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Derek Thompson

@dkthomp.bsky.social
43K followers 113 following 254 posts

derekthompson.substack.com

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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
we may have a problem
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
www.derekthompson.org/p/the-death-...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
ANNOUNCEMENT! The Plain English podcast is growing, and we're hiring. We're looking for a part-time Social Media Producer. 2-3 days a week, day rate of $500 Send your resume and info to PlainEnglish@Spotify.com with the subject [YOUR NAME] Resume - Plain English Social Producer
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
New pod: America is switching from booze to weed www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn5I...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
America, 1926: An absurdly deep dive into what America was like 100 years ago www.derekthompson.org/p/america-19...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
New newsletter: The rise and rise of the solo act The data is in: Solo entrepreneurs and tiny startups are becoming much more common and much more profitable. This has huge implications for the future of firms, wealth, social life, and even US tax revenue. www.derekthompson.org/p/ai-isnt-co...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Happy Fathers Day to the best and most involved generation of dads in recorded history www.derekthompson.org/p/why-do-ric... www.derekthompson.org/p/why-do-ric...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
The draft results —>
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
America's health craze isn't so healthy. Diet, exercise, and discipline are virtues. Longer lives are good. But today's craze of health-maximization has an antisocial streak. At its extremes, it verges on a cult of self enhancement, which pulls us into ourselves and away from other people.
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
The cult of the enhanced self is about many things. But at bottom it is about the fear of death and our efforts to sublimate mortality phobia by pretending that, with the right mindset, we might live forever
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
hmm.
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
The guest's first two explanations for declining birthrates are both about women pushing back against misogyny and forced domestic labor. Then I summarize his answer by pointing out that declining birthrates are about the freedom of women to determine their own fertility.
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
New: 21ST CENTURY DADS ARE DIFFERENT 1. Today's dads have roughly tripled childcare time compared to our grandparents/parents. 2. This shift is global. 3. It's concentrated among the most educated families. 4. Moms still do more—and more stressful—childcare www.derekthompson.org/p/why-do-ric...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
I'm going to lose my mind here. Lance said he sees no evidence for your position. Your whole Dallas oligopoly case is: Big builders use market share to create shortages and drive up profits. Lance just said: Nope! I don't see any evidence that they do.
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
There's a thread from Matt Stoller going around accusing me of lying and purposefully misrepresenting my conversation with the real estate analyst Lance Lambert. Well, I knew that was wrong. So I called Lance. Here's what happened next.
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
frequent theme of today's episode: there are 2 housing americas now if you live in the northeast or midwest, prices are rising, everywhere around you. if you live in the south or west, prices are falling, everywhere around you.
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
New pod: Something very strange is happening to the labor market for college graduates. Their unemployment is rising much faster than the overall economy—in a way that's unprecedented in the last 40 yrs. Why? Harvard's David Deming and I talk thru the evidence. open.spotify.com/episode/3Feh...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
This is actual US policy right now
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
The unemployment rate for recent grads is worse now relative to the overall economy than any time on record. Three flavors of explanation: Short-term: It's Trump. Medium-term: It's the flagging college premium. Long-term: Is Gen-AI substituting for new hires? www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
New pod: What's behind the extreme rise in ADHD diagnoses in the last decade? Paul Tough joins the show, to plot a middle path between "ADHD was invented by Big Pharma to sell kids pills" vs. "There's absolutely no downside to the boom in stimulant prescriptions" open.spotify.com/episode/6Gga...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
When you consider that Tesla was a world leader in its category until a top exec made a series of unforced and eccentric errors, which tarnished its image and demolished growth, all while a Chinese industrial giant threatened to leave it in the dust ... you really get what drew Musk to this admin
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
If China defeated the US in war and forced us to sign a treaty that would ensure a century of Chinese dominion in science and tech, they'd be smart to force the U.S. to: - slash scientific grants in half - reduce foreign students - gut our manufacturing base Instead, we're doing it all by choice.
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Trumpists want to argue for a future-world that doesn't yet exist, in which the tariffs create a perfect equilibrium for US growth. But the tariff plan announced yesterday does exist. We can read it. It does not make sense and is not defensible on its own terms. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Three years ago, I wrote my "abundance agenda" essay. Today, my book ABUNDANCE, co-written with Ezra Klein, comes out. Here's my best summary of our view of abundance vs. Donald Trump's regime of scarcity. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Trump's interpersonal psychology sort of haphazardly recreating late-19th century US political economy. Trump doesn't like or understand trade. (He thinks when we import stuff, we lose money.) So, we get tariffs *plus* special dispensation for companies that make attractive appeals to him.
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
