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Articles by Derek Thompson
Things To Do in Charlotte this weekend (Feb 27 - March 1, 2026)
From a stacked R&B arena triple-header to curling championships, jazz legends in a 100-seat club, and a Tony-winning Michael Jackson musical — here's everything worth your time in Charlotte this weekend. Charlotte doesn't do quiet weekends, and this one's borderline ridiculous.
New books this week: 'Hunger Games' is back, and young people navigate a new Tanzania
This week brings a number of promising new reads — but none more eagerly awaited than Sunrise on the Reaping, the latest Hunger Games adventure from Suzanne Collins (who gave us this rare interview in 2009). Read on for full Sunrise spoilers (kidding!).
Worum geht es in Amerikas Geschlechterkampf wirklich?
Die Vereinigten Staaten sind auf mehreren Ebenen politisch gespalten – unter anderem ethnisch, geografisch und bezüglich des Bildungsgrads. Vor den Wahlen im November, bei denen das Wahlvolk sich wie 2016 zwischen einer Demokratin und einem Republikaner zu entscheiden hat, dürfte die deutlichste Trennlinie das Geschlecht sein.
What Rereading a Book Can Reveal - .
- This is an edition of Atlantic A daily newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas and recommends the best in culture. Register here. Welcome back to the Sunday cultural edition of the Daily, in which one Atlantic the writer or editor reveals what entertains them.
The ‘American Tolstoy’ of TV Shows
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what’s keeping them entertained.
How to oppose Israel without sounding like a moron (or anti-semite)
Well, lookie here: I was mentioned in the NY Times “On Comedy” column for a standup set I did filled with jokes about Israel and Palestine ("This is how Jews handle crisis."). Also mentioned in the piece: Dave Chappelle and Larry David. I’m now tryna start a group chat with ‘em called “button pushers.” We’ll see. Here’s the set: And while we’re talking about the Middle East… You can oppose what Israel is doing in Gaza without sounding like a moron, naif, or anti-semite.
Stavney: Progress, culture, and the trust gap - another angle
Do you consider Operation Warp Speed — the historic, rapid discovery and deployment of a COVID vaccine — as among the peak national achievements of the past half century? I bet not. I wrestle with public policy, stimulating innovation, declining civility, and the declining trust in government — which is essentially a lack of trust in each other — all through the lens of local government. I also contemplate organizational and community cultures. The intersection of these fascinates me.
Breakthroughs of the Year
Breakthroughs of the Year Pictures of the beginning of the universe, medicine that can (kind of) reverse death, and other leaps of human ingenuity Read Full Article »
Why Everything in Tech Seems to Be Collapsing
Why Everything in Tech Seems to Be Collapsing
What Moneyball Has Done to American Culture
What Moneyball Has Done to American Culture
Quiet Quitting Is a Fake Trend
Quiet Quitting Is a Fake Trend What people are now calling “quiet quitting” was, in previous decades, simply known as “having a job.” Read Full Article »
Review - Misinterpreting Genesis
As someone who grew up in a Fundamentalist Baptist family, I must admit that one of the most bizarre experiences of my life was when I went to visit the infamous Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, two summers ago. The massive facility, and its twin facility The Noah’s Ark Encounter with its life-sized creation of the Biblical Ark, was certainly fascinating to experience in real life after years of hearing stories about its reputation.
Classic Review – The Hobbit (1937) - Geeks Under Grace
The Hobbit will be turning 85 years old on September 21st! In the last two years, I’ve worked on Classic Reviews as a quasi-monthly series, and I’ve realized there are three texts that scare me too much to approach them: Dante’s Divine Comedy, Shakespeare’s Collected Works, and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Certainly, there are other books that intimidate me. I struggle at times with the works of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky for instance, but I do not fear them.
Why The Rent Is So Damn High
(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Review – The Gray Man - Geeks Under Grace
The Russo Brothers have built a strange career for themselves. The one-time co-creators of TV shows like Arrested Development and Community went on to direct four of the most popular and successful Marvel Cinematic Universe adaptations and became the most financially successful directors of all time.
