Shows / Today, Explained
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.
Episodes
- Today, Explained
We scored Biden's first 100 days
Biden’s biographer, Evan Osnos, explains why the president is a weather vane for the Democratic Party. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Support Today…
- Today, Explained
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. Transcript at…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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. Transcript…
Today, ExplainedA plan to protect the planet
Or at least 30 percent of it. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts…
Today, ExplainedIs nuclear energy good or bad?
Listen to the Atlantic’s Robinson Meyer explain the arguments and then decide for yourself. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad…
Today, ExplainedIt’s electric!
Norway has lapped the world in adopting electric vehicles. Vox’s Umair Irfan explains how the US might catch up. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn…
Today, ExplainedThe 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…
Today, ExplainedPeanut butter and jellyfish
And other items from the lunch menu of 2050. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
Gaetzgate
Vox’s Andrew Prokop explains Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz’s sex scandal. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
Vaccine passport, please
Recode’s Rebecca Heilweil explains how proving you got the shot became controversial. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices…
- Today, Explained
CICADAPOCALYPSE 2021
Or maybe, after listening to this episode, it’ll be more like CICADAPALOOZA! Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
“My friend” has a question about the vaccine
We asked if you still had vaccine questions, and you did. We found answers. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
Would NOT demanding gun control be more effective?
The Trace’s Jennifer Mascia explains why two gun reform bills the House recently passed are likely to fail in the Senate. Patrick Blanchfield from the Brooklyn…
- Today, Explained
WTF is an NFT?
On Monday, a tweet sold for $2.9 million. That followed a JPEG that went for $69 million. The Verge’s Liz Lopatto explains how internet ephemera turned to…
- Today, Explained
AnchoRage
The United States and China met in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday to air grievances, and the cameras were rolling. Vox’s Alex Ward explains how the meeting set…
- Today, Explained
Why America needs a national pandemic memorial
People want to move on from Covid-19, but that doesn’t mean forgetting its victims. Historian Paul Farber and Vox reporter Alissa Wilkinson explain why a…
- Today, Explained
Racism, misogyny, and the shootings in Georgia
Eight people were killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area spas. Most of the victims were women. Six were Asian American. Georgia state Sen. Michelle Au…
- Today, Explained
Why are more children crossing the border?
A growing number of unaccompanied minors at the US-Mexico border is highlighting President Biden’s struggle to fulfill his campaign promises on immigration —…
- Today, Explained
Who gets to vote?
It’s a question the US has struggled with since its founding. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…
- Today, Explained
Vaccines4Kids
President Biden says all adults will be eligible for a vaccine by May 1. But for the world to truly return to normal, young people will need shots, too…
- Today, Explained
No one nose
Believe it or not, scientists still don’t know how the sense of smell works. But that isn’t stopping one guy at MIT from trying to reverse-engineer it. Sounds…
- Today, Explained
It’s been a year
The year in revue. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Today, Explained
Biden’s Big F***ing Deal
President Biden’s American Rescue Plan has been approved by Congress. It’s a revolution in American welfare disguised as stimulus. Transcript at…
- Today, Explained
You’re vaccinated. Now what?
New guidelines from the CDC for fully vaccinated people suggest it’s finally time to hug your grandparents. Dr. Kavita Patel explains the do’s and don’ts as we…
- Today, Explained
Alabama shakes up Amazon
Darryl Richardson, a worker at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, explains why he helped initiate a unionization effort that now has President Biden’s…
- Today, Explained
The Bachelor meets reality
Beset by controversy, The Bachelor’s latest season is winding down with an identity crisis. It’s a rare case of reality TV reflecting our cultural reality…
- Today, Explained
The surge of anti-Asian violence
The United States is stumbling through two racial reckonings at once. Author Jeff Chang says it’s an inflection point centuries in the making. Transcript at…
- Today, Explained
Manchin in the middle
Joe Biden won the presidency, but it’s Joe Manchin from West Virginia who seems to be the decider. The Charleston Gazette-Mail’s Joe Severino shadowed Senator…
- Today, Explained
The $15 dream
Washington’s hottest policy fight is over raising the minimum wage to $15. Emily Stewart explains the Democrats’ effort to get it through Congress, and Dylan…
- Today, Explained
How acid trips led to better policing
Thirty years ago, Eugene, Oregon, figured out an alternative to the police. They called it CAHOOTS. Seriously. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
Rush Limbaugh’s legacy
Author Nicole Hemmer explains how Limbaugh helped pave the way for Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
57-43
Democrats made a strong case against Donald Trump. Republicans are being punished for supporting it. Vox’s Zack Beauchamp explains. Transcript at…
- Today, Explained
#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…
- Today, Explained
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. Transcript at…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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…
- Today, Explained
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. Transcript…
- Today, Explained
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…