Amish In The Media

Amish born-and-raised Lovina Hershberger Zook has been getting a lot of media attention beyond her own success online. And for good reason – she now has around six million followers across social media, where she posts recipes and stories about the culture she left. That culture is a conservative Amish community. To my eye and ear she seems likely from a Swartzentruber Amish background (confirmed…

A pair of online influencers have been scoring a huge amount of online attention – in the millions of views – thanks to videos surreptitiously recording their conversations and interactions with Amish people. The videos are recorded using camera technology built into Meta AI glasses, typically at food stand businesses in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and related markets. But the influencers are now getting attention they…

“Suddenly Amish” is the latest in a line of Amish-themed reality programs, like its predecessors “Amish Mafia” or “Breaking Amish”. You shouldn’t have high expectations of these shows, though you can understand why they keep making them. In previous posts I gave you my biggest questions on the show. I also shared experts’ criticism of it – and the idea that it may not be…

“Suddenly Amish” is TLC’s new “reality” show which, we are told, places six outsiders into an Amish community where each “contemplates the possibility of converting into Amish society”. The first episode premiered several days ago, and has been getting a flurry of media coverage. As I noted in my post two weeks ago (“What’s the Deal With ‘Suddenly Amish’?”), this is the fish-out-of-water formula again,…

You may have heard there is another Amish-themed TV program releasing soon – “Suddenly Amish” – on TLC. Here’s the show summary: TLC’s all-new series SUDDENLY AMISH follows six non-Amish individuals on a rare journey as they leave behind their modern “English” lifestyle and step into a deeply traditional Amish community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Seeking a profound change from their present way of modern life,…

There is a nice write-up in Anabaptist World about the Budget newspaper’s recent 135-year anniversary (hat-tip to Al in KY), as well as the “Scribe Gathering” – regular meet-ups of the papers writers – which took place the next day. Based in Sugarcreek, Ohio, the Budget was founded way back in 1890 – and has endured as a media institution in Plain America and beyond….

Volume 4, Issue 2 of the Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities is now available. Like previous issues, it offers readers a variety of topics. For example, the lead article by Rachel Stein, Professor of Sociology at West Virginia University and Mark Dewalt, Professor Emeritus at Winthrop University, examines the prevalence of accidents in smaller Amish communities using reports found in the monthly publication, The Diary….

Linda Byler is one of the most successful of all authors of Amish romance novels. One thing that makes Linda stand out is that she herself is Amish. Linda recently spoke to the UK Daily Mail. For those unfamiliar, that is a tabloid paper. And the article has a tabloidy feel, but that aside it’s interesting – in part because of how frankly Linda speaks….

Back in May we heard from Brad Igou on Amish Voices Volume 2: In Their Own Words, 1993-2020, a collection of writings from the Amish publication Family Life, which Brad compiled. Brad also shared some unused selections at that time. Today we’ve got another batch of writings that didn’t quite make it into Amish Voices 2. As Brad explained, choosing which ones to include and…

The new book Amish Voices Volume 2: In Their Own Words, 1993-2020 is the sequel to Amish Voices. These two books are comprised of selections from the Amish monthly publication Family Life. If you missed the interview we published last week with compiler Brad Igou, you can check that out and get up to speed here. In that discussion, Brad shared his monumental task of…