Vox

Maybe you’ve heard this unkind old joke about American culture: We will pay a small fortune to amble through the cobblestone streets of Rome and Paris, or even the ersatz Main Street in Disneyland. Then we’ll return to our suburban homes and two-car garages, and swear that a place like that could never work here.  […]

Russ Kremer is a longtime hog farmer in the Missouri Ozarks, where his 2,000 pigs have plenty of space to roam on his 150 acres. He doesn’t feed them antibiotics, and you won’t find a single animal in a cage. Kremer is decidedly anti-industrial hog farming. Whenever he sends his pigs to slaughter, like every […]

Mingaile Kieraite remembers what it felt like observing those close to her become parents. As family members shared updates on their pregnancies and friends dragged her to kid-friendly events, she began to feel isolated, as if she wasn’t being let into an exclusive club. But Kieraite, 33, had already decided she didn’t want to join […]

This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here. I spent Labor Day weekend in Montreal, and signs of the trade war were everywhere.  On Google Maps, which — at least until we crossed over the border — jarringly displayed the label “Lake […]

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: The head of the Smithsonian Institution will resign after weathering nearly two years of attacks by President Donald Trump.  What’s happening? Lonnie G. Bunch III, […]

Can a love-thy-neighbor, stop-the-division campaign win over masses of rural voters? Rob Sand, the Democratic candidate for governor in Iowa, has his hopes pinned on it.  Key to Sand’s campaign is a promise to end the red-blue warfare in politics. He’s made embracing independents and disgruntled Republicans a core part of his campaign, in addition […]

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of things that, as recently as seven years ago, we could reliably do without a smartphone: I’ve been thinking about this drift toward mandatory apps and QR codes a lot lately, as a new millennial parent unhappy with my addictive tendency to mindlessly scroll near my baby. I also know that, […]

Are we on the precipice of a white Christian nationalist takeover?  The author and religion scholar Robert P. Jones sure feels like we’re close. “This is our 1933,” he writes in his new book, referencing the year that Weimar Germany fell to a Nazi takeover. Panicked allusions to Nazi Germany have been a common occurrence […]

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Most people decide if it’s safe to eat an old tub of yogurt in the fridge or canned tuna in the back of the cupboard by checking its sell-by date. But no label indicates that […]

The data center backlash has entered the midterms conversation.  Politicians from across the spectrum have changed their minds — or at least their policy positions — about data centers in the past few months as public resistance  to their construction has skyrocketed. A major example is Texas, where just about one year ago, Republican Gov. […]

Last month, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon won the state’s Democratic Senate nomination in a major upset over her better-funded opponent, retired Army Lt. Col. Alex Vindman. Her victory was quickly slotted into a narrative about the Democratic Party’s insurgent progressive movement, which has triumphed in House and Senate primaries in Michigan, Colorado, New York, […]

When the Donald Trump era is over — however that ends — I feel comfortable saying that at least one thing will be certain: He’ll still have the overwhelming support of evangelical Christians in the United States. Even today, with the president’s popularity at near-record lows, you’d be hard-pressed to find a religious denomination or […]

Editor’s note, September 6, 8 am ET: We’re bringing you some of our best-loved Your Mileage May Vary columns while Sigal Samuel is on parental leave. The one below was originally published last year. This unconventional advice column offers you a unique framework for thinking through moral dilemmas. It’s based on value pluralism: the idea that each of […]

After 12 years of dominating American politics — either as president, as a candidate, or from the sidelines — Donald Trump will finally exit the stage in 2028, and it’s anybody’s guess what will come next. But one thing we do know is that Gen Z, many of whom were children during Trump’s first campaign, […]

This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here. For more than a decade, 1.5 degrees Celsius has been the watchword — er, watch temperature? — of climate policy. If the world could hold warming at that level, it could stave off some […]

The national debt hasn’t been a major issue in the 2026 midterms. But perhaps it should be. As of last month, the United States is in debt to the tune of $40 trillion. That’s 12 zeros, which averages out to about $116,000 per American.  It’s enough that even economists like Jared Bernstein, the chair of […]

Abdul El-Sayed is trying to win over undecided Jewish voters in Michigan — without compromising his substantive positions on Israel or disavowing his most radical allies.   During both his primary and general election campaigns, El-Sayed’s opponents have portrayed him as insensitive to Jewish concerns, if not outright antisemitic. These charges have often rested on falsely […]

Olympic weightlifting is defined by only two moves: the snatch and the clean and jerk. But behind what seems like a simple contest to see who can lift the most is a sport built on technique, speed, strategy, and psychology. We speak to Matthew Tung, a competitive weightlifter who represents Hong Kong internationally, to break […]

During a tense vote on a data center being built in her drought-stricken Arizona district last summer, Tucson City Councilmember Nikki Lee made an unlikely pitch: “We’re going to get a little out-of-this-world for a second, so just bear with me.”  Like many of her constituents, Lee did not want Project Blue, a sprawling 290-acre […]

A horror story of sorts is unfolding in the United States. It goes like this: AI has made it so effortless to access information, and short-form video has made it so easy to entertain ourselves, that nobody reads anymore.  If you’re familiar with this tale, it’s possible, ironically, that you read about it. A viral […]