Derek Thompson | |
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 Thompson in 2017 | |
| Born | May 18, 1986 McLean, Virginia, U.S. |
| Education | Northwestern University (BA) |
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Derek Kahn Thompson (born May 18, 1986) [1] [2] is an American podcaster and journalist. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic. [3] He is the author of Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction and, with Ezra Klein, the co-author of Abundance.
Derek Thompson was born in McLean, Virginia, the son of Robert Thompson and Petra Kahn. [4] [5] Before graduating from high school, he appeared in several theatrical productions at the Folger Shakespeare Theater [6] and the Shakespeare Theater. [7] After attending the Potomac School, Thompson graduated from Northwestern University in 2008 with a triple major in journalism, political science, and legal studies. [8] [9] [10]
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Thompson has been a writer at The Atlantic since 2009. [11] Starting in November 2021, Thompson began hosting a weekly headline podcast entitled Plain English, part of The Ringer Podcast Network. [12] In 2018, he became the host of the technology and science podcast Crazy/Genius, which was nominated for an iHeartMedia Best Podcast Award in its first year. [13]
Thompson has written three cover stories for the magazine. The first, "A World Without Work", is a widely referenced [14] [15] essay on the meaning of work and automation's threat to the labor force. The second was a lengthy profile of X, the research and development division of Alphabet. [16] The third, "The Anti-Social Century," published in the magazine's February 2025 issue, points out that Americans are spending more time alone than ever before. [17] Thompson contends that this surge in solitude is fundamentally reshaping personalities, politics, and culture, noting that people are increasingly opting for solitude even when it doesn't make them happier. [18]
In 2017, Thompson published his first book, Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction. It was a national bestseller [19] and winner of the American Marketing Association's Leonard L. Berry Marketing Book Award for the best marketing book of 2018. [20] Thompson coauthored his next book, Abundance , with Ezra Klein. [21] The book argues that shortages of key pillars of "the good life" — housing, energy, healthcare, and innovation — are the result of artificial, policy-driven scarcities in liberal policy-making. [22] [23]
After 17 years at The Atlantic, Thompson left his full-time role to write independently on Substack in June 2025. In a post explaining the move, he cited a desire for more editorial freedom and to write for himself after almost two decades at a single publication. [24] He will remain a contributing writer at The Atlantic.
Thompson describes himself as a secular Reform Jew. [25] As of 2025 [update] , he and his wife reside in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with their daughter. [26] He is a subscriber to effective altruism. [27]
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