Economic Policy Expert Heather McGhee on What Racism Costs Us All

In the 1950s and 60s, when some towns faced integrating their “whites only” public pools, they drained the pools instead so nobody could use them. Economic and social policy expert Heather McGhee says this zero-sum thinking has impacted the U.S. economy and the public for the worse–and racism is at the root of it. For her new book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Us and How We Can Prosper Together,” McGhee journeyed across the country, including to California, documenting the stories of Americans who struggle with meeting their basic needs as a consequence of the “drained-pool politics” that keeps the country divided and vastly unequal. We’ll talk to McGhee about what she uncovered in writing the book and her proposed plans for charting a more equitable path forward.