This is in conversation from Apple News. I'm Shimita Basu. Today, what the lottery reveals about the state of the American dream. This is the largest Powerball jackpot so far this year.

The mega millions jackpot is now the mega billion.

There it is.

The new jackpot is now, wait for it,

estimated to be $1.3 billion.

Yeah, I said billion.

Why just bought my mega millions ticket a few seconds to go inside the gas station and let me tell you

lottery fever is contagious inside there.

Wow!

Congratulations, whoever you are, we'll find out soon enough.

Right?

Oh my goodness, check those tickets, check those numbers. We have a lot of winners right here.

What would you do if you won the lottery? Just this week the Powerball topped $2 billion. It's the biggest jackpot in world history.

A winning ticket was sold at a convenience store in Southern California.

And as a Friday, no one's claimed the prize but it's kind of fun to

imagine what you would do if that winning ticket was yours. Maybe pay off your

debts, quit your job, buy a beach house. Now as I'm sure you know, the

probability of winning the lottery is very, very extremely low. Your odds are about 1 in 292 million for the powerball and if you're playing

the mega millions your chances are even worse. Your odds of winning the mega millions are roughly the same as if you took an

ant put it onto four football fields and stab the fields with a needle. That's roughly

the equivalent odds of hitting the mega millions.

That's Jonathan D. Cohen.

...