Explain It to Me

Latest Episodes:

It’s not about Ukraine. It’s about Putin. Feb 04, 2022

Show notes

Dylan Matthews talks with Mark Galeotti (@MarkGaleotti), director of Mayak Intelligence, about what’s going on in Ukraine. They discuss in depth the historical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, Russia’s NATO problem, and the calculations and motivations behind President Vladimir Putin’s moves.

References:

Today, Explained’s episode about Ukraine's pipeline problem

Vox’s Jen Kirby wrote an explainer about Russia-Ukraine tensions

Adam Tooze on Russia as a petro-state

An excellent 2019 episode from NPR’s Throughline about the rise of Putin

The Weaponisation of Everything: A Field Guide to the New Way of War, by Mark Galeotti

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

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

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Think of the children Feb 01, 2022

Show notes

Dylan Matthews, Dara Lind, and Vox policy editor Libby Nelson discuss the findings of two recent studies on early childhood development. One study found that cash transfers increase brain activity in infants, while the other found a negative impact of universal pre-K on academic outcomes. So ... what’s actually going on here? Does one negate the other? The Weeds team talks it out. Plus, a white paper on the effects of parenthood on voter turnout.

References:

Dylan’s story on the cash-transfer study and his piece on the universal pre-K findings

The impact of a poverty reduction intervention on infant brain activity. PNAS

The New York Times’s Jason DeParle’s take on the cash-transfer study

Scott Alexander summarizes the skeptical takes on the cash transfer study

Noah Smith’s review of the research on pre-K, and Kelsey Piper’s

Effects of a Statewide Pre-Kindergarten Program on Children’s Achievement and Behavior Through Sixth Grade

White Paper: Parents, Infants and Voter Turnout: Evidence from the United States

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Dara Lind (@dlind), immigration reporter, ProPublica

Libby Nelson (@libbyanelson), policy editor, Vox

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

Unions! Jan 28, 2022

Show notes

Dara Lind talks with professor Gabriel Winant of the University of Chicago about the new Bureau of Labor Statistics report that showed a topline decline in union membership despite increasing labor-oriented momentum. And later, journalist Rachel Cohen (@rmc031) joins to talk about the importance of teachers’ unions in the labor movement and in Democratic politics.

References:

The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America, Gabriel Winant

Rachel Cohen’s recent article about school closures and Democrats

The recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report on union membership numbers

Hosts:

Dara Lind (@dlind), immigration reporter, ProPublica

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

What happens to voting rights now? Jan 25, 2022

Show notes

Dylan Matthews and Jerusalem Demsas talk with Emily Rong Zhang, a PhD candidate in political science at Stanford and a former Skadden Fellow at the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, about the recent attempts in Congress to pass voting rights legislation. And, a white paper about voter ID laws, written by Emily herself!

References:

Recapping Congress’s failed voting rights push

Why some Dem strategists were skeptical of the effort

The case for fixing the Electoral Count Act

What happens after the voting rights fights

White Paper: “What the Debate over Voter ID Laws' Effects Teaches about Asking the Right Questions”

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

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

Are corporations winning at inflation? Jan 21, 2022

Show notes

Jerusalem Demsas and Dylan Matthews talk with Joey Politano (@JosephPolitano), economics blogger and self-described "mid-tier take-haver," to go over one big question on people’s minds right now: are corporations profiting off of inflation?

References:

Joey’s blog post aboutrising corporate prices and inflation

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on rising corporate profit margins

Paul Krugman’s newsletter from this week

Binyamin Appelbaum on the meatpacking industry

The White House’s statement on meat companies taking advantage of market power

The letter from President Joe Biden to FTC chair Lina Khan

“Could strategic price controls help fight inflation?” in the Guardian

Rethinking Inflation Policy: A toolkit for economic recovery by JW Mason and Lauren Melodia

Hosts:

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

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

What BBB means for climate policy Jan 19, 2022

Show notes

Weeds co-hosts Jerusalem Demsas and Dara Lind talk with Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob), staff writer at the Atlantic, about the climate provisions in President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill. They discuss specific climate-focused policy proposals and the political stalemate Congress is in, thanks to the filibuster in the Senate. Plus, a white paper about building codes and wildfires in California.

References:

Robinson Meyer on the climate gamble going on in Congress

Weeds alum Matt Yglesias on the Build Back Better Bill

Vox’s Rebecca Leber on why Joe Manchin may have doomed climate policy

A 2016 piece from Vox’s Dylan Matthews about money in politics

“Progressive leader calls on Biden to unilaterally act on agenda,” The Hill

“Manchin's $1.8 trillion spending offer appears no longer to be on the table,” The Washington Post

“Noisy and Unsafe: Stop Fetishizing Old Homes,” The Atlantic

Hosts:

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Dara Lind (@dlind) immigration reporter and Weeds host, Vox

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

How the 1918 flu pandemic ended Jan 14, 2022

Show notes

Dylan talks to John M. Barry, distinguished scholar at Tulane University and author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, about the Spanish flu of 1918-1919, its parallels to Covid-19, and what that pandemic’s end tells us about how this one might end.

References:

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

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

The case for more babies Jan 11, 2022

Show notes

Dylan, Jerusalem, and special guest Bryan Walsh discuss the slowing population growth in America, and what a smaller-than-expected America could mean. They also talk about which immigration and child care policies could speed up population growth. Finally, they discuss a paper on why Europe is so much more equal than America.

References:

The Great Population Slowdown

How immigration could reverse population decline

The rise of childlessness

The climate case that it’s okay to have kids

The link between fertility and income

The complex relationship between housing prices and fertility

Changes in abortion access in a post-Roe America

Romania’s abortion ban and its effect on fertility

Recent research on global fertility patterns and cohabitation

What is the relationship between gender equality and fertility rates?

The Conservative Fertility Advantage

White paper: “Why Is Europe More Equal than the United States?”

A critique of the paper’s approach to health care

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Bryan Walsh (@bryanrwalsh), editor for Future Perfect, Vox

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

The building blocks of radicalization Jan 07, 2022

Show notes

How does someone get radicalized? What do political scientists see as the building blocks of political violence? Is there anything we can do to stop radicalization? One year after the insurrection on January 6, 2021, Vox policy reporter Jerusalem Demsas talks with Peter Neumann, a professor of security studies at King’s College in London, to answer these questions.

References:

Vox’s Zack Beauchamp on where the crisis in American democracy might be headed

Peter Neumann’s paper: The trouble with radicalization

A Q&A with a French philosopher about the fear of replacement within white nationalism

Colin Clarke writes for Politico on what happened after January 6

Northwestern University research about the perceived threat of a racial demographic shift in the US

Hosts:

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

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

Why hasn’t student debt been canceled? Jan 04, 2022

Show notes

Dylan and Dara are joined by Vox’s Libby Nelson to talk about the policy merits and political implications of plans to cancel some or all student loans. They also discuss whether President Joe Biden has the power to cancel student debt unilaterally. And, Vox’s Jerusalem Demsas joins Dylan and Dara for a white paper about prisoners of war and genetics.

References: