A finalist for the National Book award this year, by the way, just announced. Congratulations. Other books include working parents and the revolution at home, the time bind, when home becomes work and work becomes home, and the managed heart the commercialization of the intimate life. Shes been awarded the ulysses medal from university collegedublin, ireland, wells the guggenheimmellon fellowship. Four of her books have been named notable Nonfiction Book of the year by the new york times, and her work appears in 16 languages. Shes a sociology professor emerita at ucberkeley. She lives in california with her husband, adam. Welcome, arlie. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] its great to be here. What i thought we could do is ill spend a little bit of time taking you on a journey with me that ive just come home from. And then we can open it up to questions and comments. Five years ago i sensed, like so many of us did, a split between left and right that was getting more extreme. Each side was hardening. And that we lived in kind of enclaves so that i would talk to my husband and best friend, wed chatter away, and wed agree, and then i would open the newspaper and say, oh, my gosh, look. There are two truths here. Theres im not living in the whole world. Or id look at television and feel the same. And i knew that, actually, other americans were in the same situation, that we live in media enclaves, in technological enclaves and in geographic enclaves. Berkeley, california, teaching sociology, i was in a super enclave. [laughter] so i thought, i want to get out of my enclave, take my political and moral alarm system off and permit myself to get very curious about the lives of people who lived in an enclave as far away and as distant from my own as i could. Where would that be . The split between [inaudible] this mic. Okay. Wrong mic. The split between left and right is not because the left has gotten more left, but because the right has gotten more right, and more people are on the right. So i thought that has mainly, that change has happened mainly in the south. So, good, i wanted to go to the south. But where in the south . I saw in 2012 that while half of whites voted for obama in california and about a third did in the south as a whole region, 14 did in louisiana. So i thought, great, i want to go to louisiana. And i want, i want to talk to whites. Who else . Older whites, maybe especially religious older whites in louisiana. So our voyage starts there with a question. I went with this red state paracox in paradox in mind. How is it true that in the United States is most red states are also the poorer states, ones with worse education, with worse health and lower life expectancies. Those states receive more funds from the federal government in aid than they give in tax dollars. And yet are the most suspicious and resistant to the idea of a federal government. Well, thats really interesting. What goes on with that . And louisiana is a super red state paradox because in 2014 it was the poorest state. 44 of its state budget came from the federal government, and it was very largely, very largely tea party and trump. So it was perfect. I was will at, at an exaggerated version of the red state paradox. And then i made one more move. I thought, okay, a lot of people who are doing well, have worked hard and have succeeded economically wouldnt themselves want medicaid or food stamps, and i could understand perhaps their opposition to that. But how about the environment . I wake up and look, and it was kind of foggy, you know . And there were certain smells around the place. And sometimes my eyes would sting if i was in west lake. This was a petrochemical center, very proud to say it was the buckle of Americas Energy belt, more Petrochemical Companies being lured in with incentive money in order to use the cheap natural gas produced by fracking. So, but there was something in the air, and people were drinking bottled water. So i thought, wait a minute, lets look at the environment here. Its staring me in the face. I didnt go there with that in mind, but it was unavoidable. I discovered that one of the parishes which is around lake charles in the southwest of louisiana which is a center of this petro to chemical petrochemical industry was among the 2 most polluted in the country. And yet there was no discussion of the need to regulate the polluters. And, in fact, people were voting for people who said nothing about pollution. So there i was right almost the key hole of the red state paradox. And i want to tell you, take you on a journey with me to meet some of the most extraordinary, interesting, complex, lovely, caring people who were at the center of this paradox. Meet harold and annette arena. I am seated on a soft living room couch in the home of harold, a gentle cajun pipe fitter, whos carefully holding before me from his adjacent chair a large photo album. He draws his hand back and forth over the plastic covers on the black and white photos. He turns the pages slowly, searching for one. 77 and a former deacon in the Lighthouse Tabernacle pentacostal church, hes dressed in a plaid shirt and jeans. He speaks in a slow baritone, his eyes on the page often concluding a line of thought with a light chuckle as if to say, its all right. He points, there it is. His mother, father, himself and nine siblings standing in two rows, squinting into the sun on the banks of bayou den. It is 1950. Hearld names his brothers harold names his brothers and sisters. He tells how his mother used to catch gar by coaxing the push fish and lifting them into the boat. But its not just his family he wants me to see. As if introducing friendly neighbors, he points behind the family to something else. Standing proud in the water behind the faces in the photograph are commanding, bald cypress trees, large triangular trunks rising prosecute water, once the glorious queens of the forested wetland of southern louisiana and still the official state tree. Green moss hangs from outstretched lower branches. Tree after tree, like lace shawls in a dance hall. Throw a cajun in the swamp, harold chuckles his eyebrows