Our Town Chapter 2: This Dangerous Venture of Yours

Summary

Podcast Summary: Big Take – "Our Town Chapter 2: This Dangerous Venture of Yours"

Podcast: Big Take by Bloomberg & iHeartPodcasts
Host: Maribeh Knight (with reporting from Susan Burfield)
Episode Date: August 14, 2026
Episode Length: ~48 minutes
Summary covers timestamps: 01:57 – 45:35

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Episode Overview

This episode is the second chapter of the "Our Town" series, focusing on the evolving tension in Gainsborough, Tennessee, as an outside developer, Ridgerunner, backed by influential Christian nationalist figures and major financiers, embarks on creating an "aligned" community. The episode investigates local resistance, the ambitions and networks behind the venture, and the mounting fear and resolve among residents confronted by a movement that reaches far beyond their small town.

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Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. Local Alarm and Outsider Encroachment

• Background: News broke that Ridgerunner, a group associated with Christian nationalist ambitions, was buying up land around Gainsborough (02:29), causing unease locally.
• National Spotlight: Ridgerunner's ambitions gained national attention when its spokesperson, podcaster Andrew Isker, appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show promoting the idea of a Christian community in rural Tennessee (03:20).
  • Quote: “It’s a, you know, a real estate venture to build communities. It’s large properties... like live like Americans used to.” – Andrew Isker (04:00)

2. Community Reaction and Defensive Sleuthing

• Research and Vigilance: Locals, including Barry and Diana Naff, undertook deep research into Ridgerunner’s affiliations, podcasts, and financial backers to understand what their town was up against (08:31, 09:04).
  • Quote: “This has been on my mind. It’s on my mind every day.” – Diana (09:04)
• Resisting Hate: Diana countered the newcomers by posting a message outside her restaurant:
  • Quote: “If you’re a person or a group that promotes the oppression, discrimination against others, please eat somewhere else. You won’t like it here.” – Diana (12:39)
• Awareness Campaigns: Residents distributed fact sheets, set up protest billboards ("Hate has no home in Gainsborough"), and even infiltrated Ridgerunner’s marketing by joining an open house invitation list (19:50–20:47; 25:48–27:37).

3. Inside Ridgerunner's Vision

• Promotion and Goal: Ridgerunner CEO Josh Abatoy sought to attract like-minded conservative Christians, envisioning a "charter community" and a new social order outside mainstream urban life (15:34–17:18).
  • Quote: “We need cities on a shining hill that exemplify and embody the... Christian way of life and demonstrate the superiority of that way of life.” – Josh Abatoy (17:05)
• Marketing the Dream: Ridgerunner hosted a private open house with expensive lot prices ($50,000–$150,000), a men-only sporting club, and plans centered around a church led by Isker (20:09–21:34).
  • Quote: “It was called the Highland Rim Project. On the invite, there was a map showing a village with a community center, farmland and a farm store. They called it an agrihood.” – Maribeh Knight (19:58)

4. Escalating Tensions and Local Pushback

• Billboard Battles: Both sides used billboards at the town’s entrance to send opposing messages—Ridgerunner’s “God bless Jackson County” and locals’ warnings against hate (29:06–29:51).
• Direct Action: Diana outmaneuvered Ridgerunner for billboard leases, while Barry investigated property records in neighboring states to track Ridgerunner’s land acquisitions (29:44–30:17).
• Changing Landscape: The scale of Ridgerunner’s projects became clear, with 550 acres also acquired in Kentucky (30:17).

5. The Power Behind Ridgerunner: Financing a Social Revolution

• Financing Trail: Diana’s research exposed that New Founding, a venture capital firm, financially backs Ridgerunner (34:47).
• Nate Fisher’s Dominion Vision: New Founding CEO Nate Fisher, a Harvard Law graduate and self-identified Christian nationalist, described his mission as fulfilling the biblical "dominion mandate"—seeking Christian authority over society (35:24–37:02).
  • Quote: “I believe that it means I was chosen by God. My broader mission is to fulfill that Genesis 1 Dominion Mandate. Fill the earth and subdue it.” – Nate Fisher (36:52)
  • Quote: “Dominion is the belief that Christians are called to have absolute authority over society, over the world.” – Maribeh Knight (37:02)
• Investments and Strategy: Fisher’s firm invests in surveillance, weapons, conservative media, and tech startups, aiming to build parallel Christian institutions in anticipation of societal collapse (38:44–39:36).
• Network of Influence: Major conservative figures, including the DeVos family and entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, are linked as financial or ideological supporters (40:36).

