This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit <a href="https://andrewsullivan.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_7">andrewsullivan.substack.com</a><br/><br/><p>Derek Thompson is a long-time writer at The Atlantic. His books include <em>Hit Makers</em>, <em>On Work</em>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Progress-Takes-Ezra-Klein/dp/1668023482"><em>Abundance</em></a>, which he co-wrote with Ezra Klein. Derek also has an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.derekthompson.org/">excellent substack</a> and hosts a podcast called “Plain English.”</p><p>This episode was recorded on March 17. For two clips — on the impact of <em>Abundance</em>, and the difference between being alone and anti-social — head to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/user/DailyDishHosting/videos">our YouTube page</a>.</p><p>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 <em>Abundance</em> book; <em>Virtually Normal</em>; books as totems; blue vs red city governance; housing deregulation; “procedural fetish” vs Trumpian chaos; government spurring innovation; Derek’s piece “<a target="_blank" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/02/american-loneliness-personality-politics/681091/">The Anti-Social Century</a>”; 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.</p><p>Browse the <a target="_blank" href="https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/dishcast-archive-70-episodes">Dishcast archive</a> 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 <strong>[email protected]</strong>.</p>