Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' has brought one of history's oldest stories back into the spotlight. It’s also sparked a fresh debate about what it means to adapt a classic.

Today, Derek is joined by acclaimed classicist and translator Emily Wilson, whose celebrated translation of 'The Odyssey' helped inspire Nolan's film. They explore why Homer's epic has remained the foundation of so much Western storytelling and what gets lost and gained in the act of translating. Thenm Wilson gives her take on Nolan's adaptation. She lets us know what it captures brilliantly, where it departs from Homer, and what those changes reveal about both the ancient world and our own.

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Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Emily Wilson

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' is finally here, but how exactly has a 3,000-year-old story endured long enough to become the foundation of Western storytelling? Derek is joined by Karen Ní Mheallaigh, chair of Classics at Johns Hopkins University, to explore the mysterious origins of Homer's epic and the timeless themes that have captivated audiences for millennia. They discuss how 'The Odyssey' outlived thousands of other ancient poems, how its story of homecoming and hospitality shaped Western literature, and why filmmakers and creatives like Christopher Nolan keep returning to its core ideas.

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Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Karen Ní Mheallaigh
Producer: Devon Baroldi
Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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Why does it feel like everything is more divided and exhausting than it used to be? Philosopher Agnes Callard has a surprisingly simple answer: the unicontext. It's her term for what happens when billions of people are all forced to inhabit the same global conversation through the internet and social media.

In this episode, Derek talks with Callard about how the unicontext has reshaped the way we experience time, attention, and morality. They explore why online life feels overwhelmingly negative and why public discourse has become so focused on outrage and identity. It's a conversation that connects philosophy with the modern experience of living online, ultimately offering a framework for understanding why our world just feels so weird.

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Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Agnes Callard
Producer: Devon Baroldi
Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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Peter Beinart joins Derek to unpack a major shift inside the Democratic Party. As Democratic Socialist-backed candidates notch a string of surprising primary victories, one issue has emerged as a defining political litmus test: Israel and the war in Gaza. But it's difficult to hold two ideas at once … that the war in Gaza is a moral catastrophe, and that antisemitism is rising in some of the spaces where that catastrophe is being debated. Derek and Peter discuss why the conflict has become so central to Democratic primaries, how debates over anti-Zionism and antisemitism are reshaping public life, and what it all means for the future of the Democratic coalition.

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https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson

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Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Peter Beinart
Producer: Devon Baroldi
Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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To celebrate America's 250th birthday, Derek is joined for a history draft by three of the country's leading historians: Beverly Gage, H.W. (Bill) Brands, and Richard White. The goal isn't to revisit the familiar stories everyone learned in school. It's to uncover the people, events, and ideas that deserve far more attention.

The historians make their picks for the most underrated president, the most overrated American, the historical figure who ought to be a textbook star, and the dark-horse event that changed the course of the country. Along the way, they debate what we get wrong about the American story, why some figures become legends while others are forgotten, and history’s most overlooked chapters.

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Host: Derek Thompson
Guests: Beverly Gage, H.W. Brands, and Richard White
Producer: Devon Baroldi
Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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From the bombing campaigns of World War II to the precision strikes of the modern era, for 80 years air power has defined modern warfare. But today, a new technology is changing the battlefield: drones.

From Ukraine to the Middle East, cheap drones are transforming how wars are fought, giving countries and even small groups capabilities that once belonged only to the world's most powerful militaries. They’re changing not just how wars are fought, but who can fight them.

Today, Derek is joined by Erik Lin-Greenberg, an MIT professor and author of 'The Remote Revolution: Drones and Modern Statecraft,' to explore how drones are reshaping modern warfare and what this new era could mean for the future of conflict.

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https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected].

Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Erik Lin-Greenberg

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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For decades, investors valued companies based on a familiar formula: Grow revenue, earn profits, and reward shareholders. But a new era may be beginning - one where trillion-dollar companies can lose billions of dollars a year and still command enormous valuations.

SpaceX recently became one of the world's most valuable public companies despite reporting multibillion-dollar losses. Meanwhile, OpenAI and Anthropic are also racing toward public markets with sky-high valuations and no expectation of near-term profitability. These companies are spending staggering sums on chips, data centers, and AI infrastructure, as they bet that today's losses will create tomorrow's economic winners.

Today, Derek is joined by Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson of Ritholtz Wealth Management and the Animal Spirits podcast to explore the rise of the trillion-dollar, zero-profit company and what it says about the future of technology, investing, and the American economy.

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Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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Four months ago, the U.S. and Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran. Supporters predicted a decisive victory that would curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and reshape the balance of power in the Middle East. Instead, the war became a costly stalemate. Iran's power continued, the conflict dragged on, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupted global energy markets, sending economic shockwaves around the world.

Now, a ceasefire has ended the fighting. But critics argue that the agreement gives Iran major concessions in exchange for empty promises about its nuclear program that prove difficult to enforce.

Today, Karim Sadjadpour returns to the podcast to examine the end of the Iran war. Why did the Trump administration agree to this deal, and will history remember it as a necessary compromise or a strategic failure?

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Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Karim Sadjadpour
Producer: Devon Baroldi
Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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What is Donald Trump good at? In his second administration, he promised lower prices, stronger manufacturing, and an end to foreign conflicts. Instead, inflation has risen, blue-collar job growth has slowed, and the U.S. finds itself involved in another war in the Middle East. But there is one area where Trump has undeniably succeeded: increasing the wealth of the Trump family.

Even as his approval ratings have fallen, Trump and his businesses have reportedly received billions of dollars in new investments and deals, raising questions about presidential ethics and conflicts of interest.

Today, Derek is joined by Isaac Saul of Tangle to draft the most striking examples of alleged corruption and ethical controversies in the second Trump administration and ask a simple question: Are we witnessing an unprecedented era of presidential profiteering?

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If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected].

Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Isaac Saul
Producer: Devon Baroldi
Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

LINKS: https://www.readtangle.com/the-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-corruption-story/

This episode is brought to you by Accenture. https://Accenture.com/Spotify

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For years, scientists worried that medical progress was slowing down. Drug development became more expensive than ever with more complex clinical trials, and even then, many new treatments offered only modest gains. But over the past month, a series of breakthroughs has raised hopes that medicine may be entering a new era.

Researchers unveiled a massively promising new therapy for pancreatic cancer, a gene-editing treatment that could dramatically reduce the risk of heart disease, and an experimental obesity drug that not only produces unprecedented weight loss but also improves a huge range of related conditions. Cancer and heart disease are America’s two biggest killers, but if these treatments fulfill their promise, they could transform public health and extend millions of lives.

Today’s guest is Matthew Herper, senior writer at STAT News. We discuss this remarkable month in medicine, why so many advances are arriving at once, and what they could mean for the future of human health.

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Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Matthew Herper
Producer: Devon Baroldi
Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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Prior to the 1930s, old age in America often meant poverty. But thanks to Social Security, Medicare, medical advances, and rising asset prices, over the past 90 years, older Americans have become one of the wealthiest and most politically powerful groups in the country.

In his new book, 'Gerontocracy in America,' Samuel Moyn argues that this success has created a dangerous imbalance. He says America isn't just facing oligarchy, or rule by the rich, but "Old-igarchy": a system in which wealth and power are increasingly concentrated among older generations, often at the expense of younger Americans.

Today, Derek talks with Moyn about the rise of gerontocracy in America, whether elderly power has become a problem, what reforms could rebalance the scales between generations, and whether this argument is a serious critique of American politics or simply ageist nonsense.

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If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected].

Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Samuel Moyn
Producer: Devon Baroldi
Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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