Derek Thompson
speaker
564 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 24 Jul
Derek Thompson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 2.
Appearances
Let's start there.
In many cases, as with so much modernity, we're victims of our own success.
People have more freedom than they used to have.
They're less bound by the strictures of tradition.
You know, one place that people used to gather has been church or synagogue or temple.
But there are lots of religious traditions that are bigoted, that are illiberal, that hold people back from being the individuals they could be.
So in many cases, you could say that the antisocial century is about the triumph of individualism.
But the drive of individualism has its own costs.
If you are disconnected from your family, if you focus on yourself rather than on your social community, if you focus on your career rather than on building a family, well, these can all give you a sense of power.
But in the long run, what are you left with?
A really ample bank account and a not-so-ample social life.
So the reason why I think this is important, let's talk about two reasons.
One that's very individual, happiness.
And another that's more macro, which is politics.
Individually, it seems pretty clear according to research that's been done by a lot of different people, especially at the University of Chicago, that people, how to put this,
over-demand introversion.
If you ask people, how much time do you want to spend alone?
People actually tend to want to spend a lot of time alone.
They often feel burned out.
They want to feel, they want to watch their own Netflix and scroll their own TikTok in bed or on a couch.
Showing 101–120 of 564 · page 6 of 29
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