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USA Today
4 days ago
- Health
- USA Today
Insomnia is a global epidemic. How do we fix it?
On a special episode (first released on July 24th) of The Excerpt podcast: The question is: Why do we struggle to sleep? Jennifer Senior, a staff writer at The Atlantic, joins The Excerpt to talk about insomnia and what we can do about solving our sleep issues. Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Hello, I'm Taylor Wilson, and this is a special episode of the Excerpt. According to a report released by the American Medical Association earlier this year, one-third of American adults experience acute insomnia, an inability to fall or stay asleep for several days at a time, but one in 10 adults suffer from chronic insomnia. That's an inability to fall or stay asleep three nights a week for three months or more. The condition has potentially debilitating health impacts, including an increased risk of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and even car accidents. So the question is, why can't we sleep? Here to help me dig into the issue is Jennifer Senior, a staff writer at The Atlantic who recently went on her own journey to solve her insomnia and who shared her story in the magazine. Thank you for joining me, Jennifer. Jennifer Senior: Thanks for having me. Taylor Wilson: So let's start with I guess a 30,000-foot view of the issue. I know you spoke with a lot of sleep specialists, did a lot of independent research for your piece. Jennifer, what's the big picture here on American's trouble with sleep? Jennifer Senior: Right. Yeah. What's funny, I think the story was a little misnamed. I mean, this is really more story about, well, if you can't sleep, don't feel awful about it because there are so many shaming stories about people, whatever solutions people seek out. I do talk in the beginning about the way that the modern world absolutely conspires against sleep, that it just lays waste to your circadian rhythms. That people work two jobs, 16.4% of us work non-standard hours. If you're a white collar kind of professional, you've got these woodpecker like peck, peck, peck, incursions into your life all night and weekend long from your boss's work sort of never ends. I mean, we're just no longer yoked to the rhythms of the earth anymore. We're just part of this whirl of a wired world. Taylor Wilson: In the course of doing your research, was there something in particular that surprised you most about the problem? Jennifer Senior: I'll tell you what surprised me most, just generally. Whenever I interviewed any expert about this, and it didn't matter what species of expert, they could be an epidemiologist, they could be a neurologist, they could be a psychiatrist, they could be a clinician. Most of them said the same thing. There is a slight misconception that you need eight hours of sleep. There is some data saying this. There is another equally robust data set saying 6.5 to 7.4 is associated with the best health outcomes. Now it's very hard to tell. These studies are observational. They're not randomized. There was all sorts of confounds and problems with this, but this one study in particular had a million people in it. It's been replicated. There are plenty of people who believe this data and people vary. And over the course of a lifetime, your individual sleep capacity could change. In a funny way, that was what surprised me most. Right? This mantra, which is kind of a tyranny, get eight hours or else. Taylor Wilson: Well, you talked Jennifer about the modern world conspiring against us and our sleep, and I guess let's try to outline a few of the possible causes of what you call a public health emergency, right? What can you share with us here on this? Jennifer Senior: About other causes, you mean besides the kind of modernity itself and kids working on... Kids being assigned homework online, kids socializing online. I mean, adolescents are desperate for sleep. They're so hungry for it, and modern high schools and middle schools have them waking up preposterously early when their circadian rhythms are pitched forward. We've got a substantial sandwich generation that's taking care of young kids and their elderly parents. That's going to conspire against it. These are all immutable things. Also, there are elevated levels of anxiety now in our world, and anxiety itself is a huge source of... Or can be a source of sleeplessness, certainly can make one prone. So I mean, those are additional examples I suppose. Taylor Wilson: Let's talk through your story a bit here. When did you first realize that you had an issue with sleep? And walk us through your experience with insomnia. Jennifer Senior: It was 25 years ago and it was a very mysterious onset. I cannot tell you what brought it on to this day. It is a mystery. I had this extremely well-regulated kind of circadian clock. I fell asleep every night at 1:00. I woke up every day at 9:00. I lost my alarm clock. I still woke up at those times. I didn't have to buy a new alarm clock until I had an early flight one day, and yet sometime very close to my 29th birthday when virtually no circumstances in my life had changed one iota, I had a bad night, fell asleep at like 5:00. Thought nothing of it until they became more regular, and then I started doing all-nighters involuntarily, and I felt like I'd been poisoned. And to this day, I don't know what happened, but once that happens, the whole cycle starts to happen, then people suddenly become very afraid of not falling asleep and whatever kicked it off whether it's mysterious or known becomes irrelevant because then what you do is you start getting very agitated and going, oh my God, I'm not sleeping. Oh my God, I'm still not sleeping. Now it's 3:00 in the morning. Now it's 4:00 in the morning. Now it's 5:00 in the morning. Oh my God, I have one more hour, et cetera. Taylor Wilson: Well, you did write in the piece about the many