Sean Rameswaram
Appearances
Science Vs
Dire Wolves! They're Back?
Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Versus. Earlier this year, there was this huge news that scientists had brought back the direwolf.
Science Vs
Dire Wolves! They're Back?
That's what our friends over at Today Explained wanted to know. So today, we're going to share their episode looking into this. After the break, co-host of Today Explained, Sean Ramaswaran, will take it from here.
Science Vs
Dire Wolves! They're Back?
That was Today Explained, which is made by Vox. Today Explained comes out every day and digs into all sorts of stuff in the news, from direwolves to doomsday preppers, allergies to baby Botox. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Wendy Zuckerman, and regular science besties will be back next week. I'll fact you then.
Science Vs
Dire Wolves! They're Back?
This is a promotional video from the company that made these wolves, Colossal. And in the video, you can see these gorgeous little white pups.
Science Vs
Dire Wolves! They're Back?
That animal looks like a direwolf, it will behave like a direwolf, and it is a direwolf.
Science Vs
Dire Wolves! They're Back?
The pups, who are now more than six months old, were made by taking the DNA of a grey wolf and then tweaking 14 genes in it to make them bigger, give them lighter coats, have larger teeth and jaws than a grey wolf would have. And when folks found out about these animals, there was this huge media buzz with headlines plastered all over the place.
Science Vs
Dire Wolves! They're Back?
One of the wolves even made the cover of Time magazine with the line, quote, "'He's a dire wolf, the first to exist in 10,000 years. Endangered species could be changed forever.'" But is that right? Did scientists really bring back the dire wolf? What exactly is going on here? And is this a good idea? Or could it have dire consequences?
Today, Explained
A comedian tries to fix aviation
It has been nearly one year since the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 was signed into law. I was proud to co-lead that effort in the Senate. I was proud to help get it across the finish line.
Today, Explained
A comedian tries to fix aviation
The crashes. An American Airlines flight with 64 people on board colliding midair with a Blackhawk military helicopter.
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
Today Explained here with Eric Levitz, senior correspondent at Vox.com to talk about the 2024 election. That can't be right. Eric, I thought we were done with that. I feel like I'm Pacino in three.
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
Right. And like Lena Kahn, Ta-Nehisi Coates, you'd expect them on like the Ezra Klein show. Mm-hmm. But maybe saying favorable things about Luigi Mangione is where Hasan Piker sort of, you know, strikes a different chord.
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
And the audience responds to this because it strikes them as authentic.
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
And did you ask him what he thought of being called by some as a Joe Rogan of the left?
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
It's interesting because he exists in this space where he speaks to the same type of person who might listen to Joe Rogan. I'm sure there are people who listen to both shows. Do you agree? Oh, for sure.
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
When you get those crossovers, when when Hassan Piker talks to Theo Vaughn, I don't think he's been on Joe Rogan's show, but maybe that's coming. Could we get like a rigorous debate on policy like those like those Gore Vidal, like William F. Buckley joints from the 1960s? Shut up a minute.
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
Where do you think all this is leading? Because it's so clear that Democrats are trying something right now. Gavin Newsom has launched a podcast where he's talking to Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. You write in your piece that Pete Buttigieg is making overtures to Hasan Piker. Tim Walls came on this show. AOC and Bernie were talking to Hasan recently. The Democrats are doing something.
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
Andrew Morantz, he writes for The New Yorker, newyorker.com. Hasan Piker, rumor has it, a listener to this show. Hasan, if you're listening, come hang out. Come talk to us. Travis Larchuk and Amanda Llewellyn made the show today. Patrick Boyd and Andrea Christen's daughter mixed the show today. Amina Alsadi edited the show. Laura Bullard fact-checked the show. I'm Sean Romsferum.
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
And while Harris underperformed with voters under 30, Trump gained compared to 2020. The biggest driver for Gen Z? The economy.
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
And you wrote a piece about the full picture for Vox recently, and it did bonkers business on the Internet. What did it say? What struck a chord?
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
So if you're looking for someone to blame for the current political situation of this country, find someone from Gen X. Yeah, I think so.
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
What are Democrats to do about the young male voters? Should we ask some young males? Should we ask some podcasters? No, I think I think we'll ask the New Yorker, the well-dressed man in the monocle when we're back on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
Andrew Morantz is a boy who's been hanging out with the boys for the New Yorker. Why, you ask?
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
And as we've covered on this show before, Trump has spent a lot of time in 2024 going... on podcasts that, you know, most people in America have never heard of. Totally. But were probably helpful to his campaign.
Today, Explained
The “Joe Rogan of the left”
And notably here, on these shows that Trump was hitting, you did not see representation from the other side, from the left. Which kind of brings us back to the piece you recently wrote for The New Yorker called You Mad, Bro. Although it's also known as the battle for the bros because you spent some time with a leftist bro.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
A New York City bodega recently started selling what they're calling loosey eggs. Instead of a dozen or a half dozen, you can buy a little bag with three little eggs in it. The idea got a ton of attention.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Okay, so that's like roughly what, off the top of my head, like 28,000 chickens per person?
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
This isn't like a happy story where like a trillion pounds of manure gets turned into a trillion pounds of fertilizer and recycles and closes the loop and all that.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Kenny Torellis, senior reporter at Vox, our man on the meat beat. It's been a minute. What is going on with the bird flu?
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Okay, that sounds worse than awful, Kenny. Why would you want to live here in Malcolm, Iowa, next to the manure?
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
So Malcolm cares more about this farm and the revenue it brings in than it does the people who might bounce.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Okay, so not only are we killing millions and millions of chickens and not even eating them because of bird flu, and not only are eggs more expensive across the entire country, but just living near these farms is a shit show. President Trump says he wants to do something about the price of eggs. He's got Elon Musk at his side. I don't know what his diet is, but he's also got RFK at his other side.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
And that dude's always going on about factory farms and agriculture in the United States and how we need to fix it.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
How come? Because he wasn't put in charge of agriculture?
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
It sounds like what you're saying, Kenny, is that the only way this would actually change and there'd be enough attention on factory farming to actually achieve political change would be if there were something as catastrophic as, like, A bird flu pandemic.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
So that leaves us where? It's on us, the consumers, to make different choices.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Kenny Torello, Vox.com. He also makes music. In fact, all of the music you heard on today's show came from Kenny, who goes by Torello when he's dropping beats. Kenny's reporting was supported by Animal Charity Evaluators, which received a grant from the Builders Initiative. And Vox's future perfect fellow, Sam Delgado, assisted with Kenny's reporting. Thank you, Sam.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Miles Bryan produced this episode. Amina Alsadi edited. Laura Bullard fact-checked. Andrea Christen's daughter and Patrick Boyd mixed. I'm Sean Ramos-Firm, and it's Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Is that why the eggs are so expensive, Kenny? I don't want to make this about the eggs when you just said 20 million of our friendly chickens have died, but is that why the eggs are so expensive?
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
All right, guys, today is a day. I know they are going to be $1.99 today. Oh, chickens must be on a strike or something, because, baby, ain't no way six eggs is $4.99.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
But we're not at the pandemic threat yet either. I don't want to freak people out.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Eggs are too expensive. Ask anyone. Ask the President of the United States.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Well, our fair president, I don't know how much he's said about bird flu, I don't know how much he cares, but he certainly has promised to bring down the price of eggs.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
And since they're intrinsically related, let me ask, how's that going so far?
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
But on today, Eggsplained, Vox's Kenny Torello is actually going to make the case that eggs are too cheap. Get a load of this guy, will ya?
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Well, I know President Trump has a history with, you know, vaccinating millions of Americans, Operation Warp Speed, TBT, COVID-19, etc. But his new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Roberts Floride Kennedy, hates vaccines. How does he feel about vaccinating chickens, though?
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Okay, so we've got five points, Kenny, ranging from more showers for people working on these chicken farms to vaccinating millions, hundreds of millions of chickens potentially. Do we have any idea when this five-point plan from Brooke Rollins would go into effect? I mean, we've got the Wall Street Journal op-ed. When do we see the money moving?
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Okay, so the culprit is factory farming, but also the norm is factory farming.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Hello, podcast listeners. I'm Sean Romser. I'm here from the Today Explained show, and I've got some news you can use. We're taking Vox Media podcasts on the road and heading back to Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest Festival. March 8th through 10th, we'll be doing special live episodes of hit shows, including our show, Today Explained. Where should we begin? With Esther Perel. Pivot.com.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
A touch more with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe. Not just football with Cam Hayward. And more presented by Smartsheet. The Vox Media podcast stage at South by Southwest is open to all South by Southwest badge holders. I'll be the guy in a Mr. T costume. We hope to see you at the Austin Convention Center soon. You can visit voxmedia.com slash SXSW to learn more. That's voxmedia.com slash SXSW.
Today, Explained
Eggs aren't expensive enough
Kenny Torella, MeatBeat, Vox.com. Factory farms are in the spotlight because of expensive eggs and bird flu. And you've been reporting on them. Where do we begin? So let's start in Malcolm, Iowa.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
On March 12th, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was picked up by ICE in Prince George's County, Maryland. In the days that followed, he was deported to the country where he was born, El Salvador, except this time he wound up in its infamous Seacott prison. At Seacott, they don't let any of the prisoners have access to the outside world.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
That being said, you've written for New York magazine about three scenarios that. could be how this plays out.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
Sean Ramos for him today explained we spoke to Senator Chris Van Hollen on Tuesday afternoon. We started with why he wanted to go down to El Salvador to meet with Kilmar Abrego-Garcia.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
The three scenarios you gave us all involve development. Something's going to happen that leads to something else happening. Is there any way in this current situation where nothing happens and he just stays there and the courts forget about it? Or does something have to happen?
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
You're not quite at constitutional crisis yet. The senator we spoke with early in the show is there. What's kind of complex and frustrating about a constitutional crisis is that it's open to interpretation. Even so, what kind of precedent does this standoff set?
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
And it's only been, you know, fewer than 100 days still at this point. But of course, we've seen the executive branch test the judiciary time and again. What have we learned so far, Ellie, from those tests? Well,
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
On March 31st, the Trump administration said it had mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia, calling it an administrative error. On April 4th, a U.S. district judge told the Trump administration to have Abrego Garcia back in the United States by April 7th. On April 10th, the Supreme Court entered the chat and more or less agreed, saying the Trump administration needed to get Abrego Garcia back.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
Did he say he was in danger? Did he say he was traumatized but felt relatively safe? What was the prison condition looking like?
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
But it's April 23rd and he's still not back. On Today Explained, we're going to speak with the Maryland senator who sat down with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador last week and figure out how this legal standoff between the Trump administration and the courts might play out.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
When you guys met up, there was some photos released and it looks like you had like margarita glasses or something in front of you. Where did that come from? Where exactly was this meeting?
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
They want to literally put a cherry on top of the situation.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
We asked the senator about the things Republicans want to focus on in this case. Allegations that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang and the fact that his wife once took out a protective order against him claiming that he punched her and ripped off her shirt.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
There's a lot of focus on this one individual, even though... Hundreds of undocumented migrants have been shipped off to El Salvador. California's governor, Gavin Newsom, called Garcia's case the, quote, distraction of the day. What's your response to that assessment?
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
You're not only saying we have to focus on constitutional rights. You're saying this situation with Abrego Garcia is a constitutional crisis. You say constitutional crisis. Gavin Newsom says distraction. How do we reconcile those two assessments of this very serious situation?
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
Senator Chris Van Hollen, Maryland, we're gonna run the scenarios of how this might end when we return on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
Support for today explained comes from Built Rewards. Built Rewards says, how nice would it be to get a little pat on the head from your landlord every time you paid your rent? Don't touch my head, landlord. Maybe my back, but not my head, sir. Built Rewards lets you earn points on your rent so you don't have to rely on your landlord to validate your self-worth, which feels like a good plan.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
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Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
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Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
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Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
All right. So we've just heard from Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, who went down to El Salvador to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia. As of Wednesday morning, where does his legal situation stand? What is the status quo?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
The time has finally come for President Trump to work with Congress. And he's trying to make it count by cramming everything he can into one bill.
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
Why is it that you can't go back to your district and and run for reelection on salt? Is it because this isn't an issue that speaks to the, you know, pun fully intended salt of the earth?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
OK, so salt is an issue that speaks to voters of a certain income bracket and thus speaks to politicians who represent voters of a certain income bracket. But Donald Trump is betting that no one is winning or losing an election or at least running a campaign on salt. But what does this fight over salt tell us about where this Republican Party is at under Donald Trump?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
And how much of this fight right now, having spoken to lawmakers who are debating SALT and Medicaid and everything else, feels to you like it's about the next election versus, say, Trump's immediate priorities?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
Jonathan Martin knows what he's doing. Read him at politico.com. As we were nearing publish time on the program, we got news that Mike Johnson and his fellow Republicans had reached a tentative deal on SALT. Apparently, they agreed to raise the limit on state and local tax deductions to $40,000. We'll see how that and the rest of the BBB shakes out in the coming days, weeks, months, years.
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
Devin Schwartz made our show today with a little help from his friend Harima Wagdi and a lot of help from his other friends Amna Alsari and Laura Bullard and Andrea Christen's daughter and Patrick Boyd. This is Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
Medicaid is one of the biggest sticking points. Is that not right?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
Well, we're actually going to spend a bunch of time talking about salt in the second half of the show. So why don't you tell us now a bit more about this fight and the drama around Medicaid?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
And even his Republican colleagues in the Senate are not entirely happy about this.
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
Is Donald Trump hearing Josh Hawley's counterargument?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
Well, then take us back to the House, which is at least for this moment where all the action is. The president visited his pals, Mike Johnson and the bunch on Tuesday. Was there any forward motion on this big so-called beautiful bill?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
Trump's calling this package, we call it the one big beautiful bill. But if it's so beautiful, why is he having trouble convincing some of his fellow Republicans to vote for it?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
For the moment, what do they need to figure out to get this thing moving up to the Senate?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
You mentioned that this could take until December to figure out. This is our first time talking about the BBB on this program. I really hope we're not talking about it until December. But if we are, how frustrated will... our president be?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
Burgess Everett will be covering whatever comes next for the big beautiful bill at semaphore.com. Pass the salt next on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
Today Explained is back. I'm still Sean Ramos from here with Jonathan Martin, who writes a column for Politico. Jonathan, we usually come to you for the tea, but today we're here for the salt.
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
What's going on? What's at the heart of this divide between the Republicans over this big, beautiful bill? We've heard it essentially comes down to Medicaid and salt. We talked about Medicaid. We want to talk to you about salt. Why salt?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
And what are Speaker Johnson and President Trump saying about SALT?
Today, Explained
Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
This isn't the first time we've seen Congress try to pass a BBB for my Build Back Better initiative. We asked Semaphores Congressional Bureau Chief Burgess Everett if the acronyms were the similarities end.
Today, Explained
The kids aren't reading all right
You're listening to Today Explains. Is it Today Explain or Today Explains? Explain-da. Explain-da.
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
President Donald Trump has been back in office for one month. And what a year it's been. We've covered a lot of Trump that Today explained this past month, from pardons to executive orders to Greenland to Guantanamo to tariffs to Maha to Elon and Elon and even more Elon. But today we're going to talk about the websites.
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Which is a not-for-profit that has been preserving the web since 1996. Journalists use it all the time. But for the uninitiated, I asked Mark to show us around the Internet Archive.
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
So with that example, with MTV News, give us a sense of what you guys were doing in advance of that website going down to make sure that people could find out, you know, I don't know, what Everlast was singing about in 2004.
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
I want to talk about government websites now because that's sort of the reason we're having this conversation today. I think most people probably think the government will take care of archiving government websites. But here we are in a new administration and websites are disappearing, coming back online, and people are worried. When you, an archivist of the internet, see government websites –
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
disappearing, coming back online, becoming unreliable. How do you react to that? Is that like better or worse than regular websites that are non-governmental going offline?
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Were you caught off guard when you saw the new administration removing web pages, removing websites?
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Sean Ramos from here with Addie Robertson, senior editor at The Verge, here to tell us about the websites. What is going on with the government's websites?
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
You're saying, you know, the WhiteHouse.gov site obviously changes administration to administration. I think to some degree people understand that, that Joe Biden's administration probably wouldn't have been posting trolly valentines about immigration, you know, a year ago this time to their Instagram account. But what we're seeing here is –
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
is websites that people need, websites that record public health information going offline, briefly, permanently, what have you.
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Is that a different degree of sort of erasing the historical record or messing with the historical record than we've seen?
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
The Wayback Machine, the Internet Archive, mostly funded through donations, the generosity of people, institutions, even governments. Is that going to be enough to archive the Internet to the extent that, you know, future generations will want to see and need?
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
There you have it. Let me ask you one last question, Mark. You guys have been at this for nearly three decades. Certainly you've saved a lot of stuff. And certainly a lot of stuff has fallen through the cracks. I wonder, is there something that slipped through the cracks before?
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
that you could tell us about that might suggest to our audience, you know, what is lost when we can't archive to the extent we want to or need to?
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Huh. And by losing that fleeting webpage, that one, you know, maybe minor, maybe major webpage about bird flu on the CDC's website, what are we losing?
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Yeah. I mean, and you are… You are comparing, in a way, a CDC website to the Protestant Reformation. But I think you mean it, don't you?
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Mark Graham, known exclusively to Amanda Llewellyn as WebMG. Check out the Wayback Machine at web.archive.org. Amanda produced the show today. Laura Bullard helped and wore the hat. Jolie Myers edited. Andrea Christen's daughter and Patrick Boyd mixed. And Andrea even made some original music. Thanks to the free state of Aftonia for the Wi-Fi. Oh, and it's today explains seventh birthday today.
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
What did you get us? Maybe show some love in the comments and the ratings and the reviews. They say it helps. And thank you for listening for however long you've been listening. If you're new to the show, feel free to browse the archive.
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Is there presidential precedent for something like this happening? Or is Donald Trump and Doge and Elon Musk and the gang like the first administration to come in and just start ripping apart websites?
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Government web pages are disappearing. Sometimes they come back. Sometimes they don't. And it's part of a greater problem we have online. Some call it digital decay. Others call it link rot. Whatever you call it, our Internet is disappearing. And we're going to help you understand why it matters and what we can do about it on the show today.
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
So some websites are disappearing, some websites are disappearing and coming back. Some websites are still up. Is there anyone who has like a full grasp of what exactly is gone forever?
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Beyond... The American people perhaps needing access to some of this information beyond any number of institutions needing access to this information. It points at a bigger problem we have on our internet right now, right? Something called link rot.
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
So you've been covering this issue, Addy, for more than 10 years. Is link rot getting worse online, or is it sort of continuing apace?
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Right. I mean, I think we can all, you know, mourn the loss of like our GeoCities homepage from 2003. Yahoo! But it's a lot rougher when like, I don't know, some billionaire buys out alternative newspaper and just decides one day to shut down its website.
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Addie Robertson, reader at TheVerge.com. When Today Explained returns, we're heading into the Wayback Machine to hear from the people trying to archive the entire internet, one webpage at a time.
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Support for today Explained comes from Hydro. Maybe you kicked off the week strong, hitting the gym on Monday with every intention of getting the rest of the week in, but then life happened, you know, your friends called you over, there was a game, there was a movie. There was a rough day of news and you needed to come home and lie on the floor for a while.
Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
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Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
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Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
So let's just have you start by saying your name and what it is you do.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Harvard, Columbia, sure. But what about everyone else? How's this playing out at state schools in, say, Florida? The answer is very differently. Josh Moody's been writing about sunshine state schools for inside higher ed schools you've been hearing less about with all the attention on the Ivy League.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
And what's going on here with the Florida state schools? Is this a rebrand to like ICU? What are they doing here?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
And this is just a fun question I love to ask while we're talking about this stuff. Where did Ron DeSantis go to school again? Yale, right? Or was it Harvard?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Okay. Anyway, have any students been detained or deported yet at these Florida state schools like we've seen at, say, Columbia?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
I think it's a betrayal to most of the student body here. And what does that mean? Were they deported?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
And do we know what specifically these students have had their visas revoked for?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
1,200 students. Does that mean there are other schools, university systems around the country that are signing these kinds of agreements with ICE, that are cooperating with ICE at this level?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
I mean, are students on the campuses of these universities upset to hear that they're signing into agreements with ICE?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
How do you feel about What's going on at ICU down in Florida fits into this other fight that we're seeing in the Northeast with Trump going to war with the elite universities.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Yeah. Tell us what is going on with your quasi alma mater right now.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
I guess on the show today, we've been talking about these two extremes in this culture war right now. You know, on one, the oldest and most prestigious university in the country, Harvard. And then over here, we've got this pocket of Florida state schools that are just like throwing up their hands and complying with ICE.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
But where does that leave, in your estimation, like everyone in between those two extremes?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Josh Moody, though he was quite pleasant when we spoke to him, InsideHigherEd.com. Miles Bryan and Devin Schwartz made the show. Miranda Kennedy edited it. Andrea Christen's daughter and Patrick Boyd mixed it. I'm Sean Ramos from This Is Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
You've surely heard about Harvard's showdown with President Trump.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Harvard University, birthplace of napalm, setting of Legally Blonde, currently fighting back against the president in his war on higher education.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Just like you've probably heard about the president's wins over at Columbia. But on the far other side of the spectrum, we've got at least 10 Florida state universities. These schools aren't fighting the president. They're going in the complete opposite direction. They're raising their hands up and waving them at ICE, saying... Come on in. Here's our roster of students.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Which is interesting, right? Because I think in this moment, this week, a lot of people are saying Harvard stood up to Trump. But what you're saying is this was a process in which they initially were placating Trump. So do we know... Where this break came from? Did Trump and company push too hard?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Yeah, let's leave Cambridge for a second and talk about what's transpired at other East Coast elite universities, Ivy League or otherwise. Let's start with Columbia because I think that's maybe the most important case.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Remind us what exactly happened there and how Columbia conceded to this administration.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Do you have, Andrew, any idea what the size of Colombia's endowment is?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
See anything you don't like? Question. Detain. Go to town. On Today Explained, we're going to take a look at the two extremes in this fight, fight, fight at American universities.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
So I think the average person out there might struggle to understand why an elite university with $15 billion in an endowment and who knows what in real estate holdings would have to cave so gravely to the Trump administration, to have the Trump administration be making administrative decisions and at their university. Can you help people understand what may have gone into a decision like that?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
I always hear that, but I don't understand it because this seems like the break in case of emergency moment. Like, if not this, then what?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
But can, let's say, Harvard in that case, with, I believe, a $50 billion endowment, I think the biggest of any research university in the world, can they... dip into that gargantuan sum of money to fill that void in these, you know, two, three, four, 50 years of the Trump administration.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Which is still funny to me, I guess, because I still can't wrap my head around not dipping into the $50 billion and instead selling bonds. They're so nervous to use their endowments.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Yeah, who am I to question Harvard's tactics? Now that Harvard is saddling up for a fight with this administration, now that they are inspiring other schools to maybe, you know, take their lead, what can the Trump administration do in response to make this uncomfortable for them?
