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This. Is Rumble Strip America? Heilemann

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Today is the first episode of

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what Class Are You? a periodic

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series that I make for Vermont

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Public. The series started as an

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experiment a few years ago. Wanted

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to have conversations with people about

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the terrible cultural divides that keep

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growing in our country without ending

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up in boring conversations about politics.

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So I drove around asking strangers

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what class or you. Which.

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Is a kind of a stupid

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and offensive question. but it turns

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out the people have a lot

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to say about money. education, Opportunity

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Power. So. I kept doing

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it and this is season two and

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three of that series. The first shows

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I made about Class I already ran

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on Rumble Strip in a single cho

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you can find that on my website,

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but these next episodes in the series

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I'll run one at a time every

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couple days for a few weeks. We're

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going to start the series with my

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old friend Susan Randall the private investigator.

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I interview a lot for Rumble Strip,

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so without further ado your Susan Randall

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on what it was like to grow

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up upper middle. Class Welcome.

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Sir there in years that I was

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like on the poverty level in Vermont,

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like Uncovered, I have totally qualify for

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government cheese in the state and I've

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worked my ass off and now I

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own a business and I have employees

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and I you know, I'm

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okay. That Susan Randall: She's a

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private investigator and virgins and an

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old friend of mine. I interview

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her a lot because she is

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smart and thoughtful and she does

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not hold. Punches I asked her

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to talk about where she comes

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from and who she comes from.

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Here's what she said: were both

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born upper middle class and we

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both had ups and downs in

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our own adult. like another with

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were downwardly mobile, we had the

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luxury we have. The luxury. Of

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being in college and saying what

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interests. That's

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a luxury. That you should

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follow your passion in our hearts are

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like if you like to run, you

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should From. Justice whole

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notion that you should do what

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you love that's a privilege right

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there. The fact that we didn't

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have him generations of pressure behind

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us to get out and make

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money. I think

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they will you get when you grow up like

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us is that you always have a sense that

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there's a safety net or a cushion. Their you're

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not gonna end up on the street because there's

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some family home that you could always go sleep

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on that couch. Not

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everybody has that. Thing

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I kind of came from this

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long line of people that valued

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professions, doctors and lawyers, but not

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people that sold things are dealt

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with billing rate they didn't They

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weren't like running a factory. They

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weren't like invoicing. They weren't staying

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up the to in the morning

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invoicing that's for sure, right? There's

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an unspoken. Your to the

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manner Boring. Is like a

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wink wink nudge nudge of. Privilege.

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An unspoken grace.

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In. The way that you conduct yourself.

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You're not going to be crass. You're

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not going to talk about money. That's.

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Like when I was sort of

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me up. the i was like

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when he going to law school.

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because we don't That's like a

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beast. Hop that scrappy. You're going

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to deal with stuff like bodily

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fluids, people's dirty laundry. Why do

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you need to go lie down

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in the gutter to know that

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that exists? And in God.

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We should be in the world

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of ideas and concepts and politics

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and dinner parties. even the concept

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of dinner Party three. I grew

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up and a family where there

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were lots dinner parties with a

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lot of interesting. People. There

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were. Out there was a lot that you learn. The

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child like of the interesting adults,

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the table that are talking politics

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and ideas and other things Suddenly

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when I became an investigator shortly

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after I became Invest scary. Also

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became a single mom and.

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I have a three and five or on

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and I'll even know how to keep the

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heat on much the less buy extra food.

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And then have extra bandwidth, have

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interesting conversation for a bunch of

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adults. And are you kidding me?

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Like how you entertaining entertaining is

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a privilege. Entertaining as a luxury.

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So there was this like radical

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disconnect for me of Lake. Ah

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yes sir, there's no extra bandwidth

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is on an extra minutes in

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the day. there's no extra money

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and my savings account now and

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on for like a decade. but

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it was very i'm revel

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the tory for me to

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realize that me not going

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into the professions rain. It's

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made me a different class. And

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cerro by like having to deal with

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the bottom line and a figure out

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have have a profit margins and figure

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out how to pay insurance and the

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understand like how challenging it is when

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people are really poor and they don't

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have any capital and there is no

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safety net. I

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got it I was experiencing at

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while I was investigating it. The

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legacy treasure. That

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I was really ungrateful

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singers? Is it my

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presence? Let's me think that anything

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is possible. And

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let me think that of course I can like raise. The

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children and they're gonna be okay. It

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lets me not just feel like all I'm

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gonna be. Is in grind

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culture just making a living? And

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that is brazen and that is

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cocky. That is

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privilege. That

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when he's in Randall and this is what

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class or you which. Was produced for from

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our public and I'm grateful to them for

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allowing me to share it with Rumble Strip.

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Or if you have comments, I'd love to hear them. Crumble

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Strip for months.com. And

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click on the show page and scroll down

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and you'll see a comment. Box their

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this is Rumble Strip America Heilemann.

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Thanks a lot for listening.