How's ... everybody doing?

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What's one word you'd use to describe the 2025 economy? That's the question we fanned out across the U.S. with microphones and open ears. From street parties in the South to an L.A. bookstore to a boardroom in Denver, we listen for financial signals in today's economy.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:02.0	This is the indicator from planet money.
0:13.5	I'm Darien Woods.
0:14.7	We're at this uncertain moment for the economy.
0:18.4	And even Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week,
0:21.8	we're going to have to see how things actually work out. In other words, when looking at the near
0:27.7	future, even he doesn't know where things are headed. Here at the indicator, we of course have been
0:33.3	scrutinizing all the economic numbers, but these indicators don't always capture the depth of how people are thinking and reacting.
0:42.0	So, from coast to coast, we did something a little different for our show today.
0:46.7	We undertook some unscientific polling by interviewing as many people as we could.
0:53.3	We wanted to hear the human voices describing how today's economy feels.
0:59.3	Unsettled.
1:00.2	Getting better.
1:01.6	Evolving.
1:02.9	From street parties in the south to an L.A. bookstore to a boardroom in Denver.
1:08.1	Today we listen for financial signals.
1:10.4	It's an audio photo album of economic
1:13.2	snapshots from this moment. Are we overlooking the challenges facing men without college degrees?
1:21.5	Richard Reeves thinks so. There are a lot of guys out there who are actually poorer than their
1:25.6	dads. Reeves heads the American
1:27.5	Institute for Boys and Men. Have we updated our view about the role of men as quickly as we've
1:32.6	changed the economy around them? And the answer is no. That's from a recent Planet Money bonus
	...

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