The Forgotten Stage of Human Progress
Invention is easily overrated, and implementation is often underrated.
Russia’s Looming Economic Collapse
(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) This is terra incognita for economic policy. No country has ever faced this kind of global freeze-out. Read Full Article » Show comments Hide Comments Related Articles
We Have To Electrify Everything That We Do
We Have To Electrify Everything That We Do A new book suggests that the best way to save the planet is through abundance.
Review – The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis - Geeks Under Grace
Max McLean has been a forceful Christian and an actor for decades. He founded the Fellowship for Performing Arts in 1992, recorded The Listener’s Bible which is available free online, and has performed multiple stage plays across the United States including adaptations of the Gospel of Mark, classic Christian plays like A Man for All Seasons, and original plays based on the novels of C.S. Lewis.
The Great Resignation Is Accelerating
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) A lasting effect of this pandemic will be a revolution in worker expectations. Read Full Article » Show comments Hide Comments Related Articles
Review – Cry Macho - Geeks Under Grace
Clint Eastwood has been one of the most important actors and directors in Hollywood since the 1960s. He started acting at the height of the Hollywood studio system, helped spark the spaghetti western genre, became the 1970’s most beloved anti-hero action star, and proceeded to build a seventy-year career in filmmaking that continues well into his 90s. In recent years, his belligerent anti-political correctness statements have somewhat alienated him from audiences.
Hit Makers
Pure Drivel, Utter Nonsense Clickbait in Book Form Derek Thompson discusses clickbait several times in Hit Makers. Clickbait is an exaggerated online headline that lures you into clicking on it without delivering on its promise. This book is clickbait.
Classic Review – The Odyssey (675 BC) - Geeks Under Grace
We talked about The Illiad of Homer earlier this year as the monthly Classics Series was just beginning. My essay on that massive poem served as the launching point for what I wanted to do with this series: long-form analytical analysis borrowing from whatever academic material I could readily get my hands on. Four months later, I’m excited to finally be talking about the book’s nominal sequel, The Odyssey.
RECAP | Johnson, Pigg Have Career Afternoons for Grizzlies in 90th Victory Bell Game
Posted: Apr 10, 2021 FRANKLIN, Ind. – The Franklin College football team welcomed the Hanover Panthers to Faught Stadium on a rainy Saturday (Apr. 10) afternoon for the 90th installment of the annual Victory Bell Game. The Grizzlies (3-3, 3-3 HCAC) got a pair of rushing touchdowns from sophomore Cam Johnson and racked up more than 400 yards of total offense. But a strong second half from the Panthers (4-0, 4-0 HCAC) propelled Hanover to a 56-21 win.
Review: SteamWorld Quest—Hand of Gilgamech - Geeks Under Grace
Developer: Image & Form Publisher: Thunderful Publishing Genre: JRPG, Role-Playing Game Platforms: Switch Rating: E for Everyone Price: $24.99 If you asked me what my gaming passions were in the mid-90s, I would have said Final Fantasy and Magic: the Gathering. Twenty-five years later, I would say The Legend of Heroes and Star Realms, but the principle remains the same: I love JRPGs and card games with cool effects and deck-building elements.
How 2020 shattered shared reality – HotAir
There is no going back to the 1950s. We will never again be enfolded by those bespoke mid-century circumstances, the scarce broadcasts and broadsheets. The dividing forces are too strong and too many. The film experience pushed out across millions of flatscreens; the live-television networks splintering into millions of digital entertainment queues; the news dissolving into innumerable political realities: One by one, these are not evil trends. But they add up. Or, more aptly, they divide.
