This week, the MennoBrarians take a deep dive into Amish Romance self-publishing. Inspired by the conversation on Amish Country Treasure in season 2, in which Tillie speculated the book was written by a bot, Erin went on a research journey to see if she could figure out if the text was written by a human or AI (findings: inconclusive). In this episode, Erin shares some of what she found during this research journey. 

We chat self-publishing, random research topics, and whether it actually matters if bots write the books we read. 

We always love hearing from listeners! You can reach us at plainwrongpod at gmail.com, or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

If you want to help support the podcast financially, please consider joining our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plainwrongpod or buying merch at TeePublic

Follow us:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/plainwrongpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plainwrongpod/

Website: http://plainwrongpod.com/

“Just Plain Wrong” is produced, written and edited by Erin Milanese, Abby Nafziger and Matilda Yoder.

Our intro music is played by Erin, and the outro by Miriam Augsburger. Both are "arrangements" of the Doxology from the Mennonite Hymnal.

Logo design by Ida Yoder Short. Canva design (used for Social Media posts in Season 4 -6) by Abigail Adams.

This week, the MennoBrarians discuss YouTuber Peter Santenello's multi-part series on the Amish. We chat Pinecraft, interview techniques, and our favorite moments from the videos. We also maintain that Lemon Meringue and Key Lime pie are very different, and that Peter should work on mastering his pie identification skills. 

Links to videos discussed this episode: 

1. Meeting the Amish - First Impressions (Pinecraft 1)
2. How the Amish Live in Florida (Pinecraft 2)
3. Inside Largest Amish/Mennonite Community - First Impressions (Holmes County 1 - the one with Josh)
4. Invited to Amish Dinner (Holmes County 2 - Abby's Favorite)
5. Inside Most Conservative Amish Home (Swartzentruber)
6. What Amish Schools are Like
7. Amish Walmart 
8. Inside Amish Auction

Full playlist of Peter Santenello Amish videos. 

We always love hearing from listeners! You can reach us at plainwrongpod at gmail.com, or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

If you want to help support the podcast financially, please consider joining our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plainwrongpod or buying merch at TeePublic

Follow us:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/plainwrongpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plainwrongpod/

Website: http://plainwrongpod.com/

“Just Plain Wrong” is produced, written and edited by Erin Milanese, Abby Nafziger and Matilda Yoder.

Our intro music is played by Erin, and the outro by Miriam Augsburger. Both are "arrangements" of the Doxology from the Mennonite Hymnal.

Logo design by Ida Yoder Short. Canva design (used for Social Media posts in Season 4 -6) by Abigail Adams.

This week, the MennoBrarians discuss Nancy Drew book #33: The Witch Tree Symbol. During this episode of the Nancy Drew book series, Nancy helps recover stolen furniture in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. She and her friends stay with Amish families, drive buggies, attend a quilting bee AND a barn raising, and (of course!) solve the mystery. 

We chat hex signs, Church Amish vs House Amish, outdated YA literature, and more. 

We always love hearing from listeners! You can reach us at plainwrongpod at gmail.com, or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

If you want to help support the podcast financially, please consider joining our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plainwrongpod or buying merch at TeePublic

Follow us:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/plainwrongpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plainwrongpod/

Website: http://plainwrongpod.com/

“Just Plain Wrong” is produced, written and edited by Erin Milanese, Abby Nafziger and Matilda Yoder.

Our intro music is played by Erin, and the outro by Miriam Augsburger. Both are "arrangements" of the Doxology from the Mennonite Hymnal.

Logo design by Ida Yoder Short. Canva design (used for Social Media posts in Season 4 -6) by Abigail Adams.

This week, the MennoBrarians discuss the the Netflix movie, Rumspringa, a coming of age / buddy comedy about a young Amish boy, Jacob, who travels to Germany for his Rumspringa. We chat family history trips, where to find the Original Hostetler, tree felling, Kazoos, magical zippers, and much more. 

We always love hearing from listeners! You can reach us at plainwrongpod at gmail.com, or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

If you want to help support the podcast financially, please consider joining our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plainwrongpod or buying merch at TeePublic

Follow us:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/plainwrongpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plainwrongpod/

Website: http://plainwrongpod.com/

“Just Plain Wrong” is produced, written and edited by Erin Milanese, Abby Nafziger and Matilda Yoder.

Our intro music is played by Erin, and the outro by Miriam Augsburger. Both are "arrangements" of the Doxology from the Mennonite Hymnal.

Logo design by Ida Yoder Short. Canva design (used for Social Media posts in Season 4 -6) by Abigail Adams.

