The Hillbilly Known as The Trump Whisperer: Book Insight on Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance

*Working-class white America and the rest of the country inhabit “two separate worlds”, according to JD Vance. 

*Most groups in America are intent on giving the best to their kids so they can succeed. Parents from Vance’s Appalachia ‘hillbilly’ culture don’t even seem to know where to start. 

*Thrift, hard work, ambition, the pursuit of knowledge are alien to them, so it’s little surprise that their children don't succeed. 

*As long as this continues, underachievement and social problems including drug addiction, violence, and widespread poverty will remain. 

*This gripping memoir became a bestseller in 2016 after Donald Trump's presidential victory. 

*For liberals, it helped explain why millions of "forgotten Americans," suspicious of city elites, voted the way they did.

Note: This Book Insight contains explicit language and mature themes.

Theme 1: What is a Hillbilly? - 0:27

Theme 2: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Instability in the Home - 9:54

Theme 3: Pessimism and the Role of Expectations - 19:53

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HEAR THE FULL INTERVIEWS MENTIONED IN TODAYS' EPISODE HERE:

"'Hillbilly Elegy' Recalls A Childhood Where Poverty Was 'The Family Tradition'". Npr.Org, 2019, https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=490328484. 

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Full Title: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

Year of Publication: 2016

Book Author: J.D. Vance

To purchase the complete edition of this book click here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JR1KJBC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Book Insight Writer: Gabriel Mara
Editor: Tom Butler-Bowdon
Producer: Gabriel Mara
Production Manager: Karin Richey
Curator: Tom Butler-Bowdon
Narrator: Laura Faye Smith