Derek Thompson
Thompson in 2017
Born	(1986-05-18)May 18, 1986 (age 39) McLean, Virginia, U.S.
Education	Northwestern University (BA)
Occupations	Journalist podcaster

Derek Kahn Thompson (born May 18, 1986)^[1][2] is an American podcaster and journalist. He is a contributing writer atThe Atlantic.^[3] He is the author ofHit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction and, withEzra Klein, the co-author ofAbundance.

Derek Thompson was born inMcLean, Virginia, the son of Robert Thompson and Petra Kahn.^[4][5] Before graduating from high school, he appeared in several theatrical productions at the Folger Shakespeare Theater^[6] and the Shakespeare Theater.^[7] After attending thePotomac School, Thompson graduated fromNorthwestern University in 2008 with a triple major in journalism, political science, and legal studies.^[8][9][10]

Thompson has been a writer atThe Atlantic since 2009.^[11] Starting in November 2021, Thompson began hosting a weekly headlinepodcast entitledPlain English, part of The Ringer Podcast Network.^[12] In 2018, he became the host of the technology and science podcastCrazy/Genius, which was nominated for an iHeartMedia Best Podcast Award in its first year.^[13]

Thompson has written three cover stories for the magazine. The first, "A World Without Work", is a widely referenced^[14][15] essay on the meaning of work and automation's threat to the labor force. The second was a lengthy profile ofX, the research and development division of Alphabet.^[16] The third, "The Anti-Social Century," published in the magazine's February 2025 issue, points out that Americans are spending more time alone than ever before.^[17] Thompson contends that this surge in solitude is fundamentally reshaping personalities, politics, and culture, noting that people are increasingly opting for solitude even when it doesn't make them happier.^[18]

In 2017, Thompson published his first book,Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction. It was a national bestseller^[19] and winner of theAmerican Marketing Association's Leonard L. Berry Marketing Book Award for the best marketing book of 2018.^[20] Thompson coauthored his next book,Abundance, withEzra Klein.^[21] The book argues that shortages of key pillars of "the good life" — housing, energy, healthcare, and innovation — are the result of artificial, policy-driven scarcities in liberal policy-making.^[22][23]

After 17 years atThe Atlantic, Thompson left his full-time role to write independently onSubstack in June 2025. In a post explaining the move, he cited a desire for more editorial freedom and to write for himself after almost two decades at a single publication.^[24] He will remain a contributing writer atThe Atlantic.

Thompson describes himself as asecularReform Jew.^[25] As of 2025^[update], he and his wife reside inChapel Hill, North Carolina, with their daughter.^[26] He is a subscriber toeffective altruism.^[27]

• Thompson, Derek (2017).Hit makers: the science of popularity in an age of distraction. New York: Penguin Press.ISBN 978-1-101-98032-3.
• Thompson, Derek (2023).On Work: Money, Meaning, Identity. Zando.ISBN 978-1-63893-073-0.
• Klein, Ezra; Thompson, Derek (2025). Abundance. New York: Avid Reader Press.ISBN 978-1-6680-2348-8.

• Appearances onC-SPAN

• 21st-century American journalists
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• People from McLean, Virginia
• The Atlantic (magazine) people
• Jewish American journalists
• Living people
• 1986 births
• American technology podcasters
• YIMBY activists
• 21st-century American male journalists

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