts in Steve Whitcoff, mister
Trump's Special Envoard for Peace Missions, who had received Moscow's

(09:40):
proposal during a meeting with mister Putin and Moscow last week.
But mister Whitcoff's explanations were muddled, according to the Kiev
based European diplomat, prompting another call the next day to
clear up the confusion. After that second call, it became
clear that Moscow was not actually offering to relinquish any land,

(10:04):
but only demanding that Kiev give up territory it holds
in the Dmbas in exchange for a ceasefire that would
freeze the current front lines Elsewhere Putin wants to achieve
by diplomatic means what he failed to achieve by military means,
said Olyona Getmunchuk, the newly appointed head of Ukraine's mission

(10:28):
to NATO. Putin thinks he can use President Trump's mediation
and determination to end the war as soon as possible
to achieve his goals. The Russian proposal was a non
starter for Ukraine, and Kiv moved to convince the Americans
that it was a dangerous gambit. If Russia took all

(10:50):
of the Dombas, Ukrainian officials argued, it would gain controls
of cities and fortifications, forming Ukraine's main defense belt in
the area. That would put the Russian army in a
much stronger position to attack nearby regions should it decide
to resume the war. At first, Kiv kept Russia's proposal

(11:13):
under wraps, worried about how Ukrainians would react, said mister Krave,
the Ukraine researcher. Most Ukrainians oppose giving up any territory
not already under Russian control or formally recognizing Moscow's occupation.
It's a classic diplomacy rule. If a possible peace treaty

(11:36):
is not acceptable to your public, you limit your comments.
You don't say anything, mister Krave said, but after mister
Trump disclosed on Friday that a peace deal could include
some swapping of territories, mister Zelensky had little choice but
to pushback. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,

(11:58):
he said Saturday morning. Mister Zelenski, however, appears to have
not entirely ruled out possible territorial exchanges, telling reporters this
week that this is a very complex issue that cannot
be separated from security guarantees. For Ukraine to bolster it

(12:21):
stands with the Americans. Ukraine continued to enlist its European allies.
Over the past week. Mister Zelensky spoke by phone with
more than twenty European leaders, including several times with President
Emmanuel Macron of France, a close ally. That strategy echoed

(12:43):
a familiar tactic first applied this spring, when European leaders
repeatedly engaged with mister Trump to press Ukraine's case during
early rounds of peace talks and acted as trouble shooter
during moments of tension between Kiv and Washington. On Saturday,
senior European and Ukrainian officials met outside London with top

(13:08):
American officials, including Vice President j D Vence to try
to dissuade the United States from cutting a peace deal
with Russia behind their backs. The intense week of diplomacy
culminated in a joint call between European leaders mister Zelenski
and mister Trump on Wednesday, exactly a week after after

(13:34):
mister Trump first revealed Russia's peace proposal. European leaders reiterated
their key principles that a ceasefire must come first, that
the current front lines should be the starting point for
any negotiations, including on territorial issues, and that any deal
would have to be accompanied by security guarantees for Kiv. Afterward,

(13:59):
mister Lensky replied to each statement of solidarity from eighteen
European leaders on x with the same words of gratitude,
thank you for your support. On Thursday, he traveled to
London to meet with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain
and continue making his case over breakfast at ten Downing Street.

(14:23):
They agreed there had been a powerful sense of unity
and a strong resolve to achieve a just and lasting
peace in Ukraine, as spokesman for Downing Street said, adding
that mister Trump's planned meeting with mister Putin presented a
viable chance to make progress as long as Putin takes

(14:44):
action to prove he is serious about peace. The top
Ukrainian official said the Americans had carefully listened to Ukraine's
and Europe's arguments throughout the week, but he cautioned that
no one really knew what they had in mind ahead
of Friday's meeting. Mister Zelenski echoed that sentiment on Tuesday.

