Plain English with Derek Thompson

1,158
News #109News Commentary #28

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. Hear 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 plainenglish@spotify.com! You can also find us on tiktok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_

Recent Episodes
  • What Experts Really Think About Smartphones and Mental Health
    Jun 4, 2025 – 01:08:38
  • Plain History: How Adolf Hitler Destroyed German Democracy in Six Months
    May 30, 2025 – 01:04:07
  • Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill Is Great for the "Stealthy Wealthy"
    May 28, 2025 – 01:07:52
  • The Gene-Editing Breakthrough That Saved a Baby’s Life
    May 23, 2025 – 51:20
  • The Rules of Attraction and the Psychology of Romance
    May 20, 2025 – 01:05:54
  • Plain History: How Norman Borlaug Stopped the Apocalypse
    May 16, 2025 – 01:10:54
  • Why Do Americans Pay So Much for Drugs?
    May 13, 2025 – 01:09:21
  • Is Pop Culture Worse Than Ever?
    May 9, 2025 – 01:02:18
  • The Job Market for Young Grads Is Flashing Red
    May 6, 2025 – 45:56
  • Megapod: The Crisis in American Science
    May 2, 2025 – 02:06:21
  • Is This the Chinese Century?
    Apr 29, 2025 – 01:10:45
  • What Americans Get Wrong About ADHD
    Apr 25, 2025 – 01:09:37
  • An Astrophysicist Explains the "Strongest Evidence Yet" of Alien Life
    Apr 22, 2025 – 01:06:16
  • A Toy Manufacturer Explains How Trump’s Tariffs Could Crush His Industry
    Apr 17, 2025 – 35:09
  • Why America Will Lose Its Trade War With China
    Apr 16, 2025 – 45:29
  • Plain History: The Smoot-Hawley Tariff and the Great Depression
    Apr 11, 2025 – 52:10
  • Trump’s Trade War Is Like Nothing America’s Ever Seen
    Apr 8, 2025 – 59:39
  • Trump’s Plan to Smash the Global Economic Order
    Mar 31, 2025 – 56:04
  • Plain History: The Gilded Age
    Mar 24, 2025 – 01:01:26
  • ABUNDANCE! With Ezra Klein
    Mar 17, 2025 – 01:21:40
  • How Gen Z Sees the World
    Mar 12, 2025 – 59:31
  • Can a Vaccine Cure the World’s Deadliest Cancer?
    Mar 7, 2025 – 49:43
  • How AI Could Change the Future of Music
    Mar 4, 2025 – 59:41
  • The End of Reading
    Feb 28, 2025 – 01:01:57
  • 'How Progressives Froze the American Dream' (Live)
    Feb 25, 2025 – 56:39
  • Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
    Feb 21, 2025 – 01:05:02
  • The Trump-Musk Doctrine: F-ck Around and Find Out
    Feb 18, 2025 – 01:03:49
  • Is There a Scientific Case for Believing in God?
    Feb 14, 2025 – 01:08:51
  • Fraud, Scandal, and Failure in the Fight Against Alzheimer's Disease
    Feb 11, 2025 – 57:00
  • The Energy Story of the Moment: The Unstoppable Rise of Solar Vs. the Unmovable Demand for Global Fossil Fuels
    Feb 7, 2025 – 01:12:27
  • The 5 Types of Wealth
    Feb 4, 2025 – 01:03:19
  • Are GLP-1 Drugs "the Greatest Medical Breakthrough of the 21st Century"?
    Jan 31, 2025 – 01:04:13
  • Tech Talk: AI Supremacy, TikTok’s Fate, and Crypto Decadence
    Jan 24, 2025 – 01:04:17
  • Plain History Volume 1: Who Killed President James Garfield?
    Jan 21, 2025 – 01:00:15
  • What's the Truth About Alcohol, Cancer, and Your Health?
    Jan 17, 2025 – 41:27
  • The L.A. Fires: How They Happened, Climate Change’s Role, and What the City Must Do Now
    Jan 14, 2025 – 01:06:36
  • ‘The Anti-Social Century’: America’s Epidemic of Solitude—and How to Fix It
    Jan 10, 2025 – 01:12:47
  • The Big 2025 Economy Forecast: AI and Big Tech, Nuclear’s Renaissance, Trump vs. China, and What’s Eating Europe?
    Jan 7, 2025 – 01:12:50
  • The Year's Biggest Breakthroughs in Science and Tech (Feat.: OK, But Seriously, What Is Quantum Computing?)
    Dec 31, 2024 – 01:18:12
  • A Mysterious Health Wave Is Breaking Out Across the U.S.
    Dec 27, 2024 – 01:09:44
  • The Productivity Paradox: Why Less Is More With Oliver Burkeman
    Dec 20, 2024 – 01:03:35
  • Why American Health Care Is a "Broken System"
    Dec 13, 2024 – 01:23:37
  • Is Crypto Entering a New Golden Age—or Just a New Era of Failed Promises?
    Dec 6, 2024 – 52:58
  • Megapod: Why Is There So Much BS in Psychology?
    Nov 27, 2024 – 01:50:22
  • Vaccine Conspiracies, Fluoride Myths, and America’s Broken Public-Health Discourse
    Nov 22, 2024 – 41:17
  • The Self-Driving Revolution Is Real—and It Could Be Spectacular
    Nov 15, 2024 – 01:10:45
  • How Trump Won: Young Men’s Red Wave, the Blue-City Flop, and the Incumbency Graveyard
    Nov 8, 2024 – 54:26
  • How to Watch Election Night Without Falling for Conspiracy Theories or False Hope
    Nov 4, 2024 – 47:28
  • This Small Pennsylvania Town Explains the 2024 Election
    Nov 1, 2024 – 56:30
  • Why Is Every Recent Presidential Election So Close?
    Oct 25, 2024 – 49:21
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