Mar 14, 2023
“I try to solve inequality by day
while contributing to it by night.” Many a professional do-gooder
would have to acknowledge this paradox if forced to be honest. But
not David and Amber Lapp, who, years ago, went to a working-class
town in Ohio as researchers on love and marriage, only to stay as
residents and neighbours. In this episode, they reflect on the past
decade of living among people whose gifts, resentments, aches, and
longings are so often mischaracterized (if not ignored) by the
coastal lens. As the Lapps have sought to shine a light on the
erosion of trust and covenant-making in the white working class,
they’ve discovered their own humanity. A discovery, it turns out,
that lies—necessarily—at the inception of any social change that
will endure.