Derek Thompson
-
![]()
Antara Foto Agency / Reuters Should We Dim the Skies to Save the World?
The podcast Crazy/Genius returns with the story of a volcano, a toxic cloud, and a radical solution to humanity’s most important problem.
-
![]()
Crazy/Genius Season 2: Five Radical Ideas to Save the World
A pill for aging, a search engine for memories, and other visions the future.
-
![]()
TruTV A TV Show So Dystopian Its Host Says It Shouldn’t Exist
Paid Off delivers a queasy illustration of American inequality and political dysfunction.
-
![]()
Chris Wattie / Reuters Canada’s Secret to Escaping the ‘Liberal Doom Loop’
How a country can welcome immigrants without triggering a massive populist backlash
-
![]()
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters Why Donald Trump’s Trade War Will Fail
Despite the president’s assurances, trade wars are bad—and impossible to win.
-
![]()
NASA / Reuters Is Colonizing Mars the Most Important Project in Human History?
The Red Planet is a freezing, faraway, uninhabitable desert. But protecting the human species from the end of life on Earth could save trillions of lives.
-
![]()
Bettmann / Getty But, Seriously, Where Are the Aliens?
Humanity may be as few as 10 years away from discovering evidence of extraterrestrial life. Once we do, it will only deepen the mystery of where alien intelligence might be hiding.
-
![]()
Jason Redmond / Reuters Should the U.S. Break Up Amazon?
The Atlantic’s newest podcast “Crazy/Genius” takes on the retail giant.
-
![]()
Alex Wong / Getty Why Can’t Facebook Tell the Truth?
Introducing Crazy/Genius, a new tech podcast from The Atlantic
-
![]()
Katie Martin American Sports Needs More Fair-Weather Fans
Why you should root for great teams and great players—and abandon your sad-sack local franchise
-
![]()
Zohar Lazar Disneyflix Is Coming. And Netflix Should Be Scared.
Will Disney destroy the movie theater?
-
![]()
Carlos Barria / Reuters Paul Ryan’s Sad Legacy
Under Obama, he was hailed as the deficit-warrior of Washington. Under Trump, he oversaw the greatest peacetime growth in deficit spending in modern American history.
-
![]()
Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters Busting the Myth of ‘Welfare Makes People Lazy’
Cash assistance isn’t just a moral imperative that raises living standards. It’s also a critical investment in the health and future careers of low-income kids.
-
![]()
Carlos Barria / Reuters Gary Cohn Reaches the Breaking Point
Trump’s top economic advisor almost quit after the president’s handling of Charlottesville. Now he’s resigning over a populist rebellion in the White House.
-
![]()
Joshua Roberts / Reuters The GOP's Tax-Cut Narrative Is Already Unraveling
The law’s role in boosting wages was overblown. Its deficits are scaring investors. And fears that it might accelerate inflation could push the Federal Reserve to choke off growth.
-
![]()
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters One Simple Way Trump Can Get the Economic Growth He Wants
He isn’t going to like it: It’s more immigration.
-
![]()
Joshua Roberts / Reuters Why Are Corporations Finally Turning Against the NRA?
The politicization of the public sphere is compelling nonpartisan companies to take one partisan stand after another.
-
![]()
Steve Nesius / AP The Most Expensive Comment in Internet History?
A new book pieces together the strange legal saga that was sparked by a 2007 Gawker post outing the billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel.
-
![]()
Gabrielle Lurie / Reuters Airbnb and the Unintended Consequences of 'Disruption'
Tech analysts are prone to predicting utopia or dystopia. They’re worse at imagining the side effects of a firm's success.
-
![]()
Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images Donald Trump's Language Is Reshaping American Politics
Republicans—and some liberals—downplay the significance of the president’s outbursts. But his words are quietly radicalizing both the left and right, with untold consequences for the future of policy.
