[music]

Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio

news.

>> Our story starts with a guy and his

metal detector.

I got it as a Christmas present one year

and I was young, 12, 13 or something

like that. One of the cheap ones. But I

just like the mystery of it. There's

this open field. [music] Nothing around,

but here's a silver coin. Like that was

magical.

Brian Allen grew up metal detecting in

his hometown of Gainesboro, Tennessee.

[music] A teensy town in the foothills

of Appalachia. People call it the

Switzerland of the Cumberlands. Lush

rolling hills, sweeping vistas, and a

lot of history.

>> I find a lot of moonshine [music]

sights, old shotgun shell heads. You can

tell modern ones because they have the

plastic. During the Civil War, the

Confederate Army would post up by

Gainesboro to seize the Union Army

supplies as they floated by on the

Cumberland River.

>> Horse stuff.

>> So for the right person,

>> broken horseshoes.

>> It's a treasure trove.

>> Axes. Just the mystery of just putting

something together. I'm a very quiet

person. If I'm talking about something

I'm passionate about, then I can go.

[laughter]

>> There was one piece of land that backed

right up to a curve in the river. Bryant

had been eyeing it for years. 99 acres

of farmland

>> was over by the high school. That's the

one that I really wanted to hit. [music]

>> A place that's about to produce his

biggest discovery yet.

This is the summer of 2024. Bryant goes

digging through public records to get

permission from the owner to metal

detect. And he realizes it's been sold

recently to a name he doesn't recognize.

>> [music]

>> Now, Gainesboro is a town of a thousand

people, many of whom are related. So,

it's a peculiar thing to find a name

you've never heard of.

>> Because most time, you know, he would

sell it to Jim Bob over the holler. So,

it stays in the family. So, that

intrigued me

>> because if someone local didn't buy the

land, then who did?

>> I have a very inquisitive mind about

things. I have far-fetched ideas and

some of them work out and some don't.

[laughter]

I think that goes back to my metal

detecting. like, "Yeah, 90% of the time

I'll go out there and find garbage,

[music]

but sometimes you find silver."

So, he Googles some of the details on

the property record and sees that it was

some real estate guy who bought the

land, and that leads him to a company,

one called Ridggerunner USA.

He goes to the Ridgerunner website. The

first thing you see when it pops up is

[music] pioneers in Appalachia.

>> Pioneers in Appalachia.

The website is spare with that single

phrase over an image of an open field

with a winding dirt road.

And below an invitation to learn more.

Bryant clicks.

>> Ridgerunner is building pioneer

communities [music] in the old American

heartland. Ridgerunner appears to be

some kind of real estate company. We see

rising demand for new types of

communities around a [music] shared

vision for local life in America. I'm

like, hang [music] on, like that was

when I was like, well, you know,

something. Bryant searches more and

finds that Ridgerunner seems to be

affiliated with a larger company called

Newfounding.

That website [music] is packed with even

grander pronouncements.

>> We are forging an alliance to revitalize

American civilization,

bringing builders, creators, and

concerned citizens together. [music]

Build the America you want to live in.

And it's like, but it's already [music]

built. I'm like,

[laughter]

yeah, that don't sound good.

From what Bryant can discern, New

Founding is involved in all sorts

[music] of things. Venture capital,

media, and real estate.

That's where Ridunner comes in. Both

companies, Ridgerunner and New Founding,

[music]

seem ambitious and filled with big

ideas.

Pioneers, Frontier, all the words

[music] for oppression and conquering.

We're going to convert these heathens.

[music] Like it gave me that feel like

this was their manifest destiny.

>> Ridggerunner new founding those 99 acres

across from the high school. Brian is

trying to figure out what's in front of

him.

>> Like what am I missing?

>> What was happening in his quiet

hometown?

In the months following, Bryant, who is

painfully shy, reveals his discovery to

only one person, a coworker. But he

keeps tracking Ridgunner, [music] the

real estate company, and finds more land

getting scooped up in and around

Gainesboro.

Bryant had stumbled into something, the

beginning of an ambitious project

[music] to make Gainesboro a new type of

town filled with like-minded people.

This tiny town would soon realize

[music] it was part of a much larger

experiment backed by people with

powerful connections [music] and plenty

of money to build the America they want

to live in. Starting [music] with

Gainesboro.

From Bloomberg News, I'm Marban Knight

reporting along with Susan Burfield and

you're listening to Our Town. [music]

This is chapter 1. Sometimes you find

silver.

A few months before Brian Allen, the

metal detecting enthusiast, started

snooping around about those 99 acres, a

new face started turning up at the

Stolen Coin restaurant. The coin, as

it's called, is a local institution.

