Latest / REAP/SOW / MAHA vs Trump in Iowa — guess who won.
Transcript
- Theodore Ross: Welcome to Forked. I'm Theodore Ross, editor-in-chief for the Food and Environment Reporting Network. I'm joined by my co-host, Helena Bottemiller Evich from Food Fix. Earlier this month, they held a primary for the governor of Iowa. On the Republican side, who would have thunk it? The MAHA candidate won. His name is Zach Lahn, and Helena and I have a lot to say about him and what his candidacy means. TL;DR, Iowans are hopping mad about Big Ag. Also in this episode, did we get DOGEd on New World screwworm, or is this a let's-go-Biden situation? Helena, welcome back to Forked. How are you? Helena Bottemiller Evich: I'm doing well. How are you? Theodore: I am doing well as well. I am so happy to be back here in Forked Land with all of our Forked stuff, with lots to talk about. Should we get right to it? Helena: Do we have a name? Are we calling them the "Forkies"? The Forked? The Forked? Theodore: We could. We could call them the "Forkers." Helena: The Forker? Theodore: The Forkers. [laughter] Theodore: Whatever you think is best. Helena: Let's call them something clever. Theodore: We can work on that. Helena: We need to workshop it. Theodore: In the meantime, let's do the episode of Forked, shall we? Let's start with the Double Take, which is something in the food, politics, and policy world that makes you do a double-take because it's sometimes strange, sometimes wonderful, sometimes just a little odd. This one, I think, we should talk about the New World screwworm, which is an odd thing that is now having come up across the southern border, probably from Mexico and other places in Central America. It has now been detected in US cattle and a dog and a goat. Before we talk about the ramifications of this, I'm just going to read a little bit from the Texas A&M Ag Extension website, which will tell you a little bit about the New World screwworm because I was not that familiar with it prior to then about a week ago. Helena: Bless you for that. Yes. [chuckles] Theodore: [chuckles] The New World screwworm is a parasitic fly native to the Western Hemisphere. It lays eggs in the living tissue of fresh wounds in warm-blooded animals. The larvae (maggots) feed on the host flesh, causing severe wounds and often death if untreated. The pest was eradicated in the US in the 1960s. Since then, it occasionally reemerges and has resurfaced in Central America and Mexico. They're controlled only through the release of sterile males known as the Sterile Insect Technique. This approach, along with regular active surveillance and livestock inspections, has proven highly successful. Now, Helena, this is serious stuff. It poses a threat to our meat supply, to dogs and deer, and maybe even humans. I don't want to make light of it. Just to get all this out of my system, give me a second here. The New World screwworm, killer bees, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Night of the Living Dead, alligators in the sewer system. There. I did it. I'm ready to talk about this seriously. Helena: It's really bad. This is really, really bad. We haven't had screwworm as really a problem in the US since the '60s, and really, even before that, like decades before that was a big issue. You have to go read about it. Even cattle ranchers now, ranchers are asking their parents and grandparents. That's how long ago it's been since this was an issue, and it's really nasty, just describing flies laying their larvae in live animals. It's terrible. Theodore: It sort of eats its way out of it. Right? Basically, that's what happens. Helena: Yes. Imagine, just aside from the horror of it, it's animals in pain. You're spreading this horrible pest all over. There's all that, but then there's also just the economics of it. You have to handle all of these animals. You maybe didn't have to really do much to them. It's disgusting. The ranchers have to catch them and dig it out. It's horrific. Theodore: It's bad stuff. Helena: Containing this is so, so important for a million reasons, but it's just really a nightmare scenario if this gets out of hand. Theodore: There are treatments for this. There are medicines for it if it could be detected. The real way to stop it is by tracking and finding out where it is. Also, the widespread introduction of these sterile flies. [chuckles] I thought this was pretty interesting that the way they do it. They release these genetically modified flies that are sterile male. Helena: I think they radiate them. I'm not really exactly sure how it works. Theodore: Is that right? Okay. Helena: Yes, they render the males sterile, and then they just collapse the population. They mass-release these flies. Theodore: They attempt to reproduce. They do their thing with the female New World screwworms, and nothing comes of it, and eventually it collapses. We hope that happens, and we hope it's not too bad. I want us to talk about some of the response to it. There's a question of whether the federal government, the Trump administration, is really up to the task. I'm thinking of a press conference that Brooke Rollins, the head of the USDA, which is