Is the American Dream a real thing or was it just propaganda created to appease the masses? Or was it just a form of social optimism that came out of a nation going through the throes of massive technological change that reshaped the economy in ways that gave more people access to the middle class than ever before? Maybe the reason millennials don't buy it anymore is simply because we have normalized to the notion of meritocracy and our expectations are higher. We no longer think it's cool to have most people struggling to get by as long as some people can work hard and "make it," we now want everyone to have a baseline level of quality of life. 

In this episode, we talk to Mena Mohamed, an Egyptian-American who grew up wanting to be a dentist because she saw that career as a ticket to success, but realized later on that her true passion is creative writing. We talk with her about the immigrant experience of living "in the hyphen," how her perspective on what makes a successful career has shifted, and how our generation's conception of the American Dream has shifted on a larger scale in line with our generation redefining what success means to us on an individual level.

Mena's Instagram: @menaimohamed

Jeffree Star House Tour on YouTube [Isabel references this as an example of the modern American Dream in action]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHn5H9YdFWw

Music is The Beauty of Maths by Meydän.