Episodios

  • We need a bigger spreadsheet: Wrapping up Season 7
    Aug 20 2025

    In this episode we discuss the highlights of season 7, share some stats and also stories and corrections from our listeners. Highlights include the story of how the More with Less cookbook got into trouble with a chain of restaurants, the rise of ebikes in Mount Hope, OH, and more.

    Additionally, here are some of the resources shared by Steve Nolt about the Old Order River Brethren including:

    • A number of very informative books in the MHL, about Amish and other Plain groups, were written by an Old Order River Brethren author, Steve Scott.
    • The occasional medical column in Pathway’s Family Life magazine that the MHL gets sometimes has a health Q&A with Dr. Michael Sauder, who is Old Order River Brethren.
    • Another OORB of note is poet G. C. Waldrep, about to retire from Bucknell University. He is a convert to the OORB. The OORB drive cars, have never limited higher education, and haven’t spoken PA Dutch for many generations, so they are, in some ways, an attractive option for converts who have higher ed and only speak English. Interestingly, Waldrep provided a photo of Plain hat rather that a head short for his Poetry Foundation bio. They don’t prohibit photos, but discourage them.


    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.

    Más Menos
    33 m
  • That's Very 2000 of You: Discussing Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
    Aug 6 2025

    This week the MennoBrarians discuss the selection chosen for us by our Discernment Committee level Patreon members: Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult, published in 2000. This book has it all: a mysterious murder, a lying Amish teenager accused of the crime, a cutthroat but disillusioned big city lawyer, and a 28 year old ph.d. student studying ghosts that turns out to be the baby's father. We chat mysteries, plot twists, and what maybe didn't hold up so well 25 years after publication.


    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.

    Más Menos
    1 h y 14 m
  • Better Than Jimmy Carter Cake: Discussing Mennonite Community Cookbooks with Amy Harris-Aber
    Jul 23 2025

    This week is part 2 of our cookbook series! We chat with Amy Harris-Aber, about Community Cookbooks - informally published cookbooks often associated with families, camps, or churches. We chat about Amy's research on Mennonite cookbooks, discuss our fave recipes and cookbooks, and much much more.

    • Amy's website
    • Amy's article on Russian Mennonite Community Cookbooks

    Cookbooks / articles / books mentioned:

    • Feminist Rhetorical Practices – Jacqueline Jones Royster and Gesa E. Kirsch
    • Goessel Centennial Cook Book
    • Rosie Grant - Gravestone Recipes (book), ghostly.archive (Insta account)
    • Tasteful Domesticity – Sarah Walden
    • Recipes for Reading: Community Cookbooks, Stories, Histories – Ann Bower
    • Melting Pot of Mennonite Cookery
    • History of Cookbooks - Henry Notiker
    • Claiming a Piece of Tradition: Community Discourse in Russian Claiming a Piece of Tradition: Community Discourse in Russian Mennonite Community Cookbooks by Amy Harris-Aber
    • Erin’s - Memories and Recipes from the family of Jesse & Anna Shetler
    • Abby’s - Wilderness Wind cookbook, 2nd edition
    • Tillie’s - From the Kitchens of CMC (Columbus Mennonite Church)



    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.

    Más Menos
    1 h y 5 m
  • What is food? A Snake Draft of Published Mennonite Cookbooks
    Jul 9 2025

    This week, the MennoBrarians draft published Mennonite cookbooks. We chat cooking blogs, favorite recipes, and much much more.

    Draft picks (stop reading if you don't want spoilers!):

    1. Erin - Simply in Season
    2. Abby - More with Less
    3. Tillie - Extending the Table
    4. Tillie - Mennonite Community Cookbook
    5. Abby - There’s always room at the table - Kaleb Wyse
    6. Erin - Peppernuts Plain and Fancy
    7. Erin - The Daily Feast - The Graber Family
    8. Abby - The Lost Art of Real Cooking: Rediscovering the Pleasure of Traditional Food One Recipe at a time by Ken Albala and Rosanna Nafziger, 2010
    9. Tillie - Food that Really Schmecks: Mennonite Country Cooking

    Honorable Mentions

    • Menno-Night Caps, Sherri Klassen
    • Me, Myself, and Pie: Amish Recipes. Sherry Gore
    • Melting Pot of Mennonite Cookery: 1874-1974, Edna Ramsayer Kaufman
    • Homage: recipes and stories from an Amish soul food kitchen, Chris Scott


    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.

