Person
Every book Derek Thompson recommended on podcasts
Across 6 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 appeared on various podcasts to discuss and recommend several notable books. On The Ezra Klein Show, Thompson named C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity as a surprising and exceptionally interesting analysis of the concept of morality, particularly in its opening thirty pages. During the same conversation, he discussed books he had recently reread, including Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children, Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings, and Donna Tartt's The Secret History. Additionally, he recommended the audiobook version of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, describing it as an extraordinary experience comparable to a twentieth-century Dante navigating a hellish landscape. Beyond his direct recommendations, Thompson mentioned Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone while exploring themes of technology and solitude. In his appearance on the Lex Fridman Podcast, he brought up Frederick Turner's From Counterculture to Cyber Culture in relation to Silicon Valley and housing histories. He also discussed Mancur Olson's The Rise and Decline of Nations, engaging with its arguments regarding public interest economics and societal structures. Through these discussions, Thompson frequently drew upon literature and historical texts to contextualize modern economic, social, and technological trends.
Books recommended by Derek Thompson
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Abundance
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson is a widely debated political manifesto that challenges progressive orthodoxy by arguing that liberals must embrace economic growth, regulatory reform, and actual physical building to achieve their goals.
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 gripping psychological thriller following a tightly knit circle of eccentric classics students at an elite New England college whose intellectual arrogance leads to moral decay and 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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Hit Makers
Hit Makers by Derek Thompson explores the science of popularity and why certain cultural products succeed in an age of distraction.
Discussed“this is a point that lauren steinberg quite interviewed both for a book that i wrote called uh hit makers which is there um and for um this article”
Where to get it
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The Future of Freedom
The Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria investigates the complicated relationship between democracy and liberty, focusing particularly on the rise of illiberal democracy around the world.
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 (5: passing, ad reads, own books)
“who attempted to instill safety into artificial intelligence, ultimately ended up becoming captured by the forces of capitalism and status competitions, and so no one's building this safely.”
“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...”