Getting buzzed helped build civilization.. The Atlantic's Kate Julian explains.

The Trump Organization and its top lieutenant have been indicted for tax fraud. Andrew Prokop says the case could have uge implications for American politics.

A housing watchdog says real estate companies often discriminate against low-income tenants who use federal rental assistance. Now it’s suing.

The discovery of mass graves of Indigenous children in Canada has led to reckonings on both sides of the border.

Doctors have suffered psychologically throughout the pandemic, but as Vox’s Julia Belluz reports, those who seek mental health treatment in the US put their careers at risk.

Restaurant delivery apps have made it possible to order pretty much anything we want to eat with the click of a button. The latest season of the Land of the Giants podcast explores the cost of that convenience.

Catholic bishops want to deny President Biden communion, even though Pope Francis thinks that's a terrible idea. The Atlantic's Emma Green explains.

Vox’s Emily Stewart explains how scared you should be of inflation.

The fast-spreading coronavirus variant first detected in India is coming for the rest of the world.

After 20 years of waiting, there’s a new drug to treat Alzheimer’s. For some patients, it’s a glimmer of hope. For some scientists, it’s one of the FDA’s worst drug approval decisions ever.

Cryptocurrency is everywhere! And now some people are saying it could be good for the environment?! New York Magazine's Jen Wieczner is here to explain.

The Atlantic’s Tom McTague provides a halftime report on Brexit. It appears it’s going very well for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Benjamin Netanyahu is out. Israel has a new leader and a new coalition government. The question now is whether they bring anyone closer to peace.

What to do when your mom is with Q.

Over 14 years and 20 seasons of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” the show rewrote the rules of reality TV, social media, marketing, and popular culture. Next up? Politics.

Senegal. Vox’s Jen Kirby flew there to find out how.

New York City is picking a new mayor with a new election system. What could go wrong?

Gangs and drug cartels killed dozens of candidates in Mexico’s midterm elections. Voters weren’t intimidated.

Across the country, Republican lawmakers are pushing laws banning “critical race theory” in schools. It’s already had a chilling effect on teachers.

Texas isn’t the only state advancing legislation that would disenfranchise voters in Democratic strongholds. Vox’s Ian Millhiser explains why some voter suppression efforts are worse than others.

The idea that Covid-19 emerged from a Chinese lab once sounded too fringe to take seriously. That’s starting to change.

Despite a violent terror campaign by the military junta, protesters are still fighting for a new government. The latest conflict is uniting ethnic and religious groups that have long been at odds with one another.

It was one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history, but for a long time very few Americans learned what happened to the Black residents of the Greenwood district in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Guest host Jamil Smith explores why — and how — that’s changing.

UFOs are having a renaissance. The New Yorker’s Gideon Lewis-Kraus explains what we stand to learn from an expected government disclosure, and why we want to believe.

Missourians voted for more Medicaid. Missouri lawmakers said no. St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum explains what happens when you bypass the will of the people.

The hijacking of Ryanair flight 4978 is a big escalation of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s attempts to hold on to power. It might also be his downfall.

Nine New York Yankees tested positive for Covid-19, even though they were all vaccinated. Vox’s Brian Resnick says it’s proof the system is working, just as New York City is opening back up.

Some would rather forget.

China’s Uyghur minority has been subjected to torture, forced labor, religious restrictions, and even forced sterilization. NPR’s Throughline explains how they became the target of what many are calling a genocide.

For decades, Bill Gates exemplified the “good billionaire.” His reputation — tarnished almost overnight — highlights the danger of relying too much on billionaire philanthropists.

An arms deal between the United States and Israel is drawing criticism from Democrats. It's part of a shifting tide in the American approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

*Are being held this summer in Tokyo. And it’s a mess.

Job growth has slowed, but there are plenty of positions posted. That's got politicians arguing about the cost of benefits. Matt Yglesias explains.

This weekend, Chileans head to the polls to decide who will rewrite the country's constitution. CNN's Daniel Matamala explains why it's a historic experiment in democracy not just for the country, but the world.

Weeks of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem have escalated into the region's worst violence in years. Two journalists in the holy city explain the conflict and its history.

The largest-known ransomware attack on American energy infrastructure is driving up gas prices and creating shortages. Wired's Lily Hay Newman says it might be a turning point for cybersecurity.

A push to remove Cheney from her House leadership position shows how Trump, marooned at Mar-a-Lago without Twitter, continues to hold sway in the GOP.

