The Ledger, every show
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks, across all 44 shows. Pick shows below, then mix any filter with any other.
shows 
every show 44 of 44
Thompson: Four Years After $42B Broadband Act, Effectively None Built
“We are four calendar years after the rural broadband provision was passed. No rural broadband effectively has been built. And of the 56 states and localities that applied for funding, only three of them even made it all the way through that 14 step process.”
Thompson: Penicillin was barely used until US WWII industrial scaling
“Like five people have been delivered penicillin in all of human history, 13 years after it was discovered, and the two of them have died. Penicillin has done nothing, and it took a very concerted U.S. Effort to implement penicillin, to grow it in large vats, t…”
Derek Thompson: NIH awards funding to older scientists over younger researchers
“It funds older scientists, much more than younger scientists, even though, I don't have to tell you this, it's often young people who have the most earth-changing ideas, the best paradigm-shifting ideas.”
Thompson: Today's scientists spend 40% of their time on grant paperwork
“A remarkable statistics from the book is that today's scientists now spend 40% of their time filling out paperwork and filing for grants.”
Derek Thompson: Carbon Removal Might Be Most Critical Tech of Next 30–40 Years
“And then on top of it all, there's carbon removal, which might be one of the most important technologies of the next 3040 years, that's also incredibly energy intensive.”
Thompson: GLP-1 Drugs Linked to Lower Dementia Rates in Veterans Study
“I did on my podcast, Plain English, an interview with someone who, ah, did this observational study, this population research on millions of people in the Veterans Affairs system who have been on GLP-I drugs for their type one, type two diabetes, or on other d…”
Thompson: Operation Warp Speed reduced the 10-year vaccine development record to 10 months
“I think the record amount of time to go from part one to part Z, Was something like, or A to Z was something like nine, 10 years. We did this in, in 10 months.”
Thompson: 90% of music listening is repeat consumption
“90% of the time that we're listening to music, We're listening to a piece of a song that we've already heard before.”
Thompson: Half of top 21st-century movies are sequels or adaptations
“Half of the top 10 movies in America every single year this century are sequels, adaptations, and reboots.”
Thompson: Discover Weekly engagement dropped when Spotify removed familiar songs
“Spotify, when they were initially designing their incredible program, Discover Weekly, they initially wanted it to be entirely new songs. But a bug in the algorithm accidentally let through some familiar songs as they were testing internally. So they fixed the…”
Derek Thompson: Vertical Farming, Cultivated Meat, and Desalination Require Massive Energy
“There's a lot of technologies, whether it's vertical farming, whether it's cellular meat, or mass desalination of water. So, you know, you turn on your faucet, and it's basically ocean water that's pouring out that you can drink. These are incredibly energy-th…”
Thompson: North American movie production has grown sevenfold since the 1990s
“Since the 19 nineties, the number of movies made in the North American market has grown by a factor of seven.”
Thompson: Original scripted TV shows have grown sevenfold since early 2000s
“Since the early 2000, the number of original scripted shows on television has grown by a factor of Seven.”