Adam Ruins the Suburbs

In this episode of “Adam Ruins Everything,” Adam responds to the myth that the Suburbs is the American dream because it’s the best place to live. Adam explains how the ideal mowing of your lawn is not all it is cracked up to be. He goes on to explain ultimately that suburban planning actually led to segregation of neighborhoods but also in schools. The specific ways in which Conover’s research punctures that myth is by including statistics on how much the average American negatively effects the environment and wastes water overall. He also begins to talk about the history of the making of suburban homes and the fascination of green lawns and the appearances of homes. 

            This form of research writing is focused on undercutting commonly held assumptions to kind of put stereotypes and prejudices in their place.  Many people have a lot of ideas that were put in their heads but don’t really know why they believe it so much. Adam comes in to educate the “misinformed” and made to say it in a way that was not intimidating, but also confident enough that you know he is stating facts. I believe that Adam chose to speak in that way and to add humor to make it easy to understand and to keep the viewers watching. I wasn’t too informed on the history of suburban homes and the deliberate goal to segregate the neighborhoods, New York Times investigative reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones explained this in the episode. She also said that in current times, there is still a lot of segregation in schools and with homeowners just because of race and minorities. We knew with her credibility that she has made many articles and a lot of research concerning this subject, so to me I was so intrigued to listen to her talk more about.