Plain English with Derek Thompson
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Longtime Atlantic tech, culture and political writer Derek Thompson cuts through all the noise surrounding the big questions and headlines that matter to you in his new podcast Plain English. Hear Derek and guests engage the news with clear viewpoints and memorable takeaways. New episodes drop every Tuesday and Friday, and if you've got a topic you want discussed, shoot us an email at plainenglish@spotify.com! You can also find us on tiktok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Available episodes
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Oldest first
4 days ago
Why Americans are Losing Faith in College
Twenty years ago, higher education was one of the most trusted institutions in America. Today, confidence in higher ed is falling among every demographic: young and old, men and women, Republicans and Democrats, those who didn't finish high school and those with framed PhDs on their wall. And it’s not just attitudes. In the fall of 2010, there were more than 18 million undergraduates enrolled in colleges and universities across the U.S. Last year, there were about 15 million undergrads. That’s a decline of roughly 16 percent. In a recent essay for the New York Times, author Paul Tough, who’s published several excellent books about college in America, wrote: “Americans have turned away from college at the same time that students in the rest of the world have been flocking to campus. Why?” Today’s guest is Paul Tough. We talk about why a noxious stew of economics, culture, and inequality has turned a surprising number of Americans against college. Who’s to blame, and what happens next?
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Paul Tough
Producer: Devon Manze
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Sep 19, 2023
What’s So Great About Marriage?
Since the 1970s, the General Social Survey has asked thousands of Americans the same question: “Taken all together, how would you say things are these days—would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?” In the past few decades, our well-being seemed to take a nosedive. According to researchers, the decline of marriage seems to be the single most important explanation. Why is marriage the best predictor of happiness in America? Does marriage turn unhappy people into happy people? Are happier people just more likely to get married? Or is something more complicated happening? We welcome back Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, the director and associate director of Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest-running study of adult happiness ever conducted and the authors of the book 'The Good Life,' to discuss.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz
Producer: Devon Manze
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Sep 12, 2023
Why Is It So Expensive to Build Stuff in America?
We're in the midst of a great affordability crisis. It's not just the inflation crisis. It's a greater cost crisis of the last few decades. Everything that matters most in life—health care, housing, education—is getting more and more expensive. Why? One way to investigate this question is to look at the cost and speed of building physical things in America. We build urban transit more slowly than we used to, we build highways more slowly than we used to, we build energy infrastructure more slowly than we used to, we build skyscrapers more slowly than we used to, and we build housing more slowly than we used to. Brian Potter, the author of the newsletter 'Construction Physics,' explains the forces behind the great slowdown, why it matters, and how to turn things around.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Brian Potter
Producer: Devon Manze
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Sep 6, 2023
Fatherhood and What Americans Get Wrong About Major Life Changes
Derek is back, and ... he's a new dad! After several weeks of parental leave, he talks about what's surprised him about new fatherhood. Brad Stulberg, the health and science writer, returns to the show to discuss the psychology of major life transitions, why westerners—and, in particular, Americans—are so bad at dealing with challenges to their identity, and his new book, 'Master of Change.'
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Brad Stulberg
Producer: Devon Manze
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Aug 8, 2023
Experts Predicted a Recession This Year. How Were They So Wrong?
Today’s show is about what I consider the biggest mystery of the U.S. economy. Last year, economic experts predicted a recession in 2023 with more confidence than they’ve predicted any recession in decades. We ended up with what some people are calling immaculate disinflation: an economy with low unemployment, falling inflation, rising real wages, and narrowing inequality. Harvard economist Jason Furman joins the show to talk about why so many economists were so wrong and what their wrongness teaches us about how the economy works.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Jason Furman
Producer: Devon Manze
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Aug 1, 2023
Why Elite College Admissions Are Biased Toward the Superrich
Less than 1 percent of college students attend Ivy League colleges and equally selective schools, like Stanford and Duke. But these schools have an outsize influence on American life. Practically every Supreme Court justice of the last 40 years, 25 percent of the U.S. Senate, and one in eight Fortune 500 CEOs went to these schools. A new study on their admissions programs finds that they are heavily biased toward children from rich families. For applicants with the same SAT score, kids from families in the top 0.1 percent were more than twice as likely to get in compared to the average student. A coauthor on that paper, Harvard economist David Deming, talks to Derek about what his landmark study tells us about college, fairness, and the American Dream.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: David Deming
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jul 25, 2023
Oppenheimer: The Genius, the Film, and the Project That Changed the World
Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb,' discusses the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, the history of nuclear weapons, and the new film on his life by Christopher Nolan.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Richard Rhodes
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jul 19, 2023
How Hollywood Drove Its Business Model Off a Cliff
The trouble brewing in the media and entertainment industry has become one of the most interesting—and truly perplexing—business stories in the world. How does everything seem so bad at the same time? The domestic box office is still in a recession. Pay TV is a nightmare. Streaming is a money pit. And actors and writers are on strike. How did this happen? And could it get worse before it gets better? Today’s guest is Julia Alexander, director of strategy for Parrot Analytics and a writer with Puck News. We discuss a brief history of Hollywood, how we got to this point, how Disney’s plight in particular tells a story of how streaming has roiled this town, how the strikes fit into this picture, and what these companies should do now.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Julia Alexander
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jul 11, 2023
Americans Think the Economy Is Terrible. The Data Tell Another Story.
By many measures, this is one of the best times to find a job in decades. And by many measures, Americans are locked in a state of extreme glumness about the country. Jordan Weissmann, Washington editor at Semafor, rejoins the show to talk about why the economy is much better than many Americans—and many economic commentators—think, and whether "Bidenomics" can fix what ails us.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Jordan Weissmann
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jul 5, 2023
How the Digital Workplace Broke Our Brains
Calvin Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University and the author of, among other books, 'Deep Work' and 'A World Without Email.' At the heart of so much of Newport’s work is this incredibly rich mystery: Why hasn't the internet produced more geniuses? One possibility is that the productivity tools ironically inhibit our productivity. The average white-collar worker in marketing, advertising, finance, and media now spends up to 60 percent of the workweek engaged in electronic communication. In a recent survey, Microsoft found that video meetings had taken up so much of the day that a significant share of its workforce was logging online between 9 and 10 p.m. to finish their actual non-email, non-meeting work. In response to this relentless need to loop back and back and back, Newport came up with what he called the Deep Work Hypothesis: He said to learn hard things quickly, you must focus intensely without distraction. But the ability to perform this kind of deep focused work is becoming rare at exactly the same time it is becoming most valuable in our economy. In this conversation, we talk about deep work and shallow work, how our productivity tools make us less productive, and how to actually get things done.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Calvin Newport
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jun 27, 2023
What Just Happened in Russia This Weekend?
University of Chicago professor Paul Poast breaks down Yevgeny Prigozhin's rebellion, Vladimir Putin's weakness, Russia's military incompetence, and the long-term implications of Saturday's bizarre 36-hour rebellion.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Paul Poast
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jun 20, 2023
The Science of Procrastination—and How to Really Get Stuff Done
Today’s episode is the first in a new miniseries about getting stuff done. This episode in particular is about NOT getting stuff done.
I consider myself an exceptional procrastinator. There are many times when I sit down at my computer to accomplish one task—say, answer my email; write five paragraphs—where I’ll immediately get swept into a text conversation, which will lead to some snooping around ESPN, which will remind me I should check The Atlantic homepage, where I’ll open three articles in separate tabs, and those articles will birth even more tabs, but they’re long articles and I want some coffee as a companion so maybe I should make some coffee, so I listen to a podcast while I do that, and I might as well check Twitter while I’m listening to the show, and three hours later, I’ve written absolutely nothing.
I’ve spent way too much time thinking about procrastination, which is why it was such a pleasure to think out loud about it with an actual scientist: Tim P…
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Jun 13, 2023
Why Fertility Rates Are Plunging—in the U.S., South Korea, and Everywhere Else
Last year, there were 3,661,220 babies born in the U.S. That sounds like a lot. But historically speaking, it’s really not. It’s actually 15 percent below our peak in 2007. And it means America’s total fertility rate—the average number of babies a woman today is expected to have in her lifetime, based on current trends—is essentially stuck at its all-time record low. For decades, the U.S. birthrate has been below the so-called replacement level of 2.1. Today it’s around 1.6.
Sometimes, I feel a little weird talking about fertility and birthrates like they’re just ordinary numbers with decimal points, like monthly used-car inflation. Fertility is complicated. It is emotional. And it is private. But I’m fascinated by this issue because the collective private decisions of hundreds of millions of families really do shape the future of population growth. And there’s just no getting around the fact that population growth is one of the most important factors in determining e…
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Jun 6, 2023
Why So Many Young Men Are Lonely, Sexless, and Extremely Online
Today’s episode is about the state of men in America. Last week, the non-profit institute Equimondo published a report on the state of men and boys in America: “Many men—especially younger men—are socially disconnected, pessimistic about the future, and turning to online anger," they wrote. "They are facing higher rates of depressive symptoms, suicidal thoughts, and a sense of isolation, as seen in the agreement of 65 percent that 'no one really knows me well.'" One survey is one survey. It doesn’t do a lot of good to overreact and proclaim one set of findings the iron law of American sociology. But this report is in line with other polls and also with the analyses of experts like Richard Reeves, the Brookings scholar who wrote the book ‘Of Boys and Men.’ Richard is today’s returning guest. We talk about how complaining about masculinity is history’s oldest trope; why this time might be different; what young men think about feminism; the effect of social media on boys…
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May 30, 2023
How Hollywood's Writers Strike Could Change the Future of TV and Movies
In May of this year, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. For weeks, TV and film writers have been walking in picket lines in Los Angeles and New York, and the strike threatens to bring TV and film development to a screeching halt. Historically, strikes both reflect history—the ever-changing business models behind the media we consume—and change history. The 2007-8 strike famously accelerated the rise of reality TV. Today’s guest is Matt Belloni, the host of the Ringer podcast 'The Town' and a writer with Puck News. He breaks down what’s at stake for writers and studios and answers my deeper questions about how this strike could change the future of TV and film.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Matt Belloni
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 23, 2023
Why Youth Sports in America Are in Decline
In the last five years, high school sports participation has fallen for the first time on record. The number of boys playing high school sports today is lower than in any year since 2007. While travel leagues are thriving, local leagues are flailing—for football, soccer, baseball, basketball ... you name it. And this is happening, of course, in a decade when young people are spending less time in the physical world, less time with their friends, less time moving around, and more time sitting hunched over a phone. So what’s going on, and what should we do? Today’s guests are Jason Gay, sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal, and Tom Farrey, the executive director of the Aspen Institute's Sports and Society Program.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Jason Gay and Tom Farrey
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 16, 2023
The Future of War Is Here
Today’s episode is about how artificial intelligence will change the future of war. First, we have Brian Schimpf, the CEO of Anduril, a military technology company that builds AI programs for the Department of Defense. Next we have the Atlantic author Ross Andersen on how to prevent AI from blowing up the world.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Brian Schimpf and Ross Andersen
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 9, 2023
A Diet Conspiracy: Is Ice Cream Secretly Good for You?
Today’s episode is about a narrow question and a broad question. The narrow question is: Is ice cream secretly good for you? The broader question is about the nature of uncertainty and truth, how diet science actually works, and how bias plays a role in scientific discovery. Our guest is public health historian and journalist David Johns, who has reported on ice cream science for The Atlantic.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: David Johns
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 2, 2023
An Optimistic Guide to America’s Clean-Energy Future
The world is engaged in a multitrillion-dollar project to decarbonize the economy to slow or reverse climate change. But what exactly does that mean? How optimistic should we be that we can pull this off? And what new technology do we need to build to make it happen? This is a mega-pod with two guests. Ramez Naam is a writer, speaker, and one of the best technologists I know at explaining the progress we’re making toward building a clean-energy economy. And Vinod Khosla is one of the most famous venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, the founder of Khosla Ventures, and an investor in several sci-fi-sounding companies, including one that is working on fusion technology—which might be one of the most exciting and important technologies we'll ever build.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Ramez Naam & Vinod Khosla
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 25, 2023
The Most Important Thing Most Americans Misunderstand About Insomnia
I am fascinated by sleep and also—perhaps, relatedly—not very good at it. Like tens of millions of Americans, I've had trouble falling asleep and staying asleep for most of my life. I also know that sleep is the glue that holds together health—a fact that sometimes haunts me as I toss and turn at night. Behind the fitness and health fads, what's the truth about insomnia? How dangerous is it? When do we know when we have a problem? How is it different from sleep deprivation? What have we learned about sleep in the last few decades that's most important for average people to remember? Dr. Jade Wu, a behavioral sleep medicine specialist and researcher at Duke University School of Medicine and the author of 'Hello Sleep: The Science and Art of Overcoming Insomnia Without Medications,' explains how the modern panic about sleep and insomnia misunderstands some fundamental facts.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. Y…
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Apr 18, 2023
How American Cities Can Avoid the ‘Urban Doom Loop’
Today’s episode is about the future of the American city. Many downtowns are "wounded renditions of their once-robust selves." Offices are empty. Commercial real estate is losing value, pulling down municipal tax revenue. Fewer commuters means less transit revenue. Fewer downtown shoppers means less downtown employment. This has led some economists to worry about an "urban doom loop." Dror Poleg, an author and adviser who writes about the future of cities, talks about the knock-on effects of urban change on finance, work, real estate, and technology.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Dror Poleg
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 11, 2023
Americans Die Younger Than People in Any Other Rich Country. Why?
