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.
The most popular host in the history of cable news returned from a week-long vacation after his head writer was exposed as a raging bigot. The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple explains why the scandal won’t stick.
23 min
1202
When the feds came to Portland
They came in military camouflage and unmarked vans. Now the state of Oregon is suing the federal government over its policing tactics. Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Conrad Wilson explains.
18 min
1203
The Island of Explained: Vaccines
We return to the magical Island of Explained with a microbiologist and a talking moth to find out what it will take to produce a coronavirus vaccine.
23 min
1204
#CancelRent
Eviction bans and expanded unemployment benefits are expiring, leaving millions of Americans at risk of losing their homes by the end of the summer.
19 min
1205
What happened to California?
California once looked like an example of how to handle the pandemic. Now it’s a warning for other states looking to reopen.
21 min
1206
The Washington Football Team
The District of Columbia's football team is abandoning the name it adopted almost a century ago. Paul Chaat Smith, a curator at the National Museum of the American Indian, hopes the country is at long last ready to reckon with its past.
16 min
1207
Stone free
President Trump commuted Roger Stone’s sentence in what Vox’s Andrew Prokop says is a particularly troubling variety of political corruption.
23 min
1208
A million international students in limbo
The Trump administration announced it would send a million international students home this week. But Vox’s Nicole Narea says the students are collateral in a bigger political play.
20 min
1209
Supreme Tax Court
The Supreme Court issued its remaining decisions today for the 2020 term, including the biggie: Trump’s tax returns.
18 min
1210
“SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!”
President Trump says students and teachers must return to the classroom. Reality says this is going to be the toughest reopening yet.
18 min
1211
Surfaces vs. droplets vs. aerosols
239 scientists have signed a letter urging the WHO to warn people about airborne transmission of the coronavirus.
21 min
1212
Netflix has no chill
How Netflix has upended tech, Hollywood, and how we spend our free time.
39 min
1213
How AI makes policing more racist
Turns out it’s just as biased as people are.
17 min
1214
A bounty on American troops
Russia allegedly paid the Taliban to attack US soldiers in Afghanistan. But President Trump’s response may be the real scandal.
19 min
1215
Helicopter policing
Police across the country have responded to recent protests with military tactics and equipment. The Washington Post’s Alex Horton investigated how two military helicopters were used as a show of force against protesters in the nation’s capital.
19 min
1216
Lockdown, reopen, repeat
Hospitals are stretched to their breaking point in Texas, Arizona, and other states where Covid-19 cases are rising sharply. Vox’s Dylan Scott says the US could be in store for more lockdowns. And more reopenings. And more lockdowns…
18 min
1217
Justice for Breonna Taylor
There hasn’t been an arrest in the case in the three months since police shot and killed Taylor in her home in Louisville, Kentucky. But now the “Justice for Breonna” movement has the potential to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
27 min
1218
Black Lives Matter is working
America is undergoing a new racial reckoning. The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer explains why this time is different.
20 min
1219
Brazil’s coronavirus disaster
President Jair Bolsonaro called it the "sniffles" and recommended hydroxychloroquine. Now the country has over a million confirmed cases. Reporter Gustavo Ribeiro explains how Brazil could become the next epicenter.
18 min
1220
A world without bail?
With the wave of protests came waves of arrests and record-breaking donations to bail funds across the US, but reformers hope for a reckoning of one of the only for-profit bail systems in the world.
19 min
1221
How not to fire someone
Attorney General William Barr tried to quietly push out the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan on Friday night. Then everybody noticed.
18 min
1222
Celebrate Juneteenth!
The celebration of emancipation is as vital today as ever.
16 min
1223
A good day for DREAMers
In a major decision from the Supreme Court, DACA lives to fight another day. But it's not in the clear yet.
16 min
1224
The return of sports
There are two ways to do it: safely or not so safely. Guess which one we’re heading toward in the United States?
17 min
1225
Welcome to CHAZ
Some are calling six blocks of a Seattle neighborhood the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. KUOW’s Casey Martin spent a week within its loosely guarded walls.