New pod: I talked to Tim Alberta about his profile of Adam Silver, his corporatist approach to managing the league, and why the NBA is stuck between an era of mega profits and a set of problems that flow directly from treating basketball like a publicly traded firm www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxgg...

I sat down for a chat about the debt and deficits with @dkthomp.bsky.social, and I recommend this piece because Derek forced me to be as clear as I've ever been in describing these issues, and why I'm worried. newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/how-i-lear...

"I'm going to make a crazy forecast, and I want everyone to understand this is a crazy forecast. Let's suppose Thailand keeps its current fertility rate of 0.8 for 200 years. Thailand right now has 63 million people. At the end of 200 years, it will be around two million people. Two million."

1. ECONOMICS: The Peter Pan Economy 2. HEALTH: The Do-it-All Drug 3. AI: Apocalypse Nope 4. POLITICS: The Paradox of Global Violence 5. MEDIA: Quantity Is Eating Quality 6. CULTURE: The Anti-Social Century www.derekthompson.org/p/the-6-mega...

New pod: We're going to win the war on pancreatic cancer. Here's how. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjCf...

really good @dkthomp.bsky.social overview of the data on modern parenting www.derekthompson.org/p/why-do-ric...

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...

this is a great, provocative read. some of the data here (the anglophone unhappiness phenomenon experience particularly) is mind-blowing

In MAHA's skepticism toward therapies, its fondness for supplements, its belief that exercise is the only good medicine, its hatred of global health and infectious disease research and vaccines, and this quote below, you see how much of this movement just straight up thinks: Sick people are bad.

“As the NYU psychologist @jayvanbavel.bsky.social has pointed out, online conversations prize and reward negativity and out-group animosity, which convert people who might otherwise enjoy (or tolerate) one another’s presence in a bar or office into antagonists.”

If American is so rich, how’d it get so sad? @dkthomp.bsky.social does a fantastic deep dive on this issue, pulling together evidence from economics, public health, and technology to understand the origins of our collective misery: www.derekthompson.org/p/if-america...

E=MC2! This @dkthomp.bsky.social convo w/ @nathanielbullard.com is fantastic. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

This @dkthomp.bsky.social interviewing @alexbhturnbull.bsky.social piece is thought provoking 👍 Strangely, some of the crisis management techniques like FWH were tested and refined during COVID shutdown. So the arc of history is indeed long podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

Some questions for Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark: - Can you really blame Americans for hating AI if you go around promising your product will destroy 10 million jobs? - If you compare AI to nukes, why shouldn't the govt just nationalize your firm? Private co's aren't allowed to build nukes!

It's Norman Borlaug's birthday! If you don't know who he was, you should--regardless of what you think about modern ag and the global food system--as NB was, for better and worse, a major part of creating them. Last year, I had a fun talk with Derek Thompson (@dkthomp.bsky.social) about the guy.

- Rising sports gambling bankruptcies. - Anonymous insiders profiting from eerily specific war predictions on Polymarket - Reporters threatened by gamblers for writing articles that would result in lost bets You don't have to be against all gambling to see things are headed to a dark place fast

“If the Strait of Hormuz is functionally closed [for] two weeks, I think we’re going to get $100-plus oil. If we go beyond that, then oil prices could start to get into Scary Land.” www.derekthompson.org/p/the-econom...

We need candidates who fall firmly into “looks like a cinnamon roll, could actually kill you” overlap.

Great piece by @dkthomp.bsky.social on GLPs, AI, and how we make progress in biomedicine. First thing to notice: without early studies on the biology of anglerfish and gila monsters, this trillion-dollar breakthrough likely wouldn't exist. open.substack.com/pub/derektho...

Striking @dkthomp.bsky.social interview w/ Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks covering the widespread effects of GLP-1 drugs, AI as a bad cancer-cure finder, why people hate Big Pharma, and more. Gotta say, I often wonder if these drugs will end up having way more long-term impact on our lives than AI.

Very interesting piece - @dkthomp.bsky.social talks to Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks about GLP-1s. These drugs will be up there with vaccines and antibiotics in their impact on public health. Remarkable seeing it unfold in real time. HT @charlescmann.bsky.social www.derekthompson.org/p/why-ai-is-...

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... @dkthomp.bsky.social and @add-hawk.bsky.social clearly I am a total dork, that what a fun conversation about philosophy, games, the world and teaching!

FWIW @dkthomp.bsky.social says he’s not a new contributor at CBS and has been on contract with the network for the past seven years.

YIR: The most thought-provoking analysis of the major economic, cultural, ideas that are affecting the U.S. in profound ways. @dkthomp.bsky.social certainly has his ear to the rails, together with a human touch to explain it all. Certainly one of the best reads this season. #longreads

Wow. Tracking Americans using alcohol vs cannabis: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... (via @dkthomp.bsky.social )

New post by @dkthomp.bsky.social is excellent, although I wish he had raised the saliency of good news in the world. GLP-1 drugs are miracles. AVs are saving lives. Solar + Batteries are simply winning. mRNA, cultured meat, EVs, robotics....the future is here. www.derekthompson.org/p/the-26-mos...

Hi Derek, here's 2025 medium.com/@tomwhitwell...

DKTHOMP: “.. Last week, we were discussing how one could capture the entire AI-bubble debate in about 12 statistics .. we thought: What the hell, let’s just publish the whole playbook!” @dkthomp.bsky.social www.derekthompson.org/p/how-to-sou...

Every AI-bubble debate is the same 12 facts, studies, and arguments quoted back and forth, over and over. So Tim Lee at @understandingai.skystack.xyz and I teamed up to publish a 4,000 word deep-dive analysis of all 12. www.derekthompson.org/p/how-to-sou...

This will be the most useful thing you will read this month There are 12 statistics, factoids, and studies that dominate every discussion about whether artificial intelligence is a bubble. Here's a deep-dive into all 12 arguments. via @dkthomp.bsky.social www.derekthompson.org/p/how-to-sou...

I was glad to be on the latest episode of @dkthomp.bsky.social's Plain English podcast, discussing how to turn around declining US math skills. We know at least some of the solutions but in many cases have been doing just the opposite. Listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/06Ve...

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.