>> Hi, how are you? It's owned by Cassie

Kesler and her husband, who's the chef.

Brian Allen goes there often, as do many

day tripping tourists.

>> It's right on the town square. The town

square, which is one square block with

an old courthouse in the middle, is

Gainesboro's social hub. It's where

people come to gossip, to shop, to pick

up a prescription, or eat a plate of

biscuits and chocolate gravy.

>> Biscuits and chocolate gravy. It's a

southern thing. Appalachin special. It

was in the midst of all this when Cassie

saw that new face at her restaurant. A

real estate guy.

>> I had become pretty good acquaintance

for you know my first name basis would

come in. Anytime he would come in I

would sit and talk to him.

>> Cassie is energetic a fast urgent talker

flitting from table to table in the

coin's cozy dining room.

>> Hi day baby. How are you?

>> Good. Good.

>> I just like like to table touch like to

talk to people. small town like I know

everybody in that restaurant.

>> Show you the pictures.

>> I know. I can't wait to see him. You

were gonna

>> and this new face, the real estate guy.

He was a great customer. Very, very

personable

>> and seemingly interested in investing in

Gainesboro. And Cassie had a hot tip.

>> My lawyer at the time was looking to

sell his spot. The building was right

around the corner from the restaurant

right off the town square, [music] a

prime location and rare find.

>> And I had mentioned it because some of

the other buildings in town, it's very

hard for them to come. They're passed

down through family.

>> Cassie had learned this about Gainesboro

that it was tight-knit. She'd moved

there about 5 years earlier from Florida

and the town had given her a lot. I

could not have been to this point in my

life without the support of this town.

Whether it's council members, community

members, business members, employees,

like it has just been an effort from

everybody. Cassie is a recovering drug

user, sober 13 years. So, the idea of

having this kind of welcome and support

system to open a business, it meant

everything to her. I was such a bad

person for such a long time and it's

really nice to like take that effort

that I used to be into being an addict

and put it into the good stuff in the

community and like helping it just is

like I know it sounds cheesy and I say

it does it's better than being high.

Like it really is. It makes you feel

good. It makes you feel valuable. All

the opposite feelings you get whenever

you're an addict. Cassie loved helping

Gainesboro grow because like her, it too

had struggled in years past. Hollowed

out by job losses and stagnant wages,

nearby factories had closed. The shirt

factory, Oshkosh Begosh. Then came the

opioid epidemic.

But over the past decade, people like

Cassie had started opening restaurants

and stores that drew tourists. So, when

this real estate guy showed up in town

and bought the building that Cassie

tipped him off to, she was delighted. He

bought it along with his son who'd just

moved from Texas to Gainesboro. He was

becoming a regular, too. [music]

His name was Josh Abatoy.

Soon, he'd started coming in with other

men, men who also seemed new to the

town. She wasn't sure if they were

colleagues or friends. As many times as

they came into my restaurant or did

anything, they never would talk to me.

>> But that didn't deter Cassie from

chatting Josh Abatoy up. After I had

found out that they had bought it, Josh,

his father, and another gentleman were

sitting at the restaurant, and I can

remember, I remember it was table 10,

and I was sitting there talking to them

about, you know, what are you guys

doing? And, oh, it's an appraisal

business. just very like not putting a

direct stamp on it. Like we're still

trying to figure out it's going to be a

couple different things. And I was like,

"Oh, I'm going to have to come down and

check it out." All the Gainesboro

business owners were close here in town.

Like all the businesses on the square,

we like do so many things together. We

just are each other's biggest

cheerleaders.

>> But that was not the response she got

from Josh Abatoy.

>> And I can remember him looking up at me

and saying, "We're just going to have to

wait till it's done. we don't we're not

going to let anybody in there till it's

done. From right then it was like closed

off. It went from open conversation to

like now I'm just not going to talk

about what this place is [music]

anymore. I should have been like what

was that's kind of weird. Then a couple

months after Abatoy purchased that

building by the square, the town would

find out why. Nothing was quite the same

for Gainesboro after that.

More after the break.

A friend of mine texted me about 3:00.

>> It was a Friday in mid November when

Mark Dudney, a preservation planner and

historian for the area, received a

message from his friend. It was about an

upcoming news story.

>> Phil Williams was going to have a piece

on Monday night. Phil Williams is an

investigative reporter with News Channel

5 in Nashville, been on the air for

decades, and has a well-known series

called Confronting Hate.

>> New data appeared to reveal a disturbing

trend, the rise of hate in Tennessee.

>> And the next story in the series, Mark

learned, was going to be about

Gainesboro.

>> I felt like my blood pressure ramped up.

I don't have an alarmist personality.

I'm a really flatline on an EKG.

Mark had grown up in Gainesboro, then

left after high school, but had recently

moved back.

>> Well, this is sort of getting into

personal stuff, but I I got divorced

last year.

>> For Mark, like Cassie, Gainesboro was a

place to recover, to breathe.

>> My family has been here seven

generations. I grew up going to a little

church right down the road here, very

tight-knit.

>> Mark's dad had also passed away that

year. Dr. Dudney. He was Gainesboro's

beloved local doctor. Delivered many of

the town's babies. So Mark had a lot to

process. Being home helped. So had

turning off the news.

>> I was listening to a lot of Almond

Brothers. And so that was uh just a

pleasure to be back here. That lasted

about 6 weeks. more specifically until

November 18th, 2024,

the night the TV news story about

Gainesboro aired.

That Monday night, I watched it with my

sister.

Tonight [music] at News Channel 5

Investigates, special report reveals the

Christian nationalists who want to turn

a small Middle Tennessee community into

their base of operations. Phil, you

found that longtime residents didn't

even know this was happening. This has

very much been developing under the

radar.

>> I was glued to the television. Mark

pulled a chair right up to the TV.

>> In many ways, the views of some of these

people are not so different from the

white supremacists we've seen marching

down Nashville streets in the past year.

Although they dress up their ideas with

intellectual buzzwords and call it

Christian. and they've announced that

Gainesboro, the Jackson County seat,

will be the focus of their efforts to

resettle like-minded people from around

the country.

>> The goal, from what Mark understood, was

to turn Gainesboro into their own type

of Christian town. The report focused on

two newcomers, a pair of podcasters

who'd already moved to Gainesboro.

>> They say they quote hate democracy.

They're rooting for a Protestant

dictator and they think God made men to

rule over women.

>> Williams described the two podcasters as

ambassadors for the larger venture.

>> The two Christian nationalists denounce

the efforts of civil rights leader

Martin Luther King and the civil rights

movement in general. They celebrate

images of whites only diners in the 50s

and they mock historical incidents like

>> As Mark watched, he learned the real

estate group running the whole venture

had already bought 100 acres right in

Gainesboro and another 500 acres

somewhere in the Appalachin Hills. All

to build the community.

>> We were all flatfooted.

We didn't have a clue.

The report, a mere 10 minutes, shook the

tiny town. Mark, despite his usual

flatline EKG demeanor, was feeling all

sorts of feelings.

>> I do remember getting hot. [laughter]

>> Yeah, [gasps]

>> the arrogance, the hubris

is mind-blowing.

>> There was a phrase in the news report

that hit Mark especially hard. Christian

nationalist. With his penchant for

constitutional history, he was familiar

with the term Christian nationalist,

though many of his fellow residents were

not.

>> To me, Christian nationalism is

fundamentally unamerican.

Really, this is just about white

supremacy.

>> One important note, the podcasters do

not call themselves white supremacists.

They've called their podcast, quote, the

number one Christian nationalist podcast

in the world. But one of them told us he

doesn't describe himself that way. And

the guy in charge of the larger venture

says he's not a Christian nationalist.

Christian nationalists believe that

America is a Christian nation and should

be led by Christians for Christians and

more specifically Christian men.

Gainsboro, the Jackson County seat, may

have seemed like a good fit. The county

is overwhelmingly white, 96%.

It's also Christian and conservative.

81% voted for Trump. So, it might be

easy to stereotype

>> what people commonly think about Jackson

County and they think we're all

backwards, hateful, racist, and oh, he's

from Jackson County. Like, it carries

something around here.

>> Ryan Allen, the guy with the inquisitive

mind and the metal detector, had also

watched the report and felt an odd combo

of emotions

>> in a weird way, like vindication. But he

also felt

>> terror. This can't be real. Like I guess

a here we go moment. Like you know this

isn't a fly by night LLC that will be

shut down and they're here to I guess

homestead to make a town. And I didn't

know how the community would react.

>> The town was practically vibrating,

talking, texting, googling. It was all

the talk at church on Sunday. Days

later, Phil Williams returned for a

follow-up story. A sort of town hall on

the square. about 40 people came.

>> When you hear them talking about coming

here to build a town, what's your

reaction?

>> This town is not for them.

>> Is not

the vice chair of the local Republican

party spoke up.