responsible for oversight of this problem, had with Governor Greg Abbott in Texas, which is where this has been detected. She was asked, "Had any of the DOGE cuts affected what the government is doing?" Did you see this, or do you want to comment on this? Helena: I've seen clips of it. Yes. Theodore: What she said was, and I'm quoting here, "There has been zero impact to this mission area based on that reduction in force. In fact, I think the work accelerated significantly when we came on board." What she meant by this coming on board part, and I'm quoting again, this is from an appearance she made on CNBC. "Under the last administration, when the massive movement under the open borders policy, that the cartels, et cetera, border security, that's when it began to make its way back up towards America, hitting Mexico in early 2023, moving its way through Mexico in 2024." She is framing this issue. [chuckles] The fly is akin to the loose borders, so-called, of the Biden administration. First of all, let's talk about the DOGE part of it. First of all, the Trump administration did DOGE the part of the government responsible for this. I'm going to read a headline from Agri-Pulse, which is a very nice source of agricultural information from March 2025. The headline is "Bird flu, screwworm monitoring among foreign aid programs killed by Trump." "The 5,300 grants and programs killed in the Trump administration's cuts to the USAID include US-funded animal disease monitoring projects by the UN and Food and Agriculture Organization." That includes the New World screwworm. "Well, but that's USAID," you say. Well, not so fast. Helena: That was the key part. Keeping it. Yes. Theodore: Keeping it up. Also, at the USDA, under the Trump administration, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and for those of you who like acronyms, which I know I do, APHIS. Helena: APHIS. Theodore: See? I knew it. No matter what I was going to say, I was going to say it wrong. Helena: [laughs] It's not intuitive. It's not intuitive. Theodore: Which is responsible for monitoring things like the New World screwworm has lost 25% of its employees under the Trump administration. There has been some DOGEing here. What do you think, Helena? Helena: First off, I'll just say I do not really cover APHIS, so I am not plugged in. Theodore: But you know how to pronounce it? That I do know. Helena: I do know how to pronounce it. Theodore: That's where the expertise comes in. Helena: [chuckles] Yes. I don't know what percent of the staff that specifically work on this issue were affected. I just don't know, but I think it's pretty hard to claim that any entity that has lost a quarter of its workforce has been unaffected. There has been some ripple effect. If you really zoom out, what this entire episode reminds us of is the importance of agencies like APHIS and agricultural research generally. How do you figure out how to do a sterile fly? That's agricultural research. These things that sound really boring and are maybe easy to disinvest in or easy to not focus on end up really mattering in these situations. I think that's what I'm reminded of, is that it's kind of like the old saying. You'll hear people go, "Oh, no one likes the federal government until they need FEMA to show up," or any rescuers. You don't like the government until you need the government, right? Theodore: Absolutely. Helena: I think that's a very American thing. I don't know specifically, but certainly, this narrative is taking hold the Trump administration. I mean, they did cut the screwworm monitoring funding through USAID and APHIS is down. I think the latest estimate, is it 25% staff reduction? Theodore: That's right. Helena: It's hard to make the case that those things have nothing to do with the situation we're in. I don't know that that's going to be a compelling case with the American people, but we'll see. If we can contain this and keep it like a small and regional thing, I think this is not going to be a big political issue. Like everything, like the threat of Ebola, or whatever it is, if this gets bigger, this is a disaster. This is potentially a disaster. Theodore: I agree that it could be a disaster, but I also want to point out something from Rollins's remarks at the press conference with Abbott. She was talking, I believe, about the scientific understanding of how you use the sterile flies to control this problem. She referred to the staff scientists who've been working on this problem for a very long time. I think she said "decades." She called them heroes. It's interesting that in this particular moment, under these particular circumstances, the deep state scientists who've been there for a long time and have this embedded knowledge and this institutional history, they are the heroes in this moment and not in others. I also think connecting that to her comments about the association of the so-called open border policies, because the borders were not open under Biden, the border policies, the Biden administration, and connecting it to the New World screwworm. I think the technical term for that is "banana cakes." I'm not sure, but I think if you look it up, that's