Galaxy Lights, Coachella, Lightning Bolt Necklaces.

2023 was the year of Scandoval.

On March 3rd, one cheating scandal launched a reality TV investigation that generated hundreds of

conspiracy theories, thousands of podcast episodes, and millions of dollars in

revenue. I'm Jody Walker, host of an American scandal.

One retrospective story told in three salacious parts.

Listen December 26 on the Ringer reality feed.

Hello. feed.

Hello everyone, happy new year. I'm Derek Thompson and this is Plain English 2024.

Today it's just me on the mic.

In our first episode of the year I wanted to collect some of my thoughts about the world and share four the most important storylines at the moment.

Four mega trends as I see them across economics, media, tech, and science.

And the task I've set up for myself is something like this.

If someone approached me and they said, Derek, what's going on in the economy right now?

I only have a few minutes, but quickly,

in four or five minutes, just tell me what you think

the most important storyline that you see happening right now

in econ is, or in or so forth what is it and this

podcast is my attempt to give you just that across the subjects that we follow most closely

on the show.

So let's jump right into it.

We're gonna do economics, then tech, then entertainment,

...