About this episode
A trend that has troubled researchers for years is the rising "deaths of despair," particularly among blue-collar Americans. Opioids, for example, continue to ravage rural towns across America . According to data drawn from the U.S. Census , "The occupation with the highest suicide rate is Construction and Extraction … nearly 40% higher than the occupation with the second highest suicide rate." In addition to reflecting dangerous work conditions, tough economic prospects , and injury, a deeper problem impacts everyone from teens to seniors , those with degrees and those without: a culture-wide loss of meaning. As J.D. Vance put it in Hillbilly Elegy , "I knew even as a child that there were two separate sets of mores and social pressures. My grandparents embodied one type: old-fashioned, quietly faithful, self-reliant, hardworking." The other mindset Vance describes as "consumerist, isolated, angry, distrustful." The loss of a why leads to struggles with all kinds of whats . Without meaning, America is floundering. The answer is the One who never left us: the One who came that we " may have life, and have it to the full ."