In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies.

Our guest today, Beth Macy, is an award-winning reporter, author, and chronicler of

Working Class America, much of her work focusing on the Appalachian region.

Her first book was about a Virginia furniture factory owner determined to resist Chinese competition.

She followed with two books on the opioid crisis and grassroots efforts to fight it.

Her latest book continues her focus on working people in rural America, but this time through the lens of a personal

memoir. Macy grew up in the town of Urbana, Ohio, where she says she was one of the poorest

kids in her class and felt it. She writes that her childhood had its share of chaos, addiction,

and utility cutoff notices, but that she managed to escape poverty and forge a career in

journalism because she got to college and completed a four-year degree.

Her book is a deeply reported look at the Urbana she left, where the factory jobs have

largely disappeared, creating economic pressures that lead to family dysfunction, while social supports

and educational opportunities have eroded.

She found it hard to communicate with family members and old friends who've embraced

conspiratorial thinking.

The more time she spent in her hometown, Macy writes, the more she recognized forces that were

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