Tag Archives: Derek Thompson

Podcast To Ponder

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Plain English with Derek Thompson, “The Radical Cultural Shift Behind America’s Declining Birth Rate.” Related. What Are Children For?

This convo got me thinking about my running posse. Between the five of us, we have 12 children whose average age is somewhere between 25-30 years old. Between those dirty dozen, there is one child. There will likely be more in a decade, but time will tell how many more.

“Don’t Let Em’ Hold You Down”

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Some of what I’m watching, reading, and listening to.

  • Film. The Quiet Girl. Made explicitly for people like me who don’t need anything blown up (apart from my emotions). I can’t remember the last movie that hit this hard. Maybe it’s the Irish in me. Couldn’t get up from my seat afterwards. Exquisite doesn’t quite do it justice.
  • TV. The Last of Us, Succession, The Crown, Beef. An eclectic collection, but all enjoyable in their own way.
  • Book. Vladimir: A Novel by Julia May Jonas. The nameless narrator is a 58 year old English professor who lusts after her new-to-the-department 40 year old colleague. Strong undercurrents of the MeToo movement, the sensitivities of today’s college students, and marital conflict. In the end, I decided I didn’t like the narrator all that much which detracted from the journey.
  • Pods. Pivot, Kara Swisher (liberal) with Alyssa Farah Griffin (conservative), “Trump Arrest Fallout”. And Morgan Housel, “Play Your Own Game”. Derek Thompson, “Why the Cult of Achievement in Schools Is Making People Miserable”.
  • Music. Spotify’s “I Love 90’s HipHop.”

Why American Teens Are So Sad

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Derek Thompson in The Atlantic.

Somber opening that won’t surprise anyone working closely with adolescents.

“The United States is experiencing an extreme teenage mental-health crisis. From 2009 to 2021, the share of American high-school students who say they feel “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” rose from 26 percent to 44 percent, according to a new CDC study. This is the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded.”

The rest is required reading for anyone seeking to understand teen mental health.