In this Christmas special of The Ag Tribes Report, I pause the weekly news breakdown to share a chapter-in-progress from my upcoming book on interest-based communicating—practical ways to create deeper, more meaningful conversations over the holidays and beyond. I tell the story of a second mate who taught me it’s better to be interested than interesting, then walk through how presence turns conversations into a kind of meditation: put the phone away, make eye contact, breathe, and really listen. I cover common pitfalls like fast matching and internal tripping, why mirroring has its place, and simple tools that change everything—body-language feedback, the three-word prompt “tell me more,” and question types that draw people out, like “beautiful questions,” contrast questions, and spotting “tiny choices” in a story. I also explain why “how” beats “why” for uncovering real motivations, and close with a reminder about the law of mutual self-disclosure: don’t ask questions you wouldn’t answer yourself. Whether you’re talking with grandparents, welcoming a new in-law, or trying to better connect with employees and vendors, this episode offers specific, repeatable techniques to help you listen with attention, ask with intention, and discover the kind of shared insight that makes conversations memorable—and relationships stronger.

For more on Interest Based Communication: https://www.vancecrowe.com/interest-based-communication
For a Legacy Interview: https://www.legacyinterviews.com/ 

In this week’s Ag Tribes Report on The Vance Crowe Podcast, host Vance Crowe tosses the script and sits down with returning guest “NNZP,” a veteran CEO and global manufacturer who joins anonymously to speak candidly about the world economy. They dig into Europe’s rapid de-industrialization, energy policy missteps, and why cheaper Chinese imports may be a short-term fix with long-term strategic risks. NNZP explains China’s deflationary “involution,” the chasm between commanded capacity and real demand, and how that excess is being exported—pressuring Western industry and defense resilience. They explore supply-chain fragility from chips to pharma inputs, the knock-on effects for agriculture, and why abundant, affordable energy (including nuclear) underpins everything. They also discuss the “debasement trade,” hard assets, and what investors might consider in a world of persistent inflation and policy intervention. NNZP offers a contrarian ag take on when solar can be the highest-and-best use of certain lands, the future of ethanol in an EV world, and why nuclear may arrive first for data centers, not households. Despite near-term turbulence, they end on pragmatic optimism about America’s capacity to adapt once incentives and priorities realign.

Resources: Find NNZP on X/Twitter at @nnzp1730
for more on Legacy Interviews: https://www.legacyinterviews.com/
for more on Vance Speaking: https://www.vancecrowe.com/
To buy Bitcoin and support the show: https://river.com/invite?r=OAB5SKTP 

In this live episode recorded at an ASFMRA conference, Vance sit down with veteran farm manager and rural appraiser Dennis Raymond of Stalcup Ag Service to bridge two audiences: an in-room crowd steeped in modern agriculture and a wider listenership curious about how farmland is owned, managed, and valued. Dennis shares a career’s worth of perspective—from juggling farm management, appraisals, and sales in northwest Iowa to navigating today’s volatile costs, interest-rate swings, and the “heartstring” realities of legacy properties. We unpack why proposals to tax absentee landowners miss the mark, how to think in ratios like fertilizer cost as a percentage of expected gross, why land markets move with lagged fundamentals (and sometimes jump on interest-rate shocks), and how appraisers handle sentiment, comps, and variability beyond simple CSR points.

We also dig into generational transitions, changing lease structures, the talent pipeline for banking and professional services in rural America, and where AI might streamline (but not replace) nuanced human judgment in appraisal and client relationships. Dennis offers guidance for new professionals, argues for people-first skills alongside agronomy and numbers, and looks ahead to a more fractionalized operating landscape with more custom work. We close with advice for the ASFMRA’s next chapter and where listeners can learn more about entering farm management and rural appraisal.

Thank you to The American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA) and Farmers National Company  for sponsoring this episode. 

www.vancecrowe.com/interest-based-communication

www.legacyinterviews.com 

In this week’s Ag Tribes Report, Vance Crowe is joined by entrepreneur, farmer, and Iowa Corn Growers director Elliot Henderson for a fast-moving breakdown of four big stories shaping agriculture. They react to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins’ media blitz and her tightly messaged take on trade, cattle, and screw worm—praising her talent while questioning how much of it reflects independent ag thinking. They unpack California’s Prop 50 and what partisan redistricting could mean for rural voices in the nation’s top ag state. They also look at the viral Danish claims linking cow deaths to the mandatory Bovear methane-reducing additive and the broader US–EU cultural and monetary incentives behind climate policy. Rounding out the news, they examine NYC’s push for city-run grocery stores, the economic fear driving urban support, and the parallels Elliot sees for ag if subsidies and policy continue to distort markets.

