Lista episodi

The New York Times's Kevin Roose joins the show to walk Derek through the metaverse, crypto, NFTs, and the maybe-BS or maybe-brilliant future of technology.

Their first Economic Roundtable discusses rising prices, the Great Resignation, labor shortages, the supply chain mess, Joe Biden's puking approval numbers, and what the White House can do to turn things around.

The Atlantic's Amanda Mull joins the podcast to debate Derek about which COVID-19-related cultural trends will thrive or fade in the 2020s.

Dr. Peter Hotez talks to Derek about what they know about the new COVID-19 variant (a little), what they don't know (a lot), and when they'll know more.

Derek talks to The Atlantic's Anne Applebaum on the decline of democracy and the rise of a new form of authoritarianism in Russia, China, Europe, and the U.S.

Derek talks to Anne Helen Petersen, the coauthor of 'Out of Work: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home,' about Americans' relationship to their jobs, work as an identity, and burnout as a policy choice.

Bryan Curtis from The Ringer's 'The Press Box' podcast joins Derek to hand out grades to the news media for its coverage of Biden, the pandemic, and more.

Derek is obsessed with the trial of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes-and he hopes you are too. Days away from the trial's end, Derek and Rebecca review the most jaw-dropping evidence in the case, the cringiest text messages, the biggest wins for the prosecution, the best moments for the defense, and the larger meaning of the tech trial of the century.

New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose is back to talk about the Age of Elon, why tech's most famous founders are acting so weird, and why they are wrong about remote work. Plus, a 2022 prediction.

Morgan Housel, Collaborative Fund partner and author of the bestseller 'The Psychology of Money,' joins the pod to debate what they're getting wrong about inflation, the Great Resignation, robots, and investing.

David Frum joins Derek to talk about rising and falling polarization by race, gender, education, and place-and what it tells them about America's strange new politics.

After a miserable start to this decade, they can still have a Roaring Twenties. It presents a tour of the frontier of science and technology with Derek's favorite innovation writer, the economist Eli Dourado.

Derek talks about the rise of the "Vaxxed and Done" movement before reviewing the latest omicron data with John Burn-Murdoch, data superstar at the Financial Times.

Okay, almost everybody. The Biden administration was wrong. Many critics of the Biden administration were also wrong. The Federal Reserve was wrong. Investors were wrong. Banks were wrong. And Bitcoin investors weren't exactly right, either. How did everybody miss the most important economic story of the year? Derek breaks down the highest inflation rate in 40 years and welcomes back his economic roundtable guests, the finance podcasters Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson.

Do movie theaters have a future? What should Disney do with ESPN? And is anybody watching Peacock? Derek's favorite entertainment-media analyst Rich Greenfield joins the pod to talk about the future of TV, movies, and live sports.

Legendary journalist James Fallows joins to discuss the filibuster wars, Democrats' Voting Rights Act, the political outlook for Joe Biden and the Democrats, and the media's negativity bias.

Morgan Housel, the bestselling author of 'The Psychology of Money' and a partner at Collaborative Fund, is back to talk Bitcoin, Peloton, tech stocks, financial media myths, the psychology of stock market corrections, and the long view of investing.

Americans owe $1.7 trillion in student loans, and some Democrats think the time has come to cancel this burden. Derek shares 10 big student-loan facts that shape the debate. Then Jordan Weissmann of Slate joins the podcast to talk about the proposal to cancel student debt, the best arguments for and against it, the modern history of student loans, and their economic and psychological burden.

They're the six largest tech companies in the world. What's the most interesting thing about each of them? Shira Ovide, author of the On Tech newsletter from The New York Times, joins Derek to talk about why Norway is a snapshot of Tesla's future, why Microsoft is so underrated, and why Apple stands alone among the tech giants in more ways than one.

Jason Furman is a Harvard professor who served as a top economist for the Obama administration. More than just about anybody Derek spoke to last year, he nailed the rise in inflation. What did he see that others didn't? What's happening to inflation, the Great Resignation, labor shortages, and the Federal Reserve right now? And what will happen in 2022?

