Harvard Political Review: What inspired you to write your new novel, The Messy Truth, and what message are you hoping to get across to readers?

Van Jones: The book is really tough love for both parties. The last third of it is trying to point out practical, logical solutions that we can have in the country right now, with nobody stopping being a Republican and nobody stopping being a Democrat. I think we’ve gotten to the point where we think that the only way we can govern the country is if we have 100 percent Republicans or 100 percent Democrats in power. There is a real battleground, but there is also a real common ground between these parties: criminal justice reform, the opioid crisis, better education, and job training for our young people. People don’t know how to talk to each other anymore. We have resources in the book to have people watch each other’s documentaries, read each other’s books—left to right—so we can at least start having a conversation again.

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