lifting for emphasis and he can make a living. But that was before. Before what . That was before the petrochemical industry came and began to pollute public waters and to contaminate the fish and to lead to blinded turtles with white eyes kind of looking out, not seeing bugs they could eat to stay alive and starving. And before the cows tipped over and before everyone else in harold renos family got cancer and everybody but he and his own wife died. It was a lot to take in, i thought. Wow. I interviewed the man who actually did the polluting. Lee sherman. Just saw him a few days ago when i went back to louisiana, which was the first thing i did after the book came out to put on a dinner for the people that i wrote about. And theyre friends, the guy who did the polluting and the victims of it. Because they feel a victim of something bigger. So harold and annette are voting, have voted republican all their lives, and theyre thinking about voting more trump. Theyre not sure. These days. [laughter] and they didnt like that trump was imitating disabled people. That really, as good religious people, they were appalled at that and the accusations very much took them aback. But they were thinking about it. And, of course, trump wants to abolish the Environmental Protection agency. So were still right there in this red state paradox and the key hoel issue of key hole issue of it. So let me just outline some things that i discovered that felt to them more important than the paradox that i, from berkeley, california, came in curious about. Something bigger was there for them. And i think it was this. It was really three things. I mean, the south, the federal government is the north, right . Okay. I wouldnt give that a lot of weight, but i think its there. Kind of in the background. And i treat that in the book. Then they look at the regulators, and its very interesting because in louisiana the regulators are part of the State Government which has been what scholars would say captured by oil. That is, the State Government is run by oil men or those who owe their Campaign Financing to oil and pretty much do oils bidding. Meanwhile, so that Governor Jindal gave 1. 5 billion in incentive money to these petrochemical and Oil Companies saying, oh, please come to louisiana. And dont go to texas. So with that 1. 5 billion, the Companies Began to give out donations to the audubon society, you know, lets preserve the birds, and to third grade science classes and uniforms for Louisiana State football team. So people loved the companies. They thought the job they got the jobs, but not many jobs. Only 16 of jobs in louisiana have to do at all with the Oil Companies. These are highly automated plants, and the people they bring in are are often from out of state. So to run the petrochemical company, you would want an mit chemist and then filipino pipe fitters are brought in. So there are jobs but not many. But people looking at the companies say, well, some jobs at least and a lot of goody bags. But they look at the state, and they see a state that isnt actually protecting them, where people have been hired to present the illusion of protection without providing the reality of it. In essence, you might say the state has been given the moral dirty work to do to seem to protect but not really protect people. And so people were mad at the state. Didnt do its job, why should i pay taxes to this donothing state especially since i havent had a raise in two decades. Ask jobs are a little and jobs are a little more shaky than they were. So thats a second reason. First, its government as an instrument of the north, then government as an instrument of oil. And then they dont put it together quite the way i just have. But theres a third thing. I came to this whole project with an interesting emotion and feelings. And i think we get to the feelings underneath politics, both rightwing politics and leftwing liberal politics by looking at what i call a deep story. Whats a deep story . Its a story that feels true. You take out moral judgments, you take out facts, and you have a story that is how it feels. What is the renos deep story or that of the other 40 people over five years i came to really know well, 60 interviews in all. The deep story is this, imagine that youre in a line as in a pilgrimage going to the top of a hill where there is the american dream. You have worked very hard for this american dream. Youve been patient, and youre a good person. You dont begrudge anybody, but your line isnt moving toward that dream. And then you see some people seeming to cut ahead of you. You say, whats that about . Well, who are they, these linecutters . Well, those would be blacks on affirmative action who now have access to jobs formerly reserved for whites, those would be women who are, have access to jobs formerly reserved for men, that would be immigrants, it would be refugees, even Public Sector workers like some of these people working in Environmental Protection, in the state agency. What are they doing . Why are they there . So then in the deep story you see someone, Barack Hussein obama, who seems to be whose job it is to be impartial and supervise the line for everyone. But you see him waving to the linecutters. Hes their president. Hes doing for them, and hes leaving me out. In fact, im kind of like a Minority Group although i dont talk about minorities. Im sort of back there, especially as a white man. And, in fact, isnt obama one of those linecutters himself . I heard time and again how did he get to harvard . His mother was a single mom. They didnt have two cents to put together, and how did he get to columbia . Somethings rigged. Somethings rigged. So hes one of them, and hes not representing me. So another thing in this and somebody turns around whos ahead of the line and looks back and says, oh, youre just a southerner, youre illeducated, youre ignorant, and youre a redneck. And then you just feel whipped, you feel insulted, you feel marginalized, you feel what i came to call kind of an honor squeeze. All the sources of honor to which you turn are locked down. First, you want honor for working as hard as you have