Mary Elizabeth Williams is the host of Salon's Table Talk community, a blogger for Open, and a regular contributor to Salon. She's also the culture critic for Public Radio International's The Takeaway and the author of "Gimme Shelter: Ugly Houses, Cruddy Neighborhoods, Fast Talking Brokers, and Toxic Mortgages: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream[OU4] ." She lives in the uppermost reaches of New York City with her family.