
What is America?
Hi! I'm John, and this is "What is America?" podcast. For the next year, I'm gonna drive around the country and talk to people about their lives. The goal is to help rebuild our broken politics. Wanna come?
Podcasting since 2025 • 13 episodes
What is America?
Latest Episodes
Ep 13: How'd we get so lonely? (Book Club - Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam)
How’d we get so lonely? Turns out, it wasn’t the invention of DoorDash 🤷🏻♂️🍟Over the last sixty years, the amount of time Americans spend on social activities got cut in half—down from 13 hours a week in the 60s to just six hours...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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25:26

Ep 12: She's been a nurse for 30 years—and watched our healthcare crumble (with Mari Walker)
For the last thirty years, Mari Walker has been a nurse in Northeast Pennsylvania 👩🏼⚕️💟She started out working in hospitals; since then, she’s also spent time in addiction and hospice care.When I asked her whether the US...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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1:10:03

Ep 11: Meet the 5x biotech entrepreneur from Iran (with Nasser Nassiri Koopaei)
How would you define the American Dream? 🇺🇸🤔How about this: You come up with a new way to target prescription drugs to specific kinds of cells in the human body. You apply for a PhD and get accepted. You do your research and file...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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1:05:57

Ep 10: What happened to Florida's education success story? (with Dawne Morison)
Crumbling classrooms. Plummeting SAT scores. Teachers near the poverty line. What happened? 😲Ten years ago, Florida's education success story was the envy of the nation. Thanks to the hard work of Republicans like Jeb Bush, Florida’s fo...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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1:12:34

Ep 9: The Russian-American student fighting for Ukraine (with Mikhail Mikhaylov)
It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the news these days—to give up and go into your hole. 🙈But Mikhail Mikhaylov decided to do something. He's a college senior at the University of Florida, a Russian-American student who's fighting for Ukra...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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1:04:08
