i certainly get noticed a lot back in eastern kentucky or in southwestern ohio. but, you know, like i was in nashville, i don't know, a week, week and a half ago, and i didn't get noticed once there. so, you know, it if you have a record, you have to make a record there, i think. yeah, that's right. i think so. so now, what has been the reaction of your family and many of the family secrets that many people really want revealed about themselves? everybody has family secrets. you seem to reveal every family secret. what was reaction of your family to this? well i didn't reveal every family secret. i have to material for a second book. yeah. you know, it's interesting i in talking to my family about revealing some of these secrets i think that that i've noticed there's been a slight tone from when i started to write the book to where it is now. and i think that were much more open about spilling the family history on the pages of a book that no one expected anybody to. but i think i think now now that we're at the number of copies we've sold and people are talking

i'm from southwestern ohio, the area he is from. i met him when he was a kid.family is from appalachia. this rings true for so many people of coming from appalachia and making certain that you can grow and achieve the american dream. on his issues and on foreign policy, i think the only foreign policy positions that matter are donald trump's. donald trump has been very clear in his support. he is the first -- >> but donald trump also thinks that ukraine -- this war should end and he sides more with russia. now two people -- >> that's not true. he doesn't side more with russia. he thinks the war should end. so do i and so should you. he is the first president to give lethal weapons to ukraine, that they used to defend themselves. reversing the prior policies of the obama administration. the funding that went through the house would not have gone through the house if donald trump had stood against that funding. it would have been very difficult to get it through the house. the aspect of saying this war should end i agree with. this administration has made a numbe

because that's why he was able to become such an integral part of the republican infrastructure of southwestern ohiolook at why trump chose him, yes he talks a little bit about his career in vc but even from knows that you don't become a famous vc with five years in silicon valley. but you can certainly become a famous media figure with one hit book. i would think the main qualification or the main job that j.d. vance has had is not vc but author. >> it's an extraordinary book and it awakened us, many people, to this sleeping giant in parts of the country, this forgotten america. but j.d. vance isn't running on any policies that help that part of america. and if that is who he wants to help, why is it, brian, that all these luminaries in the world of tech and to silicon valley, why do they want to back him? because they're not actually interested in the rustbelt of america. >> because they're telling at trump events, they are saying things they'll want to hear. i listen back to donald trump's speech, for instance, at the nashville bitcoin conference. i know we're talking about tech here but the same

i wouldn't say it's destitute, just because there's still a lot going on in southwestern ohio, so folks are still able to find decent jobs. the poverty rate isn't quite as high, and unemployment rate is not quite as high. but for folks like us, it's pretty similar, right? there are a lot of the social ills in southern ohio that do not look that different from jackson. brian: your book is hillbilly elegy. are there hills there? in both those places. j.d.: yes, but they are bigger in jackson. middletown is in a plateau. so, if you have ever been to cincinnati, which is the closest big city to middletown, it is very hilly, almost mountainous, but not like kentucky and tennessee. brian: when did you leave the area permanently? j.d.: i left in 2003 to join the military. i was in the marines. this was right after we invaded iraq. i enlisted in april of 2003. i believe we invaded in march of 2003. spent a lot of time in north carolina. did a tour in iraq. the war was the engine that brought me out of where i grew up. besides going back to visit family, have not really lives there -- family, i

vance is not representative of where i'm from, southwestern ohio. the good people of the city of cincinnati and his own middletown high school. he is representative of red pill dork sunday the internet, red pill dorks and the internet were already going to vote for donald trump. and to, for him to be as a part of this race because i thought there was some effort by the trump campaign to trying to clean this up a little bit where there's also well, he didn't mean women who can't have right. >> because there's a clip, there was a part of the clip where a preceding the one that i had just played where he says, well, this isn't about the women who can't have children or maybe they're having trouble or they're trying or whatever. but i don't know that that makes it doesn't make it any better. >> like, what are you talking? like? me i'm useless because i i don't have children like come on like you were talking about the consequences the other consequence of all of this, it's not happening in a vacuum, right? >> he's now donald trump and jd fans are now ru

i would not say it is quite as destitute, because there's still a lot going on in southwestern ohio,o oaks are still able to find a decent jobs, the poverty rate is not as high, the unemployment rate is not as high, but for folks like us, it is pretty similar. a lot of the social ills that exist in southern ohio do not look for and from jackson. >> your book is "hillbilly elegy." are there hills there in those places? >> there are. they are bigger in jackson. [laughter] middletown is technically just outside the appalachian mountains in what is called the appellation plateau, so if you ever been to cincinnati, which is the closest big-city to middletown, very hilly, almost mountainous, but not anything like the true hills of kentucky and tennessee. >> what year did you leave that area permanently? >> you mean middletown? >> that whole area. >> i left in 2003, and i left, like a lot of kids, even one on my block, running the military. i enlisted in the marines. this was right after we invaded in iraq. so it left, went to the marine corps, spent a lot of time in north carolina, did a t

and other socio-economic challenges his family faced after they moved from eastern kentucky to southwestern ohioy a vocal critic of former president trump before being elected to office. in messages to a friend in 2016, vance says he, quote, "goes back and forth between thinks trump is a cynical a-hole like nixon, who wouldn't be that bad, and might even prove useful, or that he is america's hitler." in a piece for "the atlantic," that same year, vance wrote, "trump's promises are the needle in america's collective vein. trump is cultural heroin. he makes some feel better for a bit, but he cannot fix what ails them." in an op-ed for "the new york times" in 2016, "the hillbilly elegy" author called trump unfit for office. here's more of what he had to say back then. >> i'm a never trump guy. i never liked him. it makes you think that, at a fundamental level, this is a he said/she said, right? at the end of the day, do you believe donald trump, who always tells the truth, just kidding, or do you believe that woman an that tape? i cannot stand trump because i think he is a fraud. i think he is a to