    Más Menos
    1 h
  • Laundering the Laundry: A conversation with Karen Johnson-Weiner, author of the Lives of Amish Women
    Jun 25 2025

    This week, the MennoBrarians chat with Karen Johnson-Weiner about her book, The Lives of Amish Women. The book captures the diversity of the experiences of Amish women, with Johnson-Weiner's research relying heavily on correspondence and interviews with members of Amish communities. We chat about her research, her friendships with Amish women, why there hasn't been much research published on Amish women and much more! We really enjoyed The Lives of Amish Women and recommend you add it to your reading lists if this is a subject that interests you.

    Note: The audio for this episode is more "echo-y" than usual due to Karen needing to record in an unexpected location (a stairwell!).

    Thank you to Johns Hopkins University Press for providing us with review copies of the book.

    Links:
    Lives of Amish Women
    Karen Johnson-Weiner's website



    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.

    Más Menos
    49 m
  • An Experience That Cannot Be Described: Discussing the Movie "Holy Matrimony"
    Jun 11 2025

    This week, the MennoBrarians chat about the movie "Holy Matrimony," a 1994 comedy movie starring Patricia Arquette and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. In the movie, Patricia Arquette's character, Havanna, is unknowingly dragged into a Hutterite colony by her boyfriend Peter who she is forced to marry, and then after Peter dies in a car accident days later, she must marry Zeke, Peter's 12-year old brother per the rules of the colony. If you think that's weird, just wait til you hear us break down the rest of the plot!

    We do a very detailed plot recap, and chat Hutterites (who, for the record, do not believe in Levirite marriage), state and county fairs, and what on earth this movie was trying to do.

    You can find Holy Matrimony streaming on YouTube.

    We also reference the podcast How Did This Get Made? that does an episode on Holy Matrimony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLQbY4byIUo (or you can find wherever you get your podcasts).


    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.

    Más Menos
    1 h y 9 m
  • Joe Would Know: A Conversation with Eric Bradley
    May 28 2025

    This week, we chat with Eric Bradley, our friend, colleague, and the new Head Librarian of the Mennonite Historical Library (MHL). We chat primarily about genealogy and genealogy research, but also touch on MHL resources, Eric's faith journey, and much more.

    Some of the genealogy resources mentioned in this episode:

    • Swiss Anabaptist Genealogical Association https://www.saga-omii.org/
    • Grandma Online: https://grandmaonline.org/gmol-7/login.asp
    • Family Search: https://www.familysearch.org/en/united-states/

    Mennonite Historical Library website: https://www.goshen.edu/mhl/


    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.

    Más Menos
    56 m
  • Snowflake, Snowflake: A Snake Draft of Mennonite Poets
    May 14 2025

    This week, the MennoBrarians draft poets! Specifically, Mennonite poets, or poets we make the case are close enough to Mennonite to count as Mennonite poets. We chat about the history of Mennonite poetry, share the bios and snippets from our favorite poems, and chat about our own poetry phases - including Abby doing a special reading of a poem she wrote as a tween, Snowflake, Snowflake.

    Draft picks:
    1. Patrick Friesen, "The Moon in the Streets" (Tillie)
    2. Kate Baer, "Life a Wife" (Abby)
    3. Julia Kasdorf, "The Mennonites" (Erin)
    4. Carrie Newcomer, "I Believe" (Erin)
    5. Jean Jantzen, "Wild Grapes" (Abby)
    6. Jeff Gundy, "The Cookie Poem" and "How to Write the New Mennonite Poem" (Tillie)
    7. Yorifumi Yaguchi, "Gravestones" (Tillie)
    8. David Wright, "A New Mennonite Replies to Julia Kasdorf" (Abby)
    9. Ann Hostetler, "Iconoclast", and also editor of A Capella, an anthology of Mennonite poetry

    Honorable mentions (we cut this portion of the podcast for time, but want to still give these poets a shout out!)
    - Jesse Nathan (Erin)
    - Daniel Shank-Cruz (Tillie)
    - Dennis Hoffman (Tillie)


    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.

    Más Menos
    54 m