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Journalists are drawn to covering problems, and when it comes to housing, we know there are plenty. Earlier this month, I published a review essay on three new books about the housing crisis, and it might be easy to conclude, based on all the dizzying statistics and warnings, that little progress is being made. That […]

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, not Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Or Kwanzaa. Or even the 11th anniversary of Beyoncé’s surprise self-titled album.  Nope. It’s cuffing season. At least that’s what listener Antares thinks. She called Explain It to Me — Vox’s call-in podcast — to ask if cuffing season is real.  “So […]

This story was originally published in The Highlight, Vox’s member-exclusive magazine. To get early access to member-exclusive stories every month, join the Vox Membership program today. Reba Stevens held her breath as she walked up the steps to the apartment, her then-6-month-old son perched on her hip. After 21 years of homelessness, she prayed: God, […]

When I was about 7, Los Angeles public schools shifted to a “year-round” schedule. The effect, for my elementary school, was a shorter summer break (boo), and an extra-long winter break (also, it turned out, boo).  That year, my parents enrolled me in “winter camp,” which was like summer camp but less fun. It was […]

If you follow the news about gun violence in America, you know that there’s a lot to be pessimistic about.  Guns were already a major public health concern when the pandemic hit and the murder rate skyrocketed. The surge in homicide in 2020 and 2021, research has shown, was best understood as a surge in […]

This story was originally published in The Highlight, Vox’s member-exclusive magazine. To get early access to member-exclusive stories every month, join the Vox Membership program today. The pod looked like a tanning bed from another planet: a human-sized chamber, white and sparkly purple with a clear glass door, resting on an inclined platform. Previously, it […]

This story was originally published in The Highlight, Vox’s member-exclusive magazine. To get early access to member-exclusive stories every month, join the Vox Membership program today. The sharp decline in child mortality rates is one of the great global success stories of the past several decades.  In 1990, nearly 13 million children died before their […]

The media does not give you an accurate picture of the world. This isn’t to say that we’re not reporting the truth or that we’re making facts up. Rather, our profession has a natural tendency to accentuate the negative because the negative is usually what we mean when we think of the news.  Reports of […]

While he may be known for being an iconoclast, Bob Dylan has a public persona — aloof, remote, borderline misanthropic — that doesn’t exactly lend itself to the typical Hollywood treatment. That hasn’t stopped the new Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, from trying. Based on the book Dylan Goes Electric and starring Timothée Chalamet doing […]

This story was originally published in The Highlight, Vox’s member-exclusive magazine. To get early access to member-exclusive stories every month, join the Vox Membership program today. One of the earliest declarations of love we’re exposed to is the classic childhood best friend pact. Though we aren’t old enough to sign legally binding documents, a pinky […]

Amy Sedaris has a lovely apartment in the desirable Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, though she has often described it as a hutch. A rabbit hutch. Until recently, Sedaris, an actor, comedian, and author, lived with a bunny named Tina — who’s male, a fact she learned years after getting him. Tina had […]

It’s that time of year. As Future Perfect has in the past, we’re rounding up our most read stories of the year. This little trip down memory lane can give us a sense of the breadth and depth of Future Perfect’s coverage — and a sense of what stories and subjects you, the audience, are […]

The dramatic summer feud among the cast of It Ends With Us took a darker turn last week when Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni, the movie’s costar and director, of sexual harassment on set and a subsequent plot to tarnish her reputation.  On Friday, Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni, his studio Wayfarer, Wayfarer […]

After much back-and-forth, the House Ethics Committee released a bombshell report about alleged sexual misconduct by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), stating that he broke multiple state laws and that he’s previously paid a minor for sex. Gaetz has categorically denied the allegations and on Monday filed a lawsuit aimed at preventing the report’s release.  […]

President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of nearly all federal death row inmates on Monday, meaning that 37 men who were slated to be executed will instead spend the rest of their lives behind bars without the possibility of parole. The pardons will also help contribute to what has become a notable criminal justice trend […]

Something happens to me every December wherein movies and music that are objectively kind of bad suddenly become irresistible simply because they are “about Christmas.” By this I mean I’m spending entire days listening to Michael Bublé and that one Zooey Deschanel album and entire nights watching whatever drivel Netflix has most recently produced — […]

2024 is on track to become the hottest year since humans have been keeping track, beating out 2023.  The extraordinary back-to-back record-breakers amplified disasters like heat waves, hurricanes, and torrential downpours around the world, claiming thousands of lives and causing billions in damages.  Few countries have emerged completely unscathed over the past two years, but […]

When Kay’s two best friends — a married couple she met at work — told her they weren’t voting for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, she believed them. After all, Kay and her friends shared similar values; they all supported issues like reproductive rights and protections for LGBTQ people. But while she was […]

One fall day in 1856, a family of Eastern gray squirrels in rural New York uncurled from a cozy nest in a chestnut tree, looked around, and joined half a billion other squirrels on a multi-state walkabout. Waves of fur, claws, and sharp incisors swarmed like locusts in squirrel armies that could be up to […]

This story was originally published in The Highlight, Vox’s member-exclusive magazine. To get early access to member-exclusive stories every month, join the Vox Membership program today. What does “Latino” mean? And is there still such a thing as the “Latino vote”? At first glance, both questions are simple to answer. Latinos are simply any of […]

When you see a movie or read a book that you can’t get out of your head, there’s nothing better than sharing that experience with other people. But in a fractured media landscape — with countless new releases a year and a significant portion of the entire history of human culture at our fingertips — […]

In the last issue of this newsletter, I wrote about what went wrong with public housing in the United States — how it didn’t necessarily fail, but was routinely sabotaged because of bad policy choices that contributed to neglect and mismanagement. So this week, I want to look at what successful public housing can look […]

Support independent journalism that matters — become a Vox Member today. Editor’s note, December 21 10:20 am ET: Shortly after midnight on Saturday, the Senate passed legislation that would fund the government and avert a shutdown. The bill did not include the suspension or elimination of the debt ceiling that Donald Trump had demanded. This week’s […]

On the Money is a monthly advice column. If you want advice on spending, saving, or investing — or any of the complicated emotions that may come up as you prepare to make big financial decisions — you can submit your question on this form. Here, we answer a question asked by Vox readers, which have […]