Welcome to midlife, Millennials. Are you in crisis?

It's Been a Minute

NPR

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🗓️ 20 June 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

Many Millennials are either already in their 40's, or they're staring them down. Are they having a midlife crisis?

As this generation enters midlife, their lives look really different from their parents' lives: Millennials are more educated and have a higher median net worth, but the generation is also more unequal than previous generations, has higher debt, and lower rates of homeownership and marriage. How does that all shape what Millennial midlife crises are starting to look like?

Brittany finds out with Vox senior correspondent Alex Abad-Santos, who recently wrote an article about the Millennial midlife crisis, and Sara Srygley, research associate at the Population Reference Bureau.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The House of Representatives has approved a White House request to claw back two years of previously approved funding for public media.
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0:11.2	This move poses a serious threat to local stations and public media as we know it.
0:16.6	Please take a stand for public media today at goacpr.org.
0:22.6	Thank you.
0:26.5	Hello, hello.
0:28.1	I'm Brittany Luce and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
0:42.9	Thank you. culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. This week, we are connecting the dots between sports cars, the Great Recession, and crashing out.
0:49.9	I know, I know.
0:51.3	How are all of these things connected?
0:53.0	Well, we're going to find out with Alex Abad Santos, senior correspondent at Vox, and Sarah Shrigley, research associate at the Population Reference Bureau. Alex, Sarah, welcome to it's been a minute. Thanks for having me. Thank you for having me.
1:05.9	Okay, so you're both millennials, as am I. What does a millennial midlife crisis look like to you? Like, have you had one or
1:11.7	know people that have had one? Does going back to school count? Because I feel like everyone that I
1:16.8	know is midlife crisis involves some degree of a career shift or going back to school. Yeah, I think
1:22.4	that counts. Alex, you recently wrote a piece in box about the millennial midlife crisis. What does that look like in your life?
1:29.0	Pranee, do you even know how many DJs and wannabe DJs and comedians are in my life right now?
1:36.0	The improv classes are full.
1:40.5	Yeah, I will say, I haven't quite hit my midlife crisis, but there's still time. And like me,
1:45.8	a lot of millennials are about to hit 40 or are already in their 40s. So we might be seeing more
1:51.6	of them. It's funny. Even as we enter midlife, I feel like millennials still haven't shaken
1:58.2	some of the stink off of being considered entitled.
2:02.0	Like in the 2010s, as millennials were mostly in their 20s, the news media was flooded with
	...

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