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Andrew Jack. Never Jack Andrew. Read his work at FT.com. We at Today Explained are off to ice you when we return.
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Did you see Trump's victory speech? I'll never be doing a rally again. Can you believe it? It was a big moment for the bros. The 2024 Trump campaign was run by a woman.
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Oh, no, it's J.D. Vance's worst nightmare. Where does this movement come from? South Korea?
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
And what exactly was this a reaction to in South Korea in the 20 teens?
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Rebecca Jennings, senior correspondent here at Vox. You have a theory about this election, about a certain demographic that was important to a certain candidate. What is your theory?
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
But it was targeted at bros. Older bros, younger bros, business bros, all the bros. And on election night, Trump's new vice bro, JD Vance, got to speak.
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Okay, so our senior researcher, Laura Bullard, couldn't land on an exact number, but it looks like anywhere from 5,000 to 50,000 Korean women are part of this 4B movement. How's it landing on American TikTok that women are expressing interest in no dating, no sex, no marriage, no kids, something akin to political lesbianism?
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Which bros? There's all sorts of bros. I might be a bro. Which bros?
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Is this all just like a discourse on social media or are there actually people in the United States doing this?
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Constance Grady, read her at Vox.com. She's also got a newsletter called Next Page, where she drops book recommendations every month. I'm Sean Ramos-Verm. Victoria Chamberlain made our show today. She was mixed by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Christen's daughter, edited by Amina Alsadi and fact-checked by Laura Bullard. This is Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Right, because when I was in college, I remember everyone around me seemed super liberal, but something else is going on here.
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
And we talked about this a bit on the show a few months ago.
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
The Trump campaign in choosing J.D. Vance, certainly, but even in the types of media they were doing, were speaking to these grievances, right?
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
I saw clips of a number of these interviews where, like, someone gave him, like, a MAGA Cybertruck. He was talking to Theo Vaughn about cocaine. He was rambling about nonsense with Joe Rogan. What is happening with the whales? I've read about this.
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Was there really a strategy here, or was it just like, Trump, go on these shows and we might win some votes? Yes.
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
He's a tough guy. Who went on to shout out the all-time reigning champion of the bros.
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Do we think this is going to continue to work in future elections, or was this like a 2024 thing?
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
You know, when we opened the show, we were talking about Trump's acceptance speech when he won the election Tuesday night. A whole lot of dudes spoke. He asked his, you know, chief political strategist, a woman, to speak, and she refused.
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
And then, you know, the campaign was just so masculine. It was just a lot of dude energy. It was misogynistic. He never even pronounced his opponent's name correctly. What does this shift towards just appealing to men say for women right now?
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
And what about all the women who are like left out of that rightward shift?
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Yeah, it feels like a bit of a step back from what we saw in, say, 2016, 2017. Yeah.
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Rebecca Jennings, Vox.com. The Trump campaign was very online. So we're going to be very online when we return on Today Explained. We're going to hear about a group of women on TikTok who are responding to feeling left out of this rightward lurch in the United States. And they've come up with a solution. They are swearing off men. Bruh.
Today, Explained
The Bro Brogan presidency
Rebecca Jennings from Vox is gone, but Constance Grady, her colleague from Vox, is here. She's a senior correspondent on our culture team. Constance, we heard earlier in the show from Rebecca all about how Donald Trump's campaign was geared toward and even fired up young men in America. We heard from Rebecca that some even young women were into it, but surely not all of them.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
On the show today, we're gonna talk about potatoes. Frozen potatoes in particular. Tonight's forecast, a freeze is coming. We're gonna talk about frozen potatoes because they actually have a lot to say about where the country's at right now.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Have we seen something like this before, like competitors becoming collaborators to serve their bottom line? Are there examples of this from before the age of algorithms?
Today, Explained
Tater bot
What happened in each case with the airlines, with the giraffe? Did the government say F you back and did they have to pay hefty fines or what?
Today, Explained
Tater bot
And yet. We're back where we were back then. Surely there are arguments for letting these companies determine their prices through algorithms.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Joe Biden was, you know, relatively tough on tech. Lina Khan, the FTC, they were bringing a lot of antitrust suits. We covered some of them on the show. What appears to be coming with Trump is a much friendlier relationship with big American technology. Is Congress cooking up any legislation that would address this?
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Senator Klobuchar, we've been talking about potatoes and algorithms on the show today. Trump has been president for a few weeks now. We've got planes blowing up. We've got trade wars ramping up. We've got the federal government being remade before our eyes. We've got policies about diversity being rewritten. And yet we asked you here to talk to us about algorithms.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Sean Romsferm here with Katya Schwenk, reporter at The Lever, who has been investigating what is going on in the frozen potato industry.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
In the same room as you. I saw you guys all in there together. Oh, yeah. So you don't have to convince me that we should talk about algorithms because here we are. But I do hope that was useful for our audience. What would your bill do for them?
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Help people understand why we need new legislation on that front, because presumably we already have antitrust law. We already have the FTC. Why do we need something further?
Today, Explained
Tater bot
You've introduced a number of pieces of legislation to this and a lot of them haven't been signed into law. Do you think there's an opportunity here with these price fixing algorithms where maybe there wasn't on Ticketmaster or some anti-tech stuff?
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Katya says this big story starts with a kind of small fry, a guy named Josh.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
You were in the same room as the president and the vice president a couple of times a few weeks ago. A lot of Americans saw that.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Senator Amy Klobuchar. You can call her Senator Amy Klobuchar. Before that, you heard from Bill Baer from Brookings. Peter Balanon Rosen made our show today. We miss him already. Devin Schwartz helped. Jolie Myers helped. Laura Bullard helped. Patrick Boyd played the potato. Here's a fun one. Today Explained is doing a show about the Great Wealth Transfer.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
If you don't know what that is, I feel you. Some lucky youngish Americans are getting trillions, literally trillions of dollars from their parents. Not like individually, but when you add it all up, like... You know, parents pay the credit card bill every month. They pay the rent for that two-bedroom in Brooklyn. They throw you $200K for a down payment on your first house.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Tuition for the kids' private schools. Are you getting money from your parents? Call us and tell us about it, if you will. You can be anonymous if you want. 844-453-4448. Especially if it's a lot of money. We want to hear from you. No judgment. But we might call you back. 844-453-4448. Thanks for sharing.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Okay. So Josh takes to the internet. He sees all of the prices of potatoes going up, but also by the exact same amount. And he says, something's going on here.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
When we talk about the potato companies, who are we talking about? Would people know the names of these companies? Are they, you know, like everyday companies that you see at the grocery store?
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Unlike Nike and Adidas, maybe, for example, the big potato firms are essentially using the same software to fix the price of potato. And that software is perfectly titled Potato Track. How does it work?
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Yeah, it's hard to imagine something called potato track being illegal, but can you give us an idea of how expensive potato track might be making potatoes?
Today, Explained
Tater bot
So this whole time people might have thought my frozen potatoes cost more because of Joe Biden. And really, it was because of potentially potato track.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
People got really mad at Joe Biden. Have people gotten really mad at like Cavendish and potato track and all the rest?
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Taterbots, coming up on Today Explained. Support for the show comes from Yonder. There's a certain time and place for you to be checking your phone, and the classroom probably isn't one of them. Shouldn't school classrooms have, at the very least, the level of focus a stand-up comedian would demand of their audience? Yonder says they are committed to fostering phone-free schools.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Has Big Potato spoken about this publicly? Have they said anything to try and ease the public's concerns about the price of frozen potatoes?
Today, Explained
Tater bot
And what does that mean for Josh in the bar in D.C.? And all of us, are we going to be able to get cheaper French fries and hash browns and all the rest anytime soon?
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Katia Schwenk, levernews.com. The government, at least parts of it, would like to do something about algorithms. We're going to tell you about it when we return on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Tater bot
Support for this show today comes from Zbiotic. Zbiotic's pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic, they say. They say it was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. They say when you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut.
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Tater bot
They say it's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration that's to blame for rough days after drinking. They say their pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Just ask Claire White.
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Tater bot
You can go to zbiotics.com slash explain to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use the code explained. Check out Zbiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash explain and use the code explained to check out for 15% off.
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Tater bot
Learn more at overyonder.com. That's O-V-E-R-Y-O-N-D-R dot com. Overyonder.com without the E in yonder.
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Tater bot
Bill Baer is a fellow specifically at the Brookings Institution, but he also served in the Justice Department as head of antitrust enforcement. And he also also served as the head of antitrust enforcement at the Federal Trade Commission, known by its friends as the FTC. Bill says it's not just frozen potatoes. He says price-setting algorithms are shaping prices across our lives.
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
It's springtime. Happy springtime. Maybe your 401k is looking more like an FMLK. Maybe you're putting those plans to buy a house or a condo on hold. Maybe you're worried about a recession. I certainly am. But at least we've got springtime, you guys. You ever go out in the rain in the springtime? Feel a little sense of renewal? Yeah.
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
Can we apply any of the learnings from how we, at least in some places in the world, defeated acid rain to this plastic rain, plastic rain situation we've got currently all over the world? Yeah.
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
Though that one seems to have unified left and right. He is right on this one.
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
I think it's overblown. Personally, I've had like compostable straws that work just fine. I want to say.
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
Famously. Everyone knows about that. Wah, wah, wah. I hate plastic. Wah.
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
Okay, so you're saying fixing the plastic rain problem is really just fixing the plastic problem. But then you were also saying that like, it's in our tires, and the tires are on the road, and it's just constantly getting in the air. That just feels like unwieldy.
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
You know, Benji, a former colleague of ours, Jerusalem Dempsis, I saw recently on our cursed shared social media platform, she wrote something like, I need everyone to stop talking to me about microplastics. I don't care. Do you think at all in an era where people have bigger problems, be they, I don't know, their 401k evaporating into the air, it's hard to care, or...
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
about the microplastics that are evaporating into the air? Do you think this is too low on the priority list that it's raining plastic?
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
Avoid sea salt? That one breaks my heart. I didn't know about that one. Dang it. But then it's like, don't eat fish either because they're also from the sea.
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
News you can use. Benji Jones, Vox, thank you so much. Thank you, Sean. Benji Jones, Vox.com. You can read his piece there. It's called We Got Rid of Acid Rain. Now Something Scarier is Falling from the Sky. Avishai Artsy produced today's show. Fearlessly, Jolie Myers edited. Andrea Kristen's daughter and Patrick Boyd mixed. Miles Bryan checked the facts. This is The Rain Explained.
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
And when you say that it's in our reign, can you just help us understand what exactly that looks like? I mean, can you literally see it?
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
humor, all the possibilities ahead, tilt your head back, close your eyes Andy Dufresne style, maybe even open your mouth and take in a few drops of that high quality H2O. Maybe don't do that. It turns out there's plastic in that rain. Not like big chunks of plastic. Our old arch nemesis microplastics are in the rain. And we are going to explain.
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
Everywhere, like, does that mean there's microplastics in the rain in Detroit, Timbuktu, Fiji? Like, is there no place on Earth where you won't encounter microplastics in the rain? Or is it, you know, closer to polluted spaces, closer to cities, whatever it might be?
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
Sorry, I didn't hear anything you said. I think I had a seizure from all the plastic in my brain. And where exactly is it coming from?
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
And just for the people out there who are maybe like, yeah, there's plastic in the rain, whatever, there's plastic in my bed, there's plastic in my brain. Why do we not want plastic in the rain, Benji?
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
Today, explained back with Benji Jones, who's going to tell us how we fixed acid rain. Is that what we did, Benji?
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
Did anyone like celebrate it? Was there like a day where we said we did it, guys? We beat Acid Rain?
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
Let's take a moment now on the show to just celebrate that we, at least for now, managed to beat Acid Rain.
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
Today Explained, Sean Romsferm here with Benji Jones, environmental correspondent at Vox. And Benji's here to talk about a piece he wrote for Vox on plastic rain. But before we get there, Benji, you know, regular listeners of the show will be familiar with microplastics. But for all the irregulars out there, could you just remind them what they are?
Today, Explained
Plastic rain, plastic rain
I mean, no biggie. There was like another Taj Mahal in New Jersey at some point, right? They'll just make another one.
Today, Explained
Seoul searching
I'm definitely conscious of the things that are in my kitchen, in my pantry. I prefer products that are organic and that have a shorter label. A lot of the things that I saw on Thrive Market totally fit that bill. Also with my first order, I got a free gift from Thrive. I received a Thrive Market cookbook and some almond butter and ghee, all things that are staples in my kitchen already.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
I was just sitting here thinking, wow, Marco Rubio is on a generational comeback from 2016. Who knew we would be Marco fans nine years later?
Today, Explained
Democrats, where you at?
I worry that the American public is not going to rise up. against the seizure of power if they see Democrats collaborating with Republicans on the floor of the Senate on a regular basis to pass legislation or support nominees.
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
Elon Musk is a funny guy. You can tell because his favorite cryptocurrency is based on a cute dog, a Shiba Inu, which inspired the Doge meme, which inspired Dogecoin. I'm sorry if I'm losing you. The point is, it's Elon's fave. In 2021, he hosted Saturday Night Live and plugged it over and over.
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
Chris Edwards is with Cato, which means he's a libertarian, which means he'd love to see two trillion dollars or probably even more cut from the federal budget. He's super into the concept of Doge, but he says he would add another E at the end of the name. So I asked him how he'd pronounce that.
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
You seem to believe that there are eliminations here. They may not get us to two trillion, but if you pull a bit from here and pull a bit from there, you're going to start making progress. Tell us where you want to pull from.
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
How much would these cuts be felt by people across the country, by voters, by Americans? You know, cuts to housing, community development, highways. I mean, I realize that states have their own budgets and can fund these things, but not all states are created equal. Not all states have surplus funds to use to pick up the slack for the federal government, right?
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
We know you libertarians love to eliminate programs. Are you envisioning a United States that maybe doesn't have programs that support public housing, maybe doesn't have, you know, a federally funded transit or maybe doesn't have a corporation for public broadcasting? Is that what you'd really like to see?
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
The first thing you need to know about the Department of Government Efficiency is that Trump's put two people in charge of it, so it's off to a great start. Elon is one of them. The other is Vivek Ramaswamy. No relation. We asked Vox's Dylan Matthews to help us understand what they intend to do, but first we asked him where he stands on the federal government.
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
And you heard Dylan say that the one thing he's always expecting with Trump and let's say now Doge is the unexpected. Does the unexpected factor here mean that these business minded drain the swamp? Let's Go to Mars types could actually pull something out of the bag to get rid of these programs, to even maybe eliminate things that have so far seemingly been political third rails in this country.
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
Before we go, I would love to ask you what you think of all the corporate welfare that is going directly to Elon Musk to fund programs like SpaceX.
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
Chris Edwards, Cato Institute, Sean Ramos from Today Explained. Our show today was produced by Halima Shah. She was edited by Amina Alsadi, mixed by Patrick Boyd and Rob Byers, and we were fact-checked by Kim Eggleston. Hasta mañana.
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
And how much does this insurance company with an army attached to it cost? You say they want to eliminate $2 trillion of the budget. How many trillions is the budget?
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
He also said he would fund a moon mission entirely with Dogecoin and incessantly tweeted about the crypto. And for a minute, Tesla was accepting Dogecoin. In 2022, investors got tired of the antics and sued Elon Musk for manipulating the price of the coin. They lost, Elon won, and then Kamala lost.
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
Okay, and so a huge chunk of it is just debt service. But what is the actual spending? What's the largest share of that six-ish trillion?
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
And when you think about what this Doge outfit wants to do, they're not talking about getting rid of Social Security, are they?
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
And just to help people understand the full picture here, what are we spending on Medicare as a country?
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
Okay, so now we're into the hundreds of billions of dollars of expenditures. You mentioned that debt service was in this company. What about defense spending? Isn't that a huge chunk? Where does that fall in?
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
So Elon won again, and now our future president has rewarded Musk's loyalty with an entire government agency named for his favorite meme coin. And as you've probably heard, it's called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
OK, so then what are we talking about? So we've gone through, you know, Social Security, Medicare, defense, debt service, things that sound sort of untouchable or not really of much interest to to Trump, Elon and Vivek.
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
And if the spaceman and the young man figure out some, you know, huge cuts to welfare programs in the federal government, do they have the power to slash spending?
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
So what do you think that means for Doge and their goal to cut $2 trillion?
Today, Explained
Can DOGE cut $2 trillion?
You can read Dylan Matthews at Vox, I certainly do. When we're back on Today Explained, someone who is a glass half full kind of guy when it comes to cutting two trillion.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
What do James Van Der Beek, Dwayne Wade, and Kate Middleton have in common? They're all youngish people who have been diagnosed with cancer. And it's not just famous people. Younger and younger people are getting cancer more and more. That's fact. So we here at Today Explained wanted to figure out why and figure out how people are dealing with this.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
I love that. No one's ever said that one before. That's good. That's good. Kate told us that those immunotherapies that Dylan was just talking about are the reason she's living a full life right now.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
Kate's had cancer twice. The first time she discovered it was in 2017 after her husband found a lump in her breast.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
And can I ask how old you were when you discovered that you had this cancer back in 2017? Yeah.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
Yeah. Is it weird for you? I'm sure at times throughout this process, you've looked like you had cancer. And I'm looking at you right now for all those people listening on the radio or on their phones or in their cars or whatever it might be who can't see you. You do not look like someone, I guess, who has cancer. But I guess, is that like a perception you have to deal with?
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
I mean, that people think someone with cancer is going to look a certain way or not look a certain way?
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
What would you say to people who live in fear from what they've just heard from you?
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
Nice. And you go to one of these support groups remotely. What was it like? What's the vibe? Is it like the saddest meetup you've ever gone to?
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
Seems reasonable. Kate, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. Nice to get to know you and wishing you all the best.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
So we sent out our producer, Victoria Chamberlain, to a meetup for young adults with cancer. Victoria, where'd you go?
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
This is exactly what we wanted to focus on today, and this is exactly why we reached out to our colleague, Dylan Scott, because we wanted someone who's written about this to just tell us that we're not just imagining things, right? That... It feels like way more millennials and younger people in their 30s and 40s are getting cancer.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
And you're using some studies from the 90s to compare rates, but when did we start seeing that more young people are getting cancer?
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
What kinds of cancers, Dylan? You mentioned colorectal cancer. Is it just that one? Are there other ones?
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
OK, what Victoria learned coming up on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
What is going on in the digestive tract, Dylan?
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
If Dylan's got you feeling depressed, we're going to ask him to hit you with a dose of hope when we return on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
Today Explained, Sean Romsverm here with Victoria Chamberlain. Victoria, you go to a cancer meetup from the comfort of your own home. It's a Zoom. Who is organizing this thing?
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
OK, so there's some good news in theory, better diagnostics, better treatment. But we wanted to hear from someone who's experienced it. So we turned to someone producer Victoria met at that cancer meetup, Kate Zickel.
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
You're listening to Today Explained. OK, Andrew, go ahead, as always, give me your full name and tell me what you do.
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
All right. So we're talking today because President Trump has now been in office for a thousand days. How would you say the first thousand days have gone?
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
100 days in. For clarity, what are sort of the big themes of the second Trump administration?
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
Wonderful to hear from him. Today's episode was produced by Devin Schwartz and Victoria Chamberlain.
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
Canada. Canada. Ukraine. The Oval Office meeting with the yelling.
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
There's a strong argument that no one should be surprised by this, because when President Trump was candidate Trump out on the campaign trail, he repeatedly said he was going to go after people, places, things, institutions. Is what we are seeing, I know you were watching that carefully, is what we are seeing what Trump promised?
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
If we focus at first just on Washington and on the mix of politicians and lobbyists, et cetera, who inhabit this place, who's Trump gone after?
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
aid project esther and anti-semitism everything is computer going after harvard rewriting history you did a show on that donald trump said there are two genders the pope's funeral yep the eggs are still pricey a weird number of sig heils today i think we focus on one main theme how about that yeah which one revenge sean revenge coming up on today explained
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
The security detail for Anthony Fauci was terminated last night, sir. Do you have a comment?
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
Mike Pompeo and Brian Hook are very interesting because the security detail for them would appear to matter. These are both men that have had threats to their lives. They both worked on Iran. How unusual is what Trump did when he said no more security protection for you guys, even though there seem to be credible threats on your lives?
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
Let's move on to the colleges, universities, Columbia, Harvard, etc. We've covered on the show how Trump has gone after them. What is Trump's rationale for going after these colleges, which seem to fall mainly in the category of, like, elite colleges?
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
He seems to understand that for some percentage of the population, it's going to feel really good that he's going after Harvard. He talks less about his campaign of revenge on law firms. Again, these are elite law firms in Washington, D.C. and other urban centers. What is what is Trump doing to them?
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
Yeah, you said earlier that a lot of this is unprecedented. And I wonder, presidents can do a lot legally. They have a lot of leeway, even things that look a lot like revenge. How much of this is in the purview of what a president is allowed to do, but maybe ordinarily doesn't for reasons of self-control? And how much is actually testing the power of what the executive branch is allowed to do?
Today, Explained
100 days of payback
Vox's Andrew Prokop. Sean Ramos-Furham, you're up next. Who do you got?
Today, Explained
Trump’s government purge
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
Trump’s government purge
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
The minerals that rule our world
Hello, my name is Sean Romsferum, and I'm one of the hosts of Today Explained, and I'm here to ask you for a favor. The Today Explained team is planning for the future of the show, and we want our listeners to be a part of that future. So we're asking you to help us out by filling out a brief survey.
Today, Explained
The minerals that rule our world
Your feedback will help us figure out what's working, what's not, and how we can make Today Explained even better. Just visit voxmedia.com slash survey. I'm just caught up on what's not working. What's not working you guys? Visit voxmedia.com slash survey to give us your feedback. That's voxmedia.com slash survey.
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
We may never know what Pope Francis thought of converted Catholic J.D. Vance because he died shortly after meeting our vice president. The world will miss its cool pope who is best known for caring about the poor, rejecting the frills of the papacy, and talking smack about American politicians. But he also dropped an album once. It's a lot of prayer mixed with a lot of straight-up pop music.
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
This is Today Explained. Before Pope Francis died, the biggest Catholic news of the week was going to be the canonization of the first millennial saint. We here today explained we're on top of the news because we like to keep tabs on our millennials, but we were not nearly as on top of it as this guy.
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
There was a pizza box with a cartoon Pope Francis on it sitting right behind him.
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
On to the main event, the first, Millennial Saint Carlo Cutis. Why was this kid so important to Pope Francis?
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
To get a halo, you gotta do a few miracles. Those who are familiar with the Catholic Church will know.
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
Catherine Colitis is a research associate at the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies in England's Cambridge. We reached out to her to ask her about Conclave 2025.
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
How many new saints are there? How many did Pope Francis sign off on?
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
Yeah, you're talking about this kid in league with Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul. Is he really that big a deal for the Catholic Church?
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
And are we to assume that one day Pope Francis himself will be a saint?
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
Amen. Victoria Chamberlain and Abishai Artsy made our show today. They had help from Amina Alsadi, Laura Bullard, Gabrielle Burbey, Andrea Christensdottir, Patrick Boyd, and me, I'm Sean Ramos from This Was New Saint Explained.
