Back in 2016, before the presidential election, political science professor Kathy Cramer published a new book, The Politics of Resentment. It chronicled her findings after traveling around rural Wisconsin and listening—really listening—to hundreds of residents, many of whom described feeling ignored and disrespected.

Little did she know how much the subject of her book would come to dominate the social and political discussions of the Trump years.

Now, five years later, Kathy Cramer was recently named co-chair of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ new Commission on Reimagining Our Economy.

Today on the show, she joins guest host Bert Zipperer for an updated discussion on the politics of resentment in Wisconsin and what she’s working on now, with a wide variety of listener calls.

Katherine J. Cramer is a professor of political science and the Natalie C. Holton Chair of Letters & Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is the recipient of many awards and author of Talking about Politics: Informal Groups and Social Identity in American Life (University of Chicago Press, 2004), Talking about Race: Community Dialogues and the Politics of Difference (University of Chicago Press, 2007), and The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker (University of Chicago Press, 2016).

Cover image from Commission on Reimagining Our Economy

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