257. Evan Osnos and Eric M. Johnson: American Fury, from 9/11 to 1/6

Oct 13, 2021

We are all connected. We are all far apart. This is our American reality as we all become more and more polarized. Inequities of wealth, class, and culture are pulling us further away as we struggle to define what America is, was, and should be.

In Wildland, Evan Osnos focuses on three places he’s lived in the United States: Greenwich, Connecticut, where Wall Street tycoons gut the heartland’s economy for their own profit; Clarksburg, West Virginia, where opioid abuse is rampant and white identity politics take center stage; and Chicago, Illinois, where violence and poverty run deep. Bookended by the attacks of September 11, 2001, to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Osnos examines the seismic changes in American politics and culture by focusing on the lives of everyday Americans in three cities across two decades. Much has changed. Much has stayed the same. This is our American reality.

Evan Osnos is a staff writer at The New Yorker, a CNN contributor, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His first book, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, won the 2014 National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Eric M. Johnson is an American journalist, author, and outdoorsman. His current journalistic focus is aerospace – from Boeing’s 737 MAX crisis to Elon Musk’s SpaceX – and he has covered former President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, breaking national news, and transportation since joining Reuters in 2011 in Chicago. He has also been a staff reporter for Sun-Times Media Group and covered sports for the Observer, in London.

Buy the Book: Wildland: The Making of America's Fury (Hardcover) Third Place Books

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation online click here.