different recommendations that she tried to solve your own sleep issues. What were some of them, Jennifer, and did any of them help? Jennifer Senior: Oh God, I tried all the things. This is before I sought real professional help, but I did all the things. I would took Tylenol PM, which did not work. I did acupuncture, which were lovely, but did not work. I listened to a meditation tape that a friend gave me, did not work. I listened to another one that was for sleep only that did not work. I ran. I always was a runner, but I ran extra, did not work. Gosh, changed my diet. I don't remember. I did all sorts of things. I tried different supplements, Valerian root, all these things. Melatonin, nothing, nothing. Taylor Wilson: You wrote in depth about one therapy that was recommended to you, and that was CBTI. That's cognitive based therapy for insomnia. Jennifer, first, what is this? And second, did you find any success by using this? Jennifer Senior: So cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, as you said, is the gold standard for treating insomnia. It's portable. You can take it with you. It's not like if you leave your sleep meds at home. The main tent pole of it, which is sleep restriction, which I'll get to in a minute, is very hard to do. I found it murder, the kind of easier parts, although they're still in a funny way, kind of paradoxical, are you have to change your thinking around this is the cognitive piece around sleeping and insomnia. You have to decide, okay, I'm not sleeping. So what? Now, this is kind of funny because there's this din surrounding us that says, oh my God, you're not sleeping. You're going to die of a heart attack. You're going to die of an immune disease. You're going to get cancer. All these things, right? You have to set that all aside and decide one more night's sleep that I can't sleep. So what? Right. That's one thing. You have to change your behaviors, deciding that you are going to consistently go to bed at the same time, wake up at the same time, all that, and not use your bed for anything other than just for sleeping and sex. The hard part and the most powerful part that I found it brutal was the part that said you have to restrict your sleep. If you had only five hours of sleep, but you're in bed for nine hours, you have to choose a wake-up time. Let's say it's 7:00 and then you have to go to bed five hours earlier, 2:00 to s7:00. That's all you can give yourself, and you cannot stop with that schedule until you've slept for the majority of those hours. That's very hard for a sleepless person. And then once you've succeeded, all you get to add on is 15 more minutes of sleep, and then you have to sleep the majority of those hours for three nights running. This is always for three nights running, and the idea is to build up a enough sleep pressure to regularize yourself. You basically capitulate to exhaustion and you start to develop a rhythm. I couldn't stick with it. I was so kind of stupid and depressed with sleeplessness by the time I started it that it probably was impractical and I refused to take drugs to help me fall asleep at the exact right hour, which many clinics recommend. If you're going to go to bed and sleep from 2:00 to 7:00, take something at 1:30 so that you fall asleep at two. But I was afraid of being dependent on drugs, and you can really wean yourself if you do it for a limited amount of time. You can wean yourself anytime really, if you're shrewd about it and if you taper. But I think that I would tell people to try it and to try it sooner rather than later, and to be unafraid of doing it in combination with drugs so that the schedule worked. Taylor Wilson: Well, I am happy you brought up drugs. I did want to bring that up just in terms of what experts are saying about their impact. Even just drugs and alcohol kind of writ large, but sleeping pills specifically. What did you find in researching this in terms of drugs and alcohol? Jennifer Senior: Well, there's a real stigma taking sleep medication, and I'm frankly a little sick of it. I'm not sure why this is so very stigmatized. Like, oh, they're drug addict. They're hooked on sleeping pills. It's framed as addiction, and no one says that someone is addicted to their Ozempic, even though a lifestyle change could perhaps obviate the need. No one says that they are addicted... Oh, that person is totally addicted to their blood pressure medication, even though maybe a change in lifestyle would help change that. Or that they're addicted to their statins, So I sort of bristle. And those who prescribe these medicines say like, look, if the benefit outweighs the risk and they're used properly, sometimes the real side effect is just being dependent on these drugs, and there's a difference between dependence and addiction. A surprisingly small number of people who take these drugs regularly, like benzodiazepines, like Ativan and Ambien and Klonopin, all these things, a surprisingly small number, like 7% increase their doses if they take it every night. So that's very small. However, there are cognitive decrements over time... Or not decrements. It can interfere with your memory and it can increase your odds of falling as you get older. And those are, to me, the real persuasive reasons to get off. Taylor Wilson: I want to back up a minute here to talk about something many may not be aware of, and that's that historically, at least in some eras, people used to sleep in two blocks. What do you know about this? How did this function and really why did this kind of sleep pattern work for some folks? Jennifer Senior: Well, it was sort of, I think, natural. It seemed that this is, and it has not been proven everywhere, but there's plenty of both historical evidence and also some in a lab by this wonderful guy named Tom Ware that shows that if you sort of just put someone in a room, 14 hours of darkness, what will happen is that their sleep will naturally split into two. They'll