Plain English with Derek Thompson

Latest Episodes:

Plain English BEST OF: What Experts Really Think About Smartphones and Mental Health Dec 30, 2025

Show notes

Throughout December and January, we’re going to be re-airing some of our favorite episodes of the past year and beyond. This list includes interviews that really stuck with me and some others that you guys had tons of feedback and thoughts on … including this one!

“What Experts Really Think About Smartphones and Mental Health” originally aired June 4th, 2025.

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.

Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Jay Van Bavel
Producer: Devon Baroldi

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plain English BEST OF: How Gen Z Sees the World Dec 23, 2025

Show notes

“How Gen Z Sees the World” originally aired March 12, 2025.

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.

Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Kyla Scanlon
Producer: Devon Baroldi

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plain English BEST OF: A Grand, Unified Theory of Why Americans Are So Unhealthy Dec 16, 2025

Show notes

“A Grand, Unified Theory of Why Americans Are So Unhealthy” originally aired June 18, 2025.

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.

Host: Derek Thompson

Guests: David Kessler and Eric Topol

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plain English BEST OF: The Antisocial Century Dec 09, 2025

Show notes

“The Antisocial Century” originally aired January 10, 2025.

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.

Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Nick Epley

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plain English BEST OF: How to Be Happy and the Science of Cognitive Time Travel Dec 02, 2025

Show notes

“How to Be Happy and the Science of Cognitive Time Travel” originally aired August 9, 2024.

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.

Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Laurie Santos

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Grand Unified Theory of Cultural Stagnation Nov 25, 2025

Show notes

One of my favorite theories about the modern world is the idea that culture is "stuck." Whether the decline of ornamentation in modern architecture, or the fact that every corporate logo looks the same now, or the fact that Gen Z's favorite television was all made in the 1990s and 2000s, or the sequel fetish in Hollywood, or the theory that old music is eating new music on Spotify, the evidence of cultural stagnation abounds. But is there one grand theory that explains all of it? The psychologist and writer Adam Mastroianni thinks so. He joins Derek to discuss.

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.

Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Adam Mastroianni

Producers: Devon Baroldi

Links:
https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-hidden-cause-of-cultural-stagnation
https://www.experimental-history.com/p/the-decline-of-deviance
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/whither-tartaria
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/america-innovation-film-science-business/620858/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/america-really-running-out-original-ideas/621055/
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025/11/blank-space-book-excerpt-culture/685037/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The American Math Crisis Nov 21, 2025

Show notes

The University of California San Diego is one of the best public colleges in America. So it was fairly shocking when the school released a report on the steep decline in academic preparedness of its freshman. The number of incoming students in need of remedial math has surged in the past few years. These students did not fail high school math. Many of them got straight A's. Other colleges have seen similar trends: declining mathematical ability from students who aced their high school tests.

I think that there are several ways to frame the problem we’re looking at here. One is that American kids can’t do math: That’s the headline of a recent Atlantic article by Rose Horowitch. Another frame, as Kelsey Piper writes in the online magazine The Argument, is that grades have stopped meaning anything. I think that the full story is somewhere in between. The age of grade inflation is also the age of achievement deflation. We are giving more and more A's to students who are learning less and less.

There is a lot of talk these days about America moving into a postliterate future. One piece of evidence for this is declining test scores for literacy among students and adults. Fewer people talk about a post-numerate future. The problem here is bigger than UC San Diego. National assessments in the U.S. and even throughout the developed world show that people are getting worse at math. But why?

Today we have three guests to help us answer these questions. Rose Horowitch of The Atlantic, Kelsey Piper of The Argument, and Joshua Goodman, an associate professor of education and economics at Boston University. We talk about plummeting math scores for American students, why it’s happening, and why it matters at a moment when carbon-based humans seem to be getting dumber at the very moment that silicon-based machines are getting smarter.

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.

Host: Derek Thompson

Guests: Rose Horowitch, Kelsey Piper and Joshua Goodman

Producers: Devon Baroldi

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Superintelligent AI Could Upend Work and Politics Nov 18, 2025

Show notes

Many AI experts believe that some time in the next few years, we will build something close to artificial general intelligence (AGI), a system that can do nearly all valuable cognitive work as well as or better than humans. What happens to jobs, wages, prices, and politics in that world?

To explore that question, Derek is joined by Anton Korinek, an economist at the University of Virginia and one of the leading thinkers on the economics of transformative AI. Before he focused on superintelligence, Anton studied financial crises and speculative booms, so he brings a rare mix of macroeconomic skepticism and technological optimism. They talk about quiet AGI versus loud AGI, Baumol’s cost disease, robots, mass unemployment, and what kinds of policies might prevent an “AGI Great Depression” and keep no American left behind.

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.

Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Anton Korinek

Producers: Devon Baroldi

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Everything Is Television Nov 14, 2025

Show notes

Sometimes, the perfect guest to discuss your own writing is ... you. On this special crossover episode, I am interviewed by Ben Smith and Max Tani of Semafor's Mixed Signals podcast about my recent essay, "Everything Is Television." During our conversation, which you can also find on the Mixed Signals feed, we discuss TV, politics, the definition of charisma, and much more.

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.

Hosts: Ben Smith and Max Tani

Guest: Derek Thompson

Listen to my episode on the Mixed Signals feed HERE.

You can find my essay "Everything is Television" HERE.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are Young People Screwed? Nov 12, 2025

Show notes

Youth unemployment is rising. Hiring is freezing up. The housing market is a mess. How did things get so bad for young people in the economy? And are things as bad as they seem? Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson of the Animal Spirits podcast join the show to discuss.

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.

Host: Derek Thompson

Guests: Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson

Producers: Devon Baroldi

Links: Is this the scariest chart in the world? https://www.derekthompson.org/p/is-this-the-new-scariest-chart-in

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices