BONUS SERIES: Our Town Chapter 2 | This Dangerous Venture of Yours

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

Meribah Knight (0:11)

Previously on Our Town.

SPEAKER_3 (0:13)

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

SPEAKER_4 (0:19)

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

SPEAKER_5 (0:25)

It was like happening and you didn't even realize it was happening.

Nancy Pruitt (0:28)

I just was trying to figure out what I personally, one person could do.

SPEAKER_3 (0:33)

This isn't a fly by not LLC that will be shut down.

Andrew Isker (0:36)

Come move here to be with us.

Barry (0:38)

Over the next few years, we have so much planned.

Andrew Isker (0:40)

Go to ridgerunnerusa.com.

Nancy Pruitt (0:42)

I got a question. Why are you in Jackson County?

Meribah Knight (0:48)

The winter of 2025 was an anxious one in Gainesboro. It had been several months since news broke about the plan to build a quote, aligned community near town. Ridgerunner, the real estate developer behind the project, was buying up so much land that it now controlled more acreage than Gainesboro itself. Locals were uneasy, bracing for what might come next.

Then, on March 31st, 2025

Tucker Carlson (1:19)

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

Meribah Knight (1:23)

I love that.

Tucker Carlson (1:24)

Yeah. Married man with six kids who pays his taxes. You're so controversial.

Meribah Knight (1:27)

Very.

Tucker Carlson (1:27)

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

Meribah Knight (1:34)

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

Andrew Isker (1:40)

You can have the American small-town experience once again.

Meribah Knight (1:44)

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

Tucker Carlson (1:50)

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

Andrew Isker (1:57)

That's what the TV news in Nashville has said.

Meribah Knight (2:02)

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

Andrew Isker (2:14)

It's a real estate venture to build communities. It's large properties, two, three, ten-acre lots into a place where they can have land, where they can have some chickens, maybe a cow, live like Americans used to.

Tucker Carlson (2:31)

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

Andrew Isker (2:34)

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

Diana (2:46)

It just wasn't true.

Meribah Knight (2:48)

Locals had watched the episode.

Mark Dudney (2:50)

Not what I was seeing on the ground.

SPEAKER_5 (2:52)

I was furious.

SPEAKER_3 (2:53)

These people are a problem, not an asset.

Diana (2:56)

I was pretty horrified. This is a national stage.

Nancy Pruitt (2:59)

Isker was so excited. He was like a puppy that found a new bone.

Meribah Knight (3:05)

To Nancy Pruitt, the retired art teacher, it seemed like this was just another workday for Tucker Carlson.

Nancy Pruitt (3:11)

But for Isker, For Isker, it was like I have made it to the top.

Meribah Knight (3:16)

And for Ridge Runner, this was a walking billboard.

Tucker Carlson (3:19)

For people who are interested, what's the name of this again?

Andrew Isker (3:22)

Ridge Runner, the website is ridgerunnerusa.com.

Meribah Knight (3:28)

On YouTube, this episode got almost 800,000 views.

How did Andrew Isker get on Tucker Carlson? This wasn't some local YouTube show.

Tucker Carlson (3:37)

Has someone already bought the land for the big parcels?

Andrew Isker (3:39)

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

Meribah Knight (3:43)

This was news to many in Gainesboro. Ridge Runner seemed to be moving quickly, already prepping lots for sale.

Mark Dudney (3:50)

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

Meribah Knight (3:53)

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

SPEAKER_5 (3:59)

They think that we're a bunch of dumb idiots, but we all have done our own little research.

Mark Dudney (4:03)

I sat there and took notes.

SPEAKER_3 (4:06)

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 your soul leaves your body because you're listening to Isker.

Meribah Knight (4:22)

They were all trying to answer some version of a question that had been left hanging.