Growing up in Urbana, Ohio, in the ’70s, Beth Macy didn’t have things handed to her. Back then, her dad, seen as the town drunk, was a source of shame—as was being one of the poorest kids in her class. Despite all this, Macy (a journalist and author of Dopesick, adapted as a Peabody-winning Hulu series) was able to forge a different—and, for her, better—path. An ambitious student, she earned her college degree with the help of a Pell Grant. At the time, her mother made about $8,000 ...
