Terry Gross

Donald Ray Pollock worked in a paper mill and meatpacking plant for 32 years before becoming a writer. His second book The Devil All the Time is set in his hometown of Knockemstiff, Ohio, where he says "nearly everyone was connected by blood through one godforsaken calamity or another."

This summer of record-breaking heat followed a spring that brought some of the most extreme weather on record. In her book The Weather of the Future, climatologist Heidi Cullen writes, "It's time to face the fact that the weather isn't what it used to be."

Louisiana state Rep. Noble Ellington is the national chairman of ALEC, a membership-only group that brings together state legislators, interest groups and corporate representatives to draft model bills. He responds to a series of pieces about the organization recently published in The Nation.