Trae (Trey) Stephens

So some of the same stories that he talked about in Hillbilly Elegy about kind of the rise of industrialization in Ohio and then the collapse as a result of globalization and

I was kind of in high school as we were going through that massive shift where the factories were closing, people's parents were out of jobs, you know, strip malls were vacated.

It was an interesting childhood for sure.

My dad was a mechanic, and he built roller coasters, actually.

So there's a big amusement park in Southwest Ohio called Kings Island.

And from the day he graduated high school until the day he retired, he worked at Kings Island as an amusement park mechanic.

Right on.

My mom was all sorts of things.

She worked in accounting.

She was a substitute teacher.

She worked at the public library in Lebanon.

And she was a mom and very active in my brother and I's life.

So, yeah.

So very blue-collar family.

Super blue-collar family, yeah.

Brothers and sisters?

I have a brother.

He's 18 months older than me.

He's a farmer and a real estate agent in Vermont, of all places.

So he and I are about as different as they can be.