New pod: I think AI is a bubble. But, suddenly, so does everybody else. I don't like it when conventional wisdoms get too conventional. So I asked @azeem.bsky.social: What is the single strongest case that AI is NOT a bubble? This episode is his answer. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

I loved chatting with the always-sharp @dkthomp.bsky.social about the catastrophic recent loss of work for Hollywood's middle-class and why AI may lead to a creative renaissance for the entertainment industry akin to 1970s cinema. open.spotify.com/episode/2P3w...

1. Social media is now 5% following friends and 95% watching videos made by strangers. 2. Every podcast is turning into a YouTube show. 3. AI companies can't stop building TikTok clones. Everything is becoming television. I wrote about why that matters. www.derekthompson.org/p/why-everyt...

> @dkthomp.bsky.social

"Total AI capex is projected to exceed $500 billion in 2026 and 2027—roughly the annual GDP of Singapore. Meanwhile, American consumers spend only $12 billion a year on AI services—roughly the GDP of Somalia." www.derekthompson.org/p/this-is-ho...

“The demise of writing matters because writing is not a second thing that happens after thinking. The act of writing is an act of thinking.” @dkthomp.bsky.social captures the high stakes of academic declines: we need to be training our brains to compete w AI. www.theargumentmag.com/p/you-have-1...

Another great discussion from @dkthomp.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

Loved this episode of Plain English with @dkthomp.bsky.social. Suzanne O’Sullivan is such a sane, compassionate and helpful voice in the field of medicine and mental health. pca.st/episode/5972...

“.. a historic, if dubious, achievement ..” @dkthomp.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/derektho...

New newsletter: Pilates is surging, yoga's on fire, gyms are packed, and Americans are working out more than ever. Why? www.derekthompson.org/p/the-great-...

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.

Antitrust critics of Abundance claim homebuilding oligopolies are holding back supply and driving up prices, esp in Texas. I did something really simple. I called up their sources. Everyone I spoke to told me the same thing: Their claims are bullshit. www.derekthompson.org/p/the-anti-a...

New pod: This is the worst housing market for first-time homebuyers in modern history. How we got here, what's happening now—prices falling in the south, rising in the north, and what comes next, with @conorsen.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

This chart from @dkthomp.bsky.social is a great example of what traditional economic indicators miss when it comes to human welfare. Socializing is an extremely valuable part of life, and Americans are getting less of it these days.

The MAGA energy agenda is pretty simple. It's about combining the energy policy of the 1980s with the trade policy of the 1880s. And it's about trying so hard to own the libs at any cost, you raise electricity prices everywhere. derekthompson.substack.com/p/american-e...

If you're interested in a super-nerdy podcast about agricultural history and development (and an explanation if what yrs truly thinks Norman Borlaug actually did), this may scratch that particular itch. My thanks to @dkthomp.bsky.social for letting me ramble on.

I went to an acting camp between junior and senior year. We did a talk back with Richard Kind after a show in Chicago. "Ppl tell you 'Be an actor only if you can't do anything else,'" he said. "They're wrong." Dramatic pause. "Never be an actor. Even if you can't do anything else for shit: don't."

By targeting academics, embracing nostalgia economics, purging society of opposition ideology, rationing toys, and demolishing our global reputation at the moment we need scale, Trump has responded to the threat of China by mimicking the ghost of its Maoist past. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

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...

This is actual US policy right now

Great episode of “Plain English” by @dkthomp.bsky.social . Rarely would I recommend a 2-hour podcast, but the stakes here deserve this type of attention. As a trainee, I need people to work for our future w/ constructive reform. The current carnage is terrifying! open.spotify.com/episode/4Pee...

Interested in learning more about the value of US university-led basic science, the importance of NIH funding, & how American science works and could work better? Checkout this podcast w/ @dkthomp.bsky.social @holdenthorp.bsky.social, & others. #research #Innovation open.spotify.com/episode/4Pee...

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...

New pod: IS THIS THE CHINESE CENTURY? That's the question I asked China experts Rush Doshi and Kurt Campbell on today's show. "The Chinese cannot believe what we are doing," they said: The Trump admin is like a CCP fantasy of accelerated American self-destruction. open.spotify.com/episode/3YB8...