6. Local Courage and Counter-Mobilization

• Informing the Town: Diana wrote op-eds for the local paper and continued to rent billboards to push back against Ridgerunner’s narrative (43:03–43:39).
  • Quote: “For about $500 a month, she rented a billboard at the entrance of town. A black background with bold white lettering that said, just love everyone. I'll sort them out later. God.” (43:42)
• Economic Defense: Diana and Barry bought the building housing the town’s only coffee shop to prevent Ridgerunner from getting a downtown foothold (44:13).
• A Broader Warning: Diana recognized the national scale of what the town faced, feeling like resistance put them against powerful political and financial forces (42:18–42:52; 41:13).
  • Quote: “They feel like they're not just opposing what's being planned for here. They feel like they're standing in opposition to an entire administration, and that scares them.” – Maribeh Knight (42:05)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You know, you should never take anything on face value, right?” – Diana (13:27)
• “It was so much deeper and wider and bigger than just Gainsborough. This is a very widespread movement. It runs very deep, and it runs very high.” – Diana (14:30)
• “Dominion is the belief that Christians are called to have absolute authority over society, over the world.” – Maribeh Knight (37:02)
• “They have the right to live however they want to live and believe how they want to believe, but they cannot brand us.” – Diana (29:44)
• “Our town is small, small taters by most standards, right? But to the people who grew up here, it's everything. ... They've never seen anything like this.” – Diana (42:27)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |----------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:57–03:05 | Recap of RidgeRunner’s land acquisition in Gainsborough | | 03:20–04:47 | Andrew Isker’s appearance on Tucker Carlson and his vision | | 08:31–09:54 | Barry and Diana’s background and their research efforts | | 12:39–12:53 | Diana’s message to deter hate at her restaurant | | 15:34–17:18 | Ridgerunner’s recruitment strategy and Josh Abatoy’s statements | | 19:50–21:34 | The open house: marketing, price points, and planned community features | | 25:48–27:37 | Locals’ counter-efforts: festival, fact sheets, and town signage | | 29:06–29:51 | Billboard battle between Ridgerunner and locals | | 34:44–38:44 | Discovery of New Founding and Nate Fisher’s ambitions | | 40:36–42:52 | Fisher’s network, local fears and sense of being outmatched | | 43:03–43:16 | Diana’s local newspaper campaign and messaging | | 44:13–44:31 | Diana and Barry buy the coffee shop building to keep Ridgerunner out of town square | | 45:14–45:35 | Episode teaser for Chapter 3 and closing reflections |

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Conclusion

In this gripping chapter, the podcast lays bare the determined, well-financed effort to reshape a rural American town along Christian nationalist lines and the tenacious, though outgunned, resistance by locals trying to protect their home’s identity. Through first-person stories, sourced soundbites, and investigative reporting, "Our Town Chapter 2: This Dangerous Venture of Yours" powerfully illustrates the collision between local agency and national movements, raising urgent questions about democracy, identity, and the future of small-town America.

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Next Episode Preview:
Chapter 3 promises to expand the scope further, revealing another community transformed by similar efforts and warning what might be in store for Gainsborough.

Transcript

[Maribeh Knight]

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[Maribeh Knight]

Bloomberg Audio

[Diana]

Studios Podcasts Radio News

[Maribeh Knight]

previously on Our Town.

[Local Resident]

The first thing you see when it pops up is pioneers in Appalachia. Like what am I missing?

[Maribeh Knight]

Christian nationalists who want to turn a small Middle Tennessee community into their base of operations.

[Diana]

It was like happening and you didn't

[Maribeh Knight]

even realize it was happening. I just was trying to figure out what I personally one person could do.

[Local Resident]

This isn't a Fly by nine LLC that will be shut down.

[Andrew Isker]

Come move here to be with us.

[Barry Naff]

Thank you over the next few years

[Maribeh Knight]

we have so much planned so go

[Andrew Isker]

to ridgerunnersa.com yeah, I got a question.

[Wise Advertiser]

Why?

[Maribeh Knight]

Why are you in Jackson county? The winter of 2025 was an anxious one in Gainsborough. It had been several months since news broke about the plan to build a quote aligned community. Ridgerunner the real estate developer behind the project, was buying up so much land that it now controlled more acreage than Gainsborough itself. Locals were uneasy, bracing for what might come Next. Then on March 31, 2025.

[Interviewer]

So, Andrew, thank you for doing this. You're so controversial.

[Maribeh Knight]

I love that.

[Josh Abatoy]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Married man with six kids who pays his taxes.

[The Hartford Advertiser]

You're so controversial.

[Nate Fisher]

Very.

[Interviewer]

But you are doing one thing that's pretty wild, which is participating in the building of a new town.

[Maribeh Knight]

Tucker Carlson, the influential host, invited someone associated with Ridgerunner onto his show.

[Andrew Isker]

You can have the American small town experience.

[Maribeh Knight]

Once again, it was Andrew Isker, the Christian nationalist podcaster who'd moved to Gainsborough the year before.

[Interviewer]

I want to get back to the Ridge Runner and the town that's being built, which I assume is a fascist Christian theocracy.

[Andrew Isker]

That's what the TV news in National.

[Wise Advertiser]

All right, I'll get.

[Josh Abatoy]

Yes.

[Andrew Isker]

Mr.

[Maribeh Knight]

This was a stunning leap for Andrew Isar and for Ridge Runner. Here he was chatting up Carlson and his massive audience about building this Christian town in Tennessee.

[Andrew Isker]

It's a, you know, a real estate venture to build communities. It's large properties, you know, 2, 3, 10 acre lots into, into a place where they can have land, where they can have, you know, have some chickens, maybe a cow. Like, like live like Americans, you know, used to.

[Barry Naff]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

Tell us the response to this, this dangerous venture of yours.

[Andrew Isker]

Well, you know, like, locally, the people that I, that I, I've spoken to, the people I've met in the town are, are very, you know, very enthusiastic.

[Diana]

Actually, it just wasn't true.

[Maribeh Knight]

Locals had watched the episode, not what

[Mark Dudney]

I was seeing on the ground.

[Maribeh Knight]

I was furious.

[Local Resident]

These people are a problem, not an asset.

[Diana]

I was pretty horrified. It is a national stage.

[Maribeh Knight]

Iskur was so excited.

[Diana]

He was like a puppy that found a new bone.

[Maribeh Knight]

To Nancy Pruitt, the retired art teacher, it seemed like this was just another workday for Tucker Carlson. But for Isger, for Isger, it was like, I have made it to the top. And for Ridgerunner, this was a walking

[Interviewer]

billboard for people who are interested. What's the name of this again?