Today’s episode is about guns, drugs, cars, and a big question: Why do Americans die so much younger than people in any other rich country?
Before the 1990s, average life expectancy in the U.S. was not much different than it was in western Europe: Germany, France, the U.K. But since the 1990s, something very strange and clearly bad has happened. Americans got much richer than Europeans. But American life spans have fallen behind those of Europeans so dramatically that today, the typical American has the same healthy life expectancy as someone in the poorest town in England.
So what's going on? To unravel this mystery, today’s guest is John Burn-Murdoch, a data journalist at the Financial Times, who recently published a magisterial investigation of the American death gap.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: John Burn-Murdoch
Pr…
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Apr 5, 2023
How Strong Is the Case Against Donald Trump?
Derek talks to ‘Semafor’ political reporter Dave Weigel about how the Trump indictment could reshape the election—or turn out to be a big ole nothing burger. But before that, Norman Eisen, a lawyer who served as cocounsel for the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment and trial of Donald Trump, argues that Alvin Bragg's case is much stronger than the conventional wisdom.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Norman Eisen and Dave Weigel
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 4, 2023
Myth-Busting Wellness Hacks: Cold Plunges, Coffee, Alcohol, and Fitness Trackers
Today, we go wading in the murky waters of 2023 wellness trends. We’re talking cold plunges, fitness trackers, and recovery scores. And on the more prosaic side, the real science of coffee and alcohol.
Today’s guests are Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness. They are the cofounders of The Growth Equation, a multimedia platform dedicated to health, excellence, and well-being. They are authors of ‘Peak Performance,’ ‘Do Hard Things,’ and ‘The Practice of Groundedness.’ And for quite a while I have considered them to be ideal guides in this hype-filled world of biomarkers, biohacks, and fitness.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 31, 2023
Eight Burning Questions About the Donald Trump Indictment
Donald Trump has been indicted. But what do we actually know about the case against him? What will the charges be? Is there any legal precedent for the prosecution? What happens when he's arrested? Could he run for office from prison? How does this change the Republican presidential race? What about all those other investigations proceeding against Trump, in Georgia and D.C.? Is this indictment good for Donald Trump's presidential hopes in an underrated way or the beginning of a bigger downfall? Derek answers your burning questions to the best of his ability.
Host: Derek Thompson
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 28, 2023
Why the Cult of Achievement in Schools Is Making People Miserable
Today’s episode is about how we think about success—and how our high school and college systems might be teaching us the wrong lessons about achievement and personal progress. Our guest is Lisa Damour, a psychologist and the author of three New York Times bestsellers, including 'The Emotional Lives of Teenagers.'
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Lisa Damour
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 24, 2023
A Mind-Expanding Conversation About Human History and Happiness With Tim Urban
Sometimes on this show, we talk about the news. This episode is about the diametric opposite of the news. It’s about thinking deeply about human history and trying to appreciate the awesome length of time and the finitude of our lives. It's an interview with Tim Urban, a blogger at the mind-expanding site Wait But Why, and the author of a new book What’s Our Problem: A Self-Help Book for Societies. If you don’t know Tim and his work, I would sum up his thing this way: Tim is a kind of alien. He has an incredible talent for seeing our world as if from the perspective of a goofy but smart extraterrestrial, who takes not the 30,000-foot view on life, but the 300,000-foot view of life, and history, and human nature. In this show, we talk about … you know what. I'm not even going to try to sum up the hour. Just enjoy.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_…
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Mar 21, 2023
The AI Revolution Could Be Bigger and Weirder Than We Can Imagine
Derek unpacks his thoughts about GPT-4 and what it means to be, possibly, at the dawn of a sea change in technology. Then, he talks to Charlie Warzel, staff writer at The Atlantic, about what GPT-4 is capable of, the most interesting ways people are using it, how it could change the way we work, and why some people think it will bring about the apocalypse.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Charlie Warzel
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 17, 2023
MAILBAG: Why Does the Internet Make Us Depressed? Where Does Good Writing Come From? Is College Worth It Anymore?
Derek answers your burning questions in a special mailbag episode!
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 15, 2023
The SVB Debacle: The Biggest Myths, the Out-of-Control Blame Game, and the Worst Takes
Derek welcomes back the economic roundtable of Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson, cohosts of the 'Animal Spirits' podcast, to debate who killed Silicon Valley Bank, how much we should blame the Fed, how much we should blame Silicon Valley venture capital firms, whether this will change the direction of monetary policy, and whether the U.S. has too many banks in the first place.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 13, 2023
Silicon Valley Bank Collapse FAQ: Whose Fault Is It? How Can We Stop a Bank Panic? What Comes Next?
RIP, SVB. America's 16th-largest bank was just destroyed by the largest bank run in U.S. history. To talk about what happened and what happens next, we have Liz Hoffman, business and finance editor at Semafor and the author of the book 'Crash Landing,' on the Fed’s response to the pandemic.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Liz Hoffman
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 10, 2023
"Industrial Policy" Is the Hottest Idea in Economics. What Could Go Wrong?
Under President Biden, the U.S. is pivoting toward what some people call “industrial policy”—that is, using the government to support key industries, like green energy manufacturing and the manufacture of advanced computer chips. There is a strong case against industrial policy in economics: It’s the idea that governments do not know better than markets when it comes to picking winners, and industrial policy just wastes money and distorts the economy. But there’s another view, which is that industrial policy is utterly necessary to help the U.S. build an abundance of computer chips and green energy infrastructure. Greg Ip, the chief economics commentator at the Wall Street Journal, helps us separate fear from fact as we talk about industrial policy.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Greg Ip
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 7, 2023
How the Media Failed Its COVID Test: The Truth Behind the Lab Leak and Masking Debates
Today’s episode is a long one: It’s about the debate over media coverage of COVID. Three years after the fateful March of 2020, when it feels like the world shut down for COVID, we are revisiting two of the most contentious debates in this space. No. 1: The lab leak hypothesis; which is the debate over the possibility that COVID originated at a laboratory in China and not, as the official story went, at a wet market in Wuhan. And no. 2: the mask debate. And why a seemingly simple question—do masks work—is so hard to answer. Today’s guests are Dan Engber, a science writer and editor at The Atlantic who has chronicled the ups and downs of the media’s relationship to the lab leak. And Jason Abaluck, a Yale economist who has conducted masking research in Bangladesh.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Dan Engber & Jason Abaluck
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 3, 2023
Why Are American Teens So Unhappy? How Do We Solve This Crisis?
This is our second installment of happiness week on the Plain English podcast. On Tuesday, I spoke with the directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development about what makes a good life, based on their 80-year longitudinal study.
Today’s episode is about the phenomenon of rising teenage unhappiness. What's actually happening? Why is it happening? What theories make sense, and what theories don't? How can we fix this problem? Today's guest is Matthew Biel, the chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center, and chief medical officer at Fort Health.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Matthew Biel
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 28, 2023
Happiness in America, Part 1: The Secret to a 'Good Life,' According to an 80-Year Study
Americans have never had more access to social technology. It’s easier to talk to friends and family members hundreds of miles away; easier to see their faces; and easier to find single people to date. But if you ask them, Americans today will say they are as lonely as or lonelier than any time on record. The amount of time all Americans spend alone has increased every year for about a decade.
What's going on?
Today’s episode is about the longest study on happiness in U.S. history — the Harvard Study of Adult Development. Our guests are the study's director and associate director, Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz. They are the authors of a new book, 'The Good Life,' about what their study should teach all of us about the secret to a long and fulfilling life.
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Feb 24, 2023
The Science of How Music Hits Have Changed in the Last 60 Years
How does technology shape art? Why has songwriting become more of a visual skill in the 21st century? Why are today's hit songs shorter than songs from any period since the Beatles? What happened to the guitar solo intro—and the classic rock genre in general? How did rap and hip-hop take over the charts? Derek welcomes the musician, writer, and data analyst Chris Dalla Riva to discuss the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that music hits have changed since the 1960s.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Chris Dalla Riva
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 21, 2023
Bing Chatbot Gone Wild and Why AI Could Be the Story of the Decade
Large language models like ChatGPT and Bing’s chatbot can tell stories. They can analyze the effects of agricultural AI on American and Chinese farms. They can pass medical licensing exams, summarize 1,000-page documents, and score a 147 on an IQ test. That’s the 99.9th percentile. They’re also liars. They don't know what year it is. They recommend books that don’t exist. They write nonsense on request. Today's guest, New York Times journalist Kevin Roose, spent a few hours last week talking to Bing. The conversation quickly went off the rails in the strangest of ways.
I am convinced that AI is going to be one of the most important stories of the decade. We are looking at something almost like the discovery of an alien intelligence. Except, because these technologies are trained on us, they aren’t extraterrestrial at all. If anything, they’re intra-terrestrial. We’ve taken the entire history of human culture—all our texts, all our images, maybe all of our music and art…
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Feb 17, 2023
UFOs and Aliens and Drones and Balloons: Understanding the U.S. Sky Wars
Since a big white Chinese spy balloon floated across the ocean and into U.S. airspace, the United States has shot down four objects over North American skies. What are we looking at, and what are we shooting at? Are these objects American? Are they Chinese? Are they human? To tell the full story of this bizarre month in aerial objects—from the balloon to the aerial shoot-out to the UFO freak-out—we’ve got two guests: former Atlantic correspondent and Substack writer James Fallows and the science writer and noted extraterrestrial-object researcher Mick West.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: James Fallows & Mick West
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 14, 2023
Why Everybody Is Wrong About a Recession and Housing’s Great Comeback
Last fall, three-quarters of voters told CNN that the U.S. was in a recession. A Bloomberg economic model said that the odds of a recession by the fall of 2023 were 100 percent. But we’re not in a recession. The unemployment rate is lower than any month since the 1960s. Real disposable income is growing. The economy is expanding. Consumer spending is strong. Even housing seems to be rebounding. In today's episode, Derek explains the origins of the great American recession myth, and Bloomberg writer Conor Sen breaks down the housing turnaround that could define the 2023 economy.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Conor Sen
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 10, 2023
The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Fake Meat in America
For the past 50 years, Americans have basically responded to the case against eating animals by eating more animals. The share of Americans who call themselves vegan or vegetarian hasn’t increased in the past 20 years. But a few years ago, I was certain that we were near peak meat, thanks to the rise of plant-based “meat” products—like Impossible Burgers and Beyond Meat sausages. In 2019 and 2020, I looked like a genius, as meat-substitute products surged. But then came the crash. Beyond Meat’s publicly traded stock is down more than 80 percent from its all-time high. Impossible Burger has announced layoffs of more than 20 percent of its staff. So what happened? Today’s guest is Deena Shanker, who wrote a blockbuster story for Bloomberg on this very topic. We talk about the spectacular rise and fall of fake meat—and what it tells us about food, taste, politics, and technology.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Deena Shanker
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 7, 2023
China’s Spy Balloon Is Down. Cold War 2.0 Risks Are Rising.
If we’re being honest, the whole thing is kind of funny. A Chinese spy balloon floated across the U.S. Nobody died, unless we count the balloon itself. In a saner age, this story would be over. But balloongate offers a useful hook to evaluate the relationship between the U.S. and China during a period of extraordinarily high tensions. These are the most powerful countries in the world, the two largest economies in the history of the world, and they are currently undergoing a kind of conscious uncoupling that is having a huge effect on our economies, politics, and planet. Juliette Kayyem is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and former government official. James Palmer is the deputy editor at Foreign Policy.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Juliette Kayyem & James P…
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Feb 3, 2023
Econ Megapod: The Debt Ceiling Is Dumb, and the Inflation “Crisis” Might Be Over
We’ve got a double-barrelled podcast for you. Jeanna Smialek, economics reporter for the ‘New York Times,’ joins us to break down the debt-ceiling showdown that’s enveloping Washington. Plus, economist Jason Furman is back to rehash his debt-ceiling grievances from the Obama administration, then answer some deeper questions about the U.S. debt trajectory and the state of the economy today. But first: a new way to think about the debt ceiling and fears of the U.S. government running up the tab.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Jeanna Smialek and Jason Furman
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 31, 2023
The Dark Side of Being Obsessed With Productivity
"Productivity is a trap. Nobody in the history of humanity has ever achieved work-life balance. The real problem isn’t our limited time. The real problem—or so I hope to convince you—is that we’ve unwittingly inherited, and feel pressured to live by, a troublesome set of ideas about how to use our limited time, all of which are pretty much guaranteed to make things worse."