sleep for a phase, wake up for a phase, and then sleep for a phase again. And historically, there's all sorts of evidence that people would sleep for a phase, get up and read for a while, do some quiet things, do light tasks, maybe sing, maybe have sex, and then go back to bed. So there seemed to be two phases, and this was much easier to do when midnight was actually midnight. You were going bed when the sun had set, or just after were you were tethered to the rhythms of the earth as opposed to a wired electricity run world. Taylor Wilson: What is something you wish you knew when you first started on this journey? Jennifer Senior: To get on it earlier and to not be as afraid... Cognitive behavioral therapy is, I think, often done in conjunction with taking something like Klonopin or Ativan or Ambien, and I was so petrified of becoming hooked on them that I didn't... I refused to take them and I couldn't get my sleep to contract as a result of it. My body was so completely dysregulated and confused about it was so all over the place that I really needed something to regularize it and stabilize it, and I flipped out, and I think if anybody goes and tries CBT, I and their practitioner says to them, and I'm going to have to be on their recommendation, do this in concert with a drug, because you really need it. Don't sit there and freak out and think that you can't or shouldn't, because it happens a lot and people freak out a lot. Taylor Wilson: All right, Jennifer Senior, thank you so much for coming on the Excerpt. Jennifer Senior: Thank you so much for having me. Taylor Wilson: Thanks to our senior producers, Shannon Rae Green and Kaylee Monahan for their production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@ Thanks for listening. I'm Taylor Wilson. I'll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA TODAY's the Excerpt.
USA Today
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Opinion: What do you want your mom to know?
Opinion: What do you want your mom to know? | The Excerpt On a special bonus episode (first released on May 12, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: We're putting the spotlight on moms today, asking readers to share about why it's so important to honor moms or maternal figures in our lives. Forum is a series from USA TODAY's Opinion team, dedicated to showcasing views from across the political spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on. If you'd like to weigh in on a different topic, you can find more questions at And if your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Michael McCarter: Hello, and welcome to The Excerpt. Yesterday was Mother's Day, so today on Forum, we're sharing what our readers wanted to share about their moms. I'm Michael McCarter. I lead the opinion sections of Gannett, the parent company of USA TODAY. This is a special bonus episode of the Excerpt, highlighting a series from USA TODAY's Opinion Team called Forum. Here's what you told us. Ariel Mitsch: My favorite Mother's Day tradition is probably the ones that I've started with my children and my mom now. Instead of us getting a hanging plant or just buying something, my daughter really likes to make certain things. So just the other day, we painted her a canvas of mountains. So I try to incorporate things that are handmade because I know my mom is really sentimental, and I am too. Michael McCarter: That's Ariel Mitsch, a 35-year-old who lives in Lowell, Indiana. Even when it's hard work, she's grateful for the relationship she has with her mom. Ariel Mitsch: I would just like to tell my mom that I appreciate her, that I acknowledge all the things that as mothers we do that go unnoticed. But being a mom now, I see it, I totally see it, and I thank her for everything she did for me. I think it's important to honor moms because we do so much, and most of the time, we're putting ourselves last, and I don't think we realized what kind of toll that takes on us until later. Our mothers are everything, it's how we become who we are. So I know how much of an effect everything I say and do is affecting my kids, and I want to be a good role model for them, just the way my mom was. I'm just so grateful and thankful for my mom and the relationship that we have. We worked hard to get it, it's not something that came easy all the time. No mom is perfect, we are all just trying to do the best that we can. This Mother's Day, I just want everyone to know how much we're appreciated, even if our kids and our husbands and our family can't say it, but I know how much they appreciate everything we do. Michael McCarter: Andrea Markel lives in Danbury, Connecticut, and she's 33 years old. She shared that she's pulling for her mom to head down a different path than the one that she's on. Andrea Markel: I believe being a good mother is probably the most challenging task in the world. Absolutely, we should honor our mothers for taking on such a tremendous and incredibly important task. I would like to tell my mother that there is always time to change your course for the next chapter of your life. My mother has struggled throughout her life with alcoholism, I struggled with pretty much a wide range of substance abuse, alcohol and drug use myself. There's always time. There's always time. It doesn't matter what your age, where you are, you can always change the course of direction in your life. It is not easy, but it is absolutely feasible, very, very possible. I am a living example of that. I started using drugs probably when I was 14. I haven't used drugs in at least eight years, and I just like to let my mother, all addicts, all women, know it is possible. It may feel very, very impossible, but it can be done, and the world is just waiting to see you shine. Michael McCarter: 41-year-old Ashley Leonard is from Memphis, Tennessee. Her message to her mom is simple, she loves and appreciates her. Ashley Leonard: It's a big deal for women to know as a