Sag Harbor' brought me a new readership - it's a coming of age tale about growing up in the '80s.

Even growing up the way I did, I was shocked by the level of poverty I saw as a college student. I thought the best way to understand it was to get close to it on the ground level.

I don't think we can fix poverty without fixing housing, and I don't think we can address housing without understanding landlords.

I teach at Harvard, and focusing on understanding this problem on a national level is a big priority of mine right now - where evictions are going up and down, what cities are actually instituting policies that work, what housing insecurity is doing to our cities, neighbourhoods, our kids.

My son is an inspired child, a very positive and happy child. The year he was born, he travelled 13 countries with us. I still remember he was so well behaved that the flight attendants used to thank him!

I always had an interest in wanting to act, but my family wasn't in the entertainment industry at all, and we didn't know anyone. We didn't really even know how you begin to crack that nut.

If parents could just get their children moving around in the most simple and fun ways - jumping in leaves, dancing to pop music, throwing socks in a laundry basket - they could be sowing the seeds of great habits that could last a lifetime. It is all about turning it into a game.

I don't come from an intellectual family.