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
I'm sure the church is elated to be growing in the global south, but I'm sure it's. equally miserable to be shrinking in Western Europe and North America. Why is it shrinking in Western Europe and North America? Do you know?
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
Since it's Earth Day, here's a taste of cuidar el planeta, or take care of the planet. What comes after Pope Francis? Coming up on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
Got it. So there's this tension in the Catholic Church, just like there's this tension most everywhere we look right now, between progressivism and conservatism. How is that going to factor in to this conclave to decide the next pope?
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
The conclave that elected Pope Francis met in 2013. How will this conclave in 2025 look differently from that one?
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
Is that the papal equivalent of like trying to pack the Supreme Court?
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
Okay, so who are the contenders in this conclave? Do we have some frontrunners?
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
Got it. And you didn't mention perhaps the most delicious choice, Pier Battista Pizzabala. Why is that?
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
Interesting, because another famous Catholic who had outspoken views on the conflict in Gaza was Pope Francis himself. Is that to say that that turned off this conclave?
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
So it sounds like Asian Francis is the favorite, and it sounds like Asian Francis would perhaps just, you know, be a passing of the baton, so to speak, in terms of Francis's progressive politics. What does that mean for the Catholic Church in the years ahead, if indeed Asian Francis is selected?
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
So if we get Cardinal Tagale, we might continue to see mariachi mass in the southwestern United States.
Today, Explained
Conclave (2025)
Support for today explained comes from Vanta. If I could automate 90% of one task in my life, oh no, they are putting me on this spot. I like most of the tasks I do. What do I not like? I guess I wouldn't take the trash out. I don't like the alley behind my house.
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Conclave (2025)
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Today, Explained
Back in (executive) action
So we have more oil and gas than any country in the world. And we're going to use it. We're not going to do the wind thing. Wind.
Today, Explained
Silencing the Voice of America
You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart, with spies and treason? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
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Today, Explained
The politics of fire
Today Explained is back. David Siders is here. He's an Angeleno and also a politics editor at Politico. So he's poised to help us understand how quickly these fires became...
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
What are the arguments that people like Trump, I know his vice president, Elon Musk, has opinions too. What are the arguments they're making?
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
And those restrictions may come at the cost of various farmers, for example, in Central California.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
And obviously, when firefighters are running out of water, it makes it easier to point fingers. What are the recipients of the pointed fingers saying? Gavin Newsom, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
This is Today Explained. Greg Pierce is the director of the UCLA Water Resources Group and a professor at UCLA, which means, of course, he lives in L.A. And like just about everyone else who lives in L.A., he knows people affected by these fires.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
And L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has perhaps been the biggest recipient of blame here, obviously not helping her case. She was not in the city of Los Angeles when these fires began. And this is after she pledged to not be such an international figure before she took office and maybe once she entered office. How is she responding?
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
So we've been talking about the politics that have arisen in the wake of these fires, but of course, preventing future fires is also a political issue. Where do you think California needs to focus after seeing this perhaps escalate? Again, one of the most destructive fires in its history, and certainly in terms of financial losses, economic losses.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
And yet so much of the talk right now from Gavin Newsom, from Karen Bass, from the residents who have lost their homes, is about rebuilding. And I don't want to blame or question these people who have been through this traumatic experience, especially in this moment. But when you hear that and you just think about this rationally, it feels...
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
Like that may not be the answer because this could just happen again in 5, 10, 15 years, if not sooner. What do you think it takes for us to start talking about? how we build houses in this country when it comes to preventing them from being at risk of going down in wildfires.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
How quickly, when these fires started, Greg, did you look at this and say, oh gosh, they're going to run out of water? Or did you have that thought at all?
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
David Siders, politico.com. We'd also like to thank Matt Hamilton from the LA Times. The LA Times is a great place to go if you're looking to better understand these constantly evolving fires in Los Angeles. Abishai Artsy and Travis Larchuk made our show today.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
They were edited by Amin Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and Peter Balanon-Rosen, and mixed by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Christen's daughter. It's Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
It's kind of hard to wrap your head around the scale of the catastrophic fires in Los Angeles. They've burned 40,000 acres throughout the city. That's roughly the size of Washington, D.C. Some estimates are putting the damage upwards of $250 billion. That'll make these the most... economically devastating fires in the history of the United States.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
Can you help people understand how exactly firefighters would run out of water while fighting these wildfires in the Pacific Palisades?
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
And then one thing people can't seem to get over is that in this wildfire-prone city, in a wildfire-prone state, firefighters battling these blazes somehow ran out of water.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
So it's a pretty bleak picture. If they run out of water, they're basically useless, especially if there's not some truck around that's got reserves.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
I saw someone just post a map on social media of the Palisades fire, and then they circled the ocean right next to it, and they said, you know, here's some water, guys.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
For people who just can't fathom how these hydrants ran dry and they didn't just stick a straw in the ocean, what are they missing?
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
Everyone gets that this is tragic. On Today Explained, we're gonna try to understand why this has to be political.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
What would it look like if there were the money to build these houses along with water systems that actually were sufficient to put out these kinds of fires, what would that look like and how would it be done?
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
But you're saying the expense makes this an impossibility. So absent the money to invest to make these communities safe, what do we do? It sounds like we're going to rebuild in the same neighborhoods and we're not going to make it safer to live there. Where does that leave us?
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
There's a lot of finger pointing going on in the city of Los Angeles right now at the local level, at the state level, at the federal level, incoming president level. Whose fault do you think it is, Greg, expert, water expert at UCLA, that there wasn't enough water to save every last house when the firefighters needed it?
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
Greg Pierce, University of California, Los Angeles. The politics of fire, when we're back on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
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The politics of fire
They say it's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration that's to blame for rough days after drinking. They say they're pre-alcoholic. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Just ask Claire White.
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
Okay, so from what you and Miles learned in Philadelphia, people aren't happy about the economy. They're not happy about deportations. They're not happy about tariffs. Are there parts of Trump's agenda that have more support?
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
Are there issues where, you know, Trump's actions have been like straight up popular, just like hugely resounding?
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
Mm-hmm. Borders were already closed under Biden, but I appreciate that, Nikita.
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
Okay, so it's a totally mixed bag on immigration. And it sounds like there's a lot of dissatisfaction across the board on tariffs, on the economy, on immigration, as we've heard. And we also heard that Sharita was having voter's remorse. Are these other guys? Hmm.
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
Wow. I mean, I hope it works out for them, I guess. But how do the new Trump voters compare to the diehards, to the base?
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
OK, so the base is going to base. But these new voters, if these voters are mad or disappointed or having buyer's remorse, that matters because these voters are the ones who could swing back to the Democrats in the midterms. And God forbid we speak about twenty twenty eight.
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
What about Sherita? Did she say anything about the Democrats?
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
That's a huge bummer. So, Sherita's so disappointed in both parties that she just wants to disengage.
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
Christian Paz, it means peace. Vox.com, it means voice. Miles Bryan went to Pennsylvania with Christian. It was easy for him because he lives there. Jolie Myers didn't go, but she edited the show. Patty B and Andy K mixed it. Laura Bullard sent the facts. Today Explained listener Kabir left us a comment on our show yesterday saying, we want Noelle King with no ads.
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
Okay, so Sherita is noticing the prices. We heard a lot of people were noticing the prices last year, and that was influencing their vote. Is she noticing anything the Trump administration is doing since the election, since inauguration?
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
On Today Explained, we're asking if any of his voters are experiencing voters remorse, especially those ones who are newer to his winning coalition. Younger voters, black voters, Latin voters. We're heading to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to ask them if regrets. Do they have a few? And just by way of spoiler to get this out of the way, the answer is yes, they do.
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
Donald Trump's been back in office long enough to shock or surprise just about anyone who voted for him at this point, be it the Signal scandal or the tariff turnarounds, the Jeanine Pirro of it all, the way he talks about Ozempic.
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
OK, so she's unsettled. But is she having voters remorse?
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
Did you talk to anyone else like Sherita in the ever-important state of Pennsylvania while you were there?
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
This one in particular gets me from Jose because it's not that surprising that Donald Trump, like the king of purporting to want to deport everyone who doesn't fit his, you know, ideal of an American, is deporting everyone he possibly can and maybe not even legally can.
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
A whole bunch of things when we're back. This is Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
Okay. Today Explained is back with Christian Paz, senior political reporter at Vox. Christian, Sherita and Jose are disappointed about the economy. Is that what most of these newer Trump voters are bummed about right now?
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
And we've already heard from some Pennsylvanians on tariffs on this show. But did any of the Philly voters you and Miles spoke with sound off on tariffs?
Today, Explained
Oops!... I voted for Trump
Today Explained. My name is Sean Ramos for my work at Vox. And so does Christian Paz. Christian, we had you on in September of 2024 for an episode about the presidential race titled How to Win Pennsylvania. Turns out... Donald Trump won Pennsylvania.
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
It was way back in 1961 that John F. Kennedy, uncle of fluoride, established USAID.
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
You wrote recently for Vox.com that Doge and Trump are kind of establishing a three-step playbook here for messing with the federal bureaucracy, the civil service, the government. Run us through the three steps.
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
Okay. So step one, pull the funding. Step two, pull the staffing. Step three?
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
Where did this playbook come from? Are they making it up as they go along? Because certainly we've never seen something quite like this in our federal bureaucracy.
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
Andrew Natsios served as deputy chief of staff for George H.W. Bush. And then when H.W. Bush's son became president, Natsios got to run USAID for several years. We asked him what he makes of all the USAID RAMA.
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
Okay, Elon Musk is out there saying there is gross waste in USAID. Some of the claims he's making are completely made up, complete fabrications, like these millions of dollars on condoms for Palestinians.
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
However... Do they have a point that this agency was out of control and was wasting money, was wasting U.S. taxpayer dollars?
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
Dylan Matthews, senior correspondent at Vox.com. His latest is titled The Worst Thing Trump Has Done So Far. Guess what it's about? Miles Bryan and Devin Schwartz produced the program today. Jolie Myers edited them. Laura Bullard kept it legit. And Andrea Kristen's daughter handled the mix. It's Today Explained. Today Explained
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
From the American people. And the American people gave a lot, hundreds of billions, for removing landmines in Vietnam, combating Ebola outbreaks in Africa, reconstructing Iraq and Afghanistan, more recently, humanitarian support in Ukraine and Gaza, and all for less than 1% of the federal budget. But if you go to USAID's website today... All you see is blank space, just a wall of white.
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
Can you help us understand what exactly happens around the world when a presidential administration in the United States comes in and says, we are cutting USAID off immediately, effective immediately? What does that mean for people around the planet?
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
I just want to get something clear from you. Are people going to die because of this political decision?
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
There's incredible optics of having, you know, the richest man in the history of our human race boasting about feeding USAID to a wood chipper. We know the sitting president thinks that this agency is helping a lot of, you know, quote unquote, shithole countries. And yet Marco Rubio is the one who's like most in front of this decision.
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
Without the explicit authority to do so, the president has gone and dismantled the agency. We're going to ask a guy who used to run it what a world without USAID looks like on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
And there I feel like there are disingenuous arguments being made that, you know, the whole agency is insubordinate. It's gone rogue. When I think just in the previous administration, he was begging Joe Biden to increase funding to USAID.
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
For both George W. Bush and his father, no one would consider you a raging liberal. Help us understand where this political divide came from on USAID. Why is it currently a source of conservative ire?
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
Andrew Natsios, he's a professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. President Trump and Vice President Musk are just getting started. What we can learn from USAID when we're back on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
Today Explained is back. Sean Ramos from here with Dylan Matthews from Vox, who writes for our Future Perfect section. Dylan, we just spoke with Professor Andrew Natsios, administrator of USAID during the last Bush administration. He said he was appalled to see what's happening to this agency. Why is removing this agency and targeting foreign aid such a top priority for this Trump administration?
Today, Explained
DOGE-y behavior
And are they making an example out of it so that they can do more of this kind of dismantling of federal agencies?
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
On Wednesday of last week, a man was shot in the United States, but this was not your average shooting. Almost immediately, people were celebrating his death, and not just the people you'd expect. There were moms on Facebook making jokes about it. There were several of those horny, copy-pasta text messages circulating around.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
Almost immediately, people were celebrating this homicide. What was your reaction to that?
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
We asked you here, Bob, to better understand why people would be so mad at UnitedHealthcare specifically. So before we talk about what this company does that might upset people, can you just tell us about the company generally?
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
Which I imagine makes them pretty powerful in this market.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
And what do they do with that power? How do they throw it around?
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
You just, of course, used one of the operative words in this story, because as we found out, the shooter had inscribed three words on his bullets, deny, and then also defend and depose. Is this company known for its denials?
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
What exactly does that mean, Bob, that they're using algorithms and AI to deny Medicare Advantage? How do they do that?
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
Today Explained, Sean Ramos from here with Brittany Krigstein from Gothamist at WNYC in New York. She's been covering the shooting since pretty much the second it happened.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
And is this like a UnitedHealthcare problem, or is this a systemic problem? It feels like a systemic problem. So does UnitedHealthcare get an inordinate amount of heat just because it's the biggest?
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
You can read Bob Herman at statnews.com. Miles Bryan and Hadi Mawagdi produced our show today with help from Peter Balanon-Rosen. They were edited by Matthew Collette and fact-checked by Laura Bullard and mixed by Rob Byers and Patrick Boyd. This is Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
We pretty quickly got video footage of the shooting, of this execution. What did that video footage reveal?
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
There was a UnitedHealthcare shooter look-alike contest over the weekend in Manhattan. At least one person got a tattoo of the suspect on Monday afternoon. Luigi Mangione got arrested, and then things really got nuts. He went from a few dozen Twitter followers to 300,000 overnight. People are thirsting for his six-pack. Luigi Mangione is brat.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
And we saw footage of, you know, the NYPD searching the Central Park. And people didn't seem very impressed with that footage. A lot of people were mocking the NYPD over the weekend.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
Yeah. Tell us about what happened there. How was the shooter finally caught?
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
The McDonald's where he was arrested has been review-bombed. People are saying there are rats behind the counter. People are saying Popeye's employees would have helped him get rid of the gun. Someone's got some explaining to do, and it's us. It's Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
What do we know about a possible motive here, Brittany?
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
In the days before this killer was caught... There were corners of this country where he was a folk hero fighting for the poor, the disadvantaged against this healthcare behemoth. But then they catch this guy and it turns out he's like this Ivy League, you know, scion from Maryland who's got like all sorts of money and means. Does that sort of flip the narrative a little bit?
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
Hello, my name is Sean Romstrom, and I'm one of the hosts of Today Explained, and I'm here to ask you for a favor. The Today Explained team is planning for the future of the show, and we want our listeners to be a part of that future. So we're asking you to help us out by filling out a brief survey.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
Your feedback will help us figure out what's working, what's not, and how we can make today explained even better. Just visit voxmedia.com survey. I'm just caught up on what's not working. What's not working, you guys? Visit voxmedia.com survey to give us your feedback. That's voxmedia.com survey.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
We reached out to Bob because Bob knows UnitedHealthcare.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
It's official. The United States is breaking up with Ukraine. Last night, the president suspended military aid to the country. That's about $1 billion in arms Ukraine isn't getting until it commits to negotiating peace with Russia. That move, of course, comes after a perfect meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Oval Office on Friday. They talked about playing cards.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
So what does that mean for Ukraine? Does that mean they can't win this war with the U.S. pulling out in its intelligence, you know, air support capacity?
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
I mean, if we game that out, does that mean that ultimately in about a year, once Ukraine their resources run dry and they're forced to capitulate potentially, that they may end up in the same place they're in right now with President Trump trying to force them to come to a negotiating table and to settle this thing?
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Europe seems to be, you know, making noise about stepping up in this moment. There was this huge assembly of European leaders and Justin Trudeau this past weekend.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Is there going to be a difference between the European support of, say, four or six months ago and what we see in the coming months?
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Why was it that the U.S. was so invested in Ukraine up until, say, I don't know, last Friday?
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
But hearing you say that, Shashank, it occurs to me that we're talking about our own president who isn't quite at that dictator status, but is making threats north of the border in Canada, over there in Greenland, south of the border in Panama. I mean, this is a guy who's into territorial conquest. What do you think the U.S.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Ukraine, Ukraine explains. Today Explained, Sean Ramos from here with Eric Levitz, a senior correspondent at Vox. Eric, I think people are pretty sure how the left and moderates and globalists responded to that Oval Office meeting between Trump and J.D. and Zelensky. But how did the right in the United States respond?
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
might lose in a moment like this where it seems to be transitioning to this sort of more America first mindset?
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
So America first saves us some money, maybe, you know... I can't even think I'm trying to play the devil's advocate. All I can think is that it saves us some money.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Shashank Joshi, Economist.com. Avishai Artsy produced. That's a hat trick. Devin Schwartz was producing too. Patrick Boyd and Andrea Christen's daughter mixed. Jolie Myers edited. And Laura Bullard and Kim Eggleston fact-checked. Thank you, Kim. I'm Sean Ramos for him. I'm going to be at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas this Saturday. Come say hi if you're there too.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
I know I told you I'd be talking to Rami Youssef, but Tim Walls said he wanted to chat, so we're doing that instead. Swing by the Vox Media podcast stage presented by Smartsheet and Intuit. If you're into it, learn more at voxmedia.com slash S-X-S-W, voxmedia.com slash South by Southwest. Alright, alright, alright.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Now, you know, with the Bannon comment, it sounds like he has some disdain for Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. There was a sense from what was going on in the room and from, you know, what's his name, Brian Marjorie Taylor Greene, bullying Zelensky over not wearing a suit. Do you own a suit? That people on the right maybe just don't like this president. Is that the case?
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
How big is this faction in the United States of pro-Putin Americans? Because, you know, historically speaking, Eric, Russia, Putin, bad.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Okay, so Putin, not necessarily MAGA's best friend, Zelensky, maybe not so much MAGA's arch nemesis, but this way of thinking that the United States needs to have Europe's back all the time, not exactly the MAGA platform.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Today explains looking into why humiliating Zelensky appeals to the MAGA base and what Europe plans to do about it.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
How do most Americans feel about all this, Eric? It sounds like Trump's base, Joe Rogan, not into supporting Zelensky and Ukraine. But most Americans? I mean, we've been at this for years now. You would hope most Americans are on board.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Well, Donald Trump at this point says he wants nothing more than peace between Russia and Ukraine, perhaps with a little bit of Ukraine resources on the side. Does this U.S. break with Zelensky that we're seeing now get us any closer to peace?
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Eric Levitz, read his work at Vox.com. Ahead on Today Explained, You're up to the plate? Support for the program today comes from Better Mint. You thought I was going to say something else. Better Mint asks, do you want your money to be motivated? Do you want your money to rise and grind? Do you think your money should get up and work?
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Better Mint has a lot of questions for you and for your money. Better Mint is an automated investing and savings app that they say makes your money hustle. That's a fun visual.
Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
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Today, Explained
Breaking up with Ukraine
Today Explained is back with Shashank Joshi, defense editor at leading magazine The Economist in London, England. Shashank, the United States doesn't seem to want to help anymore with this war, at least for the moment. Who's going to help Ukraine?
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
Last week, we at Today Explained brought you an episode titled The Joe Rogan of the Left. The Joe Rogan of the Left was in quotations. It was mostly about a guy named Hassan Piker, who some say is the Joe Rogan of the Left. But enough about Joe. We made an episode about Hassan because the Democrats are really courting this dude.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
You're very handsome. You look great too. You're very handsome as well. What's your protein intake? Is there a lot of protein going on?
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
How much do you feel like being kind of yoked is like part of your draw and your persona?
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
What is your read on why this male optimization getting, you know, really beefed up has like a left-right divide? And what is that divide about? I mean, I think...
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
And you try to couple self-improvement with helping others, which feels really critical in this moment where a lot of people feel lost, but that leads to them becoming more inward, introverted, even angry. How do you feel like you're faring in that battle right now to not just, you know, improve yourself inside and out, but to be more considerate of those around you?
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
If you would like it in your life, go to vox.com slash members right now. Vox.com slash members. You're going to support Vox. We're going to give you the show without ads. Enjoy.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on and he'll empty his pockets for you.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
He seems to really love her. But I think what you're getting at here is the vision that the right is selling to young men. is very compelling because it doesn't necessarily involve growth or progress. It just affirms what they already believe or maybe what their fathers and their fathers before them believed.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
But you seem to do something special, which is you create an alternate vision for young men, for young people. Yeah. And it bummed me out a little bit when you said the vibe that you get from most young people is that they're losing hope because that's a shitty place to be when you're young. What keeps you hopeful?
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
Hasan Piker, I know you're a very busy man. I know you got like eight hours of streaming right ahead of you. Thank you for sitting down with us before you got started.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
It's all I do. I can tell. I appreciate it. All right.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
All the best to you. Take care. Hasan Piker, Hasan the Hun on Twitter, Hasan D. Piker on TikTok, Hasanabi on Twitch and YouTube. Not a difficult person to find online. Producer Milos made the show today. Miles Bryan is his government name. Laura Bullard coasted. Andra Kristen's daughter and Patrick Boyd mixed. Amina Alsadi edited with a little help from Miranda Kennedy.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
So Hasan Piker is really the only major prominent leftist on Twitch, at least the only one who talks about politics all day.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
You are doing a lot of stuff and spending an enormous part of your day making yourself available to people on live streams, on social media. What do you think, what's your sense of what people come to you for?
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
And the guy they're getting their news from has some strong political opinions, beliefs, and he talks about them often but not exclusively. What would you say are your politics? How would you describe them?
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
They want his co-sign. They want his endorsement because he's young and he reaches millions of young people streaming on YouTube, TikTok, and especially Twitch. But last week he was streaming us.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
But saying that right now, saying that in 2025 when the federal government, the Trump administration right now is cutting back aid to some of the poorest people on earth, that's like inherently a left-right question. Do you consider yourself as a leftist a Democrat?
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
you make sense in that tent, which is, as you've heard a million times, a very big tent with Dick Cheney all the way to AOC, all the way to you. Do you think that tent has grown too big and that might be part of the problem the party's having right now?
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
Thank you for listening. Hasan Piker, coming up on the show today.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
I asked Tim Walls how many votes he thought Liz Cheney won the Democrats or won Kamala Harris, and he dodged the question.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
Soft how? Like, how do you mean? You think his policies aren't hard enough?
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
You have a lot of young people, 18 to 35, watching you, streaming you, engaging with you. What do you think their politics are?
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
Hello, I have something huge I wanted to tell you. My name is Sean Ramos-Verm. I host Today Explained along with Noelle King. You know us. We have seen, we have heard the comments about the ads. You don't love the ads or there's too many ads. Well, this one's for you guys. This ad is to tell you, you can now get this show without ads. I repeat, we now have an ad-free version of Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
Hasan will return to tell us more about self-improvement in a minute on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Hasan Piker explains himself
Today Explained is back with Hasan Piker. If you've never seen him, he is jacked. And we don't usually ask our guests about their appearance, but we kind of felt like we had to with Hasan because it's a big part of his persona. So here we go. You're like a bigger dude. I'm like, I'm like a skinny dude. Do you look at me and be like, why is this guy self-improving more?
