Thanks Book Nook listeners and Vick!

I urge you to read Paper Girl by Beth Macy. She did a very deep dive on this situation, based on her hometown, her own family and friends. Incredibly insightful.

Both of these authors happen to live in the communities they write about.(Well, Kingsolver's is fictional, but anyone familiar with S/W Va knows it's barely fictional.) They wrote so authentically because they know those communities, not because they have more empathy for those particular addicts.

Barbara Kingsolver nails how the opioid crisis has changed generations of Appalachian families. Addicted folks are not moral failures and criminals; they’re patients with a treatable medical condition.

I've now watched the censored 60 Minutes report on CECOT. If you watched it too—and if you have any decency at all—I'm sure you came to the same conclusion I did: winning elections won't be enough; people like Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem will need to be charged and imprisoned.

Or like a rack of pins at Lee-Hi Lanes! Or like a hot dog on a carousel at the Weiner Stand! #GoLocalOrGoHome

Thanks!

Beyond honored and excited to see Paper Girl at the top of my favorite president’s list!

I'm encouraged! So many people I know are getting involved, running for offices high and low, fighting to restore sanity and competence. Look at @bethmacy.bsky.social running for congress in VA, and now a friend in Ohio has just informed me he's running for a county commissioner seat.

Announcing the National Book Critics Circle 2025 Longlist for Autobiography

So grateful for this prestigious honor! Amazing company to keep!

Thank you so much to my great friend Danny Strong for his support. Danny was the showrunner for Hulu’s adaptation of “Dopesick” and truly understands that we need treatment, not incarceration.

Wishing you peace, strength, and a joyful Hanukkah. The news from Australia was a sobering reminder that antisemitism is not just history. And yet the Jewish people have endured, rebuilt, and found light even when it was scarce. May this be a time of warmth and safety for all.

Major endorsement for Beth Macy in VA06 - by Sen. @kaine.senate.gov. For a bunch of reasons - name ID, money, endorsements - Macy appears to be the favorite for the VA06 Democratic nomination at this point. bluevirginia.us/2025/12/vide...

Beth Macy, the Roanoke-based journalist and author running for the Democratic nomination for Congress in what is now the Sixth District, picked up the keyest of key endorsements – from U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2fK...

Buttigieg on Indiana: "The big part of how Trumpism works is to make you feel totally disempowered. To make him feel inevitable. And yet the clear takeaway from this is he is not unstoppable and you are not without power."

My career has been focused on one thing: listening. And that’s what this campaign is about too. I hope to hear from you tomorrow in Clifton Forge. RSVP here www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve...

Tim Kaine’s endorsement means to world to me. It’s from the heart and from Virginia’s finest public servant, someone who always puts the people first.

“Newspapers were the immune system of democracy.” - Beth Macy, author of Paper Girl in an excellent interview with Kara Swisher.

Republicans just wrapped a meeting on healthcare and not even pretending to have a plan. They’re blaming Dems for the shutdown, as if that stopped them from doing the job. They were still getting paid, they could have been working the entire time. 15 years of whining about Obamacare—still nothing!

@bethmacy.bsky.social for Congress in VA 6th! Currently reading her latest book, Paper Girl, and she understands the problems facing our country & will work hard to improve people’s lives — not just working for the country’s wealthiest people. open.substack.com/pub/bethmacy...

This week’s read: Paper Girl by Beth Macy. Highly recommended for so many reasons. One is to understand how the middle class and middle-America have been left behind and another is to understand why Ohio has gone from being a purple swing state to extreme radical right. #Booksky

This 60 minute podcast doesn’t have one boring second. Three intelligent, very well-informed people talking techbros and the rural south. Absolutely fascinating. Apparently Beth Macy will be running in Virginia, and I can’t wait. youtu.be/rJwETtZowD0?...

#booksky loved the upstairs/downstairs element of this interview!

Our digital systems reward belonging over accuracy, with people gaining status by aligning with their group, not by checking facts. Once beliefs become tied to identity, more media literacy won’t shift behaviour, the social rewards run against work against it.

A conversation about the role of social media in fueling enragement, how to bridge the political divide, and much more. @bethmacy.bsky.social on @karaswisher.bsky.social's @onwithkaraswisher.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJwE...