mom, "You're doing a great job, we're here for you for whatever you need." And that's my mom. That's her top thing, she's very active. She has always been there for me every step of the way, all of my 41 years, helping me with my kids. My mother's gift, one year, she gave me, at the time, 15 gifts, one for each year... I was a mother, and my daughter at the time was 15 years old, so I had a gift for every year. So I just really want to let her know that I love her, I appreciate her, I haven't forgotten about her. I think about her all the time. I worry about her all the time. For as a mom, she's great. She's awesome. I don't even know... I don't have all the words for it. She's just the greatest mom ever. It's very important for moms to know they're being seen, their work is not going unnoticed. Like I said before, as a mother, it is very hard, challenging, with kids of all ages, every stages. So just mainly making sure moms are seen, making sure moms are known they're appreciated, let them know any token would help. Michael McCarter: Meta Marie Griffin is 55 and lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She says that as she's grown older, she's come to see her mom in a different light. Meta Marie Griffin: I'd like to thank her for being a good model. It was hard when we moved back to Spartanburg, and she worked full time, and went to school, I didn't think she was any fun. But I learned the importance of getting an education, because she used to say, "It's a man's world," and I have to work harder. It was such a transition because we had lived in a nice neighborhood, and then when my mom divorced, we moved back into the house she grew up in, and my grandmother owned it at the time, and it took a lot of work. And she still lives there now, and it's a major difference, if you see the pictures. I know sometimes, my mom says I wasn't a good mother, and sometimes, our moms, maybe they feel guilty, they weren't there enough, but it's important to appreciate what they've done, and they are important role models in our lives. Michael McCarter: That's all we have for today's episode. This is a co-production with the Forum team at USA TODAY, where we invite our readers to weigh in, in writing, on a national topic of interest. If your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. There's a link to Forum in the show description. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Thanks for listening. I'm Michael McCarter, Vice President of the Gannett Opinion Group. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.
USA Today
16-04-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Opinion: Is President Trump using executive orders effectively?
Opinion: Is President Trump using executive orders effectively? On a special bonus episode (first released on April 14, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: We asked: What do you think of President Donald Trump's use of executive orders - and the use of them by presidents in general? Forum is new series from USA TODAY's Opinion team, dedicated to showcasing views from across the political spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on. Today you'll hear from a few folks about how they view the more than 100 executive orders that Trump has pushed forward. If you'd like to weigh in on a different topic, you can find more questions at And if your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Michael McCarter: Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Michael McCarter, vice president and group editor of the opinion sections of Gannett, the parent company of USA Today. This is a bonus episode of the Excerpt highlighting the series from USA Today's opinion team that's known as Forum. It features views from across the political spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on. Today we're hearing from a few folks about their feelings on how President Trump has used executive orders. Since entering office, Trump has signed more than 100 executive orders and shows no signs of letting up. Is there a right amount? Let's listen to what a few people in different places from across the country had to say. Kelly Kanetkar: As soon as another president comes in, they're going to write new executive orders, and so they're going to upend anything that has already been done, which President Trump has been doing. He's upended a lot of things, and now when a new president comes in, he or she will do the same thing and it's just going to continue to happen over and over. Michael McCarter: Kelly Kanetkar is 58 and lives in Beaumont, Texas. She wants to see Congress do more legislating. Kelly Kanetkar: There is a process in place for creating laws and those kinds of things, and executive orders I think should be used sparingly. Do I think that President Trump is using his executive orders for the right things? Definitely not. I'm particularly incensed about the executive orders getting rid of DEI because I just think that that is something that a lot of people don't even understand. They don't even really know what diversity, equity, and inclusion mean, and they're using it as quotas, which has nothing to do with that, so that's been a real frustration for me. Other executive orders related to the environment or related to tariffs, those things are I think really wrecking havoc on our country right now. I definitely think Congress should be doing more. That's their job. They're supposed to be creating the laws and making the laws, and the politicians have just completely taken a back seat, and I think that is bad precedence going forward because we have this system of checks and balances, and if we get rid of that, then we are, I think going more towards, and I hate to say it, but a dictatorship. I would like to see President Trump focus more on creating jobs for people in the U.S., yes, but not in the way that he's doing it. I would also like to see him focus on immigration, but by encouraging Congress