How Republicans became the party of raunch
Ok, this one is technically about politics, but in the best Vox style, it approaches the subject sideways, through the lens of culture. Senior correspondent Constance Grady sifts through the detritus of our culture to trace how the GOP — that staid political party that used to stand for things like “family values” and “compassionate conservatism” — somehow became the political equivalent of one of those terrible Bravo reality shows. Let me also shout out a truly amazing illustration.
Science has a short-term memory problem
Over in Future Perfect, one of the sections I oversee, we try to cover the problems that really matter for the world. And the pace of scientific advancement is one of the most important — if we can’t keep discovering new solutions to the ills we keep making, this whole humanity thing is in trouble. But as Future Perfect fellow (and actual neuroscience PhD) Celia Ford writes, science can’t get out of its own way. Researchers spend far too much of their time filling out grant applications, and far too little doing the science that can change the world.
Can the world stop a massive oil spill in the middle of a war zone?
Have you heard about the oil tanker in the Red Sea that was hit by Houthi missiles from Yemen and may cause an oil spill four times worse than that of the Exxon Valdez? Probably not — unless you read this breaking news piece from senior correspondent Josh Keating. The story is a reminder that the nearly year-old war in Gaza has had knock-on effects far beyond there, and now may even be the indirect cause of a major environmental disaster.
📹 Exactly how Trump could ban abortion
I come to Vox’s videos for a lot of reasons: the high production quality, the great graphics, even the background music. But what this team really excels at is using video as a platform to cogently answer the questions on our minds. In this case, supervising story editor and producer Adam Freelander breaks down precisely how former President Trump might be able to enact a national abortion ban — something that, despite his labored answers in the debate, is entirely possible should he become president again.
🎧 Why cynicism is bad for you
I don’t have a favorite Vox podcast the same way I don’t have a favorite child. (Okay, I have one child, but the analogy still holds.) But I particularly love when The Gray Area host Sean Illing takes on a question I have: why exactly are we all such cynics? In the first of a three-part series on “Reasons to Be Cheerful” — which couldn’t be better timed — Sean asks psychologist Jamil Zaki about why cynicism is a self-defeating defense mechanism.
