VOX
What the US gets wrong about minimum wage
- Title
- What the US gets wrong about minimum wage
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Raising the minimum wage doesn’t have to be so hard.
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The American federal minimum wage hasn’t gone up in a decade. That’s the longest wait since the US first set a minimum wage in 1938. Today, Congress is debating whether they should raise it again. But the fact that Congress has to debate it at all is… kind of weird.
In the US, unlike in other developed countries, the minimum wage is a political issue. That means it gets raised irregularly and unpredictably. And that causes a bunch of problems for American workers and businesses.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Read more about the current debate to raise the minimum wage from Alexia:
https://www.vox.com/2019/7/18/20697509/minimum-wage-bill-raise-the-wage-act
And more about what other countries do, from the OECD:
http://www.oecd.org/employment/emp/Minimum%20wages.pdf
...
- Title
- We measured pop music’s falsetto obsession
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- From Justin Timberlake to the Bee Gees, we charted the popularity of men singing high.
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It’s nearly impossible to turn on the radio and not hear a male artist singing really high. Likely he’s a tenor, and more often than not he’ll sing in falsetto. Think Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Bruno Mars, Drake, Charlie Puth, Shawn Mendes, Adam Levine, Sam Smith ... the list goes on and on and on.
This isn’t a trend — it has been the status quo for decades.
Using the data diving know-how of The Pudding, and drawing on the expertise of Anthony Roth Costanzo, a professional opera singer, I dig into the world of the high male vocal range by tracking how pervasive it really is across the decades.
The Pudding: https://pudding.cool/
IG: @the.pudding
Twitter: @puddingviz
The articles referenced in the video can be found here:
The Evolution of the Male Fal...
- Title
- Why so many suburbs look the same
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- So many suburbs have similar plans. Why?
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In this episode of Vox Almanac, Vox’s Phil Edwards investigates the system behind the shape of the suburbs.
If you’ve visited a suburb, you’ve probably noticed a similar look: same curving streets; same cul de sacs. It’s not an accident. In fact, this appearance of the suburbs is part of the Federal Housing Administration’s plan.
In the 1930s, the Federal Housing Administration, or FHA, was the financial engine behind most home development. To ensure their investments were safe ones, they strongly recommended that builders and developers comply with the ideals they set. Those regulations alig...
- Title
- How Davy Crockett became an American legend
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Was Davy Crockett a sellout? And does it matter?
Help us make more ambitious videos by joining the Vox Video Lab. It brings you closer to our work and gets you exclusive perks, like livestream Q&As with all the Vox creators, a badge that levels up over time, and video extras bringing you closer to our work! Learn more at http://bit.ly/video-lab
In this episode of History Club, Vox’s Phil Edwards asks Coleman Lowndes a question: Was this American legend really as great as he was cracked up to be?
Davy Crockett’s become an American tall tale, but he was a real person and member of Congress. That’s where things get complicated. His incredible feats of bear-killing and frontier exploring intersected with a political career that was catalyzed by central banking.
When Crockett was alive, Andrew Jackson was president, and Jackson was embroiled in a battle over the Second Bank of the United States. That battle eventually resulted in the...
- Title
- All student debt in the US, visualized
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- What if all of this debt was canceled? This is what that would look like.
Become a Video Lab member to get a behind the scenes look at how we created the data visualization for this video: https://youtu.be/MlJaswcqQiA
Student loan debt has increased exponentially in the past few decades. So now, some Democratic presidential candidates propose canceling those debts — all $1.6 trillion of it. But is this a good idea? Who exactly does it benefit?
For more on student loan debt, read this Vox explainer on Elizabeth Warren's plan: https://www.vox.com/2019/4/22/18509196/elizabeth-warren-debt-free-college
And this explainer on Bernie Sanders's plan: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/23/18714615/bernie-sanders-free-college-for-all-2020-student-loan-debt
This piece explains why wonks don't like Sanders's plan: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/26/18760296/bernie-sanders-college-for-all-cancel-student-de...
- Title
- Where Manhattan’s grid plan came from
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Manhattan is famous for its grid — so famous that people take pictures of the way the sun shines through it. But the origin of that grid wasn’t always certain — and not everybody is a fan.
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In this episode of Vox Almanac’s Road Trip edition, Phil Edwards explores the history of the New York City grid, with detours to Philadelphia, Savannah, and Washington, DC. Early city planning around the turn of the 19th century was a contentious and undecided discipline with lots of options and disagreement.
New York City was particularly chaotic and unplanned at the time, after years of catering to developers and, at the same time, ignoring their requests for a more sane city plan. That made the introduction of a new plan in the 1800s a more urgent matter — and a reasonable time to introduce a plan that lacked many of the artistic flourishes of contemporary city plans.
