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Plain English with Derek Thompson

Longtime Atlantic tech, culture and political writer Derek Thompson cuts through all the noise surrounding the big questions and headlines that matter to you in his new podcast Plain English. Watch Derek and guests engage the news with clear viewpoints and memorable takeaways. New episodes drop every Tuesday and Friday, and if you've got a topic you want discussed, shoot us an email at [email protected]! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson

Is China the Winner of the Iran War?

52 mins; April 03, 2026

Why We're Addicted to ‘Sh*tty Flow’

48 mins; March 31, 2026

Anthropic Thinks AI Might Destroy the Economy. It's Building It Anyway.

62 hours 34 mins; March 27, 2026

America's Tax System Is Broken

64 hours 50 mins; March 24, 2026

The Casino-ification of America

71 hours 46 mins; March 20, 2026

"Yes, AI Is a Bubble. There Is No Question."

69 hours 45 mins; March 17, 2026

The Pill That Works Even When You Know It's Fake

71 hours 50 mins; March 13, 2026

The Economic Crisis of the Iran War Goes Far Beyond Oil

55 mins; March 10, 2026

"American Democracy as We Know It Might Not Survive This Technology"

64 hours 16 mins; March 09, 2026

Trump Is Doubling Down on Iran. How Should Democrats Respond?

42 mins; March 06, 2026

The Four Ways That the Iran War Could End

55 mins; March 03, 2026

How Metrics Make Us Miserable

63 hours 49 mins; February 27, 2026

The Future of GLP-1 Drugs and AI Medicine, With Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks

67 hours 53 mins; February 24, 2026

The Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump’s Tariffs. Now What?

41 mins; February 20, 2026

The Media Theory That Explains “99% of Everything”

63 hours 29 mins; February 17, 2026

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

66 hours 42 mins; February 13, 2026

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

71 hours 12 mins; February 11, 2026

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

52 mins; February 03, 2026

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

59 mins; January 27, 2026

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

41 mins; January 20, 2026

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

47 mins; January 13, 2026

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

54 mins; January 06, 2026

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

66 hours 36 mins; December 30, 2025

Plain English BEST OF: How Gen Z Sees the World

58 mins; December 23, 2025

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

38 mins; December 16, 2025

Plain English BEST OF: The Antisocial Century

68 hours 13 mins; December 09, 2025

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

65 hours 38 mins; December 02, 2025

A Grand Unified Theory of Cultural Stagnation

58 mins; November 25, 2025

The American Math Crisis

54 mins; November 21, 2025

How Superintelligent AI Could Upend Work and Politics

58 mins; November 18, 2025

Everything Is Television

57 mins; November 14, 2025

Are Young People Screwed?

52 mins; November 12, 2025

The Democrats Have a New Winning Formula

60 hours 43 mins; November 07, 2025

How the American Revolution Changed the World, With Ken Burns

59 mins; November 04, 2025

The Problem With Sports Gambling

54 mins; October 31, 2025

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

72 hours 3 mins; October 28, 2025

What Happens When AI Learns to Do Our Jobs

54 mins; October 24, 2025

Can "Touch-Grass Populism" Save America?

59 mins; October 21, 2025

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

52 mins; October 17, 2025

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

47 mins; October 14, 2025

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

46 mins; October 10, 2025

Why Money Doesn't Buy Happiness in America

48 mins; October 07, 2025

Is AI Really About to Solve Human Disease?

53 mins; October 03, 2025

How America Became a Nation of "Free Speech Hypocrites"

52 mins; September 30, 2025

What’s the Matter With America’s Food?

52 mins; September 26, 2025

This Is How the AI Bubble Could Burst

59 mins; September 23, 2025

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

40 mins; September 19, 2025

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

54 mins; September 16, 2025

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

52 mins; September 12, 2025

America in the Age of Diagnosis

57 mins; September 09, 2025

Trumponomics Explained, Part 2: The Enshittification of American Power

52 mins; September 05, 2025

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

49 mins; September 03, 2025

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

41 mins; August 27, 2025

Plain History: How the Transcontinental Railroads Built the Modern World

55 mins; August 20, 2025

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

47 mins; August 13, 2025

Will AI Usher In the End of Deep Thinking?

