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And then there's "Are You Cool Enough To Drink Switchel?" In this case, what really got our attention was the photo of a hipster with bedroom eyes, with a bottle of "Brooklyn's hottest beverage" pressed to his lips.

We'd laugh, then wonder whether Modern Farmer was a kind agricultural version of The Onion. But it has serious reporting, too. And the photos exude Manhattan style, even the portraits of pigs.

We had so many questions that he decided to call up the magazine's CEO and editor-in-chief, Ann Marie Gardner. We reached her in Hudson, New York, the town that's her home and the magazine's as well.

You can listen to the whole chat via the audio link above.

It turns out that our sense of Modern Farmer is exactly how Gardner conceived of this magazine. It's a cultural mashup, a melding of agrarianism and urban sophistication that's emerged from the millennial zeitgeist.

"If you look at the Brooklyn hipsters, they're dressing like farmers now, have you noticed?" says Gardner.

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Modern Farmer has a particular fondness for stories about anything having to do with goats. Courtesy of Modern Farmer hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Modern Farmer

Modern Farmer has a particular fondness for stories about anything having to do with goats.

Courtesy of Modern Farmer

The magazine's audience remains modest — 16,000 subscribers to the print magazine, and 60,000 followers on Facebook. But, Gardner says, "We can prove now that we have a very engaged demographic" that looks good to advertisers. "The revenues are lining up now, which is a relief."

Modern Farming takes farming seriously, for the most part. But it does not take itself very seriously. "We're making fun of ourselves, in a way, because we don't know anything about farming," says Gardner.

Nor will readers find much moral indignation about the current state of American agriculture. "There's enough moral indignation out there," Gardner says. "That doesn't work on me. It doesn't make me want to know more about something."

Ask her about some of her favorite headlines, though, and Gardner collapses into giggles. Modern Farmer has a particular fondness for stories about crime on the farm, as well as anything having to do with goats. "Goats are kind of the 'cats of Buzzfeed' for us," she says. "They're just always a winner."

The next issue of the magazine, though, could change all that, she says. "Goats could actually be replaced by something cuter. It's possible."

The secret will be revealed, she says, on Dec. 10.

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"The way we are going to control this epidemic is with source control and that's going to happen in West Africa, we hope. In order to do that we need people on the ground in West Africa," says Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, editor-in-chief of the journal.

Speaking to Goats and Soda, he says it doesn't make any sense to "imprison" healthcare workers for three weeks after they've been treating Ebola patients.

The editorial explains his rationale, arguing that healthcare workers who monitor their own temperatures daily would be able to detect the onset of Ebola before they become contagious and thus before they pose any public health threat to their home communities:

"The sensitive blood polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) test for Ebola is often negative on the day when fever or other symptoms begin and only becomes reliably positive 2 to 3 days after symptom onset. This point is supported by the fact that of the nurses caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the man who died from Ebola virus disease in Texas in October, only those who cared for him at the end of his life, when the number of virions he was shedding was likely to be very high, became infected. Notably, Duncan's family members who were living in the same household for days as he was at the start of his illness did not become infected."

Federal guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call for healthcare workers to be quarantined only if they have a known direct exposure to the virus as a result of a needle stick or a breach in their protective suits. Several states, however, are going further and imposing quarantines on any healthcare worker who treated Ebola patients in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone.

The Two-Way

Nurse Criticizes Quarantine After Negative Ebola Test, Hires Lawyer

New Jersey health officials held Kaci Hickox, a nurse with Doctors Without Borders, all weekend in an isolation tent adjacent to the Newark University Hospital. She'd just returned from Sierra Leone where she'd been treating people with Ebola.

The Two-Way

N.J. Says Quarantined Nurse Will Be Discharged, Allowed To Leave

Despite testing negative for Ebola and having no known direct exposure (as described by the CDC), she was detained by New Jersey officials. She's now being sent back to her home state of Maine. Officials there say she'll be under a mandatory home quarantine for 21 days after her last possible exposure to the virus. Twenty-one days is the outer limit of the incubation period of Ebola.

