A Conversation with Matthew Desmond

Matthew Desmond discusses his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. In Evicted, Harvard sociologist and 2015 MacArthur “Genius” Award winner Desmond takes readers into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee, Wis., where families spend most of their income on housing and where eviction has become routine—a vicious cycle that deepens the country’s vast inequality. Based on years of embedded fieldwork and painstakingly gathered data, Evicted examines extreme poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving a devastating, uniquely American problem.