
The Next Big Idea Daily What Kind of American Are You?
Dec 24, 2025
Colin Woodard, a historian and journalist specializing in U.S. regionalism, discusses how regional cultures influence health and politics, arguing our location shapes our life outcomes. Luke Schaefer, a public policy professor, reveals that America's most disadvantaged communities are often rural and historically marginalized. They highlight shared histories of exploitation and the impact of corruption on opportunity. Together, they propose rebuilding social infrastructure to combat challenges like opioid addiction, emphasizing a need for community resilience.
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Regional Cultures Shape Outcomes
- Regional cultures predict wide-ranging outcomes from politics to life expectancy even after controlling for wealth and race.
- County-level maps of elections, health, and credit mirror century-old settlement patterns, says Woodard.
Communitarian Regions Outperform
- Communitarian regions outperform individualistic ones on health, safety, and mobility metrics.
- Woodard cites stark contrasts: higher gun homicides and COVID deaths in individualistic Deep South regions.
Two Competing National Stories
- A long-running national struggle pits Declaration-based civic universalism against ethno-nationalist blood-and-soil narratives.
- Woodard argues the ethno-nationalist tradition has periodically seized federal power and resurfaces today.