Kevin Roose of The New York Times returns to their pod, to talk about Joe Rogan's podcast. Then they talk about Mark Zuckerberg's big stock market wipeout, and Kevin explains the latest NFT controversy to Derek like he's 5 years old.

Derek goes deep with bestselling author Dan Pink on his new book, 'The Power of Regret.' It was recorded in front of a live audience at the "Sixth and I" historic synagogue in Washington, D.C.

What if they told you that the anti-vaccination trucker protests in Canada weren't principally about vaccines or truckers (or even Canada)? The Atlantic's David Frum joins to set them straight about what's going on in Ottawa and the meme-ification of protest politics.

Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game. Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak. Jerry Rice's gazillion receiving records. Which of these athletic achievements is the most impressive in American sports history? And are any of them the most impressive ever? The Ringer's Ryen Russillo joins the pod to debate the most impressive achievements in football, basketball, baseball, and individual sports. Then, after making selections that will almost certainly infuriate at least half of all listeners, the guys compare the GOATs across sports to name the single most impressive accomplishment ever.

All-star VC Josh Wolfe of Lux Capital joins the show to talk about picking winners and losers, tech's rough start to the year, and his four favorite mottos for detecting BS and seeing reality clearly. Finally, Derek and Josh play a game of "Overrated or Underrated?" for the metaverse, NFTs, and space travel.

Derek explains why three years-1989, 2008, and 2014-are the key to understanding why Putin is willing to take a massive risk in invading Ukraine. Then, Derek asks five expert guests to walk him through the most important second-order implications of a long major conflict. What are the most important ricochet effects that nobody is talking about? How could the war transform Europe? How could it destabilize Africa and the Middle East? How will it change U.S. politics, or kick off a 21st Century Cold War?

Quagmire. Regime change. Conquest. Empire. World War III. Derek considers five ways that the war in Ukraine could end with Paul Poast, a professor of foreign policy and war at the University of Chicago. This is Part 2 of their two-part Ukraine coverage today.

Things are moving very, very fast in Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine-and in the global response to punish Russia. The U.S. and Europe are not engaged in a literal war against Putin, and hopefully nothing like that will come to pass. But this weekend, they announced a series of unprecedented sanctions and economic penalties that could destroy the Russian economy. These policies are designed to get Putin to end the war before he conquers Ukraine. But they could crash the Russian economy and trigger more global crises. To explain the sanctions, discuss their pluses and minuses, and predict their ripple effects, Derek is joined by Noah Smith, author of the newsletter Noahpinion, and Nicolas Véron, a French economist and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the European think tank Bruegel.

Imagine running from your home, from a foreign army, knowing that every decision you make could be the difference between life and death-stay or flee? Turn left or right? Leave at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m.? That is the world in which today's guests live. Five Ukrainians who live in-or have recently fled from-Kyiv tell Derek what it's like living in the Ukrainian capital, escaping to Poland, and returning to Kyiv to fight the Russian army.

Three in four Americans say the U.S. and its allies should ban Russian aircraft over Ukraine by establishing a "no-fly zone." Dozens of foreign policy experts agree. So do many Ukrainians. Is this the policy that could end the war, or is it an idea that could end human civilization as they know it? (Maybe it's both.) The author and foreign policy critic Robert Wright joins the podcast to debate the pros and cons of a no-fly zone.

Russia's military isn't just a little bit bigger than Ukraine's-it has three times more armored vehicles; four times more ground forces; five times more tanks; and 10 times more aircraft. But for now, David is holding up against Goliath. How is this happening? And how long can Ukraine hold out? Russia military analyst Rob Lee and diplomacy expert Max Bergmann explain how Ukraine is shocking Russia-and the world.

Economic crises are piling up. U.S. inflation was surging before Russia invaded Ukraine. Since the war began, commodity prices have spiked, with gas screaming toward $5 a gallon. And now China is facing a new COVID wave. What is happening, and how will it end? Jason Furman, chief economic adviser to the Obama administration and professor of economics at Harvard University, is back on the pod to answer their burning economic questions, like, "Are they headed back to the 1970s?"

Derek talks to The Atlantic's Anne Applebaum about Zelensky's global appeal, the roots of Putin's lust for empire, and Ukraine's prospects for victory.

On Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that prohibits much classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity. The law is called "Parental Rights in Education," but its critics-which include Democrats, Hollywood, and many outspoken employees of the Walt Disney Company-call it "Don't Say Gay." What does the law actually say? And how has it created a firestorm at Disney? Derek talks to Dana Goldstein, a New York Times reporter, about the details of the law. Then he talks to Matt Belloni, a cofounder of Puck News and the host of the Ringer podcast 'The Town,' about what the debate within Disney says about the future of the culture war and corporations.

This week, the Washington Post reported that Facebook's parent company Meta has been paying a Republican consulting firm to slime the reputation of its social media rival TikTok. According to emails shared between Meta and Targeted Victory, Facebook sought to blame TikTok for viral hoaxes that actually started on Facebook and then urged various journalists and politicians to amplify these hoaxes. Today's guests are the journalists who broke the story: Taylor Lorenz and Drew Harwell. They explain why Facebook is afraid of TikTok; why the campaign to smear TikTok is so hypocritical and creepy; and why there are smarter reasons to be skeptical of an app whose owner has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

America has never grown at a slower pace than right now. Not only have deaths soared in the pandemic, but immigration is falling and their birth rate is near a record low, as well. Why is this happening? And why is population growth so great, anyway? Today's guest is Matthew Yglesias, the author of the Slow Boring newsletter and the book 'One Billion Americans.' They talk about why politicians won't prioritize family policy and immigration in D.C.; why population growth is good for Americans today and in the future; why a large U.S. population is good for the world; and whether critics have a case when they say a livable planet can't take another billion people.

There is an epidemic of bad behavior sweeping the country. In 2020, homicides increased by a record-high rate. Last year, pedestrian and vehicular deaths went up by a record-high rate. There have been more attacks in hospitals, schools, and stadiums and more unruly airline passengers than any time on record. What on Earth is going on? Today's guest is Olga Khazan, a staff writer at The Atlantic. She and Derek talk about how America lost its damn mind and review the most obvious and most interesting theories for what's really behind this bad-behavior epidemic.

On today's show, they start with Ten Good Minutes on the extremely funny and very chaotic saga of Elon Musk vs. Twitter. Last week, Musk bought enough Twitter shares to become the company's largest individual shareholder. Then, Twitter announced that Musk would become a board member. Then, Musk tweeted a bunch of embarrassing things about Twitter, suggesting the platform was "dying" and that its headquarters should be converted into a homeless shelter. Then, Twitter announced that Musk would not be a board member. What is happening?. Casey Newton, the author of the 'Platformer' newsletter, joins the show to share his reporting and speculation. Next, they welcome back Paul Poast, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, to talk about why they should fear Russia even though its military has "stunk" so far, why the next chapter of the war could be even bloodier, and when the war might finally end.

Well, that escalated quickly. Days after Elon Musk become the single largest individual shareholder of Twitter, he has offered to buy the company and take it private. Wait, what? Derek welcomes Stratechery writer Ben Thompson (no relation) to break down the news. Ben explains why Twitter is one of the most important companies in the world, why it's so undervalued, and what Musk could do with it privately. Then they make some predictions.

What's happening in China's largest and richest city right now is quite unbelievable. Shanghai is now several weeks into a government lockdown to stop the spread of COVID variants. In a metro with roughly the population of the state of Texas, residents cannot go outside. They cannot walk to grocery stores or pharmacies to pick up essential medicine. If they test positive for COVID, they are removed from their families and taken to quarantine facilities, where conditions are reportedly hellish. As the U.S. enters a stage of normalcy in the pandemic, China is still pursuing a draconian COVID Zero policy at the risk of starving citizens in its richest city. Why? Dan Wang, a Chinese writer and tech analyst, joins the show to talk about what he's hearing from Shanghai, what China is trying to accomplish, and whether protests could make a difference to the Chinese Communist Party.

