# Margaret E. Farrar and Adam Kaul, "Becoming Utopia: History, Heritage, and Sustainability in the American Midwest" (U Nebraska Press, 2026) Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/margaret-e-farrar-and-adam-kaul-becoming-utopia-history-heritage-and-sustainability-in-the-american-midwest-u-nebraska-press-2026 Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/margaret-e-farrar-and-adam-kaul-becoming-utopia-history-heritage-and-sustainability-in-the-american-midwest-u-nebraska-press-2026.md Podcast: [New Books in Anthropology](https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-anthropology-901932) Published: 2026-08-10T08:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK5663916356.mp3 Audio file: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK5663916356.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/episodes/margaret-e-farrar-and-adam-kaul-becoming-utopia-history-heritage-and-sustainability-in-the-american-midwest-u-nebraska-press-2026 Duration seconds: 2210 ## Resource Becoming Utopia: History, Heritage, and Sustainability in the American Midwest (U Nebraska Press, 2026) centers on the tiny community of Bishop Hill, Illinois, whose marketing materials call it “Utopia on the Prairie,” home to a radical communal religious sect that emigrated from Sweden in the 1840s. Through rich textual and ethnographic analyses, Dr. Margaret E. Farrar and Dr. Adam Kaul tell the story of what happens when a small, historically significant Midwestern community negotiates the contradictory impulses of twenty-first-century place-making. At first glance, Bishop Hill is simply a small heritage tourism destination in Midwestern flyover country, but further inspection reveals it to be a complex place that mixes a deep nostalgia for the past undercut by complex origin stories of displacement and colonialism, an active historic preservation movement amid futuristic green energy technologies built by multinational corporations, and a commitment to localism in the context of omnipresent globalization. Based on fifteen years of fieldwork, Becoming Utopia is an interdisciplinary contribution to conversations about the importance and meaning of place-making, heritage-making, and sustainability (social, economic, and environmental) in the twenty-first century. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/episodes/margaret-e-farrar-and-adam-kaul-becoming-utopia-history-heritage-and-sustainability-in-the-american-midwest-u-nebraska-press-2026/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/margaret-e-farrar-and-adam-kaul-becoming-utopia-history-heritage-and-sustainability-in-the-american-midwest-u-nebraska-press-2026.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.