Books vs. Movies
In this podcast we set out to answer the age old question: is the book really always better than the movie?
Books vs. Movies
Ep. 42 Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America by James Fallows and Deborah Fallows vs. Our Towns (2021)
The age-old question of whether books truly outshine their film adaptations takes an intriguing turn with "Our Towns," a fascinating exploration of America's overlooked communities. Unlike traditional adaptations, this HBO Max documentary serves as a complementary companion to James and Deborah Fallows' non-fiction journey across the United States.
For five years, the Fallows traveled to dozens of small cities and towns that rarely make national headlines, documenting how these communities tackle their unique challenges. What began as a simple blog post asking readers to share stories about their hometowns blossomed into a comprehensive investigation of American resilience and innovation at the local level.
The documentary revisits eight of these communities, providing viewers with a vivid, on-the-ground perspective of how places like Sioux Falls, South Dakota and East Port, Maine are reinventing themselves. The film beautifully captures what makes each town unique while highlighting universal themes that emerge across different regions.
What stands out most powerfully are the unexpected heroes of these revival stories. Libraries emerge as crucial community hubs, offering far more than books—they provide internet access, educational programs, and even specialized resources like gardening tools. Immigrant populations breathe new life into struggling economies, often becoming the backbone of industries local residents have abandoned. Artists transform vacant buildings into vibrant cultural spaces, while innovative educational approaches prepare students for meaningful work in their communities.
The timing of these projects offers a fascinating historical snapshot: the book captures pre-Trump America (2013-2016), while the documentary filmed just before the pandemic reshaped our world again. Though I ultimately give the documentary a slight edge (3.5 stars vs the book's 3 stars), both works provide valuable insights into how America's forgotten places are writing their own comeback stories—not through federal intervention or grand economic schemes, but through grassroots creativity and community determination.
Discover these inspiring stories of revival and find out why the documentary version narrowly wins this round in the eternal books versus movies debate. Leave a rating and review if you enjoyed this exploration of America's heartland renaissance!
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Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set out to answer the age-old question is the book really always better than the movie? I'm Yuvia, an actress and book lover based out of New York City, and today I will be discussing Our Towns A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America by James and Deborah Fallows and its 2021 adaptation, our Towns, streaming on HBO Max. So hello everyone. I don't think this will be a very long episode. I could be wrong, but there isn't much to discuss in terms of differences for this, because this is a nonfiction book and its adaptation isn't really an adaptation. They're calling it that. I mean, like the filmmakers themselves are calling it that. They're saying like it's based on the book. So technically it is an adaptation, but I like to think of it more of an accompaniment, since it is actually a documentary. So, unlike Nomadland, which is a non-fiction journalistic book and then took an original story based on that and made it into a film, this is actually a documentary that you can watch in lieu of the book or, after you read the book, watch the film to get kind of a mini update. So I will go get more into that, but first and foremost, I do want to talk about a not so happy El Paso shout out. So this not so happy El Paso shout out is courtesy of On Earth we're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, and this was meant to be included in the Underground Railroad episode. But by the time I actually finished On Earth we're Briefly Gorgeous before I had even finished Underground Railroad, and so I was like I do want to include this, but I'm not even done with the book. I don't even know what. At that point I didn't even know what my next podcast episode was going to be. So I turned in On Earth we're Briefly Gorgeous and I didn't include it in the episode, even though I do want to keep shouting out El Paso whenever I see it, even if it's a not-so-happy shout out like today's shout out. So I turned in the book. So what I'm going to talk about was mentioned in On Earth we're Briefly Gorgeous, but obviously it's not going to be the actual passage that I'm reading from. As I've done in previous ones, in this one I'm more going to talk about the subject of the Not so Happy El Paso Shout Out, because I do think it is important and I got reminded of it and the reason I decided. You know what this seems to be a sign that I need to include it is.
Speaker 1:I was listening to the March 9th episode of NPR's the Sunday Story, and the story that it was focusing primarily on that day was birthright citizenship, and it was mainly focusing on the story of Wong Kim Ark, who is a United States citizen, but he had to fight for that right to be called that. So he's the reason we have birthright citizenship to this day. So Wong Kim Ark was born in the United States to Chinese parents and during the Chinese Exclusion Act when that all came about, he was in China visiting family, and when he tried to return to the United States he was denied entry because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and so he fought for his right to remain in the country, as he was visiting family in China. But he grew up, he was born, raised, and the United States is what he knew. This was his home. So that is the landmark ruling that led to the amendment saying that anyone born on US soil is an American citizen. So the not-so-happy El Paso shout-out comes from. It was mentioned in On Earth. We're Briefly Gorgeous. But to go into more detail about what happened, is that in 1901, so at this point in 1901, it had been four years since Wong Kim Ark had won his court case and it was determined that he was a US citizen. And so, in 1901, he crossed from Juarez into El Paso and, due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, he was arrested and deportation proceedings were started against him. He literally has a court case named after him in the Supreme Court and he was already determined four years prior, given the right as a US citizen. Immigration officials in El Paso still tried to deport him, saying that he was in violation of the Chinese Exclusion Act. It took four months after this arrest for Wang to win a ruling again saying that he was a United States citizen and that he was not in violation of the Chinese Exclusion Act and therefore could not be deported. Again, this happened four years after the Supreme Court ruling.
