Heather McGhee is an economic policy analyst, and the former president of “the think and do tank” Dēmos (2014-18).

Much of the scope and nature of her work is summarized in her New York Times best-selling book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Cost Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. The book examines a range of policy issues—among them public works, housing, healthcare, education, voting rights, and the environment—paying acute attention to the ways that anti-Black racism impacts those toward whom it is directed as well as how racism significantly degrades public and private life for everyone.

McGee challenges the “Zero-Sum Hierarchy” that she argues undergirds (even if it does not fully explain) key aspects of American racism, and focuses on what she sees as the “solidarity dividends” to be gained from the building of more fully democratic political practice and policy. McGhee recently helped to produce a podcast follow-up to her book that extends its arguments. For a quick take on McGhee and on her work, listening to any two episodes of the podcast offers a compelling introduction.