>> It scares me that they are very clear

about taking over. [music]

>> Bryant stood in the back of the room,

his mind racing. It was more like,

[music] uh, wow, is this really

happening? Like, you know,

>> it was all making sense now. He thought

back to the 99 acres across from the

high [music] school that he'd

investigated months before. Back then,

he'd worried he was being a little

paranoid. Now, he realized he'd been on

to something. That real estate [music]

company, Ridggerunner, the one Brian had

Googled. We see rising demand for new

types of communities around a shared

vision for local life in America.

>> They were the ones who'd purchased those

99 acres. That land was their start to

building their community, to remaking

Gainesboro.

>> Build the America you want to live in.

>> It was all a part of this plan.

Inside the town hall, Bryant was

relieved to hear his neighbors

objections.

>> What message would would you have for

these people?

>> We all be a part of a racial kite

community.

>> The bond that formed was almost magical.

>> This was the Gainesboro he knew.

Meanwhile, Mark Dudney, the historian,

sat second row in the town hall,

listening and making all kinds of wild

connections. Was so close to Halloween.

I've been watching horror movies and I

shot my mouth off and made some

reference about Salem's Lot. Salem's

Lot, a novel turned film by Stephen King

in which a man returns to his hometown

only to discover that a strange

businessman has also arrived along with

an ancient vampire to take over the

town.

>> And as far as I'm concerned, Mr. Barlo

and Mr. Straker can load up the coffin

and get out of Salem's lot.

you've got somebody coming in who was

trying to recruit and multiply

and uh it was not that far off as an

analogy. The town now believed it was

part of a plan to build a far-right

community that outside money was flowing

in to make it and that podcasters

far-right Christians were already here

and promoting it. Everything else was

still a mystery. What exactly was

Ridgerunner? Who were these guys? And

how many were already in Gainesboro?

There was one person at the town hall

standing in the back near Brian who had

some answers. Cassie Kesler, the

restaurant owner. She'd recognized the

two podcasters from the TV report. She

knew them. They'd eaten at her

restaurant. And what's more, the real

estate guy, the one she'd helped find

the building for, his son, Josh Abatoy,

who'd moved from Texas, he was the

leader. He was the CEO of Ridgerunner,

the company behind this whole thing.

>> Like, I instantly shot back to the night

of the election. The night of the 2024

presidential election, just two weeks

earlier, the last time Cassie had seen

Josh Abatoy, he'd come in for lunch that

day and again for dinner.

>> We made sure a nice table was set up for

them. You know, Abatotoy's family was

they were all there with their whole

family.

>> She and Abatoy even made a friendly

wager.

>> I was like, "Who do you think's going to

win?" And it was just like me just being

like funny. Like I can remember him

leaning back like this and going, "It's

going to be Trump. he's going to take

it. And I was like, I'm going to buy you

a beer if he if he wins. He's like,

okay, I'm going to hold you up to that.

And we just, you know, chuckled.

While Cassie headed home from the

restaurant for an early bedtime, a very

different night was ahead for Josh

Abatoy, who left the coin to go be on a

podcast.

[music]

>> Hello and welcome to Contromote. It is

election night. I'm Andrea. This over

here is CJ Angel. The hosts were the two

podcasters, the ones who'd already moved

to town to help Josh Abatoy with the

Ridgerunner development. To many people

in town, they'd become the voice of the

venture.

>> Awesome. All right, CJ, what are your

thoughts?

>> I am ready to doom scr Twitter all night

long.

>> All night.

>> Cassie hadn't seen this live stream when

it aired, but now after the TV news

story, she watched some. It was nearly 9

hours. So, I was just very angry and I

knew that I was going to see them at

some point.

>> Many others in town now also watched,

eager to learn what they could about

these newcomers. The two podcasters wore

matching blue suits and ties thanks to

their wives.

>> Yeah, they bullied us into matching.

>> They already seem giddy.

>> You didn't get the pocket square.

>> I have the pocket square.

>> They're Trump supporters. Andrew Iser

was new to Tennessee. He said he fled

Minnesota for its wokeness.

>> We will win. His co-host CJ Angel left

California for the same reason.

>> I'm pleased as punched.