[Andrew Isker]

Ridge Runner. The website is ridgerunnerusa.com on YouTube.

[Maribeh Knight]

This episode got almost 800,000 views. How did Andrew Isker get on Tucker Carlson? This wasn't some local YouTube show.

[Interviewer]

Had someone already bought the land?

[Andrew Isker]

Yes, Ridge Runners bought the parcels. It's being divided up and sold, you know, as we speak.

[Maribeh Knight]

This was news to many in Gainsborough. Ridgerunners seemed to be moving quickly, already prepping lots for Sale.

[Mark Dudney]

Everybody that was worried about this was doing their own stuff.

[Maribeh Knight]

Locals were reading, listening, watching everything these guys were putting into the world.

[Diana]

They think that we're a bunch of

[Optum Advertiser]

dumb idiots, but we all have done

[Maribeh Knight]

our own little research.

[Mark Dudney]

I sat there and took notes.

[Local Resident]

You know, it's hard to watch that stuff. They're tiring. It's hard to hate that much. I feel so, like, I created a script that went through all their videos and transcribed them just so you don't zone out or play. Your soul leaves your body because you're listening to Isker.

[Maribeh Knight]

They were all trying to answer some version of a question that had been left hanging. So, I mean, what's your deal, buddy?

[Barry Naff]

Who's your friends?

[Maribeh Knight]

What's your deal? Clearly these guys had a plan. And who's your friends? Because they definitely had connections. All across Gainsborough, a handful of small town amateur sleuths went to work to figure out what their town was really up against and how far they were willing to go to protect it. From Bloomberg News, I'm Maribeh Knight reporting along with Susan Burfield. And you're listening to Our Town. This is chapter two. This dangerous venture of yours. Oh, this is so gorgeous. Oh, my goodness. How many dogs?

[Diana]

He'll be going up for adoption.

[Mark Dudney]

Dale.

[Barry Naff]

He's a bully.

[Maribeh Knight]

Barry Naff has a soft spot for dogs. Somehow they always find him. His wife Diana is definitely an enabler.

[Diana]

This fella, he showed up on the farm looking for help. He was starving.

[Maribeh Knight]

We're just gonna keep him. Barry and Diana's home is perched on the edge of a forested hill on the outskirts of Gainsborough. They've got 115 acres of land where they've put walking trails and dirt roads for ATVs. So you designed this house?

[Barry Naff]

I did.

[Maribeh Knight]

Did you build it too?

[Barry Naff]

I did everything but the framing.

[Maribeh Knight]

Barry's lanky, usually in jeans and a T shirt, and always in motion.

[Diana]

Well, make yourselves at home.

[Maribeh Knight]

Diana's petite with brown hair and bookish glasses. She's got a pink T shirt on that says be kind of a bitch. Inside, at her dining table, she got down to business. It's a serious computer.

[Diana]

It's called a tough book.

[Maribeh Knight]

It's a massive laptop that could probably survive a mortar blast filled with research. Can you just take me through again all of the literature and the things you consume?

[Barry Naff]

We don't have enough time tonight.

[Diana]

I do have a bibliography.

[Maribeh Knight]

Barry is right. We don't have enough time for that. Because when Ridge Runner landed in Gainsborough, Diana was worried about what this all meant for her town. So she went into research mode. And of all the local sleuths, she dug the deepest.

[Diana]

This has been on my mind. It's on my mind every day.

[Maribeh Knight]

Yeah, hours and hours every day for weeks and weeks. Diana searched the Internet.

[Barry Naff]

Well, now I got all my information from the reader and the listener here. If it's not something to do with hot rods or, you know, welding or dogs. Or dogs, I'm not reading it.

[Maribeh Knight]

Barry jokes, but he was just as serious about the research as Diana. He grew up in Gainsborough, so he had a lot at stake.

[Diana]

Barry's family, the nafs, the Drapers, they've been here forever.

[Barry Naff]

Mack Draper, that's my great grandfather, he

[Diana]

pretty much built Jackson county for all he did.

[Maribeh Knight]

Diana, though, is a transplant to Gainsborough. She came from Florida, where she owned a successful medical consulting firm. Twenty years ago, she fell in love with Middle Tennessee.

[Diana]

It was like looking at Paradise.

[Maribeh Knight]

In 2005, she bought a farm, and locals welcomed her.

[Diana]

We had some lovely folk that would invite us to, you know, Thanksgiving dinner cookouts down by the river, marathon drinking sessions that involved moonshine.

[Maribeh Knight]

But Gainsborough itself was flagging, and Diana wanted to help revive it. So she bought a building on the town square and fixed it up.

[Diana]

Just started talking to people about what did they wish they had.

[Maribeh Knight]

They wanted a dress shop. So she opened a dress shop. And this is how she and Barry met.

[Barry Naff]

I had a metal fab shop. I just had my parking lot redone, and she drops a bucket of paint in my parking lot.

[Diana]

I was bringing it to him because it was the paint I wanted him to use to paint the side.

[Maribeh Knight]

The sign for her new dress shop. She'd hired Barry to make it.

[Barry Naff]

I got a big brown spot in my parking lot. So that's how we met.

[Maribeh Knight]

Now, years later, the two sat next to each other at their dining table in their dream house, facing a massive wall of windows that frame the rolling hills, sunrise to sunset.

[Diana]

If he never had to leave this property, he'd be fine.

[Maribeh Knight]

But now their peace had been punctured.

