The kind of people who live in places like Jackson, Kentucky often get characterized as poor, white and angry. And worse, as redneck and racist – hillbilly white trash. J.D. Vance knows them well. They’re his people. He grew up in Kentucky coal country and the Ohio rust belt - places he left behind when he went to Yale Law School. Today he practices in Silicon Valley, but he’s just written a book called “Hillbilly Elegy," which should be required reading for this election year. Welcome to Jackson, Kentucky.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Guy Consolmagno is an American planetary researcher and a Jesuit priest. He's the curator of one of the world's great collections of meteorites, at the Vatican Observatory. He gets a lot of questions about how he can be both a priest and a scientist. Luckily, he has a sense of humor about it -- witness a recent appearance on the Colbert Report -- and believes science and religion can work together.
Gerald Clarke tells Steve Paulson that Judy’s mother introduced her to drugs; that she was exploited by the studio system; and that she had an amazing ability to pull herself together.
Henry Raddick is an enthusiastic contributor of reviews to the Amazon.com website. He tells Steve Paulson that he reads all the books he reviews, and only says good things about them.
What's it like to grow up with a mom who's a Freudian therapist? Commentator Erin Clune has a few personal observations.
George Cotkin, author of “Existential America,” says that angst is familiar emotional territory for Americans and explains why Existentialism appealed to people here.
Why do so many people think they hate math? Mathematician Jordan Ellenberg says deep down inside, we all think mathematically. We just don't know it.
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