Lawyers, Guns & Money - LGM Podcast: The Farm Crisis

Feb 06 2024 33 mins 24

For our latest podcast, we talked to Pamela Riney-Kehrberg from Iowa State University about her recent book When a Dream Dies: Agriculture, Iowa, and the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. This was a wide-ranging conversation that explored, among other things, the connections between the farm crisis and the manufacturing crisis of the same time, the culture of individualism among farmers that made it very difficult for them to accept help, how terrible the Carter administration was for both farmers and workers, and how this influenced the growth of far-right politics that have transformed Iowa over the past decade. And of course we also talked about the details of the farm crisis, why it happened, and whether it ever really ended (spoiler alert: it did not). It’s a great book and you should read it.

Transcript available here.

The LGM podcast is now available from a variety of corporate overlords, so please perform freedom by making your consumer choice. We would very much appreciate reviews, whether of the thoughtful written variety or just by clicking on the appropriate star. The podcast is time-consuming and expensive, so also contemplate tossing a nickel in the jar.