pretty much what it is. Yes, it is. It's a political issue. There are things that can be made from it. It's an actual real world. It's not just a New World issue. It's a real-world issue. Yes, I agree. We will see how this plays out, but it's hard to believe that you can core out government [chuckles] in the way that the Trump administration has and that we're not just equally prepared. We're even more prepared than we were before. That I don't buy. Helena: Yes. You know what I will say? I think that we need more reporters who are covering APHIS because I would love to read a deep dive into what was and wasn't done and the history of it because I think there is a lot to unpack here. It is really interesting to hear cabinet-level officials who are trying to shrink their own departments, then call these scientists heroes because we need them so much in this moment. There is a lot of tension in that, right? Theodore: Sure. Helena: There's just a lot to unpack there. They're trying to close down the big USDA Agricultural Research Service campus in the Washington area. The Trump administration has proposed closing it down. This campus was also massively disinvested in. Last time I was there several years ago, it was crumbling. I was really horrified by the state of this, parts of this facility. It reminds, I think, the public of why this stuff matters, why these government scientists matter. Theodore: We're preaching to our own two-person choir here, but yes, I do believe more reporting on food system issues is an important thing. [chuckles] Helena: Yes, I think even among food system issues, though, APHIS is uniquely ignored until they have a bedbug outbreak. I don't know if you saw that. [laughs] Theodore: No. Helena: I think one of their offices had a bedbug outbreak. Theodore: At APHIS? Oh, okay. Helena: Yes. There was a background quote from someone who said something like, "The irony's thought lost on us," because they are the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service. They are in charge of keeping the bugs at bay. Anyway, there was a lot of headlines about that recently. Theodore: I think that's enough screwworms for the time being. Helena: Awful. Ugh. Theodore: I will say that we are taping this on June 9th. This is coming out today. As it comes out today, it's June 19th, there will be, I would suspect, more confirmed cases by then. As of this taping, there were five in Texas, not in the same place. Helena: No. One is in New Mexico, actually. The one in New Mexico is the one that's in the dog, and it is hundreds of miles away from the other cases. That I think is raising some real concerns about containing the situation. Theodore: This is a snapshot in time. I just want to point that out. A lot of the reporting is fluid. On to our next segment, which is Forks and Knives, which is sort of whatever we think of as the most important or most telling thing happening in the food politics and policy world at any given moment. Helena, I think, and this is a little bit in the rearview mirror here for a second, but I want to talk about the midterm primary in Iowa and a man named Zach Lahn. What am I talking about here, Helena? Helena: Yes. Recently, we saw a surprising outcome in Iowa. The Iowa Republican primary for governor, there was a frontrunner, Randy Feenstra, Republican congressman, who was actually endorsed by President Trump. He was sort of seen as the one who was going to win. They had the backing of a lot of donors in the party, was ahead in the polls, and a guy named Zach Lahn, who is a businessman, who I think is married to a Koch heir. Theodore: If I understood it correctly, he is married to the now former daughter-in-law of Charles Koch. Charles Koch's kid, Chase, they were married. We could talk a little bit more about what I consider to be the plateresque aspects of Zach Lahn in a second. That's the connection to him. He also, more substantively, he was very much associated with the Kochs, particularly, what is it? Why am I drawing a blank on the name? Americans for Prosperity. He ran their shop in Montana. He was a fundraiser for them nationally. He is or formerly was a libertarian conservative, and he is now not. I'm going to read the headline from AP when he won the primary, which is, "MAHA candidate beats Trump's choice in Republican primary for Iowa governor," because that's the key piece of information for us here, Helena. This guy is a MAHA dude. Helena: Yes. When I started more recently hearing about Zach Lahn, I was like, "Is he really a MAHA candidate?" It's Iowa. I've spent time reporting in Iowa. There's a very traditional Republican brand, especially among farmers. You don't see a lot of this progressive, or I don't know if progressive's the right word. Disruptive. The disruptive MAHA agenda you would not think would be super popular with Republican voters in Iowa. I was like, "Is this guy really MAHA or is he just backed by this MAHA group?" [dog barking] Helena: Is that your dog? Theodore: Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a homespun podcast. Occasionally, my dog gets pissed off and you will hear. Helena: Do you need to give your dog some