The White House has a big youth problem. Since the day of his inauguration, Joe Biden's approval has declined by about 7 points among Americans over 50-and by an astonishing 19 points among Americans under 35. The pollster and politics writer Kristen Soltis Anderson joins the show to talk about Biden's eroding approval among young people and what it means for November. Then she and Derek talk about what liberals don't get about conservatives, why Democrats overrate the political power of Donald Trump, and whether masculinity could benefit from a liberal rebrand.

The United States is experiencing an extreme teenage mental-health crisis. It is one of the most troubling and fascinating social phenomena in the country today. From 2009 to 2021, the share of American high-school students who say they feel "persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness" rose from 26 percent to 44 percent, according to a new CDC study. This is the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded. Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, joins the podcast to explain why. Haidt is the author of The Righteous Mind, and the coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind. He and Derek debate the role of social media, the evolution of parenting, and the deep root of anxiety in modern life.

Charlie Warzel, author of the Galaxy Brain newsletter at The Atlantic, joins to talk about what Elon Musk will do to Twitter and how his acquisition could change media, tech, and politics.

What can save Netflix? Who killed CNN+? What the hell is going on between Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis? It's a big media hellscape roundup. Rich Greenfield, general partner at LightShed Ventures, forecasts a rocky future for streaming. Nick Papantonis, a reporter for WFTV in Orlando, explains that Florida's war against Disney might have some surprising collateral damage.

This week they have the NFL draft, which is an annual exercise in failure. Every year, some NFL team makes a disastrous quarterback decision but also overlooks a potential star. Why is it so damn hard to predict QB play in football? Are scouts stupid, or is the future just unknowable, or is hiring fundamentally chaotic, or is there something specific about quarterbacking that makes it uniquely difficult to forecast? The economist David Berri joins to share his research on why scouts are terrible at evaluating quarterbacks. His ideas shed light on larger questions like "What is talent, exactly?" and "Does anybody know what they're doing when they're hiring somebody for a new role?"

Morgan Housel, author of 'The Psychology of Money' and a partner at Collaborative Fund, joins the show to play stock doctor and diagnose what's killing tech stocks. Then they debate the odds of an imminent recession and talk about how China's bizarre year could weigh on U.S. growth. Finally, they go through all the good reasons and the not-so-good reasons for cancelling student debt.

The Supreme Court is poised to end the era of Roe. In a leaked draft of a majority opinion, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito struck down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that guaranteed constitutional protections of abortion rights. What would happen to abortion rights in its absence? Which states would shutter their clinics? Which states might expand protections? How does the growth of nationwide access to abortion pills fit into all of this? And why was the draft leaked in the first place? This podcast answers all of those questions and more, with two guests: Melissa Murray is a professor of law at New York University, and Margot Sanger-Katz is a domestic correspondent for 'The New York Times.'

Sometimes, people ask "why study history?" How about this: American history is the weapon being used to strike down Roe Vs Wade. In the leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe, conservative Justice Samuel Alito writes that Roe invented a right to abortion that cannot be found in early American history. Is he right? And what's the true history of abortion in America? That's the subject of today-a fast, factual guide to how they got to this moment, reviewing the 300-year history of abortion in America in just 30 minutes. Today's guests are two historians of abortion in American-Mary Ziegler, a visiting prof at Harvard, and Karissa Haugeberg, assistant professor at Tulane University.

This might sound like a hot take but it's not: In 50 years, when historians look back on the crazy 2020s, they might point to advances in artificial intelligence as the most important long-term development of the time. They are building machines that can mimic human language, human creativity, and human thought. What will that mean for the future of work, morality, and economics? The bestselling author Steven Johnson joins the podcast to talk about the most exciting and scary ideas in artificial intelligence and an article he wrote for The New York Times Magazine about the frontier of AI.

The stock market is absolutely gross right now. Everything is down, except (as loyal listeners know) the CATAN portfolio. Crypto has cratered, growth stocks have been ravaged, and hedge funds are imploding. Why is this happening? Is this Dot-Com Bubble 2.0? And what does it mean for the future of the U.S. economy, investing, and tech? Investor, entrepreneur, and podcaster Jason Calacanis joins the show. He gives them a brief history of the 21st century tech industry, explains why this is like and unlike the summer of 2000, makes some bold predictions about crypto and the economy, and tells them how he's advising young chief executives.