Today, Explained

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.


Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

News
Daily News
Politics
701
The shooter's parents
The mass killing at Oxford High School in Michigan may seem comparable to those that preceded it, but the aftermath has taken several new turns.
21 min
702
Africa wants its stuff back
The world’s most illustrious museums are finally having to reckon with the stolen art in their collections.
20 min
703
C is for Culture War
Big Bird got vaccinated, an Asian-American Muppet moved in, and conservatives got really mad at Sesame Street.
25 min
704
What happened to Peng Shuai
A tennis star accused a former top Chinese official of sexual assault. Then she vanished. Now her case is changing sports in China.
27 min
705
Unraveling Roe
The Supreme Court today heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Vox’s Ian Millhiser explains how the Court could undo Roe v. Wade without overruling it.
18 min
706
Space trash
Russia blew up a satellite and almost put the International Space Station in a precarious position. Recode’s Rebecca Heilweil explains how humans are trashing space. A space environmentalist (!) explains what cleanup might look like.
21 min
707
Omicron
AA-muh-kraan or OH-muh-kraan
20 min
708
Salmonella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh
A deadly salmonella strain is spreading through American poultry, and there’s not much the government can do to stop it. ProPublica’s Bernice Yeung explains.
21 min
709
Kyle Rittenhouse and the “self-defense” defense
After the Chicago Tribune’s Stacy St. Clair runs through the Rittenhouse trial and verdict, legal scholar Eric Ruben explains how “self-defense” can apply to shooting unarmed people in public.
27 min
710
The Future of Work: Retirement should be fun
But somehow it got very scary.
29 min
711
Why it's hard to find rapid tests in the US
And why they're easy to find in Europe (though they don't seem to be helping much at the moment).
24 min
712
Is Zillow really buying all the houses?
No. Vox's Jerusalem Demsas disproves a popular internet conspiracy theory.
23 min
713
Belarus manufactures a migrant crisis
Belarus is promising migrants passage to Europe knowing the EU will turn them away.
22 min
714
Inflation nation
Consumer prices are rising at their fastest rate in 30 years. Vox’s Emily Stewart explains why this is bad news for for drivers, shoppers, and President Biden.
20 min
715
The Future of Work: The gig is up
A third of American workers do gig work. In the third part of our series, The Future of Work, learn how the pandemic helped them discover their power.
27 min
716
China’s pursuit of ‘Zero Covid’
China’s 1.4 billion people are averaging fewer than 100 cases of Covid-19 a day. All it takes is the willingness to shut down anything at any time.
24 min
717
So I elected an Oath Keeper
Extremists in the right-wing militant organization known as the Oath Keepers are present in law enforcement and in the military. Now, thanks to reporting from ProPublica’s Isaac Arnsdorf, we know they’re in the government, too.
25 min
718
Astroworld
How a music festival became a death trap, and what it would take for it never to happen again.
24 min
719
Trillion-dollar Biden
You win some and you lose some. Just ask President Biden, who started last week with electoral setbacks and ended it with a big f***ing deal.
20 min
720
The Future of Work: OOO
They said the office would never be the same. In part two of our series, The Future of Work, what happens to your workplace when they're right.
26 min
721
The case for climate reparations
While world leaders have descended on Glasgow to try to figure out how to slow emissions in the future, New York magazine’s David Wallace-Wells argues rich countries like the United States should also atone for their polluting past.
26 min
722
Sudan’s coup
After a bloody fight for democracy, Sudan is sliding back into the hands of the military. CNN’s Nima Elbagir says a successful military coup could have dire consequences for democracies around the world.
21 min
723
School board brawl
It's Election Day in the USA. This time around, the nasty political fights and insurrections are going local. NPR's Anya Kamenetz explains.
22 min
724
For whom the door bells
While the doorbell recovers from Halloween, Nice Try explains how it’s an essential part of the American dream.
44 min
725
The Future of Work: “I quit!”
There are millions of job openings in America, and millions of Americans are still not able to find work that suits. In the first part of our series, The Future of Work, Recode’s Rani Molla explains “the great reassessment.”
26 min