(15:09):
I don't know what they will talk about without us,
he told reporters, But he stressed that substantive and productive
talks about us without us will not work. Um we
continue with this story with arson and landgrabs. Israeli's settler

(15:31):
attacks in West Bank hit record high. This was written
by Patrick Kingsley, Fatima abdul Karim, and Naytan Odenheimer. It
was well past midnight when the masked arsonist sneaked into
the hilltop Palestinian village of Burka, arriving from the direction

(15:53):
of a nearby Israeli settlement. They crept inside a junkyard
on the edge of the village. The raid liquid on
several cars. Security footage showed and set the vehicles alight.
Once sprayed graffiti on a barn wall, tagging the name
of a nearby settlement as well as the Hebrew word

(16:14):
for revenge. It was the third attack that July night
in the central pocket of the Israeli occupied West Bank,
and the seventh attack on this particular junkyard since the
start of the war in Gaza in October twenty twenty three.
According to its owner, before the war, they harassed us,

(16:35):
but not like this, said Mohammed Sebir Asalayah fifty six,
the junkyard owner. Now they're trying to expel as many
people as they can and annex as much land as
they can. Such attacks were on the rise before Hamas
led a deadly raid on Israel in twenty twenty three,

(16:57):
setting off the war in Gaza, and then they have
since become the new normal across much of the West Bank.
With the world's attention on Gaza, extremist settlers in the
West Bank are carrying out one of the most violent
and effective campaigns of intimidation and land grabbing since Israel

(17:18):
occupied the territory during the Arab Israeli War of nineteen
sixty seven. Settlers carried out more than seven hundred fifty
attacks on Palestinians and their property during the first half
of this year, an average of nearly one hundred thirty

(17:38):
assaults a month, according to records compiled by the United
Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. That is
the highest monthly average since the UN started compiling such
records in two thousand and six. The Israeli military has

(17:59):
recorded a similar surge in settler violence, though it has
documented only four hundred forty attacks in the same period,
according to unpublished internal records reviewed by The New York Times,
The military, which is the sovereign power in the occupied territory,
says it tries to prevent the attacks, but at times.

(18:21):
Investigation last year found that the Israeli authorities have for
decades failed to impose meaningful restraints on criminal settlers. While
Israel usually prosecutes Palestinians under military law, settlers are typically
charged under civil law if they are prosecuted at all.

(18:45):
For this article, reporters for The Times visited five villages
recently attacked by settlers, reviewed security footage of several episodes
and cell phone footage of others, and spoke with residents
of the afflicted villages, as well as Israeli military officers
and settler leaders. Our reporting found that massed settlers typically

(19:11):
sneak into Palestinian villages in the dead of night, setting
fire to vehicles and buildings. In some cases, they entered
during the daylight hours, leading to confrontations with residents. Sometimes
the classes have involved the Israeli military, leading to the
killings of several Palestinians, including a Palestinian American. In one

(19:37):
daytime attack, settlers threw a firebomb into a child's bedroom.
The child's family said the vast majority of the seven
hundred thousand Jewish Israelis who have settled since nineteen sixty
seven in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in settlements
considered illegal by most of the international community, are not

(20:01):
involved in such violence. Mainstream settler leaders say they have
a right to the land, but oppose attacking Palestinians. Hard
Line settler leaders acknowledge that their aim is to intimidate
Palestinians into leaving strategic tracts of territory that many Palestinians

(20:21):
hope may one day form the spine of a state.
It's not the nicest thing to evacuate a population Ariel Danino,
a prominent settler activist, said in an interview with The
Times in twenty twenty three, but we're talking about a
war over the land, and this is what is done

(20:42):
during times of war. In a recent call, mister Danino
said he stood by the comments, but declined a second interview.
For several years, the settlers had focused their intimidation on tiny,
semi nomadic herding communities along a remote chain of hilltops

(21:03):
northeast of Romaala, the main Palestinian city in the West Bank.
That campaign has largely succeeded, forcing at least thirty eight
communities to leave their hamlets and encampments since twenty twenty three,
according to records compiled by b to Slam, an Israeli

(21:23):
rights group that has eroded the Palestinian presence there and
seeded the surrounding slopes to settlers, who have seized the
chance to build more small settlement outposts or encampments. After
members of when Palestinian community fled en Masse in may A,

(21:44):
settler leader Elisha Yurad wrote on social media that their
departure was thanks to the campaign waged against it by
the Jewish settlement outposts in the area. With God's help,
one day we will expel you to your natural place
in a rock and Saudi Arabia, added mister Yaradem. Since