to pass laws that make it easier for people to come to the U.S. legally and have more of a compassionate attitude towards it and do the jobs they're already doing for us. Michael McCarter: Justin Kuchar lives in Coweta, Oklahoma. He supports some of Trump's actions, but he's concerned about the legal authority of the executive orders and whether they will hold up in court. He's 48. Justin Kuchar: I think Trump has the right issues he's looking at with executive orders. I think we're in a time where we might not be in kinetic war, but we're in economic war, we're in technological war, and China's influence is growing throughout the world, and that's at our southern border now. Mexico is purchasing Chinese and Russian weapons. Those are just some alliances that I think need addressed, and so I think he's doing a good job at that. The problem with it is Congress has a role in declaring war and those types of things, and I'm not sure what authorities the president is operating under for some of those executive actions. I think Congress needs to be doing much more through legislation. The legislative needs to lay out clear and concise authorities for the President and not just the President for the judicial as well, and they need to be a lot more active, and that can be really challenging when you have narrow splits in the House and the Senate. I think with the challenges of the world right now, we are at war and I think that Trump is trying to do some of the things that you would do in wartime maybe without some of the authorities the Congress is responsible to lay out. I think that Trump needs to be more clear instead of trying to sunshine and rainbows everything, I think he needs to be clear with the American people exactly where we stand with China and Russia and Iran and Mexico and Canada. Michael McCarter: Then there's Craig Markowitz, a 52-year-old from Port Jefferson Station, New York. Craig thinks President Trump is using executive orders excessively to bypass Congress. Craig Markowitz: I believe that President Trump is relying too much on executive orders to enact his agenda. While I think some of them are good, I do feel that a lot of them are being done without Congress's approval, especially when it comes to cutting aid or funding from things that were appropriated by Congress, and it is Congress who has the power of the purse and they're the ones who should be deciding whether or not those funds are paid out or whether or not they're cut back. Presidents are starting to use them more to enact their agenda and bypassing Congress and the legislature to get their agendas pushed through, and I think you're seeing that a lot now, especially with the fact that a lot of the executive orders that President Trump has put through are being challenged in the courts. They were challenged in the courts under Biden as well things like the refunds for the student loans, so if you're doing things to take away money or give money, that's not the President's job, and to do it with executive orders is the wrong way to go about it. I don't believe that President Trump is focusing on the right issues when it comes to executive orders. Yes, he campaigned on removing wokeness as they're using that term from the government and from the country, but he also campaigned on lowering grocery prices and he campaigned on keeping the border safe, but I think that most Americans are now feeling the pinch of grocery prices, especially now recently with the tariffs that he's enacted. He's just not seeing what the people are seeing, and he's focusing more on other issues than what most Americans are feeling. Michael McCarter: Drew Taylor, who is 61 and lives in San Antonio, Texas, thinks that executive orders should align more closely with legislative actions. Drew Taylor: I think we've got immigration kind of under control, but I'm worried about these deportations and that seemed kind of haphazard as far as the lack of the review, I guess, of these cases. It just seems like they were rounding up people as quickly as they can. I think a lot of people in Texas, no matter what side of the aisle you're on, we appreciate the fact that Congress probably should be getting some more resources down here if we're going to enforce these border and immigration laws, but a lot of these things seem to be kind of a smokescreen to other things. I want to see Congress write laws that don't give the executive branch so much leeway and how to enforce them. If we're going to write a law about how the border is managed, then that's how the border should be managed, and it shouldn't be saying, "Here's our immigration law, Mr. President, go enforce it." I think the laws need to be a little bit more specific or more specific for the executive branch to follow. It's just such a pendulum we have. It seems like one president doesn't want to enforce these laws and another president does, and that to me that shouldn't be allowed. They have to be enforced. That's why we write the laws. I'm not saying President Biden necessarily did a bad job, but it seems like we kind of went the other way than Trump wanted to, I don't know. It's been really confusing on and how one president can come in and just enforce the laws one way and another president can do it a totally different way. Michael McCarter: That's all we have for today's episode. This is a co-production with the Forum team at USA Today, where we invite our readers to weigh in writing on a national topic of interest. If your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. There's a link to Forum in the show description. Let us know what you think about this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Thanks for listening. I'm Michael McCarter, vice president of the Gannett Opinion Group. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.
USA Today
25-03-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Opinion: What do you think of how Trump's handling our economy?
