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
1201
Stimulating America
Democrats and Republicans have a $2 trillion disagreement on how to relieve Americans from the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus.
21 min
1202
Rural America meets Black Lives Matter
In Bethel, Ohio, a Black Lives Matter rally became a standoff between armed bikers and peaceful protesters. BuzzFeed’s Anne Helen Petersen explains.
20 min
1203
Houston, we have a problem
Baseball’s back, but fans won’t get the chance to boo the cheating Astros.
20 min
1204
The Anti-maskers
The United States has now confirmed 4 million cases of Covid-19. Some Americans still don’t want to wear a mask.
19 min
1205
Biden’s $2 trillion climate plan
Joe Biden is tacking to the left and embracing a historic climate plan. Vox’s David Roberts explains whether it stands a chance.
18 min
1206
Tucker Carlson’s America
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
1207
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
1208
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
1209
#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
1210
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
1211
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
1212
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
1213
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
1214
Supreme Tax Court
The Supreme Court issued its remaining decisions today for the 2020 term, including the biggie: Trump’s tax returns.
18 min
1215
“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
1216
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
1217
Netflix has no chill
How Netflix has upended tech, Hollywood, and how we spend our free time.
39 min
1218
How AI makes policing more racist
Turns out it’s just as biased as people are.
17 min
1219
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
1220
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
1221
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
1222
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
1223
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
1224
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
1225
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