War museums display heroes' photographs, but not a single victim's face
Noah Adams observed in Belgrade's military museum: two hours of exhibits from ninth-century bows to World War II tanks, all heroic images, not one photograph of victims—making war itself seem like the normal state of affairs.
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War museums display heroes' photographs but never display victims' faces
When Noah Adams visited Yugoslavia's military museum at Karamagdan Park in Belgrade, fresh from a two-week reporting trip to Serbia, he found himself looking at two hours of exhibits spanning from ninth-century bows to World War II artillery and tanks. What struck him was the absence: only heroic images hung in the gallery; not a single photograph of a victim appeared. Combined with the daily news from the Bosnian War—young people dying, politicians speaking, relief organizations intervening, the cycle repeating—the museum seemed to suggest that war itself was simply the normal state of things.
— Noah AdamsOld men playing chess in the park harbor decades of unspeakable silence
In that same park, Adams watched elderly men playing chess with each other, neat in appearance and gentle with one another. He guessed that among them were men who, fifty years ago, had fought in what was called the ‘人民解放战争’ during World War II. But he acknowledged his own limitation: two weeks in Serbia was not enough to truly understand the Bosnian War. Instead, he turned to an American parallel. If a Serbian came to America, how would you explain that Gettysburg saw 40,000 deaths and Antietam 24,000? And he noticed something else: Serbs who publicly opposed the Bosnian War would, the moment Kosovo's Albanians came up in conversation, show a different look in their eyes altogether.
— Noah AdamsAt age ten, a frightened horse dragged his father to his death
In 1998, during Nebraska's severe drought, Adams interviewed Glenn Osborn, a farmer born in 1919. Osborn recalled the dust storms of the Depression era: chickens would return to their coops in mid-afternoon because the air was full of ash; the sky turned dark as night. But there was heavier loss in his past. His mother died when he was five. At ten, he went with his father to a neighbor's to husk corn. A truck fitted with a canvas cover passed by, and the wind caught the canvas, startling the horses pulling it. His father ran after the horses, while young Glenn ran behind a box. The horses dragged his father to death. Sixty years later, when Osborn recounted this, he said it felt ‘就像昨天早上才发生的’as though it had happened only yesterday morning.
— Glenn OsborneFarm crisis hotlines reopen when drought threatens farmers' mental survival
Drought destroys more than crops. It tears at farmers' mental states. Jim Osborn and his wife Lynn recalled that the farm crisis hotline—set up during the bank failures of the 1980s—was running again. Because many farmers were experiencing acute stress and crisis. Adams pressed: did the USDA really operate a phone crisis line because farmers were considering suicide? The answer was yes. Lynn added that when such moments came, it was usually the farmer's wife who made the call; the farmers themselves preferred not to talk face-to-face with anyone. They would rather go home and sit alone facing a wall in silent anguish.
— Jim Osborne/Lynn OsborneNo customers at the hardware store means the drought is here
Benkelman, population 1,193, depends entirely on the agriculture surrounding it. Erma Johnson, who runs the hardware store, explained that she carries roughly one hundred accounts on credit, and nearly all of them are farmers. You don't need to check the weather forecast; just see if customers walk in the door. If they don't, there's a drought. Pat Rotherman, the town bank's president, gave harder numbers: this year, he estimated that ten to fifteen percent of small farmers wouldn't make it—they would have to sell their land and exit farming. In normal years, that figure should be zero. The bank's approach was to try to keep them, not push them into bankruptcy.
— Pat Rotherman/Irma JohnsonFree barbecue night, and then the rain came that changed everything
On the third night of the county fair, the wind picked up. The American Legion flag they'd just bought whipped tight. Clouds piled high to the north, west, and south. It was Free Barbecue Night: a thousand people stood in line for grilled beef, onions, and potatoes. When thunder rolled, nobody left early—nobody wanted to go, even as the fair had to close ahead of schedule and the concert moved into the high school auditorium. The next morning at breakfast, farmers swapped rain stories. One household had measured one-quarter inch; another two inches. Almost every farm had two rain gauges to cross-check. This single rainfall became the week's only big news in Benkelman—not fit to print in the Denver Post, but the only story that truly mattered to the town.
— Noah AdamsThe researchers themselves won't say their gene edits are safe for cats
In 2001, Adams interviewed David Avner, president of Transgenic Pets, a company developing cats through genetic engineering that wouldn't trigger human allergies. The plan was to disable the gene that makes the protein in cats' sebaceous glands that causes the allergy. Adams asked the obvious question: over the course of evolution, might cats actually need this gene? Avner called it redundant protein, said they'd researched it for ten to fifteen years, and believed it should be fine. But Adams caught a crucial detail: when the same question was put to Jerry Yang, a genetics professor at the University of Connecticut who'd worked on the project, Yang's answer was: ‘我们希望不会’We hope it won't. Adams noted directly that this sounded nothing like confidence.
— Noah Adams/David AvnerHypoallergenic cats would be priced from $750 to $1,000 each
For this technology still in development, Avner provided specific commercial projections and pricing: the company hoped to breed the first hypoallergenic cats by 2003 and, in the early years of mass production, bring the price down to $750 to $1,000 per cat—affordable for ordinary households. He positioned the technology as a paradigm shift in allergy treatment: instead of managing immune responses with antihistamines and weekly desensitization shots, you could simply remove the allergen source itself.
— David AvnerIn their own words · checked verbatim
I'm sitting on a park bench at the edge of history.
Noah Adams1:04
The history of Belgrade, she writes, makes one wonder what the human race has lost by its habit of bleeding itself like a mad medieval surgeon.
Noah Adams2:04
The Military Museum and the Daily News from Bosnia can almost make you think that war is what usually happens. Young men and women and children die. Politicians talk. Relief agencies try to help. And you do notice the museum has no pictures of victims, only heroes.
Noah Adams3:50
You know, my mother died when I was five. My dad got killed when I was ten, so, you know, I... It hasn't been too easy, you know.
Glenn Osborne11:30
USDA, did I read this right, has a telephone counseling number you can call because some farmers have been thinking about suicide?
Noah Adams14:34
There's probably, you know, at least 10 or 15 percent that probably aren't going to survive. They're going to have to sell out.
Pat Rotherman18:42
You know, the reason I ask you that question is that Dr. Jerry Yang at the University of Connecticut, where the research would be done for your company, was asked, will knocking out the gene hurt the animal? And he replied, we hope not. It doesn't sound like he's very sure about it.
Noah Adams22:50
Figures
| 1941 Nazi air raid on Belgrade death toll | 17,000 | 2:04 |
| American Civil War Gettysburg casualties | 40,000 | 4:13 |
| American Civil War Antietam casualties | 24,000 | 4:13 |
| Dundee County average annual rainfall vs. 1998 rainfall | Average 15 inches; 1998 received 7 inches | 9:25 |
| Benkelman, Nebraska population | 1,193 | 17:40 |
| Percentage of small farmers expected to fail that year | 10–15% | 18:42 |
| Hypoallergenic cat target retail price | $750–$1,000 per cat | 23:50 |
| Noah Adams' age at death | 84 | 24:50 |
Glossary
- Transgenic Pets
- A U.S. company using genetic engineering to breed hypoallergenic pets
- Center-pivot sprinkler
- An automated irrigation system that rotates around a central point, covering large circular farm plots
How to listen
Listeners who love old-school radio essays, care about long-form nonfiction craft, and want to hear how war, agricultural crisis, and genetic engineering become stories of specific people.
Ad breaks run from 6:17–7:19 and around 20:46; either can be skipped without affecting the narrative thread connecting the three stories.