Today, Explained is Vox's daily news explainer podcast. Hosts Sean Rameswaram and Noel King will guide you through the most important stories of the day.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says tougher gun laws wouldn’t have stopped the Uvalde shooter. He’s wrong.
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Let’s untangle the Second Amendment
It wasn’t until 2008 that the US Supreme Court established what a confusing sentence in the Constitution really meant for gun ownership. Sean Rameswaram reported on District of Columbia v. Heller for Radiolab’s More Perfect.
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Has the gun control movement failed?
You might look at school shootings and think “Yes, obviously.” But two people who have been studying and participating in the movement for decades explain how its success isn’t obvious.
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ConGRADulations, fellow kids
Ten months ago the faculty of Cramer Hill Elementary set out to get their kids back on track after a year of mostly remote learning. Today, Explained’s Miles Bryan attended eighth-grade graduation to see how they did.
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Adderall via Instagram
The mental health startup Cerebral benefited from pandemic-era changes to federal telehealth laws. But its easy-to-get prescriptions for tightly regulated stimulants — heavily promoted on social media — have sparked a Department of Justice investigation.
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Ugraine
Russia is weaponizing food by blockading Ukraine’s grain exports and withholding its own until other countries come to Putin to ask for it.
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Boris Johnson presents: Motel Rwanda
The British government will deport UK-bound migrants to Rwanda. It’s part of a larger trend of rich countries offloading asylum seekers to poorer countries.
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Innocence is not enough
The Supreme Court is going to let Arizona kill Barry Jones, a man whose rape and murder convictions were vacated in 2018.
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Let’s vent about guns
We opened up our hotline. You called and asked questions. We found answers.
23 min
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Why the economy feels bad right now
The stock market tumble and crypto crash are symptoms of a broader shift in the US economy. Jacob Goldstein explains the end of the “Goldilocks Era.”
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How often can you get Covid?
Does your immunity still last for months? We asked a researcher who has been studying omicron reinfections.
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Can women fix the police?
Police departments across the US are signing a pledge to increase the share of women in their ranks, hoping the move will help reduce excessive force by officers. Researchers say it’s not that simple.
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The shooters were 18
Writer and parent Joanna Schroeder wrote a guide for parents about what to look out for and how to intervene.
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Monkeypox!?!?
Good news: Epidemiologists don’t think monkeypox will be as bad as Covid-19. Bad news: We stopped vaccinating people against this type of disease decades ago. Vox reporter (and resident epidemiologist) Keren Landman explains.
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How to not give up on gun control
Vox’s Marin Cogan, who lived through a school shooting herself, explains why she hasn’t given up on a solution to our gun problem yet.
23 min
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Why the internet hates Amber Heard
It’s not just Johnny Depp’s fans — it’s Amber Heard’s anti-fans, too. The Atlantic's Kaitlyn Tiffany explains the Depp-ressing social media hate campaign.
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Finland and Sweden have entered the chat
Their admission to NATO would further isolate Russia, leaving it the only Arctic country outside the alliance.
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Why the right is thirsty for Hungary
The Conservative Political Action Conference, which is like Republican Coachella, is usually held stateside, but this week it's throwing a party in Budapest, Hungary. Noel King got kicked out.
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So I elected an autocrat
Noel King traveled to Hungary to talk to people who voted for Viktor Orbán, people being persecuted by his government, and an American just along for the ride.
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How to lose a democracy in 10,000 days
The same man who helped usher in democracy in Hungary is the one who’s chipping away at it now. American conservatives want to know how Prime Minister Viktor Orban did it.
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Formula None
Millions of US parents are struggling to feed their infants due to a nationwide shortage of baby formula.
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Dr. Oz and the celebrity politician
This week Pennsylvania voters decide whether to give Dr. Oz a shot at the US Senate. To mark the occasion, Sean Rameswaram tries to understand what makes a celebrity candidate viable, from “the Gipper” to “the Governator” to “the Donald.”
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Is abortion in the Constitution?
Not explicitly, no. But neither is the right to travel from New York to New Jersey. NYU law professor Kenji Yoshino explains our unenumerated rights.
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Sri Lankans have had enough
Sri Lanka’s “Go home, Gota!” protesters want to throw President Gotabaya Rajapaksa out of office. Reveal’s Ike Sriskandarajah explains what could happen if Gota "goes home" to the serene suburbs of Southern California.
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Dictator Jr.
The son of repressive dictator Ferdinand Marcos was just elected president of the Philippines. All he had to do was rewrite his country’s history.