That's how Oliver Burkeman, the author of 'Four Thousand Weeks,' explains our relationship to happiness and time. In this episode, he and Derek talk about his philosophy, the downside of constantly living for some future achievement, goals versus habits, and making peace with our finitude.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Oliver Burkeman
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 27, 2023
How AI Could Change Apple and Google, Writing and Music, and Everything Else
“The story of 2022 was the emergence of AI," wrote Ben Thompson, the author of the Stratechery newsletter and podcast. "It seems clear to me that this is a new epoch in technology.” Ben and Derek talk about ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, the state of generative AI, and how the biggest tech companies will try to wrangle this fascinating suite of new tools.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Ben Thompson
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 24, 2023
Why Big Tech's Jobs Bubble Burst. Plus, SBF's Scandal Deepens.
Derek breaks down the biggest economic mystery of the moment: Why are the most successful tech companies collectively laying off more than 130,000 people if the overall unemployment rate is still historically low? Then award-winning Puck journalist William Cohan rejoins the podcast to talk about the biggest unanswered questions swirling around disgraced billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, his FTX bankruptcy proceedings, and his forthcoming criminal case.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: William Cohan
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 20, 2023
America Isn’t Ready for the Weight-Loss-Drug Revolution That’s Coming
We have historically thought about weight as the mere outcome of our deliberate choices about diet and exercise. We have not typically thought about weight like a disease. But in the past 18 months, there’s been an extraordinary revolution in weight-loss medication that's putting in our hands a therapy that can help people easily shed weight without major side effects. You may have heard these drugs go by the name Wegovy or Ozempic.
What happens when you take a country obsessed with self-image and diet and tell them that the mystery of weight loss has now been reduced to a daily injection? You change a lot more than body mass index. You change society. Today’s guest is Susan Z. Yanovski. She is the co-director of the Office of Obesity Research and the program director of the Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition at NIH. We talk about the stakes of anti-obesity medication, why diet and exercise doesn’t work for so many people, how these weight-loss drugs could help America…
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Jan 17, 2023
How Americans Got Everything About Food—Fat, Sugar, and Obesity—‘Entirely Backwards’
Today’s episode is about what Americans don’t get about food—and the historical origins of our diet delusions. Our guest is Dr. David Ludwig, an endocrinologist who has researched and written on obesity and diet. He explains why scientists still haven't arrived at a consensus on obesity, why he thinks the conventional wisdom about calories and fat is wrong, what he thinks is really going on, and why the history of diet advice has been so wrong in the last half-century. On Friday, we'll continue the conversation on diet and obesity with an episode on the next generation of weight-loss medication, which could change the way America thinks about self-image and obesity forever.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: David Ludwig
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 13, 2023
True or False: 10 Controversial Predictions About the Future of Streaming, Tech, and Media
Last year was a bloodbath for media of all stripes. Netflix crashed, the advertising market cratered, Disney fired a CEOBob and replaced him with a CEOBob, and meanwhile, the domestic box office for films remained dormant. Outside of a handful of huge hits like 'Top Gun: Maverick,' the movie business is struggling to get people to see original movies that aren’t just the latest installation of familiar franchises.
But one mistake that media people, like me, can often make is that we mistake current trends for permanent trends. So I thought what we’d do today is run through several predictions and provocations that I’m hearing from my friends and sources in the media and entertainment space, throw all of them at a smart media analyst, and see what they have to say about the prevailing wisdom. Today’s smart media analyst is return guest Rich Greenfield from Lightshed.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Rich Greenfield
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 11, 2023
Why There Is So Much Bullsh*t in Science
We should be living in a golden age of creativity in science and technology. We know more about the universe and ourselves than we did in any other period in history, and with easy access to superior research tools, our pace of discovery should be accelerating. But as one group of researchers from Stanford put it: “Everywhere we look we find that ideas … are getting harder to find.” Another paper found that “scientific knowledge has been in clear secular decline since the early 1970s,” and yet another concluded that “new ideas no longer fuel economic growth the way they once did.”
As regular listeners of this podcast know, I am obsessed with this topic—why it seems like in industries as different as music and film and physics, new ideas are losing ground. It is harder to sell an original script, harder to make an original hit song, and harder to publish a groundbreaking paper, and while these trends are NOT all the same, they rhyme in a way I can’t stop thinking a…
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Jan 4, 2023
The 2023 Economy FAQ: Is Recession Inevitable? Will Housing Crash? Can Tech Recover?
Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson of Ritholtz Wealth Management rejoin the pod to talk about what they learned from the topsy-turvy 2022 economy and make predictions about 2023 markets.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson
Producer: Devon Manze
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Dec 27, 2022
PE Greatest Hits: Thompson and Klosterman Debate Why Society Got So Negative
This has been an amazing year for the show, and I’m so grateful for everybody who has listened. I’m off the last two weeks of the year but I wanted to keep something in your feed over the holidays, so this week I’m reboosting one of our most popular episodes of the year. Maybe you listened and want to listen again. Maybe you missed this one, and want to check it out. Or you’re looking at this feed for the first time and trying to figure out whether this is your kind of show. I think these episodes offer a great snapshot of what we try to do here on 'Plain English.' Range widely across topics. Synthesize complicated ideas. Frame breaking news and big ideas in ways that you’ll remember when the show is over. And do it all relatively quickly. No BS. No filler. An espresso shot of news analysis.
In today’s episode, I talk with the author Chuck Klosterman about why society has gotten so negative, ranging from TV and film to politics and social media. Maybe the most wide-ranging…
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Dec 20, 2022
PE Greatest Hits: Derek and Ryen Debate the Most Impressive Sports Statistic of All Time
This has been an amazing year for the show, and I’m so grateful for everybody who has listened. I’m off the last two weeks, but I wanted to keep something in your feed over the holidays, so this week I’m re-boosting one of our most popular episodes of the year. Maybe you listened and want to listen again. Maybe you missed this one and want to check it out. Or you’re looking at this feed for the first time and trying to figure out if this is your kind of show. I think these episodes offer a great snapshot of what we try to do here on 'Plain English.' Range widely across topics. Synthesize complicated ideas. Frame breaking news and big ideas in ways that you’ll remember when the show is over. And do it all relatively quickly. No BS. No filler. An espresso shot of news analysis.
In today’s episode, I talk with The Ringer’s Ryen Russillo about the most impressive sports statistic of all time. This is of course wildly subjective. And that’s the fun of it. Happy holidays, and…
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Dec 13, 2022
ChatGPT, Obesity Drugs, Exoplanet Images, and Medical Miracles: The Most Amazing Breakthroughs of 2022
Derek talks to economist and writer Eli Dourado about the most exciting scientific and technological discoveries of the year, from the AI toys that everybody seems to be playing with to lesser-known breakthroughs in bioscience, clean energy hardware, and precise atomic manipulation.
Due to the holidays, we will be skipping our Friday episode this week. However, we’ll be back next Tuesday to revisit one of our favorite interviews from the past year as we inch closer to 2023.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Eli Dourado
Producer: Devon Manze
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Dec 9, 2022
Sperm Counts Are Falling All Over the World—Why?
In the last 50 years, average sperm counts have fallen by 50 percent. This isn’t just happening in the U.S. or Europe or Asia. It seems to be happening everywhere. If the current rate of decline continues, researchers concluded, the average male sperm count will fall so low that the typical guy in every advanced economy will be infertile by 2050. Harvard's Jorge Chavarro, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology, breaks down the data on declining sperm counts and tells us what it means, what might be causing it, what men can reasonably do to avoid it, and how bad it could get.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Jorge Chavarro
Producer: Devon Manze
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Dec 6, 2022
Who's Afraid of a Four-Day Work Week?
4 Day Week Global is a nonprofit organization that recently conducted a trial with 33 companies and 900 workers that replaced the typical five-day week with a four-day work week with no change in pay. After the six-month trial ended, 97 percent of employees who responded said they didn’t want to go back to five days per week, and most employers rated the overall experience 9 out of 10.
The pandemic showed us that so much about the way we work is an accident of history, solidified by familiarity and the passage of time. Maybe the office is where we should do all white-collar work. Or maybe that’s wrong. Maybe a two-day weekend is all people need to feel perfectly recharged. Or maybe that’s wrong. Maybe, in some cases, four is greater than five.
Juliet Schor is an economist at Boston College and a lead researcher on the four-day work week trial. We talked about how work and the economy might be reorganized in her vision of a four-day work week, why even employers might appreciate a…
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Dec 2, 2022
Why the Bad Guys—in China, Russia, Iran, and the U.S.—Are Having a Terrible Winter
One year ago, we had Anne Applebaum on the podcast to talk about her essay, "The Bad Guys Are Winning." And I think you could have made an argument that this was the most important story in geopolitics. Across the world, the rise of authoritarianism—in Russia, China, Turkey, Venezuela, India, and even right here in the U.S. authoritarianism was ascendant. Illiberalism was rising. Anti-democratic forces were assembling.
But at this very moment, the opposite narrative seems like it might just be the most important story in the world. The fall of the authoritarians. Look at China, where the ruler Xi Jinping's "zero-COVID" policy is sparking a wave of protests. Look at Russia, which is losing its war against Ukraine. Look at Iran, which is rife with protests for women’s rights.
Today’s guest is Francis Fukuyama, the author of the very famous (and very misunderstood) book, 'The End of History and the Last Man.' In this episode we take a first-class tour of what’s happening in China,…
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Nov 29, 2022
Why America is Suffering a 'Friendship Recession'
Americans have never spent so much time alone. And alone time is rising sharply for every demographic—young and old, male and female, white and non-white, metro and rural. But is aloneness the same as loneliness? And can we really blame technology for it? Derek talks with economist Bryce Ward about the causes and consequences of the rise of alone time in America.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Bryce Ward
Producer: Devon Manze
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Nov 22, 2022
Thanksgiving Mega-Pod: Bob Iger’s Power Grab, SBF’s Scandal, and Elon Musk’s Omnishambles
Today’s episode is a Thanksgiving feast of corporate scandal and media gossip. Derek kicks things off with a big-picture theory for why everything in tech and media seems to be falling apart at the same time. Then, we turn to the corporate shocker of the week: Bob Iger stunned the entertainment and media world by announcing his return to Disney as CEO, not even three years after the coronation of his hand-picked replacement, Bob Chapek. Matt Belloni of The Ringer and Puck joins to respond to some hot takes about the future of the streaming wars and the Mouse. Then, Derek revisits the FTX scandal. We're joined by Matthew Yglesias, author of the Slow Boring newsletter, to take a fresh look at the downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried by analyzing the philosophy he supported, or at least claimed to support: effective altruism.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Matthew Belloni and Matthew Yglesias
Producer: Devon Manze
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Nov 18, 2022
If China Invades Taiwan, Is It World War III?
Today’s episode is about China’s turn toward authoritarianism—and why it might be one of the most important stories in the world. If you don’t know a lot about China—if you’ve been interested or astonished from afar by its Zero-COVID policy or its alarming saber-rattling toward Taiwan—then you and I are in the same boat. I am not at all an expert on China. But I am fascinated and alarmed by the country’s politics and by the character of its leader, Xi Jinping. Today’s guest is an expert in all things China: Bill Bishop, who writes the incredibly popular Sinocism newsletter. And he has a new podcast out called 'Sharp China.' In this episode, we discuss my biggest fears and questions: What is happening to the Chinese economy right now? Is Xi Jinping a tyrant? And if he chooses to invade Taiwan, is that World War III?
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Bill Bishop
Producer: Devon Manze
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Nov 15, 2022
A Crypto Catastrophe: The Stunning Fall of FTX—and What Comes Next
Derek shares his thoughts on the meltdown of crypto exchange FTX and the disgrace of its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, before welcoming veteran finance journalist William D. Cohan to discuss the history of finance frauds, what comes next for FTX, the media’s relationship to CEO royalty, and his new book, 'Power Failure,' on the rise and fall of GE.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: William D. Cohan
Producer: Devon Manze
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Nov 9, 2022
Instant Reaction Pod: Midterm Election Winners, Losers, Surprises, and Takeaways
The polls were right; the vibes were wrong. Democrats seem to have blocked the Republican wave by riding “Dobbs and democracy.” Trump lost, and extremism lost. DeSantis won, and Florida is a red state now. Also: Why is America so terrible at counting votes?
