Good evening. This is a special post-election live call-in episode of United States of Anxiety, which is a podcast in election

series that WNYC in the nation produced. It documents the experiences and

perspectives that informed voters in their choice for president.

I'm Kywright from The Nation magazine.

So, okay, the Obama era is winding down, like it or not, and it ends how it began

with widespread anxiety about economic opportunity and equality.

So in this hour we're going to try to take stock of where things stand as we move into a Trump administration.

But we're not going to look at GDP and stocks and that kind of thing. We want to zero in on the two big things that have preoccupied millions of people over the past eight years. Jobs and what happens in their absence, poverty.

So let's first lay down the markers for the Trump era.

A lot of people, myself included quite honestly, were really critical of how Obama dealt with the Great Recession.

Some say he did the wrong stuff, some say he did the right stuff, but not enough of it. But in September,

Obama got a report card that's pretty striking. According to the Census Borough,

over the last couple of years, we've seen one of the most remarkable recoveries on record and I just want to tick off a few of the big takeaways there because they're actually quite eye-popping.

From 2014 to 2015, median household income grew more than it has in any year on record.

That was true for all racial and ethnic groups.

And it was actually true, most true at the bottom of the income ladder.

Poverty also fell by more than it had since 1968.

And again, that was in all racial and ethnic groups and all demographics.

Now, the flip side is that we still have more people living in poverty

than any time since we began counting.

So what gives, what is all this,

what does all this mean in real life and here to help me answer that question

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