Get Ready For The Great Urban Comeback
(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) Visionary responses to catastrophes have changed city life for the better. Read Full Article » Show comments Hide Comments Related Articles
Three Reasons that the Stock Market is Rising
Three Reasons that the Stock Market is Rising
It's Not Too Late To Stem Unemployment
(JT Wampler/The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via AP) It didn't have to be this way. Read Full Article » Show comments Hide Comments Related Articles
Silicon Valley Has Hit A Mid-Life Crisis
Tech Experts Are Pessimistic About Their Industry
Why Texans Don't Want Anymore Californians
Why Texans Don't Want Anymore Californians Across a frightened nation divided by politics and culture, a fragile harmony is ascendant, as Americans in small towns and large cities alike cry out in trembling unison: Hey, where did all these Californians come from? Read Full Article »
Why Manhattan's Skyscrapers Are Empty
Why Manhattan's Skyscrapers Are Empty | RealClearPolitics
Why Manhattan's Skyscrapers Are Empty
Approximately half of the luxury-condo units that have come onto the market in the past five years are still unsold.
The Real Trouble With Silicon Valley
The toxicity of the web is peanuts compared with Big Tech's failure to remake the physical world.
Why White-Collar Workers Spend All Day at the Office
Why White-Collar Workers Spend All Day at the Office Why Americans work more than anyone else.
The Most Talented Grifter of Our Time
The Most Talented Grifter of Our Time
Why Are America's Three Biggest Metro Areas Shrinking?
Why Are America's Three Biggest Metro Areas Shrinking? After a post-recession boomlet, the New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago areas are all seeing their population decline. Read Full Article »
No, Liberals Shouldn't Root for a Recession
With tumbling United States stocks, a queasy eurozone market, and decelerating Chinese growth, warnings signs are flashing that the U.S. economy, for all its strengths, may be slipping into a downturn. But some of the president's opponents are greeting economic jitters with a surprising response: Bring on the recession! Read Full Article » Show comments Hide Comments
America's Hot New Job: The New Servant Class
America's Hot New Job: The New Servant Class Wealth work is one of America's fastest-growing industries. That's not entirely a good thing.
America's Hot New Job Is Being Rich Person's Servant
America's Hot New Job Is Being Rich Person's Servant Wealth work is one of America's fastest-growing industries. That's not entirely a good thing.
Why No One Wants to Talk About the Booming Economy
Why No One Wants to Talk About the Booming Economy
The Booming, Ethically Dubious Business of Food Delivery
This is a blessed age for food in America—for dining out and cooking in; for recipe books, and TV shows, and recipe books that become TV shows; for the celebrity chefs who occupy seats in the cultural pantheon once reserved for artists; and above all, for the American eater, who is fortunate to be chewing and digesting at a time when there are more restaurants than ever in the United States. Read Full Article » Show comments Hide Comments
How Zora Neale Hurston and Margaret Mead Revolutionized Anthropology
Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Zora Neale Hurstonâspurred on by Franz Boasârevolutionized the way we think about humanity. Alison Gopnik August 2019 Issue Illustration: Emily Haasch; Library of Congress Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century by Charles King Doubleday In 1968, when I was 13, I read Coming of Age in Samoa, by Margaret Mead.
The Future of the City Is Childless
The Future of the City Is Childless
Workism Is Making More & More Americans Miserable | RealClearMarkets
Workism Is Making More & More Americans Miserable For the college-educated elite, work has morphed into a religious identity—promising identity, transcendence, and community, but failing to deliver. Read Full Article »
If World Is Getting Better, Why Are So Many So Unhappy?
If World Is Getting Better, Why Are So Many So Unhappy?
New York and California Call Into Question Tax Arguments
New York and California Call Into Question Tax Arguments
Millennials Didn't Kill Economy. The Economy Killed Them.
Millennials Didn't Kill Economy. The Economy Killed Them. The American system has thrown them into debt, depressed their wages, kept them from buying homes—and then blamed them for everything. Read Full Article »
Is a Recession Coming?
In December 2007, Larry Kudlow, then a talking head for the business network CNBC, proclaimed, “There's no recession coming. It's not going to happen.” That same month, the economy plunged into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Read Full Article »
AMZN's HQ2 Spectacle Not Just Shameful, It Should Be Illegal
AMZN's HQ2 Spectacle Not Just Shameful, It Should Be Illegal Each year, local governments spend nearly $100 billion to move headquarters and factories between states. It's a wasteful exercise that requires a national solution. Read Full Article »
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