This week, the MennoBrarians discuss the Oscar winning movie adaptation of Women Talking (tho we did not yet know at the time we recorded that it would win!). Women Talking was written by Sarah Polley, who won an Oscar for Best Adaptation. We covered the book Women Talking by Canadian Mennonite author Miriam Toews in our last episode, season 4 episode 13. 

Tune in for discussions on differences between the book and the film, our favorite moments in the movie, and which we liked best. 

Content warning: Women Talking, while fiction, is based on true stories of sexual assault and rape perpetrated against members (primarily women & children) of the Manitoba Mennonite Old Colony community. While not discussed graphically, references to rape, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation are made throughout this episode.

Other Reviews of Women Talking (book & movie)
Women Talking: A Displaced Act of Female Imagination, Rebecca Janzen
Women Talking: Review, William Loewen
What the film Women Talking loses (and preserves) from the 2018 novel, Alissa Wilkinson (Vox)

For more information about the true story Women Talking is based on: 

• The Ghost Rapes of Bolivia (Vice) 
• A Time follow up piece to the Vice article.  
• Bolivian Mennonite rape victims update (from a Canadian Mennonite pastor/former Bolivian Mennonite Central Committee worker)  
• The Mennonite Rapes: A trial Tears apart a religious community (WWRN)

For more information, and first-hand accounts from sexual assault survivors in Mennonite, Amish, and Anabaptist communities and contexts: 

• The Plain People’s Podcast https://theplainpeoplespodcast.libsyn.com/ 
• Plain Rainbows / the Misfit Amish: https://www.themisfitamish.com/plain-rainbows 
• Into Account: https://intoaccount.org/ 
• Our Stories Untold https://www.ourstoriesuntold.com/about/ 

We always love hearing from listeners! You can reach us at plainwrongpod at gmail.com, or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

If you want to help support the podcast financially, please consider joining our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plainwrongpod or buying merch at TeePublic

Follow us:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/plainwrongpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plainwrongpod/

Website: http://plainwrongpod.com/

“Just Plain Wrong” is produced, written and edited by Erin Milanese, Abby Nafziger and Matilda Yoder.

Our intro music is played by Erin, and the outro by Miriam Augsburger. Both are "arrangements" of the Doxology from the Mennonite Hymnal.

Logo design by Ida Yoder Short. Canva design (used for Social Media posts in Season 4 -6) by Abigail Adams.

This week, the MennoBrarians discuss Women Talking, a book by Canadian Mennonite author Miriam Toews that tells a fictional story based on true events that took place in the Old Colony Mennonite colony in Bolivia. 

We will cover the movie in our next episode, which will be out the first week of April. We had not yet seen the movie when we recorded this episode on the book. Tune in for discussions on Canadian authors, depictions of Mennonites, theological dilemmas, and more.

Content warning: Women Talking, while fiction, is based on true stories of sexual assault and rape perpetrated against members (primarily women & children) of the Manitoba Mennonite Old Colony community. While not discussed graphically, references to rape, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation are made throughout this episode. 

Other Reviews of Women Talking (book & movie)
Women Talking: A Displaced Act of Female Imagination, Rebecca Janzen
Women Talking: Review, William Loewen
What the film Women Talking loses (and preserves) from the 2018 novel, Alissa Wilkinson (Vox)

For more information about the true story Women Talking is based on: 

• The Ghost Rapes of Bolivia (Vice) 
• A Time follow up piece to the Vice article.  
• Bolivian Mennonite rape victims update (from a Canadian Mennonite pastor/former Bolivian Mennonite Central Committee worker)  
• The Mennonite Rapes: A trial Tears apart a religious community (WWRN)

For more information, and first-hand accounts from sexual assault survivors in Mennonite, Amish, and Anabaptist communities and contexts: 

• The Plain People’s Podcast https://theplainpeoplespodcast.libsyn.com/ 
• Plain Rainbows / the Misfit Amish: https://www.themisfitamish.com/plain-rainbows 
• Into Account: https://intoaccount.org/ 
• Our Stories Untold https://www.ourstoriesuntold.com/about/ 

-----

We always love hearing from listeners! You can reach us at plainwrongpod at gmail.com, or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

If you want to help support the podcast financially, please consider joining our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plainwrongpod or buying merch at TeePublic

Follow us:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/plainwrongpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plainwrongpod/

Website: http://plainwrongpod.com/

“Just Plain Wrong” is produced, written and edited by Erin Milanese, Abby Nafziger and Matilda Yoder.

Our intro music is played by Erin, and the outro by Miriam Augsburger. Both are "arrangements" of the Doxology from the Mennonite Hymnal.