Today, Explained
All eyes back on Gaza
Jake Woods' resignation comes just two months after he was asked to leave the organization. In a statement issued by the foundation, Wood made his reasoning clear. It is clear that it's not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
First, there was the one over DC. Shocking. Tragic. The president blamed DEI. Yikes. But then they kept coming. There was that medevac flight that crashed in the middle of Philadelphia. There was a deadly crash on an ice floe in Alaska. There was the Delta flight that landed upside down at Pearson in Toronto.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
You ever see Up in the Air 2009? In it, George Clooney is obsessed with status, airline status specifically.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
The miles are the goal. Clooney's got a target, 10 million miles. If he gets there, he gets to meet the chief executive pilot, and he gets there.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
The chief executive pilot is played by Sam Elliott, big gray mustache, southern drawl. Captain John Cox is basically that pilot, but in real life.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
And now, just as Americans, perhaps in greater numbers than we've seen in a decade or two, are feeling nervous about getting on a plane, are feeling less secure about the FAA, Doge has gone and eliminated something like 400 jobs from this agency. Can you help us understand what some of the jobs that got the ax were?
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
Our transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, the new one, the guy from, like, the MTV reality TV shows.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
has said that none of these jobs that were eliminated at FAA were terribly critical to safety.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
And it sounds like you're agreeing with him, you, someone who has decades more experience than him in this world.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
We also at the same time have been hearing for years that air traffic control towers have struggled with staffing, that we're something like 2,000 air traffic controllers short according to the FAA. Why is that?
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
Sean Romsverm here with Darrell Campbell, who writes about aviation for The Verge. We asked him if the planes are okay.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
Has anyone come to you in the past few weeks and said, You know, Captain, I'm really nervous about getting on a plane right now for the first time in my life, for the first time since 9-11. Have you heard that from people? I have.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
Captain John Cox, pilot, CEO of Safety Operating Systems. Victoria Chamberlain and Gabrielle Berbet made this Today Explained. Amna Alsadi edited. Laura Bullard fact-checked. And Patrick Boyd and Andrea Christensdottir mixed. Safe travels. Watch out for the cars.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
Right. And because of that, more people than perhaps I've heard since maybe 9-11 in my personal life have said, I'm second guessing flying this year.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
And then on Tuesday, while we were in a meeting talking about doing this very show, we heard a Southwest flight almost hit a private jet at Midway in Chicago. That same day, the same thing more or less happened back at DCA, the same airport that where that helicopter crashed into a commercial flight, killing 67 people back in January.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
I mean, you made a passing reference about checking Amtrak rates, but more likely, I think, in this country especially, people are going to drive instead. You are making the argument that it's still safe to get on a plane. Help me understand it in maybe comparison to driving.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
Even with all of these incidents we've seen in the past month or so in the United States and abroad, how much safer is it right now to fly than to drive?
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
On Today Explained, we're asking the question we've all been asking.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
The human mind is also, I've seen it all over social media, making a connection here. Joe Biden is president for four years. Pete Buttigieg is in charge of transportation. Planes seem to mostly work. Donald Trump takes over, puts a Fox News host in charge of transportation. Elon Musk starts cutting jobs and all of a sudden planes are crashing. Is there a there there?
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
OK, but you're saying that in the most tragic of all of these accidents, the one that's truly a tragedy here, you know, no disrespect to the plane that flipped over in Toronto, which was certainly scary. There were a host of reasons that plane crashed. Some of them were things that people had pointed out in the past that were just not dealt with.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
Some of them were, you know, like maybe a blind spot that couldn't be helped, whatever it was. Like, how do you fix a problem that is so multifaceted? And how do you do it quickly so it never happens again?
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
Support for the show comes from Yonder. There's a certain time and place for you to be checking your phone, and the classroom probably isn't one of them. Shouldn't school classrooms have, at the very least, the level of focus a stand-up comedian would demand of their audience? Yonder says they are committed to fostering phone-free schools. Learn more at overyonder.com.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
So does that mean that, you know, there's this sense that after a tragedy like this, the one that happened over DCA, that, oh, maybe it's now safer to fly, though, because everyone's going to be on their best behavior. Everyone's going to be looking out for problems. But you're saying the problems here are going to take a while to fix. Does that mean that...
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
Things didn't even get that much safer after what happened over DCA and in the intervening month?
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
Every man dies, but not every man really lives. That's right.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
Daryl Campbell, he's got a book coming out in April. It's called Fatal Abstraction, Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software. He'll be in South by Southwest in Austin to promote it on March 8th at 1130 a.m. And I'll be at South by Southwest in Austin to promote Rami Youssef on the exact same day at the exact same time so you can choose between us.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
This is your pilot speaking when we're back on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
Support for this show today comes from ZBiotics. ZBiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic, they say. They say it was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. They say when you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
That's O-V-E-R-Y-O-N-D-R dot com. Overyonder.com without the E in yonder.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
They say it's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration that's to blame for rough days after drinking. They say their pre-alcohol probiotics produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night to drink responsibly, and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Just ask Claire White.
Today, Explained
Is flying still safe?
You can go to zbiotics.com slash explain to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use the code EXPLAINED at checkout. Zbiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash explain and use the code EXPLAINED to check out for 15% off.
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
And when we look at these diet direwolves in the northern United States somewhere by way of colossal, do we feel more good or bad?
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
Well, let's talk about, to start with, what do you think of the ethics of the process by which these direwolves have come to be? Obviously, let's just think about whatever animal it was that birthed these direwolves, not a direwolf, I assume.
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
It sounds like you have a host of concerns, and throughout listening to you describe many of them, I hear the potential for death lurking at every corner, which is, I guess, an irony of this process known as de-extinction, is that it sounds like you sure got to kill a lot of animals to get to the point of bringing back an animal that, as we heard from DT earlier, might end up simply just dying off again.
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
Which I guess gets to the point of cruelty. Where is the regulation when it comes to this process of de-extinction?
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
Not a lot of people have seen these direwolves that have come back from extinction up close and personal. Like DT Maxx from The New Yorker is one of the few who has.
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
We've talked about a lot of the risks here, a lot of the drawbacks. I want to talk about some of the potential benefits. Do you see some good there if we do indeed get some medical or scientific breakthroughs out of this company's work?
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
I mean, there's been talk of rebalancing habitats, fixing mutations in endangered pink pigeons, vaccinating elephants against herpes, sharpening our tools for fighting diseases. There's apparently some potential there.
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
Dr. Klitzman, I thought of one silver lining in all of this. If what you're saying is true, someone still cares about being on the cover of Time magazine.
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
Dr. Robert Klitzman, Columbia University. Dr. Devin Schwartz made our show today. He was edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, and mixed by Andrea Christen's daughter and Patrick Boyd. My name's Sean Ramos-Viram. The show is Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
And you can't tell us where that was, but it's somewhere in the northern United States, I've read. Yeah.
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
And now we know that apparently direwolves are back A startup called Colossal says they've brought these pups back from extinction. They say they've got three of them, but are these direwolves they brought back actually direwolves? And whether they are or aren't, should we be trying to bring direwolves back? Like, why? We are going to ask on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
Direwolves, not just a thing from Game of Thrones, not just Jon Snow's best friend. Direwolves walked the Americas for millennia, up until about 14,000 years ago when maybe their primary food source dried up or humans hunted them to extinction, no one was taking notes. But we know they were a bit bigger than gray wolves, they ate a lot of meat, and their bite could crush bones.
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
Tell us more about this company that brought back the diet direwolf version that you saw. We could do this all day. Yeah. It's called Colossal. It's run by a dude named Ben Lamb. Who is he? What is he trying to do here?
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
How much money have they raised to do this, and how much is this company that they're running Colossal worth at this point?
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
And I ask you this not because like Paris Hilton or Peter Jackson, I'm planning on investing in this company, but because I wanted to establish that people are taking these people seriously. And now that we've established that, do us a favor and tell us just how hard it is to do what this company says it wants to do.
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
You mentioned someone named Beth Shapiro, who's now, I think, one of the leading scientists over at Colossal. And someone like Beth Shapiro comes from, I believe, UC Santa Cruz out in California, where she was doing versions of this kind of work, if not trying to, you know, revive the woolly mammoth. Can Colossal work faster than your, I don't know, typical elite university lab?
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
To bring this back to where we started, DT, with Romulus and Remus, these two diet direwolves. What happens to them? I do. I'm going to stick with it. What happens to them? Where do they go?
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
When you realized that these diet wolves would just die out, did that bum you out? What did you make of that?
Today, Explained
The startup that cried dire wolf
DT Maxx, read his profile of the direwolves over at newyorker.com. The ethics of de-extinction, when Today Explained is back.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
It's officially been a month now, and to his credit, President Trump waited almost an entire month before doing a 180 on U.S.-Russia relations. Trump had a nice long phone call with Vladimir Putin about a week ago. Ukraine was not invited.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
What sense do we have of what exactly the peace deal might be, the one that the Trump administration is shopping around for?
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
Vladimir Putin got his start as a spy, and now our top spy in the United States has a soft spot for Vladimir Putin. In fact, some people sincerely believe she's a straight-up Russian operative.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
A lot of people are upset right now because it seems like the United States is taking a rather sympathetic view towards Russia's side of this war, towards Russia's arguments around this war. Do we have any idea why that is?
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
Right. I mean, I think the new director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has said that Ukraine and NATO provoked Putin into starting this war. Donald Trump has said similar things. Is the general vibe that the United States is sending to Europe, to Ukraine, to Russia, that Ukraine bears some responsibility here and thus will have to pay for it?
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
You're in Kiev right now. When you talk to Ukrainians about what's happening here, what's the feeling on the ground?
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
Matthew Luxmore, known at Today Explained as DeluxeMatthewWSJ.com, Avishai Artsy produced, Amina Alsari edited, Laura Bullard fact-checked, Patrick Boyd and Andrea Christen's daughter mixed.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
The rest of the team includes Harima Wagdi, Amanda Llewellyn, Peter Balanon-Baby, Miles Bryan, Travis Larchuk, Victoria Chamberlain, Devin Schwartz, Jolie Myers, Miranda Kennedy, Noelle King, and welcome, Gabrielle Burbey. Believe it or not, we use music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Today Explained is distributed by WNYC. The show is a part of Vox.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
Support our journalism, if you will, by joining our membership program today. Go to vox.com slash members to sign up. And have you heard about the Log Off newsletter? It's a Vox product that tells one story about what happened in Trump world each afternoon. So then you can just log off and forget about him for the rest of the night. Consider it. We'll be logging off in the meantime.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
And then on Tuesday, Trump blamed Ukraine for being invaded by Russia. And then to top it off, on Truth Social yesterday, he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator without elections. Shortly thereafter, on that same website, Trump called himself a king. Totally cool, normal stuff. But you might be old enough to remember the United States being on Ukraine's side of this war.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
Steve Kahl is a senior editor at what I'm told is a leading magazine, The Economist, and he's here to help you understand who's just been put in charge of U.S. intelligence and how that might shift the course of U.S. foreign policy.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
On Today Explained, we're getting used to this new normal, being BFFs with Russia. And we're going to start with the person Trump has put in charge of U.S. intelligence, a Russia sympathizer with no intelligence experience to speak of, named Tulsi Gabbard.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
Good for her. How does she go from becoming a Republican to becoming one of the most important players in our intelligence community, if not the most important player?
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
So those are her first tasks from her boss. But obviously a big part of her job will be countering U.S. adversaries. China comes to mind. Russia historically would have come to mind. But what does putting Tulsi Gabbard in charge of our national intelligence say about Russia? where we're heading with Russia and about what Trump wants to accomplish with Russia.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
Steve Call, Economist.com. Whatever you want, Vladimir. Ahead on Today Explained. Hello, podcast listeners. I'm Sean Romsom here from the Today Explained show, and I've got some news you can use. We're taking Vox Media podcasts on the road and heading back to Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest Festival.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
March 8th through 10th, we'll be doing special live episodes of hit shows, including our show, Today Explained. Where should we begin? With Esther Perel. Pivot.com. A touch more with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe. Not just football with Cam Hayward. And more presented by Smartsheet. The Vox Media podcast stage at South by Southwest is open to all South by Southwest badge holders.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
I'll be the guy in a Mr. T costume. We hope to see you at the Austin Convention Center soon. You can visit voxmedia.com slash SXSW to learn more. That's voxmedia.com slash SXSW.
Today, Explained
Vatever you vant, Vladimir
Sean Ramos from Today Explained, here now with Matthew Luxmore. He covers the war in Ukraine for the Wall Street Journal, a war whose end the United States wants to accelerate with Russia the victor.
Today, Explained
The price of paying college athletes
In every company, there's a whole system of decision makers, challenges, and strategies shaping the future of business at every level. That's why we're running a special three-part Decoder Thursday series, looking at how some of the biggest companies in the world are adapting, innovating, and rethinking their playbooks.
Today, Explained
The price of paying college athletes
We're asking enterprise leaders about some of the toughest questions they're facing today, revealing the tensions, risks, and breakthroughs happening behind closed doors. Check out Decoder wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
Luigi Mangione is supposed to be back in court on Friday, and court looks different when Luigi shows up.
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
Which I think is hard to imagine today, but hundreds of thousands of Americans were mailed a terrorist's manifesto.
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
And it's very readable. It's got this sort of numbered format where the whole thing is broken down into categories with these sort of points made in every category. It's not the hardest read in the world. It isn't the scrawlings of a madman. It's the ordered philosophy of... A terrorist. He writes that I think a lot of people could find some truth in that statement.
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
Today Explained, Sean Romsom here with Samantha Max from Gotham. Samantha, you've been covering Luigi Mangione since we found out about Luigi Mangione. He's scheduled to be in federal court tomorrow. What can you tell us about what we can expect from this hearing?
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
How was this manifesto received in the 90s when it was published by the Washington Post and delivered to, you know, front porches around the country?
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
So who are the types of people who are glomming on to this manifesto?
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
Which is so interesting because Luigi Mangione has... been hailed as something of a hero on the left, right? How is it that Kaczynski appeals to a figure like Mangione, but also neo-Nazis?
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
This man ultimately is advocating for murder, if not mass murder, to achieve his aims. Does he ever show any remorse for that?
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
And even though his vision is apocalyptic, it was hugely influential and continues to be significantly influential.
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
Sean Fleming, University of Nottingham, famous for its sheriff. Hadi Mawagdi made our show today. Jolie Myers edited. Laura Bullard fact-checked. Patrick Boyd and Andrea Christen's daughter mixed. This Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
And we know Pam Bondi came out and said that Mangione will be facing the death penalty in this federal case. Is that right?
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
Is the state of New York taking issue with the call for the death penalty? Because I believe in New York State, they do not execute prisoners anymore, yeah?
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
What'll be different this week is that it'd be the first time Mangione appeared since the federal government, the Justice Department, Pam Bondi, Donald Trump have said they would like to seek the death penalty in this case. We're gonna ask how that's gonna go over in New York on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
And this was a mass murderer with fealty to ISIS that a jury could not decide to put to death. Does that mean it's not very likely that Luigi Mangione, an alleged murderer who killed allegedly one person... Who's received unprecedented amounts of letters and has a fan club showing up to court whenever he might be there, who's on the face of votive candles.
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
Does that make it much less likely that that a New York jury is going to put him to death or does that remain to be seen?
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
You can follow Samantha Max's coverage of Luigi Mangione at Gothamist.com. Last year, Mangione went on Goodreads to leave a review. He wrote, It's easy to quickly write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies, but it's simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
He was writing about the Unabomber's Manifesto, and we are going to talk about the enduring influence of that text when we return on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Trump v. Mangione
And then it took on a life of its own. Sean Fleming is a research fellow at the University of Nottingham. Lately, he's been doing research on industrial society and its future by one Theodore Kaczynski. He's better known as the Unabomber. The text is better known as the Unabomber's Manifesto. We reached out to him to ask how it may have influenced Luigi Mangione.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
Ben says Joel Kaplan is a Forrest Gump type figure. He went to Harvard. He was a good progressive college student. But then the Gulf War starts and he finds himself feeling more conservative. He graduates, enlists. goes to law school and comes out a proper Republican, clerks for Antonin Scalia at the Supreme Court, becomes best buds with Brett Kavanaugh.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
And then he joins up with George W. Bush, serves all eight years in the Bush administration. And then he gets out and he's like, what's next? And that's just when his old pal from Harvard, Sheryl Sandberg, calls him up and offers him a job.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
How unusual is it for a tech company to have a, you know, individual go from essentially top lobbyists to top policy advisor, top policy programmer for the platform.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
Content moderation and fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram is kind of like oxygen. You can't see it, but it's out there, and it's essential to your user experience. It's getting rid of all the illegal material, the hateful material, and the spam. John Herman has been writing about the changes Meta's making to content moderation for New York Magazine.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
OK, Ben, you've helped us get to know this shadowy figure at Facebook, at Meta. He's been lurking around our government and our platforms for decades. But what does all of this mean for the next four years of Meta, Mark and Donald?
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
And if you're like, content moderation is boring, a reminder that without it, we have seen real-world political violence.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
Ben Wofford, he writes for whomever he pleases. Most recently, it was Business Insider. The piece was titled MAGA's Man Inside Meta. Businessinsider.com. Amanda Lou Ellen produces for today. Explained Amina Alsadi edits. Laura Bullard is our senior researcher. Andrea Kristen's daughter and Rob Byers mix it up. Goodbye for now.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
Mark Zuckerberg's in his cool era. He's letting his hair grow out. He's wearing black t-shirts with a gold chain. He covered Get Low with T-Pain. That's him singing. Mark Zuckerberg is also in his MAGA era. He's throwing a party at Trump's inauguration next week. He went on Joe Rogan to say companies need more masculine energy. He's ending Meta's DEI initiatives.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
Now Zuckerberg is killing this program. Zuckerberg posted a video explaining his reasoning. What did you make of the video? He looked so good with his hair and his T-shirt.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
He's taking tampons out of the men's bathrooms at his offices. He's getting rid of the non-binary and transgender themes on Meta's Messenger app. But perhaps most important of all, he's changing Meta's content moderation and fact-checking policies. We are going to poke around the new Zuck Your Feelings Metaverse on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
And tell us exactly what the new policy is. Is it just we're going to let you guys hash it out in the comments? Kind of.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
You brought up the transition Twitter made when Elon took over. My experience as a user of that regrettable platform is my feed started getting... more confusing quite frankly there was more spam coming in to my dms there were more verified users who were just you know random people who wanted to amplify their voices it got harder to tell
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
misinformation or even disinformation from reliable information. I started seeing porn in my feed more often, like the whole thing just got messier. Is that what people should expect from their experience on Facebook or Instagram right now?
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
John Herman is a tech columnist and intelligencer from New York Magazine. You can read and subscribe at nymag.com. There's one guy over at Meta who's in charge of getting the flavor of censorship just right. And his name's not Mark, it's Joel. We need to talk about Joel next on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
Sean Ramos-Verm here with Ben Wofford, who considers himself a Kaplanologist, which is to say he's written a lot about a guy named Joel Kaplan for places like Wired and Business Insider.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
Donald Trump's in the Middle East doing the kinds of things you might expect a U.S. president to do while in the Middle East. He's been shaking hands with leaders, posing for photos. Here's some Fox News coverage. Donald's been doing diplomacy. He made a big announcement on Tuesday.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
Are there specific instances in which he's used the pulpit of the presidency to promote his meme coin or his crypto interests?
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
And how does that go for him? How does he ramp it up? And who's doing it? Is it Trump ramping it up or is it Eric and Don Jr. ?
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
When you think of Barack Obama and Netflix or his like weird podcast with Bruce Springsteen and however much money he made for that, you're talking about stuff a president's doing post-presidency. How is Trump reentering office complicated his crypto side hustle?
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
Okay, so help me set the stage for this trip to the Middle East this week because I read that even before President Trump showed up, his large adult sons were crisscrossing the region. What exactly were they doing?
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
Will Gottsagen's most recent piece for The Atlantic is titled The Real Trump Family Business Is Crypto. Read it at theatlantic.com. Victoria Chamberlain produced today. Jolie Myers edited. Laura Bullard was on fax. Andrea Christen's daughter and Patrick Boyd were on sound. I'm Sean Ramos for them. This is Today Explained.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
And just to be clear here, when the Trump Corporation is making multi-million dollar, upwards of billion dollar deals in the Middle East, is Donald Trump benefiting?
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
And on Wednesday, Trump met with Syria's new president, Ahmed al-Sharra, a former al-Qaeda leader who used to be on the U.S. terror list, I might add.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
I'm old enough to remember Donald Trump being very upset that Hunter Biden may have been, you know, peddling deals off of his daddy's name.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
But that's another story. Let's talk about the jet you mentioned. What exactly is going on? Because I'm no presidential historian, but I'm struggling to recall a moment where a gift this large was being offered to a happy-to-accept-it American president.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
But while in the Middle East, and before he even got there, the president and his family have also been doing things you'd never expect a U.S. president and his family to do. Making hotel deals, golf course deals, plane gift deals, crypto deals. All the president's side hustles on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
Okay, so everything we've talked about so far is just sort of setting the stage for this trip to the Middle East and setting, I guess, the possibilities for various ethical concerns and conflicts. What is the president hoping to accomplish broadly on this trip that he's on? Investment deals.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
And ethical quandaries be damned? I mean, just to bring this back to where we started, his kids show up first, make a bunch of deals. You're saying some of those deals are pretty close to, if not involving, foreign governments. And then the president rolls in, makes a bunch more deals, and also is dealing with those same actors. Yeah. in the process.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
Read Eli Stoeckels at politico.com. Eli was mostly talking about things we can track, but when we're back at Today Explained, we're gonna talk about Trump's harder to track deals, the president's billion dollar crypto portfolio. Support for today explained comes from Built Rewards. Not B-U-I-L-T, but B-I-L-T. Let's talk about points. Not Point Guards. Not the Pointer Sisters.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
Not the classic 1991 Keanu Reeves surf noir movie, Point Break. Shoutouts to Johnny Utah. Although, if you do want to talk about Point Break, nobody's stopping you. Not enough people are talking about Point Break. They've let me spend this much of this ad talking about Point Break. And for that alone, Built Rewards, I salute you. Built Rewards lets you earn points on your rent.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
They say you can also gain access to exclusive neighborhood benefits in your city, things like extra points on dining out, complimentary post-workout shakes, and unique experiences that only Built members can access. You can start paying rent through Built and take advantage of your neighborhood benefits by going to joinbuilt.com slash explained. That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T dot com slash explained.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
Joinbuilt.com slash explained. to sign up for Built today. Support for this show today comes from Zbiotic. Zbiotic's pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic, they say. They say it was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. They say when you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
They say it's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration that's to blame for rough days after drinking. They say they're pre-alcoholic. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Just ask Claire White.