Opinion: What do you think of how Trump's handling our economy? | The Excerpt On a bonus episode (first released on March 24, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: Trump and Republicans campaigned aggressively in 2024 on the economy. So now that he's in office, we asked: do you think that President Trump is doing enough to fix the economy? Do you think grocery prices will rise or go down? Forum is a new series from USA TODAY's Opinion team, dedicated to showcasing views from across the political spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on. Today you'll hear from a few folks detailing their opinions on the economy. If you'd like to weigh in on a different topic, you can find more questions at And if your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Michael McCarter: Hello and welcome to the Excerpt. I'm Michael McCarter, Vice President and Group Editor of the Opinion Sections of Gannett, the parent company of USA TODAY. This is a bonus episode of the Excerpt highlighting the new series from USA TODAY's opinion team that we're calling Forum. It's a weekly space dedicated to showcasing views from across the political spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on. Today we're hearing from people about how they feel the economy is being handled by President Donald Trump. Trump and Republicans campaigned aggressively in 2024 on the economy. So now that he's in office, do you think that President Trump is doing enough to fix the economy? Do you think that grocery prices will rise or go down? Here's what some readers told us. Allen Maricle: Actually, they're getting lower. I just bought a dozen eggs for 2.89. It was almost $6 or something like that, close to that, about not more than a little over a month ago. Michael McCarter: Allen Maricle is 62 and lives in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. Allen Maricle: And I see it getting lower. I guess when you get outside of an urban area. I live close to Louisville, but I live in Shepherdsville, which is about 25 miles, something like that, south of Louisville, and everything's much cheaper. Gas, everything. Jobs are coming back, around here especially, we've got some pretty big companies that's moved in. The only problem that I've seen that when it comes to layoffs is the bourbon industry, which I'm right in the middle of it. Okay. I think the terrorists has hurt them really bad, and you've noticed that they've laid off some people in Louisville, not where I'm at, but in Louisville, I think that's going to be tough on the industry. Economies go up and down. It doesn't matter who is president. You just got to understand how the situations are going. Are the terrorists going to hurt us down the road? Could be. It's just going to depend. Truly going to depend on how things go in the next six months. I've always said this, give a president one year and we'll see how it goes. I feel that we need to get, and I'm thinking of my grandchildren. I'm thinking of my great-grandchildren. We got to get our house in order because we keep doing this, borrowing money and everything like that. It's going to hit us. It's going to hit hard. But I always tell my television folks, if you really want to hear what the people think, go to the bars, go to the restaurants, go to places where people, park or whatever, and ask them the questions they're going to tell you. Michael McCarter: 54-year-old Jennifer Miller has a different opinion. She lives in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Jennifer Miller: Well, the one that I've paid attention to is the cost of eggs over the last several weeks. They used to be under $3. Now the cheapest I've found them is six. Costco even didn't have any eggs the last time I went to Costco, which is just, when is Costco out of stuff? Not since the pandemic. So they've kind of fluctuated. Every time I see it go down a little bit, that's when I'll buy my next dozen eggs. I expect them to rise further with the tariffs. A lot of our produce here, especially in the winter months, we get from Mexico, and I don't see how the tariff costs are going to not trickle down to consumers. It feels a lot like the pandemic in a lot of respects for me. I worry that costs are going to go up. I worry that there's going to be supply chain issues. I worry that our products are going to be boycotted. I don't feel great about how he's handling the economy. It feels very contradictory and in the sense that why cut 6,000 IRS employees during tax season? I would really like President Trump to focus on what the majority of us would like him to do. I wish he would listen to advisors who advise him that tariffs are not tax breaks. Tariffs do not save money. They cost money. They're going to cost us money. They are a tax. Given how contradictory his behavior is I have to believe that the purpose isn't cost-cutting. It's something else, and I suspect that it's serving him and his own greed and his oligarch's greed, and it's just going to screw most of us every day Americans. Brenda Wilson: Some things are high, some things aren't. Michael McCarter: That's Brenda Wilson, who's 67 and lives in Bluffton, South Carolina. She told us it's just too early to see a difference in the economy. Brenda Wilson: They're just normal to me in the sense of nothing's so exorbitant that you couldn't buy them. Eggs still a big deal. I know they're on their way down, but they'll get there. I believe grocery prices will start to come down. With the economy, I feel like I think we have to be patient. There are a lot of changes going on, and I think that we have to let some of those changes play out, in a new administration two months is hardly enough time for any type of policy to really take effect. So I am patient. I'm waiting, but I just want to give some of the benefit of the doubt and more time to see where everything goes. President Trump is a force of nature. He's an interesting person because he's a businessman. I think he's handling it the Trump way. His strong suit as a businessman is that he has tough skin and he's just going to plow through there and say, let's get it done. Just like any businessman, person, woman, or man, wouldn't matter, if