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Derek Thompson
Staff writer at The Atlantic, Host of “Plain English” podcast
Derek Thompson is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he writes about economics and the media. He is a regular contributor to NPR’s Here and Now and appears frequently on television, including CBS and MSNBC.
He is also the host of the podcast Plain English and the author of the national bestselling book Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction, which has been translated into a dozen languages.
Thompson was named to both Inc. magazine and Forbes‘ 30 Under 30 lists. He lives in New York City.
15 min
Why the American dream no longer moves upward
“This is a world in which we've essentially given ourselves the tools to stop the construction of the most important product in American lives in the places where Americans often most want to move.”
10 min
The laboratory accident that saved 500 million lives
“Invention matters, but implementation matters more.”
12 min
The great friendship collapse: Inside The Anti-Social Century
“You can debate all sorts of things about how the texture of American life has changed. What you can't debate is the sheer, objective, existential fact that Americans are more alone than ever.”
8 min
Policy and process is paralyzing the US government
"I'd prefer to think about a different axis, which is, should government be more or less effective? Should government work faster or slower?"
1 min
A liberal critique of liberalism: What needs to change
"The disease is the fact that liberalism, which used to be an ideology of building, has become an ideology of blocking."
5 min
The science of music: Why your brain gets hooked on hit songs
There's a reason you can't stop you head boppin' to block-rockin' beats, and why you can't get a song's hook out of your head.
4 min
How the Billboard Hot 100 explains the rise of Donald Trump
The scandalous history of the Billboard Hot 100 is the perfect analogy for how Donald Trump's popularity broke the rigid power structure of American politics.