(22:10):
the start of twenty twenty three, settlers have built more
than one hundred thirty outposts, mostly in rural areas of
the West Bank that are technically unauthorized but often tolerated
by the Israeli government. That is more than they had
built in the previous two decades combined, according to research

(22:32):
by Peace Now, an Israeli group that backs the creation
of a Palestinian state. Now settlers have expanded their scope.
They are increasingly targeting a cluster of wealthier, larger and
better connected Palestinian villages closer to Ramala villages like Burka

(22:54):
and its neighbor Bettim. Before the Junkyard attack in Burka,
met As settlers had in fact begun to rampage in Bechi.
Just after one a m Abdallah Abbas, a retired teacher
in that village, woke to find his sedan on fire
and a star of David spraying on the wall of

(23:16):
his garden. Roughly an hour later, security footage showed two
mass arsonists stole into the yard of Leilah Darrabas house
a few hundred yards away on the edge of the village.
One sprayed the hood of Miss Daraba's car with something flammable,
and his accomplice at the car on fire. We knew

(23:40):
our turn would come, said Miss Duraba twenty eight, who
was cowering inside with her husband and two sons, ages
two and four months. They want to take this land,
they want to kick us out. About an hour later,
massed settlers entered Burka and attacked mister Sabar Assalayah's junkyard.

(24:03):
Villagers said in interviews that they suspected the same group
of settlers might have moved from place to place rickin Havoc.
This sequence of attacks was just a snapshot of a
broader pattern of violence in the area. In the first
half of twenty twenty five, there were an average of

(24:24):
seventeen attacks a month in this approximately forty square mile area.
According to the UN, that was nearly twice the monthly
rate in twenty twenty four, and roughly five times as
many as in twenty twenty two. The attacks have occurred
against the backdrop of intensifying efforts by the Israeli government,

(24:46):
which is partly led by longtime settler activists to entrench
its grip on the West Bank. Since entering office in
late twenty twenty two, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his
government have authorized more than thirty settlements, some of which
were previously built without government permission and have been granted

(25:09):
retroactive authorization. It is the largest wave of government led
settlement activities since before the Oslo peace process in the
nineteen nineties. Simultaneously, the Israeli military has captured and demolished
key urban neighbourhoods in the northern West Bank that are

(25:31):
technically administered by the Palestinian Authority, a semi autonomous institution
that oversees civil governance in Palestinian cities. The military has
also installed hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints across the territory.
The Israeli military defends its actions as a means of

(25:54):
containing Palestinian militant groups that launched terrorist attacks on its Israelis,
but it has further complicated the lives of most Palestinians
in the West Bank, stifled the economy, left tens of
thousands of people homeless, and made it even harder for
most Palestinians to journey to nearby cities pem In villages

(26:21):
like Burka, settlers attacks make life especially untenable. Repeated arson
attacks have damaged scores of used cars that mister Sabar Asalayah,
the junkyard owner, said he had bought from dealers in Israel.
He planned to retool their engines and spare parts and
sell them for a profit. The attacks have lost him

(26:45):
stock worth tens of thousands of dollars, making his business
and his abilities to survive in this village much less viable.
He said, life is not slowly turning untenable, it is
already untenable. Mister Sabar Asadlayah said, we are encircled. We

(27:08):
can't even heard our cattle. We're locked in. The problem
has been made worse by the Israeli military's failure to
prevent either the attacks or the settler's construction of unauthorized
encampments across the territory at times. Investigation last year found
that the Israeli authorities had for decades shown substantial leniency

(27:33):
to Jews involved in terrorist attacks against Arabs, a dynamic
that has only worsened since October twenty twenty three. In
one emblematic case, a settler was filmed shooting a Palestinian
in the presence of an Israeli soldier, Yet the shooter
was questioned for only twenty minutes and never arrested. A

(27:58):
senior Israeli military terry commander in the Central West Bank,
speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with military protocol,
said his soldiers tried to protect both settlers and Palestinians
in accordance with Israeli law. He noted that settlers had
sometimes clashed with Israeli soldiers this summer. We spoke to

