Beth Macy

Roanoke author Beth Macy’s ‘Paper Girl’ examines deepening political divides and dwindling options to escape poverty “Paper Girl,” which launches worldwide Tuesday, is the latest from the bestselling author of “Dopesick” and “Factory Man.”

Hoping my copy arrives in today's mail! @bethmacy.bsky.social
Roanoke author Beth Macy’s 'Paper Girl' examines deepening political divides and dwindling options to escape poverty cardinalnews.org/2025/10/07/r...

A new memoir charts the decline and resilience of an Ohio town In her new memoir, author and journalist Beth Macy returns to her hometown of Urbana, Ill., to learn how it changed from a stable working- and middle-class community to a town struggling with poverty.

Thanks to Ailsa Chang at All Things Considered for her interview about my new book about that raw wound that is polarization, a pox on our families, friends and nation. www.npr.org/2025/10/06/n...

A new memoir charts the decline and resilience of an Ohio town In her new memoir, author and journalist Beth Macy returns to her hometown of Urbana, Ill., to learn how it changed from a stable working- and middle-class community to a town struggling with poverty.

Hey, did your family break over MAGA politics? Join the club! And listen to my BFF @bethmacy.bsky.social talk about her new memoir “Paper Girl” and how to mend and (maybe) move forward. www.npr.org/2025/10/06/n...

Opinion | Why Can’t Working-Class Kids Make Their Way Out of Ohio?

Beautiful new Opinion piece from @bethmacy.bsky.social: "I’m no better than Silas, and it’s not fair that he and his siblings continue to face such fierce headwinds without the help I took for granted." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Opinion | Why Can’t Another Working-Class Kid Make Their Way Out of Ohio? Silas’s future seemed bright except for at least one detail. He didn’t have a car.

“I’m not exaggerating when I say it was a miracle that I left Urbana for college in my mom’s rusted Mustang, praying the whole way that its slippy clutch would not give out,” Beth Macy writes. But the world that allowed her to grow beyond her working-class upbringing in Ohio is no longer the same.

Thank you Michael!

Opinion | Why Can’t Working-Class Kids Make Their Way Out of Ohio?

This column today by @bethmacy.bsky.social is 100x better than Hillbilly Elegy and far more compassionate.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

P.S.: Send it to your boomer parents to help them to understand how the world has changed since they "bootstrapped" their way to a better life.

Opinion | What It Takes for a Working-Class Kid to Get a College Education

Here's what it takes for a working-class kid to get a college education. Beth Macy's guest essay in today's @nytimes.com will outrage and then inspire you to action.

@bethmacy.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Cover of Paper Girl by Beth Macy

Put this on the shelf next to Matthew Desmond and Heather McGee. #mmfbooksreviews2025

Agree. It’s already happening, such a waste of human potential.

Exactly. Every bit as smart too. Thanks for the kind words!

Thank you! I admire his resilience so much, but his journey has been so painful—and he’s one of the luckier ones.

I cannot wait to be in convo with the reliably astute and ever-generous @andreapitzer.bsky.social who has helped me so much with all my books! We gotta make a journalism action hero figure in her honor—I mean she needs a cape!

Who couldn’t use a little “compassionate and hopeful” in their lives right now?

Thank you Melissa!

Thank you for this remarkable, dot-connecting review!

This is a long clip, but I want you to see how BIG this New Yorkers Against ICE march was. At least two city blocks of people. You are not alone and we are going to win.

Thanks, Jacob, public health needs more warriors like you!

Ty Cobb: "The simple theme is rewriting history. Trump wants to rewrite history so the next generation may not know that he incited a violent insurrection... America needs to learn from the mistakes that we've had. And one of the biggest mistakes that America ever had was reelecting President Trump"

Libraries are so cool. Whenever I'm away from home and need a place to hang out between things, I find a library. There's a bathroom, a water fountain, chairs, and I can read, meditate, use the computers, or just be, and no one tries me make me buy anything.

“When authoritarianism is on the rise, you can count on the richest, least vulnerable men to be the biggest cowards.”

#Pinks
#ProudBlue

As they have shown us time and time again. 🎯 🎯 🎯

At a locally owned kitchen store the other day, owner said her latest $1,400 order had a $700 tariff added to it. Coffee prices up 26 percent, beef up 14. We can do better than these family-hurting policies!

Happy bday to the best!

Thanks so much, see you Weds!

Excited for this webinar!

The flood. #fascism

YouTube video by Degenerate Art by Andrea Pitzer A Few Bad Men: RFK Jr. Can't Handle the Truth

"Watching the wrecking ball that is RFK Jr. in charge of Health and Human Services in the United States is like watching a slasher film in which the killer wanders the streets in daylight murdering everyone he can, while no one stops him."

Andrea Pitzer on the few bad men dismantling America.

One of these rich dudes invested in a food company with all proceeds going to kids in need. The other started Sundance Institute, boosting the lives of countless artists. Hey modern rich dudes, don't be a typical greedy AI crypto-prick, be like these two.

We don't know what's going to happen so might as well fight for better. That's really my basic political orientation.

Why the U.S. is experiencing heightened political violence Charlie Kirk’s killing comes amid an alarming rise in political violence across the U.S., targeting both Democrats and Republicans. Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for Inte...

“The way I think of it right now is, as a society, we are flicking matches into dry grass and daring them to light.” Professor @jeffsharlet.bsky.social discusses political violence in the U.S. with @pbsnews.org.