Advertise on podcast: Plain English with Derek Thompson

What exactly is effective altruism? Beginning in the early 2010s as a nerdy way to rethink the most cost-effective charity, the movement has since grown into a broader philosophy for thinking about just about everything in our lives, from the careers we choose to the technologies we build. Today, Derek Thompson talks with Will MacAskill, one of the movement’s founders, about the origins and ideas behind effective altruism, its blind spots and controversies, the downfall of major funder Sam Bankman-Fried, and what it can tell us about this moment in history. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Will MacAskill Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Comcast Business. Get AI-powered threat detection for small business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The answer to whether AI is a bubble comes down to supply and demand. Is there enough demand to justify the enormous investment in chips and data centers? If businesses keep paying more for AI every year, the debt is manageable and the buildout will look visionary. If they don't, today's AI chips could be like trains built to serve towns that never materialized. In a follow-up to Tuesday's episode, Derek Thompson talks with economist Ara Kharazian about who's actually paying for AI, why spending may be slowing, and what that could mean for the broader economy. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Ara Kharazian Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Comcast Business. Get AI-powered threat detection for small business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI can analyze anything, write anything, solve almost any puzzle. But struggle strengthens our brains and sharpens our minds ... and removing it entirely may come with a dire cost. Derek Thompson explores the paradoxes of AI with Ethan Mollick, whose new book, 'Co-Existence,' examines how AI is changing the way we learn and work. They discuss how AI makes experts more powerful while automating the junior work that creates them in the first place, why students perform better via AI but learn less, and whether some friction may actually be worth preserving. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Ethan Mollick Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Comcast Business. Get AI-powered threat detection for small business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A year and a half after 'Abundance,' Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein’s book about why America has become so bad at building things, the time has come for reflection. Some commentators declare the abundance agenda dead. If you know where to look, however, you might see a different picture. Today, Derek is joined by Representative Josh Harder (D-California) to examine the surprising ways abundance-style ideas are gaining ground, from bipartisan permitting reform in Washington to new efforts to build housing and clean energy in states and cities across the country. Politicians from both parties increasingly agree that America is still making it too hard to build. So what would it take to turn these scattered victories into a new kind of liberalism that prioritizes outcomes over process? Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Josh Harder Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Comcast Business. Get AI-powered threat detection for small business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Americans spend more time alone than ever, as parties, nights out with friends, and dinner gatherings become less common. Cellphones, social media, TV, and the internet have made it easier than ever to fill our free time without other people. Research suggests friendship is less about instant chemistry than repeated time together. It takes roughly 50 hours to turn an acquaintance into a casual friend and more than 200 to build a close one. School makes those hours easy to accumulate but adult life doesn’t. Today, Derek talks with psychologist Adam Grant, author of Vibe: The Secrets of Strong Connections in a Lonely World, about what we misunderstand about chemistry and closeness and how we might get people to start hosting a damn dinner party again. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek ThompsonGuest: Adam GrantProducer: Devon BaroldiAdditional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Comcast Business. Get AI-powered threat detection for small business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI apocalypse, recession fears, sky-high mortgage rates, and now, the plague? Last week, a researcher at a plague institute in Siberia died after developing severe pneumonia, sparking rumors of biowarfare and fears of a new epidemic. How much of the story is fact vs. fiction, and what does it tell us about the growing threat of biological weapons? Today, Derek is joined by physician and former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha to make sense of the story. They discuss what’s really happening in Russia, the current state of bioweapons research around the world, how AI could make biological weapons more accessible, and what families, governments, and societies can do to prepare. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek ThompsonGuest: Ashish JhaProducer: Devon BaroldiAdditional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Comcast Business. Get AI-powered threat detection for small business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Demis Hassabis are three of the most important figures in AI superintelligence, but each of them have very different ideas about what this technology should become and what it could mean for the future. Kevin Roose, author of 'The AGI Chronicles,' joins Derek to explain the people behind the AI race: the books and ideas that shaped them, what they want for the future, and how their rivalries helped drive the industry to its current moment. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek ThompsonGuest: Kevin RooseProducer: Devon BaroldiAdditional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Comcast Business. Get AI-powered threat detection for small business. Learn More at ⁠https://www.lincoln.