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Plain English with Derek Thompson artwork

Plain English with Derek Thompson

350 episodes

"America Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do to Jobs"

Plain English with Derek Thompson

1:06:42Feb 13, 2026

The Meltdown at The Washington Post—and the Crisis in News

Plain English with Derek Thompson

1:11:12Feb 11, 2026

Plain English BEST OF: What’s the Matter With America’s Food?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

52:49Feb 3, 2026

Plain English BEST OF: This Is How the AI Bubble Could Burst

Plain English with Derek Thompson

59:46Jan 27, 2026

Plain English BEST OF: The Healthiest "Super-Agers" Have One Thing in Common, According to a 25-Year Study

Plain English with Derek Thompson

41:58Jan 20, 2026

Plain English BEST OF: The Modern World Is Changing America’s Personality for the Worse

Plain English with Derek Thompson

47:20Jan 13, 2026

Plain English BEST OF: If GLP-1 Drugs Are Good for Everything, Should We All Be on Them?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

54:20Jan 6, 2026

Plain English BEST OF: What Experts Really Think About Smartphones and Mental Health

Plain English with Derek Thompson

1:06:36Dec 30, 2025

Plain English BEST OF: How Gen Z Sees the World

Plain English with Derek Thompson

58:09Dec 23, 2025

Plain English BEST OF: A Grand, Unified Theory of Why Americans Are So Unhealthy

Plain English with Derek Thompson

38:44Dec 16, 2025

Plain English BEST OF: The Antisocial Century

Plain English with Derek Thompson

1:08:13Dec 9, 2025

Plain English BEST OF: How to Be Happy and the Science of Cognitive Time Travel

Plain English with Derek Thompson

1:05:38Dec 2, 2025

A Grand Unified Theory of Cultural Stagnation

Plain English with Derek Thompson

58:51Nov 25, 2025

The American Math Crisis

Plain English with Derek Thompson

54:07Nov 21, 2025

How Superintelligent AI Could Upend Work and Politics

Plain English with Derek Thompson

58:43Nov 18, 2025

Everything Is Television

Plain English with Derek Thompson

57:09Nov 14, 2025

Are Young People Screwed?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

52:31Nov 12, 2025

The Democrats Have a New Winning Formula

Plain English with Derek Thompson

1:00:43Nov 7, 2025

How the American Revolution Changed the World, With Ken Burns

Plain English with Derek Thompson

59:19Nov 4, 2025

The Problem With Sports Gambling

Plain English with Derek Thompson

54:45Oct 31, 2025

Michael Lewis on How the Global Financial Crisis Explains Trump, Crypto, and Everything Else

Plain English with Derek Thompson

1:12:03Oct 28, 2025

What Happens When AI Learns to Do Our Jobs

Plain English with Derek Thompson

54:14Oct 24, 2025

Can "Touch-Grass Populism" Save America?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

59:48Oct 21, 2025

Everybody Thinks AI Is a Bubble. What If They’re Wrong?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

52:07Oct 17, 2025

The Future of Entertainment, Part 2: What’s the Matter With Broadway?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

47:18Oct 14, 2025

The Future of Entertainment, Part 1: Is Hollywood's Business Model Broken?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

46:22Oct 10, 2025

Why Money Doesn't Buy Happiness in America

Plain English with Derek Thompson

48:38Oct 7, 2025

Is AI Really About to Solve Human Disease?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

53:41Oct 3, 2025

How America Became a Nation of "Free Speech Hypocrites"

Plain English with Derek Thompson

52:18Sep 30, 2025

What’s the Matter With America’s Food?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

52:32Sep 26, 2025

This Is How the AI Bubble Could Burst

Plain English with Derek Thompson

59:26Sep 23, 2025

The Jimmy Kimmel Saga and America's Free-Speech Crisis

Plain English with Derek Thompson

40:51Sep 19, 2025

If GLP-1 Drugs Are Good for Everything, Should We All Be on Them?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

54:22Sep 16, 2025

Charlie Kirk's Killing and America's Age of "Salad-Bar Extremism"

Plain English with Derek Thompson

52:15Sep 12, 2025

America in the Age of Diagnosis

Plain English with Derek Thompson

57:07Sep 9, 2025

Trumponomics Explained, Part 2: The Enshittification of American Power

Plain English with Derek Thompson

52:08Sep 5, 2025

What Is Trumponomics? Part 1: How Donald Trump Is Breaking American Capitalism

Plain English with Derek Thompson

49:33Sep 3, 2025

The Healthiest "Super-Agers" Have One Thing in Common, According to a 25-Year Study

Plain English with Derek Thompson

41:48Aug 27, 2025

Plain History: How the Transcontinental Railroads Built the Modern World

Plain English with Derek Thompson

55:49Aug 20, 2025

The Modern World Is Changing America’s Personality For the Worse

Plain English with Derek Thompson

47:10Aug 13, 2025

Will AI Usher In the End of Deep Thinking?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

58:13Aug 6, 2025

The New Geography of Housing in America

Plain English with Derek Thompson

42:23Jul 30, 2025

The Demise of Late-Night TV Is an Omen for American Culture

Plain English with Derek Thompson

47:22Jul 23, 2025

If Trump’s Economic Ideas Are So Bad, Why Isn’t the U.S. Economy Doing Much Worse?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

52:05Jul 17, 2025

Fertility Needs a Scientific Revolution

Plain English with Derek Thompson

47:14Jul 16, 2025

The Mysterious Rise of Major Injuries in Professional Sports

Plain English with Derek Thompson

54:10Jul 9, 2025

How Abundance Won in California

Plain English with Derek Thompson

59:00Jul 3, 2025

What's Next for the Middle East: War, Peace, or Revolution?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

47:05Jun 25, 2025

NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani on Abundance, Socialism, and How to Change a Mind

Plain English with Derek Thompson

41:01Jun 23, 2025

A Grand, Unified Theory of Why Americans Are So Unhealthy

Plain English with Derek Thompson

38:11Jun 18, 2025