(28:22):
the commander eight hours before the attacks on mister Sabar
Assaliah's property and Miss jarabis Karr soldiers arrived long after
the fires had been extinguished, villagers said. While the Israeli
police said they had opened investigations into each episode, no

(28:43):
one was prosecuted. In some cases, suspects were arrested, the
police said in a statement, though later released due to
a lack of evidence. We continue with this story. This

(29:03):
Ohio farm community is a mecca for the Maha mom
This was written by Caroline Kitchener. When the moms decided
to move to the farm. They imagined a thousand mornings
like this one, birds chirping, pesticide free vegetables growing, and children,

(29:25):
many children roaming the land without phones or ultra processed snacks.
You guys want to gather up, Let's do a quick
listen first, said Leah Lachlan, the mother who would lead
Kid's Farm Day. On a Tuesday in mid July. A
gaggle of neighborhood children had arrived early on bicycles and

(29:47):
tricycles and were already plopped down in the dirt pulling weeds.
Soil supports ninety five percent of all food production, said
miss Lachlan, holding a coffee mug that read missus trim,
tanned and toned. The forty two year old mother of
five looked ready to shoot an athleisure commercial, pairing spandex

(30:11):
and sneakers with shimmery eyeshadow and large gold hoops. If
the soil isn't healthy, she added, then the food isn't healthy,
and then the people aren't healthy. Several mothers and their
children gather in this spot twice a week, amid cucumber
and tomato vines. They have planted themselves on a plot

(30:32):
next to a small working farm. Most lived just a
short walk away in custom built homes with painted shutters
and rocking chairs out front on roads with names like
Nectar Court and Lavender Way. Miss Lachlan and her husband
were one of the first couples to buy a home

(30:54):
in twenty eighteen at Aberlin Springs, an agri community in
southwest Ohio, commuting distance from downtown Cincinnati. The development includes
almost one hundred homes that sell for between five hundred
twenty thousand dollars and one point five million dollars. Constructed

(31:16):
around a farm that feeds the residence, with a farm
store that sells a twenty two dollars beef tallow bamb
alongside fresh sourdough and eggs. A luxury outgrowth of the
hippie commune, the neighborhood has become a mecca for the
MAHA mom recreate this in every state. Alex Clark, a

(31:39):
leading influencer in the Make America Healthy Again movement, posted
on x in April, apparently referring to Avelyn Springs, this
is actually what women want. Led by Robert F. Kennedy,
Junior President Trump's health secretary, the MAHA move is gaining

(32:00):
momentum across the country, fueling skepticism about established food and
health care systems. Many of its followers are presenting a
new vision for familial utopia, one that aspires to transcend
ideology but promotes a definition of American values with profound

(32:21):
political reverberations. More Americans, they say, should embrace the homestead
lifestyle of a bygone era in which raw milk is
readily available and free range kids eat farm fresh dinners
ideally prepared by a mother who stays home. At least

(32:43):
some elements of this vision appeal to a broad cross
section of Americans rooted in a movement concerned with harmful
chemicals and food additives. Idellic depictions of homestead living are
attracting Instagram followers and home buyers from both ends of
the political spectrum. During a recent open house, Leslie Aberlin,

(33:10):
the development's owner, described Ablin Springs as a place where
the far lefts with their pictures with the bidens, can
find common ground with the far rights, with their trump
flags and their guns, connecting over healthy food and close community.
While the demographics of Aberlin Springs reflect those of heavily

(33:32):
white Warren County, the neighborhood has attracted a diverse range
of family types, including single women and LGBTQ couples. Political
law signs are banned, but a shared passion for healthy
soil and fresh vegetables sometimes fails to bridge the political

(33:53):
divide created when some Maha believers reject scientific consensus and
modern carevengeance of motherhood. Parents wrestle with weather to vaccinate
their children, weigh the advice of a neighborhood mom against
that of their pediatrician, and even the most family focused
conservative mothers determined to put their kids first, struggle with

(34:18):
what Miss Lachlan described as the wildly challenging decision to
take a step back from a high powered career. After
the soil lesson, miss Lachland shepherded eight children and her
aussy doodle to the pig pen, where they fed a
bag of watermelon rines to a new batch of piglets.