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last year, Republicans were the heavy favorites to hold the Senate in the following years midterms. Now, however, prediction markets and political forecasters see a very different race. Today, Nate Silver joins Derek to explain what’s behind Donald Trump’s plummeting approval ratings, and how the atmosphere around the midterms has changed so drastically, so quickly. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek ThompsonGuest: Nate SilverProducer: Devon BaroldiAdditional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Comcast Business. Get AI-powered threat detection for small business. Learn More at https://www.lincoln.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What makes a hit a hit? Why do some bands make it while others fade into obscurity? Chuck Klosterman’s new book imagines an alternate history of 20th century music and uses it to explore why some things become popular and just how much culture depends on chance. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek ThompsonGuest: Chuck KlostermanProducer: Devon BaroldiAdditional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With new breakthroughs in math and biology alongside reports of AI agents escaping and hacking systems, suffice it to say AI has had an interesting few weeks. How worried should we be about it all? Derek talks with researchers Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, authors of the “AI as a Normal Technology” framework, about a simple question: Is AI actually just a normal technology? And if today’s AI is as powerful as it seems, why does the world still look so normal? Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guests: Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Visit uber.com/safety to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Education outcomes have been getting worse across much of the world, with reading and math scores falling to historic lows. The U.S. has seen some of the steepest declines in decades. But, why does Mississippi look so different? Mississippi education reformer Rachel Canter has been at the forefront of the state’s dramatic improvement in reading and math over the past few decades. Today, Derek is joined by Rachel to discuss the so-called “Mississippi miracle” (a name she says misses the mark!). Together they break down how years of policy changes and implementation transformed the state’s schools and how other states can replicate their success. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Rachel Canter Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Visit uber.com/safety to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Expert economists keep making predictions about America’s financial future, and those predictions keep being … wrong. Over the past few years, we’ve heard warnings about a recession, inflation, tariffs, wars, deficits, and an AI bubble, yet the economy continues chugging along. Today, Derek talks with economist Jason Furman about what economists and commentators might be missing and why exactly the U.S. economy has been so much more resilient than many expected.Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompsonIf you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]: Derek ThompsonGuest: Jason FurmanProducer: Devon BaroldiAdditional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trust in American higher education is near a historic low. Tuition has soared, and the payoff for a college degree is now in question as graduates face a weird and challenging job market. Simultaneously, AI is transforming everything around them, from academic fraud to job applications. It all raises the question: What role does college play in the year 2026? Harvard is tackling this question by trying something … different. Instead of shunning new tech, Dean David Deming recently told students that the university would embrace a controversial policy of AI “encouragement,” which many saw as an attack on academic integrity itself. Today, Derek talks with Deming about why exactly Harvard is embracing AI, what college is supposed to teach students in the first place, and how higher ed can preserve the value of deep thinking when modern technology can do so much of the thinking for us. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: David Deming Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Visit uber.com/safety to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the late 19th century, a railroad boom fueled by easy money, speculative investment, and new technology helped kick off one of the worst financial crises in American history. Sound kind of familiar? In today’s episode, Derek talks with author Liaquat Ahamed about his new book, '1873,' and the similarities between the railroad mania of the 19th century and today’s AI boom. They discuss America’s first venture capitalists and the role of the Rothschild family, how manias inevitably create bubbles, and what the Panic of 1873 can teach us about the huge debts now financing artificial intelligence. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Liaquat Ahamed Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So many people seem to hate AI, and it’s not just because it might displace millions of jobs, destroy the world, or deepen distrust in big corporations and government. The reason might actually be simpler than we think: People don't like AI because it is so often used to make things that are fake. From sham biographies and bogus social media posts to AI-generated journalism, the internet has become inundated with “AI slop.” So how do we begin to clean up the mess? That’s where AI detection company Pangram comes in. Derek talks with Pangram founder and CEO Max Spero about the seduction of AI writing, how his program detects it, and the moral implications of publicly calling out those who use it. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Max Spero Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices