Derek Thompson

Everybody Thinks AI Is a Bubble. What If They’re Wrong? Podcast Episode · Plain English with Derek Thompson · 10/17/2025 · 52m

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...

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

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...

Everything Is Television A theory of culture and attention

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

This Is How the AI Bubble Will Pop The artificial intelligence boom is the most important economic story in the world. But the numbers just don't add up.

"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...

This Is How the AI Bubble Could Burst Podcast Episode · Plain English with Derek Thompson · 09/23/2025 · 59m

Another great discussion from @dkthomp.bsky.social

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

Well whatever we want to call it it’s bad!

America in the Age of Diagnosis

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...

The Great American Fitness Boom Pilates is surging. Gyms are packed. Americans are working out more than ever. A graph-by-graph guide to the fitness revolution sweeping the country

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-...

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.

What sentence in the article is a lie?

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.

The Anti-Abundance Critique on Housing Is Dead Wrong Antitrust critics say that homebuilding monopolies are the real culprit of America’s housing woes. I looked into some of their claims. They don’t hold up.

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...

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.

The New Geography of Housing in America Podcast Episode · Plain English with Derek Thompson · 07/30/2025 · 44m

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...

oh calm down, that was as arch as arch can be

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.

Some commentators talk about the GOP being too obsessed with economic efficiency and the Democrats being too obsessed with identity.

But on energy, GOP lawmakers have assigned solar the identity of "lib" and so they're willing to make our grids less efficient as long as they can own the libs.

American Energy Policy Cannot Afford to Be This Dumb While China builds the economy of the future, Trump’s agenda combines the energy policy of the 1980s with the trade policy of the 1880s.

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...

It was a fair hit!

I mean, in my mild defense, I don't have a 5 year old (she's 2) and I've never written memos, so it was an abstract logistical scenario rather than a description of an ideal life.

But anyway, getting roasted on social once in a while is good: a controlled burn for humility.

Plain History: How Norman Borlaug Stopped the Apocalypse Podcast Episode · Plain English with Derek Thompson · 05/16/2025 · 1h 11m

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."

The Disturbing Rise of MAGA Maoism Trump seems to be ceding the future to China while emulating its past.

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...

it's a great video. it also makes points that yglesias, and demsas, and schleicher, and glaeser have been making for years, and in some cases even more than a decade.

Something Alarming Is Happening to the Job Market A new sign that AI is competing with college grads

For more on this, read my essay in The Atlantic from last week

www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...

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...

AI (slash, basic programming) is good enough now that should be a popup if the Spotify user is over the age of 37 that's like "Hey! I've got a hunch you might not want to watch every podcast as a video on your phone? Mind if I default to audio only? Btw, here's a playlist of alt rock from 2011..."

This is actual US policy right now