[Andrew Isker]

This country belongs to Jesus.

[Maribeh Knight]

By Ridgerunner and the men who came along with it. The podcaster Andrew Isker.

[Andrew Isker]

Do you unequivocally renounce anti Semitism, racism, and Nazism?

[Maribeh Knight]

I don't get down into the weeds of playing those games. His co host, CJ Engel. I don't unequivocally pronounce these things. No, I don't. Punctured by Andrew Isker's talk of hate.

[Andrew Isker]

How do I impart that to my children. The same ethos, I'm like, well, I have to teach them what to hate.

[Maribeh Knight]

By C.J. engels Talk of slavery. The existence of slavery itself is not a sin. Now, mistreating a slave, that would be sinful. Their views on women, God made men to rule, period. And Jewish people, Jews in the biblical

[Andrew Isker]

sense, they do not exist anymore.

[Maribeh Knight]

It's only Christians and non Christians and gay people.

[Andrew Isker]

The poor homosexuals are being oppressed and everyone's being mean to them. And so we need to be okay with gay marriage.

[Maribeh Knight]

Diana, like many others, had never expected Gainsborough to attract newcomers like these.

[Diana]

So many people were working so hard to help this community and build up this community. I just couldn't stand to see it.

[Maribeh Knight]

So the day after the TV report had broken the news, Diana decided to speak up. She went to the Bull and Thistle, the restaurant she'd opened a while back. And on the chalkboard outside, instead of the daily specials, she wrote a message.

[Diana]

It just said, dad, if you're a person or a group that promotes the oppression, discrimination against others, please eat somewhere else and you won't like it here.

[Barry Naff]

May it work.

[Maribeh Knight]

They never saw anyone from Ridge Runner step foot in the restaurant again. But even if Barry and Diana didn't see them at the restaurant, ridgerunner was already starting to take up a lot of space in their life. Literally, it had purchased hundreds of acres on either side of their property in the hills for its, quote, aligned community. Barry was consumed by anger.

[Barry Naff]

I just, I just, I. It just made my blood boil.

[Maribeh Knight]

Poor Barry. Diana is the yin to Barry's yang. She's cool headed.

[Diana]

You know, you should never take anything on face value, right?

[Maribeh Knight]

So she decided to take a beat, step back, and start at the beginning.

[Diana]

So myself, a number of other folks were like, well, could this be? Could this be the whole story? And then the next question was, how bad is it really?

[Barry Naff]

She was determined to see what they were about.

[Maribeh Knight]

Who exactly were these guys and what did they really want? So Diana readied her laptop and went looking.

[Diana]

What do they do? Are they writing? Are they interviewing? Do they have books?

[Maribeh Knight]

Yes, yes and yes. Substacks, books, articles, and podcasts. So many podcasts.

[Diana]

And then I'd follow the affiliations. It was like going through these tunnels that were all underground. You really kind of had to dig and follow things because you have to know. You have to really know.

[Maribeh Knight]

And what Diana found was more than she ever expected.

[Diana]

It was so much deeper and wider and bigger than just Gainsborough. This is a very widespread movement. It Runs very deep, and it runs very high.

[Maribeh Knight]

The podcasters were among the first arrivals to town that Diana knew of, and they'd talked excitedly about the prospects of their new life in Gainsborough.

[Andrew Isker]

Like, I mean, many of my friends online. Right. Well, we want to have that in real life where instead of laughing at each other's jokes in a group chat. Right. We want to be able to laugh at each other's jokes on our front porches.

[Maribeh Knight]

Listening to them. It sure sounded to Diana like they'd been recruited.

[Andrew Isker]

The ability of Ridge Runner to make that kind of thing happen, where now you could be with all of your friends in real life and do life together.

[Diana]

Have, you know, I understood that Josh Abatoy brought them to our place, brought them to Jackson County.

[Maribeh Knight]

Josh Abatoy, the CEO of ridgerunner. Diana had heard Abatoy talking on a couple of podcasts about zeroing in on Gainsborough as the perfect place for his, quote, people.

[Diana]

He was bringing some really exciting people. You know, some really cool people are

[Josh Abatoy]

coming, and we've got some really cool people lined up who are going to be joining the project, moving there. The whole point of it is, is to plant a flag.

[Diana]

He's talking about Iskeren Angle, the podcasters,

[Maribeh Knight]

who Abattoy refers to as his customers.

[Josh Abatoy]

This small town is where, you know, our people are gathering.

[Maribeh Knight]

But why her small town? It was the question Diana and so many others had been asking. Turns out, as Diana discovered, Josh Abatoy already knew the area. He'd grown up about 30 miles west of Gainsborough. He'd left to go to college, then grad school for medieval history and Harvard for law. He worked as a corporate lawyer in Texas. But by his mid-30s, he was ready for a change, and he moved back to Tennessee with his wife and young children. When we asked Abatoy for an interview, he declined. Occasionally, Diana had seen him around town, walking the square, or once at the Dollar General.

[Diana]

He was there in his hunting vest and his boots, and he had his, you know, the full regalia on. And I thought about that. You know, he's playing a part. He's filling a role. He's got a goal. So I really wanted to understand his connections. And what was his end goal?

[Josh Abatoy]

We need cities on a shining hill that exemplify and embody the healthy, natural, human way of life, the Christian way of life, and demonstrate the superiority of that way of life.

