How far we've come — and how fast.
Crossing America once meant risking your life for months on end. Today it means picking a window or aisle seat. The story of how the United States shrank — and what that compression did to the American soul — is wilder than most people realize.
The average American home has more than doubled in size since 1950 — while the average family has gotten smaller. We gained the square footage, added the bathrooms, and filled every room with things we didn't used to own. The question worth asking is whether any of it made us more comfortable, or just better at accumulating.
A postcard once cost a penny. A long-distance phone call in 1975 could run more than what some people made in an hour. Today you can video call anyone on the planet for free from your pocket. The story of how Americans stayed in touch — and what it actually cost them — is a journey through one of the most dramatic reversals in modern life.