Over the past few decades, rising costs of living and housing in the United States have outpaced real wage gains, which have remained more or less stagnant despite consistent growth in worker productivity over time. All of this — together with rising inequality, the shrinking of the middle class, and the inability of unemployed or unhoused Americans to access the welfare that they need — has contributed to a growing sense of financial hardship for many Americans.

Watch the above 30-minute episode of America Speaks as pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks a panel of Black Americans to share their thoughts and feelings about whether or not the American dream can still survive in this economy. Dr. Luntz and the panel are later joined by John Hope Bryant, founder and CEO of Operation HOPE, who shares tools and guidance for achieving greater success in the American financial system.

American shoppers say they will spend a record high amount this year on holiday gifts and expenses, up 8% from the same time last year. While the holidays are meant to be a time of celebration, those with tight budgets can experience acute anxiety from the costs associated with travel, gifts, and taking time off work to be with friends and family.

Watch the above 25-minute episode of America Speaks as pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks Americans to share how they’re making ends meet this holiday season, what gifts they’re choosing when everything costs more, and why they believe the economy is worse this year than last.

The U.S. 2024 presidential election delivered a decisive victory for Donald Trump in the Electoral College and a narrow victory in the national popular vote. In the days after the election, social media was flooded with celebrations among those who voted for Donald Trump, but with alarm, anger and despair from those who voted for Kamala Harris.

Watch this 38-minute episode of America Speaks as pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks American voters to share and discuss who they voted for and why.

Election Day is tomorrow, and very few American voters have yet to decide which candidate they’ll cast their ballot for. Some of those remaining undecided, however, reside in a handful of key swing states, and their votes could ultimately decide who becomes the next president of the United States.

In this 34-minute episode of America Speaks, pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks undecided swing state voters for their final thoughts and opinions about who they’ll be voting for in the 2024 U.S. presidential race.

With Election Day just one week from today, polls are predicting an extremely tight race in the Electoral College between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Those projections have alarmed Democrats and pro-Harris Republicans, who continue to warn Americans about what they say are the existential dangers and national security risks posed by a second Trump presidency. And yet some Americans who previously voted for Joe Biden and/or Hillary Clinton say they’ll vote instead for Republican nominee Donald Trump in spite of these warnings. A disproportionate number of those voters are male.

With less than two weeks left until the general election, voters are focusing heavily on the state of America’s foreign policy. As dangerous conflicts and threats continue in regions like the Middle East, Ukraine, and China, many Americans are questioning whether the country is overextended in global affairs and foreign wars. Navigating these complex international challenges involves not only the American president and Congress but also the Department of State and the Pentagon.

In this 41-minute episode of America Speaks, pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz leads a focus group featuring national security experts formerly from the State Department and the Pentagon. These leaders offer their insights into the key global issues that Americans should be most concerned about right now.

There’s a wide range of social, political and economic issues facing Americans today, and some of those issues involve underlying structures and systems like Congress, the Supreme Court and the idea of capitalism itself. 

Capitalism has come under fire as income and wealth disparitybetween Americans continues to grow. The Supreme Court has come under criticism for allegedly demonstrating a sharply partisan political bias, even though it was designed to function outside of politics. Congress, meanwhile, continues to face familiar allegations of dysfunction, corruption and zero-sum partisanship.

Watch the above 27-minute episode of America Speaks as pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks Americans for their opinions on the state of our Congress, Supreme Court and modern U.S. capitalism.

Public opinion surveys show that 81% of American voters believe that U.S. democracy is under threat, and roughly 3 in 4 votersbelieve that democracy itself is at stake in the 2024 presidential election. While Democrats and Republicans sometimes provide different reasons, citizens on each side of the political divide report that they are deeply concerned for the future of the United States.

In this 24-minute episode of America Speaks, pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks a bipartisan focus group of U.S. voters to discuss their respective concerns for the future of democracy and America.

The vice-presidential debate between Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, was seen as a win by both sides. In contrast to the Harris-Trump debate, public opinion on who won the Walz-Vance debate was split evenly. With the November election projected to be a tight race in the Electoral College, it remains to be seen whether this will impact the outcome of the election, but both Vance and Walz succeeded in improved their image with the American public.

Immigration remains one of the top issues for American voterstoday, and the global refugee crisis as a whole ranks as one of the modern world’s top concerns. In America, as in other countries, the public debate ranges from how to accommodate new immigrants to how many immigrants should be allowed in the first place, and how those immigrants should or shouldn’t become naturalized as citizens of their new host nation.

Complicating those debates is the inability of U.S. immigration courts to process immigration and asylum claims in anything close to a timely manner, with some claims waiting a full decadebefore being processed.

In this 48-minute video of America Speaks, pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks U.S. voters how they think about immigration and what they’d like to see their country do differently in the years ahead.