[Maribeh Knight]

This was a theme of his. Diana came across often his desire to build a life away from chaotic, unchristian urban communities. Abattoy says he's not a Christian nationalist, but talks often about reviving America with conservative, economically vibrant Christian towns. Charter communities, he calls them. He envisions a rural and red revolution of conservative religious people moving to the countryside. Gainsborough, he hoped, would be one such place.

[Josh Abatoy]

It's not a crazy place like a lot of urban areas are. You're not going to go there and see rainbow flags all over the place. But it's also pretty low crime.

[Maribeh Knight]

It also had plenty of land.

[Josh Abatoy]

Who's going to grab the land? Is it going to be, you know, good based people who want to build something?

[Diana]

And he was excited, excited about.

[Josh Abatoy]

Or is it going to be, you know, Bill Gates and Blackrock and, you know, hippies from California?

[Maribeh Knight]

Occasionally, Abatoy would drop a detail here and there about the Gainsborough project's progress.

[Josh Abatoy]

We have a lot more purchases under contract right now. So as of Today, there are 40 households in the Target region who have bought or moved there as a result of our efforts.

[Barry Naff]

You know, they're spending money, you know, fixing the road, running electricity.

[Maribeh Knight]

Barry had seen the landscape near his property change, dirt roads where there hadn't been any markers for new lots. But otherwise, he and Diana still weren't really sure what they'd be living next to. So they continued keeping close watch for any clues from their future neighbors. One came soon. The invitations went out via email. Elegant, slightly mysterious. A drawing of an eight point buck with the words Land Liberty Legacy, Ridge Runner's logo. And below, a dropped pin revealing a location. Ridgerunner was hosting its first official open house. Except there weren't any houses yet and it wasn't really open. Prospective buyers only. No media. The invitation said so clearly. However, someone in town had gotten on Ridgerunner's email list by posing as a prospective buyer. I just entered a name and an email address and of course, I used a male's name. It worked. And when the invite arrived, she quickly passed it around. Locals, Diana and Barry among them, were now able to see what Ridgerunner had planned. It was called the Highland Rim Project. On the invite, there was a map showing a village with a community center, farmland and a farm store. They called it an agrihood. Potential buyers were encouraged to sign up for a 30 minute tour of available plots.

[Josh Abatoy]

We have a lot of customers like this who have lived most of their life in the cities or suburbs, and they dream of a healthier, more natural way of life. Maybe they have a small little hobby farm so when they're not working for Google or some other major employer, they can step outside and touch grass and milk a cow.

[Maribeh Knight]

And for some time away from the wives and kids.

[Josh Abatoy]

One of the really exciting things that we're going to be announcing is called the Highland Rim Sporting Club. It's a men only club cultivating together excellence and virtue and where they can, you know, socialize with other interesting friends and hopefully shoot some deer as well.

[Maribeh Knight]

This was Abattoy's vision for life in the healthy, natural, Christian superior. There were 44 plots going from $50,000 to $150,000. The prices were staggeringly high by Gainsborough standards. When locals looked more closely at the map, they also noticed something else. Right in the center, the very heart of the community, was a church. A church, it turns out, that would be led by someone they were already familiar with.

[Andrew Isker]

This country belongs to Jesus.

[Maribeh Knight]

Andrew Isker, the Christian nationalist podcaster. That's what the Gospel is, who is also a preacher.

[Andrew Isker]

Jesus has conquered. He is king. He has a kingdom. The kingdom is here and he is invited.

[Maribeh Knight]

More after the break.

[Carol Massar]

This is the Bloomberg Tech Minute, brought to you by ChatGPT. Now with ChatGPT work, I'm Carol Massar. DoorDash, the largest food delivery company in the U.S. is building its own delivery drones and has gained the necessary FAA approvals to operate them commercially. The latest in its effort to delegate more orders to robots as a way of cutting delivery times, Bloomberg's Natalie Leung reports. The company says it has been conducting pilot programs with various restaurants, some of which have seen their order volume grow during the test period. The effort marks an expansion of DoorDash's in house robotics efforts to reduce reliance on human couriers for some orders, as their wages constitute a key expense to the business. Drones are also a way for DoorDash to cut delivery times on orders from more remote locations that some dashers may not want. That's the Bloomberg Tech Minute brought to you by ChatGPT. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get [e-mail] today by selecting work mode available on plus and Pro plans.

[Optum Advertiser]

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[Diana]

the

[Maribeh Knight]

open house was late June, just a few months after Tucker Carlson had helped promote Ridge Runner on his show. The day did not go as planned. It was particularly hot and muggy. A big storm was rolling in. The invite to the open house had provided very specific driving instructions to the Ridgerunner property. It directed guests to take Highway 56, a route that would take them right past downtown Gainsborough and offer them a glimpse of what makes it special. They'd pass rolling hills and vibrant local businesses like Nana's Place and Helen's Restaurant, home to legendary Banana Pudding. Then, as guests approached town, the first inkling that all was not well in Gainsborough. A big, solitary billboard welcoming drivers to town. But a welcome with a warning here, nasty notions play no part. Then, after entering downtown, if guests turned down Main street, they'd see Gainsborough's patriotism on full display.

[Diana]

A little festival on the square. It's fantastic. Happened to be the same day as that open house.

[Maribeh Knight]

It was the annual Fourth of July celebration, which the town celebrates at the end of June. American flags fluttered. Locals chatted in the town square. But this year, there was something new right in the middle of it all. A tent with a sign. Christian Nationalism in Jackson County.

[Diana]

I said, do you mind if we put up a tent? And I have these information sheets that we can give out to people if they're interested.

[Maribeh Knight]

Barry and Diana had printed out dozens of fact sheets she'd compiled from her months of research. And what did it say?

