Derek Thompson: The Party of Vicemaxxing

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<p>Republicans never defend Trump’s corruption on the merits. Their lot in life is just to serve up anti-moral excuses for his repeated acts of immorality. And the Dems are currently in a bit of a moral dilemma of their own over the latest Platner revelations, given the moral imperative of having a Senate that obstructs Trump’s worst policies. Questions of morality also surface with AI, particularly if we allow machines to do the thinking for us. Plus, the Dems need a Wemby, an American debt crisis seems inevitable, the global fertility crisis may be too hard to fix, and why is the English-language world the most unhappy? </p><p><strong>Derek Thompson</strong> joins Tim Miller.</p><p><em>show notes<br /></em><br /></p></div><ul>

<li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-next-level/id1647085571">“The Next Level” pod will be out later today</a></li>

<li><a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/derekthompson/p/can-america-escape-the-cycle-of-vicemaxxing?r=af2rj&amp;utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&amp;utm_medium=web">Derek’s piece on vicemaxxing</a></li>

<li><a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/derekthompson/p/the-great-ai-cost-panic-of-2026?r=af2rj&amp;utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&amp;utm_medium=web">Derek on the great AI cost panic</a></li>

<li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/plain-english-with-derek-thompson/id1594471023">The “Plain English” pod, hosted by Derek</a></li>

<li><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/mere-christianity-c-s-lewis/56290254aded4bd1">“Mere Christianity,” by C.S. Lewis</a></li>

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<a href="https://tv.apple.com/us/show/pluribus/umc.cmc.37axgovs2yozlyh3c2cmwzlza">“Pluribus”<br /></a><br /></li>

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