Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

When New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof returned to his hometown of Yamhill, Oregon, the portrait of life in rural America was grim. In a new book, written alongside Sheryl WuDunn, the team of the bestselling Half the Sky tells a story of how a once prospering blue-collar town was devastated by the loss of well-paying union jobs. Moving beyond this one part of the country, and showing a similar trend representative of places ranging from the Dakotas and Oklahoma to New York and Virginia, Tightrope illustrates deeply poignant portrayals of real Americans and investigates how decades of policy mistakes on issues like education, health care, and criminal justice effect far more than unemployment. Kristof and Wu Dunn—the first husband and wife to share a Pulitzer Prize for journalism—will take the stage to discuss new ways to end the crisis in working-class America.