Meanwhile, New Jersey governor Chris Christie stands by his state's quarantine policy and the treatment of Hickox.

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Unofficial results Monday night showed the next mayor of Toronto would be John Tory, who topped fellow Progressive Conservative Doug Ford in a race that was upended earlier this year when Ford's scandal-ridden brother, incumbent mayor Rob Ford, left the race after being diagnosed with cancer.

News

Disgust Or Pity For Crack-Smoking Toronto Mayor?

It's All Politics

How Would Your City Handle A Mayor Like Rob Ford?

The Two-Way

Doctor Says Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Has 'Rare ... Difficult' Cancer

After that announcement, Doug Ford stepped up to run for mayor in his brother's place, while Rob Ford ran for his brother's council seat. He kept that council seat on Monday night, winning 59 percent of the vote for the position his family has held since the ward was created in 2000.

The Toronto Globe and Mail reports:

"I am humbled and honoured by the trust that has been put into me," Mr. Tory told supporters after his opponents had conceded.

"As your new mayor, I will move Toronto not right, not left, but forward ... Torontonians want to see an end to the division that has paralyzed city hall the past few years."

Rob Ford's four years as Toronto's mayor were tumultuous, marked by confrontational politics and increasingly erratic public and private behavior that culminated in his admission that he had smoked crack cocaine. After several more embarrassing public moments, the city council voted to strip him of most of his mayoral powers.

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Mayor Rob Ford, left, kisses his wife, Renata, as his children Doug and Stephanie watch the municipal election results Monday in Toronto. Ford dropped his reelection bid after being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. He appears to have lost hair since then, but on Monday night won the city council seat that his brother Doug vacated to fill Rob Ford's slot in the mayoral race. Mark Blinch/Reuters/Landov hide caption

itoggle caption Mark Blinch/Reuters/Landov

Mayor Rob Ford, left, kisses his wife, Renata, as his children Doug and Stephanie watch the municipal election results Monday in Toronto. Ford dropped his reelection bid after being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. He appears to have lost hair since then, but on Monday night won the city council seat that his brother Doug vacated to fill Rob Ford's slot in the mayoral race.

Mark Blinch/Reuters/Landov

From NPR's Eyder Peralta:

"After a chaotic session that saw Mayor Rob Ford lash out at the public and topple a colleague, the Toronto City Council voted to strip Ford of most of his duties and slashed his budget to 40 percent of what it used to be.

"As the council discussed the legality of the motion on Monday, the body erupted into chaos. At one point, Ford and his brother Doug Ford, a council member, started screaming at the public....

"All of this comes, of course, after Ford admitted to smoking crack and then faced an unrelenting set of allegations, including that he drove drunk, sexually harassed one of his staff members and that he was seen doing lines of cocaine at a bar. As Saturday Night Live made clear in its sketch about the mayor, Ford has not helped his own cause, holding one outrageous news conference after another."

Despite his demotion from mayor to city councilman, Ford suggested his political career would recover, the Globe and Mail reports:

" 'If you know anything about the Ford family, we never, ever, ever give up,' he told his cheering supporters. 'I guarantee, in four more years, you're going to see another example of the Ford family never, ever, ever giving up.'

"Asked after his speech if he planned to run for mayor in 2018, Rob Ford said it was too soon to say."

Toronto mayor

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"If someone you know is sick with sudden fever, diarrhea or vomiting, you should call 117 for advice."

"Healthcare workers who take care of Ebola patients have to wear protective clothes do not be afraid of them."

"People with Ebola who go to the health centre early have a better chance of survival."

In Sierra Leone, cellphone users are as likely to get a text about hand washing as about a social gathering. In an effort to contain Ebola, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has teamed up with local cellphone provider Airtel and the Sierra Leonean government to send health reminders via text message.

Since the Ebola outbreak began last April, the Trilogy Emergency Relief Application (TERA) system has sent out about 2 million text messages a month in Sierra Leone, reminding people to seek treatment early, avoid physical contact with others and not resist the efforts of community health care workers. TERA, a system created by Bolivian software company Salamanca Solutions and set up by the IFRC, can send a text to every phone turned on in a specific region. The texts are delivered free, so there's no financial burden to the recipient.

Texting isn't the only technology being used to combat Ebola. In West Africa, Twitter was abuzz with health tips and reassurance. Social media analytics firm Crimson Hexagon determined that since July, there have been 1.3 million tweets about Ebola coming out of Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the majority of them discussing treatment. For comparison, since September, 41 percent of tweets coming from the U.S. about Ebola discussed fear.

In countries where Internet access is not ubiquitous, cellphones play a vital role in communicating messages directly to a mass audience during health and other crises. Sixty-nine percent of Sierra Leoneans have a cellphone connection, but only 9 percent have a 3G or cellular Internet plan.

"Every mobile phone can do text messaging," says Ken Banks, mobile technologist and founder of kiwanja.net, a project that unites cellular technology with social change. "It doesn't matter if it's the cheapest model or the most expensive."

This isn't the first time TERA has tackled an emergency. The system was piloted in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and was first used in Sierra Leone during a 2013 cholera outbreak.

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Almost 70 percent of Sierra Leoneans have cellphones, where they can receive text messages. This message, used in Haiti, recommends protecting important documents during floods. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies hide caption

itoggle caption International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Almost 70 percent of Sierra Leoneans have cellphones, where they can receive text messages. This message, used in Haiti, recommends protecting important documents during floods.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

The interactivity is appealing. Recipients can text back with basic questions about Ebola and get an automated response with information about treatment options, cleaning tips and medical help. And since the texts are sent to specific areas of the country, the messages, which are drafted by the IFRC and the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Health, can be personalized with regional advice.

Even though the country has low literacy rates — 43 percent for adults — text-based services are effective ways to disseminate information. "In villages where there is low literacy, there might only be a few people with cellphones who can read these messages," says Christine Tokar, West Africa programs manager for the British Red Cross. Tokar says those who can read share the information with the town crier, who would distribute it through town meetings.

The texts are intended to reinforce similar messages delivered via posters, radio and television ads. But a text can be preserved on the phone, shown to a friend and referenced later — say, when Ebola comes to a previously unaffected area.

The Red Cross is hoping to have TERA up and running in 40 countries across the globe in the next five years.

"The challenge is getting countries to put the system in place when there isn't an immediate need," says Robin Burton, mobile operator relations officer for the IFRC.

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The TERA software shows the operator where cellphone towers are, not the individual numbers being messaged. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies hide caption

itoggle caption International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

The TERA software shows the operator where cellphone towers are, not the individual numbers being messaged.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Using the Ebola outbreak as a catalyst, the Red Cross is hoping to expand the program to seven West African countries in the next few months: Benin, Togo, Ghana, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Gambia and Burkina Faso. This will require buy-in from the countries as well as from a phone company, which may be hesitant. While these texts are seen as useful during a health crisis, users might grow weary of regular "preparedness" messages.

The system has been built to appeal to both consumers and cell providers. TERA can only send text messages to phones that are turned on, so networks are not clogged with undelivered messages. In Sierra Leone, the text messages are sent at less busy times for the cell network so the company doesn't need to expand its capacity.

For consumers, there is no violation of privacy. No actual phone numbers are seen by TERA operators. And there's an opt-out feature. That's what some Haitians did when they tired of getting messages to wash their hands regularly.

Long after Ebola has subsided in West Africa, the TERA system will remain in place for times of conflict or natural disasters. It's currently being used in Nepal for earthquake preparedness.

"We hope this will empower people to help themselves," says Burton. "They could send a message back to us saying, 'Thanks for the rice, but we have no way to cook it,' or, 'We don't eat pork here.' We call it beneficial communications because it helps everyone do better."

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Sierra Leone

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