[Diana]

Well, it was eight pages long.

[Barry Naff]

Most people saw us and they know us, so they just came over saying, what are y' all doing? You know?

[Maribeh Knight]

As folks ambled by, they could grab Diana's packet, which contained direct quotes, footnotes, citations, and biographical details of Josh Abattoy, the podcasters Ridgerunner. Once Ridgerunner's guests were passed downtown, they'd get back on the highway, drive another eight miles over a bridge with stunning views to the last stretch of road before the meeting spot. It was lined with trees, but also

[Mark Dudney]

small signs on the telephone poles.

[Maribeh Knight]

That's Mark Dudney, the historian. Every sign had the familiar Hate has no home in Gainsborough. While Ridgerunner had been preparing for its first big event, so had some of the locals. In the middle of the night, they'd hung dozens of those signs. And at the entrance to the Ridgerunner property, there was a huge banner stuck into the grass like the finish line at a race. Haight has no home in Jackson County.

[Mark Dudney]

Put up by concerned citizens, who also

[Maribeh Knight]

happened to be Mark's friends. Eventually, one of the podcasters drove out and blocked the banner with his truck.

[Mark Dudney]

I guess they didn't want that to be seen by their prospective buyers. And some of my friends went back and moved it. It's like a high school thing or something.

[Maribeh Knight]

Yes, somebody's told you about what I'd done. Mark's friend grabbed the banner and just set it up across the street so they'd have to see it when they turned in. And one more detail about the day.

[Mark Dudney]

Coincidentally, there were two fugitives on the run and the police were over there chasing them. Yeah, and that Saturday was when they got caught.

[Maribeh Knight]

The day of the open house. Turns out two people had escaped from a nearby jail and fled into the woods. The woods next to Ridgerunner's property. There were police cars flashing lights, and in the middle of the open house, officers apprehended the fugitives. A shirtless man and a pantsless woman.

[Mark Dudney]

So again, it was really hot and humid that day. You had Hate has no home signs, and then you had the two mud covered fugitives on the run out there with the law enforcement presence on that Very run in that community. So I don't know how that went for them.

[Maribeh Knight]

Mark and the others never found out for sure if the open house was a success for Ridgerunner or if their efforts had managed to turn off any buyers. Regardless, Diana and Barry could see that Ridgerunner kept hard at work clearing and prepping land. And they kept promoting. Ridgerunner rented a billboard of their own, right on the other side of the nasty notions one, the one on the way into town. Ridge runners said, God bless Jackson County. We're proud to call it home. For Diana and Barry, it was yet another provocation. Ridgerunner was staking its claim to the land.

[Diana]

They have the right to live however they want to live and believe how they want to believe, but they cannot brand us.

[Maribeh Knight]

Then Diana got a tip. Ridgerunner's lease on the billboard would be up in six months. So she swooped in before Ridge Runner could renew. Booked it for a whole year. $10,000 paid for by a generous neighbor. Meanwhile, Barry did his own thing. He got into his truck and drove across the state line, went to the

[Barry Naff]

courthouse and talked to them about, you know, Abattoy and the property that he bought.

[Maribeh Knight]

Records confirmed Ridgerunner had also scooped up land in Kentucky. 550 acres, close enough to Gainsborough that it could someday come together into one huge community. One big Highland rim project.

[Diana]

I mean, the whole landscape's gonna change, y'.

[Optum Advertiser]

All.

[Maribeh Knight]

For Barry and Diana, the scale of what Ridgerunner was doing and what Gainsborough was caught up in was coming into focus.

[Diana]

They're pouring money into this.

[Maribeh Knight]

It seems so much larger than Diana suspected, especially after she heard Josh Abattoy talk about the venture, comparing it to. To the New World.

[Josh Abatoy]

I mean, this is what the Pilgrims did, you know, getting persecuted in England. And so they ended up taking this swing where, you know, it was this partnership of pastors and community leaders and financiers who funded, like the Mayflower to go found the Plymouth Colony.

[Maribeh Knight]

Pilgrims, colonies, pastors, financiers. If this was the comparison, who was Ridgerunner's financier? Who had enough wealth and ambition to back this whole endeavor? More after the break.

[Carol Massar]

This is the Bloomberg Tech Minute, brought to you by ChatGPT. Now with ChatGPT work, I'm Carol Massar. Doordash, the largest food delivery company in the US is building its own delivery drones and has gained the necessary FAA approval approvals to operate them commercially. The latest in its effort to delegate more orders to robots as a way of cutting delivery times. Bloomberg's Natalie Leung reports. The company says it has been conducting pilot programs with various restaurants, some of which have seen their order volume grow during the test period. The effort marks an expansion of DoorDash's in house robotics efforts to reduce reliance on human couriers for some orders, as their wages constitute a key expense to the business. Drones are also a way for DoorDash to cut delivery times on orders from more remote locations that some dashers may not want. That's the Bloomberg Tech Minute brought to you by ChatGPT. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get [e-mail] today by selecting work mode available on plus and Pro plans.

