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
851
Apple vs. Facebook (feat. Privacy)
Apple updated its software and Facebook was very upset. Recode’s Sara Morrison and Peter Kafka explain. Roller derby is involved.
19 min
852
Biden vs. Putin (feat. Navalny)
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.
26 min
853
India’s SOS to the world
The world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer ended up with the world’s worst Covid-19 surge. Neha Arora, New Delhi correspondent for Reuters, explains.
23 min
854
A plan to protect the planet
Or at least 30 percent of it.
28 min
855
Is nuclear energy good or bad?
Listen to the Atlantic’s Robinson Meyer explain the arguments and then decide for yourself.
32 min
856
It’s electric!
Norway has lapped the world in adopting electric vehicles. Vox’s Umair Irfan explains how the US might catch up.
26 min
857
The case for climate optimism
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.
26 min
858
Peanut butter and jellyfish
And other items from the lunch menu of 2050.
25 min
859
America awaits a verdict
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.
25 min
860
The Echo Park eviction
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.
27 min
861
Gaetzgate
Vox’s Andrew Prokop explains Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz’s sex scandal.
25 min
862
Johnson & Johnson & Problems
The US government is calling for an immediate pause in Johnson & Johnson vaccinations after six recipients (out of millions) developed blood clots.
23 min
863
Vaccine passport, please
Recode’s Rebecca Heilweil explains how proving you got the shot became controversial.
20 min
864
CICADAPOCALYPSE 2021
Or maybe, after listening to this episode, it’ll be more like CICADAPALOOZA!
24 min
865
Taylor Swift rewrites her story
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.
25 min
866
KKK High
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.
27 min
867
Hot Senate procedural news
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.
16 min
868
MLB to Georgia: You’re out!
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.
25 min
869
“My friend” has a question about the vaccine
We asked if you still had vaccine questions, and you did. We found answers.
26 min
870
High crimes
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.
25 min
871
Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan
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.
20 min
872
Making tennis a misdemeanor
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.
29 min
873
Ship happens
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.
20 min
874
The original anti-vaxxer
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.
38 min
875
The end of minty cigarettes?
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.
26 min