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All the president’s side hustles
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Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
Today Explained is back with Will Gottsagen, who writes about crypto for the Atlantic.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
It's interesting you say that because we opened this show today focusing on the Middle East and we were talking about how the large Trump son's Although Barron's large, too. He's the largest. The older Trump adult sons have been crisscrossing the Middle East, making deals, golf courses, hotels, villas. But you're saying that's not even the crux of Trump Inc. anymore. It's crypto.
Today, Explained
All the president’s side hustles
And I mean, the most pertinent, I suppose, is to just talk about how much money is being made here. How much money is being made here, Will?
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
And you say these are well-founded national security concerns, but I'm still hearing, you know, there's concern over data. There's concern over market dominance. Is it just concern or is there something the United States government can point to to say, look what they do with our data? Look what they did in X instance. This company that we were allowing to enter the U.S. market then took U.S.
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
Okay, but still there, we're talking about what they could do. It feels a little more on this side of paranoia, boogeyman, than look what they are doing. Is that fair?
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
When it comes to drones and LIDAR, I think people can probably infer what the perceived threat is there with routers. Is it just that, I don't know, the files are in the computer, like they're going to figure out how Americans are using their internet?
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
Today explained here with Vox's senior TikTok correspondent. No, sorry. He covers the Supreme Court. Ian Millhiser, the U.S. government passed a law requiring TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the company to someone who's perhaps not controlled by the Chinese government. But now, this very week, the Supreme Court is is entering the chat. How come? Right.
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
And I just assumed that my router was probably made in China or something like that.
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
Do Chinese companies make up a big part of these markets? You were saying that there are these concerns about market dominance.
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
And does banning them help create better markets in the United States to create viable alternatives?
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
Heather Somerville, Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com, Avishai Artsy, and Travis Larchuk made our show today. Welcome, Travis. They were edited by Amin Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, and mixed by Patrick Boyd and Rob Byers. It's Today Explained.
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
The first time we covered a potential TikTok ban on Today Explained was way back in August of 2020, when the president at the time said he wanted to ban it.
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
And it's funny you mention Donald Trump, once and future president, formerly a fan of a TikTok ban, but now coming back around and asking the government to pump the brakes, yeah?
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
And then again again in April when said ban was signed into law.
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
OK. TikTok has had plenty of time to prepare for this eventuality of this ban in the United States. Have they figured out with ByteDance, the parent company, a new owner, an American owner?
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
Now the TikTok ban is heading to the Supreme Court of the United States. I'm Sean Ramos from Get Ready With Me on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
If this ban goes through as you seem to think it will and the US government will have successfully stepped in and pushed this media company out of this country essentially, what does that tell us about the First Amendment in this young year of ours, 2025?
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
Ian Millihiser, his article is titled, TikTok Should Lose Its Big Supreme Court Case. Read it at Vox.com. Ahead on Today Explained, it's not just TikTok. The United States is in its ban everything from China era.
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
Today Explained is back. Ian Millhiser is gone because he just covers the Supreme Court. We want to talk about more of the technology, national security side of this story. So we reached out to Heather Somerville from The Wall Street Journal, who happens to cover national security issues. And technology. Heather, is TikTok the only Chinese entity that the U.S.
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
government wants to ban, or are there others? I know we don't have electric vehicles from China, but what else is going on on the national security side?
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
Okay, so let's just run through them all. You said drones, cars with Chinese hardware software, LIDAR, routers, biotech. I mean, what is the paranoia for each one of these? Or is paranoia a loaded term?
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
What's the best thing you've ever stumbled upon on Wikipedia? One of my favorites was buried deep in the Rice Krispies entry, better known as Rice Bubbles in Australia and New Zealand, according to Wikipedia. I digress. About four or five scrolls deep, right near the end of the entry, there's a subheading which reads Snap, Crackle, and Pop Sound.
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
His use of this office so far, is it in line with previous U.S. attorneys for the District of Columbia or is he, I don't know, pushing the boundaries?
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
So you write a lot about Wikipedia and you even wrote a book about Wikipedia called The Editors. Does that mean that you are a Wikipedia editor?
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
And maybe that's the reason he hasn't been confirmed by the United States Senate. You mentioned that there was some trouble there. What's it look like?
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
We know that the president's had a pretty successful track record with his appointments this time around. What has Ed Martin said or done that is so strong that it's turning off Republicans?
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
Ed Martin has a lot of baggage and a bone to pick with Wikipedia. If all the baggage prevents him from being confirmed as US attorney in DC, does that mean that Wikipedia gets a free pass and doesn't have to move to Germany or whatever?
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
Stephen Harrison writes about the website Wikipedia for other websites, but he also wrote about it in his debut novel, The Editors. You can find it wherever you find your books. Just as we were about to hit publish on this episode, we got the news that President Trump would be withdrawing Ed Martin's nomination as U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia.
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
He said, I just want to say Ed is unbelievable. And hopefully we can bring him into, whether it's DOJ or whatever, in some capacity. Unbelievable. We got the news just as we were sitting down to lunch to celebrate our executive producer Miranda Kennedy's birthday. Gabrielle Burbay shares the birthday with Miranda.
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
She made our show today with help from Heidi Mwagdy, who is somehow also celebrating Miranda's A birthday within a week here in the month of May. Also, shout-outs to Jolie Myers, whose birthday we missed. It's tourist season, folks. Amina Alsadi edited with footnoting by Laura Bullard. Andrea Christen's daughter mixed the show along with Patrick Boyd. This has been Today Explained.
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
So you seem like the person to ask, what is happening with Wikipedia right now?
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
It states that the cereal is marketed on the basis of the noises it produces when milk is added to the bowl. The onomatopoeic noises differ by country and language. And at this point, I was like, go on. Turns out in Danish, it's piff, poff, puff. In Swedish, it's piff, paff, puff. In German, it's nisper, nasper, nusper, kkk. Weird. Spanish, pim, pam, pum. Finnish, ricks, racks, pocks.
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
In 2018, The Atlantic magazine called Wikipedia the last bastion of shared reality. It sounds like from what you're saying is going on right now with Wikipedia and the Trump administration, that's not the case anymore. How long has it been the case? Is this simply a Trump thing or is there something deeper going on in the United States?
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
French, crick, crack, crock. I love Wikipedia. Most of us do. But the Trump administration doesn't. And they're threatening the free encyclopedia. How come? On Today Explained.
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
Is there bias on Wikipedia? I mean, obviously it is footnoted, but I remember, you know, back in college when my professors would say like, and don't use Wikipedia as a source, as if it were some sort of, you know, information wasteland. I feel like it eventually grew out of that negative space it was in. And now it feels like it's, what, upsetting the right.
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
So Wikipedia throughout the years gets more and more credible, more and more thorough. And yet here we are in 2025 and it's in the crosshairs of the federal government. How has Wikipedia responded to this threatening letter from the Trump administration?
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
More ahead with Stephen on the man behind this threatening letter to Wikipedia. Will his story intersect with Nazism? Place your bets now. This is Today Explained.
Today, Explained
What did Wikipedia do?
Okay, Today Explained is back. Stephen Harrison, when we left off, we were talking about this guy, Ed Martin, who is at the center of this Trump administration fight with Wikipedia.
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
It's a big week for baby KJ. After spending nearly his entire first year of life in the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, he is going home. Baby KJ is not like your average baby. He was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease shortly after birth, something that roughly one in a million babies have. But baby KJ got a genetic treatment for it that no baby has ever had. And it worked.
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
Their genes were reportedly manipulated to see if we could create humans who could be resistant to HIV, smallpox, and cholera. That seems good, right? But there was a lot of debate. We invited bioethicist Francoise Baylis to tell us why.
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
How long have we as a species been trying to alter our DNA or thinking about it?
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
This is Today Explained. Jason Mast writes about science, medicine, and biotech over at Stat News. Lately, he's been writing about baby KJ. Who is adorable. We asked him to tell us about the baby.
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
Is anyone regulating this process? I mean, thinking about what's going on with the, I don't know, scientific community in the United States right now, funding is being pulled, regulations are being revoked. What's going on in the rest of the world when it comes especially to gene editing?
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
Does baby KJ get us closer to both more treatments like his and also maybe more people wanting to edit genes?
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
Francoise Bayliss is a Distinguished Research Professor Emerita at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Our episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlain, edited by Miranda Kennedy, fact-checked by Abishai Artsy, and mixed by Patrick Boyd and Andrey Akramov. Kristen's daughter.
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
I'm Sean Ramos from This Is Today Explained from Vox, which is offering membership at 30% off the typical rate right now. Membership includes ad-free podcasts. FYI, you can support our work at vox.com slash members. Also, Vox lost one of its biggest supporters to cancer this week. Alison Rockey was one of the earliest employees here and one of our most consequential leaders.
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
She had a hand in managing just about everything Vox launched in the first several years of its existence, including Today Explained. She hired me. She hired Noelle. She helped get us on the radio. She was fiercely dedicated to this place. and its mission of helping people understand the news, and she will be fiercely missed. Thank you, Allison.
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
Because this is like this is like a first time deal. This is like an experiment.
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
And for people who are wondering how you edit a living baby's DNA exactly, or a monkey or a mouse, how do you do it?
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
It sounds very technical, but, like, is another word you could use for this... miracle?
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
Is there anyone who's saying, hold the line? Maybe this isn't the best idea? Is there anyone pushing back?
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
Read Jason Mast at statnews.com. People don't seem to have too many issues with using CRISPR to edit the genes and save the life of a living, already born baby KJ, but do not get people started on the embryos. We're actually going to get someone started on the embryos when we're back on Today Explained. Today Explained Support for the show today comes from Upwork.
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
We all know that working at a small business means you wear too many hats, and you shouldn't be wearing so many hats. Hats, by design, are meant to be one per head. You heard it here first. Upwork says companies at every stage turn to them to find top talent in IT, web dev, AI, design, admin, support, marketing, and more. You need multiple people to wear all those hats. Upwork is easy.
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Baby’s first gene edit
There is no cost to join. And once you register, you can take your business to the next level. You can post a job today and hire tomorrow with Upwork. You can visit upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is upwork.com to post your job for free and connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That is upwork.com, upwork.com.
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Baby’s first gene edit
Hello, my name is Sean Romstrom, and I'm one of the hosts of Today Explained, and I'm here to ask you for a favor. The Today Explained team is planning for the future of the show, and we want our listeners to be a part of that future. So we're asking you to help us out by filling out a brief survey.
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
Your feedback will help us figure out what's working, what's not, and how we can make Today Explained even better. Just visit voxmedia.com slash survey. I'm just caught up on what's not working. What's not working, you guys? Visit voxmedia.com slash survey to give us your feedback. That's voxmedia.com slash survey.
Today, Explained
Baby’s first gene edit
Scientists used CRISPR technology to edit the genes of baby KJ to save his life. But let us not forget that we have also, as a human race, used CRISPR to edit the genes of an embryo.
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
You know the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli? He's like, you know, the closest thing we have to a living Walt Disney. Not a big fan of AI. When someone years ago showed him an AI animation, he responded, I feel like we are nearing the end times. We humans are losing faith. In ourselves.
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
So interesting. OK, well, then based on what else we know, what else do we know people can do to safeguard their shit?
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
Oh, sorry. I thought you were going to say don't travel at all. And I was like, bummer, man.
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
Okay, so there's a bunch of measures you could take regarding your device. You know, chief among them, of course, not traveling at all, or certainly maybe not bringing that phone with you with all the J.D. Vance faces and stuff. What if you're detained? What happens then?
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
Huh. Yeah. So ICE picks up the tab on the removal flight, though. That's nice.
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
So for legal citizens, is there less of a concern when, I don't know, you're traveling back into the United States from a fun trip to Mexico City that, like, the joke that your brother sent you in your Instagram DMs is going to get you in trouble with the U.S. government?
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
But ultimately, I guess this is a bit of a win for the Trump administration because they don't want people coming here. And ultimately, this will probably chill people's desire to come to the United States, right?
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
I will say I live in Washington, D.C., as you know, and it is peak cherry blossom season right now. And it does not appear to have killed peak cherry blossom tourism. But who knows? By this summer, what we'll see, I guess.
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
No, I love the tourists. Bring it on. NicoleNoreaVox.com. Hari Mawagdi and Amanda Llewellyn made our show today. Jolie Myers edited it. Laura Bullard fact-checked it. Andrea Christen's doctor and Patrick Boyd mixed it. It's Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
So it's essentially like vibes like he wants the vibes to be we are resetting the conversation on deportations. Right. Is it happening across the country? It seems like it's been focused on East Coast universities and points of entries. But what's the what's the broad picture look like?
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
That did not stop the internet from posting AI generated versions of themselves and just about everything else in Studio Ghibli style last week. And the White House even got in on the action. Their contribution was a Studio Ghibli style version of a real life photo of a woman crying while being arrested by an immigration officer.
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
And I think in these cases, it's like most striking because people assume that these are students exercising their First Amendment rights as residents of this country. Do students who are here on visas not have First Amendment rights?
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
That comes after a bunch of other White House deportation memes, including a Valentine's Day poem threatening illegal entries with deportation and a post of an ASMR video of a deportation flight. Trump, too, is trying to do the most on immigration, the illegal kind, but also the legal kind. That's ahead on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
Hmm. And we haven't seen any American citizens being picked up for, I don't know, speaking their mind, right? Like, this has been relegated to people who hold visas?
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
Okay. What about all the people who are getting detained at points of entry?
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
And that's surely having an effect on how many people want to come to this country right now, be they from Russia or Western Europe or South America or Asia. Do we have numbers that suggest that that just demand to come to the United States, be it for for some nice spring tourism or to visit family, you know, going down?
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
Hackman, Michelle, Journal, WallStreet.com, WSJ. Next coming up, how to maybe make your life a little easier when you're trying to enter the United States.
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
Today explains Sean Rama's firm American, but let's just say I know some Canadians. In fact, I know a whole bunch of them who tried to enter the United States last week, and before they did, they were going through their phones, deleting stuff, group chats, DMs, the memes, which had us wondering, can Customs and Border Protection legally search your phone?
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
We asked Nicole Nerea at Vox, who's been writing about what to know when you're entering the United States.
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
And before we do, let me ask you, what do we know is happening with people and their phones? I've heard various things from friends who are trying to come into this country from, say, I don't know, Canada. Canada's...
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
Who are worried that something might happen to their phone. So I heard if you disable face ID, they can't have you punch in your number so you can just say you're not going to do it. I've heard of people deleting all of their group chats where there are Trump memes or jokes about the president.
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
I've heard of people leaving their personal phones at home when traveling abroad. Even people who are American citizens just traveling with their work phones. Like, what is going on thus far?
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
Michelle Hackman writes about immigration for the Wall Street Journal. Lately, that's meant writing about people who are here illegally, sure, but also people who are here totally legally. We asked her how to make sense of all that.
Today, Explained
Not Coming to America
Do we know if you just don't have a phone, if that makes you like more suspicious or less suspicious? Because, I mean, everyone has a phone now, but like one surefire way to not get in trouble for what's on your phone is to obviously not travel with your phone. But is that just like a red flag, like someone traveling without a suitcase after 9-11 or something like that?
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
President Jimmy Carter lived long enough to imagine how he'd be remembered, and then some. He was the first president to make it to triple digits, but that's a weird accomplishment. Former peanut farmer comes up pretty quickly in all the obits. Kind of meh in office. Pretty much goat status post-presidency. And just about every obituary mentions one speech he gave. It wasn't...
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
Kevin Mattson, you wrote a whole book about Jimmy Carter's crisis of confidence speech. Tell us, how did Americans respond to this speech in the days and weeks after it was given?
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
Of course, This speech becomes known as Carter's malaise speech because it becomes a political cudgel against him.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
This is Today Explained. On a Sunday night in the summer of 1979, President Carter got on TV to speak to the country from the Oval Office. On Today Explained, we're going to look back at what he had to say with Kevin Mattson, a historian who wrote a whole book about that one speech.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
I was just a wee lad when Reagan was in office. But whenever I read about Reagan's tenure or see or hear footage from his speeches, his campaign rallies, it feels like his entire vibe was one of, you know, unquestioning love of country, like confidence without crisis. Yeah. But not the kind of confidence Carter was calling for in his speech.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
Is that sort of a tragic irony of his presidency that he's followed by this guy who exudes this immense confidence but without any of the introspection that Jimmy Carter was calling for in this moment?
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
Did any of that make Carter regret giving this speech? Did he ever end up feeling like he made a bad call in asking Americans to sort of change their behavior, change their goals in life even?
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
Does he continue to address this crisis of confidence once he leaves the White House?
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
It felt worth Kevin's time and yours because that night, President Carter called out what many think of as a central pillar of American life. Capitalism.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
Do you think the speech was just way too ahead of its time? I mean, this is Jimmy Carter almost 50 years ago talking about how we need to get America off of, you know, OPEC dependence and install solar panels across the country and how it's going to be expensive. But, you know, it's going to be an investment in American energy and American jobs.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
It's exactly the kind of thing you hear Joe Biden saying.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
Jobs. Was he just way too early for this country? Was he way too ahead of the curve?
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
Do you think this crisis of confidence Jimmy Carter wanted to talk about in this speech is still being faced by Americans today?
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
Kevin Mattson is the author of What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President, Jimmy Carter, America's Malaise, and The Speech That Should Have Changed the Country. Find it. Read it. I'm Sean Ramos-Firm. Our episode today was edited by Matthew Collette and Miranda Kennedy. produced by Jillian Weinberger, mixed by Paul Robert Mounsey, and Rob Byers, fact-checked by Serena Solon and Laura Bullard.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
Some of them are missed, some of them are still here. Happy New Year, or just New Year, if you're not happy about it. Today Explained will be back and ready for whatever's coming on January 2nd.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
an inauguration or a farewell or a State of the Union, most people refer to it as the malaise speech, even though he never says the word.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
We're dedicating this whole episode of Today Explained to that one speech.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
He doesn't make it seem like that tall an order, though he's probably throwing out ideas that are very foreign to the American people.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
When Today Explained returns, Kevin's gonna tell us how this speech helped sink Jimmy's chance at a second term.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
Support for this show today comes from ZBiotics. ZBiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic, they say. They say it was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. They say when you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
They say it's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration that's to blame for rough days after drinking. They say they're probiotics. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Just ask Claire White.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
You can go to zbiotics.com slash explain to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use the code EXPLAINED at checkout. Zbiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash explain and use the code EXPLAINED to check out for 15% off.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
One of the last things President Biden did on his way out of office was pardon his siblings and their spouses. What did they do? We may never know. One of the first things President Trump did on his way back into office was pardon everyone involved with January 6th, What did they do? Everyone knows, but it wasn't just the insurrectionists. Trump also pardoned two dishonest D.C.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
So help us understand the 180. How did he go from no to very much yes?
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
We heard earlier in the show about how Trump won over libertarians by promising them their king would be freed, Ross Ulbricht. How did he win over the crypto community? Did he make any promises there?
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
So I know it's only been a week, but how has our first crypto president delivered so far, if at all, for his community other than pardoning Ross?
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
Okay, and beyond all the executive action, he also launched his own meme coin last week, right? Yeah.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
Okay, so with regard to, you know, Political ethics here, we have in some sense more of the same from the president. But this time there might be implications for the broader financial system, which is to say all of us personally could get affected by a cozier relationship between the president and the crypto community.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
Tony Rahm, friend of the show. He writes for WashingtonPost.com. Peter Balanon Rosen and Amanda Balanon Llewellyn made our show today. Amina Alsadi edited. Laura Bullard fact-checked with an assist from Victoria Chamberlain. Andrea Christen's daughter and Rob Byers mixed and mastered. This is Today Explained. Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
Nick Bilton wrote the book on Ross Ulbricht, a.k.a. Dread Pirate Roberts. He's here to help you understand how Ross landed a presidential pardon a few days ago.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
cops and 23 anti-abortion activists. A lot of these may come as no surprise if you're familiar with the president's politics, but he also pardoned a guy named Ross Ulbricht, known to some dorks as Dread Pirate Roberts.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
What is Silk Road beyond the Amazon of Drugs? Or is it just that simple? Is it just the Amazon of Drugs?
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
Ross was the creator of the Silk Road, a dark website where you could score heroin and fentanyl, among other things. That particular pardon doesn't seem to line up with our purported law and order president. So we're going to look into it on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
Nick, we know how this story ends. We know that that Ross, the dread pirate Roberts, gets a presidential pardon.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
This special series from The Verge is presented by Adobe Express.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
Nick Bilton, he's the author of American Kingpin, the epic hunt for the criminal mastermind behind the Silk Road, which somehow no one has made into a movie yet. We got Robbie Williams as a monkey, but no Silk Road movie. Curious. I'm Sean Ramos from Promises Made, Promises Crypt, when we're back on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
Today Explained is back and we're with Tony Rahm from the Washington Post where he covers economic policy and accountability. Tony, the president of the United States just scored a bunch of political points with the crypto community by pardoning this guy, Ross Ulbricht from Silk Road. At the moment, it looks like Trump's a big crypto guy, but it hasn't always been that way, right?
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
We've been here before. The United States officially beat measles in the year 2000.
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
Now that these communities kind of have an ally at the literal top of health and human services, do we know if anti-vax or vaccine skepticism is increasing in the United States at this point, or is it still too early to tell?
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
Today Explained, Sean Ramos from here with Mary Kakatos, who's a health and science reporter for ABC News. Mary, what is going on with the measles in the United States right now?
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
this year has reached a 20-year high. 2019, 1,274 cases.
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
This measles situation in West Texas with this Mennonite community feels like an early test of RFK's leadership. This outsider now being not only on the inside, but literally in charge. What does it tell us about what his objectives are and what his leadership might look like as we approach other epidemics and who knows, maybe a pandemic?
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
Kira Butler, MotherJones.com. Thank you, Mother. Abhishek Artsy produced today's show. Amina Alsadi edited. Andrea Kristen's daughter and Patrick Boyd mixed. Laura Bullard checked the facts. This is Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
But this is not limited to just Texas, though that is where this outbreak is happening?
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
Okay, and this isn't the first time we've had a measles outbreak in even recent memory, but how big a deal is this one? Because it does sound bigger.
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
And now we've got an outbreak in 2025, but the difference this time, Robert Fluoride Kennedy Jr. is in charge of Health and Human Services.
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
Mary knows because she spoke to a doctor in her reporting.
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
And just in case any of these dear Mennonites in West Texas are listening right now, could you just remind people what could happen if your kid or if you yourself get the measles?
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
Awful. Is there anyone in Texas, in West Texas, in this community reminding people of the grim realities of getting measles, especially among young people?
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
Make America measles again. Mama on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
OK, so so who's going to win this battle in West Texas, the vaccine skeptics or the vaccinated?
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
And as you told us earlier, this has already spread. Maybe not like wildfire, but certainly like mildfire at the very least. We got a dozen or so states... Who's doing something about that?
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
Mary Kakatos, ABC, always be closing. We're heading to Bobby's world when we return on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
Kira Butler, national correspondent with Mother Jones. We got the measles in West Texas. We got the measles in a dozen or so other states. It sounds like a bit of a federal problem. What are we hearing at the federal level?
