Americans Should Be Happy, But They're Not

美国人本应感到快乐,然而他们并不如此。

What A Day

2026-05-18

19 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

It's rather obvious Americans have not exactly been … cheerful for the last few years. And it's showing up in the data – the General Social Survey, the Consumer Sentiment Survey from the University of Michigan, the World Happiness Report, and even the Federal Reserve all report that Americans are less happy than they were a decade ago. Whether that's with their jobs, the economy, the state of the world – no matter the metric, Americans are not having it. To find out why we're feeling down, we spoke with Derek Thompson. He's the co-author of the book "Abundance," and he writes a popular Substack called, well, Derek Thompson. And in headlines, President Donald Trump is once again threatening Iran via Truth Social, House Speaker Mike Johnson talks about the administration's priorities, and Taiwan's president stresses the importance of arms purchases from the United States. Show Notes: Check out Derek's piece –https://tinyurl.com/zzsjpf7a Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday
更多

单集文稿 ...

  • It's Monday, May 18th.

  • I'm Jane Koston,

  • and this is What A Day,

  • a show enjoying this response from former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg

  • to current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's corporate road trip reality show adventure.

  • Here's Buttigieg on CNN Sunday discussing the time he, too, took a road trip.

  • I love road trips.

  • I love America.

  • I actually took a taxpayer-funded road trip lasting about seven months.

  • It was in Afghanistan.

  • Sean Duffy, of course, never went to Afghanistan,

  • but he did spend time as a lumberjack before going on the real-world Boston,

  • where he compared a black woman to Hitler.

  • On today's show, President Donald Trump continues to threaten Iran via social media.

  • How presidential.

  • And Trump debuts a new superlative for one of his critics, the worst Republican congressman in history.

  • Place your bets on who that might be in the comments.

  • But let's start with happiness, or a lack thereof.

  • It's easy to say that Americans have not exactly been cheerful for the last few years.

  • It's even showing up in the data.