There’s no vaccine for Covid-19 anxiety. Nor is there one for those who aren’t ready to “go back to normal.” But, as Vox’s Sigal Samuel explains, there is hope.

President Joe Biden heeded calls from low-income countries to try to relax patents on Covid-19 vaccines so they can make cheaper generic versions. Big Pharma was furious.

One of the world's biggest video games is suing one of the world's biggest tech companies.

That’s President Joe Biden’s new vaccination goal, and he’s got some fresh ideas on how to get there. Vox’s German Lopez explains.

Congress wants to change how the military prosecutes sex crimes. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand explains her bill.

 Is it a bubble? Is it going to pop? Do you need to bid over asking? Has it already sold? Are there any houses left? Will you ever find one? Vox’s Jerusalem Demsas explains.

An estimated 10 percent of people who test positive for Covid-19 experience long-haul symptoms. Vox’s Julia Belluz joins the Unexplainable podcast to sort out what’s known and what remains mysterious about long Covid.

Biden’s biographer, Evan Osnos, explains why the president is a weather vane for the Democratic Party.

Apple updated its software and Facebook was very upset. Recode’s Sara Morrison and Peter Kafka explain. Roller derby is involved.

President Biden is cranking the pressure on President Putin, but it was Russian dissident Alexei Navalny who scored a victory by refusing his prison food.

The world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer ended up with the world’s worst Covid-19 surge. Neha Arora, New Delhi correspondent for Reuters, explains.

Or at least 30 percent of it.

Listen to the Atlantic’s Robinson Meyer explain the arguments and then decide for yourself.

Norway has lapped the world in adopting electric vehicles. Vox’s Umair Irfan explains how the US might catch up.

In 2019, David Wallace-Wells wrote a book called The Uninhabitable Earth. Just two years later, he’s feeling hopeful — thanks to the world’s biggest polluters.

And other items from the lunch menu of 2050.

Arguments in the trial of Derek Chauvin have wrapped after a brutal week for policing in America. Minnesota Public Radio’s Jon Collins shares his reporting from Minneapolis.

The recent police crackdown on a tent camp in Los Angeles has left the city divided. One thing everyone agrees on is the dire need for lasting solutions to the growing homelessness crisis in the United States.

Vox’s Andrew Prokop explains Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz’s sex scandal.

The US government is calling for an immediate pause in Johnson & Johnson vaccinations after six recipients (out of millions) developed blood clots.

Recode’s Rebecca Heilweil explains how proving you got the shot became controversial.

Or maybe, after listening to this episode, it’ll be more like CICADAPALOOZA!

One of the biggest pop stars in the world is rerecording her first six albums at the artistic peak of her career. The Atlantic’s Shirley Li explains Swift’s gambit to reclaim her catalog.

A group of students in Topeka, Kansas, discovered their high school was named after an exalted cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan. Then they tried to change it.

On Monday night, the Senate parliamentarian gave Democrats an unprecedented blessing. Vox’s Ella Nilsen and Li Zhou explain what they might do with it.

Major League Baseball, Delta, and Coke are calling out Georgia for its new voting reforms, but some of these corporations were involved in crafting the legislation. WABE’s Emma Hurt explains.

We asked if you still had vaccine questions, and you did. We found answers.

New York is the latest state to legalize recreational marijuana, but President Joe Biden won’t budge. This means that it’s possible to become a billionaire or a convicted felon for selling weed in the US.

It’s infrastructure week in America. President Joe Biden unveiled a plan to spend trillions on bridges, roads, housing, and clean energy to prove it.

More than half of US states are working to ban, or even criminalize, trans athletes playing sports. Vox contributor Katelyn Burns explains how conservative politicians came to care so much about women’s sports.

After six days, a very big boat is finally afloat. While stuck, it brought international trade through the Suez Canal to a halt and cost companies billions of dollars.

When a Swedish American pastor refused to get a smallpox vaccine in 1902, he ended up in the United States Supreme Court. The Atlantic’s new podcast The Experiment tells the story of Pastor Henning Jacobson.

With Democrats in charge, there is a lot of talk about big ideas for the country, including … banning menthol cigarettes? Politico’s Sarah Owermohle explains why Black lawmakers are split over whether a ban would help or hurt Black communities.

The Trace’s Jennifer Mascia explains why two gun reform bills the House recently passed are likely to fail in the Senate. Patrick Blanchfield from the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research argues the American gun control debate is a big part of the problem.