you're in a business and you've got to see how to get something done you've got to get it done. So I'm okay with how he's doing it. I just feel like we have to, again, wait and see. For me, getting the debt down, getting the spending and stuff in order, I think that impacts everyone, and I think that would be what I really, I think he's trying to focus on that, and that's what I'd like to see improve. Michael McCarter: Larry Mays, who lives in Erie, Pennsylvania, said that he wants to see more support for small businesses. He's 75. Larry Mays: The grocery prices here seem to be doing what I think typically happens in most economic periods where inflation is in place, which is they simply go up because they can, and they rise substantially more than makes sense. So in other words, if a product is $6, it doesn't go up 4% to 6.24, it goes up to 6.75 because the manufacturer of the product can, and they want to get the whole bite of the increase up all at the same time. So I'm actually stunned personally by how much grocery prices have increased. I'm glad that I'm not raising our family of three children anymore because I don't know how people can afford it. I'm not feeling good about the economy at all. There are way too many indicators that are coming to me as a small business owner that tell me as it has been for the last couple of years in particular, things are not improving or they're not as good as people think they are. There's no way to feel good about the economy based on the evidence I deal with every day. And then the second component is the chaos that has been unleashed on the American economy by the change in the administration. We hear the President and everybody in the administration saying that they're trying to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and the approach that's being taken is to simply tear down everything. Simply eliminate bodies like it's a body count is all that matters. So I asked the following question, what's the plan for after we tear down and destroy the American system of government? What's next? I don't think there's a possibility on God's green earth that the current administration has any interest whatsoever in actually fixing any of the problems that the small business owners of America face. Unadulterated non-stop chaos is not an environment in which a small business can be successful, and we're seeing the results of that already, and I personally expect them to get worse. Michael McCarter: That's all we have for today's episode. This is a co-production with the Forum team at USA TODAY, where we invite our readers to weigh in writing on a national topic of interest. If your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. There's a link to forum in the show description. Let us know what you think about this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Thanks for listening. I'm Michael McCarter, Vice President of the Gannett Opinion Group. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of the Excerpt.
USA Today
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Be inspired! USA TODAY's Women of the Year share their stories.
Be inspired! USA TODAY's Women of the Year share their stories. | The Excerpt On a bonus episode (first released on March 3, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY's Women of the Year recognizes women who are making a significant difference in their communities and across the country. A paralympian, tv host and astronaut are just a few of the honorees who describe in their own words what motivates them most on this bonus episode of the Excerpt. We hope you find their stories as inspiring as we do. To learn more about all of the women honored this year, you can visit Have feedback on the show? Please send us an email at podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Zulekha Nathoo: Hello, and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Zulekha Nathoo, and this is a bonus episode of The Excerpt. USA TODAY's Women of the Year recognizes women who are making a significant difference in their communities and across our country. On today's special episode, we're bringing you stories from our 2025 honorees. We hope you find their stories as inspiring as we have. First up, former Today Show host, Hoda Kotb on her choice to make a big change; a pivot away from the anchor desk. Hoda Kotb: Because I turned 60, I was like, "Well, what's that decade going to be about?" And I thought to myself, "Let's make it something different." Zulekha Nathoo: And with that, Kotb announced she was leaving the Today Show after more than 25 years with NBC. Hoda Kotb: Oh, love you. Zulekha Nathoo: Kotb has remained open about life's joy and pain, including challenges she faced with fertility after having cancer. Hoda Kotb: The idea of having kids came back a million times in my brain before things finally changed. Zulekha Nathoo: That change came more than 10 years later. Kotb adopted two girls, Haley and Hope, when she was in her 50s. Hoda Kotb: We come with knowledge and emotions and maturity that no 23-year-old has. I lost my dad when my dad was 53. Tomorrow's not guaranteed. If you're saying I'm not going to do it because maybe down the road I'll be an older parent. So what. So what, you're an older parent. Your heart's ability to expand is beyond measure. Zulekha Nathoo: And now that her mornings are free to have breakfast as a family and walk her daughters to school, Kotb says she's ready to soak it all in. Hoda Kotb: I love you. We all have a time pie and you slice it up, and I decided that my kids needed more of my time pie. I imagined cuddling up at the end of the day and watching my kids dance around. I just imagine like a regular old Wednesday, just like that. I didn't win the lottery that day. I didn't get an award. I didn't get honored. Nothing great, but it's just like the perfect day. Zulekha Nathoo: Our next honoree is US Paralympic track and field athlete, Scout Bassett. Deciding to pursue that international stage was a big risk. She lived out of her car and on friends' couches to make ends meet while training. But in 2016, she made it to the Paralympics in Rio. Scout Bassett: In that moment, it wasn't tears of