Person
Every book Derek Thompson recommended on podcasts
Across 5 podcasts. Every show Derek Thompson appears on, in one place — not just one.
Derek Thompson’s most recommended books
- Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
- Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
- The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
- The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam
- Culture of Hope by Frederick Turner
- Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse
- From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman
- Fully Automated Luxury Communism by Aaron Bastani
Derek Thompson discussed and recommended a variety of books across multiple podcast interviews, touching on religion, fiction, and economic theory. He named C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity as a surprising first choice, highlighting its opening thirty pages as the most interesting analysis of the concept of morality that he had ever encountered. Turning to contemporary and classic fiction, Thompson mentioned rereading Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children, Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings, and Donna Tartt's The Secret History as works from his twenties and recent reading lists. He also recommended the audiobook version of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, describing it as an extraordinary, trippy experience comparable to a twentieth-century Dante guiding a reader through a hellacious landscape. In addition to his personal recommendations, Thompson discussed broader sociological and economic texts during conversations with other hosts. He mentioned Robert D. Putnam's Bowling Alone while analyzing themes of technology and solitude, referenced Frederick Turner's From Counterculture to Cyber Culture in discussions concerning Silicon Valley history, and explored Mancur Olson's The Rise and Decline of Nations to address public interest economics and societal decline.
Books recommended by Derek Thompson
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Abundance
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson is a widely debated book that outlines a policy manifesto for progressives, arguing that the political left should embrace economic growth and the actual construction of physical infrastructure.
Discussed“so we started writing this book two and a half years ago when we were motivated by and scandalized by exactly what you said the crises of manufactured scarcity in the 21st century... but I think it's really important to ground the fact that the book came out in March 2025”
Where to get it
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Blood Meridian
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is a harrowing and visceral historical novel that depicts the extreme violence and bleak reality of the American West through the harrowing journey of a runaway teenager known as the kid.
Recommended“The audio book of Blood Meridian by Cormick McCarthy is like the trippiest possible. It's the It's It's an extraordinary book that that's basically like um a sort of, if you haven't read it, like a sort of 20th century Dante explaining an absolutely hellacious experience”
Where to get it
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Mere Christianity
Mere Christianity by C.S.
Recommended“My three books number one weird choice maybe for reformed Jew but Mere Christianity by CS Lewis in the first 30 pages in particular is probably the most interesting analysis of the concept of morality that I've ever read.”
Where to get it
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The Emperor's Children
The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud is a sharp social novel that chronicles the lives of three ambitious young cousins navigating career, romance, and intellectual pretension in pre-9/11 New York City.
Recommended“Um, The Emperor's Children by Cla Massud, The Interestings by Me Witzer, and The Secret History by Donna Tart.”
Where to get it
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The Interestings
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer is a sweeping contemporary novel that follows the lives of a tight-knit group of friends who met at a performing arts camp as teenagers, tracing their relationships, ambitions, and disappointments over several decades.
Recommended“Um, The Emperor's Children by Cla Massud, The Interestings by Me Witzer, and The Secret History by Donna Tart.”
Where to get it
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The Secret History
The Secret History by Donna Tartt is a psychological thriller that follows a tightly knit group of eccentric classics students at a Vermont college who become morally corrupted after committing murder.
Recommended“Um, The Emperor's Children by Cla Massud, The Interestings by Me Witzer, and The Secret History by Donna Tart.”
Where to get it
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Bowling Alone
Bowling Alone by Robert D.
Discussed“For that latter story, I talked to Bob Putnham, Robert Putnham, the author of Bowling Alone.”
Where to get it
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Culture of Hope
Discussed“You've read probably, is it Frederick Turner's "From Counterculture to Cyber Culture"?”
Where to get it
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Finite and Infinite Games
Finite and Infinite Games by James P.
Discussed“thinking about why that frustrates me, I remembered this book by I think his name's Richard or Ronald Coos course called Finite and Infinite Games.”
Where to get it
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From Beirut to Jerusalem
From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L.
Discussed“the book that made me want to become a journalist was from beir to Jerusalem”
Where to get it
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Fully Automated Luxury Communism
Fully Automated Luxury Communism by Aaron Bastani is a radical leftist manifesto envisioning a post-scarcity future enabled by automation, renewable energy, and advanced artificial intelligence.
Discussed“we're somewhat inspired by this leftist track from a couple years ago which has the best name of any book published in the past couple of decades fully automated luxury communism”
Where to get it
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The Future of Freedom
The Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria explores the complexities of illiberal democracy and the shifting paradigms of political power across the globe.
Discussed“and the book that I found most inspiring in high school when I absolutely decided to become a journalist was the future of Freedom by Fred Zakaria”
Where to get it
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The Rise and Decline of Nations
The Rise and Decline of Nations by Mancur Olson is a famous public interest economics book that explores how institutional bargaining structures and rigidities develop in stable societies over time.
Discussed“We talk a lot about a book, I dunno if you've run into this one, but it's by Mancur Olson, who's sort of a Founder of Public Interest Economics, and it's called "The Rise in Decline of Nations"”
Where to get it
Books Derek Thompson wrote
Appearances
Other mentions (4: passing, ad reads, own books)
“if you have the misfortune of going to say Fred the St. Louis data website and looking up housing starts in California between say 2021 and 2026, you do not see the publication of the book Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in those statistics.”
“I definitely don't want to give the same answer to every question, but I hear the governor of California describing a legislative victory in terms that literally quote our book, a liberalism that builds abundance.”
“Chapter one of our book, The Housing Chapter, does, I think, a very good job explaining the 50-year story of how a set of zoning and permitting and environmental legislation and rules that accumulated around the 1960s and 1970s has slowed housing construction”
“So, I really like the two, three sentences that we had about artificial intelligence in the sci-fi vignette that kicked off our book because while we don't have a fully fleshed out AI policy in that book...”