Plain English with Derek Thompson

What Translator Emily Wilson Thinks of Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey'

Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' has brought one of history's oldest stories back into the spotlight. It’s also sparked a fresh debate about what it means to adapt a classic. Today, Derek is joined ...

2026-07-23

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Why 'The Odyssey' Is the West’s Greatest Story

Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' is finally here, but how exactly has a 3,000-year-old story endured long enough to become the foundation of Western storytelling? Derek is joined by Karen Ní Mheallai...

2026-07-17

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A Philosopher’s One-Word Theory for Why the World Feels So Weird

Why does it feel like everything is more divided and exhausting than it used to be? Philosopher Agnes Callard has a surprisingly simple answer: the unicontext. It's her term for what happens when bill...

2026-07-14

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How Israel Is Transforming American Politics

Peter Beinart joins Derek to unpack a major shift inside the Democratic Party. As Democratic Socialist-backed candidates notch a string of surprising primary victories, one issue has emerged as a defi...

2026-07-07

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MEGAPOD: The Most Overrated American Who Ever Lived

To celebrate America's 250th birthday, Derek is joined for a history draft by three of the country's leading historians: Beverly Gage, H.W. (Bill) Brands, and Richard White. The goal isn't to revisit ...

2026-07-03

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A Surprising Theory About the Future of War

From the bombing campaigns of World War II to the precision strikes of the modern era, for 80 years air power has defined modern warfare. But today, a new technology is changing the battlefield: drone...

2026-06-30

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SpaceX, AI Bubble Fears, and The Age of the Trillion-Dollar, Zero-Profit Company

For decades, investors valued companies based on a familiar formula: Grow revenue, earn profits, and reward shareholders. But a new era may be beginning - one where trillion-dollar companies can lose ...

2026-06-26

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The Iran War Is Ending. Everybody Lost.

Four months ago, the U.S. and Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran. Supporters predicted a decisive victory that would curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and reshape the balance of power in the Middle...

2026-06-23

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The Donald Trump Corruption Scandal Draft

What is Donald Trump good at? In his second administration, he promised lower prices, stronger manufacturing, and an end to foreign conflicts. Instead, inflation has risen, blue-collar job growth has ...

2026-06-19

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The Most Exciting Month of Medical Breakthroughs in Years

For years, scientists worried that medical progress was slowing down. Drug development became more expensive than ever with more complex clinical trials, and even then, many new treatments offered onl...

2026-06-16

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Old-igarchy: How the Elderly Conquered American Power

Prior to the 1930s, old age in America often meant poverty. But thanks to Social Security, Medicare, medical advances, and rising asset prices, over the past 90 years, older Americans have become one ...

2026-06-12

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How Modern Fatherhood Is Changing Men’s Brains

Humans are unusual dads. Across the animal kingdom, dads are often absent from child-rearing altogether. But among humans, fatherhood takes many forms, and in the last half century, it has changed dra...

2026-06-09

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What 400,000 Essays Reveal About AI and Creativity

For generations, we've defined creativity by its products: the novel, the painting, the song, the breakthrough idea. We look at the work, and from the work we see the creator as “creative.” But AI is ...

2026-06-05

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The Surprising Truth About America's Friendship Crisis

Modern loneliness is often treated as a simple problem: People are simply spending more time alone. But what if that's not the whole story? Over the last several years, Derek has written about workism...

2026-06-02

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Why the NBA Feels Broken—and Why the League Can’t Fix It

The NBA’s vibes have been unusually awful recently. There has been widespread hand-wringing about the homogenization of modern offenses and the league’s notoriously weak regular-season TV ratings. A t...

2026-05-29

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The Men Who Think Toxic Feminism Destroyed America

Over the past century, attitudes about gender roles have become one of the clearest dividing lines in the country. Many Republicans, both men and women, say men are getting a raw deal in modern Americ...

2026-05-22

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Does Anybody Know How to Solve an American Debt Crisis?

On his 40th birthday, Derek Thompson takes a step back and looks at how his thinking on the national debt has changed. Back when he first covered fiscal policy, concern about government borrowing was ...

2026-05-19

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The Global Fertility Crisis Is Worse Than You Think

Fertility rates are collapsing around the world. In rich countries and poor ones, in secular societies and religious ones, people are having fewer children than ever before. Some explanations focus on...

2026-05-15

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The Case Against the AI Job Apocalypse

For the past few years, Silicon Valley executives and economists have warned that artificial intelligence could wipe out millions of jobs. Some companies have even blamed AI for layoffs. But what if t...

2026-05-12

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Why American Happiness Just Fell Off a Cliff

America is richer than ever. Unemployment is low. Wages are high. According to traditional metrics, the economy looks strong. So why are Americans feeling so bad? Today, Derek talks with bestselling ...

2026-05-08

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Plain English with Derek Thompson

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