J.D. Vance's rise to the GOP ticket has opened up scrutiny into the junior senator's past and roots. Before he entered politics, Vance entered the public spotlight as the author of a best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. While often marketed as an authentic glimpse of Appalachian working class life, what Elegy really offers is a portrait of a man whose roots and life path have been decidedly different from those of Appalachia's working poor. Like the GOP itself, Vance's claims to represent Appalachia's poorest don't hold water. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Beth Howard of Showing Up for Racial Justice and Hy Thurman, a former Young Patriot, discuss the radical history of Appalachia, and how progressives can bring white workers in this region and beyond into a multiracial working class movement for social justice.

Read the transcript of this podcast here. 

Studio Production: David Hebden
Post-Production: Alina Nehlich

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