>> In Tennessee? We do [laughter] now. All

right. Well,

>> and now here they were live streaming

their podcast from Gainesboro from the

same building Cassie had tipped Josh

Abatoy and his father off to. It was now

Ridgunner's headquarters. The name of

the podcast, Contraundum, is Latin for

against the world. I don't see any

reason why things will continue to

justify women going more and more to

college like women's lib you liberation

or emancipation and and the career women

that's only led to despair and I think

that women are starting to recognize

that

>> we'll probably be easier to get rid of

democracy as a whole before getting rid

of the 19th amendment [music]

>> the 19th amendment the women's right to

vote

>> and women are basically going to revert

back to their natural um station like a

like a natural order correction

>> it's So crazy to me that it's freedom

for them but only people that like seem

like them. All their talk about women's

natural order. Well, Cassie was not a

mother. [music] She had tried, really

tried, but she wasn't a mother. She was

a wife, an entrepreneur, a voter. She

served her community in all sorts of

ways. If you really did your research,

almost every business on this square is

run by a woman. A stroll around the town

square reveals how many women anchor the

Gainesboro economy.

>> Myself, Miss Sally's, Nostalgic,

Gibflow,

>> the pharmacy, the real litter next door,

Face Cafe, the gift shop down the

street.

>> And then we have a woman judge, and we

have a woman attorney, and we have women

alderman. We're all women, and we're all

just keeping our heads down, and we're

trying to grow this town.

>> Started with our our 8:00 ad read here.

The 8:00 hour is sponsored by Paxmail.

[laughter]

Fellas, get off of gay email. Join

paxmail.cc

instead. Keep the money with the

brothers.

>> Uh we got

>> the uh the Muslims in Dearborn. They

[laughter]

they voted for Trump. This is amazing.

>> Thank you for your service, but you're

going back.

>> Sorry. Uh you can be deported last. Uh

>> you know what's hilarious?

>> By hour four, it was clear that Trump

was going to win project. Yeah, this is

[laughter]

guys.

>> That was Josh Abatoy, the CEO of

Bridgerunner, chiming in.

>> This is our democracy.

>> Our democracy.

>> It's our democracy.

>> You're the captain now.

>> By hour eight, it was confirmed Kla

Harris had lost to Donald Trump.

>> He is he is the atlas holding up the

world [laughter] of the patriarchy right

now. Yes.

>> And that's when

>> I've got the glass ceiling 10 in thick.

>> The glass ceiling jokes began.

>> The glass ceiling just got 10 ft taller.

>> [laughter]

>> Heritage America one purge.

>> That's the only kind of America there

is. Man,

>> honestly though, like

>> the podcasters finally signed off by

talking about their new hometown.

>> This is really cool though to be able to

do this uh from Gainesboro, Tennessee.

We've been building up for this moment

for months and we're here. We have so

much planned. We have great families

here. We have great guys here. It's just

really great to connect with a small

town of Trump loving um Americans.

>> 7,000 of you watching, come here. Go to

ridge runnerusa.com. Come move here to

be with us.

>> This is just the beginning of a lot of

things. I couldn't have asked for

anything better. Yeah. Crazy.

>> After listening to this, Cassie felt

duped.

>> And then it's like one of those like

retrospects in a movie where like you

find out something and then you go back

and all the flashbacks of like, oh my

gosh, that makes sense.

>> Conversations Cassie witnessed in her

restaurant months earlier now had an

entirely different meaning. They're

trying to sell these plots. So they

bring people in, give them a tour of the

town. And then they would bring them to

lunch and because they get great

service, they say, "Look, we're welcome

here. Look, when you move here, you can

get this. Look how much they like us.

They're all like us here." Like in that

moment, you're just thinking that's some

people having a conversation. Oh, they

like my restaurant.

Do not use my hard work and my

businesses and my staff and everything

that they do to sell your

>> As news of the real estate venture

continued to spread through the town, so

did anxiety about who might come here.

After all, Josh Abatoy had been pretty

explicit.

>> The whole point of it is to [music]

plant a flag and say, "This small town

is where [music] our people are

gathering." After the TV news story

dropped, Abatoy laid low.

>> I remember not even really seeing them

around town.

>> But one of the podcasters, CJ Angel, did

make an appearance, a virtual one.

>> All right. Thanks for calling. I'm going

to go ahead and give you to CJ. Okay.

>> On a YouTube show called Truth with

Proof, hosted by a local preacher,

Angel's new neighbors were eager to talk

to him.

>> So, are you really an American or are

you a spy from Russia? I mean, what's

your deal, buddy?

>> Yeah, I'm I'm American and I love this

country and I'm here because I think it

represents the American ethos much

better than than California did. And

>> I got a question. Why Why are you in

Jackson County?

>> I'm buying in Jackson County because I I

like the region and it it it seems like,

you know, a good place to raise families

and this is where my my friends decided

to go.

>> Who's your friends?

>> Well, Josh Avat and Andrew and people

like that. And we have friends here that

have grown up here as well.