[Optum Advertiser]

Let's talk about healthcare for a second. It doesn't always work the way people expect it to. If you've ever waited on a prescription refill or had a hard time getting the care you needed, you know the feeling the system should just work better for everyone. That's exactly what the people at Optum are trying to do every day. They're a healthcare company linking patient care and pharmacy services and using data and technology to drive the whole system so care is connected, not complicated for patients and providers. Things like making it easier to get care that looks at the whole person, from primary care doctors to mental health support and even in home care. And then using technology to make sure they all work together. Technology designed to help doctors spend less time on busy work and more time with their patients and those prescriptions. Optum is working to bring costs down, save patients money and make it easier to get refills. Little by little, Optum is helping make healthcare work as one for everyone. Head to business.optum.com to see how it's

[4imprint Advertiser]

time to plan ahead and make sure your brand is showing up in ways that can have an impact. That's where 4imprint comes in. 4imprint have promotional products that work as hard as you do, durable, useful and designed to make a lasting impression. Think quality apparel your team will wear again and again, including popular and exclusive brands. Drinkware that's enjoyed again and again, bags, notebooks, tools and tech items that don't just look good but actually get used with thousands of customizable options, 4imprint makes it easy to find what fits your brand and your budget. You'll get expert help, free samples and their 360 degree guarantee means you can be four imprint certain your order shows up just right right on time. Whether you're gearing up for fall events or simply planning ahead for the season, 4imprint can help your brand show up, stay useful and make connections that Last, Explore the possibilities at 4imprint.com 4imprint for certain

[Maribeh Knight]

to find the financier. Diana, of course, followed the money behind Abatoi and Ridgerunner, and that led her right to the source Ridge Runner, Josh Abattoy.

[Diana]

Then from there, that takes you to New Founding.

[Maribeh Knight]

Remember New Founding?

[Local Resident]

We are forging an alliance to revitalize American civilization, bringing builders, creators and concerned citizens together.

[Maribeh Knight]

That other company Brian Allen had come across while trying to metal detect it

[Diana]

is a venture capital firm.

[Maribeh Knight]

It's also Ridgerunner's partner in the Highland Rim project. New Founding's website is striking. Images of cowboys, the Great Plains, a gothic cathedral, astronauts. The company aimed to solve, quote, critical civilizational problems.

[Diana]

If you follow New Founding and that takes you to Nate Fisher.

[Maribeh Knight]

Who is Nate Fisher?

[Diana]

Okay, good old Nate. I can tell you all about Nate.

[Maribeh Knight]

Diana clicked around, opening some documents on her laptop. Nate Fisher is the head of New Founding, the man at the top of all of this, who Diana found also goes on a lot of podcasts to

[Nate Fisher]

build that city on the hill or set an example or come together in ventures that can actually shape the country.

[Maribeh Knight]

He's someone with grand plans and wide scale personal agendas. Yes, wide scale agendas. Fisher didn't respond to our requests for comment. Fisher is in his early 40s and lives in Dallas. He's got a real Alex P. Keaton vibe. Sweater vests, an aggressive side part. He speaks almost robotically. Fisher, like Josh Abattoy, graduated from Harvard Law School. After graduation, Fisher made millions buying and selling distressed homes in Florida in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

[Nate Fisher]

Business was good, investing was good, but I started thinking about, sort of drawn back to the political questions.

[Maribeh Knight]

Then he traveled the world studying societies in flux. He returned to an America that he believed was in distress, that needed Christian leaders and Christian ideas to help restore it. You are a Christian?

[Nate Fisher]

I am.

[Maribeh Knight]

This is Fisher on a podcast called the Fallen State. And why are you a Christian?

[Nate Fisher]

So I believe that it means I was chosen by God. My broader mission is to fulfill that. Genesis 1 Dominion Mandate. Fill the earth and subdue it. Take dominion.

[Maribeh Knight]

Dominion. You hear that word a lot in these circles. Dominion is the belief that Christians are called to have absolute authority over society, over the world. It's an essential idea behind Christian nationalism.

[Nate Fisher]

What excites me most about the discussions around Christian nationalism, for instance, is that is really a proposes a true alternative, positive vision for where we need to go.

[Maribeh Knight]

For Fisher, there's a clear path to dominion, a path that begins at home.

[Nate Fisher]

That's achieved through having kids Having a family.

[Maribeh Knight]

Fisher has five children and he says a strict family order.

[Barry Naff]

And does your wife obey you?

[Nate Fisher]

Yes. What I mean, you asked the question. Yes, she does.

[Barry Naff]

When you say she obeys you, what does that mean to you?

[Nate Fisher]

It means that she recognizes my leadership in the family. I am the. I'm the ultimate leader and I'm the ultimate decision maker, subject to God.

[Maribeh Knight]

There are other steps to achieving dominion success in business.

[Nate Fisher]

And I would say for me now it's a step beyond that.

[Maribeh Knight]

Fisher imagined an array of businesses, businesses that could build and sustain a future Christian society. That Diana came to understand was why Fisher had created New Founding to fund and foster that ecosystem of companies.

[Nate Fisher]

I've put millions of dollars into it. I've built networks, I've built teams. I built other things.

[Diana]

Even though the industries might differ, they're still following businesses and investing in businesses that are in line with that ideology.

[Maribeh Knight]

The venture capital firm's investments are far ranging. Laser weapons, private security drones, ammunition, AI systems, education software, even snacks with no seed oil. Diana learned there was one final part to Fisher's vision for a Christian led world. This new society, or civilization as he often refers to it. It will only rise up after our existing institutions collapse. Fisher said that's already begun.

[Nate Fisher]

Many people are pessimistic. They see disturbing cultural changes, no clear path to change these widely collapsing trust in society.

[Maribeh Knight]

In a letter laying out his strategy, Fisher wrote that the coming years will bring, quote, turmoil and peril, but also great opportunity. We are, quote, at the end of a civilizational cycle.

[Diana]

I took that to mean that the old order, everything from how authority and law is established and enforced was all coming to an end.