attention? Maybe let your dog in? Theodore: Actually, there's somebody at my door. That's what's happening. I'm just going to tell that person to come in. Jay, come on in. There we go. Helena: There you go. Theodore: There you go, folks. This is how we make it here at Forked. Helena: [laughs] At least it's not a toddler. Theodore: Podcast verité. Helena: Anyway, when I saw Lahn getting traction in this race, I was like, "Is this really a MAHA candidate?" By MAHA candidate, I was thinking running and leaning in on the these issues. I started listening to some of his appearances. One of his biggest messages, certainly, he is a traditional conservative on social issues, and he has a lot of regular Republican bona fides in terms of his beliefs and agenda. He talked a lot about high rates of cancer in Iowa, needing to address water quality. He straight-up said he was going to take on Big Ag. He's very much against any effort to limit the liability over all these glyphosate lawsuits. He talks about it like this has been a major part of his message, which is just kind of surprising in Iowa, a major Ag state. Theodore: He was endorsed. He was the first candidate, I believe, statewide candidate to be endorsed by MAHA Action, which is the primary MAHA PAC. He is not just leaning into the MAHA issues. He is a MAHA candidate full stop. I think if you go and look on his website, he's got his four main priorities listed. Two of them are full-blown MAHA. One is free Iowa's farmers. "We have the best farmland in the world, but the system is rigged so the farmer always comes in last." That's pretty MAHA as far as I'm concerned. "Make Iowa Healthy Again." The very catchy slogan "MIHA." [chuckles] He's for real in that way. What do you think of the implications of Donald Trump endorsing Feenstra? Helena: Yes, it was at the end there. Theodore: It was a pretty lukewarm endorsement right there at the end. It was certainly not. Maybe that's because Trump doesn't like the Koch brothers and doesn't like the AFP connection. What do you think about that? Helena: First of all, we should say Zach Lahn narrowly eked out Feenstra. It was less than a percentage point but still really interesting. He's going to be the Republican candidate in the fall. I think when you think about this, we talk about so much this MAHA/MAGA marriage. I saw this as an example of MAHA grassroots flipping the bird to MAGA and being like, "You're ignoring us. You're going against us on all these policies. We just beat your candidate in Iowa." Not everyone said it that clearly, but some of them did. You're seeing some grassroots folks like Vani Hari and Kelly Ryerson, different folks. Alex Clark, who's a Turning Point USA health influencer. They're like, "Look out, GOP. You're ignoring us. You're going against us. We have real political power." I think watching that outcome felt, to me, like MAHA's biggest political win. It was MAGA versus MAHA. There was a Trump-endorsed candidate, and then there was a MAHA candidate, and the MAHA candidate won. That's just interesting. Theodore: I think it's fascinating. Helena: These issues can have traction with Republican voters generally, which I just think is interesting. We'll see how it goes. I don't know if that this is going to help them in a general election because you also have Rob Sand, the Democrat, really trying to run as a centrist and trying to break out of this left-right divide. I don't know how this will all shake out, but it's super interesting to watch. Theodore: He's got a pretty good chance to win. It's not guaranteed. He's not a nobody there now. I think there's a couple of things I want to focus on because, one, I think he's, in some ways, a really great symbol of the MAHA contradiction, other than the vaccines. He wants to take on Big Ag, to some degree, but because of his background, A, he's a Republican, and at least his history, he was a libertarian Republican. He doesn't really believe in the tools that we have to do that, which is government action. Helena: I think yes and no. He's like, "Take away the subsidies." He doesn't want to have subsidies for bringing Corteva or these other companies, giving them tax breaks to move their offices and operations there. That's a little bit libertarian to be like, "Okay. We're not going to subsidize this." I've heard him a few times say that he actually thinks some of these ag companies need to be broken up. They need to use antitrust enforcement. Theodore: He is pro-antitrust. He's an antitrust guy. Helena: I think in general, yes, but that struck me as a real difference. Although there is an argument to be made that a true free-market conservative is for breaking up monopolies because it's not a functioning market, but that's a whole other ideological rabbit hole. Theodore: We can split the hairs on the Randian theory here about monopolies. Helena: I think generally you're right, but he is for antitrust enforcement, which is, I think, markedly different from the mainstream Republican brand we're seeing right now. Anyway, not to interrupt you. Theodore: No. No. No. Sorry. That's great. The other thing I want to talk about is just Iowa itself and how the issues