On Monday, a tweet sold for $2.9 million. That followed a JPEG that went for $69 million. The Verge’s Liz Lopatto explains how internet ephemera turned to gold.

The United States and China met in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday to air grievances, and the cameras were rolling. Vox’s Alex Ward explains how the meeting set the stage for one of the world’s biggest rivalries.

People want to move on from Covid-19, but that doesn’t mean forgetting its victims. Historian Paul Farber and Vox reporter Alissa Wilkinson explain why a memorial could help us all heal and find accountability.

Eight people were killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area spas. Most of the victims were women. Six were Asian American.

A growing number of unaccompanied minors at the US-Mexico border is highlighting President Biden’s struggle to fulfill his campaign promises on immigration — as well as the difficult path to comprehensive immigration reform.

It’s a question the US has struggled with since its founding.

President Biden says all adults will be eligible for a vaccine by May 1. But for the world to truly return to normal, young people will need shots, too. ProPublica’s Caroline Chen explains how, and when, that might happen.

Believe it or not, scientists still don’t know how the sense of smell works. But that isn’t stopping one guy at MIT from trying to reverse-engineer it. Sounds like a job for Vox’s new podcast, Unexplainable.

The year in revue.

President Biden’s American Rescue Plan has been approved by Congress. It’s a revolution in American welfare disguised as stimulus.

New guidelines from the CDC for fully vaccinated people suggest it’s finally time to hug your grandparents. Dr. Kavita Patel explains the do’s and don’ts as we inch back towards “normal” life.

Darryl Richardson, a worker at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, explains why he helped initiate a unionization effort that now has President Biden’s support. Recode’s Jason Del Rey explains how the Bessemer vote could be a game changer for American labor.

Beset by controversy, The Bachelor’s latest season is winding down with an identity crisis. It’s a rare case of reality TV reflecting our cultural reality.

The United States is stumbling through two racial reckonings at once. Author Jeff Chang says it’s an inflection point centuries in the making.

Joe Biden won the presidency, but it’s Joe Manchin from West Virginia who seems to be the decider. The Charleston Gazette-Mail’s Joe Severino shadowed Senator Joe in the spotlight. Mountain State Spotlight’s Greg Moore explains why this is West Virginia’s moment.

Washington’s hottest policy fight is over raising the minimum wage to $15. Emily Stewart explains the Democrats’ effort to get it through Congress, and Dylan Matthews explains whether it will cost the country jobs.

Thirty years ago, Eugene, Oregon, figured out an alternative to the police. They called it CAHOOTS. Seriously.

President Biden finally wants to put the Keystone XL pipeline to bed. But if the last 12 years of environmental fights are any indication, it won’t be easy.

Vox’s German Lopez explains why he feels optimistic about the end of the pandemic even though 500,000 Americans have died, the virus is mutating, and it’s going to take a long time to vaccinate the world.

Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom were hailed for their leadership early on in the pandemic. Now, the former is mired in scandal and the latter is facing a recall campaign.

What’s taking so long? What’s happening with those $1,400 checks? Are the Democrats betraying the people who voted for them? Vox’s Li Zhou and Andrew Prokop explain.

Australia just reined in Google. Dozens of other countries want in on the action. The latest season of Land of the Giants explains how two grad students turned a search engine into what might be the most powerful company in history.

First it was brutal winter weather, power outages followed, and then came a poorly timed trip to Cancun. Texas Public Radio’s Joey Palacios explains what comes next.

Author Nicole Hemmer explains how Limbaugh helped pave the way for Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax.

President Biden says he wants to undo his predecessor’s immigration policies, so why are some of them still in effect? The El Paso Times’s Lauren Villagran and the New Yorker’s Sarah Stillman explain.

Democrats made a strong case against Donald Trump. Republicans are being punished for supporting it. Vox’s Zack Beauchamp explains.

The movement to liberate Britney Spears from her conservatorship may not succeed, but it’s revealing a lot about how we treat young women. Vox’s Constance Grady explains.

Sen. Mitt Romney wants to throw money at parents, Andrew Yang-style. President Biden is into it, too. Vox’s Dylan Matthews explains.

Poorer countries have received less than 1 percent of the Covid-19 vaccines distributed around the world. Vox’s Julia Belluz explains what the WHO is calling a “catastrophic moral failure.”