Zippers

Avery Trufelman· Host0:01

I wanted to talk about zippers. May I just ask you some quick questions about zippers?

Lydia· Guest0:05

Okay.

Avery Trufelman· Host0:07

Is that a weird thing to ask about?

Lydia· Guest0:09

Well, nobody else really asks about zippers.

Avery Trufelman· Host0:12

(laughs) (laughs) So- so you are Amish, right?

Lydia· Guest0:17

Yes. You see now, there's different types of Amish.

Avery Trufelman· Host0:21

Lydia is Old Order Amish, but then there's also New Order Amish.

Lydia· Guest0:26

New Order Amish, they would have the zippers actually, and we don't.

Avery Trufelman· Host0:30

Why don't you wear zippers?

Lydia· Guest0:32

I guess because years ago th- the older people didn't wear zippers. Too modern, I guess, for us or something.

Avery Trufelman· Host0:40

(laughs) But this is the part that confused me. Even though zippers were too modern, here we were, talking on the phone. Granted, many members of Lydia's community keep their cellphones outside of their home, actually in a box, as though it's an outhouse, and Lydia only has access to a flip phone.

Lydia· Guest0:59

And I do not know how to use a smartphone.

Avery Trufelman· Host1:02

Still, I did not understand how zippers were considered more modern, more of a disruption than talking on the phone.

Lydia· Guest1:09

'Cause I have to have this phone. Uh, actually the phones are more, how should I say? More advanced than what they used to be.

Avery Trufelman· Host1:18

In my ignorance, knowing pretty much nothing about the Amish, I assumed they were wholeheartedly devoting to just being frozen in time, as dedicated to being as simple as