Sarah Smarsh believes there is "an exodus afoot that suggests a national homecoming, across generations, to less bustling spaces." Does this sound like northern Minnesota to you?
In a recent New York Times Op-Ed Sarah Smarsh goes on to point out that rural folks are not just white people lamenting the loss of their family farm. Rural places have a diversity of voices - a diversity of people in places that get defined by most often by people who live in urban areas.
In that same New York Times Op-Ed Sarah sites a study from 2018 done by NPR, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health reported that in spite of economic and health concerns, most rural Americans are "pretty dang happy and hopeful."
Sarah's book "Heartland: Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth" is now out in paperback and she was recently back on KAXE/KBXE to talk more about the particulars of rural life and economies. She's also debuted a new podcast (I recommend this and her book!) called The Homecomers.
Why do you live in a rural area? Are we represented by national media realistically?
