Why Well-Being Is Falling in Rural America

Why Well-Being Is Falling in Rural America

Growing up in Urbana, Ohio, in the ’70s, Beth Macy didn’t have things handed to her. Back then, her dad, seen as the town drunk, was a source of shame—as was being one of the poorest kids in her class. Despite all this, Macy (a journalist and author of Dopesick, adapted as a Peabody-winning Hulu series) was able to forge a different—and, for her, better—path. An ambitious student, she earned her college degree with the help of a Pell Grant. At t…