Stu Levitan welcomes Sarah Kendzior, author of Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America, just out from the good people at Flatiron Press.

Sarah is the first author to appear in a brand-new category of guest, author whose book tour event in Madison was canceled. Sarah was to have had an event at A Room of One's Own tomorrow - and if you’ve lost track of days, that would be Tuesday, April 14. That of course was not to be, so I am very happy to be able to give her a virtual platform here in Madison for her very important new book on the transnational crime syndicate of authoritarian kleptocrats currently masquerading as the United States Government.

Sarah Kendzior is the author of the 2018 New York Times -seller The View From Flyover Country: Dispatches From the Forgotten America, a collection of her op-ed columns for Al Jazeera English. She is also a columnist for the Globe and Mail of Toronto, author of numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, and the co-host with Andrea Chalupa of the weekly podcast Gaslit Nation, which covers corruption in the Trump administration and the rise of authoritarianism around the world. Needless to say, they have plenty of things to talk about.

Since Madison is a university town, we should properly address her as Dr. Kendzior, in that she has a PhD in anthropology from Washington University in Saint Louis, following her Master’s degree in Central Eurasian Studies from Indiana University.

Sarah is a native of Meriden CT but has lived most of her adult life in the heart of flyover country, the aforementioned St. Louis MO, where St. Louis Magazine profiled her as one of the city’s 15 inspirational people under 35, and in 2017 named her the city’s best journalist.

She is also to my knowledge my first guest whose favorite band is Guns and Roses. So notwithstanding that we have wildly divergent taste in music, it is a pleasure to welcome to Madison BookBeat, Dr. Sarah Kendzior