Virtual Talk: “The Quiet Zone” with Stephen Kurczy

Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence

The last truly quiet town in America lies deep in the Appalachian Mountains: Green Bank, West Virginia. While astronomers at the Green Bank Observatory use the latest technology to search the depths of the universe, residents live device-free.  No WiFi. No iPads.  There is a ban on anything emanating radio frequencies that might interfere with the Observatory’s telescope.  When journalist Stephen Kurcczy moved in, he shopped at the town’s general store, attended church services, went target shooting with a seven-year-old, square-danced with the locals, and sampled their moonshine. But he soon discovered the Quiet Zone isn’t as idyllic as it seemed. Among the ordinary citizens seeking a simpler way of life, there’s a tech buster patrolling the area for illegal radio waves; “electrosensitives” who claim that WiFi is deadly; a sheriff’s department with a string of unsolved murder cases dating back decades; and a camp of neo-Nazis plotting their resurgence from a nearby mountain hollow.  Contradictions led to questions: Is a less connected life desirable?  Is it even possible? Can the seemingly supernatural and quiet serve as a cover for something darker?

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