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For most of American history, free speech did not exist in the United States. Dissidents were commonly thrown in prison, often for many years, when the government disagreed with their views. Near the end of World War I, the great union leader Eugene Debs was sentenced to 10 years in prison for giving a speech […]

Quick. Think about the state of American politics. We’re polarized — it’s almost cliché to point it out. But why are we polarized? While there are plenty of reasons (some have even written whole books explaining them), our politicians and elected officials play a key part.  It’s a political science phenomenon called “elite polarization,” in […]

If I asked you to name a historical figure who manages to be both incredibly well-known and universally misunderstood, who comes to mind? Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche are obvious candidates. But any list like this has to include George Orwell, the English essayist and the author of two of the most famous political novels […]

Industry, now in its third season, has lived in the shadow of two HBO juggernauts, Euphoria and Succession, for the past four years. Its similarities with Succession in particular — British creators, corporate settings, despicable characters, acerbic dialogue, gray-toned palettes — have made it difficult for the show about young, ketamine-snorting bankers to capture everyone’s […]

Humans are simple creatures. Since the dawn of spectator sports, we’ve wanted to watch muscular people fight and do flips. Today, TikTok-friendly high-drama sports like women’s gymnastics regularly dominate Olympic viewership on TV networks and streaming platforms. But watching artistic gymnastics isn’t the only way to see ultra-strong people do flips and splits. Pole dancing […]

You might have seen previews or even bought tickets for the new film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling romance novel It Ends With Us, starring Blake Lively. But have you heard about the online soap opera surrounding a rumored rift among the film’s cast, its director and co-star Justin Baldoni, and possibly Deadpool? Once again, a […]

The FDA has decided not to approve MDMA therapy for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, dealing an unexpected blow to the growing movement to raise psychedelics from the underground as a new, strangely powerful type of medicine.  Psychoactive drugs like psilocybin, LSD, and MDMA have been illegal for decades. But academic research looking into […]

On Thursday, former President Donald Trump seemed to suggest he would consider restricting access to mifepristone, a pill used for medication abortions. Within a day, his campaign furiously walked back Trump’s statement, claiming the former president misheard the question. Trump’s first-term record on reproductive rights is clear: His three Supreme Court picks led directly to […]

It’s common, whenever someone skyrockets into mainstream fame, for folks to dig deep through their internet histories. Less common is what happened to Vice President Kamala Harris’s newly announced running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz: Pretty much everything they found was extremely wholesome. From clips of him riding roller coasters with his daughter at the […]

Athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics are competing against the toughest opponents in the world, the clock, the record books, and increasingly, extreme heat.  Rain soaked the opening ceremony, but it followed an extensive heat wave across France and much of Europe. According to the World Weather Attribution research group, such temperatures would not have […]

Fellas, is it illegal for brands to refuse to advertise on my social media site? If you’re Elon Musk, the answer is yes. This week, Musk’s social media company X (formerly Twitter) filed an eyebrow-raising lawsuit against an advertising industry group and several major brands, including Unilever (maker of Dove soap), Mars Inc. (maker of […]

Welcome to Money Talks, a series in which we interview people about their relationship with money, their relationship with each other, and how those relationships inform one another. Cheryl Roorda is 51 years old; her husband, Zac Smith, is 52, and together they have two grown children. After a decades-long career as independent musicians, Cheryl and […]

It’s fair to observe that in the run-up to the Summer Olympics, Parisians were feeling a bit of, how do you say, ennui.  If they hadn’t already put their apartments on Airbnb in anticipation of fleeing the city, Parisians took to social media to complain about the Olympics and beg tourists not to come.  Well […]

ST. ROSE, Louisiana — In the St. Charles Parish neighborhood, only a tall green chain-link fence stands between a block of homes and the future site of a facility that may, among other things, store carbon in efforts to limit planetary heating.  The $4.6 billion project is part of a new slate of federal efforts […]

This weekend, one of the most popular books of the decade is making its way to the big screen. Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us, a romantic tearjerker about breaking the cycle of abuse that became a social media sensation after it was published in 2016, is now a movie starring Blake Lively. The moment […]

Riots and violence have erupted in the UK following the killing of three young girls in the quiet seaside town of Southport in northern England. Last week, while learning dance moves to their favorite Taylor Swift songs, a 17-year-old boy entered their classroom and went on a stabbing rampage that left three dead and critically […]

Vox editor-in-chief Swati Sharma and executive editor Elbert Ventura announced today that Angela Chen has joined the brand as a senior editor on the policy, politics, and ideas team. She begins her new role on August 19. “I’m thrilled to welcome Angela. One thing that sets Vox’s coverage of policy and politics apart is our […]

First, there was Charli XCX’s post declaring Vice President Kamala Harris “is brat” on X. Then there was Beyonce’s approval of her song, “Freedom,” for Harris’s campaign use. And most recently, there was Megan Thee Stallion’s appearance at a Harris rally in Atlanta, alongside fellow musician Quavo.  Since Harris became the likely Democratic nominee at […]

There’s never a bad time to think about budgeting your money, but one could argue that the week of a stock market meltdown and renewed anxiety of a recession is the best time. That’s where we are this week. So let’s talk about budgeting. A few months ago, I stumbled across an app called YNAB. […]

In recent weeks, national Democrats and surrogates for Vice President Kamala Harris have settled on a pretty simple strategy: calling former President Donald Trump, his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance, and MAGA-aligned Republicans “weird.” One of its original purveyors, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, used it again Tuesday evening, during his first appearance with Harris as […]

Jeremy Beckham remembers the announcement coming over his middle school’s PA system in the winter of 1999: Everyone was to stay in their classrooms because there was an intrusion on campus. A day after the brief lockdown was lifted at Eisenhower Junior High School just outside Salt Lake City, the rumors were swirling. Supposedly, someone […]

Despite decades of advocacy, vegans and veganism remain deeply unpopular, even detested. Many influential animal activists are now debating a question that would have once seemed absurd: Is it worth the movement’s precious time and resources to keep advocating for meatless diets, an apparently lost cause? Although people define veganism in different ways, it fundamentally […]

In the last few decades, a common stereotype about vegans emerged: that they’re white, care more about animals than people, and serve food that is bland and uninspiring. Such perceptions — some of which are reductive, while others hold a bit of truth — have created a toxic cycle where people of color often feel excluded […]

India’s star Olympic wrestler Vinesh Phogat is out of the competition ahead of a gold medal match, after being disqualified for being over her class’s weight limit. It’s a devastating end to the Paris games for the wrestler who has led the charge against sexual harassment at the highest levels of her sport. Had she […]