New York was all ...
- Title
- How scientists colorize photos of space
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Yes, that’s a black and white photo.
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The Hubble Space Telescope only takes photos in black and white. To make those beautiful space photos you’ve probably seen, scientists add the color later using a technique first developed around the turn of the 20th century that imitates how our eyes naturally perceive color.
If you want to explore more Hubble photos, a lot of information came from this site: https://hubblesite.org/
And be sure to check out Kimberly Arcand and Travis Rector's book, "Coloring the Universe:" https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo22276742.html
Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com
Make sure you never miss behind the scenes content in the Vox Video newslet...
- Title
- Why the US has so many tornadoes
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Tornado Alley experiences more tornadoes than anywhere else in the world — why?
This video is presented by CuriosityStream: https://www.curiositystream.com/Vox
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The United States experiences more tornadoes than any other country, averaging over 1,200 per year. Most of those twisters are touching down in the central part of the country in an area called “Tornado Alley.” While the boundaries of this tornado hotbed are disputed, there’s no denying that something is going on here — and it all has to do with geography.
The map we use in this video for Tornado Alley boundaries is from NOAA — you can find that and more information on their website: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/climate-information/extreme-events/us-tornado-climatology/tornado-alley
Information on tornado averages and trends can also be found at NOAA:
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/climate-information/extreme-e...
- Title
- The dark history of "gasoline baths" at the border
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- An alarming US border policy forced fumigations on migrants at the US-Mexico border.
Help our reporting on hidden histories. Submit a story idea here: http://bit.ly/2RhjxMy
In 1917, American health officials launched a campaign to use noxious, often toxic chemicals to delouse immigrants seeking to enter at the US-Mexico border. The same practice had caused a fire in an El Paso jail the year before and killed 27 people.
17-year-old Juárez maid Carmelita Torres refused to go through it, sparking a protest of thousands of Mexicans at the El Paso border. Although they briefly shut down the border, the campaign would continue for decades -- and go on to inspire Nazi scientists.
For more reading, check out the links below:
David Dorado Romo’s book, Ringside Seat to a Revolution: https://www.cincopuntos.com/products_detail.sstg?id=91
The Bracero History Archive: http://braceroarchive.org
John Mckiernan-Go...
- Title
- Thomas Edison's road trip with his famous friends
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- It’s time to go road-tripping with some men who ran the world.
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This is episode one of Vox Almanac’s new season all about roads — and this is a classic road trip to kick it off with.
Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs became famous as “the Vagabonds” — a traveling group that took to the (primitive) roads to see the country and make the occasional business deal. Their exploits captured the imagination of the entire country, and it even involved a few naps.
Along the way, the unique foursome chopped trees, explored, and ate in style (while catering to the film crew they brought with them). The resulting output was a mix of PR and good old-fashioned fun. Even President Warren G. Harding joined along at one point just to see what the Vagabonds were up to.
Further reading:
Check out Potato Jet! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNJe8u...
- Title
- Why the Tour de France is so brutal
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- It's all about the climbs.
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The Tour de France is the most prominent cycling race in the world. It’s now in its 109th edition and it’s being called the ‘Highest in History’ because there are more climbs than ever before. This is important because the climbs are where the race is won and lost. The best riders rely on their teammates to get them through the long, flat, and hilly stages, before they take on the mountain stages on their own. These are the hardest and most brutal stages of the race - but they are exactly what makes the Tour de France famous.
Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.
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- Title
- India’s cow vigilantes are targeting Muslims
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- In India, Muslims are being killed over cows.
This season of Borders is presented by CuriosityStream. Watch thousands of documentaries for free for 31-days: https://www.curiositystream.com/Borders
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With original music by Tom Fox: https://tfbeats.com/
India’s government has strict laws surrounding cow slaughter because cows are sacred in Hinduism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized the need to make sure India’s cows are protected and some state governments followed suit by opening more cow shelters and ordering more police crackdowns. But some took cow protection into their own hands.
Cow vigilantes started patroll...
- Title
- How Trump took over America's courts
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- How Trump and McConnell are changing the country for a generation.
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President Donald Trump is building his longest-lasting legacy in a place that’s often overlooked: the federal courts. It’s not just the Supreme Court that’s important — it hears less than 100 cases a year — his impact is being seen in places like the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
This court has stopped many of Trump’s most controversial executive orders: the travel ban, emergency funding for a border wall. But this historically liberal court won’t look very liberal at the end of Trump’s first term.
Read more about Trump’s appointment of judges on Vox.com:
https://www.vox.com/2018/12/27/18136294/trump-mitch-mconnell-republican-judges
And more about the roles of America’s federal court system:
https://www.uscourts.gov/statistics-reports/federal-judicial-caseload-statistics-...
