Who impacts Ehrenreich have in the selection?

It all depends on which selection that you are referring to. Ehrenreich describes a $30 lunch at a French restaurant with Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper’s, who, when Ehrenreich casually mentions that someone ought to investigate the consequences of welfare reform by going out and trying the low-wage workplace “for themselves”, jumps on the idea and beckons Ehrenreich to take the dive.