Logo design by Ida Yoder Short. Canva design (used for Social Media posts in Season 4 -6) by Abigail Adams.

This week, the MennoBrarians chat with the author of the Amish Vampires in Space, Kerry Nietz. We learn how the AVIS came to exist, what it was like to be mentioned on the Tonight Show, and get important author-info on the question of vampire souls. Thanks to Kerry for joining us!

Follow Kerry on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KerryNietz 

Find his books, including AVIS, on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kerry-Nietz/author/B001K7TFGM 

We will be back next week with the first in a 2-part series on Women Talking! 

We always love hearing from listeners! You can reach us at plainwrongpod at gmail.com, or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

If you want to help support the podcast financially, please consider joining our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plainwrongpod or buying merch at TeePublic

Follow us:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/plainwrongpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plainwrongpod/

Website: http://plainwrongpod.com/

“Just Plain Wrong” is produced, written and edited by Erin Milanese, Abby Nafziger and Matilda Yoder.

Our intro music is played by Erin, and the outro by Miriam Augsburger. Both are "arrangements" of the Doxology from the Mennonite Hymnal.

Logo design by Ida Yoder Short. Canva design (used for Social Media posts in Season 4 -6) by Abigail Adams.

This week, the MennoBrarians cover the book When the English Fall by David Williams - a book that guest Valerie Weaver-Zercher recommended we cover way back in season one. Tune in for a conversation about apocalypse prepping, teenage profits, realistic pacifist dilemmas and more. 

Content note: 
Descriptions of gun violence from the book are referenced in  our discussion. 

We always love hearing from listeners! You can reach us at plainwrongpod at gmail.com, or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

If you want to help support the podcast financially, please consider joining our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plainwrongpod or buying merch at TeePublic

Follow us:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/plainwrongpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plainwrongpod/

Website: http://plainwrongpod.com/

“Just Plain Wrong” is produced, written and edited by Erin Milanese, Abby Nafziger and Matilda Yoder.

Our intro music is played by Erin, and the outro by Miriam Augsburger. Both are "arrangements" of the Doxology from the Mennonite Hymnal.

Logo design by Ida Yoder Short. Canva design (used for Social Media posts in Season 4 -6) by Abigail Adams.

This week, the MennoBrarians cover the 1989 horror movie, Warlock. We chat about all kinds of things this week, including our "unexpected" horror experiences, Mennonite PA dutch hex signs, cabbage farms, implausible movie plot points and what someone from 1691 might smell like.

Around the time we recorded this episode, news broke that the actor who played The Warlock, Julian Sands, went missing while mountain climbing in California. Recently, authorities announced that he is now presumed dead. Read more about Sands' life, work, and disappearance at this link. 

We always love hearing from listeners! You can reach us at plainwrongpod at gmail.com, or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

If you want to help support the podcast financially, please consider joining our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plainwrongpod or buying merch at TeePublic

Follow us:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/plainwrongpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plainwrongpod/

Website: http://plainwrongpod.com/

“Just Plain Wrong” is produced, written and edited by Erin Milanese, Abby Nafziger and Matilda Yoder.

Our intro music is played by Erin, and the outro by Miriam Augsburger. Both are "arrangements" of the Doxology from the Mennonite Hymnal.

Logo design by Ida Yoder Short. Canva design (used for Social Media posts in Season 4 -6) by Abigail Adams.

This week, the MennoBrarians chat with Dirk Eitzen, professor of Media Studies at Franklin & Marshall College, and author of the newly released book, Fooling with The Amish: Amish Mafia, Entertaining Fakery, and the Evolution of Reality TV.  

We chat about Amish Mafia, media literacy, Amish romance, social gossip, and the connections between all of these. We return frequently to questions around media lies / distortions of truth, and what harm (if any) these cause to the Amish, and to the media consumers. 

Order the book here, from  John Hopkins University Press

Dirk isn't on social media,  no links to promote!

We always love hearing from listeners! You can reach us at plainwrongpod at gmail.com, or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

If you want to help support the podcast financially, please consider joining our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plainwrongpod or buying merch at TeePublic

Follow us:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/plainwrongpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plainwrongpod/

Website: http://plainwrongpod.com/

“Just Plain Wrong” is produced, written and edited by Erin Milanese, Abby Nafziger and Matilda Yoder.

Our intro music is played by Erin, and the outro by Miriam Augsburger. Both are "arrangements" of the Doxology from the Mennonite Hymnal.

Logo design by Ida Yoder Short. Canva design (used for Social Media posts in Season 4 -6) by Abigail Adams.