Then they run the Bitcoin Land Price Report (with land softening to ~$12.5K/acre in NE Iowa) and debate Bitcoin vs. land as a store of value. In the Peter Thiel Paradox, Elliot challenges ag’s reliance on transfer payments, H-2A tweaks, and policies that wall off opportunity for new entrants—arguing for reform even when beneficiaries resist. For Worthy Adversary, he respects but disputes commentator Damian Mason’s stance on property tax and policy incentives, warning that today’s preferential treatments risk entrenching an aristocracy over working producers. They close with how to get involved in Iowa Corn, an invite to check out Elliot’s Rush Hour Ag podcast, and a reminder to rate and review the show—plus a quick note on why Vance Crowe would trade Bitcoin for land when the numbers make sense.

To support the show and buy Bitcoin use the link: https://river.com/invite?r=OAB5SKTP

In this week's Ag Tribes Report, Vance Crowe is joined by fifth-generation Texas Panhandle farmer Casey Kimbrell for a fast, candid breakdown of three stories rocking agriculture.

They unpack the touted Trump–Xi "soybean breakthrough," asking whether a 25 MMT annual commitment is progress or just a return to pre-trade-war status quo. Then they wade into the renewed push for mandatory country-of-origin labeling in beef, the packer vs. rancher incentives behind the current system, and why transparency matters more than ever. They close the news block with Bill Gates' pivot from climate alarmism toward prioritizing vaccines, and what a shift in climate narratives could mean for farm economics and regulations.

Beyond the headlines, Casey shares his Bitcoin-to-land price snapshot from Colorado, explains why he believes anyone can succeed in agriculture with relentless optimism and grit, and names Donald Trump as his "worthy adversary" amid criticism of recent moves affecting cattle markets. It's a spirited, no-spin conversation about trade, labeling, climate, and the hard realities of building a future in ag—always with room to respectfully disagree.

Legacy Interviews - A service that records individuals and couples telling their life stories so that future generations can know their family history. https://www.legacyinterviews.com/experience

River.com - Invest in Bitcoin with Confidence https://river.com/signup?r=OAB5SKTP

In this episode, Vance Crowe sits down with economist and FFTT founder Luke Gromen to unpack where inflation, debt, and commodities are pushing the global financial system—and what that means for farmers, savers, and investors. They explore how slow, sustained inflation erodes trust and value, why central banks keep choosing to “print the money or trigger the revolution,” and why gold and Bitcoin function as stores of energy in a world of rising fiscal strain. Luke explains the growing shift to pricing oil and other commodities outside the US dollar, the implications of central banks buying gold, the Cantillon effect driving farmland prices, and how Bitcoin may be demonetizing land and housing. They also dig into stablecoins as a front-end funding gambit for US deficits, AI’s paradoxical path to more money printing, and the controversial but possible path of revaluing US gold to repair sovereign balance sheets—all through the lens of practical choices facing working families and the ag community today.

They cover the differences between gold and Bitcoin, custody realities, and why a pragmatic allocation can help younger producers leapfrog entrenched capital. Luke also shares why Europe keeps dismissing Bitcoin at its own risk, how energy infrastructure, AI, and financialization intersect, and what happens when a retiring generation seeks buyers for overvalued assets. It’s a candid, wide-ranging conversation aimed at helping listeners see the forest for the trees—and prepare for what’s next.

To purchase Bitcoin and support the show: https://river.com/invite?r=OAB5SKTP 

Legacy Interviews - A service that records individuals and couples telling their life stories so that future generations can know their family history. https://www.legacyinterviews.com/experience

River.com - Invest in Bitcoin with Confidence https://river.com/signup?r=OAB5SKTP

In this week’s Ag Tribes Report, host Vance Crowe is joined by dairy farmer and Bitcoiner JR Burdick for a fast-paced tour through the biggest stories shaping agriculture. They unpack President Trump’s viral post urging ranchers to lower beef prices and the backlash from cattle producers who point to low herd size, packer settlements, and market volatility driven by political posts. Then they dig into the looming SNAP crunch amid the government shutdown, how an AWS outage jammed up harvest logistics and farmgate payments, and the partial reopening of FSA offices to process $3B in producer payments—plus the real-world cash flow pinch for beginning farmers. JR also delivers the Bitcoin Land Price Report, shares why he’s bullish on both land and Bitcoin, and explains practical resiliency lessons from a payments outage. We close with his Peter Thiel paradox—Gen Z’s push to rebuild rural “place” over “career”—and a candid look at rebuilding community, selling raw milk and pastured pork, and accepting Bitcoin on the farm.

 JR’s farm: nourishingfamilyfarm.com and @jrcowfarmer on X.

