Introducing Classy with Jonathan Menjivar

People like to pretend that class doesn't exist, but most of the time, we're just ignoring it because it's uncomfortable.

Classy with Jonathan Menhevar is a show about those moments when all that class tension becomes so big you can't ignore it.

Jonathan Menhevar is the host.

You might have heard him on This American Life.

He grew up in a working-class Latino family outside of LA, but now he lives on the East Coast, works in media, loves fancy clothes, and feels pretty conflicted about all of it.

So he made Classy.

It's a collection of surprising stories and juicy interviews where people talk about all the awkward, embarrassing, and strangely intimate things that class makes them do.

Here's a sample.

The other day I was at the dentist, and the hygienist, she was really scolding me for these tough stains on my teeth.

You know, she was like, this could come from drinking wine or maybe you're a smoker or having a lot of coffee

and then she says and the crowding isn't helping either

it's true my teeth are all jacked up in the front it looks like they're all huddled together trying to keep warm but when she said that all i heard was

Your teeth are crooked because you were too poor.

My parents did fine.

They were working class.

They had factory jobs.

But when it came to things like braces or SAT prep, music lessons, they were like, nah, we'll skip that.

So now I walk around with these teeth, this literal emblem of my class status stamped right on my face.

I see almost everything through this class lens.

It comes up all the time.

And my whole life, it just kind of sat there on my chest.

But I'm done keeping my toothy mouth shut about it this is classy a show about the chasms between us that are really hard to talk about but too big to ignore I'm Jonathan Menhevar

and this show it isn't just about me

when you talk to people about class they start confessing all kinds of crazy stuff she said you know for the house cleaner I hide the tag on the $6 bread because I don't want her to see that.

And I just thought, don't you think she knows that you're wealthy?

You know, like, you're hiding the tags from yourself.

My dad said your mom's going to be on TV, and then he put it on, and that's when he told me you have a sister.

Wait, that's how you found out?

I didn't even know I had a sister.

Whatever middle class we were, we were the middle class that was

you're also indentured servants to the builder who made your house.

The things people will tell you about class can be funny, awkward, embarrassing, dramatic, and strangely intimate.

There's like a certain body type that comes with somebody who has had the money to have a sport that they've played since they were in third grade.

Like rich, skinny, and pretty.

You may have money, you may have cars, whatever, but I'm flyer than you.

I dress better than you.

I look better than you.

And that became like the attitude that I had to tap into.

And what did you all eat?

You know, trailer food and shit.

I was like, girl, we're not doing that anymore.

And I learned it's possible to feel all of those feelings at once when I talked to my old boss, Terry Gross.

I so much like don't want to think of like class divisions within our show that I'm kind of trying to come up with all these other explanations.

So I think maybe I'm in a little denial about that.

Classy, a new podcast from Pineapple Street Studios, coming June 21st.

Do you feel like you have shifted classes?

Probably.

I've got a pepper grinder, so that makes me quite middle class now.