Derek Thompson On Meaning In Our Web World

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com Derek Thompson is a long-time writer at The Atlantic. His books include Hit Makers , On Work , and Abundance , which he co-wrote with Ezra Klein. Derek also has an excellent substack and hosts a podcast called “Plain English.” This episode was recorded on March 17. For two clips — on the impact of Abundance , and the difference between being alone and anti-social — head to our YouTube page . Other topics: growing up near DC; theater his first love; the two of us trading stories of stage acting; pursuing journalism after 9/11; how writing has evolved in the 21st century; conspiracy theories online; AI creating doubt; strategizing the Abundance book; Virtually Normal ; books as totems; blue vs red city governance; housing deregulation; “procedural fetish” vs Trumpian chaos; government spurring innovation; Derek’s piece “ The Anti-Social Century ”; OnlyFans; looking at smartphones in a gay bar; Kierkegaard; Camus; tradition as a ballast; meaning through limits; fatherhood; Hegseth reveling in dominance; Nietzsche; the tribalism of early humans; wokeness and the Trump cult; liquid modernity; consumerism replacing meaning; the fertility crisis; the growing dominance of Orthodox Jews in Israel; and Oakeshott and infinite games of non-winning. Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Jeffrey Toobin on the pardon power, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism,” HW Brands on the life of George Washington; Greg Lukianoff on free speech, and Tom Junod on his memoir and masculinity. As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com .

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Derek Thompson On Meaning In Our Web World is an episode from The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan by Andrew Sullivan.

This episode is 36:35 long.

This episode was published on Apr 10, 2026.

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