How did you meet them?

>> On the internet. That's that's where you

meet people these days.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah. Well,

>> fashion.

>> Look, well, I I appreciate your cynicism

and I and I don't take it offensively.

So, thank you for calling in and I hope

to, you know, you know, earn a, you

know, better reputation over the next

couple years.

>> Well, and here's another problem, buddy.

>> Sure. With y'all coming in buying land

from Jackson County people, you're

taking that land away. Then you're

marketing that land to people from

Minnesota, Colorado,

home in Colorado, wherever it is you're

trying to get them from.

>> That land will never be able to be back

in the hands of young people from

Jackson County who want to buy a house 2

acres, 5 acres, 15 acres, whatever.

They'll never be able to get it because

it's going to be in y'all's little Nazi

party. I don't understand how you think

that's good for our people. You're not

welcome.

>> Not everyone who called or texted was

opposed to Ridgerunner.

>> Uh, someone says, "Hey, CJ, you're

handling all the calls well. Those who

watch the podcast in full will see your

fruits and your intentions."

>> But by and large, people were suspicious

and very confused.

>> Okay. Um, I have a question about you

all stating that you were going to plant

a flag and start a town. I don't

understand that exactly because we are

currently a town. So, I wasn't really

for sure what that meant.

>> That's what everyone wanted to know.

What did it mean when they said they

were building a town and would plant a

flag?

>> It's probably analogous. Um, you know,

plant like I don't think I don't have

any plans to start a town. I mean, um,

>> instead he brushes it off as just

>> Tom, but I don't have any plans to and I

say this very very seriously. Our plan

is to assimilate into the culture of of

the area and to participate in making

Gainesboro a better place to live.

Angel was as civil as can be. Even said

he'd gotten plenty of sympathetic

messages in the weeks after, but those

who wanted more details were frustrated.

His answers on the show didn't reveal

much. Then he and the others seemed to

disappear from public life in

Gainesboro. So residents decided they

needed to take matters into their own

hands. That's after the break.

The Gainesboro resistance, as it's come

to be known, started with 70-year-old

retired art teacher Nancy Puit.

>> My family goes back to, you know, when

Gainsboro was formed. Nancy knows the

town gossip. Even has a police scanner

on her kitchen counter, always

chattering in the background. [music]

>> Nancy actually was the one who came and

told me about it.

>> You know, Nancy can tell you Nancy was

talking about that at one point.

>> If she wants you to know something, she

will make sure you know it.

>> Nancy taught in the local public schools

for many years. Since retiring, she's

been living her best life, traveling the

world, volunteering. [music]

This town is very special. To think that

people wanted to come in and change

everything. I was very disillusioned. It

was [music] a very sad day and it

changed my life forever. Nancy, who grew

up staunchly Republican and voted as one

until 2016, had never heard the term

Christian nationalist. And now the two

men behind the so-called number one

Christian nationalist podcast were

living on her street.

CJ lives down here, four houses from me.

>> Nancy worried about how the town might

be fooled by Ridgunner, not because they

were uninformed, but because they had

other things on their mind. Jackson

County, where Gainesboro is located, is

one of the poorest in the state. And I

did not know how many people were going

to be concerned because they had to

figure out how they were going to get

their next meal. I couldn't get people

to understand the gravity of the

situation.

>> Gainsboro has a live and let live kind

of attitude. There were some folks who

had concerns at first, but those faded.

Some weren't worried at all. Others

likely couldn't pass up a top dollar

offer for land.

>> We have such a low voter turnout in the

city that they knew that this was a

place that they could take over and

plant their flag. As they said,

>> Gainesboro has just 605 registered

voters.

>> And if they move 50 families in, then

they could take over the politics and

the government. And I was a city

alderwoman, okay?

And I know that

I had a landslide with 130 votes

and the next person was 100 votes. So if

they got 50 people to move in here, yes,

they could take over our little town.

Gainsboro's protests kicked off with a

small gesture. One of the podcasters had

gone to social media to say how much he

hated what white educated women had done

to America. So Nancy being Nancy walked

to the square and asked the owner of a

local gift shop to print a t-shirt with

a slogan on it. Dangerous educated

women. She wore it around town. [music]

It was her first public act of

resistance. I just was trying to figure

out what I personally could do. Nancy

began contacting her neighbors, old

co-workers, a local pastor, restaurant

owners. She estimates she spoke to 50

people and then slowly people started

getting on board.