- Title
- Vox Almanac is going on a road trip
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Watch episode one right here: https://youtu.be/ObKE1m3EmdE
Buckle up.
Vox Almanac is going on a road trip. Senior producer Phil Edwards explores five stories about how roads shape culture. It's a journey that goes everywhere from New York City in the 1800s to Route 66 today — with a lot of surprising stops in between.
Watch all of the Vox Almanac episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUkeI_JkArU&list=PLJ8cMiYb3G5dDYkBwaRB-0rp6GJ5vnMTe
Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com
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- Title
- India's trucks are works of art
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Why India’s trucks are so colorful.
Season 2 of Borders is presented by CuriosityStream. Watch thousands of documentaries for free for 31 days: https://www.curiositystream.com/Borders
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With original music by Tom Fox: https://tfbeats.com/
Bedfords were first introduced to British India during World War II. This truck model and others similar to it stuck around, and since then they've been produced commercially throughout the country. But today, they’re not just functional and mundane — their paintings make them stand out.
Colorful trucks aren’t rare in India, and their designs aren’t random. Artists that specialize in paint...
- Title
- The ingredients of a classic house track
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- With a disco sample and drum machine house music took over the globe .
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House has become one of the most popular forms of electronic music since its inception in the late 80’s.
It began in Chicago, when local DJ’s and music producers experimented with remixing disco vocals over hard hitting drum machines. They would soon play a huge role in popularizing the sound and distinguishing house music as a global music genre.
Chicago gospel singer, Loleatta Halloway, is one of the most widely sampled artists in house music history. Her song “Love Sensation” has been sampled nearly 300 times, including on Black Box’s “Ride on Time”, the notorious hit that became the best selling single in the U.K in 1989.
Special thanks to James Wiltshire and Torsten Schmidt for offering their expertise in this video. Links to them are below:
James Wiltshire: https://www.yout...
- Title
- The problem with America's college entrance exam
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- In the U.S., your SAT score is hugely important. But what does it *really* measure?
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The SAT college extrance exam is a gatekeeper of opportunity. But this wasn't always the case.
Here are some sources I found useful when reporting out this piece:
* The Big Test is a well known book written by Nicholas Lemann, but a few years before he published this in 1999, he wrote this piece for The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1995/09/the-great-sorting/376451/
* Here's the story behind the SAT overhaul: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/magazine/the-story-behind-the-sat-overhaul.html?_r=0
* This research paper, from Raj Chetty and colleagues, looks at the role of colleges in intergenerational mobility: https://www.nber.org/papers/w23618
* The SAT helps predict first-year GPA to an extent — but not for all students. We didn't inclu...
- Title
- India and Sri Lanka's violent fight over fish
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- How a maritime border created a conflict in the Indian Ocean.
This season of Borders is presented by CuriosityStream. Watch thousands of documentaries for free for 31-days: https://www.curiositystream.com/Borders
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With original music by Tom Fox: https://tfbeats.com/
Fishing is the economic lifeline for villages in northern Sri Lanka. But after a decades long civil war, fishermen returned to find their fish stocks depleted – and they pointed the finger squarely at neighboring India.
As Indian fishermen developed methods to increase hauls, and crossed a maritime border that was more permeable during the war, they depleted...
- Title
- Jacob Collier deconstructs a Stevie Wonder classic
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Stevie Wonder's irresistible ode to jazz, explained
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Stevie Wonder is one of the most widely celebrated artists in history. His music is infectious, melodic, and thoughtfully inspired by the jazz musicians who came before him. In his legendary song "Sir Duke," Stevie paid homage to the late Duke Ellington and his other predecessors.
Jacob Collier is a rising star in his own right and is Stevie Wonder's self-proclaimed greatest fan. Here, he breaks down the jazz influences and syncopations Stevie uses to create the magic that is "Sir Duke."
If you’d like to check out more of Jacob’s music check out his YouTube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/jacobcolliermusic
Follow Vox Earworm on Facebook for more: http://www.facebook.com/VoxEarworm
Some songs don't just stick in your head, they change the music world forever. Join Estelle Caswell on a m...
- Title
- How India runs the world's biggest election
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- 900 million eligible voters need access to polling booths.
This season of Borders is presented by CuriosityStream. Watch thousands of documentaries for free for 31-days: https://www.curiositystream.com/Borders
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With original music by Tom Fox: https://tfbeats.com/
Elections in India aren’t like others. India voted to pick its central government for the next five years throughout the spring of 2019. An eighth of the world’s entire population was eligible to vote in this election. That’s 900 million people, and more than 67 percent voted.
India runs the world’s biggest elections, and officials put in a lot of effort to...
- Title
- Why Iraq's great rivers are dying
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- And the timing couldn't be worse.