Legacy Interviews - A service that records individuals and couples telling their life stories so that future generations can know their family history. https://www.legacyinterviews.com/experience

River.com - Invest in Bitcoin with Confidence https://river.com/signup?r=OAB5SKTP

In this episode, Vance Crowe sits down with author Devon Erickson to explore why he calls himself a compulsive explainer and how he sees the role of an intellectual: not to end debates, but to start them with powerful metaphors and fresh lenses. They dive deep into empathy as a writer’s core skill—simultaneously inhabiting a character’s inner world and anticipating the reader’s experience—and how that practice shapes Devon’s science-fiction novel, Theft of Fire. From first-person perspective and memory palaces to the mechanics of metaphor in thought, they wander into bigger terrain: how online discourse reveals public preoccupations, why villains must believe they’re right, and what it takes to write convincingly across gender and worldview.

Their conversation also ranges into contested civic ground: the difference between empathy and sympathy, the dynamics of thug mentality and civilized restraint, the risks of escalating political tribalism, and the notion of “soft off-ramps” in American politics. They talk about immigration enforcement as theater versus necessity, institutional capture, and the appeal of centralized control to academics. Then they zoom back to the personal: metabolic health and processed food, the economic pressures on families, inflation as time theft, Bitcoin as an intergenerational lifeboat, and why some boomers feel out of touch with younger realities. They close with Devon’s passion project—the cinematic, full-cast audiobook of Theft of Fire—and the promise of classic sci-fi spirit with modern tech rigor.

Legacy Interviews - A service that records individuals and couples telling their life stories so that future generations can know their family history. https://www.legacyinterviews.com/experience

River.com - Invest in Bitcoin with Confidence https://river.com/signup?r=OAB5SKTP

(00:00:04) Opening: Sharing insights vs. repeating talking points

(00:03:11) Host intro: Meeting Devon Erickson and The Theft of Fire

(00:06:12) Metaphor as the engine of thought and memory

(00:14:44) Empathy as a writer’s core skill—villains, readers, and realism

(00:19:59) Modeling minds: conversational load, perspective taking, and audiences

(00:26:06) Writing across gender and identity—finding Miranda’s voice

(00:29:08) Speculative craft: writing what does not exist

(00:30:04) Online discourse: empathy without sympathy and confronting hostility

(00:36:55) Self‑defense mindset: lines, intent, and preparedness

(00:41:49) Civility, uncivil actors, and the ‘soft off‑ramp’ in politics

(00:49:31) Purpose of a military and cultural standards debate

(00:51:58) Media narratives, ICE, and dealing with the uncivilized

(01:02:00) Marxism, envy, and institutions—power vs. merit

(01:11:55) Inflation’s danger and policy priorities ahead

(01:14:16) Immigration, budget crises, and administration choices

(01:14:32) Foreign influence and defining America’s interests

(01:18:14) Money tech: inflation, Bitcoin, and future‑proofing exchange

(01:21:15) Order vs. chaos: El Salvador, gangs, and state response

(01:37:07) Feminism, industrialized food, and metabolic syndrome

(01:46:33) What causes the obesity wave? Processed food vs. lifestyle

(01:51:22) Inflation, two‑income households, and policy timelines

(01:57:25) Cats, granaries, and guarding civilization’s value

(01:57:35) Generations: anti‑boomer sentiment and being out of touch

(02:02:18) Time as money: assets, risk, and financial education

(02:12:06) Economics in sci‑fi: Marcus, Miranda, and post‑government markets

(02:18:00) Building a cinematic audiobook: casting, direction, perfectionism

(02:25:01) Closing: Why Theft of Fire and where to find it

Legacy Interviews - A service that records individuals and couples telling their life stories so that future generations can know their family history. https://www.legacyinterviews.com/experience

River.com - Invest in Bitcoin with Confidence https://river.com/signup?r=OAB5SKTP

In this solo-hosted Ag Tribes Report by Vance Crowe, Vance covers four major headlines shaping agriculture and adjacent markets after the scheduled guest drops out during harvest. The report dives into the unusual coalition of farmers and food companies backing state-level animal welfare laws like California’s Prop 12, unpacks the DOJ’s massive seizure tied to a Southeast Asian “pig butchering” crypto scam and what it could signal for government Bitcoin accumulations, assesses Nestlé’s 16,000-job global restructuring and what it may mean for supply chains and food inflation, and reacts to prosecutors seeking a prison term and restitution in the $4 million crop insurance fraud case involving Steve McBee—plus why crackdowns on fraud matter for producers who rely on transfer programs.


In the Bitcoin land price segment, Vance explains recent volatility, why 24/7 liquidity makes Bitcoin the shock absorber for weekend macro news, and why dips remain opportunities compared with gold’s run-up. Vance also shares a reflection from an impromptu conversation with a Vietnamese Uber driver on managing “energy ripples” in relationships, and explores what genuine respect looks like in the Worthy Adversary segment—including how naming respect can transform high-stakes conversations. As always, listeners are invited to send in stories for future shows and feel free to disagree.