>> Nancy was consumed. She spent an hour

every morning researching while she had

coffee. And in the middle of the night

when she couldn't sleep,

my closest friends, they were concerned

because they said, "You're so obsessed

by this." I said, "I think we all need

to be."

>> Nancy realized she needed to do even

more. something that the podcasters on

her street would be sure to see.

>> We need to let them know that everybody

on their street and surrounding them are

not okay with their views.

>> So, in came the lawn signs.

>> They said hate has no home in

Gainesboro.

>> On November 30th, 10 days after the town

hall, Nancy posted on Facebook, "Anyone

want a yard sign? Message me." The

requests rolled in. "Yes, please. Amen.

I want one. I need six of them.

>> We had signs all over this town. In

everybody's yard, on the side of the

road.

>> 300 signs in all. In a small town, it

felt like they were everywhere. Someone

put up a billboard, too. Right on the

main road into town. It read, "Small

town, big heart. Here, nasty notions

play no part. Gainsboro, where all are

welcome.

A few weeks passed. The holidays offered

a bit of quiet and much needed normaly

for the town. Then at the start of the

year, Josh Abatoy, the head of

Ridgerunner, made a surprising overture,

an invitation to talk, not to Nancy, but

to her neighbor, who promptly shared it

with Nancy.

>> And he said, um, I'm reading, quoting, I

moved to Gainesboro over the summer.

Phil's mistaken reporting is not how I

would have chosen to be introduced to my

new neighbors. I would love to grab

coffee sometime and dispel what Phil has

said about me and my company. Hopefully,

the warm welcome to all Abatotoy has

denied being a Christian nationalist. He

says the podcasters are not ridunner

ambassadors. They're customers and they

don't speak for the company. Ridgerunner

says its community will be built around

a shared ethos of land, liberty, and

legacy.

>> As Nancy kept reading Abatoto's invite,

she saw an opportunity.

>> We've been happily invited several times

to the Dairy Queen morning coffee and

have gotten the ability.

>> He was talking about a weekly coffee

clatch of local veterans that he and CJ

the podcaster have been joining

>> ability to meet people. So, you're

welcome to come as well. And so, we did.

We just took more than one person.

>> It would be the first time everyone who

had been anxious and alarmed would

gather in the same place as their new

neighbors and they'd have breakfast at

the local Dairy Queen.

>> A group of people in the community

wanted to just do a show of community

unity.

>> That's Mark Dudney, the historian.

What's your mindset like walking in that

morning?

>> We need some bacon and eggs. [gasps] Oh,

>> Dairy Queen is not yours and we are

aware of what you're doing.

>> That same morning, Brian Allen, the

metal detector guy, got a text from a

friend telling him, "Go to Dairy Queen

now." Okay, I'll go get a sausage

biscuit. I don't know. But I walk in and

I'm like, all these people like, "What

is going on? Like, is it free Dilly Bar

or something?" Uh, free Blizzard.

[laughter]

>> The place was packed. Every booth taken.

>> I was like, "What's going on? like is

that oh there's a a sit in

>> it would come to be known as the DQ sit

in [music]

>> people that I argued with on Facebook

politically are there and they're mad

and I'm like oh god thank you the both

sides of the political spectrum being

there was chill inducing like it was

like all right we got this we were

expecting about 30 35 people and about

75 showed up I've never been so proud of

my community. The one thing that you

have to u process is that this is so

foreign to us. There is no guide book

available, you know, about what to do. I

come in and so I see Avat standing over

there.

>> Josh Abatoy, the CEO of Ridgerunner,

just seeing him like a a jump scare like

[laughter] Abatoy came in and I went

straight to him. Nancy wanted to talk

about the house across the street from

her where one of the podcasters lived.

>> I introduced myself and I said, "I know

you purchased that." And he goes, "No, I

didn't purchase that."

>> Josh Abatoto is right. Actually, his dad

bought it, but to Nancy, all Abatotoys

led to Ridgerunner. And I said, "Yes,

you did." He said, "How do you know

that?" And I said, "Well, I give one

hour of my life to you every morning

over coffee doing research." So, I

called the owner that sold it to you.

>> Nancy decided it was time to say her

piece.

>> She sold it to you. So, obviously you

purchased it and then you did a quick

deed and put it in their name for

whatever reason. I said, "I don't know."

And I said, "And then Isker moved in

that next day, I guess."