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Iraq gets almost all of its water from two rivers: The Tigris and the Euphrates. Both begin in Turkey and make their way down the entire length of the country, before emptying into the Persian Gulf. The problem is - they are drying up.
There are two main reasons for this. The first is geographical: Since both rivers begin in Turkey, Iraq doesn’t have control of how much water it receives. In the last 30 years, Turkey, Syria, and Iran have been building hundreds of dams along both rivers. Now only a quarter of the Euphrates reaches Iraq. Secondly, Iraq has been stuck in conflict for the last 16 years. In each case, the delicate network of treatment plants, dams, canals, and pipes has been repeatedly destroyed and neglected.
All of this has boiled over in the city of Basra - at Iraq’s southern tip. Last summer, after hundreds were poisoned by the wa...
- Title
- The problem with sex testing in sports
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Caster Semenya’s court case is the latest chapter in a long and confusing history.
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This spring, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld rules imposed by the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) limiting the participation of female athletes with high levels of testosterone. On the other side of the decision was Caster Semenya: a South African runner who has repeatedly been penalized by sports officials throughout her career. The IAAF has gone through many iterations of their female regulations throughout the past decade, and Caster Semenya has been targeted with each successive policy. Most recently, the regulation has been a testosterone limit of five nanomoles per liter.
Throughout the past decade, the media has been following Semenya's story closely and shaping a narrative that is often misguided or inaccurate. In this video we piece...
- Title
- These photos ended child labor in the US
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Child labor was widely practiced until a photographer showed the public what it looked like.
This video is presented by CuriosityStream: https://www.curiositystream.com/Vox
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The 1900 US Federal Census revealed that 1.75 million children under the age of 16, more than one in five, were gainfully employed. They worked all over the country in cotton mills, glass blowing factories, sardine canneries, farms, and even coal mines. In an effort to expose this exploitation of children, the National Child Labor Committee hired a photographer to travel around the country and investigate and report on the labor conditions of children.
Lewis Wickes Hine photographed and interviewed kids, some as young as 4 years old, and published his findings in various Progressive magazines and newspapers. Once the public saw the plight of these children, state legislatures were pressured to pass bills regulating labor...
- Title
- The right way to kill a fish
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- The most popular way to kill fish isn’t great for the fish — or our taste buds.
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Most fish die the same way — slow suffocation in the open air. It’s easy for fishers, but it causes fish tons of stress, and floods their bodies with chemicals like cortisol, adrenaline, and lactic acid. Those chemicals make the fish taste bad, smell “fishy,” and rot quickly.
But there's a better way: a four-step Japanese method called ikejime. It involves sharp knives. And a brain spike.
We adapted this video from Vox’s Future Perfect podcast, which goes much more in depth on ikejime: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/14/18091698/future-perfect-podcast-killing-fish-ikejime-animal-welfare
Cat Ferguson wrote a detailed article on ...
- Title
- How this border transformed a subcontinent | India & Pakistan
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- The story of how a hastily-drawn line divided one people into two.
This season of Borders is presented by CuriosityStream. Watch thousands of documentaries for free for 31-days: https://www.curiositystream.com/Borders
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With original music by Tom Fox: https://tfbeats.com/
The video conferencing session between the two schools was conducted between students of Gyan Mandir Public School (Delhi, India) and Adamjee Model School (Karachi, Pakistan). The session was coordinated by Ms Anju Anand and Ms Devika Mittal from Indian side and Mr Usama Palla and Ms Suraya Islam from Pakistan. We're grateful they let us drop by!
The...
- Title
- Hong Kong’s huge protests, explained
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- The people of Hong Kong are protesting in record-breaking numbers.
Become a Video Lab member! http://bit.ly/video-lab
Correction at 7:48: The protester says “They are not doing this for themselves, but for the future of Hong Kong.”
Hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers have taken to the streets to protest a controversial extradition bill that could send Hong Kong residents to mainland China to be tried in court. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, says the bill is meant to prevent Hong Kong from becoming a safe haven for fugitives. But its opponents fear that Hong Kong would be exposed to China’s flawed judicial system, which would lead to further erasure of the city’s judicial independence.
At first Lam was determined to move forward with the bill. But after a series of massive protests, she announced she would “indefinitely suspend” the bill. But protesters aren't accepting the suspension, and have started demandi...
- Title
- When white supremacists overthrew a government
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- The hidden history of an American coup.
Help our reporting on hidden histories. Submit a story idea here: http://bit.ly/2RhjxMy
Correction at 7:23: Cynthia's ancestors lived in Wilmington, not her descendants.
