Explain It to Me

Latest Episodes:

The most interesting issues on the ballot Oct 18, 2022

Show notes

The midterm elections are three weeks away, and candidates aren’t the only ones on the ballot. Voters across the country will decide new laws and policy through ballot initiatives, which can include proposals like legalizing recreational marijuana, funding in-state college tuition, and raising taxes to fight climate change. But how do these issues get on the ballot in the first place, and will they stay there? Vox policy editor Libby Nelson (@libbyanelson) explains.

References:

The 2022 midterm elections, explained

Two states, two visions for the future of labor

The states where the midterms will directly decide the future of abortion access

New Mexico voters are set to weigh in on a constitutional ballot measure for early childhood education this November

Sample ballot lookup — Ballotpedia

VOTE411

Hosts:

Jonquilyn Hill (@jonquilynhill)

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

A.M. Hall, editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

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The candidates haunting the GOP Oct 11, 2022

Show notes

The midterm elections are four weeks away. Senate control is on the line, and races in battleground states are tightening. Few things say “close election” like an October surprise. The one getting the latest buzz this election cycle comes from Georgia, courtesy of Republican senatorial candidate Herschel Walker. Vox politics reporter Li Zhou (@liszhou) explains the race, and Rutgers professor David Greenberg (@republicofspin) tells us the origin of the October surprise.

References:

Herschel Walker is an epically flawed candidate. He could still win.

Hosts:

Jonquilyn Hill (@jonquilynhill)

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

A.M. Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

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AMERICA HAS A (POLLING) PROBLEM Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

Pollsters are starting to panic. There’s headline after headline after headline ahead of the midterms on whether this election cycle’s polling is accurate or not. How does polling actually work? Is it really representative of how voters are feeling and what the outcome will be on Election Day? And when it comes to Democrats, why is polling so wrong? Amy Walter, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Cook Political Report, explains why polls are complicated, lessons to learn from past elections, and what we could expect this November.

References:

Which Midterm Polls Should We Be Taking With a Grain of Salt?

Pollsters fear they’re blowing it again in 2022

Hosts: Jonquilyn Hill (@jonquilynhill)

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

A.M. Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Abbott and DeSantis: Stunt queens or policy makers? Sep 27, 2022

Show notes

US immigration policy is complicated. And when Republican Govs. Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis chartered buses and planes to relocate migrants to “blue cities,” it raised a ton of legal questions. But it also ignited the age-old question about our immigration system: Why is it so complicated? Weeds veteran Dara Lind (@DLind) explains.

References:

Why Ron DeSantis is baiting Biden on the border

Opinion | Ron DeSantis Is Making an Asylum Crisis of His Own

Host:

Jonquilyn Hill (@jonquilynhill), Vox senior producer

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

A.M. Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The fastest growing voting bloc in America Sep 20, 2022

Show notes

For the September issue of The Highlight, the Vox politics team examined the fastest growing voting bloc in the country: Latino voters. But the 32 million voters that make up the Latino electorate are not a monolithic group. In today’s episode, we’ll look at the intricacies and nuances of the Latino voting bloc and what might happen in the 2022 midterm elections.

References:

Ruben Gallego's ready for a fight — even if the Democratic Party isn't

Yes, most Latinos are Christian. No, that doesn't make them anti-abortion.

Latino voters are being flooded with even more misinformation in 2022

The full September issue of The Highlight from Vox

Hosts:

Marin Cogan (@marincogan), senior correspondent

Christian Paz (@realcpaz), senior politics reporter

Nicole Narea (@nicolenarea), politics reporter

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who decides how we’ll save the future? Sep 13, 2022

Show notes

How do we make life better for future generations? Who gets to make those decisions? These are tough questions, and today’s guest, philosopher William MacAskill (@willmacaskill), tries to help us answer them.

References:

What We Owe the Future by William MacAskill

Effective altruism's most controversial idea

How effective altruism went from a niche movement to a billion-dollar force

Effective altruism’s longtermist goals for the future don’t hurt people in the present

Hosts:

Bryan Walsh (@bryanrwalsh)

Sigal Samuel (@sigalsamuel)

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

A.M. Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vitamin X Sep 06, 2022

Show notes

Today on The Weeds, we are sharing an episode of another Vox podcast, Unexplainable, that originally aired in June 2022.

Millions of Americans take dietary supplements — everything from vitamins and minerals to weight-loss pills and probiotics. But because supplements are loosely regulated in the US, their makers don't have to prove that they work, or even that they are safe.

Full transcript available here.

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It’s a policy team takeover! Aug 30, 2022

Show notes

Join editor Libby Nelson (@libbyanelson) and reporters Rachel Cohen (@rmc031) and Madeleine Ngo (@maddiengo) for a summer policy wrap-up. Inflation, the economy, and gas prices were on everyone’s minds, but we have even more policy news to talk about. Both Congress and the Biden administration made one last late-summer policy push with the Inflation Reduction Act and student loan cancellation. What does this all mean for you? Listen to find out!

References:

School vaccine mandates for Covid-19 are not happening

Will student loan forgiveness make inflation worse?

Inflation is finally slowing down. Will things get cheaper?

The inflation numbers are bad — but how bad are they?

GDP declined again — but that might not mean we're in a recession

”Standard Oil” octopus cartoon

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

A.M. Hall, deputy editorial director

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

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The rebirth of industrial policy Aug 23, 2022

Show notes

Vox senior correspondent Dylan Matthews sits down with Felicia Wong (@FeliciaWongRI), president and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute, to talk about a new era of industrial policy. They discuss the theory of modern supply-side economics, the passage of the Inflation Reduction and CHIPS acts, and how much common ground exists between the political left and the right.

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

A.M. Hall, editorial director

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Could the war on terror be over? Aug 16, 2022

Show notes

Vox senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp and Vox senior foreign writer Jonathan Guyer discuss the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the organizers behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US. His death marks a turning point in the “war on terror” and US foreign policy, but what kind of turning point? Can we say the war on terror is over, or is it just entering a new stage?

References:

What Ayman Zawahiri’s death tells us about terrorism and US foreign policy

Ayman al-Zawahiri’s death by drone was President Biden’s opportunity to end the war on terrorism

No one has been held accountable for the catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal

Where in the world are Russians going to avoid sanctions?

Hosts:

Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), senior correspondent, Vox

Jonathan Guyer (@mideastXmidwest), senior foreign policy writer, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts