Swartzentruber Amish — PT2: ”Promoted to Wearer of Jeans”

2026-05-18

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CONTENT WARNING: This episode discusses sexual assault. Not in graphic detail, but please listen accordingly. For 19 years, Lizzie Ens lived in one of the most conservative Amish sects in America: the Swartzentruber Amish. Last week you learned about her upbringing and all facets of living a life off the grid with no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and very little autonomy over her own life. In Part 2, the horse-and-buggy postcard version of Amish life disappears fast. Lizzie takes us inside the bizarre dating ritual called "bundling," and into the darker corners of the...

CONTENT WARNING: This episode discusses sexual assault. Not in graphic detail, but please listen accordingly.

For 19 years, Lizzie Ens lived in one of the most conservative Amish sects in America: the Swartzentruber Amish. Last week you learned about her upbringing and all facets of living a life off the grid with no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and very little autonomy over her own life.

In Part 2, the horse-and-buggy postcard version of Amish life disappears fast.

Lizzie takes us inside the bizarre dating ritual called "bundling," and into the darker corners of the community — sexual assault, shunning, suppression, and the impossible weight of knowing that leaving means leaving everything behind. Including her twin sister.

Eventually, she realizes something terrifying: if she doesn't escape now… she may never escape at all.

What follows is one of the wildest escape stories we've ever covered.

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