Speaker 1:So I, being from El Paso, I had no idea. I mean, I'm going to be honest, I didn't even know Wong Kim Ark's name before the Sunday story. And yeah, it's one of those. There's things I've learned not so happy things I've learned about El Paso and how that has shaped certain things throughout history. I'm not going to get into those details in this episode, but yeah, I'm just surprised that I hadn't heard about that particular aspect of El Paso history, and so that was the premise of the Not so Happy El Paso shout out. And actually I'm kind of glad that I didn't bring the Not so Happy El Paso shout out to the Underground Railroad just by reading the passage, because now I was able to go into a little bit more detail about Won Kim Ark and his story and how El Paso played into his story, sadly. But that is that, so let's go ahead and get into the actual episode.
Speaker 1:So Our Towns by James and Deborah Fallows was first published in 2018. And James and Deborah Fallows traveled all over the United States for five years in their little airplane and the majority of this book for four of those five years. It takes place in 2013, 14, 15, and 16. So all of these things happened pre-Trump first go-around as president. But, yeah, they visited lots of different towns and they met with different civic leaders and environmentalists, artists, public servants, librarians, business people, city planners, students and entrepreneurs to find out what these cities who are not as well-known or hardly ever make national news or are even on people's radars, and find out what they're doing to fix the problems in those towns. The people they interviewed talked about the problems within their town, whether that be just different economic issues a lot of people left because a plant shut down and so there wasn't as much revenue coming in or whether that be opioid kind of issue just different things that every one of these cities was facing, as well as what solutions they're coming up with to fix these problems.
Speaker 1:So, yes, it mainly focuses on the different problems these towns had and the ways that they were trying to fix their towns and revitalize them and really get them growing and back to a place where it's a place they could be proud of. And a lot of these people, just like I, have a lot of pride in my hometown and will advocate for it endlessly in so many ways. Doesn't mean it's perfect, as I just mentioned in the dark piece of its history, but I still have a lot of pride for it. And so there's still people in these towns that you know an outsider looking in might say this place is a dump. These people have a lot of pride in their hometown and want to see it revitalized and grow into a place that other people can see the charm of it as well. So Our Towns. The documentary is from 2021, and it shows how different small cities and towns across the country are reinventing themselves economically, and the desire to change for the better can help people and the towns that they live in find a different path to the future. So, yeah, it's just one of those things, again, that it's a little bit hard to compare and contrast because they're more complementary of each other. So you can read the book and learn a lot about it, about these different towns, and then watch the documentary to kind of supplement what you just read about in the book.
Speaker 1:So I do want to talk a little bit about how this project came about. So, James Fallows is a journalist. He writes for the Atlantic and in 2011, he asked his. Well, I'm focusing on James. I honestly don't know if Deborah is also a journalist, but I know that James is a journalist who writes for the Atlantic. So I'm focusing on James.
Speaker 1:But it could be like a joint project from the beginning, the way this book is. But, yes, he started this blog post asking readers to share stories about their town and whether that be things that they're struggling with, any setbacks the town is facing, any achievements they want to highlight and these again are cities and towns that are often overlooked by the media. You're not really going to find them anywhere in the national newspapers or news shows talking about them, unless there was a national disaster or a mass shooting, anything like that. That's usually what brings them up to the spotlight, but otherwise they're largely ignored. And they received over 1,000 responses and that prompted them to want to travel all around the United States and actually get interviewed different people that live in these cities and find out how these cities are finding ways to grow and bring in that economic revenue to fix the issues that they might be facing.
Speaker 1:So this, as I said, this took place in over five years and the book focuses on 2013 through 2016. And on the inside cover of the books there'll be a map that shows which towns and cities they visited in and they'll be highlighted in a different color depending on what year they went. In 2018, they were joined by two documentary filmmakers, and I don't remember exactly how many cities, and I want to say there was maybe 20 cities, 20 towns that the book focuses on. Well, in 2018, the documentary filming two documentary filmmakers joined the Fallows to revisit eight of those cities for the purpose of this documentary. So the book, as I said, has about 20 towns.