(34:39):
Her two oldest sons peeled off to go fish. Then
relaxation beckoned. Just a few feet away from the farm,
water cascaded down a rock waterfall into a lagoon style
swimming pool. Before she moved here seven years ago, Miss
Lachlan said she had planned to work full time for

(35:01):
mary Kay, a multi level marketing beauty company that she
joined in her early twenties. She had intended to hire
a nanny so that she and her husband, a lawyer,
could both fully devote themselves to their careers. Then she
drove up the hill to Ablin Springs, where a sign
now promises that happiness is just around the corner, and

(35:26):
Miss Lachlan's priority started to change. Part of me being
here has been a journey to discover that this is
what I want, said Miss Lachlan, who now works part time.
The role of wife, mother and homemaker, she said, was
more satisfying and rewarding than I ever thought it could be.

(35:47):
She never wants to live anywhere else. A pesticide free
Bavarian chalet, the idea for the Agra community, came to
Miss Aberlin in a For years, she had been mulling
the future of the eccentric agricultural estate her late father

(36:08):
had built for his retirement. Set back on one hundred
forty one acres in Warren County, a Bavarian style chalet,
adorned with fine oriental rugs and cowbells from Switzerland, overlooked
a small farm in the dream her father reminded her
that the land had always been pest aside free. She

(36:31):
could build a TOCs and free oasis. More than a
decade later, Aberlin Springs has a multi year waiting list
with nearly a dozen homes under construction. Landscaped with fresh
mulch and tightly trimmed hedges, the yards have all the
trappings of upper middle class suburbia, swing sets, webber grills,

(36:56):
and solo stoves. Red white and blue flowers loom for
the Fourth of July. At a recent open house, Miss
Ablain sixty introduced the property to a group of prospective
residents visiting from Cincinnati and other nearby towns in their
polo shirts and weakened khaki. The whole food industry is

(37:19):
a disaster. I'm sure you all know, she said. I
got very sick with an autoimmune disease that almost killed me,
and that was kind of how all this started. Miss
Aberlin embraced the central tenants of Maha long before mister
Kennedy popularized the term last year. A seasoned real estate

(37:43):
agent and home builder, she struggled for years with a
mysterious illness that sapped her energy and left her unable
to walk. Frustrated by medical consultations that never seemed to help,
she said, she stopped taking her prescribed medications and began
eating only grass fed meat and raw fruits and vegetables,

(38:05):
a diet now endorsed by influencers in the MAHA movement.
Within two months, miss Aberlin said she was walking again.
The experience left her highly suspicious of American agriculture, especially
the pesticide sprayed widely on farms across the country. She
started believing that dark forces had brought pesticides to the

(38:29):
United States after World War II in an effort to
kill Americans, a conspiracy theory, miss Aberlain shared shortly after
starting the open house tour. That's as far as I'm
going to go in unless you guys start asking me questions,
because I know it freaks a lot of people out,
she said, as most of the group stared blankly back

(38:52):
at her. But I'm a canary in the coal mine.
To live at Aberlin Springs, she added, resident must agree
not to spray round up or other pesticides on their property.
Miss Aberlin led everyone out of the visitors center past
the swimming pool. Then she introduced the pigs, explaining that

(39:14):
they were moved regularly to different locations around the farm,
so we don't have the smell. Do you have microgreens
in the winter. When woman asked, they did, a whole
room reserved for them. In fact, Miss Aberlin assured her
some of the mothers made juices. When it was time

(39:36):
for goodbyes, miss Aberlin singled out one prospective resident, the
girlfriend of a local banker. You convince him to come
marry you, move here and have babies, she said. This
is where your future should be if you like him
enough for that. Miss Aberlin loves that so many traditional wives,

(39:59):
as she calls stay at home moms, are raising their
children in her community, while she brought up her two
kids as a single mother, divorcing her ex husband soon
after her second baby was born. She calls herself a
boss woman by accident. She believes women have been sold

