A Mind-Expanding Conversation About Human History and Happiness With Tim Urban

A Mind-Expanding Conversation About Human History and Happiness With Tim Urban

Sometimes on this show, we talk about the news. This episode is about the diametric opposite of the news. It’s about thinking deeply about human history and trying to appreciate the awesome length of time and the finitude of our lives. It's an interview with Tim Urban, a blogger at the mind-expanding site Wait But Why, and the author of a new book What’s Our Problem: A Self-Help Book for Societies. If you don’t know Tim and his work, I would sum up his thing this way: Tim is a kind of alien. He has an incredible talent for seeing our world as if from the perspective of a goofy but smart extraterrestrial, who takes not the 30,000-foot view on life, but the 300,000-foot view of life, and history, and human nature. In this show, we talk about … you know what. I'm not even going to try to sum up the hour. Just enjoy. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_ Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Tim Urban Producer: Devon Manze Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episoder(348)

Crypto Crash Part I: The Case Against Crypto

Crypto Crash Part I: The Case Against Crypto

Today, we have the first in a two-part series on lessons from the crypto crash. Crypto, also known as Web3, also known as blockchain-based technologies, remains the weirdest space I’ve ever reported o...

25 Jul 202249min

Why It Seems Like So Many Countries Are Falling Apart

Why It Seems Like So Many Countries Are Falling Apart

The world is kind of a mess right now. There is a big, bloody, awful war between Russia and Ukraine, which has hugely disrupted global trade, especially in commodities like oil, wheat, and natural gas...

22 Jul 202253min

The World Is on Fire. Here’s a Realistic Plan to Save Humanity.

The World Is on Fire. Here’s a Realistic Plan to Save Humanity.

The world is on fire. In southern Europe, wildfires are streaking from Portugal to Greece. In the U.K., airport runways melted as temperatures exceeded 103 degrees for the first time on record. In the...

19 Jul 20221h 2min

Three Ways the Elon Musk–Twitter Showdown Could End

Three Ways the Elon Musk–Twitter Showdown Could End

Well, that escalated quickly. Let's review, shall we? In January, Elon Musk started buying a bunch of Twitter stock. In February, he kept buying. In March, he owned about 5 percent of the company. In ...

14 Jul 202241min

Burning Questions About the Future of Media: Netflix vs. Disney, TikTok vs. Everyone, and the Metaverse

Burning Questions About the Future of Media: Netflix vs. Disney, TikTok vs. Everyone, and the Metaverse

Will Netflix be the king of streaming in five years? What's the biggest threat to dethrone it: Apple, Disney, or HBO? Are movie theaters back for real? How has the pandemic changed the film industry? ...

12 Jul 20221h 12min

Musk Meltdown: Elon’s Breakup With Twitter Is Going to Be Very Messy

Musk Meltdown: Elon’s Breakup With Twitter Is Going to Be Very Messy

Derek has so many thoughts on Elon Musk's bizarre attempted breakup with Twitter—and what comes next—that he has to enumerate them. In this episode, he goes through five reasons Elon is trying to wrig...

10 Jul 202217min

The Biggest Economic Question of the Moment: Is This Peak Inflation?

The Biggest Economic Question of the Moment: Is This Peak Inflation?

The question everybody's asking on cable news right now is whether we're in a recession. I think there's an even more important question to ask: Are we at peak inflation? If inflation U-turns, it mean...

8 Jul 202232min

Why Are the Police So Bad at Solving Murders?

Why Are the Police So Bad at Solving Murders?

Today’s episode is about the story of the moment—gun violence. There’s been a surge of violent shootings, mass shootings, and gun-related murders in the last few years. Today, Derek investigates a mys...

6 Jul 202247min

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