In November 1898, in Wilmington, North Carolina, a mob of 2,000 white men expelled black and white political leaders, destroyed the property of the city’s black residents, and killed dozens--if not hundreds--of people. How did such a turn of events change the course of the city? For decades, the story of this violence was buried, while the perpetrators were cast as heroes. Yet its impacts resonate across the state to this day.
In the new Vox series Missing Chapter, Vox Senior Producer Ranjani Chakraborty revisits underreported and often overlooked moments from the past to give context to the present. Join her as she covers the histories that are often left out of our textbooks. Our first season tackles stories of racial injust...
- Title
- Vox Borders: India is coming next week!
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Vox Borders: India launches Wednesday June 26, 2019!
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Get ready for a new season of Vox Borders! This time, we're heading to India. We'll have a whole new spate of videos examining the human impact of the lines on a map, straight from the subcontinent.
We're excited to share with you these episodes that Johnny and his team have been working so hard on. They start next week, June 26th, and new videos will publish weekly on Wednesdays.
If you want to stay up to date with Johnny's travels and the Vox Borders series, check out one (or all!) of the ways to follow his work, that Johnny mentions in this video.
Vox Borders is an internationa...
- Title
- Astronauts left poop on the moon. We should go get it.
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- What astronaut diapers can teach us about the origins of life.
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We released a members-only extra from this video, where Bridgett, one of our team's incredible story editors unboxes the props we used for this shoot. It's our first Vox Unboxing, and you can watch it by becoming a member and following this link: https://youtu.be/bNMxRoybHOQ.
Astronauts landed on the moon for the first time 50 years ago, and they left a bunch of stuff up there — including their poop. Scientists want to know: Is there anything alive in there?
Our poop is over 50 percent bacteria, and we don’t know if any of that bacteria can survive in the moon’s inhospitable environment. But if we go back to check it out, that poop could answer some big scientific questions — including how life started in the br...
- Title
- The weird rule that broke American politics
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- The filibuster started as an accident. Today it lets the losers rule Congress.
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The US Senate is supposed to pass laws. But today, it’s broken. And it’s broken because of something called the filibuster, which has been part of Senate tradition for over 200 years. But the filibuster came into being by accident. And today, some politicians are suggesting we should get rid of it entirely.
Further reading:
* My colleague Matt Yglesias does a great job breaking down the 2020 Democrats’ debate over the filibuster: https://www.vox.com/2019/3/5/18241447/filibuster-reform-explained-warren-booker-sanders
* Ezra Klein dispels some myths about the filibuster: https://www.vox.com/2015/5/27/18089312/myths-about-the-filibuster
* The book “Politics of Principle?” from Sarah Binder and Steven Smith from the Brookings Institution, really helped me understand the Senat...
- Title
- Missing Chapter: A new series about hidden histories
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Help our reporting on hidden histories. Submit a story idea here: http://bit.ly/2RhjxMy and watch the first episode of Missing Chapter here: https://youtu.be/LVQomlXMeek
Help us continue to explain today's crucial issues for YouTube, by becoming a Video Lab member. Your membership also helps us make even more of the Vox videos you love.
In the new Vox series Missing Chapter, Vox Senior Producer Ranjani Chakraborty revisits underreported and often overlooked moments from the past to give context to the present. Join her as she covers the histories that are often left out of our textbooks. Our first season tackles stories of racial injustice, political conflicts, even the hidden history of US medical experimentation.
Have an idea for a story that Ranjani should investigate for Missing Chapter? Send it to her via this form! http://bit.ly/2RhjxMy
Sign up for the Missing Chapter newsletter to stay up to date with the series: https://vox.c...
- Title
- The Green New Deal, explained
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- What's actually in the Green New Deal?
Become a Video Lab member! http://bit.ly/video-lab
The Green New Deal is an ambitious plan to fight the effects of climate change. It’s the only American plan that actually acknowledges the size of the impending crisis. And it contains some difficult truths that we might not want to hear.
Read the Green New Deal resolution here: https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/sites/ocasio-cortez.house.gov/files/Resolution%20on%20a%20Green%20New%20Deal.pdf
For additional context I recommend this piece by Vox’s Umair Irfan on the United Nations climate report, where the world’s best climatologists tell us how urgent of a problem this is: https://www.vox.com/2018/10/8/17948832/climate-change-global-warming-un-ipcc-report
This piece from Vox’s David Roberts, shows that world leaders really aren’t taking this urgency seriously. https://www.vox.com/2016/10/4/13118594/2-degrees-no-more-fossil-fue...
- Title
- New York is building a wall to hold back the ocean
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Climate change is leading to increasingly violent storms. Can seawalls hold back floods?
Join the Video Lab! http://bit.ly/video-lab
Staten Island recently received funding for a nearly 5-mile-long seawall to protect its coast. But the plan raises a lot of questions. We’re living in a dangerously dynamic world: Hurricanes are getting worse, wildfires are rampant in California, extreme heat is melting roads in India, and sea levels continue to rise. Will a wall really be enough to protect our coastal cities?
