Derek Kahn Thompson (born May 18, 1986) is an American podcaster and journalist. A self-described progressive, he is a staff writer at ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

,'' the author of ''Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction,'' and the co-author of ''Abundance''.

Early life

Derek Thompson was born in

McLean, Virginia McLean ( ) is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population of the community was 50,773 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is ...

, the son of Robert Thompson and Petra Kahn. Before graduating from high school, he appeared in several theatrical productions at the Folger Shakespeare Theater and the Shakespeare Theater. After attending the Potomac School, Thompson graduated from

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

in 2008 with a triple major in journalism, political science, and legal studies.

Career

Thompson has been a writer at ''The Atlantic'' since 2009. Starting in November 2021, Thompson began hosting a weekly headline

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

entitled ''Plain English'', part of The Ringer Podcast Network. In 2018, he became the host of the technology and science podcast Crazy/Genius, which was nominated for an iHeartMedia Best Podcast Award in its first year. Thompson has written two cover stories for the magazine. The first, "A World Without Work", is a widely referenced essay on the meaning of work and automation's threat to the labor force. The second was a lengthy profile of X, the research and development division of Alphabet. In 2017, Thompson published his first book, ''Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction''. It was a national bestseller and winner of the

American Marketing Association The American Marketing Association (AMA) is a professional association for marketing professionals with 30,000 members as of 2012. It has 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States. The AMA was formed in from t ...

's Leonard L. Berry Marketing Book Award for the best marketing book of 2018. Thompson coauthored his next book, '' Abundance'', with

Ezra Klein Ezra Klein (born May 9, 1984) is an American American liberalism, liberal political commentator and journalist. He is currently a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' columnist and the host of ''The Ezra Klein Show'' podcast. He is a co-founde ...

. The book discusses factors impeding progress on development in the United States, including related to climate change and infrastructure.

Personal life

Thompson describes himself as a

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

Reform Jew. , he and his wife reside in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, Orange and Durham County, North Carolina, Durham counties, North Carolina, United States. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 United States census, making Chapel Hill the List of municipa ...

with their daughter.

Bibliography

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Derek 21st-century American journalists American male journalists American news podcasters Journalists from Virginia Northwestern University alumni People from McLean, Virginia The Atlantic (magazine) people Jewish American journalists Living people 1986 births American technology podcasters