It's the Brian Lairn Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. I'm Bridget Bergen, in for Brian

today. With us now is the author Sarah Smarsh. You may know her 2018 book, Heartland, a memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the

Richest Country on Earth, which was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Her new book is Bone of the Bone, Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class.

She has her take on what people casually call the working class. And of course, however you define it, the working class. She has her take on what people casually call the working class. And of course,

however you define it, the working class is battleground USA in the presidential race right now. In fact,

Kamala Harris was making a specific pitch to some people who might identify with the term in

her economy speech in Pittsburgh just last week.

Here's a short soundbite from the speech.

You see, for Donald Trump, our economy works best if it works for those who own the big skyscrapers,

not those who actually build them, not those who wire them, not those who mop the floors.

Well, I have a very different vision. I have a very different vision.

I have a very different vision for our economy.

And with that is prelude, we welcome Sarah Smarsh, author now of Bone of the Bone,

Essays on America by a daughter of the working class.

Sarah, thanks for joining us with your new book

and welcome back to WNYC. Hi, Bridget. It's good to be back. And we'll get to some of your takes on

Harris and Trump as you definitely do get political in these essays. But first, let's talk about the

title, Bone of the Bone. You write that you are bone of the bone of them that live in

trailer parks. So can you talk a little bit about what it means for people not yet familiar with

your story or your work? Sure. That is a direct reference you just made to one of my, I guess,

most accessible essays if we're gauging by readership in the collection called Poor Teeth, in which I examined dentistry or access to dental care as a class signifier in our country, not just in health terms, but also social and cultural terms.

...