58 mins; August 06, 2025

The New Geography of Housing in America

42 mins; July 30, 2025

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

47 mins; July 23, 2025

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

52 mins; July 17, 2025

Fertility Needs a Scientific Revolution

47 mins; July 16, 2025

The Mysterious Rise of Major Injuries in Professional Sports

54 mins; July 09, 2025

How Abundance Won in California

59 mins; July 03, 2025

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

47 mins; June 25, 2025

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

41 mins; June 23, 2025

A Grand, Unified Theory of Why Americans Are So Unhealthy

38 mins; June 18, 2025

Why Are Americans So Unhealthy? Part I: Is Ultra-Processed Food Killing Us?

51 mins; June 11, 2025

What Experts Really Think About Smartphones and Mental Health

66 hours 38 mins; June 04, 2025

Plain History: How Adolf Hitler Destroyed German Democracy in Six Months

62 hours 7 mins; May 30, 2025

Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill Is Great for the "Stealthy Wealthy"

65 hours 52 mins; May 28, 2025

The Gene-Editing Breakthrough That Saved a Baby’s Life

49 mins; May 23, 2025

The Rules of Attraction and the Psychology of Romance

63 hours 54 mins; May 20, 2025

Plain History: How Norman Borlaug Stopped the Apocalypse

68 hours 54 mins; May 16, 2025

Why Do Americans Pay So Much for Drugs?

67 hours 21 mins; May 13, 2025

Is Pop Culture Worse Than Ever?

60 hours 18 mins; May 09, 2025

The Job Market for Young Grads Is Flashing Red

43 mins; May 06, 2025

Megapod: The Crisis in American Science

124 hours 21 mins; May 02, 2025

Is This the Chinese Century?

68 hours 45 mins; April 29, 2025

What Americans Get Wrong About ADHD

67 hours 37 mins; April 25, 2025

An Astrophysicist Explains the "Strongest Evidence Yet" of Alien Life

64 hours 16 mins; April 22, 2025

A Toy Manufacturer Explains How Trump’s Tariffs Could Crush His Industry

33 mins; April 17, 2025

Why America Will Lose Its Trade War With China

43 mins; April 16, 2025

Plain History: The Smoot-Hawley Tariff and the Great Depression

50 mins; April 11, 2025

Trump’s Trade War Is Like Nothing America’s Ever Seen

57 mins; April 08, 2025

Trump’s Plan to Smash the Global Economic Order

54 mins; March 31, 2025

Plain History: The Gilded Age

59 mins; March 24, 2025

ABUNDANCE! With Ezra Klein

79 hours 40 mins; March 17, 2025

How Gen Z Sees the World

57 mins; March 12, 2025

Can a Vaccine Cure the World’s Deadliest Cancer?

47 mins; March 07, 2025

How AI Could Change the Future of Music

57 mins; March 04, 2025

The End of Reading

59 mins; February 28, 2025

'How Progressives Froze the American Dream' (Live)

54 mins; February 25, 2025

Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk

63 hours 2 mins; February 21, 2025

The Trump-Musk Doctrine: F-ck Around and Find Out

61 hours 49 mins; February 18, 2025

Is There a Scientific Case for Believing in God?

66 hours 51 mins; February 14, 2025

Fraud, Scandal, and Failure in the Fight Against Alzheimer's Disease

55 mins; February 11, 2025

The Energy Story of the Moment: The Unstoppable Rise of Solar Vs. the Unmovable Demand for Global Fossil Fuels

70 hours 27 mins; February 07, 2025

The 5 Types of Wealth

61 hours 19 mins; February 04, 2025

Are GLP-1 Drugs "the Greatest Medical Breakthrough of the 21st Century"?

62 hours 13 mins; January 31, 2025

Tech Talk: AI Supremacy, TikTok’s Fate, and Crypto Decadence

62 hours 17 mins; January 24, 2025

Plain History Volume 1: Who Killed President James Garfield?

58 mins; January 21, 2025

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Plain English with Derek Thompson

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