Speaker 1:The documentary focuses on San Bernardino, california, sioux Falls, south Dakota, columbus, mississippi, east Port Maine, charleston, west Virginia and Bend, oregon, and the film kind of like the book has interviews with civic leaders, immigrants, educators, environmentalists, artists, students, just talking about their love for their town and ways that they're finding to improve them. So it's really interesting because the book focuses on the before Trump era and then the film focuses on the pre-pandemic era, so I'm really curious to see how all of those were affected by both of those things. Obviously, we take another visit to talk about how the pandemic may have affected these places, but one of the cities that's talked about is in Kentucky and the people in a particular town in Kentucky are very much aware that that city would die, it would just cease to exist without all the immigrants. This is a heavily Latinx immigrant population and the people that live there are very much aware that this town would cease to exist without the immigrants that live there, because no one else wants to work at the place that's bringing in the most jobs and income revenue without, like, the immigrants are willing to take on that job and the people that the non-immigrants are not willing to work there, and so they. This was a place in Kentucky that they visited in 2016.
Speaker 1:So at this point, trump had already started some of his rhetoric. You know, they're bringing rapists, they're bringing their criminals that whole rhetoric and so it was interesting to hear the people that live there talk about it and they, according to them, that rhetoric was not, um, they were not, that they hadn't heard that, because they had, but it was more of just like this, doesn't? It was basically like we don't see color kind of issue, like a answer where it was like, yeah, he's saying that, but I don't, it's not, it's not going to affect us here. Um, we don't think it's going to affect us here. So, uh, I'm just really curious how you know, uh, and the film doesn't really talk about that, but, mind you, the Kentucky city that I'm talking about wasn't one of the ones revisited for the documentary, but anyway, yeah, so there's that, and I will say that I really enjoyed so, yeah, so it was really interesting getting to see the different insights into these towns and what they're doing to improve themselves and the problems they see and how they want to fix them for the future and continue growing and expanding upon that city.
Speaker 1:And I will say there was something about Sioux Falls, south Dakota, that I just absolutely fell in love with, even while I watched the documentary before I read the book and even after reading the book, I was like I've obviously never been to Sioux Falls, south Dakota. I've never been to South Dakota let's start there but something about the way it was portrayed in the film and the way it was written about in the book, I was like I can see myself living there and it is another place that is heavily, that is, very immigrant heavy. A lot of the people that live there are immigrants and there's the things that they focus on are the unemployment centers and how they have so many people that speak different languages working at these unemployment centers so that they can help all these people who maybe don't speak English find jobs somewhere in Sioux Falls. And I don't know something about that, even like there was a lot of places that are very immigrant heavy. But there was something about Sioux Falls and I don't know something about that, even like there was a lot of places that are very immigrant heavy, but there was something about Sioux Falls, south Dakota that just made me be like I wouldn't mind living there. But I don't know, maybe I'll actually visit that place and I'll completely disagree.
Speaker 1:But yeah, sioux Falls is one of those places that really benefits from the fact that it's a big. It's a big small town, if that makes sense. Sioux Falls is still relatively small compared to, like, the big cities that you think of when you think of the United States. So it's, it's still a city, but it's on the smaller side, and a lot of the people that go to Sioux Falls actually live in the outer suburbs and so the outer suburbs benefit from Sioux Falls benefits from these outer suburbs, in that a lot of people travel into Sioux Falls to get a lot of their big shopping done, because they have like a big mall there and but it's, it's still really safe place to live. And you want a like, if you want the big city feel without living in a big city, sioux Falls is the way to go because you can live, like I said, in the suburbs and benefit from the big city feel without living in the middle of the big city. So I just wanted to give a shout out to Sioux Falls for that reason.
Speaker 1:What really struck me was the different ways that these places were finding of growing, and a lot of them do rely on immigrants, so that was really important. They also rely a lot on art Artists that fall in love with these places and want to keep creating their art there, and they find ways to make the city beautiful. Art matters I just want to say art matters, so there's that, and not just like visual artists, but like there's the people who are finding theater productions or dance productions to bring culture to these towns are also very important. So obviously those are things that really speak to me. And the other thing that really spoke to me was the libraries how much libraries are important to these towns, and I am a huge advocate for libraries.
