Tom McGrath was the editor-in-chief of Philadelphia magazine, as well as chief content officer of Metro Corp., the parent company of Philadelphia and Boston between 2010 and 2020. Under his leadership, the magazines won more than fifty awards for editorial excellence. In 2022, he was named Writer of the Year at the National City and Regional Magazine Awards. He’s written two previous books: “MTV: The Making of a Revolutio,” and, with John Basedow, “Fitness Made Simple.” He has a Substack, called Common Good. His new book is “Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation.”

Greg Olear talks to Tom about his new book, the Yuppie movement and what it portended to the country, Ronald Reagan and Jack Welch, and nostalgia. In the second half, they talk about how the media is broken, how it might be fixed, and how Gen Z could be just the folks to do so. Plus: media songs!

Prevail is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/greg

Follow Tom:
https://x.com/tmcgrathphilly

Buy his book:
https://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Yuppies-America-Eighties-Creation/dp/1538725991

Check out his Substack:
https://tmcgrath.substack.com/

Subscribe to The Five 8:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0BRnRwe7yDZXIaF-QZfvhA

Check out ROUGH BEAST, Greg’s new book:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D47CMX17

ROUGH BEAST is now available as an audiobook:

https://www.audible.com/pd/Rough-Beast-Audiobook/B0D8K41S3T

Subscribe to The Five 8:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0BRnRwe7yDZXIaF-QZfvhA

Check out ROUGH BEAST, Greg’s new book:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D47CMX17

ROUGH BEAST is now available as an audiobook:

https://www.audible.com/pd/Rough-Beast-Audiobook/B0D8K41S3T

Would you like to tell us more about you?
http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short