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This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, December 9, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown. Creating effective policies means understanding people

Kevin Williamson is author of Big White Ghetto dead broke stone cold stupid and high on

rage in the dank woolly wilds of the, quote, real America.

In it he details the lives and challenges of a wide variety of people, but if you're looking

for a magic formula to guide policy, he says you'll be out of luck. We spoke last month.

You begin this book. I cracked it open a couple nights ago in Owsley, County, Kentucky. I tell people that I can tell if somebody's never been to Eastern Kentucky because they make fun of it.

And having spent some time out there, it is a vexing problem in the elusive quest for growth.

I remember the economist Bill Easterly pointed out that some of the most impoverished. In fact, I think 19 of the 20 most impoverished, virtually

all white counties in the United States are in Eastern Kentucky.

And it's just such a vexing problem.

So in your observations there, what did you learn?

I'm not sure I think what's a problem because problems are things that have solutions and this doesn't I think that would be really striking thing about

Alice in Kentucky as opposed to places like say Harlan, you know,

...