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Prepping for a conversation with Tressie McMillan Cottom is intimidating. McMillan Cottom is a sociologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a 2020 MacArthur fellow, co-host of the podcast \u201cHear to Slay,\u201d and the author of the essay collection \u201cThick,\u201d which was a National Book Award finalist. And she\u2019s one of those people who can seemingly write on anything: The way for-profit colleges generate inequality, the cultural meaning of Dolly Parton, the way the U.S. medical profession treats Black women, how beauty operates in contemporary America, the role of hustle in the economy \u2014 the list just keeps going.\n\nAnd so did this conversation, in the end. I barely made it through a third of my planned questions because so many interesting topics came up in each answer. We discuss the dangers of nostalgia, the social construction of smartness, the moral panics gripping America, why journalists are racing to platforms like Substack, how different mediums of communication shape our conversations, the central role status plays in American life, her research on the root causes of the uptick in \u201cdeaths of despair,\u201d how beauty is constructed and wielded and much, much more. This is one of those conversations that could\u2019ve gone on for four more hours.\n\nI hope you enjoy it as much as I did.\n\nRecommendations:\n\n"Minor Feelings" by Cathy Park Hong\n\n"Fearing the Black Body" by Sabrina Strings\n\n"The Chosen" by Jerome Karabel\n\n"Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" by Mildred Taylor\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein.\n\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\n\n\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d is produced by Rog\xe9 Karma and Jeff Geld; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld.