I'm Linda Holmes. This is NPR's Book of the Day. There's a lot of money in politics. That's no secret. There's money in lobbying, in campaigns, in consulting. Some of it disclosed and discussed very openly. Some of it not. But conservative writer Matt Lewis's new book, Filthy, Rich Politicians, is about one specific fact.

He says a lot of members of Congress, more than half, actually, are millionaires.

Lewis talks to NPR Stevenskeep about some of the members he's talking about, where the money comes from, and how a party that presents itself as populist chose Donald Trump as its star.

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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.

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The writer Matt Lewis grew up in a rural area in a modest home.

My dad was actually a prison guard for about 30 years in Hagerstown, Maryland.

I like the joke that he voluntarily went to jail for three decades so that I could get paid to

write about politics. Which Lewis has done for many years now. He once worked for the Daily

Caller, a website run by the right-wing media figure Tucker Carlson.

And he realized that at this populist website, many employees came from elite, privileged backgrounds.

This became obvious when Lewis worked on a story that turned on the details of yachting.

And I just said, hey, does anybody here know anything about yachting or stale boating?

Ten hands go off. And that's what I knew that I was not in Kansas or West Virginia anymore.

Lewis has now written a book on the gap between Washington elites and the people they serve.

It's called filthy, rich politicians.

Everyone has kind of known that politicians tend to be richer than the rest of us, and it's

certainly true when you talk about, like, presidents. But right now we're at a point where

more than 50 percent of the members of Congress are millionaires.

And so it's a similar situation as with the media.

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