Speaker 1:I'm about to get my soapbox and talk about libraries, because they are so. They provide so many great services and it is so. They are so important to communities, and it makes me sad that people don't realize how vital libraries are to keep a community going. A lot of people are like I don't read, so why do I care about the library? Because libraries offer all sorts of resources, whether you realize it or not. They are here in New York City. They are cooling centers. So if in the summer our summers are so unbearable sometimes and some people don't have air conditioners. You can go to the library and cool down and just sit there. And you don't have air conditioners, you can go to the library and cool down and just sit there and you don't need to have a reason for being there other than to cool down. I mean, you can sit there and read if you want to, but if you just want to sit there, you can.
Speaker 1:They provide computers and Wi-Fi to people who don't have those things. I don't remember which town they were talking about, but there is a town that is very much aware that people that don't have Wi-Fi go to the library to use the Wi-Fi and so, instead of shutting down their Wi-Fi at the end of the like, the library's closed for the day. Instead of shutting down their Wi-Fi the way other places do, they keep it on. And the Fallows came across students who needed the internet to do their homework, sitting outside the library on computers or on their phones, doing homework using the library's Wi-Fi. So it provides services like that.
Speaker 1:There's arts and crafts for kids and teenagers. There's arts and crafts for kids and teenagers. There's my library, by my apartment, has a manga club for teens. These are all ways to get teens out of the street and providing them a safe space and community to make friends and not get into trouble. There's free films that are shown there. There are language classes, there are business classes. There are also computer classes for people that don't know how to use a computer. There are so many things.
Speaker 1:In New York City we have the New York Public Library of Performing Arts and you can rent out a self-tape through them, a self-tape kit through them. So there are a lot of actors here. Being an actor is expensive. If you don't have the money to go out and buy everything you need to film a self-tape for an audition, you can go to the library and check it out for free. Like this is incredible.
Speaker 1:There's a library in a different town, mentioned in the book, that provides gardening tools and you can borrow seeds. And you might be wondering how do you borrow seeds if you're planting them, just like I was wondering. Well, you borrow the seeds, you plant them and all they ask is when your crop grows in. Just get a few seeds from your crop and give it back to the library so someone else can plant something Different, things like that.
Speaker 1:So I'm a huge, huge advocate for libraries, and it's not just because I spent so many Saturdays of my childhood going to the library and being read to by librarians and participating in all sorts of things, but they are just so important and people really truly don't understand how important and vital they are for all sorts of different reasons. And even if you're like I don't need, I don't have any reason to go to the library, like whatsoever, you say that now, but I'm sure something might pop up in which you might end up having to go to the library. But let's say you're just, you're just really like why I don't? I have have no reason, I don't go to library ever. You can still support them because maybe you don't need them but someone in your community does and it is so easy to support them. If you're like, you can always advocate for them. My, the New York Public Library, every year has a campaign where you write letters to the mayor, and this is, of course, every time the fiscal budget is coming up. Libraries are always on the chopping block for those things. Thankfully, they were operating under limited hours and, thanks to people really advocating for them, this year they have been able to expand their hours again, so they're open longer and available for more people. Now and I'm talking about the New York Public Library specifically Queens and Brooklyn have their own public library systems, but I'm sure it's the same thing for them.
Speaker 1:Every time I move to a new city, the first thing I try to get is a library card, and that is the easiest way to support your local library, even if you're like I'm never going to go, I'm never going to use this library card. The more people that are signed up, more they can say look at all these people that use the library. It helps. It's so easy to just sign up. It's free. It's literally free to sign up for a library card. So I know I went, I rambled on for a really really long time about libraries, but I'm just so passionate about them and this book just really really highlights why libraries are so important. And yes, that's all I'm going to say.
Speaker 1:The book and the documentary also touch upon high schools different high schools that have popped up, whether it be a high school that's focused on business or a high school that it's kind of it's technically still considered a high school but it's kind of like a trade school at the same time. So by the time you graduate, you have a license ready to go. Like, I know my, my high school was a regular high school, but we did have certain classes like that. So like our cosmetology class, if you took cosmetology, by the time you graduated, you graduated with a cosmetology license. Same thing with, like, our automotive class and our carpentry and electricity class. So it's it's kind of like that, except it's it's not a normal high school Like. These are specifically like trade high schools and these are more for students who maybe just aren't doing well in a normal high school setting and they need for, whether they're for whatever reason, just the normal high school setting isn't working for them. A lot of them thrive and like these trade high schools because they know that they're going to go straight into the job market, because a lot of these high schools also help them find jobs at the end of it. So, yeah, so there's different things like that that the book and the documentary really focus on.
Speaker 1:As I said, immigrants are another one. Immigrants are important, whether we want to. I'm not going to get into details about I'm aware that there is like a crisis right now and I'm not. I'm aware and that does need to be solved and I don't have the answers for how to solve it, but we also can't just pretend that they're not vital to the economy and whatever. So, yeah, so those are like just the different things that really stood out to me and about this book and and this documentary. And yeah, I wasn't really sure how I was going to talk about this episode because, like I said, there isn't really much to compare and contrast my critiques for both. I do have some critiques for both.
Speaker 1:I do wish that, since the film, since the documentary came out in, it was started to it came out in 2021, but it was they began filming it in 2018. I wish they kind of they had kind of touched upon how President Trump's first term was kind of affecting them, whether it be good or bad, just just to see Because, like I said, the book really focused on the pre Trump era and anytime there's a change in president, it's going to affect towns for better or for worse. So I kind of wish that and they might have touched upon it briefly, but it wasn't anything that like. I wish it had gone more in depth. I really don't remember them bringing it up at all, so like, if it was brought up, it was so small that I don't even remember them talking about it. So I kind of just wish we had gotten that, because they kind of start, like I said, since, like the campaigning for Trump was like at its highest in 2016, before he got elected the first time I just would have wanted and it didn't really touch upon other than that, one city in Kentucky talking about, like his words mean nothing here we don't notice what he's saying, which is kind of like very non-answer, and I understand why. Maybe they don't want to say anything, but it also wasn't explored further and I wish it had been. So that's my complaint in that sense.
Speaker 1:In terms of the book and the film and I will say the book, I wish it had touched upon some things a little bit more. It was a very overall optimistic view of these cities and these towns and it was lovely. But I don't know, I feel like I don't think that every single town mentioned would have been thriving or didn't have more struggles than were mentioned, and maybe they all, coincidentally, really didn't, but I don't know. There was certain things that felt a little disjointed or a little like ideas were brought up, but they were not all fully fleshed out, things like that, so I wish that certain aspects of the book had gotten into more detail about those things. So, that being said, I rated the film 3.5 stars and I rated the book three stars. So the winner is the documentary. Rated the book three stars, so the winner is the Documentary. Yes, I really enjoyed the. What I really liked about the book was that it focused on more than just eight cities. Like I said, the Documentary just focuses on eight cities, so I loved that the book featured a lot more, a wide variety of cities and, yeah, and I really enjoyed getting glimpses of these different places and how they're growing and what ideas they're coming up with and how vastly different they're.
Speaker 1:Choosing different towns. Some towns decided to focus more on the arts and culture to bring in more revenue and visitors. Some places focused more on technological advancements and trying to become more of a technological hub. Some places focused more on education. Some focused more on just really really pushing for the growth of their local businesses. I mean, all of them are pushing for local businesses, but each one was focused on something completely different and they were finding ways to thrive upon that and, mind you, there were like different. Like I said, they were finding ways to thrive upon that. And, mind you, there were like different. Like I said, they all did want to focus on local businesses. They all did have like an arts and culture section, but everyone focused on something different and tried to grow their town and revitalize their town in different ways. So I really enjoyed all those different aspects.
Speaker 1:That being said, I do wish certain things were fleshed out more. I wish the book was a little bit more cohesive. In some ways, there were definitely points in which we would jump from one thought so, since it was written by James and Debra, some sections would be written by James, some sections would be written by Debra, and so sometimes their thoughts were completely related to each other and sometimes they were completely different from each other, and so I kind of wish that there was a little bit more cohesion in that sense. What I really enjoyed about the documentary was that it focused on just those eight towns, and each of those eight towns touched upon the different things that I talked about. So, as I said, like Sioux Falls really focused on the immigrant population, one of the other towns I don't remember which one, but really focused on the library system they had there. So each town featured in the documentary was also kind of just like focused on different things and they also got to go a little bit more in depth than the book did in some ways. So I really enjoyed that. I thought they were both interesting and engaging.
Speaker 1:What I really I think it's a I do recommend both. The documentary does win just because it's a 90 minute. It's like the 90 minute Sparknotes version of the book and I think that's really all you need to get the idea of the thesis of the book. But if you are interested in learning more about different towns than the ones focused on the documentary, then definitely check out the book.
Speaker 1:You can also check out James Fallows' writings on the Atlantic. He has a lot of different articles that focus on cities that are not talked about in the documentary or the book. He has, like, different articles talking about like he has articles talking about Los Angeles, duluth, minnesota, boston, mass, washington DC, different, just different cities that were not talked about in the book. So you can also check that out on theatlanticcom and check out some of his writing if you want more of an inside look into different American cities and how they are growing and revitalizing. So that is it for this episode of Books vs Movies. I know it was a little bit different, but hopefully you still liked it. And if you liked this episode, please leave it a rating and a review and tell all your friends about this podcast. Thank you so much and I will see you next time. Bye.