Out In The Open

JD Vance on the problems with hillbilly culture

JD Vance reflects on the ways he his upbringing didn't prepare him for the elite world he moved into and why so many poor white people support Trump.
JD Vance talks to Piya about his difficult childhood, the ways he feels his lower class upbringing didn't prepare him for the elite world. (Naomi McColloch)

Yale Law Graduate JD Vance grew up steeped in Ohio hillbilly culture. Although he now is a successful author of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, he still remembers being called 'white trash' as a kid. 

JD talks about is difficult childhood, the ways he feels his culture didn't prepare him for the elite world, and why so many poor white people support Trump.