Host: Derek Thompson
Producer: Devon Manze
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Nov 7, 2022
Elon Musk's Reign of Chaos and Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse Madness
The Musk regime is off to a chaotic start at Twitter. In barely a week or two of ownership, Elon has already overseen a collapse in advertising revenue, announced a pivot to subscriptions, attempted to fire about half of the staff, and then attempted to rehire some of the fired staff. It would be one thing if Elon were flailing at Twitter while the rest of social media was on a rocket ship. The opposite is true. At Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has embarked on a truly audacious and possibly suicidal plan to spend somewhere between $100 billion and $200 billion building out a metaverse platform. What the hell is happening at these companies and, beyond the lurid details and gossip, what does it say about the larger ecosystem of social media? Today’s guests are the co-hosts of the new New York Times tech podcast 'Hard Fork': Kevin Roose is a reporter at the Times and a frequent guest on this show. And Casey Newton is the author of the Platformer newsletter.
Hos…
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Nov 4, 2022
America in the Age of Conspiracy: Q-Anon, JFK, Aliens, and More
Americans are unusually conspiratorial as a nation. But in the last week, we have really outdone ourselves.
The beating of Paul Pelosi—husband of the Speaker of the House—by a Q-Anon conspiracy theorist led to even more unhinged conspiracies about the media. Kanye West has been all over the news spreading nonsense theories about Jewish control of the world, and in basketball Kyrie Irving published a social media post about a book and movie that featured antisemitic tropes and questioned the Holocaust.
What makes certain conspiracy theories so successful? Why do conspiracy theories thrive in 21st century America? And aren't some conspiracy theories ... actually true? Like, what's the deal with aliens, and 1950s UFOs, and the assassination of JFK, and government projects on astral projection and military psychic powers? It's all here in today's episode, featuring the hosts of the popular podcast Stuff They Don't Want You to Know.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Noel Brown, Ben Bowlin an…
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Nov 1, 2022
How the U.S. Housing Market Became Such a Dumpster Fire
Skyrocketing mortgage rates. Rent prices falling by their fastest pace in years (from their highest inflation rate in decades). Buyers and sellers are freaked out. What the hell is going on with American real estate?Today is a very special crossover event, featuring one of my favorite finance podcasts: 'Odd Lots' hosted by Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal. Most of what I think I know about the housing market is a river that flows from the headwater that is 'Odd Lots' and the online commentary of Tracy and Joe. So, this is a thrill for me. I hope it’s a thrill for you.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal
Producer: Devon Manze
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Oct 28, 2022
How to Invest and Be Happy When It Feels Like the World Is Falling Apart
We’re in a moment in world history where a lot of big global paradigms are dying. For decades, Europe was basically peaceful. That paradigm has gone up in smoke. For decades, the relationship between the U.S. and China was one of mutual dependency and growth. That paradigm, I think, is changing rapidly as the U.S. moves toward a new industrial policy and China shrinks inside a shell of authoritarianism. And for decades, low interest rates shaped the world—the companies that got started, the growth of the internet, and the ability of governments to run massive deficits. And that paradigm is going away.
Global markets are a mess right now, and I wanted to bring back one of my favorite writers to talk about it. He is Morgan Housel, a partner at Collaborative Fund and the author of the bestselling book The Psychology of Money. We talk about what happened to the markets in the last 18 months, the legacy of zero-bound interest rates, and inflation—but that’s just maybe the first 10…
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Oct 26, 2022
Ben Smith on the Future of News, How to Start a Media Company, and Why TikTok Is a Time Bomb
About a week ago, a new global news organization launched called Semafor. Ben Smith is its cofounder and editor-in-chief. We offer a brief history of news media in the 21st century and talk about why in some ways the news business is more like the 19th century than the 20th. We discuss what to say to investors when you’re trying to get their money to start a new media company, and debate why TikTok is the biggest undercovered media story in the world.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Ben Smith
Producer: Devon Manze
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Oct 25, 2022
Midterm Election FAQ: Can We Trust the Polls? Are Democrats Doomed?
We’re coming down to the wire, and Democrats' hopes of holding onto the Senate and the House are fading fast. Two months ago, the story was that Democrats seemed poised to pull off an upset and hold onto the Senate despite the fact that the party in power almost always loses seats in the midterm election. But now, the Senate looks like a toss-up. It’s not just Democrats who are facing challenges this year—pollsters are too. Error margins are rising as fewer people are responding to survey calls. That means we’re flying half-blind out there: Political campaigns, commentators, and voters can’t be sure that the polling averages that they’re seeing in the news are an accurate reflection of reality. Today's guest is Kristen Soltis Anderson, a Republican pollster and the co-founder of Echelon Insights. We discuss the closest races in Georgia and Pennsylvania, whether Donald Trump is an overall help or hindrance to the GOP, and why the golden age of polling is over.
If you have q…
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Oct 18, 2022
The Case for Indicting Donald Trump
For years, liberals have deluded themselves into thinking that Donald Trump was always on the verge of some calamitous legal defeat. Robert Mueller was made into an icon of the left. But no charges were filed. The Russiagate theory had a lot of smoke, and even some fire, but it failed to put Trump in a courtroom. At this point, you could be forgiven for checking out entirely on the efforts to charge Trump with crimes, since they all seem to end the same way. Without an indictment.
If that’s going to change, it will largely rest on the decision making of one man: Merrick Garland, the attorney general of the United States. In a recent essay for The Atlantic, staff writer Frank Foer spent hours talking to Garland to understand who he is, how he thinks, and how his approach to law could help us predict the next chapter of the Trump legal saga. Foer comes away with a big prediction: The indictment of Trump is now "inevitable." And he’s here to tell us why.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Fr…
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Oct 14, 2022
Is Hybrid Work Doomed?
Stanford University professor Nicholas Bloom joins the show to talk about how the hybrid work revolution is going, and how the weakened connection between work and home continues to change where Americans live, how they travel, how they spend their time, how they raise their kids, and even how much time they spend combing their hair (survey says: less!).
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Nicholas Bloom
Producer: Devon Manze
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Oct 11, 2022
Why the Future of AI Should Terrify and Thrill You
This is the 100th episode of Plain English! I don’t know how that’s possible. Thanks to all of you who have listened. This has been a ton of work and a ton of fun. I’m still figuring out what this show is; how to balance news and tech gossip and big society questions and war coverage. There are days I think I know exactly what I’m doing and days I think I know even less than when I started out. And I just want to say to all the folks who have, on any medium, offered negative feedback or positive feedback: I’m reading it.
Today, we're joined again by our first-ever guest, Kevin Roose from the 'New York Times,' to talk about Elon vs. Twitter and the deep implications of the year's astonishing breakthroughs in AI.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Kevin Roose
Producer: Devon Manze
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Oct 6, 2022
Bill Simmons on Aaron Judge, How Baseball Ruined Itself, and the Joy of Debating Sports Records
This week, the Yankees' Aaron Judge hit his 62nd home run of the season, and it’s triggered a ferocious debate that has a lot of people very worked up over a deceptively simple question: Who is baseball’s home run king?
In 2001, Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs. In 2022, Judge hit 62 home runs. Seventy-three is more than 62. Those are facts.
But Barry Bonds used steroids. Other sports, like cycling, have stripped athletes of records and championships if they’re caught doping. Lance Armstrong won seven Tour de France titles but was stripped of all of them. So, what do we do about Bonds and his fellow dopers, like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa? Do we consider their records illegitimate? If so, Aaron Judge is the single-season home run king. Or do we say, you can’t just selectively erase history? In which case, Judge doesn’t have any major record. He’s just a big, tall guy who had a very nice season.
You might think: OK, who cares what words we use to talk about baseball? The answer…
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Oct 4, 2022
Could the Fed Break the World Economy?
What if, in trying to fix the hangover of domestic inflation, the Federal Reserve is accidentally triggering a series of diabolical domino effects that could screw up the global economy? Joining the show today to walk us piece by piece through those dominos is Kyla Scanlon, a writer and brilliant economic explainer on TikTok and YouTube. Kyla is an expert at what I try to do with this show, which is to explain complicated ideas in simple ways without losing the nuance that makes them complicated in the first place. I’ve learned a lot from her. And I hope you do, too.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Kyla Scanlon
Producer: Devon Manze
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Sep 29, 2022
Scott Galloway on Why the Internet Is a Mess, Why the News Is So Angry, and Why American Men Are ‘Adrift’
A wide-ranging conversation with speaker and star podcaster Scott Galloway ('The Prof G Pod,' 'Pivot') on his new book 'Adrift,' why being a pundit means being a talented “catastrophist,” the struggles of broke and lonely men, the upside of crypto, and the dark side of the metaverse.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Scott Galloway
Producer: Devon Manze
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Sep 27, 2022
Is the Federal Reserve Making a Huge Mistake?
Last week the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.75 percentage points, continuing one of the fastest escalations of the benchmark rate in history. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, warned that more pain was to come as the central bank fixes its eye on Sauron on our core inflation. But the theme of this episode is that U.S. interest rate policy does not stop at the U.S. border. Our monetary policy is a lever that moves the world. Soon after the Fed’s announcement last week, the British pound crashed, oil prices fell, currencies (crypto- and otherwise) fell, and the possibility of a global downturn came ever slightly into greater focus. Today’s guest is Jason Furman, the Harvard economist and former top economic adviser to President Barack Obama. We talk about the state of the U.S. economy, why the Fed is doing what it’s doing, the best arguments against rising interest rates, the global fallout of U.S. monetary policy, and the possibility that the world economy is headed fo…
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Sep 23, 2022
Why America Has a Crisis of Masculinity
American men have a problem. They account for less than 40 percent of new college graduates but roughly 70 percent of drug overdose deaths and more than 80 percent of gun violence deaths. As the left has struggled to offer a positive vision of masculinity, male voters have abandoned the Democratic Party at historically high rates. Brookings Institution scholar Richard Reeves, the author of a new book 'Of Boys and Men,' joins the show to ask and answer a number of controversial questions: Why do women out-achieve men throughout education? Why are men dropping out of the labor force? Why can't Democrats win the male vote? And what would a progressive and positive vision of masculinity look like?
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Richard Reeves
Producer: Devon Manze
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Sep 20, 2022
Why the Voice Inside Your Head Can Sound Like a Jerk
Today’s episode is about the science of self-talk—and how our relationship to our own inner monologue can become toxic. Psychologist Ethan Kross joins the show to explain his work on emotion regulation, his book 'Chatter' on the science of negative self-talk, why the ability to have an inner monologue can be a kind of superpower, and how to harness it.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_.Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Ethan Kross
Producer: Devon Manze
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Sep 15, 2022
The Housing Recession Is Coming
While the broader economy is almost certainly not in a recession, the U.S. housing market is facing a painful reset. As the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to reduce inflation, the most rate-sensitive sector of the economy—which is housing—is taking it on the chin. Today's guest, Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, breaks down the queasy state of the U.S. housing market, the prospect of a correction, what nationwide falling housing prices will mean for the broader economy, the global synchronized decline in housing, and how China's extremely bizarre year is affecting our economy.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Mark Zandi
Producer: Devon Manze
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Sep 13, 2022
Bill Gates on Progress, Food Technology, and the Battle Between Climate Change and Innovation
In 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 ambitious goals to end poverty, fight inequality, and stop climate change by 2030. Seven years in, the world is on track to achieve almost none of those goals, according to a new report from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
But the world really is getting better, the founder and philanthropist Bill Gates tells Derek in this episode. Around the globe, poverty, hunger, and child mortality rates are falling. Income, health care coverage, and lifespans are growing. Bill and Derek talk about the “best news in the world,” why genetics is the most exciting domain in all of science, and how Gates is helping to build the future of food in Africa.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Bill Gates
Producer: Devon Manze
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Sep 12, 2022
How Ukraine’s New Offensive Could Win the War Against Russia
We're in a new phase of the Ukraine-Russia war. Paul Poast of the University of Chicago returns to the podcast to break down Ukraine's extraordinary counteroffensive. He explains why this counterattack is reminiscent of D-Day, why President Vladimir Putin continues to struggle to achieve his objectives, and whether the end of the war could be within sight.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Paul Poast
Producer: Devon Manze
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Sep 8, 2022
The UK Is in Trouble: Economic Crises, Energy Shocks, and the Queen’s Death
Hours before the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Derek talked to Duncan Weldon, the Britain economics correspondent at The Economist, about the UK's political and economic challenge. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent energy prices soaring across Europe, but few countries have it worse than the UK, where inflation skyrocketed past 10 percent and the Bank of England projects a deep and lasting recession. This comes after a 15-year period of utter economic stagnation, Brexit, and the clown show of Boris Johnson. How did the UK, the birthplace of modern capitalism and the industrial revolution, become such an economic and political disaster? And will the queen's death affect the nation's trajectory?