[Maribeh Knight]

Part of being ready for the end of the civilizational cycle is building communities of Christendom places to amass power and to seek shelter from, from all the turmoil and peril that's to come.

[Diana]

They have talked about how they intend to start with one state in the Union and establish that as the state for that ideology and then branch out from there over time. But they will start with one state and they have chosen Tennessee as that state.

[Maribeh Knight]

Diana started looking into Fisher's investors and connections.

[Diana]

The people backing these developments are very wealthy. They're pouring money into this and they have a lot more to pour.

[Maribeh Knight]

Who Fisher has brought in to help back the Highland Rim project is hard to know exactly. But his network of conservative power and money is vast. The DeVos family and the Heritage Foundation, a crypto investor interested in Christian causes and a Silicon Valley billionaire, Marc Andreessen, whose venture firm is now the Republicans biggest donor. When we reached out to them all for comment, we heard back from the crypto investor, Nick Carter. He said he liked New Founding's unabashed focus on America. No one else responded.

[Diana]

So what does that mean for us? It makes it scary to stand in opposition to the ideology.

[Maribeh Knight]

An ideology New Founding was strategically spreading through its own media. It had podcasts, of course, and a journal called the American Reformer. It was founded to, quote, promote a vigorous Christian approach to the cultural challenges of our day. It's run by RidgeRunner CEO Josh Abatoy, and it too has some powerful connections. A director at American Reformer is Chris Buzkirk, a close ally of Vice President J.D. vance. Buzzkirk is also in business with Donald Trump Jr. Buzzkirk didn't respond to our requests for comment. This was a lot for Diana to take in, and the town too, because

[Diana]

they feel like they're not just opposing what's being planned for here. They feel like they're standing in opposition to an entire administration, and that scares them.

[Maribeh Knight]

Here's my reporting partner, Susan.

[Diana]

And what did that make you think

[Carol Massar]

about where Gainsborough fits into that?

[Diana]

You know, our town is small, small taters by most standards, right? But to the people who grew up here, it's everything. It's always been everything. And you know, they've seen good times come and good times go and. And they've seen flourish and they've seen destitution. They've seen it all, but they've never seen anything like this.

[Maribeh Knight]

The residents of Gainsborough seemed outmatched by New Founding and Ridgerunner in every way. Diana and Barry, of course, realized this, but they were tenacious.

[Barry Naff]

She don't mess around. I mean, something comes in her head.

[Diana]

And a lot of people here still read newspaper.

[Maribeh Knight]

In Gainsborough, people like to know the facts about everybody. So Diana wrote a series of articles.

[Diana]

Has Christian nationalism come to Jackson county? In November 2024.

[Maribeh Knight]

She knew the paper's reach was modest, nothing compared to the American Reformer, which Abatoy ran, or to the Federalist, which Abatoy also contributed to. But the newspaper reached her people. She also deployed yet another billboard in town to send a different message, to

[Diana]

make it clear that this isn't who we are.

[Maribeh Knight]

For about $500 a month, she rented a billboard at the entrance of town. A black background with bold white lettering that said, just love everyone. I'll sort them out later. God. But the town square, the heartbeat of Gainsborough, was where Diana decided to carry out her boldest act yet, where she would take Abatoy on directly. There was a building on the square with the only coffee shop in town, and the building's owners were looking to sell.

[Diana]

We knew that Josh Abatoy was talking to the owners about buying it.

[Maribeh Knight]

Diana worried about the coffee shop, which was run by a mom and her daughters, and about Ridgerunner getting a foothold in downtown.

[Diana]

We cared about what happened to them, and then we cared about what happens on the square.

[Maribeh Knight]

So Diana and Barry rushed and made their own offer, $420,000, which was more than the asking price. The building was hers. Then Diana stumbled upon someplace else, thousands of miles away from Gainsborough, a glimpse into one possible future for her little town. What she saw shook her, but she thought it might also hold some answers. Next on Our Town Chapter 3 Wanted Young Men to rebuild Western civilization. Takeover sounds militaristic. Exhaustion guaranteed.

[Mark Dudney]

I would just say organic growth conflict.

[Optum Advertiser]

We didn't take them seriously in the beginning.

[Maribeh Knight]

Guaranteed Back then, too. It was such a fringe. Yeah, he was a joke.

[Interviewer]

Are you afraid of anything?

[Maribeh Knight]

I'm afraid of me.

[Diana]

It certainly gives you a prescient vision of what this could become.

[Maribeh Knight]

Our Town is written and reported by me, Mera Benight and Susan Burfield. Rebecca Lacks is our senior producer. Ken Armstrong edited the show with additional editing from Rebecca Lacks, original score and sound design by Alex Sugira fact checking by Annika Robbins additional production and editorial support from Julia Weaver, David Fox and Laura Newcomb. Special thanks to Bloomberg's Alana Susnow, Bob Blau, Kristen Powers, Anthony Mancini, the Big Take podcast team, and Will Pearson. At iHeart Podcasts, our executive producer is Nicole Beemsterboer.

[The Hartford Advertiser]

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[4imprint Advertiser]

It's time to plan ahead and make sure your brand is showing up in ways that can have an impact. 4imprint's promotional products are designed to work as hard as you do and make a lasting impression. From quality apparel, including exclusive brands, to drinkwear, tech and totes, they've got thousands of options to fit your brand and budget. Plus you get free samples, expert help, and their 360 degree guarantee. So you can be four imprint certain everything shows up just right, right on time. Explore more at 4imprint.com 4imprint for certain

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