Dream On – PBS Premier on Friday, October 7th

Join John Fugelsang on his search

for the "American Dream"

Friday, October 7 at 10 PM EDT (check local listings)
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Viewer Guide

When you hear the term “American Dream,” what does it mean to you?

DREAM ON investigates the perilous state of the American Dream after decades of rising income inequality and declining economic mobility.  In an epic road trip, political comedian John Fugelsang retraces the journey of Alexis de Tocqueville, whose study of our young country in 1831 came to define America as a place where anyone, of any background, could climb the ladder of economic opportunity.  Following in the Frenchman’s footsteps, Fugelsang asks whether the optimistic spirit of the American Dream that Tocqueville popularized is alive and well in the twenty-first century, or whether George Carlin was right when he famously quipped, “It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

Watch the trailer for #DreamOnPBS premiering Oct. 7 at 10 pm on @PBS.  Check local listings.

See how the major party candidates stack up on issues of income inequality, healthcare, mass incarceration and more.

View short clips featuring these interviews:

• Lewis Hickson, of the Tumaini Homeless Shelter in Detroit, once the heart of the American Dream, now its starkest symbol of decline
• Olive Hendricks about his home foreclosure and activism around the housing crisis
• Kim Dowdy, of the Good Samaritan Health Clinic in Mississippi, and patient Geraldine Mendoza, about losing healthcare access

Plus online PBS exclusive videos

Experts on Income Inequality and Social Mobility – Don't miss these items at the bottom of the page: Fast Facts about Income Inequality and Social Mobility and Discussion Questions about Income Inequality and Social Mobility.

One of the interviews is with Barbara Ehrenreich who is a journalist most famous for her 2001 book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.  Ehrenreich went undercover as a low-wage worker and documented the unseen struggles faced by the working poor after the passage of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, otherwise known as welfare reform.  She is the founder of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, which promotes cutting-edge journalism about poverty.

Minimum Wage Isn’t Working for Atlanta-area Mom – Working a minimum-wage job and commuting up to four hours per day isn’t paying the bills of Atlanta-area mom Tina McCoy.  She receives government assistance through food stamps, Medicaid, and childcare programs.

Mass Incarceration and the Legacy of Slavery

Undocumented Immigrants Facing Deportation