Flightless Bird: Amish

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Armchair Umbrella

Tv & Film, Music, Comedy

4.6 • 68.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2022

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to understand the Amish, a group of Swiss Germans slash Alsatians that chose America as their home away from home. Why does a country that embraces fast cars, fast money, and fast food also embrace the very slow-moving Amish? David discovers why back in 2000 there were only 178,000 Amish in the US, and why that number has climbed to well over 367,000 - an increase of 106%. David sits down with Susan Trollinger, a professor from the University of Dayton, to talk about Amish tourism and culture. He also talks to Misty Griffin, who wrote a book critical of the Amish called “Tears of the Silenced” and consulted on the Peacock documentary “Sins of the Amish.” She discusses why she had a terrible time being Amish and the problems she says exist in the Amish community.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm David Ferrier, a New Zealander who accidentally got stuck in America, and I want
0:05.8	to find out what makes this country tick.
0:08.2	Now, ever since I've been here, there's not a day goes by where I don't pinch myself
0:12.6	and go, oh my goodness, what's going on over there?
0:15.9	And that's definitely how I feel about the Armish.
0:19.4	Before getting stranded in this strange tapestry that is the United States, the only things
0:24.1	I knew about the Armish came from that weird-out parody of gangster's paradise.
0:28.8	I'm a man of the land, I'm into discipline, gotta Bible in my hand and I'm beard on my
0:34.2	chance.
0:35.2	I knew the Armish hated electricity and technology and loved beards, farming, and God.
0:41.0	Beyond that, I had nothing.
0:43.1	Since I've been here, I've watched some breaking Armish and learned about Rumspringer,
0:47.4	that period where teenage Armish leave the fold and go back wild in the big city.
0:52.7	Experiencing all America has to offer before deciding if they'll go back and be baptized
0:57.0	into Armishness for life.
0:59.0	At least that's what I think Rumspringer is.
1:01.4	Whatever it is, it makes for great reality TV.
1:04.0	It's just so much going on in New York City, we just want to do and see as much as we can
1:08.0	today.
1:09.0	Dude, this is nuts.
1:11.3	I didn't know what a subway is, I didn't know where they go.
1:14.8	But who are the Armish really?
	...

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