And that's when he got frustrated and

didn't want to talk to me anymore. I sat

down next to CJ. Cassie Kesler, the

restaurant owner, slipped into a booth

next to the podcaster and I said

directly to him, I'm like, you know, why

are you here? And he said, you know,

we're from all different parts of the

country. You know, we have a bunch of

woke people that got elected into office

and then came in and changed the whole

town and it just didn't align with us

anymore. So, we left. And I'm like, so

what's the difference in what you're

doing now to us? And he goes, "Well, you

know, we're not trying to change your

town." I looked right at him. I said,

"You say all these things about women."

I said, "But I own my building. I pay

local tax. I pay sales tax. I pay liquor

tax. I have employment. I have a

nonprofit. But because I can't

physically have children,

I'm not worth anything." And he says

something, God, something to the effect

of, "I have different beliefs than you.

And I will tell you, and I hope he's

listening, you were shaking like a leaf.

Josh Abatoy declined to speak with us

for this story, but you'll hear directly

from the podcasters, CJ Angel, and

Andrew Isker, later in this series.

A couple weeks after the sitin came the

biggest standoff to date. Ridgerunner

applied to join the local chamber of

commerce, guaranteeing them public

ribbon cutings and gripping grin photos

with the town's business leaders. Cassie

Kesler, who was on the chambers's board,

said the news landed with a thud. As a

board, we were not fans of letting them

on, but we live in a democracy, so we

wanted to leave it open to the people.

We held an open meeting and there was

not one member in that room that wanted

them to be a part of it.

>> Next, the board hired an attorney.

>> He said, "You don't have to accept cuz

things that they were saying

discriminatory

that went against pretty much everything

in our morality clause."

>> So, the chamber rejected Ridgerunner.

From what folks remembered, the chamber

had only denied a few businesses. Some

years back, it rejected a topless auto

repair shop called Boob and Lube. Now,

the chamber was denying Ridggerunner. It

was Gainesboro's first official

repudiation of the venture. We had a

certified letter drawn up and we sent it

to them with a full refund. I think they

thought we were going to all cow with

our tail between our legs and run away.

After the denial, the chamber received a

letter from a lawyer in Missouri

notifying it that Ridgerunner intended

to sue the chamber and possibly

individual members who it claimed quote

knowingly discriminated or conspired to

discriminate against Ridgerunner

>> that we were infringing. We were discrim

we were discriminating against them. Can

you The letter demanded the chamber

preserve all communication regarding its

decision to deny Ridgerunner. all

emails, texts, faxes, floppy discs,

metadata, video, audio, thumb drives,

everything. Then you're going to sue us.

So then we're going to tie up whatever

little money we have in legal fees,

which means our Christmas parade gets

canceled, our tree lighting gets

cancelled because we have no funding to

do that. So now you get to go tell the

town that you canled Christmas. Go

ahead. As a bunch of Christians, tell

this town that all of our Christmas

festivities cannot be put on because

your feelings were hurt cuz you didn't

get into the chamber and you didn't get

your propaganda picture. Get the

[music] out of here. The threat letter

hung over Gainesboro. So did

Ridgerunner's growing stockpile of land,

[music] which they almost always paid

for in cash. Then exactly a week after

the DQ sitin, [music]

Ridgerunner announced its largest land

purchase yet. 450 acres, an old family

farm they'd acquired for $2.5 million, a

stunning price by local standards.

All told, Ridgerunner now controlled

upwards of 1,200 acres in the county and

beyond. Ridgerunner's footprint was

growing so [music] rapidly, it

nowclipsed the size of Gainesboro

itself.

Locals would soon discover that this

venture was connected to something much

bigger. A vision of turmoil, collapse,

and a new America.

Next time on Our Town.

>> Tell us the response to this this

dangerous venture of yours. Has someone

already bought the land? The big

>> Yes. It's being divided up and sold, you

know, as we speak.

>> We need cities on a shining hill.

>> There's no question that they were

brought here intentionally. It means I

was chosen by God.

>> The old order was all coming to an end.

>> She was determined to see what they were

about.

>> They're pouring money into this and they

have a lot more to pour. They will start

with one state and they have chosen

Tennessee as that state.

[music]

Our town is written and reported by me,

Mara [music] Benite, and Susan Burfield.

Rebecca Lax is our senior producer. Ken

Armstrong edited the show with

additional editing from Rebecca Lax.

Original score and sound design by Alex

[music] Sugira. Factchecking by Anukica

Robbins. Additional production and

editorial [music] support from Julia

Weaver, David Fox, and Laura Newome.

Special thanks to Bloomberg's Alana

Susnau, [music] Bob Blau, Kristen

Powers, Anthony Mancini, the Big Tank

Podcast team, and Will Pearson at iHeart

Podcasts. Our executive producer is

Nicole Beamsterbore. [music]