Jeanna Smialek, who covers the U.S. economy for The Times, will be 33 in a few weeks; she is part of a cohort born in 1990 and 1991 that makes up the peak of America’s population.

At every life stage, that microgeneration has stretched a system that was often too small to accommodate it, leaving its members — so-called peak millennials — with outsize economic power but also a fight to get ahead.

Guest: Jeanna Smialek (https://www.nytimes.com/by/jeanna-smialek) , a U.S. economy correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• When millennials gripe that they get blamed for everything, the accusers might actually be onto something (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/02/business/economy/33-year-olds-millennials.html) .
• Millennials have the children, but boomers have the houses (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/realestate/empty-nests-millennials-boomers.html) .

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily (http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily) . Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.