sadness, but of just incredible gratitude of like, "Oh my gosh, we've done it. We've made it, and how unlikely this story has been." Zulekha Nathoo: Today, she holds the world record in Women's 400 meter T42 and the American record in Women's 200 meter T42. Scout Bassett: One of the interesting things about disability and the narrative that has been told, in particular about women with disabilities, is that women with disabilities are perhaps less attractive or less desirable or not as beautiful because there is a very visible imperfection or a flawed deficiency. And for me, that's something that I'm hoping to continue to change those perceptions and the stories that are told. Zulekha Nathoo: Outside of sports, Bassett is dedicated to breaking down barriers that prevent athletes with disabilities from reaching their full potential. Scout Bassett: I know that just existing, just by being recognized in this way, that somebody else is going to see it and get a glimmer of hope, or some young girl is going to read it or see these photos and think, "Okay, I have a future. I'm going to be okay." Zulekha Nathoo: Our next honoree has a similar motivation to Bassett, to inspire young people to follow her lead. Commercial astronaut, Kellie Gerardi wants to show them, especially young girls, that they belong in STEM fields, like space exploration. Kellie Gerardi: My entire career has been underpinned by this mission of wanting to open up access to space for the next generation, and especially for researchers to be able to use space as a laboratory to benefit humanity. I am someone who really personally believes that space is our shared past and our shared future as a species. Zulekha Nathoo: She grew up in Jupiter, Florida where she'd watch launches from nearby Cape Canaveral, basically from her own backyard. Kellie Gerardi: I felt like I had front row seats to the final frontier growing up, and it felt kind of inevitable that humanity would be moving in that direction. And I remember just wanting to be a part of that in any way. Zulekha Nathoo: Gerardi is also an author, fashion innovator, and mother. She documents her successes and challenges online, including the IVF journey she's on right now. Kellie Gerardi: I've struggled with secondary infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss for the last seven years since I've had my daughter. And having my daughter was also a struggle seven years ago. I wanted to just share a little transparency around what that actually looks like for so many women, and hopefully bring a little less stigma and a little less isolation to an experience like that. I have an update. So I got the results today. Only one is genetically normal and compatible with life. I have a superpower to be willing to fail publicly, over and over and over, because I'm going to keep putting my dreams out there. I'm going to keep reaching for them. I might not get all of them, and I might fail along the way, multiple times, but that's not going to stop me. And I think that is an underappreciated form of resilience for people who have big dreams. Zulekha Nathoo: Two-time rugby Olympian, Ilona Maher is another 2025 honoree who uses social media to tell her own authentic story, capturing both her successes and her struggles. Ilona Maher: I think a lot of times athletes, especially female athletes, are put in a box. I just think that's wrong. I think women are so much more than the stereotype of the sports we play. What's so special about rugby is that it is a sport that doesn't want you to, in any way, tone down your strength, your speed, your skill. It wants you to be as powerful, as fast, as you can. Zulekha Nathoo: She played sports throughout her life, but one stood out the most; rugby. Ilona Maher: I decided to try it out my senior year of high school, and I remember how I just understood it from the moment I got on the field. I kind of figured out and knew the spacing. I understood how to tackle, when to do what, and it just kind of fit my body like a glove. And I think I wanted to keep going with it because it felt so right. Zulekha Nathoo: Maher was relentless. She made it to her first Olympics in Tokyo, finishing 6th. A severe injury in 2023 could have knocked her out for the season, but she fought her way back to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and earned a bronze medal for Team USA. But it was her candid social media videos that captured the world's attention. Ilona Maher: I think it's just so impactful that these girls see me in that way, that they also see that I struggled as well, and they understand that I was also somebody who didn't always just love my body, but I've grown to love my body. And I think, hopefully this gives them the right or maybe the idea that they also can grow into that as well. Zulekha Nathoo: Our last honoree in today's bonus episode is United Way CEO, Angela Williams. She says that knowing how to mobilize communities for the greater good is in her DNA. Angela Williams: My parents worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. My dad was the head of the NAACP for the state of South Carolina, and he was pastor of a Baptist church. He wrote a letter to all of the clergy in Anderson, South Carolina in 1961, where he said, "Now is the time to be brave and to stand up for your neighbors." That lesson from 1961 stands true today. Zulekha Nathoo: She says her faith in justice and in one another is what keeps her going when the road gets tough. Angela Williams: I don't care how bad it gets, I always just have this smile on my face, and I'm hopeful. And the way I regenerate is through the quiet times, through my spirituality, by knowing that if we just all hang in there, we're going to be okay. And if you just smile at somebody, they can't help but smile back at you, and then that sparks that connectivity and building a relationship. And hopefully, as I smile and pass on joy, others will feel it and they'll pass it along. Zulekha Nathoo: Thanks for listening to this bonus episode featuring just a few of USA TODAY's Women of the Year. To learn more about all the honorees, you can visit I'm Zulekha Nathoo. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.
