Plain English with Derek Thompson

What happens when the guy at the center of an entire industry is suddenly embroiled in a scandal involving corporate espionage, alleged affairs, and national security? Nvidia founder Jensen Huang’s sudden resignation has sent shockwaves throughout the tech industry and, of course, raises questions about the company’s future and the global AI race. Today, Jordan Schneider, cofounder of ChinaTalk, and Ben Buchanan, former Biden administration AI policy official and author of ‘The Bitter Struggle,’ join the show to unpack the allegations, the geopolitical stakes, the U.S.-China chip war, and what comes next.

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Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Jordan Schneider and Ben Buchanan

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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The 2026 midterms have left Republicans reeling and Democrats riding a historic wave after a series of missteps by the president and his administration. The last time we saw a political moment like this was in 1974, when Democrats crushed the GOP in the wake of Watergate. Both parties then struggled to define what came next. It took Ronald Reagan's victory in 1980 to usher in a new political era. Are we at another turning point today? And who might be the Ronald Reagan of this political moment?

Derek is joined by Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson to discuss the future of both parties, the lessons of 1974, the changing youth vote, whether JD Vance is politically cooked, and what America's next political order might look like.

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https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected].

Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Kristen Soltis Anderson

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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Ten years after Donald Trump stunned the world by winning the 2016 election, his political movement may be approaching its end. Tuesday’s midterms delivered a historic rebuke to the Republican Party, with Democrats making astonishing gains in states Trump carried comfortably just two years ago. So … how did we get here? And is the Trump era really over for good?

Today, in conversation with New York Times chief political analyst Nate Cohn, Derek goes over the six biggest lessons from the midterms: the pendulum swings of the youth vote, the death of the Trump coalition, the revival of the swing voter, the identity death of the Republican Party, the limits of money in politics, and, finally, the historical analogies over the last 100 years that should shape our understanding of what happens next.

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If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected].

Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Nate Cohn

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

This episode is brought to you by Jira by Atlassian.

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Well, it’s midterm day in America, and on my mind are three huge questions for tonight. Number 1: How much water is in the blue wave? Number 2: Everyone’s talking about the cost of living, inflation, and affordability, but who actually wants to do something about it? And number 3: Will this election finally be the beginning of the end of Boomer politics?

To answer these questions and more, Derek joins forces with political journalist and podcaster Saagar Enjeti. Together they break down potential midterm outcomes, the state of the GOP, ethics in Washington, and the future of millennial politics in America.

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: Saagar Enjeti

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

Visit https://JPMorganChase.com/CenterForGeopolitics

This episode is brought to you by Jira by Atlassian.

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No matter how you look at it, Netflix is having a pretty bad year. Stock is down, growth has slowed, the company recently laid off roughly 1,000 people, and it dismissed its chief content officer and its head of film. After a decade of explosive growth and dominance over traditional entertainment, the company’s biggest challenge now may have less to do with its competitors in Hollywood than with TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

Derek Thompson welcomes Matt Belloni onto the show to discuss Netflix's shortcomings. The break down what’s eating Netflix, why every form of media seems to be converging on short-form video, and what Netflix’s struggles reveal about the future of entertainment.

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https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected].

Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Matt Belloni

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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 Thompson
Guest: Adam Grant
Producer: Devon Baroldi
Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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