(40:19):
a bag of goods about the importance of a career
and are usually more fulfilled when they focus on their
kids full time. That's an expensive proposition, she knows, but
people at Aberlin Springs have money, and she has no
qualms admitting that money is part of what makes this
community work. As long as we're shackle to the monetary

(40:43):
system which we are. You always have to follow the money,
Miss Amberlin said, the Maha lifestyle does not come cheap.
Many of the hippie communes of the nineteen sixties and
nineteen seventies eventually failed, Miss Aberlin, are because the people
were too busy having sex to focus on farming and

(41:05):
too poor to hire full time farmers. At Aberlin Springs,
every resident pays eight hundred and fifty dollars each year
to participate in a community supported Agricultural Program or CSA
that delivers approximately ten farm grown items to them every

(41:26):
week between the spring and fall. That level of production
requires three full time farmers and a group of seasonal
contract workers, many of whom live almost an hour away
from the property. Even in conservative Warren County, Miss Aberlin

(41:47):
is well aware that million dollar home buyers hail from
both the right and left. Miss Aberlin stresses that liberals
are very welcome at Aberlin Springs, proud that the neighborhood
has attracted what she said sometimes feels like every far
left person in the country county. Miss Aberlin makes it

(42:09):
her mission to keep the peace. She agreed to host
the Rugue Food Conference at Aberlin Springs later this year,
a national event where Representative Thomas Massey, Republican of Kentucky
will speak along with several farmers and influencers aligned with
the MAHA movement. But she has requested that speakers avoid

(42:32):
talking about vaccines, fearing the topic could disrupt the property's
finely tuned state of political harmony. That's just a hotspot
that I don't want to play in, Miss Aberlin, said
to a few stragglers who lingered after the open house.
She does not tell the potential buyers that she is

(42:52):
fervently opposed to vaccines, or that she wrote in mister
Kennedy on her presidential ballot in twenty four. When pressed
on her politics, she says, simply, I'm on Mother Nature's side.
It's hard to know what's real. Many residents can only

(43:14):
remember a couple of times when political conflicts have surfaced
at Ablin Springs. They cannot recall exactly what was said
or how each uncomfortable interaction ended. But one particular mother
is always involved, and they all know her name. Rachel Pittman,
thirty six, was standing in her kitchen on the evening

(43:37):
of the open house in a hot pink bikini, churning
ice cream for her husband and five children. Unlike some
of her fellow Maha moms, Miss Pittman does not mind
a little sugar as long as the dessert is preservative free. Okay,
we poured in our milk and cream, she said, studying

(43:58):
the ice cream maker with a baby on her hip,
just back from the community pool. Her kitchen, the heart
of the family's five bedroom house, looks out on a
wooded ravine. Who wants to put the lid on? Miss
Pittman asked me, yelled her toddler, Mommy, I want the
strawberry set, her six year old, requesting a strawberry syrup

(44:21):
that Miss Pittman makes from scratch and jars herself to
day's cultural Today's culture encourages women to take the easy
way out, Miss Pittman explained from behind the kitchen island,
like just get an epidial, it's fine, Just get take out,
it's no big deal. Just buy a Stouffer's lasagna, she said,

(44:44):
recounting the messages she said modern women received. But we
can do hard things. That is one opinion, and Miss
Pittman has many more. Healthy moms should give birth at home.
Vaccines have killed people. Sunscreen is unnecessary. Kids should build
up a ten Full time careers make mothers miserable. Before

(45:09):
she moved to Aberlin Springs, Miss Pittman launched and led
a small business that built and shipped tiny homes across
the country, but that work stops seeming so important after
her third baby was born. She said she now stays
home and home schools her kids three days a week.
She has encouraged other Aberlin Springs mother including her neighborhood

(45:33):
best friend and fellow mom of five, Miss Lachlan, to
do the same. Whatever this feminist bs is, chase a career,
leave your family. It's not working, Miss Pittman said. When
she moved to Aberlin Springs in twenty twenty, Miss Pittman
immediately felt like she was joining an extended family. The

(45:56):
community rallied around her. In twenty twenty three, she said,
organizing a meal train while her husband served forty five
days in jail after pleading guilty to several counts of
fraud and theft that involved a medical marijuana business. Miss
Pittman said the experience has deepened her family's faith. She

(46:18):
knows she has alienated a few people over the course
of her five years in the neighborhood, mostly by expressing
her views on the coronavirus and vaccines. When one neighborhood
mother posted on social media about vaccinating her children for
the coronavirus, Miss Pittman messaged the mom with her own

(46:40):
views on the issue. Several residents recalled, explaining that due
to health concerns, she would not let her kids play
with anyone who had recently received the vaccine. I've been
too quiet for too long on this topic, she posted
on her Instagram in January twenty twenty, as the coronavirus

(47:02):
vaccine was just starting to become available. People do your research,
don't blindly trust what's being fed to you. Leading medical
associations continued to endorse the safety and effectiveness of the
coronavirus vaccine, as well as other vaccines for young children.

(47:22):
For Miss Pittman, the MAHA movement has brought validation she
had been missing since she started following mister Kennedy and
other vaccine skeptics over a decade ago. When mister Kennedy
joined forces with mister Trump and both men pledged to
make America healthy again, Miss Pittman cried tears of joy,

(47:45):
thrilled to realize her beliefs had finally entered the mainstream.
More and more, Miss Pittman said people at Aberlin Springs
are asking about her views on vaccines, and while Miss
Aberlin asked her not to stir up controversy on the issue,
Miss Pittman feels it is her responsibility to help her

(48:07):
neighbors see the issue as she does. The topic came
up on a recent afternoon at the pool when a
new resident, Jackie Borchers, asked Miss Pittman whether she had
vaccinated her kids. Miss Boucher's, a nurse, an etheist, and
mother of five, had moved to the neighborhood two months earlier.

(48:28):
She had always trusted her doctors to know what was
best for her children, she said, vaccinating her oldest four
kids for everything her pediatrician recommended. But now she had
to decide whether to vaccinate her baby, and she wasn't
so sure. I feel like I'm in this uncomfortable spot

(48:50):
of I'm starting to question stuff, but I don't know
enough yet, Miss Boucher said, so, I'm just scared to
make a choice. At the pool, Miss Pittman told Miss
Bouchers all the reasons she does not trust vaccines. Referring
her new neighbor to some of her favorite influencers who

(49:11):
shared her views. The conversation left Miss Boucher's feeling even
more uncertain. She had recently heard about one child in
the area who had contracted months and another who came
down with pretuses. It's hard to know what's real, she said,
seeking out like minded neighbors, most residents just trying not

(49:36):
to talk about their differences. In a largely Republican county,
Liberals in the neighborhood said they had learned to look
for ques to help them quietly identify their people. You
find out who's in your camp, said Barbara Rose, a
retired palliative care program manager and astrology enthusiast drawn to

(49:59):
the ag community for its strong earth vibe. At the
Fourth of July Barbecue, a neighborhood event that drew over
one hundred people this year, Miss Rose tried to hide
her distaste for the pre meal prayer delivered by Miss
Lachlan's husband, who thanked God for all the great things

(50:19):
happening in the country. Let's just put it this way.
I know who I'm not going to invite to the
Warren County DEM's fundraiser. She said when Miss Rose's husband
Andrew was selected for an early trial of the coronavirus
vaccine in twenty twenty, the couple decided not to share
the news too widely at Abilin Springs, expecting that some

(50:44):
neighbors would likely have something to say about it. While
Miss Rose is horrified by mounting vaccine skepticism, she said,
it's not my job to sway people one way or
the other, especially in her own neighborhood. I live with
these people, Miss Rose said, I see them day in

(51:05):
and day out. She prefers to focus on the pieces
of homestead living that bring her and her neighbors together,
a new litter of piglets, of fifty thousand dollar fund
raising effort for a new fruit orchard, the fireworks they
all watched together at the Fourth of July event organized

(51:26):
by Miss Lachlan and her husband. Miss Lachlan said she
also strives to build a bridge with her liberal neighbors,
but that does not mean they have to become her
close friends. She added, she too has found her people.
At the end of Kid's Farm Day, Miss Pittman came
to join Miss Lachlan. At the pool, the two women

(51:48):
dangle their feet in the cool blue water, looking out
at the kids they were raising. Together, they often talked
about the mothers they knew with full time careers who
cried while dropping their babies off at daycare, and how
sad their lives seemed. Reflecting on those conversations, Miss Lochlan

(52:08):
said she's sometimes worried that she was living in an
echo chamber. Everybody I know has like minded thoughts, she said,
referring to the group of moms she has befriended at
Aberlin Springs, and my own thoughts are just being reinforced
when there's this whole other way of living outside to

(52:30):
guard my heart, she said. She tries not to scroll
on social media, preferring to post her own photos without
looking at how others might live. Hashtag Lochlan party of seven,
she wrote under a picture of her family at Aberlin Springs,
hugging beneath the trees, hashtag life is good. We continue

(52:58):
with this story behind Wall Street's abrupt flip on Crypto.
This was written by Rob Copeland. Not long ago, bank
executives would compete with one another to be the loudest
critic of cryptocurrencies. Jamie Diamond, the chief executive of J P.

(53:20):
Morgan Chase, once compared bitcoin to a pet rock and
said the whole crypto industry should be banned. Bank of
Americans Bryan moynihan described the space as an untraceable tool
for money laundry, while HSBC's chief executive proclaimed bluntly, we

(53:42):
are not into bitcoin now. Big banks can't stop talking
about crypto in investor calls, public presentations, and meetings with
Washington regulators. Financial executives are tripping over one another to
unveil new plan including the development of fresh cryptocurrencies under

(54:04):
bank umbrellas and loans tied to digital assets. There's no
small mix of political opportunism at play, given that President
Trump and his family are vociferous crypto boosters and investors,
and of course there's a degree of old fashioned jealousy
among the traditional finance set at the riches earned by

(54:28):
one time French companies and investors as bitcoin more than
doubled over the past year to blow past one hundred
thousand dollars. But behind the scenes at major financial institutions
and in stark contrast to the public show voting among
chief executives. Fear is also rising that the rush into

(54:51):
crypto may risk the safety of personal bank accounts in
ways that Wall Street and Washington are just beginning to
unders stand. The worries described by nine Wall Street executives
briefed on their organization's crypto initiatives but not authorized to
speak publicly for their employers, center on the creation of

(55:14):
a new interbank checking account and payment system built on
crypto and blockchain technology. That system would come with few
consumer protections and nascent regulatory oversight. The system being sketched
out by top executives and lawyers at huge banks including

(55:37):
JP Morgan, Bank of America, and City, involves a complicated
corner of the crypto ecosystem called a stable coin. Stable
coins could upend the old financial order. Stable coins work
like a digital iou. Their value is pegged to the

(55:59):
US dollar, unlike cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, which have no such
constraint and thus can swing wildly in price. Here's how
they work at scale. A bank customer places his or
her cash with the bank and gets a stash of
stable coins in return. The consumer can then use these coins,

(56:22):
for instance, to send money overseas or make international payments
less expensively than wiring money. The funds that a customer
exchanges in return for stable coins is to the bank
the equivalent of a guaranteed profit. That's because a federal
law passed this summer with bipartisan support requires banks to

(56:47):
take the money they receive for stable coins and invested
in government bonds and other virtually risk free assets. Those
bonds generate interest, which the bank keep. Unlike traditional bank accounts,
these savings don't earn even nominal interest for depositors. Another

(57:08):
big change stable coins eskew the century old practice of
automatic federal deposit insurance. If they fail, there is no
guarantee of a government backstop. Bankers say stable coins, if
widely adopted, could bring a radical change to the nuts

(57:29):
and bolts of their industry, and they have the potential
to up end a century of accepted banking practices. One
reason is that the money that a customer places with
a bank in exchange for a stable coin cannot be
lent out in the same way that money placed in
a traditional checking and savings account can be. This concludes

(57:53):
the reading of The New York Times for today. Your
reader for today has been Blanca Michael Ward. Have any questions, comments,
or suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call
us at eight five nine four two two six three
nine zero. Thank you for listening, and now please stay

(58:13):
tuned for continued programming on Radio I