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
Quote, vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
None of them. That a good diet can help, that cod liver oil and steroids can help, and that measles can prevent cancer. He just made all that up?
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
And is he like invested in cod liver oil or something? Why is he hawking that in particular?
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
Got it. So it's a treatment, but it's not preventative.
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
Okay, so a bit of a mixed bag from RFK. On one hand, he's admitting that vaccines can be helpful, showing a little personal growth there, but also doing the vintage routine of here's a bunch of natural homeopathic style solutions that actually are disinformation.
Today, Explained
Make America Measles Again (MAMA)
And he's got a lot of allies on that front, including people in this community who believe that these vaccines are a personal choice, if not straight up harmful.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Remember when sports betting wasn't everywhere you looked in this country? Back in the 90s, Congress passed a pretty sweeping ban on sports betting across the United States.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
So tell me, when you're playing towards the end of your career and sports betting has become a daily part of the conversation, when you think back to those days, which aren't that long ago, did you ever get the impression on the court that someone was mad at you for a given play or for some... Yes.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
So players aren't scared of that? They're not worried about fans and their various bets?
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
You know, players like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have complained about the harassment and said, you know, it's distracting from their game.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Did the opposite ever happen? Did it ever feel good to get off the court and hear from someone that you made them like $10,000 or something like that?
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
You know, you've talked about how the athletes aren't betting themselves and, you know, they don't have money riding on the games. But of course, earlier this year, we saw former now Toronto Raptors player John Tate Porter got kicked out of the league for betting.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
What did you think when you saw what happened to John Day? What did you make of that?
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Charles Fane Lehman wrote a piece for The Atlantic this year titled Legalizing Sports Gambling Was a Huge Mistake. We got holidays coming up. There's lots of sports to watch. Felt like a good time to ask him why he wrote that.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Do you think there's any chance, instead of getting the periodic reminder that, you know, you're not allowed to do this, so another athlete's getting banned from the league, do you think there's a chance that... gambling, sports betting becomes so pervasive and so detrimental to the game that actually we dial it back and say, you know what? We're not going to allow X kind of betting.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
We're not going to allow Y kind of betting to preserve the sanctity of the game. Or do you think the cat's out of the bag?
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
We asked Charles from earlier in the show the same question. You'll recall he hates sports betting. We told him Danny said the genie's not going back in the bottle and Charles had a counter argument.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
That was Charles. You know Charles. Before that, Danny Green Champ. He has a podcast. It's called Inside the Green Room. Get it? This episode was produced by Hadi Mawagdi. It was edited by Matthew Collette. Fact-checked by Laura Bullard. Mixed by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Christen's daughter. I'm Sean Ramos-Vurum. This is Today Explained. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate. Happy Monday to all who celebrate. Today Explained is back in your feeds. on Boxing Day.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
It wasn't until 2018 that the Supreme Court stepped in and basically undid that law. Since then, almost all of the states have gone ahead and legalized sports betting.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Wow, it sounds like you really don't like it, though. I don't.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Do we actually have any receipts, Charles, of the widespread legalization of sports gambling here? increasing how many lives are ruined due to legal sports betting in this country.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Do we know how much money on average people are losing versus say they're winning?
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
How much does the amount people are losing, the amount people are betting, the amount people are gambling altogether have to do with how much gambling has changed with the little devices that we keep in our pockets?
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Mickey Mouse is now a bookie. That's completely correct. Pay up or I'll break your knees. Charles here says legalization was a terrible mistake. He's going to tell us why on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
It's quite clear from speaking with you, Charles, that there's a lot of harm being introduced to this entire country, but certainly states across the country, from legal sports betting. And it's especially hitting young men. But it was legalized with the promise that it was going to bring a lot of benefits to the states that approved it. You seem to believe that isn't paying off.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Charles Fane Lehman, he mostly writes about drugs but makes exceptions for gambling. He's a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at City Journal, city-journal.org. All the sports betting isn't just changing the experience for fans, it's changing the experience for athletes too. We're going to hear from a pretty good one when we're back on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Support for this show today comes from Zbiotic. Zbiotic's pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic, they say. They say it was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. They say when you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
They say it's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration that's to blame for rough days after drinking. They say they're pre-alcoholic. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Just ask Claire White.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
You can go to zbiotics.com slash explain to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use the code EXPLAINED at checkout. Zbiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash explain and use the code EXPLAINED to check out for 15% off.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
This special series from The Verge is presented by Adobe Express.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Danny Green didn't just win one NBA championship. He won three with three different teams, including my Toronto Raptors, for which I had to thank him.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
All that winning served as inspiration when it came time to name his son.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Danny's got time to spend with Wynn and talk to us because he just retired from professional basketball. But he played in the NBA for 15 years and witnessed the boom in sports betting firsthand from the court. And it was a far cry from what he saw when he was starting out as a college player almost 20 years ago.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
There was none of that. Everything was illegal. By the time Danny's ready to retire from the NBA, he's not just getting yelled at by an opposing player or his coach. There are fans who are mad about their parlay getting messed up.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
Mr. Jackie Robinson, number 42, integrated baseball, not because DEI, but because he was so good that to paraphrase his manager, I don't care if the guy is yellow or black or if he has stripes like a fucking zebra, he can make us all rich.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
We often, reporters will often say Donald Trump is unprecedented. The things that he does are unprecedented. I imagine you would tell me the United States has in the past tried to rewrite its own history at certain points.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
Give me some examples of the times we've tried to do this.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
What was the story they were trying to sell?
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
It's Today Explained. I'm Noelle King with John Swain, who's an investigative reporter at The Washington Post. John, the mess that we're here to discuss today started with an executive order from President Trump. What was the order and how did it lead to the reporting that you've been doing?
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
Can I, can I jump in and actually just tell you something? I'm from central New York. I went to public school. That was what I learned.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
Why did I learn something that wasn't true in public school?
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
That was a version of history. But let's compare that to what we're seeing today. What you're talking about with these popular books and Gone with the Wind and then they make it a movie, that seems to me more subtle than the president says, you delete that information about Jackie Robinson's military service from the website. Will what Trump is doing succeed because it is so unsubtle?
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
Professor David Blight of Yale. Amanda Llewellyn, producer. Jolie Myers, editor. Andrea Christen's daughter and Patrick Boyd, engineers. Laura Bullard keeps us honest. President Trump, we can give you her cell number if you want. I'm Noelle King. It's Today Explained.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
He also served in the military, during which time he was court-martialed after peacefully refusing to move to the back of an army bus. He was acquitted. The Department of Defense website featured Robinson in a section called Sports Heroes Who Served until March 19th, when his page disappeared and the URL redirected to one that had the letters DEI in front of Sports Heroes.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
I don't really know the ins and outs of the Battle of Iwo Jima. What did the Marines at Iwo Jima do that got them taken down off a government website?
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
So they kept the iconic picture up, but they removed the information about Mr. Hayes being American Indian. What other kinds of changes did you uncover in your reporting?
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
A Pentagon spokesman defended the removal, but about 90 minutes later, the page was restored. That spokesman resigned last week. Ahead on Today Explained, the Trump administration tries to rewrite history.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
I wonder if you were able to talk to employees of the park service and ask them how they're deciding which pages to change or to take down. Are they being given orders? Are they making these choices on their own?
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
So we've talked about the Park Service. We've talked about the Department of Defense. Is this something happening elsewhere to either other agencies, other websites?
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
And we're going to have more with a deeply concerned historian when we come back. John Swain of The Washington Post investigative reporter. Thanks to him. Support for Today Explained comes from Delete.me. Your data is a commodity and it has already been stolen. That can lead to identity theft, phishing attempts, harassment. Now you can protect your privacy with Delete.me.
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Delete.me says they make it easy and quick and safe to get your personal data off the internet at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. Claire White is my colleague here at Fox, and she tried out Delete.me.
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Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me, now at a special discount for our listeners. You can get 20% off your Delete Me plan by texting TODAY to 64000. The only way to get 20% off is to text TODAY to 64000. That's TODAY to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. Support for Today Explained comes from Greenlight.
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American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
Talking about money with kids isn't always easy, says Greenlight, even for the most finance savvy parents. Who among us? That's where Greenlight comes in. Greenlight says it's more than just a debit card. It's a money app built for families that gives parents a simple way to send money, track spending and help kids develop smart saving habits.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
Greenlight says kids and teens get freedom to manage their own money, gaining confidence, responsibility and lifelong financial skills along the way. One of our colleagues at Vox Otisham has used Greenlight, and here are her thoughts.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
You can start your risk-free Greenlight trial today at greenlight.com slash explained. That's greenlight.com slash explained to get started. greenlight.com slash explained.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
This is Today Explained. We're back with historian and Yale professor David W. Blight.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
Okay, so nothing that's ever been contested.
Today, Explained
American_history_v9_final_FINAL_THIS ONE
In the first half of the show, Professor Blight, we heard that many historians are really quite angry about some of the changes that the Trump administration has been demanding. What does an angry historian look like? What's been going on?
Today, Explained
Is science in danger?
Hello, podcast listeners. I'm Sean Romsom here from the Today Explained show, and I've got some news you can use. We're taking Vox Media podcasts on the road and heading back to Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest Festival. March 8th through 10th, we'll be doing special live episodes of hit shows, including our show, Today Explained. Where should we begin? With Esther Perel. Pivot.com.
Today, Explained
Is science in danger?
A touch more with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe. Not just football with Cam Hayward. And more presented by Smartsheet. The Vox Media podcast stage at South by Southwest is open to all South by Southwest badge holders. I'll be the guy in a Mr. T costume. We hope to see you at the Austin Convention Center soon. You can visit voxmedia.com slash SXSW to learn more. That's voxmedia.com slash SXSW.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Past and future President Donald Trump isn't being very nice to our neighbors. He said he'd drop 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico on day one.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Today Explained is back. We mauled Mexico. Now it's time to crow about Canada. To do so, we reached out to Kaylee Glenn at Duke University. She's been following the threats, the tariffs, the tumult.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Trump got a chance to sort of rearrange the relationships between Canada and Mexico in his first administration, and he took it. How did that go over?
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
But now Trump is coming out before he's even in office, barking at Canada and Mexico and threatening 25% tariffs. Does that mean he didn't quite get it right the first time?
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
I think when people think about the border between the United States and Mexico, they think about migrants. But when people think about the border between the United States and Canada, they think about Niagara Falls. What is Trump mad about regarding the 49th parallel?
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Mexico's got a new president. The United States has an incoming president. How's that feeling right now in Mexico?
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Trump loves to walk in and shake stuff up, right? He's a norm buster, a precedent setter, a precedent breaker. Is that what he's doing here with Canada and Mexico just before he even takes office? Scaring the living daylights out of everyone about tariffs and borders and bombings even?
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Kaylee Glenn is a postdoctoral fellow at the American Grand Strategy Program. If that sounds like your kind of program, you can find it at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Go Blue Devils! Or, as I'm told, perhaps, go back to hell, ye devils. I'm Sean Ramos from them, and I really don't want to get involved.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Let's just speak about what he's said explicitly. He obviously says a lot, but what's he said since winning the election?
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
When you say use the U.S. military to go after fentanyl producers, whatever it might be, we're talking about bombing Mexico, which we've discussed on the show before.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
And has Mexicans saying, Rude, Canada! But it's certainly getting everyone's attention. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a trip down to Mar-a-Lago to be like, what's the deal, Donald? Will it work? Nobody knows. But after he left, Trump called Trudeau the governor of the 51st state. Rude, Donald. We're going to ask what the next block party might look like on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Has Mexico done anything yet to address Trump's threats?
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Do we know how Mexico's new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, feels about our past and future president, Donald Trump?
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Tell us a bit more about the boomerang effect. What could the US economy look like if Trump went ahead and imposed 25% tariffs? What could the relationship with Mexico look like if Trump sort of, I don't know, unilaterally decided to start bombing drug production sites in the country?
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
It's funny, this trade fight he's trying to pick with Mexico and Canada at the same time, if I'm not mistaken, it's kind of pitted Mexico against Canada a little bit.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
It's so funny. It's like one friend's fighting with two friends, and then the two friends start fighting with each other, too.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Mary Beth Sheridan, she covers Mexico for Mexico City, for WashingtonPost.com. We're gonna talk about the Canada of it all when we're back on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
This special series from The Verge is presented by Adobe Express.
Today, Explained
It’s China’s turn
Have you ever gotten a medical bill and thought, how am I ever going to pay for this? This week on Net Worth and Chill, we're tackling the financial emergency that is the American health care system. From navigating insurance nightmares to making sure your emergency fund actually covers those emergencies, we're diving deep into the hidden health care costs that no one warns you about.
Today, Explained
It’s China’s turn
Most hospitals in the US are actually nonprofits, which means they have to have financial assistance or charity care policies. So essentially, if you make below a certain amount, the hospital legally has to waive your medical bill up to a certain percent. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube dot com slash your rich BFF.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
All signs seem to indicate that one week from today, the United States will break from recent tradition and have a peaceful transition of power. It felt like a good time to assess Joe Biden's presidency, which his staff would have you believe is one of the most consequential in American history. FDR-esque.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
Seems good. Fair. While we're talking about things that he actually accomplished in Congress and maybe giving them a second chance, the Inflation Reduction Act, you know, dedicated hundreds of billions of dollars to updating infrastructure and to environmental initiatives across the country, states red and blue and purple. And yet, it feels, Dylan, like we are not seeing...
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
A lot of what Biden set out to accomplish being realized. There's been reporting on how tens of billions of dollars have been spent on updating broadband infrastructure, but yet not one house has seen the benefits of that investment. What is going on?
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
You know, we started off the Biden presidency, Dylan, on this show talking about dozens of executive orders. Is any of that stuff that he did on the border, on the climate, on international policy going to stick around? Or is it just so easy to reverse? I mean, the most recent one we saw, of course, was this, you know, preserving a bunch of our coasts from offshore drilling.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
Today, explain Sean Rama's firm here with Dylan Matthews from Vox, who thinks President Biden was ultimately a weak president.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
And it's so easy to chalk up falling down on the job, being absent, being absent-minded to his age. Is it really that simple, Dylan? Or is that reductionist? What do we think?
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
You know, when I think back to Biden's campaign, Dylan, I was never wowed. Certainly, it was no Obama campaign in, you know, 2008 or even 2012. But if I can think of one pledge he made, he was like... you know, Charlottesville was ugly, it was heinous, it is not who we are, I'm going to get into office and reset the tone. Did he ultimately at least succeed there?
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
And is any success wiped out by the fact that literally the guy who preceded him is going to be the guy who succeeds him?
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
So you don't buy his argument that, you know, his son was going to be unduly prosecuted for those crimes?
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
I'll never lie to you, Sean. Dylan's Biden epic drops at Vox.com on Tuesday. It'll be titled The President Who Couldn't Choose. We ended like a rom-com. Our program today was produced by Peter Balanon-Rosen. He was edited by Matthew Collette and Miranda Kennedy. Fact-checked by Laura Bullard and mixed by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Christen's daughter. I'm Sean Ramos-Firman.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
Here's something a little different. We're working on an episode about gentle parenting. Like... Talking to your three-year-old about their big feelings might feel totally normal to you, but maybe your parents think it's a little over the top. We're hoping to hear from you younger parents about the differences you have with your boomer parents when it comes to raising your kids.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
We want to hear you vent, but we also want to hear from grandma and grandpa, especially if you all have a sense of humor about the whole thing. Give us a call if so, 844-453-4448, 844-453-4448. 453-4448. That's coming soon on Today Explained, but we're going to dig into the politics of fire on the show tomorrow.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
Let's talk for a moment about what he actually did, his major accomplishments, and whether they'll be remembered in 10 years or not, starting with the American Rescue Plan. Remind us what that was and what Joe Biden did and didn't do in terms of, you know, the priorities there.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
We made an episode titled How Dylan Got Inflation Wrong.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
So I guess the American Rescue Plan might best be remembered for causing a bunch of inflation. But Biden then got the Build Back Better agenda eventually passed under a different name, the Inflation Reduction Act. Did that right the wrongs of the American Rescue Plan?
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
The good, the bad, and the Biden. Vox's Dylan Matthews is gonna help us assess on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
Dylan, we've been talking about domestic issues here, but obviously the United States is an important actor on the global stage. And it didn't feel like Biden seemed particularly strong there either.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
And that's kind of what happens. Ukraine, you've got a whole lot of last minute decisions because this hasn't played out like he would have wanted. And now Trump's coming in and might shake the whole situation up. The Afghanistan evacuation, obviously an embarrassment for the United States. Was he also generally weak on the international stage?
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
We're going to ask Dylan what Biden did that might actually stick when we return on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
Thank you for watching. They say it's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration that's to blame for rough days after drinking. They say their pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Just ask Claire White.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
You can go to zbiotics.com slash explain to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use the code EXPLAINED at checkout. Zbiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash explain and use the code EXPLAINED to check out for 15% off.
Today, Explained
The Good, the Bad, and the Biden
Today Explained is back with Dylan Matthews from Vox. Dylan, we've spent plenty of time talking about weaknesses, missed opportunities, where Biden could have been a little bit more decisive a leader. But I want to ask you what he did that might actually stick, what might be recalled fondly, I don't know, when it's his funeral in 50 years. What do you think?
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
Senator John Fetterman is not like his colleagues. Oh, yeah. For starters, he wears a hoodie and gym shorts to work in Congress. But he's also a Democrat who went down to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Donald Trump before he re-entered office back in January. He's bucked most of his party on the war in Gaza, saying his support of Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu was unconditional.
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
Right. So Senator Fetterman's reaction to your piece is it's a one source hit piece.
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
So there's nothing new. You talked. It sounds like dozens and dozens of people. Did they all tell the same story?
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
And yet the feeling you're left with after you read your piece is that this individual may be unfit to serve in the United States Senate. What was the reaction to your piece when you published it?
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
And so losing him could be a loss in that way. So despite what you reveal in your reporting, it doesn't sound like there's a huge clamoring for this politician to step down. And yet, in the days following your reporting, we hear of a union meeting that he participates in that goes south. What happened there?
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
And if he stays in office, do we just assume we'll continue to hear stories like this?
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
Ben Terrace, his big Fetterman John, is titled The Hidden Struggle of John Fetterman. Read and subscribe at nymag.com. We reached out to Senator Fetterman's office to ask if they had any additional comment on Ben's reporting on our show, but apparently they did not. Devin Schwartz made the show today with help from Gabrielle Birthday and Amina Alsadi.
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
We were mixed by Patrick Boyd and Matthew Billy and fact-checked by Laura Bullard. Andrea Kristen's daughter took the day off for reasons. Everyone here at Today Explained wishes her the happiest of reasons.
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
It feels like October 7th, 2023 is a big turning point for the senator.
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
Yeah, I mean, I guess we should assume that senators clash with their staff all the time. But through your reporting, did this feel exceptional?
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
Yeah. Does it feel like these clashes are more about, you know, personality and having a healthy workplace, or are they ultimately about his being fit to serve in the United States Senate?
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
Ben is going to sit down with Jon Fetterman when we are back on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
Today Explained is back with Ben Terrace from New York Magazine. Ben, you met with Senator Fetterman for this piece you wrote. Tell us how that meeting went. Well, it was sort of a tale of two meetings in a way.
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
Today Explained, Sean Ramos from here with Ben Terrace, D.C. correspondent for New York Magazine. Ben just wrote a big profile of John Fetterman that made a lot of noise because it revealed that his health struggles may be far graver than people previously thought. We started back in 2023, around the time Fetterman checked into Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland.
Today, Explained
Is John Fetterman ok?
One of Ben's sources for his piece was a guy named Adam Jentleson, a former Fetterman chief of staff who was previously in a similar role with Senator Harry Reid. But also, Adam's a friend of Ben's. We asked him if that complicated his reporting at all, if he was worried about Adam's own agenda. Yeah, of course.
Today, Explained
A Walz to Remember
And I got to tell you, I can't wait to debate the guy. That is if he's willing to get off the couch and show up.
Today, Explained
The Gulf of America?
What you gonna do when Donald Trump and all the Trump-o-maniacs run wild on you, brother?
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Donald Trump was not at the Grammys last night. Beyonce was. She won country album of the year. Lady Gaga was too. She shouted out trans rights. Alicia Keys was there. She shouted out DEI. Chapel Roan won best new artist and shouted out health care. Shakira showed up and shouted out immigrants. But no one got more shout outs than the firefighters in Los Angeles, the city that hosted the show.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Right. So people who have never been to Los Angeles may still have heard that commuting in the city is not easy, maybe historically hard. What was Los Angeles doing to prepare for seven Super Bowls a day? And how has that maybe been thrown in flux in recent weeks?
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
OK, so what I'm hearing is it was going to take a boatload of money to get Los Angeles ready for the Olympics. And now a boatload of money is needed to rebuild and to restore the city after these fires. Are there a lot of Angelenos right now saying, hey, let's prioritize one over the other? And if so, which one is it?
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Sean Ramos from here with Liam Dillon, who covers housing affordability issues for the Los Angeles Times. With something like 16,000 structures destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires, we asked him what comes next for those looking to rebuild.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Could L.A. say, you know what, we really want to do this, but we just had this huge setback. What if we did it a year later? Or do you think it would sooner go somewhere else? I mean, who knows?
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Alyssa Walker, reader at Torch.LA. Abishai Artsy made our show today from L.A. He was edited by Amna Alsadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, and mixed by Andrea Christen's daughter, not from L.A. It's today explained.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
So you said the Army Corps of Engineers. So does that mean this is going to be a federal effort? Is the federal government funding this effort?
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
An all-star band opened the Grammys with a cover of I Love L.A. by Randy Newman. The host, Trevor Noah, was asking for donations all night when Cowboy Carter won Album of the Year. It was Los Angeles Firefighters who finally got to hand our queen the prize she's been after for all these years.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
What about local government? What about state government? How can they be expediting this process for people right now?
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
And we're mostly talking here about people who own their property, who own their homes. But, of course, there's a lot of concern for renters. We know Los Angeles has notoriously, some would say criminally high rent. Right. I can't imagine the fires are helping us.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
And you mentioned that there's attention on permits and clearing out toxic materials, but is any government, state, local, federal paying attention to the renting crisis?
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Los Angeles fires are finally fully contained. We're going to ask what comes next on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
This isn't the first time Los Angeles has seen one of these destructive wildfires. I think a lot of people will remember a couple of fires in Malibu, at least. What do those fires tell us about how rebuilding might go? I mean, are we going to get 100% back to where we were, 50%, 125%?
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
And I know the focus right now is just on helping people who have lost everything to something, to something in between. How much discussion is being had about what the city's getting ready for in the next few years, a World Cup, an Olympics?
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Liam Dillon, LATimes.com. In a minute on Today Explained, we're going to try and figure out if Los Angeles can rebuild and get ready for what some are calling the largest peacetime gathering in the history of the world, if they can do those two things at the same time.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Support for this show today comes from ZBiotics. ZBiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic, they say. They say it was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. They say when you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
They say it's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration that's to blame for rough days after drinking. They say they're probiotics. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Just ask Claire White.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
This special series from The Verge is presented by Adobe Express.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
You can go to zbiotics.com slash explain to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use the code EXPLAINED at checkout. Zbiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash explain and use the code EXPLAINED to check out for 15% off.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
And how awkward has the name of your newsletter become in the past few weeks?
