What's the best paper or essay out there explaining why the number of college administrators—at expensive schools, certainly; at all schools, possible—is growing infinity-times faster than the number of tenured faculty?

Enjoyed this conversation with Derek Thompson - listen on the link below!

New pod: The future of India is the future of the world. It is the largest country by population today—and is projected to remain so for the next 100+ years.

But what is India becoming under Prime Minister Modi? Ravi Agrawal explains.

open.spotify.com/episode/3eEXat…

This spring, nearly 1 billion eligible voters are set to make India's elections very interesting.

Ravi Agrawal and Derek Thompson discuss controversial prime minister Narendra Modi's impact and the possibility of him securing a third term.

open.spotify.com/episode/3eEXat…

As Anshul Kundaje (anshulkundaje@bluesky) pointed out, the original paper is great, but it's not actually the case that 'AI can rewrite our human genome.' I believe a lot of doomerism is born at the intersection of overly optimistic claims that domain experts know to not take literally and ppl without

I talked to sean illing about one of my favorite theories—'Everything Is a 'Cult' Nowadays'—and how Iannoccone's Why Strict Churches Are Strong paper helps to explain the popularity of nutty ideas online, since extreme views often work to unite groups of true believers who feel

This is super neat.

TL;DR: As countries develop, they follow a trajectory of going from having more kids than they want to having fewer kids than they want.

Five-alarm fire for Biden:

Trump is crushing him 52-30 on inflation—better than practically any other head-to-head issue.

But Trump barely talks about policies to reduce inflation and his team's econ messaging—tariffs, devaluation, deportation—is almost entirely inflationary.

Another possibility is that strong US productivity growth now in part reflects lagged effects of the US spike in job-to-job quits earlier in the pandemic.

Moving to a new job temporarily lowers your productivity, but if the job match is better, productivity may end up higher.

New PRESS BOX with Derek Thompson:

The Trump Trial Will Not Be Televised
A Sportswriter Introduces Himself to Caitlin Clark
NPR-mageddon
How to Make Readers Pay Attention to the Election
open.spotify.com/episode/2mkxLF…

It's time to separate health fads from fact.

Enjoyed talking about supplement hype, why everyone is misreading the VO2max research, and longevity madness.

Give it a listen if you care about evidence-based insight on health and performance.

Derek Thompson Do supplements enhance human health, or are we being duped by influencers?

Derek Thompson reunites with Steve Magness and Brad Stulberg to evaluate which health fads are worth following.

open.spotify.com/episode/6PZXzk…

New pod: The 2024 annual health fads, facts, and fictions episode, with Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness

Including:
- The dark side of supplement mania
- Is VO2 max the best fitness metric in the world—or just the most hyped?

open.spotify.com/episode/6PZXzk…

New PRESS BOX with Derek Thompson:

The Trump Trial Will Not Be Televised
A Sportswriter Introduces Himself to Caitlin Clark
NPR-mageddon
How to Make Readers Pay Attention to the Election
open.spotify.com/episode/2mkxLF…

1. Insurance inflation is crazy right now, grocery price hikes suck, and housing is expensive.

2. Also, US income growth is leaving the industrialized world in the dust while wage inequality *decreases*.

Lotta online screaming matches b/w (1) and (2). But they’re both true!

BLS data on rents for new tenants out today show they rose just 0.4% over the last four quarters, marking the slowest pace of advance since 2010. The largest and most important component of the consumer price index is likely soon to follow them lower