that MAHA represents, and maybe not always the messengers, because there's a lot of things that Lahn thinks and wants to do on other issues that I'm not so crazy about. The social issues. I don't know that I would agree with him if I dug too deeply into it, but I think the things that MAHA wants to do on food, they really are gaining traction in a interestingly bipartisan way. I think you can look at another statewide race in Iowa, and that's for the Secretary of Agriculture. The Democratic candidate is a guy named Chris Jones. He's running on MAHA relevant issues as well. A lot of that has to do with the impact on Iowa's water for agricultural chemicals. They have a water problem in Iowa. It's got the second-highest cancer rate in the United States and the fastest-growing rate of cancer nationally. Researchers there, they increasingly believe that there's a link between that cancer problem and agricultural chemicals. People in Iowa, I think, the takeaway as much as anything else, whether you want to put a label on it like MAHA, they are pissed off about the water. No doubt about it. Any candidate from any party who ignores that, they do it at their own peril, like our candidate, Feenstra, although I don't actually know what his position on water was, now that I say that. Helena: I don't think it was something he talked about. Also we should note that Feenstra was skipping a lot of events, something. I don't think he was a good campaigner or wasn't really leaning in at the end. There's definitely people who are just complaining about him as a candidate. There's that whole other thing of showing up and being a personality. Theodore: Is he a good candidate? [chuckles] Helena: Yes. I do think that is the big takeaway is that the question of what is going on with Iowa's environment and water and their cancer rates is a politically potent issue. Theodore: Absolutely. Helena: Voters are not only fired up about it, but they are looking to candidates to say something about it. I think the Ag Secretary race there will be one to watch for sure. Chris Jones has been a very outspoken critic of the lack of regulation and just generally the water pollution issues that Iowa is facing. I have a copy of his book. I'm not sure where it is. I believe it's called "The Swine Republic." It's really harsh on the agriculture industry. He's either a truth teller or their worst enemy. I don't know. [chuckles] He is a scientist. Theodore: Iowa is smackdab in the middle of the country. This is an agricultural state. You have Jones running for Secretary of Ag. He's not a farmer. He doesn't have a background in that in his family. You do have that background with Lahn. Helena: I think he's a businessman who bought his family farm back. Calling him a farmer, I think, is a bit of a stretch. Theodore: It's a bit of a stretch, but he does. Helena: He owns a farm. There's also a bunch of controversy right now. I don't fully understand this, but I guess there's a bunch of controversy about whether or not he really lives in Iowa. Theodore: It's not quite clear. Helena: Or he lives in Kansas. Theodore: It seems he mostly lives in Kansas. Helena: He's flying around a lot. He likes to fly himself around, which I have this great tidbit in the newsletter. I don't know if it was last week that Lahn was actually supposed to speak at the People vs. Poison Rally in front of the Supreme Court. He could not make it because, I guess, the weather was not cooperating because he flies himself in a little small plane. That's an interesting little side note. Theodore: He has a small plane going all the way from Iowa to DC is no joke. That's a fairly long trip. Helena: I think it is a pretty small plane. I don't know. Where's the line between small plane and private jet? I think it's more plain. [chuckles] Yes. It did sound intense to fly that far. Theodore: I think he calls himself a regenerative. Helena: He's into regenerative ag, and I think he's a proponent of that. I do think they are transitioning. His family has been in Iowa for a long time, and he bought back the family farm. I'm not saying he's not doing those things, but I don't think he spends most of his time doing that piece. Theodore: It's a little messy. That's what I meant when I talked about the plateresque aspects of it. There's the fact the weather. The uncertainty of his farmer-ishness, and then there is the residency stuff, how much time he really lives in Iowa as opposed to Wichita. All that's fairly recent, I think. I think for a while there, he was pretty much in Wichita. Then the other thing is his marriage to the now former daughter-in-law of the Koch, Charles Koch. I think if I understand it correctly, this was something of a splashy/messy divorce, basically, if I understand it correctly. None of that matters. Helena: I don't know. Theodore: None of that matters. In this context, it doesn't really matter. I think it might matter to voters in Iowa. They're free to make any decision that they want. I'm just saying that there's the normal politics stuff, there's the normal, by modern standards, Republican stuff, and then there's the MAHA stuff. My interest in him is the MAHA stuff. That's