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
So there's a lot of focus on the Olympics right now. And it doesn't feel insensitive to talk about something that's years away because people are talking about it. Gavin Newsom is talking about it. President Trump is talking about it. And it's not even the first mega event that's coming to Los Angeles in the coming years. Can you tell us about what's on the slate for the city?
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Have you seen people on social media talking about going to Turkey? I'm going to Turkey, baby.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Now I just think we should stop talking about everything we're talking about and just talk about how that happened.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
It sounds like, from what you're saying, from that brief tour you gave us of all the medical tourism, cosmetic tourism, health tourism, whatever you want to call it, going on around the world, if we just took... Like a look at a world map and had sort of flight trackers for all of the flights that were taken for these kinds of purposes.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
We would see like a fully colored in world map of people going from this continent to that and the other for various procedures.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Is there a dark side to this for those who are less wealthy? I mean, if you're rich and you go to Iran for gender reassignment surgery and something goes wrong, Maybe you can just easily buy your way out of that situation, but if you're poor, maybe you get stuck, maybe there's a language barrier, and then what? How ugly can this get for people?
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Alex Abad Santos, you wrote a piece for Vox.com about a trend I've seen on social media lately. Men traveling to Turkey for hair transplants. You see people going, oh, he went to Turkey or Turkey did him a solid. Wow, Turkey really ate with that hair. Yeah. Why is everyone saying this all of a sudden? Is it all of a sudden or have people been saying this forever?
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
I think that's what brought us here to you is how much social video has blown up this industry. Can you give us a sense of how big it is at this point?
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Professor David Vequist, University of the Incarnate Word. Hadi Mawagdi produced our show today. He was edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Scabhelmet Bullard, and mixed by Andrea Christensdottir and Mr. Rob Byers, who's saying goodbye to Vox today. He's been a friend of Today Explained since the show's inception seven years ago, and we hope he'll continue to be one hereafter.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
The rest of the team includes N-O-E-L King, executive producer Miranda Kennedy, supervising editor Amina Alsadi, Miles Bryan, Avishai Artsy, Amanda Llewellyn, Peter Balanon-Rosen, Victoria Chamberlain, Travis Larchuk, Patrick Boyd, and welcome Devin Schwartz. Breakmaster Cylinder makes music, and I made a mistake.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
On Monday's show, I said there's no Silk Road movie, but it turns out there is a Silk Road movie. It's called Silk Road, and seven people saw it when it came out in 2021. Maybe after this correction, it could be eight. I apologize. Today Explained is distributed by WNYC, and the show is a part of Vox. You can support our journalism by joining our membership program today.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Go to vox.com slash members to sign up. Thank you if you do that. And if you don't, you can always leave us a nice review. Or you can tell us that we forgot about the Silk Road movie.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Okay, because regular people are going to Turkey for hair transplants, but celebrities are doing it, too?
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
We don't want to blow up people's spots, right? Right, right. Let's punch up.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Maybe it's Maybelline. Or maybe it's turkey. Okay, let's leave him alone. Let's talk less about Andrew Garfield and more about turkey because you wrote a great explainer for Vox.com about the whole turkey phenomenon. Why turkey?
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Okay, so you're looking to drop three or $5,000 on a trip to Turkey to get new hair. I'm guessing that's without airfare, of course. What do you get for that when you show up?
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Okay, so when you get to Dr. Serkan Aygin, what does he do? How does this process work exactly?
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Men are going to Turkey, and they're not going to see the Hagia Sophia. We're going to look into what's going on in Istanbul on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
What does your head look like when you walk out of this procedure?
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
we're made to feel ashamed of, and here you're seeing people who are embracing their desire to have hair again. Is that what you're saying?
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
I don't think we should be ashamed of it, but I think it's something that maybe we are made to feel ashamed of.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Totally. Adam's kind of locked into his procedure for life. He told us he'll be taking hair growth meds to keep his new hair, even with his old hair, until he dies. His new transplanted hair, even with his, you know, natural hair. That's a big commitment. I assume you haven't had this procedure, Alex? I have not had a hair transplant.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
So as a reporter who's written about this procedure but hasn't done it himself, can you just tell us, you know, from your... objective vantage. Does the transplant look good?
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Alex Abad-Santos from Vox.com. Adam Hurley from blue-print.co. Adam also writes for GQ. Traveling for your cosmetic needs or even your medical needs is nothing new, but it certainly is more popular than ever. We're going to find out just how popular it is next on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
This special series from The Verge is presented by Adobe Express.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Today Explained is back. I'm Sean Ramos from and I'm joined by David V. Quist. He's the director of the Center for Medical Tourism Research at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. David, you study medical tourism. Does that include the more cosmetic stuff we talked about earlier in the show?
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
It's been a huge week for the group chat. Not one of yours, certainly not one of mine. I'm talking about the Houthi PC small group chat, of course.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
Is when you send someone you love something great you saw online, an article, a meme, a joke, a photo, and they go, seen it. I'm like, if you saw it, then why didn't you send it to me? Or if you saw it, just give me the reaction you had when you saw it. Seeing it is not useful to me. I don't care that you planted your flag on this meme before I did.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
Yes, and. Yes, and. We've done our rants. Should we talk about some do's or do you have some more don'ts you really want to get off your chest?
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
And since a certain group chat made the internet fun this week for at least some, we thought we'd ask Max, did we this week, at least in the United States, hit peak group chat?
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
Call me as soon as you can. I call her. It's like, hey, so do you want to eat tacos or?
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
You know what you're reminding me of is like the voice memos or as I call them sometimes when I get them from Noelle King, my co-host, voice memoirs.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
Which, you know, can be really short and punchy and hilarious.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
In Noelle's case, I've never not loved one. But sometimes they're like eight minutes long, not from Noelle, but from other people. And you're just like, this is like work now. You just sent me a whole podcast. I have to add to my queue. Like maybe we should establish at some point in the texting whether we want those or not, maybe.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
I like that. I like that. Be bold. Okay. Any more do's that you really want to share with the people out there?
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
And, of course, we're going to see where, you know, the blowback for this group chat getting out ends up with someone losing their job, with a federal inquiry. Who knows? What's clear is it won't soon be forgotten. And the amount of tension on group chats has led us all maybe to, like, think a little bit more about how we communicate with our friends, with our colleagues, with our family members.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
Do you think it's for the best that we all had a moment to just reflect on the group chat?
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
I have to say, in light of this week's news, Tatum, we are skipping a huge don't, which is don't add people to a group chat against their will.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
Tatum Hunter, you can read more do's and don'ts from her for you at WAPO.com. Avishai Artsy and Gabrielle Burbey made our show today from California. Joey Myers edited, Laura Bullard fact-checked, Andrea Kristen's daughter mixed it. You heard from Noelle King earlier.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
The rest of us are Harima Wagdi, Amanda Llewellyn, Peter Balanon-Rosen, Victoria Chamberlain, Devin Schwartz, Patrick Boyd, Carla Javier, Miles Bryan, and Travis Larchuk, who's leaving us today, but maybe he'll be back one day. What do you say, Travis? Amina Alsadi is our supervising editor. Miranda Kennedy is our executive producer. We use music by Breakmaster Sildren.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
This week, we used some by Francesca Ramsey, too. If you don't know Francesca, you should. You can find her singing about leopards eating her face on the gram at Chesca Lee. That's L-E-I-G-H. Today Explained is distributed by WNYC. The show is part of Vox. Support our journalism by joining our membership program today, if you don't mind. Go to vox.com slash members to sign up, if you don't mind.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
And if you don't mind, we now have a Sunday show. Maybe you've noticed it comes out on Sundays. The Today Explained feed, the one that you're in right now, it's called Explain It To Me, Listen.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
A deep cut for the casual fan of Hunt for Red October.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
That's tough. I've never been in the case where I found out about a group chat that like all my friends were in that I'm not in, but presumably they exist.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
Oof. What I think was special about this week is whether you have 40 different group chats on your phone or if you just have one called like family chat where you text with your parents or your kids. This week it was clear that everyone has a lot of group chats going on. So many perhaps that they can't even keep track of who's in them. That this week became universal. How did we get here?
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
Never before has the group chat been subject to this kind of scrutiny, and it's been a great reminder that we have lost our way. On Today Explained, we're going to talk about texting and how we kind of forgot how to do it right. Or maybe we never knew how to do it right in the first place.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
It feels like at some point the group chats got a little overwhelming. Is that the case for you with all these parenting group chats where there's just a new one? Oh, there's a new one for this birthday party and there's a new one for, I don't know, this school event.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
And then also while that one's blowing up, there's something going on with your family chain and there's something going on with your hug for Red October chain.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
And when did that happen? Was that like the pandemic when we just decided we'd be like typing away all day? I don't really know when it happened, but it happened and it felt like we weren't properly prepared for it.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
Yeah. And then, of course, this week, one of those group chats somehow became the biggest story in the United States. I mean, we probably aren't at any danger, we common plebs, of being added to a national security group chat anytime soon. But it did feel like something about this story clicked for a lot of people because there was something innately...
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
just normal and dumb and human and relatable about it.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
maxreid.substack.com. The group chats didn't come with a how-to manual, but clearly people need one. So, the do's and don'ts of texting in the year of our Lord 2025, next up on the show of our Lord, Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
Should we start with the do's or should we start with the don'ts?
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
Okay, great. Let's go. For the haters, we'll start with the don'ts. Do you have a list? How do you want to get into this?
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
This is Today Explained. And this is Sean Ramos for him. Here with Max Reed of The Reed, Max Substack. Max has been thinking about group chats for years. In fact, he wrote a piece for New York Magazine way back in 2019 called Group Chats Are Making the Internet Fun Again.
Today, Explained
Huge week for the group chat
What the hell was that? Can I tell you about one of my pet peeves when it comes to this particular don't?
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
The Oscars are this Sunday, and of all the films nominated, only one of them was filmed in secret. It's called The Seed of the Sacred Fig.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
How modern an issue is this at the Oscars? Is this like a 2025 concern or was this always an issue in the history of this category?
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
I know the Oscars, the Grammys, all these big award shows, they do institute change when there's a big enough controversy. The Oscars have gotten a lot of flack for women directors not getting nominated, and now they're trying to do better. The Grammys have gotten a lot of heat for not being diverse enough, and now they're adding lots of diversity to their academy.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
Has there not been a big enough controversy in the international film category to institute some changes here, or have there been some over the years?
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
That's just about all the English we got out of the seat of the Sacred Figs director. The rest of our conversation was done through a translator who was with him in his New York City hotel. We started with the craziest thing about this movie, that it was shot in secret in Tehran.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
You know, I'm all of a sudden remembering when Parasite won Best Picture.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
The once and current once again president actually had some thoughts about it.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
and said that Hollywood had lost its way if a foreign movie were winning Best Picture. Did he have a point?
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
OK, well, it doesn't sound like there's going to be too much dramatic change in the best picture category any time soon. But if we were to rejigger best international film to function better, what could we do? What are the options?
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
It's about an Iranian family at odds with each other over the country's repressive policies.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
It sounds so common sense that, you know, you wonder why the Oscars don't just do that. Why don't they do that?
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
I wonder, is anyone out there making the case that we just don't even need this category anymore? Because as you're pointing out here, you've got this sort of international bleed into the best picture category. Do we still need to have a whole category for movies that, you know, aren't... English language.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
Nate Jones, Best Supporting Writer at Vulture.com. Best Producer goes to Abhishek Artsy. Best Deputy, Jolie Myers. Best Senior Researcher, Laura Bullard. And Best Mixing is going to be shared by Andrea Christensdottir and Patrick Boyd. Oh, and the Oscar for Best Ensemble. Why doesn't that Oscar exist?
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
Hadi Mawagdi, Devin Schwartz, Gabrielle Burbay, Victoria Chamberlain, Travis Larchuk, Miles Bryan, Amanda Llewellyn, Amina Alsadi, Miranda Kirshen, And best host goes to La La Land. No, sorry, sorry. It's Noel King. This is Noel King, the best host. Today Explained is distributed by WNYC. The show is a part of Vox, which, FYI, is an independent news source.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
That means we don't worry about serving the interests of the powerful. We just worry about serving you. And we rely on you today. to help fund our work. If you want to support us, you can go to vox.com slash members and sign up today. Thank you a million and thank you to the Academy.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
When people in our audience hear that this movie was filmed in secret in Iran, they might imagine, oh, there were a lot of interior shots, you know, scenes set inside buildings, scenes set inside apartments, whatever it might be. That's how you film a movie secretly.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
But I was surprised when watching it that there are indeed shots of, you know, this family that the movie is about eating dinner together. Outside of a restaurant, you know, there's shots of people driving around Tehran. How do you do that secretly? Obviously, you have cameras when you're filming outside.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
It's got Iranian actors. It's got an Iranian director. It's very much about Iran. But it's Germany's submission to the Oscars. The director of this movie, Mohammad Rasoulaf, is in exile, but we caught up with him in New York City to ask him what it's like to make a movie secretly and why Germany is repping this super Iranian movie. We're doing the Oscars. Today explains Stott.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
This movie, The Seat of the Sacred Fig, it follows a family being torn apart. A father who's part of the sort of establishment in Tehran and his supportive wife. And then their two daughters who are unhappy with the system and eager to join young women protesting in the streets. And it's very much set during the Masa Amini protests from a few years ago.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
Why did you want to set a movie during those protests? And how did you come up with the idea for this family where all of the tensions we were seeing in the streets in Tehran were sort of manifested in this family unit?
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
And that's why you not only filmed this movie secretly, but you were also directing it remotely. You weren't allowed to make a movie in Iran, so you were never on the set of your own movie. How does that even work?
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
And now you very well may win an Oscar for this film that you shot in secret remotely in Iran. But of course, the country that wins this Oscar, if it indeed wins, is Germany. Why is it Germany? Yes, of course.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
Mohamed, thank you so much for joining us. I'm not in the Academy, but I hope you win an Oscar on Sunday. Thank you. Thanks. Muhammad Rasul, if you can call him Muhammad, his translator was Shada Dayani. The movie's The Seed of the Sacred Fig, and it's nominated for an Oscar for Best International Film. But some say Best International Film is the messiest category at the Oscars.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
We're going to find out why when we're back on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
Hello, podcast listeners. I'm Sean Romsom here from the Today Explained show, and I've got some news you can use. We're taking Vox Media podcasts on the road and heading back to Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest Festival. March 8th through 10th, we'll be doing special live episodes of hit shows, including our show, Today Explained. Where should we begin? With Esther Perel. Pivot.com.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
A touch more with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe. Not just football with Cam Hayward. And more presented by Smartsheet. The Vox Media podcast stage at South by Southwest is open to all South by Southwest badge holders. I'll be the guy in a Mr. T costume. We hope to see you at the Austin Convention Center soon. You can visit voxmedia.com slash SXSW to learn more. That's voxmedia.com slash SXSW.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
And the Oscar goes to... Sean Ramos from Today Explained here with Nate Jones from Vulture, where earlier this month you published a piece titled, Is There Any Way to Fix Oscar's International Film Category? What's wrong with it, Nate?
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
If it's a behavior, why not change it? This week on The Gray Area, I talk to Olga Hazan about our personalities and whether we can change them. Listen to The Gray Area with me, Sean Elling. New episodes every Monday, available everywhere.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
Okay, so some of the issues we're talking about here include that countries can only submit one movie. Who decides which movie that is? Anything else that's like sort of a sticking point in the international feature category?
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Today explained Sean Rahm's firm. I went to see some live music in Edinburgh, Scotland late last year. And when I entered the venue, I was somehow surprised to see a seven-piece band full of dudes in kilts. Very literally Scottish, you guys. But then I was even more surprised by what they were playing. Everyone knows this super regionally specific slice of Americana John Denver dropped in 1971?
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Today, Explain is back with some fun facts. Take Me Home Country Roads was made famous by a guy named John Denver, who was born and raised as Henry John Dutchendorf Jr. in Roswell, New Mexico. The song was originally intended for Johnny Cash. Denver's co-writers Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert also wrote Afternoon Delight.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Now, if you don't think this song is the greatest song ever, I will fight you. And guess what? Bill and Taffy weren't from West Virginia either. Taffy was from D.C., where she and Bill lived and wrote the song.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Okay, the Celtics thing is a joke, but he was serious about Massachusetts. I asked West Virginia University English professor Sarah Morris if it bothers West Virginians that their calling card anthem was written by three outsiders. She said they weren't totally outsiders.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
All that being said, there are West Virginians who take issue with some of the references in the lyrics, namely these two.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Today Explained, when you want to learn more about Take Me Home Country Roads, it helps to speak to Professor Sarah Morris.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
I asked Sarah to tell us more about how Country Roads has been used in protests because this is not exactly, you know, rage against the machine. She said she herself witnessed students belting the song on West Virginia University's campus in Morgantown.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Sarah's so West Virginia, she's writing a whole book about this song.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Do you think the song itself is political? This idea of home that clearly strikes a chord with people no matter where they're from. feels more emotional than political, but does this song have a politics?
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Do you think this song is singing about a state in a country that maybe sometimes just doesn't exist anymore? I mean, I know you're saying this song can be used as a political statement because politics are emotional, but... It also seems to transcend politics in that there are liberal people who love this song and there are conservative people who love this song.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
And there are people who have a strong connection to West Virginia who love this song. And there's people who listen to this song and want to move to West Virginia. It seems to just transcend all of the stereotypes or biases we might have about a certain place. And yet people... I don't know, people seem to want to wear their biases on their sleeve now. They want to not just vote in an election.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
They want to fly Trump flags, and they want to fly fuck Trump flags, which was in the news recently, you know? Is the world of this song a thing of the past?
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Professor Sarah Morris, West Virginia University. You also heard from Jason Jung. He's got a piece in the Atlantic from a few years back titled The Song That Sold America to a Generation of Asian Immigrants. And also Charlie Harding. He's got a show called Switched on Pop, and they did an episode about country roads last year. Our program today was produced by Victoria Chamberlain.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
We were edited by Matthew Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, and mixed by Andrea Christensdottir and Patrick Boyd. Thanks to West Virginia native and death, sex, and money host Anna Sale for her counsel on this one. All hail Anna Sale. This is Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Sarah says John Denver's label, RCA, basically started a game of telephone back in 1971. And we're still playing that game because this song still slaps. But don't take my word for it. Take Charlie Harding's. Co-host of Switched on Pop and professor of music at NYU. Charlie gave us a host of reasons why Country Roads is such a ubiquitous banger. First...
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Then I was talking to my cousin in Sri Lanka and he said, Yeah man, everyone knows country roads. And I was like, do they? But then, the more I looked into it, the more I realized Cousin was right. The Germans know these roads. The Japanese. By the time I heard the French-Canadian country roads... I had to know how this happened.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Then it is. People are singing this song in Scotland, in Nashville, and all over Asia?
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Jason Jung is a writer based in Brooklyn. A few years ago, he wrote about this song for The Atlantic on the occasion of its 50th birthday, specifically how the song got so big in Asia.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
But how did it get to be so popular in China? Seems like it was good ol' détente.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
We're bringing you an encore presentation of our investigation of our country roads on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
But it wasn't just detente boosting country roads in Asia. It was also the U.S. military. If you think about...
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Country Roads was innocuous, but it was also a crowd pleaser no matter the crowd.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
You're reminding me of... A Reddit thread I stumbled upon doing research for this episode. In raskinamerican, someone says, do you find it odd that country roads is enjoyed around the world? Got me nostalgic for a place I've never been to. Yeah. And then legacy underscore user 1010 says in response, no, every country has roads. Most people use them to go home.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
We're going to visit West Virginia when we're back on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Support for this show today comes from ZBiotics. ZBiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic, they say. They say it was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. They say when you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
They say it's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration that's to blame for rough days after drinking. They say they're probiotics. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Just ask Claire White.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
You can go to zbiotics.com slash explain to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use the code EXPLAINED at checkout. Zbiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash explain and use the code EXPLAINED to check out for 15% off.
Today, Explained
The most dangerous award
I think it's time we give a little love to our stunt coordinators and our stunt...
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
TikTok is in a state of flux. About a week ago, it disappeared for about 14 hours, even though it didn't have to. Then it came back and sent everyone in the United States essentially a Trump ad. And then Trump enters office and signs an executive order saying he's going to kick the TikTok deadline down the road, but no one knows if that's constitutional.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
idealism that could actually get us there? Because in this country, it seems like the incentives usually work better when someone's getting paid.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Sean Ramos from here with internet culture reporter Steffi Xiao, who's been using Red Note since before it was cool.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
I'm going to ask you a big question, David. Uh-oh. The Fediverse ultimately feels like a reminder to users of social media that they are actually the ones who have the power and the control. It's easy to feel like, oh, I hate this platform because of the guy who runs it. But I got nowhere to go because this is where I get all the stuff that I need. Or this is where my income is based.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Or this is where I find out how to cook or take care of my child or make my face look pretty in the morning. But if we all did something... As a group, we could have a lot more say. Is the Fediverse ultimately just like a metaphor for our democracy?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Someone call Al Gore. David Pierce, the editor-at-large at The Verge. Thank you very much. Our program today was produced by Travis Larchuk. We were edited by Jolie Myers, mixed by Patrick Boyd and Rob Byers. But wait, there's so many more at Today Explained.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Noelle Cold, Avishai Artsy, Amanda Llewellyn, Andrea Christen's daughter, Hadi Mawagdi, Miles Bryan, Peter Balan on Rosen, Victoria Chamberlain, Amina Alsadi, our executive producer, Miranda Kennedy, and our senior researcher, Laura Bullard. The only one of us who's on Red Note.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Can you pull out your phone and just tell us what Red Note's serving you right now?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
I see, like, four videos, and they're not autoplaying. I guess you have to, like, pick one to play it?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
In the meantime, a bunch of Americans downloaded a way more Chinese app called RedNote, and some of them started pledging allegiance to Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. No joke.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
OK, so you download this app, Steffi, before it was cool. But last week and up until the point we're recording right now, this remains true. It is the number one app in the Apple App Store. Why did Red Note become the destination for everyone who's nervous about what's going on with TikTok?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
So you might be the perfect person to ask if the jokes about pleading fealty to the CCP and saying flattering things about Mao Zedong are actually jokes or not. Because I saw a lot of them last week and I really couldn't tell. They were so well crafted. I really couldn't tell if we were joking or not. What is going on?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
So since you've been on this app since before last week, how is its culture changing now that it's being flooded with angry and maybe less angry Americans?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Okay, so that's the downside of all these Americans showing up. But I've been hearing a lot about the upsides. And I know you've written about them. In fact, your article for Rolling Stone that published this week is titled, Red Note is the U.S.-China peace talks we need. Please explain.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
there is, of course, still strong censorship happening on Red Note. I've heard stories that conversations about religion sort of have disappeared or conversations about politics are immediately censored.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
And I guess what some people who aren't on these apps are struggling with right now is that people are OK with this, that people are OK being censored by some Chinese algorithm or even the Chinese government.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Does that mean that it's only a matter of time before there's some lawmaker in Congress trying to ban Red Note?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Steffi Tiao, read her on Red Note at Rolling Stone, also at Slate. When we're back on Today Explained, we're going to try and fix social media once and for all. No big deal.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Today, Explain is back. Our friend Steffi is gone, but our friend David Pierce is here from The Verge. He's the editor-at-large there. An editor-at-large?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
David, social media is in a weird spot right now. You've got Nazi-adjacent Twitter. You've got Metamark and his Zuck Your Feelings era. You've got the TikTok mess, Supreme Court, this president, that president. Let's take a step back from that whole scene. And tell us, if you could sum up what is wrong with social media right now, what would it be?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
But there is something of a possible solution out there. And you've been advocating for it for some time now. Can you introduce it to our audience?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Why is it called that? Fediverse, F-E-D-I-V-E-R-S-E. It sounds like what the federal government would call its internal banking system. I like to think of it as a video game only for FBI agents. The Fediverse.
