Jose Antonio Vargas and Beth Macy on Memoir That Changes Culture

During the month of August, Memoir Nation revisits its favorite guests of the past year. This week we’re pairing up powerhouse authors Jose Antonio Vargas and Beth Macy, whose memoirs touch on social-cultural issues that force conversation—and effect change. These two episodes circle questions of immigration and who gets to claim belonging in this country (Vargas) and poverty and who can get ahead and how in this country (Macy)—and why memoir is a powerful vehicle for spreading messages that desperately need our attention. If you love these authors, be sure to check out their full episodes, and we’ll see you next week for another Best of Memoir Nation. Happy Summer!

Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and Tony-nominated theatrical producer. He’s the founder of the nonprofit immigrant storytelling organization Define American, and his best-selling memoir, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, was published in 2018, with an updated edition in 2025. His next book, White Is Not a Country, will examine America's foundational Black and White racial binary, and where everyone else fits within and outside that binary.

Beth Macy reported and wrote for The Roanoke Times for a quarter-century and is the author of Dopesick, Raising Lazarus, Factory Man, and Paper Girl, her first memoir. 

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