BESSENT: US TO DEVELOP MAJOR DOMESTIC FILM BUSINESS IN CALIFORNIA, TO BE NAMED AFTER HOLLYWOOD HILLS
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
New pod: The End of Reading Student reading scores are plummeting. Elite-college students say they can't read full books. Leisure reading has declined >30% for adults. And, as @weisenthal.bsky.social says, it's happening as US culture swings back to "orality." open.spotify.com/episode/0tFL...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Atlanta Fed forecasts Q1 GDP declining 1.5% (ht @conorsen.bsky.social) Would the worst quarter in the last decade (outside of 2020 spring). Notably, expected contribution of net exports fell from -0.41 percentage points to -3.7. Weird, since US trade policy has been very normal recently.
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Unbelievable news. Pancreatic is one of the deadliest cancers. New paper shows personalized mRNA vaccines can induce durable T cells that attack pancreatic cancer, with 75% of patients cancer free at three years—far, far better than standard of care. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Two million views of a tweet a) accusing the NYT of "putting the lives of DOGE employees at risk" (... by naming the people running the government) b) accusing the NYT of "hiding the names" of its reporters from the public (... when they are listed, all 15 of them, right there on the page)
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
is it fair to point out that global fertility trends seem to be harmonizing in a weird way? it looks like in, say, the 1925 cohort, you have significant differences between the age specific fertility rate in US/UK/Japan but now, it feels like many many countries are moving toward the same curve
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Are young ppl shifting right? Germany's election tests the case. 1. Far-right had historic results and young ppl were a third more likely than seniors to vote AfD. 2. But a plurality of young ppl voted for the left—MUCH higher than seniors. Youth flight from the center cc @mcopelov.bsky.social
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Important piece. Young people are hard to poll, but this fits the general thrust of my essays and pods over the last year. Young ppl, esp men, have moved right in the last few years; and in many cases young men are even more right-leaning than older men (OTOH: Watch that dip...)
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
There is, in some corners, an intellectual effort to dress up Trump's personal style of politics as a deep ideology—e.g., he's an old-school Jacksonian; he's for returning the world to 19th c spheres of influence; etc—but fundamentally, the guy just cannot stand having mean things said about him
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Straightforward from here 1. DOGE cuts $50 million in govt spending 2. Falsely calls it $50 billion 3. Sends every taxpayer a share of that $50 billion as a savings "dividend" 4. Republicans add $5 trillion in tax cuts 5. GOP complains about deficit under next Democratic administration
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
New ep: The state of energy in 2025, with @nathanielbullard.com Feat. 1. Why solar is historic 2. How BYD is taking over the global auto industry 3. The ESG bubble has popped—but does it matter? 4. The AI build-out in context: Uh, holy shit ... open.spotify.com/episode/21z6...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Starred review of ABUNDANCE is in. Thanks, Kirkus! PRE-ORDER! www.amazon.com/Abundance-Pr...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
loved this! The part about social media changing consciousness hit. In my feature, this was a throwaway line that contained a lot of thinking and deleted sentences behind it. Our alone thoughts are more "crowded" than they used to be, a weird 21st c spin on the emergence of a "mass" culture
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
I wrote the latest cover story for The Atlantic. It's about the far-ranging implications of one simple statistic: Americans have never spent so much time alone, and surging solitude is warping our society. I'm really proud of it, and I hope you read it. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
I agree that loneliness inequality is really important. and the article doesn't do the deepest dive into economic stratification. but to be fair, your observation—that the problem is worse for low-income ppl—is identified by the piece several times, and this is from final section :)
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
New pod: JPMorgan's Michael Cembalest joins the show to offer his 2025 forecast of the economy and Trump policy Including (see charts): 1. Big Tech is dominating the economy unlike anything we've seen in decades 2. Nvidia is unreal 3. What's eating Europe? open.spotify.com/episode/67dW...
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
Jamelle is referring to me, and I think he’s right that “totalizing” was a misleading word. What I meant: Trump’s victory saw a surprisingly (to me) uniform shift right among demographic groups, including young women, according to APVotecast. New Year’s resolution: adjectival precision!
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
Its interesting that overall marijuana is soaring… and also every week there’s another NYT/WSJ article about all the tech executives doing psychedelics and ketamine… AND ALSO, by some accounts, high schoolers are doing way fewer drugs?
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Merry Christmas to front page editors everywhere!
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
"But apart from Matt Gaetz's violation of House rules and state and federal laws regarding prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, illegal passport schemes, acceptance of impermissible gifts, and obstruction of Congress ... "
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
The right's media-political nexus is both financially dependent on supplement advertising AND eager to ban pharma drug advertising. Supplements are basically drugs that don't "work" (lack clinical/FDA approval). If you can see how this makes sense, you can understand American politics in 2025.
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
The NYT article about Blake Lively’s lawsuit is incredible. Her director/costar’s PR team texting “Holy shit, I can’t believe how well our evil plan to destroy this woman’s reputation is working! Thank god no one will ever read these text messages!” back and forth to each other over and over
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