Today, Explained
Snow White and the Seven Controversies
Today Explained, Sean Ramos from here with Nadira Goff, staff writer at Slate. Nadira, Disney's got a new movie coming out this week. Is everyone enchanted?
Today, Explained
Snow White and the Seven Controversies
And what made it such a smash success? Was it the length? Was it groundbreaking animation?
Today, Explained
Snow White and the Seven Controversies
Amazing. So Disney's innovating the heck out of animation with Snow White, but not creating new intellectual property. This is existing fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm. How much did they change from the original story with this animated feature in 1937?
Today, Explained
Snow White and the Seven Controversies
And that brings us to this current feature, which I know you've seen. And I want to ask you how it is generally. But before we get there, how much do they change from the original Brothers Grimm source material, perhaps, but more importantly, to today's conversation from the 1937 feature?
Today, Explained
Snow White and the Seven Controversies
So it sounds like you're saying, Constance, that some of these changes they've made for this new movie... are good, and maybe some of them are less good?
Today, Explained
Snow White and the Seven Controversies
Do you think having spent so much time thinking about and writing about this original 1937 Snow White, which everyone can close their eyes and picture, it lives rent-free in all of our minds. Do you think this newer Disney could learn something from that vintage Disney?
Today, Explained
Snow White and the Seven Controversies
Now I have to ask, as a student of the Brothers Grimm, how many controversies are there?
Today, Explained
Snow White and the Seven Controversies
Snow White and the seven controversies coming up on the program today.
Today, Explained
Snow White and the Seven Controversies
Seven controversy, I'm guessing at least six more than Disney could have expected. But do you think Disney has maybe come to the point of second guessing remaking all of their classics? Or do you think they'll continue down this path?
Today, Explained
Snow White and the Seven Controversies
Hi-ho! Today Explained is back. I'm still Sean Ramos from Nadir Is Gone, but our friend Constance Grady is here. She's a senior correspondent on the culture team at Vox. Constance, you've written about Snow White several times in your career. Of all the Disney princess movies, and there are many, how important is this one?
Today, Explained
Snow White and the Seven Controversies
But then it comes out and what? It's the bee's knees?
Today, Explained
One year of Sphere
In every company, there's a whole system of decision makers, challenges, and strategies shaping the future of business at every level. That's why we're running a special three-part Decoder Thursday series looking at how some of the biggest companies in the world are adapting, innovating, and rethinking their playbooks.
Today, Explained
One year of Sphere
We're asking enterprise leaders about some of the toughest questions they're facing today, revealing the tensions, risks, and breakthroughs happening behind closed doors. Check out Decoder wherever you get your podcasts. This special series from The Verge is presented by Adobe Express.
Today, Explained
Mar-a-Lago makeover
I just went down the Suzanne Lambert rabbit hole and I'm obsessed. Why am I just finding her? Like, She is my hero.
Today, Explained
Mar-a-Lago makeover
How do you navigate an entire career change after losing everything? This week on Net Worth and Chill, I'm chatting with Lewis Howes, the host of the School of Greatness podcast with over 500 million downloads. Lewis went from rising professional athlete to broke after a career-ending injury.
Today, Explained
Mar-a-Lago makeover
But that was just the beginning of his story. It's an episode packed with raw honesty and failure, practical advice for career pivots, and the financial wisdom that comes from losing it all and rebuilding it. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch on youtube.com slash yourrichbff.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Remember the global COVID-19 pandemic? All of a sudden, everyone had to stay home and people didn't really know what to do. So they started watching TV, lots of TV. And we talked about all the TV we were watching. Not since way back then have more people been asking me about the TV I'm watching. Like, my dude, are you watching The Pit? Don't you have to know basic anatomy to become a doctor?
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
And that's sort of interesting to me because people are watching this show as escapism. Our colleague Jonquilin Hill was explaining this morning how she feels like watching The Pit is like, oh, this is my new family. These are the people I hang out with every night. And yet when it's getting so political and when people are constantly dying or almost dying, like how is that escapism?
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
What I'm hearing from you is that it's escapism in that someone has your back in this world.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
You're listening to Today Explained. All right, so TV's got people talking again, and one of the shows they're talking about is The Pit. And if we're going to talk about The Pit, we got to talk about ER.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
And how does the pit and its throwback quality fit into the broader trends we are seeing in television, whether they're, I don't know, on the sort of tail end or somewhere in the middle, I'm not really sure. But I mean, the pit exists in the same way. televised universe as the third season of White Lotus and the second season of Severance.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
And these shows don't seem to have much in common with each other, except for the fact that people are talking about them a lot right now.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
And for all the people out there, Catherine, who are mourning the loss of their precious pit or their brief sojourn to Thailand or hanging out with the Severance kids, what are you excited about in the coming weeks and months on the TV?
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Catherine Van Arendonk, New York Magazine, fan of The Pit. So is Harima Wagdi, who made the show with help from Miranda Kennedy, Miles O'Brien, and Patrick Boyd, who's not sure he needs the stress of The Pit in his life at the moment. I'm Sean Ramos for him. This This is Today Explained. We'll be back Monday. But don't forget, we've got a Sunday show now. It's called Explain It To Me.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
This week, they're going to explain it to you why high school grads aren't automatically being funneled into college anymore. You can find that where you find this, except on the radio. That show isn't on the radio. This one is. Shout outs to TV on the radio.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
For people in our audience who maybe weren't even alive in 1994, can you just help people understand how big a deal ER was and why?
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Joe had half the TV-watching country eating out the palm of his hand in the 90s, a feat that's basically impossible to pull off now unless you're the Super Bowl. So we asked him why he wanted to return to the medical drama with The Pit.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
He's a student doctor. Did you see that White Lotus monologue? Maybe what I really want is to be one of these Asian girls. Severance. Have you ever heard the story of the Gluckshupen?
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
And in order to tell this story of what it's like to be an emergency medicine physician in 2025-ish, you guys decide to tell this show in this continuous fashion where every episode is picking up exactly where the last episode left off, depicting the course of one long, chaotic, gnarly shift. Yeah. at one hospital.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
I wanted to ask you about that. It's funny, you know, I'm used to shows on HBO being six episodes, eight episodes, ten episodes. I just watch Adolescence. It's four episodes. This show is 15 hours, which, it's HBO, it's Max or whatever, but it feels kind of like old-school network television where there's a lot of episodes.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Something's afoot with all these seemingly unrelated television programs.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
No. Were you nervous that the amount of stress in this hospital, in this emergency room, in this sort of like tight 15-hour period would overstress your audience out and they might get scared off? Were you at all nervous about that?
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
The show's also pretty gnarly at times. I mean, if you're like, you know, faint of heart, there's this floating face moment early in the show where I was just like, I mean, the noises that come out of me while I'm watching the show are pretty hilarious, I imagine. Yeah. The skinless foot, I think in the first episode, there's like a needle in the heart.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Was there stuff that didn't make it because it was too gnarly or did you guys just go for it?
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
So, what are you going to show us that we haven't seen before in season two? Stay tuned.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Joe Sachs is an executive producer and writer on The Pit, which had its season finale last night on Max, which means you can binge the whole thing over the weekend now and maybe still catch the tail end of some of that water cooler conversation that we are going to be talking about when we return on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
And we've asked you here because we just talked about The Pit with a guy from The Pit, but it turns out The Pit isn't the only medical drama on the television right now.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
And you didn't even mention the one I have heard of, which is Dr. Odyssey.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Oh, yeah, that's good. I haven't seen one in the pit yet, but I haven't finished it yet.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Why are there so many Daddy, Doctor, Doctor dramas, Doc, Watson, etc.?
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
Noelle, we got a new Pope. What are your favorite facts about American Pope?
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
So it's kind of like if you were baptized into the Catholic Church as an infant, you might be sort of living your life as a Catholic based on vibes. Whereas if you're a convert like J.D. Vance type, you might be like extremely into culture. Medieval theology.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
I saw someone online some years ago say something like, every lifelong Catholic I've ever met is like, I think we're supposed to give this food to poor people. And every adult convert is like, the archon of Constantinople's epistle on the Pentecostal rights of the Eucharist clearly states women shouldn't have driver's licenses.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
You point out in your piece for Vox that while there aren't tons of Catholic converts out there, there are some particularly loud ones, like our very online vice president. Are the converts creating tension in parishes around the country, in dioceses around the country, or is this something that you mostly experience online?
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
Yeah, what's the draw for the converts? I mean, there's any number of religious sects you could glom onto if you're looking for some sort of sense of community or theology. Why Catholicism? And why, you know, the theology of Thomas Aquinas?
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
And yet it seems like the job of the Pope in this day and age is to bring modernity to the Catholic Church. And that puts the J.D. Vances and convert Catholics of the world at odds with the direction of the Catholic Church.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
And I read that the initial reaction out there in Vatican City when they announced Pope Leo was sort of confusion, ambivalence. It was some people saying, an American? I thought they'd never pick an American. And he wasn't one of the favorites and all this stuff. But then he came out and he spoke powerfully.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
about his ambitions and, you know, sort of carrying the torch for Pope Francis and the need to build bridges. And people were sort of sold on that in the moment. Do you think Pope Leo can build stronger bridges between the cradle Catholics and the converts?
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
Catherine Colitis wrote about the cradles and the converts for Vox.com. The piece is titled The Hidden Religious Divide Erupting into Politics. At the end of our conversation, we asked her who's headlining day two of Catholic Coachella.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
What are we going to talk about on this show, though, Noelle? These are just fun facts.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
Chicago Pope has been to a World Series. Amazing. He's a citizen of Peru.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
Okay, next we're going to hear from a religious researcher about a fight the American Catholics are having right now, Noelle.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
It's a fight between cradle Catholics, those who were born Catholic, and convert Catholics, those who are adopting Catholicism later in life, about the true meaning of the faith. Can't wait. Today Explained. Support for today's explain comes from Built Rewards. Not B-U-I-L-T, but B-I-L-T. Let's talk about points. Not Point Guards. Not the Pointer Sisters.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
Not the classic 1991 Keanu Reeves surf noir movie, Point Break. Shoutouts to Johnny Utah. Although if you do want to talk about Point Break, nobody's stopping you. Not enough people are talking about Point Break. They've let me spend this much of this ad talking about Point Break. And for that alone, Built Rewards, I salute you. Built Rewards lets you earn points on your rent.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
They say you can also gain access to exclusive neighborhood benefits in your city, things like extra points on dining out, complimentary post-workout shakes, and unique experiences that only Built members can access. You can start paying rent through Built and take advantage of your neighborhood benefits by going to joinbuilt.com slash explained. That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T dot com slash explained.
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Chicago Pope
It feels like the first ever American pope presents us with an opportunity to speak about Catholicism in America. How many Americans are Catholic?
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
And you've written about another issue in Catholicism in the United States, which is a growing tension between cradle Catholics and converted Catholics. Tell us more about that.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
How is it that Jay-Z became such a key figure in programming a show that he's too good for?
Today, Explained
AI Video Killed the Video Star
Do you trust Chet? No, but I do trust Colin. I trust Colin. I trust Colin. You always want to work with good people, and obviously I think my dad's good people.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
Sometimes it feels like the world is filled with Homer Simpsons. But I think you're getting at an essential point that I really want to stress here because our collective memory of Y2K is the ultimate nothing burger. But what you're suggesting here is that there are a lot of people working behind the scenes, unsung heroes perhaps, who made it a nothing burger.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
Did things actually go wrong on New Year's Eve 1999? Can we correct the record here?
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
Sean Ramos for him. You might know me from Today Explained. Kyle Mooney, you might know from his pitch-perfect Inside SoCal Quick Hits.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
But the advantage of Y2K was, as we discussed at the top, the deadline, right? We are better at working together As a planet, when there's an asteroid heading towards Earth, and when there's no asteroid, we hate each other. We fight with each other. We're petty as hell.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
How do we address our biggest problems, be they technology, be they climate change, be they the asteroid that's just out there that might hit Earth, but it's not on a direct collision course yet, without the looming threat?
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
Zachary Loeb, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. He's working on a book about Y2K. Avishai Artsy made our show today. He was edited by Amna Alsadi, fact-checked by Anouk Douceau, and mixed by Patrick Boyd and Rob Byers. The rest of the Dream Team, Victoria Chamberlain, Halima Shah, Amanda Llewellyn,
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
Heidi Mawagdi, Miles Bryan, Andrea Christensdottir, Peter Balanon-Rosen, and our power forward, Noelle King. Laura Bullard is our senior researcher. Matthew Collette is a supervising editor. Miranda Kennedy is our executive producer, and we use music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Today Explained is distributed by WNYC. The show is a part of Vox.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
You can support our journalism by joining our membership program today. You can go to vox.com slash members to sign up. And you can rate, review, tell a friend about the show to help us out before the clock strikes midnight, preferably. Oh my shit.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
Or maybe you heard he made a movie called Y2K that opens in theaters today. Y2K is real. We asked Kyle what he was doing on New Year's Eve 1999.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
Of course, unlike all those movies you just named, this movie takes a fairly dark turn. As much as you're willing to share with people, what happens when the clocks strike 12 in Y2K, your movie?
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
I think you should run with that. You mentioned there are a lot of movies when we were teenagers that came out that were for and about teenagers. We've also got a long lineage of movies in which technology turns on us and terrorizes us. And Y2K, your movie, is the latest in a long line. Why do we love to watch technology try and kill us? Did you think about that while you were making this movie?
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
A lot of the actors in your movie weren't even alive on New Year's Eve 1999. Did you have to have, like, you know, Camp Y2K where you kind of gave them the essentials of what life was like back then?
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
I don't know, dude. Listen, okay? In a few hours, you have a built-in excuse to kiss the newly single girl of your dreams. And some of our older listeners might be listening to us, like, reminiscing about 25 years ago and be like, son, it wasn't that different. Right. It feels especially true because Y2K, beyond your movie even, is having a moment.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
On Today Explained, Kyle Mooney is going to tell us about his new movie, Y2K. And then we're going to hear why Y2K didn't happen.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
I mean, there are like Y2K vintage clothing stores. Charli XCX, who had a huge year, has a song on her album called Von Dutch. Did the fact that Y2K is back in so many ways... you know, kids using digital point-and-shoot cameras again, help you sell this movie to the studio that ultimately made it, A24?
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
Yeah, and then we'll see what comes back next. Do you think we can learn anything from Y2K from your experience making this movie?
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
Kyle Mooney's new movie is Y2K. See it wherever you see your movies except at home. I don't think you can watch it at home just yet. When we're back on Today Explained, we're going to find out why the machines didn't turn on us 25 years ago.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
Find out on Unexplainable, new episodes every Monday and Wednesday.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
25 years ago, if you were alive, you or someone close to you was wondering what would happen when the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve. Would the power go out? Would planes crash? Would ATMs start spitting out money all over the world? But then, nothing happened.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
Zachary Loeb teaches history at Purdue University, and he's especially into the history of Y2K. You can find him on campus trying to convince his students that Y2K is still worth thinking about 25 years later.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
For all of our listeners who are too young to remember or who maybe just didn't care about the hysteria in 1999, can you remind us when exactly it was that someone said, hey... You know, there might be a huge computer glitch on New Year's Eve 1999.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
This special series from The Verge is presented by Adobe Express.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
What was the extent to which people freaked out? Was there a panic?
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
It's been a rough week for your retirement account, your friend who imports products from China for the TikTok shop, and also Hooters.
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
And this is how we get to Hooters declaring bankruptcy this week. Is Hooters Inc. the one declaring bankruptcy or is it Hooters of America?
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
broad broadening appeal and do you think the the original six owners of hooters who who came up with this concept in the first place and incorporated on april fool's day 1983 had any idea that one day they'd be trying to you know better appeal to to women and kids and and be selling baby onesies
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
Ty Matioski is the author of the forthcoming Risqué Business Restaurants in American Culture. It drops in August, but you can make your reservation now. Our show today was produced by Victoria Chamberlain with a little help from our senior researcher, Laura Bullard, who visited a Hooters in her neighborhood for the very first time to talk to some servers for us.
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
Jolie Myers edited, Patrick Boyd mixed, Avishai Artsy, Gabrielle Burbey, Hadi Mawagdi, Amanda Llewellyn, Carla Javier, Miles Bryan, Peter Balanon-Rosen, Andrea Christen's daughter, Devin Schwartz, Amna Alsadi, Miranda Kennedy, and Noelle King... Make the show two with Breakmaster Cylinder on the ones and twos. Today Explained is distributed by WNYC. The show is a part of Vox.
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
You can support our journalism by joining our membership program today. Go to vox.com slash members to sign up. And I'm pretty sure that's also how to get this show without ads, if you're interested.
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
Hooters is shifting away from its iconic skimpy waitress outfits and bikini days, instead opting for a family-friendly vibe. They're vowing to improve the food and ingredients, and staff is now being urged to greet women first when groups arrive.
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
Today Explained, Sean Ramos from here with Peter Rothpletz. Peter's a writer, and recently, for the first time, he became a guy who writes about hooters.
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
Maybe in April of 2025, you're thinking, good riddance. Does the world still really need this chain of restaurants? But then we were surprised to learn of who exactly was mourning the potential loss of Hooters. Straight guys who like chicken, sure. But also a bunch of gay guys who like chicken. Why exactly that is coming up on the show today.
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
She saw something going on at that table between you and your grandfather.
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
What were people saying to you in response to this story you shared?
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
Tell us specifically about stories you heard from people. Was it, like, just a carbon copy of your story, or were there, you know, some variations?
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
It's kind of funny to be having this conversation as we're hearing that Hooters is in some serious financial trouble. Have you heard from anyone who said like, wow, I really thought Hooters was all about something else. And I wish I had gone as a kid or as a teenager or even as an adult.
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
Peter's opinions about Hooters were published in the New York Times Opinions section. Currently, the piece is titled, Why Dads Take Their Gay Sons to Hooters. But at one point, it was titled, Failed Conversion Therapy with a Side of Ranch at Hooters. I prefer that OG title. Onward to the origins of this breasturant when we're back on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
And Ty, believe it or not, is putting the finishing touches on a book about Hooters and other restaurants like it.
Today, Explained
Pray for Hooters
Tell me how it gets there. How does it go from a potential April Fool's joke to blowing up nationally?
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
It's a new year. Maybe you're taking a month off from drinking, you know, dry January, and maybe you're replacing it with something else.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Okay, so how are we doing on those three goals? To reduce youth access, increase adult access, and reduce burdens on the criminal justice system six years into this experiment?
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Okay, so we did reduce burdens on the criminal justice. We didn't necessarily increase youth access. I assume adults are smoking more? That is the case.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Where does that put Canada in terms of, I don't know, world rankings of pot smokers? Yeah.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Wow. So Canadians are smoking a ton of weed. And it sounds like you think that's not a good thing.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
How do the medical concerns compare to those with alcohol? And are we seeing fewer alcohol-related hospitalizations or driving infractions as a result? That's a great question.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
There's a really complicated and important relationship between alcohol and things like depression and anxiety in particular.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Maren Kogan, senior correspondent at Vox. What's up with weed right now?
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
You mentioned that there's a pot shop on every corner, it seems like, in Canada these days. Are you seeing an economic boom?
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Has someone done this better than Canada? I mean, do you guys look at the Netherlands and say, you know, oh, they had a great model. Is there a good example of how to legalize marijuana out there?
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
You know, let me close by asking you this, James. It's a new year. People are thinking about who they want to be, how they want to change, what resolutions they're making and whatnot.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
For people who are smoking a lot of weed, considering taking up weed, considering quitting weed, as a medical professional who, yes, lives in Canada, but is actually from the United States, what would you say to your fellow Americans who are living in a state where this is now legal and who are certainly living in a country where their federal government isn't in a rush to solve this problem of the marijuana patchwork we have across the United States?
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Dr. James McKillop, McMaster University. Go Marauders? That's a good one. Abishai Artsy made our show today. He was edited by Amna Alsadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, and mixed by Andrea Christensdottir and Patrick Boyd. This is Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Tell me more. What do we know about the harms, especially as we undergo this massive nationwide experiment and see more people smoking weed every day?
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Is cannabinoid hypermesis syndrome the only negative health impact we're seeing amongst people who are smoking more weed?
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Why don't we know more about what we're consuming and how safe it is?
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Everyone's getting down with pot, but legislatively we're still stuck with a hot mess in the United States. We're going to see what we can do about that on Today Explained.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
OK. And has there been success on that front? Is there consistency in what people are getting across this country or at least consistency in the labeling of what people are getting across this country?
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Not to mention this stuff's just generally a lot stronger than it used to be, right?
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
This sounds all very messy, Maren, as we enter a new year and approach this country with this potent drug that a whole lot of people love to take, that increasingly people are taking every day with this patchwork of laws and a whole, you know, inconsistent patchwork of regulations. Is anyone having buyer's remorse on all the legalization we've done?
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Maren Kogan, you can read her joint on weed at Vox.com. It's called How Weed Won Over America. I'm Sean Ramos from Next Up on Today Explained. As we so often do, we're heading to Canada to find out if we can learn anything from our neighbors to the north who didn't just legalize state by state or province by province in their case. They legalized federally.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Support for this show today comes from Zbiotic. Zbiotic's pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic, they say. They say it was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. They say when you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
They say it's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration that's to blame for rough days after drinking. They say they're pre-alcoholic. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Just ask Claire White.
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Canadian bakin’
You can go to zbiotics.com slash explain to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use the code explained. Check out Zbiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash explain and use the code explained to check out for 15% off.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Some like one in five people who do dry January say they're smoking weed instead. And more Americans are now smoking weed daily than drinking daily. Current president is into it. No one should be in jail merely for using or possessing marijuana, period.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
James McKillop sits in the Peter Boris Chair in Addictions Research at McMaster University and St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton, Ontario. But he's also from the United States, so he was the ideal doc to ask, what's up with legal weed in Canada compared to America? We started with weed's legal status north of the border.