Thank you.

Helena Andrews, dire welcome to deconstructed.

Yes, thank you for having me, Graham.

You got it.

And so our listeners know Helena and I go way, way back.

We were cubicle neighbors back in 2006, 2007 when we were both at Politico before she went

on to the Washington Post and I went on to do other things.

Then we were also neighbor neighbors in the neighborhood that you write about.

And in your new book, which we're here to talk about, which is called the Mamas, what

I learned about kids, class, and race from moms, not like me.

And so this is not as people who listen to this show.

No, this is not a parenting show.

But this to me isn't really a parenting book fundamentally.

I think the parents who listen to this show will like it and they'll find it useful.

But it's something much bigger than that.

I mean, like so on this show, we talk a lot about the future of the Democratic Party,

the Democratic Coalition and it's often described lately as kind of a coalition of black voters

and college educated white voters or people of color and college educated white voters.

But the party's also losing some significant vote share among voters of color without a college

degree.

And so while all of this is realigning itself, I think your book is really about what

it's like to live as a middle class black woman among mostly white college educated liberals.

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