# Americans Should Be Happy, But They're Not

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-a-day-96811/americans-should-be-happy-but-they-re-not
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-a-day-96811/americans-should-be-happy-but-they-re-not.md
Podcast: [What A Day](https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-a-day-96811)
Published: 2026-05-18T07:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://audioboom.com/posts/8904746
Audio file: https://clrtpod.com/m/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/arttrk.com/p/CRMDA/mgln.ai/e/284/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/audioboom.com/posts/8904746.mp3?modified=1779078224&sid=5166630&source=rss
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Duration seconds: 1158

## Resource

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

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## Transcript

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