UFOs and Aliens and Drones and Balloons: Understanding the U.S. Sky Wars
Since a big white Chinese spy balloon floated across the ocean and into U.S. airspace, the United States has shot down four objects over North American skies. What are we looking at, and what are we s...
17 Feb 202350min
Why Everybody Is Wrong About a Recession and Housing’s Great Comeback
Last fall, three-quarters of voters told CNN that the U.S. was in a recession. A Bloomberg economic model said that the odds of a recession by the fall of 2023 were 100 percent. But we’re not in a rec...
14 Feb 202334min
The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Fake Meat in America
For the past 50 years, Americans have basically responded to the case against eating animals by eating more animals. The share of Americans who call themselves vegan or vegetarian hasn’t increased in ...
10 Feb 202338min
China’s Spy Balloon Is Down. Cold War 2.0 Risks Are Rising.
If we’re being honest, the whole thing is kind of funny. A Chinese spy balloon floated across the U.S. Nobody died, unless we count the balloon itself. In a saner age, this story would be over. But ba...
7 Feb 202343min
Econ Megapod: The Debt Ceiling Is Dumb, and the Inflation “Crisis” Might Be Over
We’ve got a double-barrelled podcast for you. Jeanna Smialek, economics reporter for the ‘New York Times,’ joins us to break down the debt-ceiling showdown that’s enveloping Washington. Plus, economis...
3 Feb 202357min
The Dark Side of Being Obsessed With Productivity
"Productivity is a trap. Nobody in the history of humanity has ever achieved work-life balance. The real problem isn’t our limited time. The real problem—or so I hope to convince you—is that we’ve unw...
31 Jan 202348min
How AI Could Change Apple and Google, Writing and Music, and Everything Else
“The story of 2022 was the emergence of AI," wrote Ben Thompson, the author of the Stratechery newsletter and podcast. "It seems clear to me that this is a new epoch in technology.” Ben and Derek talk...
27 Jan 20231h 1min
Why Big Tech's Jobs Bubble Burst. Plus, SBF's Scandal Deepens.
Derek breaks down the biggest economic mystery of the moment: Why are the most successful tech companies collectively laying off more than 130,000 people if the overall unemployment rate is still hist...
24 Jan 202347min