and having some economic recompense. But, you know, the machine has ground to a halt. So you cant do that. Well, but youre a very good, youre a true believer. Youre a highly religious person as the renos are. But youre living in an increasingly Secular Society that thinks what you believe is wrong. And your family living, and you have your values about a good family, a true woman. And now the law of the land is saying your beliefs are wrong, and youre seen as backward. So and then demographically you feel there are fewer people like us. And they came to feel almost like a native american tribe that was, in fact, a stranger in its own land. And when you add the fact the renos feel that the ground is not their ground, the bay you is not bayou is not their bayou, the fish are not their fish, the trees are not they were in mourning for those trees. They loved those large cypress trees, and they were gone. They were stumps in the bayou. So they felt like strangers in their own land. And we can see the anger, but i dont think we can see the mourning that a lot of people are feeling. So in the end, the state was an instrument for the north, it was an instrument of oil, and it was an instrument of the linecutters, they felt in their deep story. Making them strangers in their own land. So im going to just end with these thoughts. I began with one paradox, but i ended up with another. The paradox i ended up with was how could the Democratic Party call itself, you know, the party of the working people and have working people leaving it in droves . Like, thats the paradox for people who have a different, a deep story and are on the liberal left. A very important paradox. Because i, because of this my husband adam and i were recently in hungary. We were giving talks in budapest where a very rightwing leader, erdogan, has taken over. And as you know, theres been a loss of the free press, a consolidation of power and all the statues have been changed statues have been changed in budapest. There used to be many different ethnicities, and now theyre all heroic hungarian figures and, actually, the history of the hungarian role in the persecution of the jews in world war ii has been erased. If you look at all the statues, there is no sign of that anymore. Recently these have been changed. So i asked an observer, gee, what happened . Because hungary was just dying to get itself out of the claws of the soviet union and was thrilled and relieved to finally be part of european union, and it loved democracy and the free press, and how could this happen . And the mans answer was this nobody thought it could happen. And the left was turned in on itself. Divided and did not vote. Let me just end there. [applause] thank you, arlie. We want to open up the room for questions now. We do have at least 30 minutes for some questions, and we do have a microphone right over here so, because we are on tv, if you could come up to the microphone if you have a question, and well address those. So, first, i wanted to thank you for bringing some empathy to this election cycle. Ive been so disheartened being sensitive to all the tone of derision that has really permeated especially among the left. How could these people think this way, and theres so much otherring which is just furthering the problem in the first place. Right. But i think theres a lot of misperception of this election as the end game, and its not, you know, its just an event. So how do we think beyond the election . Because if trump gets elected, the left is going to feel hurt and alienated. If hillary gets elected, it just continues this strangers in their own land pa paradox. Paradox. How do we continue the empathy after the electionsome. Wonderful question. Absolutely goes to the core of what ive tried to do with this book. Let me just tell you a story about what i came to call the empathy wall that we all need to scale, about actually how wonderful it is to climb it. Its not a chore, its not hard. Its soulenlarging. [laughter] and im at i met an incredible gospel singer at the republican women of southwest louisiana meeting. It was very well organized and huge attendance, and i was at this luncheon table, and across the way was this wonderful gospel singer and her husband was the minister of a very large pentacostal church. And she said i love Rush Limbaugh. You know, the conservative radio commentator. And i thought, id really like to talk to her. [laughter] i have something to learn. And so we did. The next day we met for sweet teas, and we talked, and i said what was it that whats the appeal of Rush Limbaugh . Well, he hates these feminazis. A little moment there. And what is a feminazi . Well, you know, cold, tough, hard sort of selfcentered person destroying families. Okay. And she went on to environmental whackos and all these. And then she asked me, is it hard for you to hear what i am saying . And a bill went off. I thought a bell went off. I thought, actually no, its not hard. Im not here to have a debate. Im here to learn, you know . Ive spent my life teaching students, but now the fun part is learning. She said i do that too. Thats not hard for me either. And then we had that in common. And then she explained that, actually, she caw Rush Limbaugh s defending her against this hail of epithets that came, she thought, from liberal land, you know, that she was seen as fact and homophobic and sexist and racist, and she saw him as defending her from that. Well, i learned a ton over those sweet teas. So i guess what im doing is making an invitation for us to continue this voyage over the empathy wall. Later she said, youre my first democratic friend. [laughter] i thought, good, good. Were getting somewhere. [laughter] and, you know, you dont agree on a lot of things but, hey, youve established a floor of respect and liking on which a lot more can be set, ambivalences can be admitted, complexities arise. You know, youre real people on both sides. And its fantastic. So i just think that after this election whoever wins that people, especially liberals i think need to actually reach out, not be turned inward. Or theres something called living room conversat