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
1051
How acid trips led to better policing
Thirty years ago, Eugene, Oregon, figured out an alternative to the police. They called it CAHOOTS. Seriously.
29 min
1052
Canceling Keystone XL
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.
26 min
1053
The case for Covid-19 optimism
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.
21 min
1054
A tale of two governors
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.
29 min
1055
Stimu-less
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.
25 min
1056
Googliath
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.
41 min
1057
A tough week for Texas
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.
22 min
1058
Rush Limbaugh’s legacy
Author Nicole Hemmer explains how Limbaugh helped pave the way for Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax.
26 min
1059
Biden at the border
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.
25 min
1060
57-43
Democrats made a strong case against Donald Trump. Republicans are being punished for supporting it. Vox’s Zack Beauchamp explains.
23 min
1061
#FreeBritney
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.
25 min
1062
The Republican(!) plan to give parents money
Sen. Mitt Romney wants to throw money at parents, Andrew Yang-style. President Biden is into it, too. Vox’s Dylan Matthews explains.
21 min
1063
Vaccine hoarding
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.”
16 min
1064
26 Words
A quarter-century after it was signed, Section 230, the law that made the modern internet, has done the impossible: united Democrats and Republicans.
25 min
1065
Capitol punishment
Vox’s Andrew Prokop previews the historic second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. Law professor Alan Rozenshtein explains what the Justice Department can and cannot do to prosecute insurrectionists.
26 min
1066
The Senate’s $1.9 trillion all-nighter
The Senate voted on more than 40 pieces of legislation overnight. Vox’s Li Zhou explains what the “vote-a-rama” means for President Biden’s agenda.
15 min
1067
The Arab Spring, 10 years later
Ten years ago, a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire and set off a revolution across the Middle East and North Africa. The Independent’s Borzou Daragahi says the Arab Spring never ended.
33 min
1068
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “loony lies”
Vox’s Aaron Rupar explains why Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has likened a fellow Republican’s views to cancer. And New York magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi explores what lawmakers peddling conspiracy theories means for the future of the GOP.
23 min
1069
The coup in Myanmar
Some would say the military has always been in control of Myanmar. On Monday morning, they made it official once again.
18 min
1070
Introducing Chicano Squad
After the 1977 murder of a young Latino man, the Houston Police Department created a team of five young Latino officers to solve homicides in their community. True crime meets forgotten history in the Vox Media Podcast Network’s 'Chicano Squad.'
47 min
1071
Biden’s latest 13 actions (in 13 minutes)
And whether or not any of it will last beyond his presidency.
20 min
1072
GameStock
Vox’s Emily Stewart explains how GameStop’s stock jumped by 1,700 percent this month. Bloomberg’s Matt Levine ponders the purpose of the stock market.
24 min
1073
The military’s far-right problem
Sen. Tammy Duckworth wants the military to do a better job of rooting out extremism in its ranks. A military investigator explains how to solve a decades-old problem.
23 min
1074
Coronavirus, 365 days later
One year after our first episode on the novel coronavirus, Vox’s Julia Belluz explains what we got right, what we got wrong, and what comes next.
21 min
1075
Marianne Williamson on healing America’s soul
Marianne Williamson was applauded as well as ridiculed on the presidential debate stage when she warned of the “dark psychic forces of collectivized hatred.” Now, just a few weeks after a lethal insurrection, a historic second impeachment, and the inauguration of President Joe Biden, she talks about the possibility of unity.
23 min