Alissa Walker from Curbed talked to us about how it’s too late to stop the changing climate, but not too late to change how we think about infrastructure.
Check out some further reading from our sister site, Curbed.com:
https://www.curbed.com/2017/2/15/14616928/trump-nasa-climate-change-california
https://ny.curbed.com/2019/4/25/18515213/staten-island-usace-seawall-climate-change-photo-essay
For ...
- Title
- The race to save endangered foods
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Wild animals aren’t the only ones facing extinction.
Join the Video Lab! http://bit.ly/video-lab
We’re letting foods we’ve eaten for thousands of years disappear from farmers’ fields, and from our plates. Saving them isn’t just a matter of cultural preservation. In the next 30 years, we’re going to need to learn how to feed more people on a hotter planet, and the more genetic varieties we lose, the harder it’ll be to adapt.
To learn more about the foods facing extinction in the US and around the world, check out the Ark of Taste, a project of Slow Food USA.
Journalist Mark Shapiro’s book, Seeds of Resistance, goes into much more detail about the risk that genetic homogeneity poses to our food supply. He also profiles some of the efforts, many led by indigenous communities, to preserve older seed varieties.
For more on seed relabeling, check out the Farmers Business Network’s 2018 Seed Relabeling Report...
- Title
- This photo almost started a nuclear war
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- The Cuban Missile Crisis began with a photograph.
Join the Video Lab! http://bit.ly/video-lab
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world has ever come to all-out nuclear war, and it all started with a photo.
On October 15th, 1962, Dino Brugioni, a senior analyst at the newly-formed National Photographic Interpretation Center, identified missile trailers measuring approximately 65 feet in an aerial reconnaissance photo. Those trailers were a match for the Soviet SS-4, a medium-range ballistic missile with a range that would cover a huge amount of the United States, including Washington, DC.
Upon seeing this photo, US President John F. Kennedy ordered more aerial recon flights, conducted by the CIA using the high-altitude U-2 spy plane. He used these photographs to make a plan of action about confronting the Soviet Union over their secretive installation of offensive missiles in Cuba.
Note: The headline for this ...
- Title
- You’re watching Fox News. You just don’t know it.
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Fox News was created to push right-wing nonsense to the mainstream, and now there’s no escape.
Join the Video Lab! http://bit.ly/video-lab
Read more about the hack gap on Vox.com: https://www.vox.com/2018/10/23/18004478/hack-gap-explained
We tend to assume that if a story is being covered by major news networks, it’s because journalists have decided that the story is important. But thanks to Fox News, that’s not always true.
The network was specifically created to generate scandals that would hurt Democrats and help Republicans. And because most major networks pay attention to what happens in conservative media, those pseudoscandals end up creeping into mainstream coverage.
The result is a media ecosystem that advantages Republicans by paying disproportionate attention to right-wing talking points.
Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the...
- Title
- Why your allergies get worse every year
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- The Pollen-ocalypse is coming.
This video is presented by Hover. Get 10% off your first purchase by going to https://hover.com/vox
Become a Video Lab member! http://bit.ly/video-lab
Allergy season is upon us once again. And if it seems like your allergies are getting worse year after year, it’s not just your imagination.
Pollen is a fine powder produced as part of the sexual reproductive cycle of many varieties of plants. As climate change warms the planet, pollen production is ramping up. And that’s becoming a problem, whether you suffer from seasonal allergies — or not.
Sources & further reading:
Why allergy season gets worse every year
https://www.vox.com/2019/4/8/18300342/pollen-season-2019-allergies-climate-change
Effects on pollen allergies on emergency room visits
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2018GH000153
Effects of temperature on pollen prod...
- Title
- Why drugs cost more in America
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- How an EpiPen can cost $300 in the US and $38 in the UK.
This video is presented by CuriosityStream: https://www.curiositystream.com/Vox
Become a Video Lab member! http://bit.ly/video-lab
Prescription drugs cost more in the United States than anywhere else in the world. One big reason why is America’s particular system for how drugs get to patients, which is unlike almost any other country’s. But it’s also because the American prescription drug market is so profitable that the money it generates powers the entire global pharmaceutical industry.
Check out our other video, on how Americans got stuck with endless drug advertisements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5jnn1AIt7Q
Check out more of Sarah Kliff’s reporting:
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/11/30/12945756/prescription-drug-prices-explained
And the Commonwealth Fund’s research on US drug prices: https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publ...
- Title
- How Game of Thrones uses costumes to show power
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Costume design links Sansa Stark and Cersei Lannister. This video is presented by Skillshare.
