“Class Apartheid” In America, With Xochitl Gonzalez

What class mobility in America actually costs you, and why the people making decisions have no idea how the rest of us live. Xochitl Gonzalez grew up working-class Brooklyn, went to Brown, built a luxury events business, and became one of the most talked-about novelists in America. She has lived on multiple sides of the class divide, and that experience is the engine of everything she writes. In this episode, Mary and Xochitl get into why she calls what we're living through "class apartheid," how money fundamentally changes the way you think and feel, what upward mobility quietly takes from you, why the optimism of the early 2000s was a product of being physically around people, and what her new memoir Need-Blind reveals about the hidden mechanics of wealth, philanthropy, and power in America. Subscribe for new episodes every week. Chapters: 00:00 Is My Book Your Daddy? 00:24 Meet Xochitl Gonzalez 01:10 Why Economics Needs Working Class Voices 03:37 The Books: Olga, Anita, And Last Night In Brooklyn 08:42 Working Class Brooklyn To Brown 10:27 Pre-Recession New York And What We Lost 13:10 The Case For Smoking And Friction 15:32 When Getting The Dream Man Ruins Your Life 16:21 Why Millennials Aren't Having Kids 17:44 Where Did The Optimism Go? 19:37 Harry Styles For President 20:58 Need-Blind And How Money Changes Your Mind 22:52 The Recession Wiped Everything Out 30:15 We Are Living In Class Apartheid 33:16 Why She's Anti-AI 35:01 Friction Maxing And The Tiny Phone 37:18 Obsessed With Admin Nights Follow Mary Childs on social media: X: https://x.com/mdc?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryinameri... LinkedIn:   / marychilds   TikTok: Follow our show: X: https://x.com/maryinamerica Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryinameri... #Economics #XochitlGonzalez #ClassInAmerica