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- The Orality Theory of EverythingFeb 22, 2026Derek Thompson
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. The world is full of theories of everything. The smartphone theory of everything argues that our personal devices are responsible for the rise of political polarization, anxiety, depression, and conspiracy theories—not to mention the decline of attention spans, intelligence, happiness, and general comity. The
- The Affordability CurseNov 07, 2025Derek Thompson
To understand what just happened in this week’s elections—notably Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York City, Mikie Sherrill’s win in New Jersey, and Abigail Spanberger’s win in Virginia—wind back the clock five years. In 2020, Joe Biden won by promising that he could restore normalcy to American life. That did not happen. As the biological emergency of the coronavirus pandemic wound down, the economic
- The Era of Step-on-a-Rake CapitalismSep 11, 2025Derek Thompson
Sign up for Trump’s Return, a newsletter featuring coverage of the second Trump presidency. Is Donald Trump a staunch capitalist, a secret socialist, a blend of the two, or none of the above? Depending on the day, it’s hard to tell. Some of his initiatives are pure Ronald Reagan, such as his corporate-income tax cuts and deregulation efforts targeted at oil and gas. Some of his interventions would
- The No. 1 Rule for Understanding TrumpJun 03, 2025Derek Thompson
A useful one-sentence guide to the second Trump administration might go something like this: A lot happens under Donald Trump, but a lot un-happens, too. In the past four months, President Trump has announced tariffs on Canada, paused tariffs on Canada, restarted tariffs on Canada, ruled out tariffs on certain Canadian goods, and then ruled in, and even raised, tariffs on Canadian steel and alumin
- The Disturbing Rise of MAGA MaoismMay 08, 2025Derek Thompson
China may well come to dominate the next century—because President Donald Trump is taking a page from the most famous Chinese leader of the previous one. The United States remains the world’s preeminent soft power. It’s a financial and cultural juggernaut, whose entertainment and celebrities bestride the planet. But as an industrial power, the U.S. is not so much at risk of falling behind as it is
- Something Alarming Is Happening to the Job MarketApr 30, 2025Derek Thompson
Something strange, and potentially alarming, is happening to the job market for young, educated workers. According to the New York Federal Reserve, labor conditions for recent college graduates have “deteriorated noticeably” in the past few months, and the unemployment rate now stands at an unusually high 5.8 percent. Even newly minted M.B.A.s from elite programs are struggling to find work. Meanw
- A Trade War With China Is a Very Bad IdeaApr 18, 2025Derek Thompson
Like land wars in Asia, trade wars with China are, generally speaking, unadvisable. But if, for whatever reason, you were insistent on the idea, you’d want to follow two rules. First, find strength in numbers. China is an industrial juggernaut with more than 1 billion citizens. The U.S. is a finance-and-tech giant with fewer than 400 million people. To maximize success, the U.S. would have to asse
- Trump Is Burning Down the HouseApr 09, 2025Derek Thompson
Imagine this: One day on a walk in your neighborhood, you see several men in construction gear. “What are you guys up to?” you ask. “We’re rebuilding this dilapidated house!” the group’s leader responds. “It used to be beautiful, but the previous owners let it fall into disrepair.” Admittedly, the home has been an eyesore for years. But as you watch the contractors at work, confusion and alarm set
- There Is Only One Way to Make Sense of the TariffsApr 03, 2025Derek Thompson
Yesterday afternoon, Donald Trump celebrated America’s so-called Liberation Day by announcing a slew of tariffs on dozens of countries. His plan, if fully implemented, will return the United States to the highest tariff duty as a share of the economy since the late 1800s, before the invention of the automobile, aspirin, and the incandescent light bulb. Michael Cembalest, the widely read analyst at
- The Story of the Gilded Age Wasn’t Wealth. It Was Corruption.Apr 03, 2025Derek Thompson
Is the U.S. in a second Gilded Age? Many in the news media seem to think so: You’ll find the claim in The New Yorker, NPR, Politico, and these pages. The White House, for its part, seems to think that would be a good thing: “We were at our richest from 1870 to 1913,” Donald Trump said days into his second presidential term, a period that covers—that’s right—the Gilded Age. Although the claim was f
- The Political Fight of the CenturyMar 18, 2025Derek Thompson
Donald Trump has promised a “golden age of America.” But for all his bluster about being the champion of an American century, Trump’s actual policies point to something different: not an expansive vision of the future, but a shrunken vision of the present. Throughout the opening months of his administration, the Trump White House has consistently pointed to existing shortages to demand new sacrifi
- How the British Broke Their Own EconomyMar 03, 2025Derek Thompson
What’s the matter with the United Kingdom? Great Britain is the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, which ushered in an era of energy super-production and launched an epoch of productivity advancements that made many life essentials, such as clothes and food, more affordable. Today, the country suffers from the converse of these achievements: a profound energy shortage and a deep affordabilit
- DOGE’s Reign of IneptitudeFeb 19, 2025Derek Thompson