Click here to get your first two months of Skillshare for free: https://skl.sh/vox2
Become a Video Lab member! http://bit.ly/video-lab
Sansa Stark and Cersei Lannister are two of Game of Thrones’ most recognizable enemies. But despite being on opposite sides of Westeros, their costumes have a ton in common.
From the very beginning of the show, their outfits have been mirrors. When they’re both oppressed and weak in the earlier seasons, they’re dressed in loose, pastel clothing signaling their lack of power. As the show moves on and their plots become more complicated, they don “survival camouflage,” clothes used to mask secrets and blend in with enemies. And when both women begin to assert the power of their houses, Lannister lions and Stark wolves become the focal point of their clothes.
In the show’s final season, Sansa a...
- Title
- The real experiments that inspired Frankenstein
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- When Mary Shelley published her iconic novel in 1818, raising the dead seemed to be the near-future.
Join the Video Lab! http://bit.ly/video-lab
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been reimagined onscreen hundreds of times and is a staple of pop culture. The prevailing takeaway is science-gone-wrong and the dangers of pursuing the unnatural. But contemporary readers, surrounded by Enlightenment-era scientific breakthroughs that were beginning to shift the definition of death, would have read the story as frighteningly plausible.
Electricity was being used in a scientific practice called “galvanism,” which seemed to show some promise in reanimating body parts of recently dead animals and humans. Shelley even references galvanism in the 1831 edition of the book, citing it as an example of how this experiment could be a possibility.
Watch the pilot episode of History Club here: https://youtu.be/GeYyllI-Nhs
Sources:
...
- Title
- China's secret internment camps
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- ...and the internet detectives working to find them.
Become a Video Lab member! http://bit.ly/video-lab
China has been quietly detaining its population of Uighurs, the country’s Muslim minority, in internment camps. First-hand accounts from inside the camps paint a brutal picture of torture and political indoctrination. At first, China denied the existence of these camps and tried to cover them up. But as a network of academics and activists uncovered evidence of the camps' locations, and the reality of what’s going on inside, China changed its story.
Read more about about China’s crackdown on Muslims from Sigal Samuel on Vox: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/3/30/18287532/china-uighur-muslims-internment-camps-turkey
Further reading:
China’s brutal crackdown on the Uighur Muslim minority, explained
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/15/17684226/uighur-china-camps-united-nations
China’s final so...
- Title
- The traffic solution most cities haven't tried
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Congestion pricing works – just look at London.
Become a Video Lab member! http://bit.ly/video-lab
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced a plan to bring congestion pricing to New York City. The goal is to raise money for the city’s crumbling public transit system and reclaim the dangerously busy city streets. But what is congestion pricing, and can it actually solve all our transit woes?
We took a look at London, a city that enacted a congestion charge in 2003, to see some of the benefits. Check out the video above to learn more.
For further reading look to our sister site, Curbed: https://www.curbed.com/
https://www.curbed.com/search?q=congestion+pricing
For information on New York’s potential earnings and benefits:
http://www.hntb.com/HNTB/media/HNTBMediaLibrary/Home/Fix-NYC-Panel-Report.pdf
And a closer look at how much money is wasted sitting in traffic:
http://pfny...
- Title
- The truth behind the TV show Cops
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- The longest-running reality show in The US.
Join the Video Lab! http://bit.ly/video-lab
Subscribe to the "Running From Cops" podcast: https://www.topic.com/runningfromcops
“When it premiered, “Cops” was one of the first reality television shows and it has been broadcasting continuously since 1989. In this video, we worked with the podcast “Running From Cops” to understand why the show has stayed on TV for so long. At the time it was selected for development by Fox executive Stephen Chao, the writer’s strike of 1988 had created a desire for unscripted television that didn’t require hiring union talent.
But once “Cops” was on the air, it was the vision of “Cops” creator John Langley that would make the show last. He understood that the show presented a new opportunity for law enforcement agencies and it was his approach to making “Cops” that has kept police interested in appearing on the show. While “Cops”...
- Title
- This lake now has legal rights, just like you
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Why the “rights of nature” could be the next frontier for environmentalism.
This video is presented by CuriosityStream: https://www.curiositystream.com/Vox
Join the Video Lab! http://bit.ly/video-lab
Read more about the movement behind the Lake Erie Bill of Rights: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/2/26/18241904/lake-erie-legal-rights-personhood-nature-environment-toledo-ohio
The Lake Erie Bill of Rights is the first law of its kind in the United States. In February of 2019, the residents of Toledo, Ohio voted to give Lake Erie's entire ecosystem legal rights. That means any citizen of Toledo, if they have credible evidence that a corporation or government is harming the lake, can file a lawsuit on behalf of Lake Erie in court.
The Lake Erie Bill of Rights is part of a larger movement to give legal rights to mountains, rivers, forests, and other natural objects. The citizens of these communities -- from Pennsylvania, ...
- Title
- Why disco made pop songs longer
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Disco, DJs, and the impact of the 12-inch single.
Try Dashlane here: https://dashlane.com/vox. Get 10% off now with promo code: VOX
Become a Video Lab member! http://bit.ly/video-lab
In the early 1970s, a musical sensation took over New York City. It was called Disco. Before Disco became synonymous with Saturday Night Fever, Rod Stewart, and celebrity-fueled parties, it was an underground movement powered by the innovations of young DJs challenging themselves and each other to throw the city’s most adventurous dance parties.
By 1973, their influence as musical taste makers became apparent, and a handful of unconventional dance tracks became pop crossover hits. With barely any radio airplay, songs like "Love Theme" and "Girl You Need a Change of Mind" became defining tracks of the disco era.
These songs were repetitive, hypnotic, and funky, and they were also pretty long compared to other pop hits. That presented a pro...
- Title
- The goose that conquered America
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- The Canada goose is a nuisance. But you might not realize how it got that way.
Start listening with a 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook plus two Audible Originals are free. Visit https://audible.com/vox or text VOX to 500-500
Become a Video Lab member! http://bit.ly/video-lab
In this episode of Vox Almanac, Vox’s Phil Edwards explores the poop-filled history of the Canada goose — and the way people transformed it from migratory wonder to public nuisance.
If you’ve played on a soccer field or strolled past a golf course in the United States, you’ve doubtless seen gaggles of Canada geese terrorizing the public space. These geese were actually put here by state agencies in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s as part of public programs to create Canada goose populations after nearly hunting the bird to extinction. Because these birds are all protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, it proves surprisingly difficult to get the geese t...
- Title
- The first faked photograph
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- In 1839, Hippolyte Bayard invented photography. And nobody cared.
Become a Video Lab member! http://bit.ly/video-lab
People usually associate the birth of photography with Louis Daguerre’s Daguerreotype. His process became the first widespread method of photography after France revealed it to the world on August 19, 1839. But there were actually multiple inventors of photography, and one of them was an amateur French tinkerer named Hippolyte Bayard. Even before Daguerre’s process was revealed, Bayard had achieved photographic results.
However, François Arago, the chair of the French Academy of Sciences, overlooked Bayard’s accomplishment and elevated Daguerre’s instead. And as a protest to this perceived injustice, Bayard took a self-portrait depicting himself as an unidentified man in the Paris Morgue who took his own life. This image is not only the first staged photo, it’s also an early example of photography depicting something non...
- Title
- Why measles is back in the US
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- Almost all US states allow parents to opt their children out of vaccinations.
This video is presented by Skillshare. Click here to get your first two months of Skillshare for free: https://skl.sh/vox2
Join the Video Lab! http://bit.ly/video-lab
Measles is back in the United States, and to understand why, you have to understand where.
When anti-vaccination misinformation leads to a drop in the number of children immunized, a community can lose its “herd immunity.” This happens most often in small, tight-knit communities, in which measles can spread like wildfire. 75% of all recent measles cases have happened in those types of communities.
In order for everyone to be protected from measles, all people who can get vaccinated need to. But most states allow parents to opt out of vaccinating their children for any philosophical reason - and that’s allowing measles to make a comeback.
You can read more about m...
- Title
- What DNA ancestry tests can — and can’t — tell you
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- I took a DNA ancestry test. It didn’t tell me where my ancestors came from…
Subscribe to our channel! http://bit.ly/video-lab
At-home DNA ancestry tests have become hugely popular in recent years. More than 26 million have taken one of these tests. If their marketing is to be believed, they can help you learn where your DNA comes from, and even where your ancestors lived.
But the information that can be inferred from your DNA is actually much more limited than testing companies are letting on. And that has lead consumers to misinterpret their results — which is having negative consequences.
Further reading:
The limits of ancestry DNA tests, explained
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/1/28/18194560/ancestry-dna-23-me-myheritage-science-explainer
Was I part British, part Dutch, a little bit Jewish? The oddness of DNA tests.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/was...
- Title
- The real reason Boeing's new plane crashed twice
- Date posted
- 7 years ago
- Description
- This isn’t just a computer bug. It’s a scandal.
Join the Video Lab! http://bit.ly/video-lab
Two Boeing airplanes have fallen out of the air and crashed in the past six months. On the surface, this is a technical failure. But the real story is about a company's desire to beat their rival.
Read about Boeing's efforts to get the 737 Max reinstated for flight here: https://www.vox.com/2019/4/5/18296646/boeing-737-max-mcas-software-update
Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.
Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE
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