why I think it's worth our time talking about it. In that case, since we have talked about it, I saw in one of the articles, his blended family. I have a blended family, too. We should move on to our final segment, which is the Good Vibes. Now, I don't want to put you on the spot here, Helena, but it's been a little while since you've had a Good Vibe. Helena: I know. I know. [chuckles] I know. Okay. I'll give you good vibes that's just not completely unrelated but sort of. Theodore: Hit me. Helena: My whole neighborhood has become very into combating the mosquitoes in DC, in the swamps, speaking of APHIS and pest control. It's been really heartwarming to see everyone rally against a horrible pest that happens to particularly love me, me and my daughter, particularly, we get eaten alive. That's my Good Vibe is that somebody in the area just got fed up and they launched this whole effort. Theodore: What does that mean? Helena: There's maps. Do you know what mosquito doom buckets are? Theodore: I do not know what a mosquito doom bucket is. Helena: There's a lot of similarities to how you handle the screwworm. You basically just take a five-gallon bucket, and you put a little bit of water in it, and you put some weeds or grass, and it starts to decompose. That attracts the mosquitoes to lay their eggs. You put a small piece of what's called a dunk, a mosquito dunk, and it's BTI. It's this bacteria that kills the mosquito larva, and so they can't hatch. You basically create this perfect environment for the mosquitoes to lay their eggs and then they all die. You would try to collapse the population. There's other traps and stuff people are putting out, but the mosquito doom buckets are really easy. A lot of people are doing it. Apparently, the company that makes mosquito dunks is in Baltimore. Theodore: Oh, it's local? It's a local effort. That's great. Yes. Helena: Apparently, there's a town in Maryland that meaningfully reduced their mosquito population by doing this combination of things. There's other traps you can put out. Anyway, a lot of people are into it and it's just great. It does seem to be helping, but it's early. It's really early. Theodore: I think that qualifies. It makes me feel wistful for the free license we had to just smash every lanternfly wherever we went. Helena: The lantern flies are also coming back. Theodore: That's okay. All right. Here's my Good Vibe. Mine is a very small one as well. Oh, no. Yours is not small. Mine is small. Yours is actually pretty big. I thought it was pretty good. It was on Sunday and my youngest child, my younger daughter, she is 13 years old. She made an egg sandwich that was so damn good. I don't think I will ever need to cook again, at least not the egg sandwich. Helena: Wow. Theodore: I was very pleased. Helena: What was in it? Theodore: It was a fuse. Nice bread. She had a good piece of cheese, but it was just that she cooked it really well. It was slightly seasoned. She put a little hot sauce on because she knows it's me. Helena: Wow. Theodore: It was great. I know your kids are pretty young. Helena: I have that to look forward to. I love that. [chuckles] Theodore: You got that to look forward to. This is all in the works eventually. I will be in my dotage by then, but they will cook for me full-time, and hopefully it won't just be gruel because I'll be so old. Hopefully, I'll keep my teeth, and they will be able to feed me all the delicious things that they are capable of making. Helena: Oh, man. That sounds great. Yes. My children are pretty helpless, although my toddler did just figure out. She'll take a chair from across the room and drag it over to the fridge, stand up on the chair, open the fridge, and then she actually climbs into the fridge. Theodore: [laughs] That's great. Helena: There's no way to baby-proof it because I can't just remove all the chairs from my house. [laughs] Theodore: That's not excellent. Tell her not to do that. Helena: Two-year-olds are not really into listening. We're doing our best over here. Theodore: On that note, I think we should call it a day because maybe you need to go in the other room and make sure your kid is not trying to get in the refrigerator. Helena: Yes. Theodore: Helena, thank you so much for this conversation. Why don't you tell folks about Food Fix, which is your newsletter? Helena: Yes. foodfix.co, you can go get on the list. You can get the free newsletter every Friday. If you work in food and you want to get Food Fix twice a week, you can upgrade. Everyone thinks it's a really good way to stay on top of what's going on and interesting times we're living in. Theodore: Absolutely. Helena, thanks again, so great talking to you, and I will see you in a couple of weeks. Helena: We'll see you soon. Bye. Theodore: Forked is a production of the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Our executive producers are me, Theodore Ross, and Tom Laskawy. Our sound engineer is Lauryn Newson. Our producer and video producer is Amanda Vicari. Our hosts are Helena Bottemiller Evich and me, Theodore Ross. To find out more about FERN and donate to support our independent nonprofit reporting, go to www.thefern.org.