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Duncan Weldon
Producer: Devon Manze
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Sep 6, 2022
America’s National Teacher Shortage: Looming Crisis or Media Myth?
Students are going back to school this month. But according to many news sources, there won't be nearly enough teachers to greet them. The Washington Post has warned of a “catastrophic teacher shortage.” ABC World News Tonight called it a new “growing crisis,” and the Wall Street Journal warned of a “dog-eat-dog” scramble to hire underqualified instructors. Heather Schwartz, a senior policy researcher at the Rand Corporation, explains why she thinks the "national teacher shortage" narrative is overblown, why declining teacher morale is a real story, and what's really happening in American public education today.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Heather Schwartz
Producer: Devon Manze
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Sep 2, 2022
Nate Silver on Why This Midterm Election Could Be the Weirdest in Decades
Earlier this year, it appeared that Democrats were going to get destroyed in the midterms. Joe Biden's approval rating was in the toilet, inflation was raging, and everything was going wrong. It wouldn't have been historically shocking if Democrats lost seats in November. The party in power typically loses seats in midterm elections, thanks in part to the electorate's preference for balance.
But then something weird happened. Joe Biden's polls went up. And up. And up. Republican Senate nominees starting flailing across the country. Today, Democrats are favored to keep the Senate, and they have doubled their odds of holding the House. How did this happen? FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver joins the podcast to explain the big picture and analyze the most fascinating individual races, from Pennsylvania to Ohio.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thomps…
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Aug 30, 2022
The Messy Debate Over Student Loan Forgiveness
The level of student debt in this country represents a massive policy error. But is forgiving up to $20,000 of student debt really the best way to help low-income Americans, or fix the nation's education-financing problems? The Atlantic's Jerusalem Demsas joins Derek to discuss the student loan forgiveness debate and weigh the positives and negatives of Biden's controversial new policy.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Jerusalem Demsas
Producer: Devon Manze
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Aug 26, 2022
Burning Questions on Media: Streaming’s Summer of Hell, Movie Theater Woes, and CNN’s Risky Pivot
Today’s episode is about the entertainment and media industry’s tumultuous summer, the streaming wars, a come-to-Jesus moment for movie theaters, and a dramatic revamp at CNN—which tells a lot about the state of the news industry. My guest is Matt Belloni, host of the Ringer podcast 'The Town' and a founding partner at Puck News. He tells us what he’s hearing from his deep industry sources about the future of the blockbuster, the demise of the romantic comedy, the purge at HBO Max, and the murky path forward for Netflix. He also indulges me as I try to think of restaurant analogies for all of the major streaming companies as they try to differentiate themselves in a crowded field. (If you're not familiar with the amenities of the Tri-State area, this might be a good time to look up "Wawa.")
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Gue…
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Aug 23, 2022
What’s the Secret of Success in America? This Economist Has Answers.
The economist Raj Chetty has spent much of the last decade trying to answer a very big question: What happened to the American Dream? In 1940, a child born into the average American household had a 92 percent chance of making more money than his or her parents. But in the last half century, something has gone wrong. A child born in 1980 had just a 50 percent chance of surpassing her parents’ income. So, in 40 years, earning more than your parents went from being a near certainty to no better than a coin flip.
Marshaling enormous data sets in extremely creative ways, Chetty has shown that our chances of moving up in the world are exquisitely sensitive to where we grow up. In some cities, like Minneapolis, the American Dream seems to be very much alive. In other places, the poor are trapped in poverty for generations. So, the trillion-dollar question here is: If some neighborhoods in America are like Miracle-Gro for opportunity, what are the active ingredients? What makes a place speci…
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Aug 19, 2022
Why Does It Seem Like Everybody Hates Everything?
Bestselling author Chuck Klosterman talks to Derek about the death of the monoculture, how the internet creates cults of fans and anti-fans, and how “hating things” became a mainstream personality trait and a political position.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Chuck Klosterman
Producer: Devon Manze
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Aug 16, 2022
Donald Trump vs. the FBI: Everything We Know About the Investigation So Far
I've never before recorded an episode specifically about Donald Trump. I guess I’ve been holding out for the chaos that typically swirls around him to exceed an extremely high bar of freaky nonsense. This week, I am forced to conclude that the bar has been surpassed. The January 6 investigations in D.C. and the New York state business investigation are newsworthy on their own. But last week, federal agents descended on Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and Florida home, and came away with a trove of top secret documents and papers. This investigation could implicate the president as an agent of law-breaking espionage. Or it could lead to ... nothing at all. In this episode, the author, CNN analyst, and former government official Juliette Kayyem joins the show to separate fact from speculation and to help us imagine several ways this saga could end.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at…
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Aug 12, 2022
A New Way to Think About Racism in America
Several years ago, the writer, researcher, and policy advocate Heather McGhee traveled around the country to report on how racism in America holds us back from policies that would benefit everybody. In her book The Sum of Us, she explained how racist fears have made us all worse off. For decades, many voters and politicians have fought against policies that would have gotten them better jobs, better benefits, and more upward mobility—because they were afraid that those policies might also help non-white people, and especially Black people.
She made another point that struck me. Progressives sometimes talk about racism in a way that is pretty helpful for their causes. “Progressives often end up talking about race relations through a prism of competition—every advantage for whites, mirrored by a disadvantage for people of color,” she wrote. “The task ahead, then, is to unwind this idea of a fixed quantity of prosperity and replace it with what I’ve come to call Solidarity D…
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Aug 9, 2022
Carbon Removal Might Be the World’s Most Important Technology. How Does It Work?
Last year, somebody explained the problem of climate change to me with a metaphor that I’ve never been able to forget. They said: Imagine a bathtub. The bathtub is the planet’s atmosphere. The faucet is on full blast and it’s quickly filling with water. The gushing faucet represents every source of global carbon emissions, from "Big Agriculture" and energy companies to cars and cow farts. The water is carbon itself. The challenge of climate change mitigation is straightforward: Stop the water from filling the tub, spilling over the edge, and destroying the planet. There are a lot of environmentalists and federal policies that focus on one part of the picture. They want to turn the tap to reduce emissions. This is what wind, solar, and geothermal energy does. This is what electric cars do. It is an absolutely essential goal. But a very full tub can still overflow even with a slower-dripping faucet. So we need to think bigger to save the world. We need a plan that goes beyond the f…
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Aug 5, 2022
Curiosity Corner: Monkeypox Myths, Millennial Facts, and Overpopulation Fears
In our second "Curiosity Corner" mailbag, Derek takes your burning questions. He breaks down the myths around how monkeypox spreads, and blasts public health officials for not being more specific about who is most affected. He explains how, while millennials face an affordability crisis in developed countries, they might not want to trade their global generation for any previous period in history. And he answers a listener who asks whether we should fear population collapse more than we fear overpopulation.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Producer: Devon Manze
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Aug 3, 2022
Is Old Music Killing New Music?
Why does it seem like the old is eating the new in pop culture? This year, the song of the summer is arguably Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”—which was released in 1985. It was launched by the most-watched global TV show of the summer, 'Stranger Things'—an homage to the 1980s. In movies, the biggest hit of the season is 'Top Gun: Maverick'—a sequel to the 1986 film. The '80s was four decades ago!
The triumph of nostalgia and familiarity in culture is deeper than one summer. The five biggest movies of this year are the second 'Top Gun,' the second 'Doctor Strange', the sixth 'Jurassic Park', the 14th Batman-related film, and the fifth 'Despicable Me'. Amazing original films, like 'Everything Everywhere All At Once', show up here and there, but as far as slam dunk blockbusters go, the last decade has suffered from a new movie curse.
There's a new music curse, too. Total music consumption is rising across album sales, track purchases, and streaming. But consumption of new m…
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Aug 1, 2022
How the Democrats' New Climate Bill Could Change the World
“Every few years, American politics astonishes you.” That’s how The Atlantic journalist Robinson Meyer began his report on the Democrats' new climate deal, which would invest record-breaking sums in clean energy infrastructure. Yes, this is still just a bill. It could be revised. But in a summer of climate doom—record breaking heat, droughts, fires in Europe—we are looking at an extraordinary leap forward. So what’s in the deal? What would it actually do? And how could it realistically transform the world? Today’s guest is Robinson Meyer, and in this mini episode we break down the bill and explain why it is, to quote the president, a big f*&%ing deal.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Robinson Meyer
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jul 29, 2022
Why the Question "Are We in a Recession?" Is Impossible to Answer
On Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that GDP dropped for the second consecutive quarter, fueling fears that the economy is in a recession. Today's guest is Austan Goolsbee, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama. In today’s episode, we talk about the most important details from the GDP report, investigate the curious case of America’s plummeting productivity, and talk about why the question "Are we in a recession?" is so annoyingly hard to answer.If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Austan Goolsbee
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jul 26, 2022
Crypto Crash, Part II: A Debate About the Future of Web3
Today is the second half of our special two-parter on the state of crypto. Yesterday’s theme was the case against. Today we debate the case for.
In the last few weeks, use-cases have become a popular trope in the big crypto debate. Crypto has tens of thousands of people working with dozens of billions of dollars on building new technology. And I think it’s fair to ask: What have they built that is better than the status quo? What, as Monty Python might ask, has blockchain ever done for us?
Today’s guest is Packy McCormick. Packy is the popular author of the Not Boring newsletter. In this episode, we debate use-cases for crypto, talk about whether major products are just Ponzi schemes, and discuss whether all the money sloshing around Web3 has subtly distorted the market and hurt the space.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Packy McCormick
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jul 25, 2022
Crypto Crash Part I: The Case Against Crypto
Today, we have the first in a two-part series on lessons from the crypto crash.
Crypto, also known as Web3, also known as blockchain-based technologies, remains the weirdest space I’ve ever reported on. I’ve never learned so much about a topic where there were people I trusted roughly equally, whose intelligence I trusted roughly equally, coming to completely opposite opinions. People I consider brilliant think this is the wave of the future. Others are fairly positive that the bulk of this world is a giant Ponzi scheme that’s even worse than most people realize.Today's guest is Molly Wood, a financial journalist turned venture capitalist who also hosts the podcast 'This Week in Startups.' I would summarize Molly’s case against crypto in three main points:
It is a double-enemy of the environment—an energy-intensive speculation that pulls money and talent from climate technology.
It is an unregulated bonanza of investor shenanigans—Molly explains why the very structure of…
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Jul 22, 2022
Why It Seems Like So Many Countries Are Falling Apart
The world is kind of a mess right now. There is a big, bloody, awful war between Russia and Ukraine, which has hugely disrupted global trade, especially in commodities like oil, wheat, and natural gas. Europe is on fire, and the euro is crashing. Boris Johnson is out as the U.K.’s prime minister, and Mario Draghi has resigned as Italy’s prime minister. There are tremors in China, as the world’s second-largest economy fumbles through a ridiculous COVID-Zero policy. In Sri Lanka, crowds stormed the presidential palace after an economic crisis. In Japan, a former prime minister was assassinated. In Turkey and El Salvador, inflation and kooky economic policy has led these countries to the brink. Is this just random chaos, or is there a deeper story to tell? Today’s guest is Ian Bremmer. Ian is a political scientist and the founder of Eurasia Group and GZero media. He is also the author of several books, including his latest: The New York Times bestseller 'The Power of Crisis.' He t…
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Jul 19, 2022
The World Is on Fire. Here’s a Realistic Plan to Save Humanity.
The world is on fire. In southern Europe, wildfires are streaking from Portugal to Greece. In the U.K., airport runways melted as temperatures exceeded 103 degrees for the first time on record. In the U.S. this week, about one in five Americans are living in a place that will be even hotter than the U.K.’s historic mark. And what is our government doing about it? Pretty close to nothing.
But if you look behind these headlines, there’s something very interesting happening. In the past decade, the price of solar electricity has declined by 90 percent. The efficiency of lithium-ion batteries has increased by 90 percent. Per-capita emissions in the U.S. have declined by a quarter since 2005, falling all the way to levels not seen since 1960. These are technological revolutions worth building on. But they will require that Americans get over their allergy to new construction. And build.
Today’s guest is David Wallace-Wells, a writer for The New York Times and the author of the bestsel…
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Jul 14, 2022
Three Ways the Elon Musk–Twitter Showdown Could End
Well, that escalated quickly. Let's review, shall we?
In January, Elon Musk started buying a bunch of Twitter stock. In February, he kept buying. In March, he owned about 5 percent of the company. In April, he offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion. In May, he tweeted a poop emoji. In June, his net worth crashed. In July, he tried to back out of the deal—and Twitter countersued. It seems very clear from the company's lawsuit that Twitter is prepared to take this all the way, possibly to even force Musk to acquire the company against his will.
Big picture, Twitter is in an incredibly strange position. The company's lawsuit portrays Musk as if he's a wayward, flighty, bad-faith grown toddler. But Twitter is also is trying to force this very same wayward, flighty, bad-faith grown toddler to be the proud owner of Twitter. “You’re a jerk, and I hate you, now marry me!" is a weird message to send, even if it makes sense for the Twitter board to pursue this strategy, within the logic of…
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Jul 12, 2022
Burning Questions About the Future of Media: Netflix vs. Disney, TikTok vs. Everyone, and the Metaverse
Will Netflix be the king of streaming in five years? What's the biggest threat to dethrone it: Apple, Disney, or HBO? Are movie theaters back for real? How has the pandemic changed the film industry? Is TikTok the biggest arch-villain in entertainment? Where do hits come from? What is the metaverse, and will I like living in it? Derek has a lot of questions. His guests—Bloomberg entertainment reporter Lucas Shaw, and author of 'THE METAVERSE' Matthew Ball—have many answers.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Lucas Shaw and Matthew Ball
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jul 10, 2022
Musk Meltdown: Elon’s Breakup With Twitter Is Going to Be Very Messy
Derek has so many thoughts on Elon Musk's bizarre attempted breakup with Twitter—and what comes next—that he has to enumerate them. In this episode, he goes through five reasons Elon is trying to wriggle out of this deal and three ways this saga will end.
Host: Derek Thompson
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jul 8, 2022
The Biggest Economic Question of the Moment: Is This Peak Inflation?
The question everybody's asking on cable news right now is whether we're in a recession. I think there's an even more important question to ask: Are we at peak inflation? If inflation U-turns, it means the Fed won’t have to keep jacking up interest rates, won’t have to keep destroying demand, and won’t have to indefinitely pump the U.S. economy with tranquilizing drugs to break the fever.
I believe peak inflation is right here, right now. In retail, Target and Gap are slashing prices on inventory. In the car market, used car sales are falling. In electronics, the microchip shortage looks like it’s easing. In international shipping, freight rates across the Pacific are declining. And most importantly, the price of oil, metals, wheat, and corn are all falling. Oil prices are falling really, really fast—and that tends to mean that gas prices will follow. Today’s guest is Noah Smith, the economic writer and author of the newsletter Noahpinion. We talk about the great disinflat…
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Jul 6, 2022
Why Are the Police So Bad at Solving Murders?
Today’s episode is about the story of the moment—gun violence. There’s been a surge of violent shootings, mass shootings, and gun-related murders in the last few years. Today, Derek investigates a mystery behind this surge of violence: Why are the police so bad at solving murders? According to FBI statistics, in the 1960s nearly 100 percent of all murders were "cleared" by police, typically by arrest. In 2020, the clearance rate hit an all-time low of nearly 50 percent. Today, half of the murders in the United States go unsolved. Why? Today’s guest is Jeff Asher, a crime analyst, writer, and cofounder of AH Datalytics, which analyzes data for local government agencies like police departments. We talk about seven possible explanations for this alarming trend before settling on one particular explanation that's probably the most important.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Jeff Asher
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jul 1, 2022
Abortion Pills Are a Game Changer, Plus Our Next Big Culture War
In last week's instant reaction pod, Derek said he thought abortion pills were one of the most fascinating and important aspects of the end of the era of Roe. In this episode, he goes deeper into how this new technology could change the abortion debate and national politics. Abortion pills that weren't in use 50 years ago are popular, common, safe, hard to track, and legal in more than half the country. Dozens of conservative states are moving to outlaw most abortions, including medication abortions, but banning pills is going to be very tricky. After all, it’s one thing to shut down a clinic with one address. Banning a pill that you can order online? Banning a pill that goes in the mail? That is much harder. And the lengths to which states might have to go to surveil packages—or to spy on women’s digital activities in order to track down pill buyers—will be invasions of privacy that make a lot of Americans uncomfortable, even those who want to reduce legal abortions. This is t…
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Jun 28, 2022
Five Reasons Everybody Is Wrong About a U.S. Recession—Including Me
I feel like the theme of this podcast recently has been that everything is going off the rails: the Supreme Court, inflation, oil prices, air travel snafus. Take the economy, for example. My theory for the past few months has been that the odds of a recession are nervously high. But when I start feeling myself become a bit ideological, it’s always worth asking: What if I’m wrong? So what I want to execute in this episode is a bit of a zag. Today's guest, Conor Sen, an economic columnist for Bloomberg, explains why he thinks this economy isn't nearly as troubled as the headlines suggest.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Conor Sen
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jun 24, 2022
The End of Roe v. Wade Changes Everything
We react to the landmark Supreme Court decision and explain how it could affect the future of the court, national politics, fertility and family planning, state law, corporate policy, and more. To further explain the implications of this decision we re-air an interview we did seven weeks ago with Margot Sanger-Katz when news of the Supreme Court leak first broke.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Margot Sanger-Katz
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jun 24, 2022
Why Air Travel Is a Hot Mess Right Now
Lately, it feels like we’re surrounded by systems and industries that aren’t working the way they should. There's an oil shortage, and a baby formula shortage, and a used car shortage, and a microchip shortage.
Now, here comes the airline industry shortage. This past weekend, thousands of flights were cancelled because airlines didn't have enough pilots, grounds crew, or planes. People were stranded in airports for eight hours or longer. JetBlue, American, and Delta collectively canceled about 9-10 percent of their flights—between five and 10 times higher than their historical average. And some experts say that if you’re planning to fly at all this summer, things will only get worse. How did this happen? When will it end? Today’s guest is Scott Keyes. He is the founder of Scott's Cheap Flights, a newsletter and business with more than 2 million members. We talk about the origins of the crisis, the economics of the airline industry, and why the decline of business travel is a…
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Jun 21, 2022
Why Gas Prices Are Skyrocketing—and an Ingenious Plan to Bring Them Down
Expensive energy is an economic, psychological, and political scourge. Nominally, gas prices are at a record high. Adjusted for inflation, they could break the all-time record if they rise just another 35 cents. We should be desperately curious to solve this problem; so, that’s what this episode is all about. Today’s guest is Skanda Amarnath, the executive director at Employ America, which has quickly become one of my very favorite sources of research and commentary on economics. He is also the coauthor of an ingenious plan to increase oil capacity in a way that could reasonably bring down gas prices. This episode gets pretty deep into the weeds of policy and oil markets. But it was one of the most educational conversations I’ve had on this show. And I hope you find it similarly stimulating.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Skanda Amarnath
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jun 17, 2022
The Big Winners and Losers From the Remote Work Revolution
Most news is all about the immediate present. For instance, everything that is happening in the economy right now could be a historical anecdote in five years. But sometimes, norms change—and they stay changed for decades. I think the remote work revolution is just that sort of a paradigm shift. Here's a stat that should blow your mind: Office occupancy across the U.S. is still just 43 percent of its pre-pandemic high. That means that white-collar offices have had a worse recovery than basically any other economic category—worse than restaurants, bars, stadiums, and even movie theaters. But who is remote work actually working for? What are offices good for? And how will the remote work revolution change the way we relate to each other and the places we live? Today’s guest is Julia Hobsbawm, the author of 'The Nowhere Office,' a new book about the remote work revolution that combines history and reporting to ask a big, beautiful philosophical question: Is remote work making our li…
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Jun 15, 2022
The End of the Everything Boom (Plus: The Federal Reserve's Risky Move)
This is a huge week for economic and finance news. On Wednesday afternoon, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.75 percentage points, its biggest move since 1994. Derek breaks down what this means for your wallet and the future of the economy. Then he brings on The New York Times' Kevin Roose for a conversation about the end of the "everything boom." For the last decade-plus, just about every asset class has gone to the moon: stocks, housing, crypto. That era is over. But where did the everything boom come from? How did it change our lives, from cheap Uber rides to risky crypto projects? And what does it mean that this era is coming to a close? Derek and Kevin also talk about their idea of a "millennial consumer subsidy"—the notion that for many years venture capitalists subsidized ride-share and delivery companies in a way that was unsustainable and not all that great for the people behind the wheel.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Kevin Roose
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jun 13, 2022
The Big Inflation FAQ: Why It’s So High, How Everyone Got It Wrong, and What's Next
Inflation is the story that everybody keeps missing. In 2020, many people didn't expect inflation to rise. Wrong. In 2021, many expected inflation to be brief or "transitory." Wrong. Last month, many expected inflation to peak. wrong. In May, inflation reached its highest level in more than four decades. But there’s a bigger story to tell here. What are the subtler inflation numbers telling us about the future of the economy? And is the media being too pessimistic about the economy given how strong the labor market has been coming out of the pandemic? To answer those questions, Derek welcomes Justin Wolfers, a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan. As you’ll hear, Wolfers is brilliant, straightforward, and incredibly un-shy about telling Derek when he thinks he's full of it. If you think Derek is full of it, or if you would like to drop a more complimentary line, send your notes, questions, and curiosities to PlainEnglish@spotify.com
Host: Derek Th…
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Jun 10, 2022
California’s Elections Sent an Important Message. What Is It?
Today’s episode is about two California elections and the message they sent to the rest of the country. In San Francisco, progressive district attorney Chesa Boudin was recalled by voters after years of complaints about the rise of disorder, shoplifting, and homelessness in the city. In Los Angeles, Republican-turned-Democrat billionaire Rick Caruso had a strong showing running as a crimefighter in the L.A. mayoral primary.
In the late 1970s, politics was defined by two topics: crime and inflation. Well, look around today: Various measures of crime are weighing on people, and inflation is near its 40-year high. Are we stepping into a time machine that’s taking us back to the '70s?
To answer that question, we have journalist and author Ron Brownstein, a CNN senior political analyst, writer for 'The Atlantic,' and author of the book Rock Me on the Water: 1974, the Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, TV, and Politics. So if we are headed back to the '70s in a newly waxed mar…
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Jun 7, 2022
Curiosity Corner: America’s Gun Dilemma, the Future of Corporate Politics, Relationship Advice, and More!
Welcome to Curiosity Corner! In our first ever all-mailbag episode, Derek answers a Republican’s question about gun control, explains how American companies became so political, revisits a controversial Amber Heard episode, and explains how the podcast comes together. Finally, in response to a couple that requested a wedding-day video, Derek veers out of the news lane and offers some relationship advice. If you’d like your questions answered on this show, send your first name and city or state to PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 26, 2022
America’s Gun Problem Is Impossible
The Texas school shooting is part of a grisly ritual in American life. A tragedy, followed by mourning, followed by inaction, followed by several months, followed by another tragedy. What can be done? What WILL be done? This episode isn’t about false hope. It’s about information. The New York Times’s German Lopez, who has been reporting on guns and gun control policy for many years, joins the podcast to answer as many questions as we can fit into a show, including:
Why are school shootings becoming more common in the U.S.?
What are the most successful gun control policies at our disposal?
Why doesn’t Washington ever do anything about this problem?
What happens now?
Oh, and Derek will be off next week. New episodes will return in early June!
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: German Lopez
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 24, 2022
What's Going on With the U.S. Housing Market?
It's our first Curiosity Corner podcast! We asked you to tell us what questions you wanted us to answer, and a lot of you had the same thought on your mind: housing. In this podcast, we answer: What's going on with the U.S. housing market? Is this a bubble? Is it bursting? Why are homes in America so expensive? Why are we so bad at building houses? Why is there so much homelessness in America's richest cities? The Atlantic's Jerusalem Demsas comes on the show to share her theories with Derek, and Derek explains why he thinks every important question about the U.S. housing market has the same fundamental answer: inventory, inventory, inventory.
Keep sending your questions at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Jerusalem Demsas
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 20, 2022
Why Does the Internet Hate Amber Heard?