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. By reputation, Elon Musk and Donald Trump are builders. Musk has grown two of the largest hardware-innovation companies in the world, Tesla and SpaceX. As for Trump, he once told Golf Digest: “I own buildings. I’m a builder; I know how to build. Nobody can build like I can build.” But now, united in Washingto
- How COVID Pushed a Generation of Young People to the RightFeb 18, 2025Derek Thompson
For decades, America’s young voters have been deeply—and famously—progressive. In 2008, a youthquake sent Barack Obama to the White House. In 2016, voters ages 18 to 29 broke for Hillary Clinton by 18 points. In 2020, they voted for Joe Biden by 24 points. In 2024, Donald Trump closed most of the gap, losing voters under 30 by a 51–47 margin. In one recent CBS poll, Americans under 30 weren’t just
- Why Tom Brady Could Be Worth $375 Million in the BoothFeb 09, 2025Derek Thompson
Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback in NFL history (for now). He is not the greatest NFL broadcaster of all time (for now). So why is he calling the Super Bowl tonight, and why is Fox Sports paying him $375 million over 10 years—more than any other broadcaster in sports history—as if his excellence in the former job automatically qualifies him for the latter? By the simplest conventional analysi
- America’s ‘Marriage Material’ ShortageFeb 03, 2025Derek Thompson
This is Work in Progress, a newsletter about work, technology, and how to solve some of America’s biggest problems. Sign up here. Perhaps you’ve heard: Young people aren’t dating anymore. News media and social media are awash in commentary about the decline in youth romance. It’s visible in the corporate data, with dating-app engagement taking a hit. And it’s visible in the survey data, where the
- Is Moderate Drinking Okay?Jan 16, 2025Derek Thompson
Here’s a simple question: Is moderate drinking okay? Like millions of Americans, I look forward to a glass of wine—sure, occasionally two—while cooking or eating dinner. I strongly believe that an ice-cold pilsner on a hot summer day is, to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, suggestive evidence that a divine spirit exists and gets a kick out of seeing us buzzed. But, like most people, I understand that
- The Anti-Social CenturyJan 08, 2025Derek Thompson
Illustrations by Max Guther This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. The Bar Is Closed A short drive from my home in North Carolina is a small Mexican restaurant, with several tables and four stools at a bar facing the kitchen. On a sweltering afternoon last summer, I walked in with my wife and daughter. The place was empty. But looking closer, I re
- The Most Important Breakthroughs of 2024Dec 29, 2024Derek Thompson
This is my third time honoring what I see as the year’s most important scientific and technological advances. In 2022, my theme was the principle of “twin ideas,” when similar inventions emerge around the same time. Just as Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray both arguably conceived of the modern telephone in 1876 (and, by some accounts, on the same day!), the U.S. saw a cluster of achievements
- A Mysterious Health Wave Is Breaking Out Across the U.S.Dec 19, 2024Derek Thompson
Americans are unusually likely to die young compared with citizens of other developed countries. The U.S. has more fatalities from gun violence, drug overdoses, and auto accidents than just about any other similarly rich nation, and its obesity rate is about 50 percent higher than the European average. Put this all together and the U.S. is rightly considered a “rich death trap” for its young and m
- RFK Jr. Is a BellwetherDec 04, 2024Derek Thompson
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a tangle of biographical ironies. He is an anti-elite renegade bearing the most elite surname in politics. Once feared for his left-wing radicalism when Barack Obama considered him for a Cabinet appointment in 2008, he has now been nominated to lead a major department for a right-wing administration. A notorious vaccine skeptic, Kennedy is set to direct health policy under
- How Donald Trump Won EverywhereNov 06, 2024Derek Thompson
In 2022, pollsters and political analysts predicted a red wave in the midterms that didn’t materialize. Last night, polls anticipated a whisker-thin election, and instead we got a red wave that carried Donald Trump to victory. The breadth of Trump’s improvement over 2020 is astonishing. In the previous two elections, we saw narrow demographic shifts—for example, non-college-educated white people m
- Three Tips for Following Election Results Without Losing Your MindNov 05, 2024Derek Thompson
Election Night is upon us, with all of its nail-biting anxiety, its cortisol-driven fear, and, for roughly half the country, the possibility of ecstatic relief after another surreal presidential campaign. Results could take days, even weeks, to shake out. But the state of the race could also reveal itself surprisingly quickly. At 7 p.m. eastern time tonight, polls will close in the battleground st
- The New Law of Electoral PoliticsAug 21, 2024Derek Thompson
This is Work in Progress, a newsletter about work, technology, and how to solve some of America’s biggest problems. Sign up here. More than 60 countries, home to half the global population, are holding or have already held national elections this year. What many political analysts forecast as “the year of democracy” is turning out to be the year of the insurgents, as ruling parties fall around the
- Why the Markets Are Melting DownAug 05, 2024Derek Thompson
In the past 24 hours, Japanese stocks suffered their worst collapse since the 1987 crash, other Asian markets cratered, tech stocks plummeted, the Dow plunged, and several additional global markets suffered from various synonyms for “fell a lot.” What’s going on in global markets? Any attempt at an explanation has to start here: Nobody actually understands how markets work. This is not a cop-out.