JD Vance has charted a unique path from his upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, to New York Times bestselling author of Mountain elegy to U.S. senator and now vice-presidential candidate. A new podcast from Cincinnati City Beat explores Vance’s rise and the extent to which his public persona blurs with reality. The podcast is called “Elegy: The Many Myths of JD Vance“.

WOSU’s Debbie Holmes spoke with City Beat reporter and Middletown native Madeline Fanning.

Holmes: You were working as a reporter at JD Vance’s rally in Middletown in July, just after Donald Trump chose him as his vice presidential candidate. The next day, the pundits were all talking about how Vance’s famous riff on Diet Mountain Dew had fallen flat. But you had a different conclusion, didn’t you?

Fence : I did it, yes. The Diet Mountain Dew commentary was certainly entertaining and interesting in the moment, but that’s not what got me. What really grabbed me and made me want to start this podcast with my co-producer, Ashley Paul, was the comment he made about Middletown being so nice to him at the beginning of his rally. This really stood out because Vance built his career by writing a book about how Middletown was not good for him in so many ways. And so hearing him make that statement not only in general, but also in the Middletown High School auditorium during a campaign scene made me understand how he changes his mind about things.

Holmes: What did you learn about Vance while researching him for the podcast? And what myths have you discovered?

Fence : I would say it’s less about myths, as far as lies are concerned, and more about myths, as far as the mythology of one’s personal narrative is concerned. I learned a lot about his journey from Yale to this kind of elite tech space. We spoke with a ProPublica reporter who got his hands on a speech from the Tamayo Network, a secretive conservative group that Vance joined, and who got his hands on a speech in which Vance talks in very radical terms about changing American culture. And so I learned a lot about how Peter Thiel played a really fundamental role in Vance’s growth from his sort of hillbilly, Appalachian self-identification when he was at Yale to becoming this new version of himself in this world of Silicon Valley, and how those two worlds are sort of congealing now that he’s running for vice president.

Holmes: You’ve also spoken with a wide range of elected leaders. What have you heard from them?

Fence : I spoke with Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, who is, you know, a (Asian American and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander), first Asian mayor of Cincinnati. Lots of stuff about how Vance’s comments about Kamala Harris’ race really resonate with people who have multiracial families. You know, Vance’s comments about Kamala being a chameleon were very concerning to the mayor of Cincinnati, because he himself comes from a multiracial family. His wife is actually from Appalachia. So we’ve talked a lot about the mayor’s concerns not only about what his comments mean for America, but also what they mean for Vance’s own family, because his own kids are going to grow up and kind of have to reconcile. experiences with what Vance said during this campaign.

Holmes: I’m sure you’ve reached out to Vance’s team for comment. What did they have to say about the concerns people raised about Vance’s credibility?

Fence : You know, I’ve been trying to get in touch with Vance for two years now, ever since he started his Senate campaign. I never got an interview. And so the only real feedback we have on the podcast from his team is basically this Mountain elegy, and the concerns that everyone might have about Mountain elegy, is that this is only his personal story and his personal story will not be shared. The opinions expressed in his personal story will not be shared with everyone.

Holmes: Considering Vance’s poor adherence to facts, from his mountainous autobiographical narrative to his avowed willingness to make up stories about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, do you think any of this matters to voters in this hotly contested campaign?

Fence : I would say that the Springfield situation, I think, really put a magnifying glass on Vance’s relationship with the truth and his relationship with storytelling for his overall goal. And that’s something he even warns people about in Mountain elegy. We highlight this in one of our episodes where, you know, Vance warned people that white working class voters are sort of being targeted by certain media outlets, influencers, people like Alex Jones, others who don’t don’t really know the truth. in mind, but rather an agenda and a narrative, and that is something more powerful than the big news networks which have traditional journalistic values.