It's the trial of the century—kind of. The legal showdown between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has captivated the country, and Derek is a bit confused. Why is everybody talking about this miserable celebrity relationship? Why are so many people obsessed with demonizing Amber Heard? Producer Devon Manze explains to Derek why she thinks the trial has conquered the news cycle, and The Atlantic's Kaitlyn Tiffany explains why the internet hates Amber, and what it says about the future of truth, fandom, and who we are on the internet.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Kaitlyn Tiffany
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 18, 2022
The Mystery of America's Missing Baby Formula
America's infant formula shortage is very strange and very embarrassing. Nationwide, more than 40 percent of formula is out of stock, and in many states, like Texas and Tennessee, more than half of it is gone. What's going on? The immediate cause is the shutdown of a Michigan plant. But shutdowns and recalls happen all the time, and they rarely cause a national crisis like this. Economist Scott Lincicome says the real culprit lies in America's trade and regulatory policy. He explains how we got here and how we can get back to a rational baby formula policy in America.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Scott Lincicome
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 17, 2022
Why the U.S. Could Be Headed For the "Weirdest Recession Ever"
Crypto crashes, rate hikes, recession, fears, and inflation prints: The U.S. economy is in a very bizarre place right now, and Derek needs help explaining it. Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson of Ritholz Wealth Management are back on the pod to reconvene the economic roundtable. We play a game of "Finish the Sentence": The single most shocking stock market stat is …? The long-term bull case for crypto is ... ? The worst sign for the US economy is … ? The BEST sign about the US economy is …?
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 11, 2022
Market Meltdown: Why Tech and Crypto Are Crashing - and What Happens Next
The stock market is absolutely gross right now. Everything is down, except (as loyal listeners know) the CATAN portfolio. Crypto has cratered, growth stocks have been ravaged, and hedge funds are imploding. Why is this happening? Is this Dot-Com Bubble 2.0? And what does it mean for the future of the U.S. economy, investing, and tech?
Investor, entrepreneur, and podcaster Jason Calacanis joins the show. He gives us a brief history of the 21st century tech industry, explains why this is like and unlike the summer of 2000, makes some bold predictions about crypto and the economy, and tells us how he's advising young chief executives. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Jason Calacanis
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 10, 2022
The Future of AI Is Thrilling, Terrifying, Confusing, and Fascinating
This might sound like a hot take but it's not: In 50 years, when historians look back on the crazy 2020s, they might point to advances in artificial intelligence as the most important long-term development of our time. We are building machines that can mimic human language, human creativity, and human thought. What will that mean for the future of work, morality, and economics? The bestselling author Steven Johnson joins the podcast to talk about the most exciting and scary ideas in artificial intelligence and an article he wrote for The New York Times Magazine about the frontier of AI.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Steven Johnson
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 6, 2022
The 300-Year History of Abortion in America—in 30 Minutes
Sometimes, people ask “why study history?” How about this: American history is the weapon being used to strike down Roe Vs Wade. In the leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe, conservative Justice Samuel Alito writes that Roe invented a right to abortion that cannot be found in early American history. Is he right? And what’s the true history of abortion in America?
That’s the subject of today’s episode—a fast, factual guide to how we got to this moment, reviewing the 300-year history of abortion in America in just 30 minutes. Today’s guests are two historians of abortion in American—Mary Ziegler, a visiting prof at Harvard, and Karissa Haugeberg, assistant professor at Tulane University. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email me at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Karissa Haugeberg and Mary Ziegler
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 3, 2022
How Would the End of Roe v. Wade Change America?
The Supreme Court is poised to end the era of Roe. In a leaked draft of a majority opinion, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito struck down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that guaranteed constitutional protections of abortion rights. What would happen to abortion rights in its absence? Which states would shutter their clinics? Which states might expand protections? How does the growth of nationwide access to abortion pills fit into all of this? And why was the draft leaked in the first place? This podcast answers all of those questions and more, with two guests: Melissa Murray is a professor of law at New York University, and Margot Sanger-Katz is a domestic correspondent for 'The New York Times.'
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Margot Sanger-Katz and Melissa Murray
Producer: Devon Manze
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May 3, 2022
Economic Mystery Hour: How Low Will Stocks Go? Is a Recession Inevitable?
Morgan Housel, author of 'The Psychology of Money' and a partner at Collaborative Fund, joins the show to play stock doctor and diagnose what's killing tech stocks. Then we debate the odds of an imminent recession and talk about how China's bizarre year could weigh on U.S. growth. Finally, we go through all the good reasons and the not-so-good reasons for cancelling student debt.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Morgan Housel
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 28, 2022
Why Is It So Hard to Predict the Next Great Quarterback?
This week we have the NFL draft, which is an annual exercise in failure. Every year, some NFL team makes a disastrous quarterback decision but also overlooks a potential star. Why is it so damn hard to predict QB play in football? Are scouts stupid, or is the future just unknowable, or is hiring fundamentally chaotic, or is there something specific about quarterbacking that makes it uniquely difficult to forecast? The economist David Berri joins to share his research on why scouts are terrible at evaluating quarterbacks. His ideas shed light on larger questions like "What is talent, exactly?" and "Does anybody know what they're doing when they're hiring somebody for a new role?"
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: David Berri
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 26, 2022
The End of the Golden Age of Streaming
What can save Netflix? Who killed CNN+? What the hell is going on between Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis? It's a big media hellscape roundup. Rich Greenfield, general partner at LightShed Ventures, forecasts a rocky future for streaming. Nick Papantonis, a reporter for WFTV in Orlando, explains that Florida's war against Disney might have some surprising collateral damage.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Rich Greenfield and Nick Papantonis
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 25, 2022
Instant Reaction Pod! Elon Musk Buys Twitter. So, What Happens Next?
Charlie Warzel, author of the Galaxy Brain newsletter at The Atlantic, joins to talk about what Elon Musk will do to Twitter and how his acquisition could change media, tech, and politics.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Charlie Warzel
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 22, 2022
Why Are American Teenagers So Sad and Anxious?
The United States is experiencing an extreme teenage mental-health crisis. It is one of the most troubling and fascinating social phenomena in the country today. From 2009 to 2021, the share of American high-school students who say they feel “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” rose from 26 percent to 44 percent, according to a new CDC study. This is the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded. Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, joins the podcast to explain why. Haidt is the author of The Righteous Mind, and the coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind. He and Derek debate the role of social media, the evolution of parenting, and the deep root of anxiety in modern life.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Jonathan Haidt
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 19, 2022
How Joe Biden Lost Millennials
The White House has a big youth problem. Since the day of his inauguration, Joe Biden’s approval has declined by about 7 points among Americans over 50—and by an astonishing 19 points among Americans under 35. The pollster and politics writer Kristen Soltis Anderson joins the show to talk about Biden's eroding approval among young people and what it means for November. Then she and Derek talk about what liberals don't get about conservatives, why Democrats overrate the political power of Donald Trump, and whether masculinity could benefit from a liberal rebrand.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Kristen Soltis Anderson
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 15, 2022
The News About Shanghai’s COVID Lockdown Is Shocking. The Reality Might Be Worse.
What’s happening in China’s largest and richest city right now is quite unbelievable. Shanghai is now several weeks into a government lockdown to stop the spread of COVID variants. In a metro with roughly the population of the state of Texas, residents cannot go outside. They cannot walk to grocery stores or pharmacies to pick up essential medicine. If they test positive for COVID, they are removed from their families and taken to quarantine facilities, where conditions are reportedly hellish. As the U.S. enters a stage of normalcy in the pandemic, China is still pursuing a draconian COVID Zero policy at the risk of starving citizens in its richest city. Why? Dan Wang, a Chinese writer and tech analyst, joins the show to talk about what he’s hearing from Shanghai, what China is trying to accomplish, and whether protests could make a difference to the Chinese Communist Party.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Dan Wang
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 14, 2022
Instant Reaction Pod! Elon Musk Offers to Buy 100 Percent of Twitter.
Well, that escalated quickly. Days after Elon Musk become the single largest individual shareholder of Twitter, he has offered to buy the company and take it private. Wait, what? Derek welcomes Stratechery writer Ben Thompson (no relation) to break down the news. Ben explains why Twitter is one of the most important companies in the world, why it's so undervalued, and what Musk could do with it privately. Then we make some predictions.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Ben Thompson
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 12, 2022
When Will the Ukraine War End? (Plus: 10 Good Minutes on What the Hell Elon Musk Is Doing With Twitter)
On today's show, we start with Ten Good Minutes on the extremely funny and very chaotic saga of Elon Musk vs. Twitter. Last week, Musk bought enough Twitter shares to become the company's largest individual shareholder. Then, Twitter announced that Musk would become a board member. Then, Musk tweeted a bunch of embarrassing things about Twitter, suggesting the platform was "dying" and that its headquarters should be converted into a homeless shelter. Then, Twitter announced that Musk would not be a board member. What is happening?! Casey Newton, the author of the 'Platformer' newsletter, joins the show to share his reporting and speculation. Next, we welcome back Paul Poast, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, to talk about why we should fear Russia even though its military has "stunk" so far, why the next chapter of the war could be even bloodier, and when the war might finally end.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Casey Newton & Paul Poast
Producer: Devon Manze
Le…
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Apr 8, 2022
It's Not Just You: America's Epidemic of Bad Behavior
There is an epidemic of bad behavior sweeping the country. In 2020, homicides increased by a record-high rate. Last year, pedestrian and vehicular deaths went up by a record-high rate. There have been more attacks in hospitals, schools, and stadiums and more unruly airline passengers than any time on record. What on Earth is going on? Today’s guest is Olga Khazan, a staff writer at The Atlantic. She and Derek talk about how America lost its damn mind and review the most obvious and most interesting theories for what's really behind this bad-behavior epidemic.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Olga Khazan
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 5, 2022
Why U.S. Population Growth Crashed to a Record Low
America has never grown at a slower pace than right now. Not only have deaths soared in the pandemic, but immigration is falling and our birth rate is near a record low, as well. Why is this happening? And why is population growth so great, anyway? Today’s guest is Matthew Yglesias, the author of the Slow Boring newsletter and the book 'One Billion Americans.' In this episode, we talk about why politicians won’t prioritize family policy and immigration in D.C.; why population growth is good for Americans today and in the future; why a large U.S. population is good for the world; and whether critics have a case when they say a livable planet can’t take another billion people.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Matt Yglesias
Producer: Devon Manze
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Apr 1, 2022
Should You Be Afraid of TikTok?
This week, the Washington Post reported that Facebook’s parent company Meta has been paying a Republican consulting firm to slime the reputation of its social media rival TikTok. According to emails shared between Meta and Targeted Victory, Facebook sought to blame TikTok for viral hoaxes that actually started on Facebook and then urged various journalists and politicians to amplify these hoaxes. Today’s guests are the journalists who broke the story: Taylor Lorenz and Drew Harwell. They explain why Facebook is afraid of TikTok; why the campaign to smear TikTok is so hypocritical and creepy; and why there are smarter reasons to be skeptical of an app whose owner has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Taylor Lorenz & Drew Harwell
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 29, 2022
What Is the “Don’t Say Gay” Law Really About? (Plus: The Big Disney vs. DeSantis Showdown in Florida.)
On Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that prohibits much classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity. The law is called “Parental Rights in Education,” but its critics—which include Democrats, Hollywood, and many outspoken employees of the Walt Disney Company—call it “Don’t Say Gay.” What does the law actually say? And how has it created a firestorm at Disney? In this episode, Derek talks to Dana Goldstein, a New York Times reporter, about the details of the law. Then he talks to Matt Belloni, a cofounder of Puck News and the host of the Ringer podcast ‘The Town,’ about what the debate within Disney says about the future of the culture war and corporations.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Dana Goldstein and Matt Belloni
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 25, 2022
How Ukraine Wins
Derek talks to The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum about Zelensky’s global appeal, the roots of Putin's lust for empire, and Ukraine’s prospects for victory.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Anne Applebaum
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 22, 2022
Could Putin’s War Crash the U.S. Economy?
Economic crises are piling up. U.S. inflation was surging before Russia invaded Ukraine. Since the war began, commodity prices have spiked, with gas screaming toward $5 a gallon. And now China is facing a new COVID wave. What is happening, and how will it end? Jason Furman, chief economic adviser to the Obama administration and professor of economics at Harvard University, is back on the pod to answer our burning economic questions, like, “Are we headed back to the 1970s?”
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Jason Furman
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 14, 2022
Five Reasons Putin’s War Was Doomed From the Start
Russia’s military isn’t just a little bit bigger than Ukraine's—it has three times more armored vehicles; four times more ground forces; five times more tanks; and 10 times more aircraft. But for now, David is holding up against Goliath. How is this happening? And how long can Ukraine hold out? Russia military analyst Rob Lee and diplomacy expert Max Bergmann explain how Ukraine is shocking Russia—and the world.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Rob Lee and Max Bergmann
Producer: Troy Farkas
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Mar 10, 2022
Why a No-Fly Zone Over Ukraine Could Be—Literally—the Worst Idea Ever
Three in four Americans say the U.S. and its allies should ban Russian aircraft over Ukraine by establishing a “no-fly zone.” Dozens of foreign policy experts agree. So do many Ukrainians. Is this the policy that could end the war, or is it an idea that could end human civilization as we know it? (Maybe it's both.) The author and foreign policy critic Robert Wright joins the podcast to debate the pros and cons of a no-fly zone.
