The Great American Fun Shortage

The Great American Fun Shortage

July 17, 2026 · 14 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the mismatch between fun supply and demand in the US, highlighting the challenges faced by entertainment providers due to inflation.

There’s a historic mismatch between fun-supply and fun-demand in the US this summer. Americans are clamoring for places to relax and socialize. But the purveyors and conduits of fun — like airlines, theme parks, resorts, concert venues, camps and more — are all grappling with the same inflationary pressures as the rest of us — making fun more expensive and harder to access.  On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder talks to Bloomberg's Ben Steverman about why a fun shortage is a serious problem for society — and what can be done about it.  Read more:  The Fun Shortage Is Real, and It’s Making America Miserable We have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at  Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer. Hosted by Sarah Holder; Produced by Laura Newcombe; Reported by Ben Steverman; Edited by Naomi Shavin. Fact-checking by Rachael Lewis-Krisky; Engineering by Sean Carter. Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Host: Sarah Holder

Guest: Ben Steverman

Topics covered

Keywords

Sponsors

Bloomberg

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bloomberg, iHeartPodcasts, Bloomberg.com

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