Pennies cost more than a cent to make — and no one spends them. The New York Times Magazine’s Caity Weaver explains why we can’t get rid of them.

Lies about disaster relief are spreading like never before this hurricane season, and it’s making FEMA’s job harder. Juliette Kayyem, author of The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters, explains.

Book critic Martin Pengelly read MELANIA so you don’t have to. Intelligencer’s Margaret Hartmann says the book is the latest in a long line of Trump grifts.

Ten states have an initiative on the ballot that would protect access to abortion. KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez explains how Arizona's Proposition 139 could swing the presidential election.

It's been one year since Hamas attacked Israel and started a war in Gaza. Israelis and Palestinians look back, and Vox's Joshua Keating says Israel's occupation is looking permanent.

Kids are going through puberty earlier, and scientists think they have found another reason why. Pediatrician Dr. Cara Natterson and puberty educator Vanessa Kroll Bennett explain why it should also change the way we talk about puberty.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro landed himself on the naughty list for stealing an election. He's hoping an early Christmas will improve his standing.

Vox's Andrew Prokop says the vice-presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance was about policy, but in a weird way. Professor and pollster Dan Cassino explains how these two men represent the future of American masculinity.

Tanks, rockets, missiles, and the death of Hassan Nasrallah. Israel is asserting itself as the most powerful player in the Middle East.

Vox’s Christian Paz and Miles Bryan head to Philadelphia and Lancaster to see what the Harris and Trump campaigns are doing to win the state.

Amazon is the latest high-profile company to mandate in-person work five days a week. Today, Explained heads to Miami, where many people are back in the office, to see how they feel about it.

Today, Explained flies to Portugal to find out how the dust has settled on the pandemic-era quest for better living and working conditions.

Microsoft needs so much energy for its AI data centers that it’s helping to reboot Three Mile Island, the site of the US’s worst nuclear accident. Evan Halper of the Washington Post explains.

It looks a lot like all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. Semafor’s Sarah Dadouch has the latest from Beirut and CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh explains Israel's strategy.

A partisan election board in Georgia has been trying to change the rules around voting and election certification. It's giving 2020. In the first episode of our battleground state series, we go to Georgia to learn how election guardrails will protect the vote.

Country music is cool again!!!!! Billboard's Melinda Newman explains.

Conservatives have started claiming hot girls as a culture war victory. Vox's Constance Grady explains why.

Educators and politicians across the nation are banning cellphones in classrooms. Today, Explained’s Miles Bryan visits a school in Philadelphia to find out how kids feel about it.

The Federal Reserve is set to make its first interest rate cut since the pandemic ended. Marketplace's Kimberly Adams explains how the move could impact the US economy and politics.

No, Haitian immigrants aren’t eating anyone’s pets. USA Today-Ohio’s Erin Glynn and the Verge’s Gaby Del Valle explain why Republicans are talking about it anyway.

This week Apple announced its first AI iPhone with features that will make it even easier to edit your photos. But manipulating reality worries photojournalists like Fred Ritchin, who says these advancements pose a lot of ethical questions.

Once the world's largest corporation, the now-struggling US Steel wants to sell itself to Japan's Nippon Steel. The United Steelworkers oppose the deal, and President Biden is backing the union. The Washington Post's David Lynch explains how the steel giant's future became an election-year issue.

A conservative and a liberal wrangle over how the Harris-Trump debate should have gone.

One of the most significant parts of Pope Francis’s Asia tour might be a country he isn’t visiting: China, home to 10 million Catholics, with whom the Vatican has long dreamed of strengthening ties.

The arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov by French authorities is part of a broader shift away from the free speech absolutism long championed by Big Tech. The Washington Post’s Will Oremus explains.