The Messy Debate Over Student Loan Forgiveness
The level of student debt in this country represents a massive policy error. But is forgiving up to $20,000 of student debt really the best way to help low-income Americans, or fix the nation's educat...
30 Aug 202242min
Burning Questions on Media: Streaming’s Summer of Hell, Movie Theater Woes, and CNN’s Risky Pivot
Today’s episode is about the entertainment and media industry’s tumultuous summer, the streaming wars, a come-to-Jesus moment for movie theaters, and a dramatic revamp at CNN—which tells a lot about t...
26 Aug 202250min
What’s the Secret of Success in America? This Economist Has Answers.
The economist Raj Chetty has spent much of the last decade trying to answer a very big question: What happened to the American Dream? In 1940, a child born into the average American household had a 92...
23 Aug 202250min
Why Does It Seem Like Everybody Hates Everything?
Bestselling author Chuck Klosterman talks to Derek about the death of the monoculture, how the internet creates cults of fans and anti-fans, and how “hating things” became a mainstream personality tra...
19 Aug 202252min
Donald Trump vs. the FBI: Everything We Know About the Investigation So Far
I've never before recorded an episode specifically about Donald Trump. I guess I’ve been holding out for the chaos that typically swirls around him to exceed an extremely high bar of freaky nonsense. ...
16 Aug 202242min
A New Way to Think About Racism in America
Several years ago, the writer, researcher, and policy advocate Heather McGhee traveled around the country to report on how racism in America holds us back from policies that would benefit everybody. I...
12 Aug 202244min
Carbon Removal Might Be the World’s Most Important Technology. How Does It Work?
Last year, somebody explained the problem of climate change to me with a metaphor that I’ve never been able to forget. They said: Imagine a bathtub. The bathtub is the planet’s atmosphere. The faucet ...
9 Aug 202246min
Curiosity Corner: Monkeypox Myths, Millennial Facts, and Overpopulation Fears
In our second "Curiosity Corner" mailbag, Derek takes your burning questions. He breaks down the myths around how monkeypox spreads, and blasts public health officials for not being more specific abou...
5 Aug 202230min