Host: Derek Thompson
Producer: Troy Farkas
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Mar 8, 2022
“Every Person Is Ready to Die for Our Country”: Five Ukrainians on Life Inside Putin’s War Zone
Imagine running from your home, from a foreign army, knowing that every decision you make could be the difference between life and death—stay or flee? Turn left or right? Leave at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m.? That is the world in which today’s guests live. Five Ukrainians who live in—or have recently fled from—Kyiv tell Derek what it’s like living in the Ukrainian capital, escaping to Poland, and returning to Kyiv to fight the Russian army.
Host: Derek Thompson
Producer: Troy Farkas
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Mar 2, 2022
SPECIAL DOUBLE EPISODE: What Putin Will Do Next and the West’s Unprecedented "Financial War" on Russia
There are two wars happening right now. There is a military conflict led by Vladimir Putin in Eastern Europe that we should all hope ends as soon as possible. And there is an economic and cultural war—the world vs. Russia—that we should also hope ends as soon as possible. In today’s episode, two guests discuss each theater of war. Paul Poast, a University of Chicago professor and expert on the economics of war, joins to discuss the latest from the war on the ground. And Robin Wigglesworth, a global finance correspondent with the Financial Times, joins to discuss the global “financial war” against Russia.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Paul Poast and Robin Wigglesworth
Producer: Devon Manze
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Mar 1, 2022
Russia’s Economic Meltdown, Putin’s Big Mistake, and the West’s Financial War Against Vlad and the Oligarchs
Things are moving very, very fast in Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine—and in the global response to punish Russia. The U.S. and Europe are not engaged in a literal war against Putin, and hopefully nothing like that will come to pass. But this weekend, they announced a series of unprecedented sanctions and economic penalties that could destroy the Russian economy. These policies are designed to get Putin to end the war before he conquers Ukraine. But they could crash the Russian economy and trigger more global crises. To explain the sanctions, discuss their pluses and minuses, and predict their ripple effects, Derek is joined by Noah Smith, author of the newsletter Noahpinion, and Nicolas Véron, a French economist and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the European think tank Bruegel.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Noah Smith and Nicolas Véron
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 25, 2022
How Putin's War Will End
Quagmire. Regime change. Conquest. Empire. World War III. Derek considers five ways that the war in Ukraine could end with Paul Poast, a professor of foreign policy and war at the University of Chicago. This is Part 2 of our two-part Ukraine coverage today. For more on why Putin attacked and how war could change the world, check out the previous episode in this feed.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Paul Poast
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 25, 2022
What Vladimir Putin Wants—and How Russia’s War in Ukraine Could Reshape the World
Derek explains why three years—1989, 2008, and 2014—are the key to understanding why Putin is willing to take a massive risk in invading Ukraine. Then, Derek asks five expert guests to walk him through the most important second-order implications of a long major conflict. What are the most important ricochet effects that nobody is talking about? How could the war transform Europe? How could it destabilize Africa and the Middle East? How will it change U.S. politics, or kick off a 21st Century Cold War?
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Charles Kupchan, Liana Fix, Matthew Klein, Alex Smith, Bonny Lin
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 22, 2022
Four Brilliant Frames for Finding the Next Big Thing, With Venture Capitalist Josh Wolfe. Plus, What's Eating Tech Stocks in 2022?
All-star VC Josh Wolfe of Lux Capital joins the show to talk about picking winners and losers, tech's rough start to the year, and his four favorite mottos for detecting BS and seeing reality clearly. Finally, Derek and Josh play a game of "Overrated or Underrated?" for the metaverse, NFTs, and space travel.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Josh Wolfe
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 18, 2022
The Great Debate: What's the Single Most Amazing Sports Statistic in U.S. History?
Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game. Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak. Jerry Rice's gazillion receiving records. Which of these athletic achievements is the most impressive in American sports history? And are any of them the most impressive ever? The Ringer's Ryen Russillo joins the pod to debate the most impressive achievements in football, basketball, baseball, and individual sports. Then, after making selections that will almost certainly infuriate at least half of all listeners, the guys compare the GOATs across sports to name the single most impressive accomplishment ever. (Hint: Ironically, the award goes to a non-American.)
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Ryen Russillo
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 15, 2022
What American Media Is Getting Wrong About Canada’s Big Protests
What if I told you that the anti-vaccination trucker protests in Canada weren’t principally about vaccines or truckers (or even Canada)? The Atlantic’s David Frum joins to set us straight about what’s going on in Ottawa and the meme-ification of protest politics.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: David Frum
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 11, 2022
The Meaning of Life and the Power of Regret
Derek goes deep with bestselling author Dan Pink on his new book, 'The Power of Regret.' This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Sixth & I historic synagogue in Washington, D.C.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Dan Pink
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 8, 2022
Media Gossip Hour: Spotify's Joe Rogan Problem, Facebook's TikTok Crisis, and Crypto's Anonymity Conundrum
Kevin Roose of The New York Times returns to our pod, which is owned by Spotify, to talk about Joe Rogan’s podcast, which is exclusively licensed by Spotify. (That's transparency, folks.) Then we talk about Mark Zuckerberg’s big stock market wipeout, and Kevin explains the latest NFT controversy to Derek like he’s 5 years old.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Kevin Roose
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 4, 2022
This Guy Predicted the 2021 Economy. I Asked Him What's Next.
Jason Furman is a Harvard professor who served as a top economist for the Obama administration. More than just about anybody Derek spoke to last year, he nailed the rise in inflation. What did he see that others didn't? What's happening to inflation, the Great Resignation, labor shortages, and the Federal Reserve right now? And what will happen in 2022?
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Jason Furman
Producer: Devon Manze
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Feb 1, 2022
One Big Question For: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla, and Meta
They’re the six largest tech companies in the world. What’s the most interesting thing about each of them? Shira Ovide, author of the On Tech newsletter from The New York Times, joins Derek to talk about why Norway is a snapshot of Tesla’s future, why Microsoft is so underrated, and why Apple stands alone among the tech giants in more ways than one.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Shira Ovide
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 28, 2022
Should We Cancel Student Debt?
Americans owe $1.7 trillion in student loans, and some Democrats think the time has come to cancel this burden. Derek shares 10 big student-loan facts that shape the debate. Then Jordan Weissmann of Slate joins the podcast to talk about the proposal to cancel student debt, the best arguments for and against it, the modern history of student loans, and their economic and psychological burden.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Jordan Weissmann
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 25, 2022
Crypto Crashing, Pandemic Stocks Plunging: The Story Behind January’s Crazy Stock Market
Morgan Housel, the bestselling author of ‘The Psychology of Money’ and a partner at Collaborative Fund, is back to talk Bitcoin, Peloton, tech stocks, financial media myths, the psychology of stock market corrections, and the long view of investing.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Morgan Housel
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 21, 2022
2022 Is Off to a Terrible Start for Democrats
Legendary journalist James Fallows joins to discuss the filibuster wars, Democrats’ Voting Rights Act, the political outlook for Joe Biden and the Democrats, and the media’s negativity bias (as exemplified, one might argue, in the headline to this very episode).
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: James Fallows
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 18, 2022
The Biggest Losers of the Streaming Wars: ESPN, Movie Theaters, Peacock, and More
Do movie theaters have a future? What should Disney do with ESPN? And is anybody watching Peacock? Derek’s favorite entertainment-media analyst Rich Greenfield joins the pod to talk about the future of TV, movies, and live sports.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Rich Greenfield
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 14, 2022
Everybody Was Wrong About Inflation
Okay, almost everybody. The Biden administration was wrong. Many critics of the Biden administration were also wrong. The Federal Reserve was wrong. Investors were wrong. Banks were wrong. And Bitcoin investors weren't exactly right, either. How did everybody miss the most important economic story of the year? Derek breaks down the highest inflation rate in 40 years and welcomes back his economic roundtable guests, the finance podcasters Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Michael Batnick & Ben Carlson
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 11, 2022
Omicron: Feelings vs. Facts
Derek talks about the rise of the "Vaxxed and Done" movement before reviewing the latest omicron data with John Burn-Murdoch, data superstar at the Financial Times.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: John Burn-Murdoch
Producer: Devon Manze
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Jan 7, 2022
The Biggest Inventions of the 2020s: Cancer Vaccines, Flying Cars, Space Travel, and More
Let’s kick off the new year with a bit of techno-optimism! After a miserable start to this decade, we can still have a Roaring Twenties. In this episode, ‘Plain English’ presents a tour of the frontier of science and technology with Derek’s favorite innovation writer, the economist Eli Dourado.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Eli Dourado
Producer: Devon Manze
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Dec 28, 2021
The Four Ways That America Is Polarizing
David Frum joins Derek to talk about rising and falling polarization by race, gender, education, and place—and what it tells us about America's strange new politics.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: David Frum
Producer: Devon Manze
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Dec 21, 2021
The Four Biggest Myths of the U.S. Economy. Plus, Omicron in 100 Seconds.
Morgan Housel, Collaborative Fund partner and author of the bestseller 'The Psychology of Money,' joins the pod to debate what we're getting wrong about inflation, the Great Resignation, robots, and investing.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Morgan Housel
Producer: Devon Manze
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Dec 17, 2021
Elon Musk Is the Person of the Year. Who Is the Person of the Century?
New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose is back to talk about the Age of Elon, why tech’s most famous founders are acting so weird, and why I’m wrong about remote work. Plus, a 2022 prediction.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Kevin Roose
Producer: Devon Manze
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Dec 14, 2021
The Elizabeth Holmes Trial With Rebecca Jarvis of 'The Dropout' Podcast
Derek is obsessed with the trial of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes—and he hopes you are too. Days away from the trial's end, Derek and Rebecca review the most jaw-dropping evidence in the case, the cringiest text messages, the biggest wins for the prosecution, the best moments for the defense, and the larger meaning of the tech trial of the century.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Rebecca Jarvis
Producer: Devon Manze
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Dec 10, 2021
Media Report Card! Biden Blues, Omicron Fears, Chris Cuomo, and a Celebrity Profile for the Ages
Bryan Curtis from The Ringer’s ‘The Press Box’ podcast joins Derek to hand out grades to the news media for its coverage of Biden, the pandemic, and more.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Bryan Curtis
Producer: Devon Manze
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Dec 7, 2021
Work in America Is Broken—Can Remote Work Save Us?
Derek talks to Anne Helen Petersen, the coauthor of 'Out of Work: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home,' about Americans' relationship to our jobs, work as an identity, and burnout as a policy choice.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Anne Helen Petersen
Producer: Devon Manze
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Dec 4, 2021
BONUS POD: The Future of Democracy, the Media, and the Economy With Andrew Yang
In our first weekend special, Andrew interviews Derek about the state of the economy, and Derek interviews Andrew about the various plagues of U.S. politics.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Andrew Yang
Producer: Devon Manze
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Dec 3, 2021
The Bad Guys Are Winning
Derek talks to The Atlantic's Anne Applebaum on the decline of democracy and the rise of a new form of authoritarianism in Russia, China, Europe, and the U.S.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Anne Applebaum
Producer: Devon Manze
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Nov 30, 2021
The Omicron Variant: So, How Bad Is It?
Dr. Peter Hotez talks to Derek about what we know about the new COVID-19 variant (a little), what we don't know (a lot), and when we'll know more.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Dr. Peter Hotez
Producer: Devon Manze
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Nov 23, 2021
Buy or Sell Pandemic Trends: Peloton, Movie Theaters, Masks, and More!
The Atlantic's Amanda Mull joins the podcast to debate Derek about which COVID-19–related cultural trends will thrive or fade in the 2020s.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Amanda Mull
Producer: Devon Manze
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Nov 19, 2021
We Have to Talk About Inflation
Our first Economic Roundtable discusses rising prices, the Great Resignation, labor shortages, the supply chain mess, Joe Biden’s puking approval numbers, and what the White House can do to turn things around.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson
Producer: Devon Manze
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Nov 16, 2021
The Future Is Going to Be Weird As Hell
In our first episode, The New York Times’s Kevin Roose joins the show to walk Derek through the metaverse, crypto, NFTs, and the maybe-BS or maybe-brilliant future of technology.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Kevin Roose
Producer: Devon Manze
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Nov 11, 2021
Introducing Plain English with Derek Thompson
Longtime Atlantic writer Derek Thompson breaks down your weekly headlines in his new podcast, ‘Plain English.’ From tech to politics to culture, Derek and his expert guests cut through the noise surrounding the news and tackle the big questions that matter to you. ‘Plain English’ launches November 16, with new episodes dropping every Tuesday and Friday.
Host: Derek Thompson
Producer: Devon Manze
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