Explain It to Me

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**Explain It to Me**

Should I buy a house? Why do I say “like” so much? Should Gen Z bother to save for retirement?
Explain It to Me is the hotline for the issues that matter to your life. Send us your questions about health, personal finance, relationships, and anything else that matters to you. Host Jonquilyn Hill will take you on a journey to find the answers, whether it’s to the halls of Congress or the local bar. You’ll get the answers you were looking for, and sometimes ones you didn’t expect — and always with a dose of humor. New episodes every Sunday. Part of Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Latest Episodes:

What is critical race theory, anyway? Oct 13, 2020

Show notes

Ian Haney Lopez joins Jane to discuss critical race theory: what it is and what it isn't.

Resources:

"Which Party Represents the Racial Future?" by Ross Douthat

Guest:

Ian Haney Lopez (@IanHaneyLopez), Professor of Law, UC Berkeley

Host:

Jane Coaston (@cjane87), Senior Politics Reporter, Vox

Credits:

Jeff Geld, (@jeff_geld), Editor and Producer

The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production

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

About Vox

Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.

Follow Us: Vox.com

Facebook group: The Weeds

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

By the People: The Supreme Court's war on democracy Oct 10, 2020

Show notes

In this last episode of the By The People mini-series, host Ian Millhiser talks with legal scholar Pam Karlan about how the Supreme Court has harmed our democracy in the recent past, and what it's likely to do to voting rights in the future. Then he speaks with Supreme Court journalist Mark Joseph Stern about court-packing and other possible ways to reform the Court.

Featuring:

Pam Karlan, Professor of Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School

Mark Joseph Stern, Staff Writer at Slate

Host:

Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser), Senior Correspondent, Vox

Credits:

Producer/Editor: Jackson Bierfeldt

Editor: Elbert Ventura

Executive Producer: Liz Nelson

About Vox:

Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.

Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts. Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas.

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

The stimulus standoff Oct 09, 2020

Show notes

Ezra and Matt on the deadlock in congress and the VP debate.

Hosts:

Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Senior correspondent, Vox

Ezra Klein (@ezraklein), Editor-at-large, Vox

Credits:

Erick Gomez, Schuyler Swenson (@SchuylerSwenson), and Jeff Geld, (@jeff_geld), Producers

The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production

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

About Vox

Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.

Follow Us: Vox.com

Facebook group: The Weeds

This episode was brought to you by Novartis. To learn more about Cell and Gene Therapy visit vox.com/ad/novartis

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

On biracial identity (with Thomas Chatterton Williams) Oct 06, 2020

Show notes

Jane and Thomas Chatterton Williams talk about mixed-race identity, race and racism, and what being biracial means now.

Resources:

"My Family's Life Inside and Outside America's Racial Categories" by Thomas Chatterton Williams, NYT

"A Detailed Look at the Downside of California’s Ban on Affirmative Action" by Kevin Carey, NYT

"Thomas Chatterton Williams on Race, Identity, and “Cancel Culture”" by Isaac Chotiner, NYT

"The Great Escape From Slavery of Ellen and William Craft" by Marian Smith Holmes, Smithsonian Magazine

"Black With (Some) White Privilege" by Anna Holmes, NYT

"Still Processing: Being Biracial" by Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham, NYT

"The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic

Guest:

Thomas Chatterton Williams (@thomaschattwill), Contributing Writer at New York Magazine, Columnist at Harpers Magazine

Host:

Jane Coaston (@cjane87), Senior Politics Reporter, Vox

Credits:

Jeff Geld, (@jeff_geld), Editor and Producer

The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production

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

About Vox

Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.

Follow Us: Vox.com

Facebook group: The Weeds

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

By the People: Blame the Constitution Oct 03, 2020

Show notes

Host Ian Millhiser talks with political scientist Norm Ornstein and Vox’s Matt Yglesias about the structural factors — many of them written into the Constitution itself — that impede a democratic majority from electing their preferred leaders and several ideas about how these hurdles can be overcome.

Relevant resources:

Confirm you are registered to vote

Featuring:

Norman Ornstein, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute

Matthew Yglesias, Senior Correspondent at Vox

Host:

Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser), Senior Correspondent, Vox

Credits:

Producer/Editor: Jackson Bierfeldt

Editor: Elbert Ventura

Executive Producer: Liz Nelson

About Vox:

Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.

Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts. Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas.

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

Fighting back against factory farming Oct 02, 2020

Show notes

On this special episode, we give you a preview of season 3 of the Future Perfect podcast. Vox's Dylan Matthews comes on to talk about meat and environmental justice.

Subscribe to Future Perfect on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app to automatically get new episodes of the latest season each week.

Further listening and reading:

ProPublica’s Talia Buford has done in-depth reporting on the problems of overflowing pig waste lagoons in North Carolina, and you can see images of the aftermath of lagoon flooding from Hurricane Florence collected here.
Pig waste from factory farms is not just a problem in North Carolina. You can read about issues in Iowa, Minnesota, and Ohio.

We always want to hear from you! Please send comments and questions to futureperfect@vox.com.

This podcast is made possible thanks to support from Animal Charity Evaluators. They research and promote the most effective ways to help animals.

Featuring:

Marianne Engleman Lado, Environmental Justice Clinic, Vermont Law School

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

More to explore:

Follow all of Future Perfect’s reporting on the Future of Meat.

Subscribe to Vox’s Future Perfect newsletter, which breaks down big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them.

Follow Us:

Vox.com

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

A dark, dangerous debate Sep 30, 2020

Show notes

Ezra and Matt on the disturbing presidential showdown.

Hosts:

Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Senior correspondent, Vox

Ezra Klein (@ezraklein), Editor-at-large, Vox

Credits:

Jeff Geld, (@jeff_geld), Editor and Producer

The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production

Buy Matt's book!

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

About Vox

Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.

Follow Us: Vox.com

Facebook group: The Weeds

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

By the People: How to make sure your vote is counted Sep 26, 2020

Show notes

Host Ian Millhiser talks with voting rights lawyer Sophia Lin Lakin and vote-by-mail advocate Amber McReynolds about voting, COVID-19, and what steps you can take to ensure that your vote is counted this election.

Relevant resources:

Confirm you are registered to vote

How to vote at home

ACLU’s Voting Rights Project

ACLU’s Voter Education Tool

Featuring:

Sophia Lin Lakin, Deputy Director of the Voting Rights Project at the ACLU

Amber McReynolds, CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute

Host:

Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser), Senior Correspondent, Vox

Credits:

Producer/Editor: Jackson Bierfeldt

Editor: Elbert Ventura

Executive Producer: Liz Nelson

About Vox:

Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.

Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts. Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas.

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

Dianne Feinstein, please listen to this episode! Sep 25, 2020

Show notes

Ezra and Matt discuss the past and future of the US Senate.

Resources:

"How Mitch McConnell is changing the Democratic Party" by Ezra Klein, Vox

"America needs a democratic revolution" by Matthew Yglesias, Vox

Hosts:

Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Senior correspondent, Vox

Ezra Klein (@ezraklein), Editor-at-large, Vox

Credits:

Jeff Geld, (@jeff_geld), Editor and Producer