Disability Ecologies

In the 1850s, county governments across the Midwest established what were then known as “poor farms.” These were residential institutions for county “dependents” which included those unable to work, for reasons of disability or otherwise. In the 1970s, Johnson County, Iowa supervisors initiated what would become a decades-long attempt to preserve their county poor farm’s historic structures. Their actions encouraged education and reflection of the history of mental health care.

Disability Ecologies digs through the past of poor farm institutions and their vast connections in order to fathom their ongoing significance in our world of today. The now named Johnson County Historic Poor Farm reflects an intentional redesign of both land use and distribution of crops grown. To plan and implement the redesign necessitated an unlikely collection of shared interests, often at times in friction with each other. Join narrator Emerson Cram to explore roughly six years of efforts by restoration ecologists, local farmers and growers, local disability community members, and historic preservation experts, all to transform the former poor farm land into a place designed to meet a broad spectrum of community needs.

Each week, you’ll hear from an eclectic mix of voices that bring together conversations about history and memory; medicine, law, and social services; community planning, design, and disability justice; historical land use; and the process of designing infrastructure for local foods. Whether you’re interested in the history of medicine, agriculture, or social services, or if you’re curious how disability culture and history can shape conversations about food systems and food justice, you’ll be inspired by stories that move beyond the silos of conventional thinking. All told, Disability Ecologies is a story about the possibilities of forgiveness, and what we can create when we can value the capacities that fundamentally make us human.

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Disability Ecologies

Disability Ecologies Trailer

March 16, 2026 • Season 1

0:00 | 2:54

Featuring:

Main Voice(s): Emerson Cram
Special Guests:
- Malik Salsberry, Farm Manager, GROW Johnson County
- Scott Koepke, Garden Bridge Outreach, and co-founder of GROW Johnson County
- Claire Trettin, 2025 Seasonal Farm Apprentice, GROW Johnson County

Transcript
For a full transcript of the trailer, visit: disabilityecologiespodcast.buzzsprout.com

Credits
Episode written and narrated by Emerson Cram, University of Iowa. Recorded with Riverside FM. Sound editing by Nic Arp.

Funding

Research, writing, and production of this project have benefitted from generous support from multiple sources, including: the National Communication Association’s Karl R. Wallace Memorial Award; The University of Iowa’s Office of the Vice President for Research Arts and Humanities Initiative Standard Grant; The University of Iowa Office of the Vice President and Provost Investment in Strategic Priorities; The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts DSHB Humanities Scholar Award; The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Summer Humanities Award.

Special Thanks

With thanks to Maura De Cicco; University of Iowa Departments of Communication Studies, Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies, and American Studies (Especially Angie Looney, Kembrew McLeod, Eric Vázquez, Naomi Greyser, and Hallie Abelman); The Johnson County Local Food & Farm Team (Julie Watkins & Ilsa DeWald), State Historical Society of Iowa (especially Hang Nguyen, Allison Johnson, and Anu Tiwari); Sarah Keen, University Archivist, University of Iowa; V Fixmer-Oraiz, Johnson County Board of Supervisors; Kim Painter, Johnson County Recorder; Rebecca Dewing, Johnson County Historical Society; GROW Johnson County (especially Jason Grimm, Emmaly Renshaw and Malik Salsberry); the 2024 Colby Summer Institute in Environmental Humanities Seminar Participants, (especially Ashton Wesner, Astrida Neimanis, Marisol de la Cadena, Jason Moore, Mat Fournier, Molly MacVeagh, Francesca Martelli, Joe Riley, Rachel Rozanski, Chris Walker); Claire Fox; Teresa Mangum; Jennifer New; Phaedra C. Pezzullo; Constance Gordon; and Jesse Waggoner.

Audience Participation

Do you have a poor farm or county home story to tell? Reach out to our team to learn more about how to share! If you are local to Johnson County, Iowa, you can tour the Historic Poor Farm in multiple ways, see their website for more information, and for information about volunteering with their site partners, GROW Johnson County and the Johnson County Historical Society. You can also support building a resilient local foods infrastructure through a financial donation to Iowa Valley Resource Conservation & Development.
Support the Show: Share this episode with friends and colleagues, and stay tuned for future episodes, dropped weekly between March 30 and until April 27, 2026.
Follow us on Social Media:
- Instagram: @disabilityecologiespodcast

Transcript for Disability Ecologies Trailer

Emerson Cram: “From the beginning what did you know about the history?

Malik Salsberry: “I didn’t know a lot. I’ve known about the concepts of poor farm. I can’t remember, and I feel like I’d have to ask my grandma. She said someone in our family had lived in a poor farm in the past, but from what I had known about poor farms is that usually it’s unfortunately a place where people are abandoned, whether it’s mental health issues, whether it’s actual mental disabilities…”

Scott Koepke: “…when this was called the Poor Farm, still is. And a lot of people don’t like to call it that. I remember there was some debate probably going on, about why are you calling it that? Well, we’re just honoring the history of what it was called. That’s what they called it. This was a farm where disabled people mentally and physically were cruelly put into little prison cells literally that are still on site. We kept the asylum open, thank goodness. But this is a historic site that we have to honor. And then when we teach kids about, look at what we’ve done and where we are now, we’re hopefully learning from our mistakes.

And it’s just important to honor…When you come to this place, you’re literally walking on land that is sacred for me. I don’t use that word lightly. It’s a sacred space for me, not just because of the history, but what the future’s going to hold with the infrastructure that’s been built since I was here 10 years ago.”

[soft piano music transitions into several seconds of an upbeat tempo]

Claire Trettin: “Even between the volunteers that show up or the history of the farm itself, or just working with the Iowa soil, it gives me these new perspectives that are questions I would’ve never known to ask.”

[brief pause while upbeat tempo music continues]

Emerson Cram Narrates: Disability Ecologies. A new podcast about one midwestern community’s efforts to preserve and then repurpose the historic buildings and land once used for a 19th century poor farm. Stories of what can emerge when we face the past and build from unexpected moments of connection. The value of confronting an old story of pathology. Building interdependence in spite of dwindling resources and new challenges, through commitments to forgiveness, and to the cultivation of healing the relations between land and people. All told through the lens of disability history, culture, and community oracles, who teach us, above all: to need is to be alive. Written and narrated by me, Emerson Cram. Learn more at disabilityecologiespodcast.buzzsprout.com.

[upbeat tempo music ends]