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...

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

Washington is the shining example of what a blue state can do when it takes abundance seriously. WA has spurned the everything bagel approach of some other blue states in favor of strong, clean pro-housing laws – arguably America's strongest. CC: @ezraklein.bsky.social & @dkthomp.bsky.social

New pod: I talked to the visionary astrophysicist @saraseager.bsky.social about: - the recent announcement that we found alien life on a faraway ocean planet - why many scientists blasted the finding - the new science of detecting life on exoplanets via spectroscopy open.spotify.com/episode/1KZn...

Listen to @dkthomp.bsky.social and Jason Miller explain all sorts of dumb effects the tariffs will have that you wouldn’t think of if you’re not a trade/supply chain expert www.theringer.com/podcasts/pla...

Fun history fact I learned on a recent @dkthomp.bsky.social Plain English podcast: over 1000 economists signed an open letter to Congress in 1930 urging them to not pass the Smoot Hawley Tariffs because it would increase prices and cause major job losses. econjwatch.org/File+downloa...

New pod: "A lot of companies are definitely going to go under, that's for sure" I talked to Molson Hart, a manufacturing CEO, about how the tariffs are affecting his business. He told me America could be sleepwalking into a small business apocalypse. open.spotify.com/episode/2EP3...

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.

New pod: 'I hate to say it, but the biggest winner out of all of this? It's China' Jason Miller, a supply-chain expert at Michigan State, explains why the US is terribly positioned to win a protracted trade war against China, as it alienates its own trading allies open.spotify.com/episode/6a18...

Trump's moves are already imposing immense costs on the United States and on the world via lost scientific progress on preventing Alzheimer's, curing cancer, etc.

New Plain History: The most infamous policy failure of the last century: a bone-headed effort to protect a declining industry leads to a tariff that accelerates an economic crisis in the '20s. I'm talking, of course, about farming, the 1920s, and Smoot- Hawley. open.spotify.com/episode/4Sm5...

It's really bad. www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...

There's no logical or moral or strategic defense for what we're doing right now. It's an idiotic plan being implemented with a level of incompetence that has no possible explanation.

It's darkly humorous that AI doomers worry about an advanced technology falling into the wrong hands, which allow China to wreck our economy, throw markets into turmoil, interrupt manufacturing progress, disrupt our scientific infrastructure, and create global panic and confusion.

You must listen to Derek Thompson push back against gullible CNBC anchors @dkthomp.bsky.social www.cnbc.com/video/2025/0...

“The notion that taxing Lesotho gemstones is necessary for the U.S. to add steel jobs in Ohio is so absurd that I briefly lost consciousness in the middle of writing this sentence.” - @dkthomp.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

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...

Had a great time talking about the Mar-a-Lago Accord and tariffs more generally on @dkthomp.bsky.social's Plain English podcast. Although the other guest, Rogé Karma, was much better than me. open.spotify.com/episode/7zsA...

This point (Tabarrok’s) isn’t true! This is a made-up reading of the book. Derek and Ezra list the major American social welfare programs on page six and then say, “These are good and we support them.”

👀 Looks like a sighting of an Abundance-pilled policy approach in the Canadian political wild. @dkthomp.bsky.social @ezraklein.bsky.social www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Let's talk Abundance for North Carolina! Join us on Thursday, April 10th as we welcome @dkthomp.bsky.social from @theatlantic.com, in conversation with Mayors Janet Cowell (Raleigh), Leo Williams (Durham). RSVP and join us! secure.everyaction.com/0w0oETm9LESP...

On Conversations today, I talked with @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social and @dkthomp.bsky.social about their new book “Abundance.” open.spotify.com/episode/3QCy...

I saw @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social and @dkthomp.bsky.social discuss their book Abundance last night in San Francisco -- it was an amazing event, inspiring, these guys are incredible speakers. But one thing stood out -- something Derek said: "Culture is what you tolerate."

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...

A must listen: @karaswisher.bsky.social in conversation with @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social and @dkthomp.bsky.social. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...