The Only Thing That Lasts

Chapter 10: The Things We Do For Land

In our final episode, host Sarah Mock acknowledges that while obtaining property may look bleak for aspiring farmers in 2026, there are plenty of reasons for hope. As she

Chapter 7: The Land Is Dead, Long Live the Land

We tend to think of farmland and nature as distinct and easily distinguished, but in this episode, our host Sarah Mock poses the question: What if these boundaries are fa

Chapter 8: The Land Is Dead, Long Live the Land (part 2)

You probably know about the trolley problem, where someone is forced to make a decision between inaction that kills five people, or making an effort that kills only one.

Chapter 9: Bought the Farm

After 8 episodes of The Only Thing That Lasts, looking at the deeply complicated history of farmland in America, host Sarah Mock brings us into the present day, with an e

Chapter 6: The Wine of Wrath

Let's talk about the Dust Bowl. This distinctly American sliver of history, which most of us were schooled on with The Grapes of Wrath, was more than an act of God — it r

Chapter 5: Raise Less Corn and More Hell

Long before "populist" became a nebulous buzzword used to describe everyone from Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump, the farmer-founded Populist Party was a formidable force

Chapter 4: It's Highway Robbery

"As through this world I’ve wandered,  I’ve seen lots of funny men. Some will rob you with a six gun, And some with a fountain pen." Woody Guthrie's lyrics are a fitt

Chapter 3: Get Rich Homesteading

The Homestead Act of 1862 changed the path of many thousands of Americans, who were given $1.1 trillion in free land to farm. Their descendents, who make up 25% of the U.

Chapter 2: Alchemy of Farmland

In the second episode of our 8-episode limited series, agriculture journalist Sarah Mock takes us on a journey to the origins of what we think of as farmland today — and

Chapter 1: Is the U.S. Running Out of Farmland?

In the first episode of our 8-episode limited series, agriculture journalist Sarah Mock unpacks the dire warnings advocates are making — namely, that we're losing thousan

Trailer

Uncovering the mysteries of American farmland.