Coming soon to you, Steel City! Loved this conversation with the great Neema Avashia.

Pls join if you can!

@kwhite-networknova.bsky.social @bethmacy.bsky.social @rachnash.bsky.social - VA Congressional Primary Races 🧜🏼‍♀️ Elaine Luria 📕 Beth Macy 🐂 Joy Powers Rachna Sizemore Heizer for Board of Supervisors, Braddock District to highlight on Dec. 9 in Fairfax County. DIRECT: tinyurl.com/fpl2025c

"What has happened to home? What has happened to us? And where do we go from here?" Neema Avashia interviews Beth Macy on her latest release, “Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in Fractured America.” @avashianeema.bsky.social @bethmacy.bsky.social pghrev.com/talking-abou...

"For those considering refreshing their activism skills, Hathaway recommends signing up for state and local newsletters, including those put out by social-service boards, and showing up to public meetings and posting what you learn."

This is the kind of fact-finding and honesty Beth Macy will bring to Congress. Rave on!

A sobering look at shutdown pain from housing authority residents (and how you, too, can become a citizen journalist). My latest Substack on two women fighting for basic human dignity. open.substack.com/pub/bethmacy...

Here's a few I read that enriched my year and the Family Inequality perspective: Paper Girl, by @bethmacy.bsky.social Keeping it Together, by @jessicacalarco.com The Siren's Call, by @chrislhayes.bsky.social Capitalism and Its Critics, by @johncassidysays.bsky.social (Not all published in 2025)

No matter how long I live after we get through this dark chapter, I will never get over the immorality, the amorality, the corruption, the criminality and the cruelty in service to one of the worst humans to ever walk the earth.

Beth Macy wrote the definitive account of the opioid epidemic, and she is everything JD Vance pretends to be. She's also one of the millions of Americans stepping up to do more than she expected, because democracy is on the line. Now she's running for Congress.

The path to victory for @bethmacy.bsky.social in Congress is lined with doodles!

I'm attending Beth Macy for Congress's event, you should, too, if you get a chance...

Beth Macy never thought she would run for Congress. But she knows democracy is on the line and couldn't resist the pleas of those who believe she's the only candidate who can beat the awful Ben Cline. And if she flips this red seat in western Virginia, no more Speaker Johnson.

I'm attending Beth Macy for Congress's event, “Beth Macy Waynesboro Listening Session” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/bethmacyforc...

Listen to Michael Keaton! Beth Macy is taking her message to voters that enough is enough. It's time that working on behalf of one's constituents becomes a thing again and Beth will do just that. Her heart knows no other way. #BethMacyForCongress

Beth Macy's latest book is a heartfelt -- even brave -- attempt to understand the economic, social, educational and political decline in the Heartland. The book centers on Macy returning to her hometown of Urbana, Ohio, to figure out what's what. #readitnow @desmoineslibrary.bsky.social

“When you look at the trend, you can see that big pharma targets these exact same communities where the jobs have gone away. And the government let that happen. In fact, a lot of our officials are being bought off by big pharma now. We really need to hold them accountable.”

Journalist Beth Macy raises $350,000 for congressional bid in 24 hours. She wrote "Dopesick." cardinalnews.org/2025/11/20/m...

The story of the opposition to Trump is the story of a bunch of people doing things they never expected to do. Andrea Pitzer on how her friend @bethmacy.bsky.social, the bestselling author of Dopesick and Paper Girl, decided to run for Congress.

I've never heard a louder crowd at a political rally. Roaring enthusiasm.

Grateful to Michael Keaton, who lost a nephew to overdose, to come out swinging for my campaign—and for what is right!

Thanks @andreapitzer.bsky.social — truth teller, friend, and badass black belt who thinks as hard as she kicks. We need to clone her.

The indomitable @bethmacy.bsky.social has built a career amplifying unheard voices, shining light on those too often forgotten, and calling out abuses of power. I believe she’s the right person to replace Ben Cline in Congress. bethmacy.substack.com/p/welcome-to...

"This was a more energetic campaign entry speech than any I've ever seen and I've seen a lot." -- veteran journalist and editor of CardinalNews.org Dwayne Yancey Congrats to @bethmacy.bsky.social on her campaign launch last night! Here are some pix for that event. @roanokeindivisible.bsky.social