Vox

The pornification of everything | The Gray Area - December 8, 2025 - Vox
Sean’s guest today is Daniel Kolitz, author of a remarkable Harper’s story on “gooning.”
Subscribe to our channel and turn on notifications (🔔) so you don't miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO
They talk about this emerging subculture and how it reflects back on the larger world, from the economics of attention to the rise of short-form everything. Kolitz explains why the Gooniverse isn’t just about porn, how hyperkinetic media rewires our sense of pleasure and patience, and why this is really a story about how society is changing in ways we might not like.
Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)
Guest: Daniel Kolitz, author of The Goon Squad
00:00 Intro
00:56 What in the world is gooning?
09:00 Gooners are distressingly normal
14:26 It scares the hell outta me
22:32 It's like freebasing content
24:36 Is this where the internet was always going?
If you enjoy our reporting and want to hear more from Vox journalists, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/vox. Each month, our members get access to exclusive videos, livestreams, ad-free podcasts and chats with our newsroom.
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
Follow Vox on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@voxdotcom
Check out our articles: https://www.vox.com/
Listen to our podcasts: https://www.vox.com/podcasts
Why we need so much lithium - December 3, 2025 - Vox
Lithium is being called the new “white gold.”
In 2022, the price of this metal soared to nearly $70,000 per metric ton. Fueled by the global rise in electric vehicles and the proliferation of lithium-ion batteries, we now use nearly 28 times more lithium per capita than in the 1990s. After China, the US is the world’s second-largest consumer of lithium, yet it mines less than one percent of the global supply.
To rectify this lack of domestic lithium, the US government approved a $2.26 billion loan in October 2025 to Lithium Americas, a Canadian company developing Thacker Pass in northern Nevada, the largest lithium deposit ever discovered in the United States. But this major investment may have come a little too late.
In this video, we’ll explore how lithium is fueling the “white gold rush” in Nevada, whether or not the government’s investment in Thacker Pass will pay off, and what the history of mining ghost towns can tell us about the future of this critical mineral.
More from Vox:
“Why Nevada has so many ghost towns”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg18CwWeMnc
“Why China is winning the EV war”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkxMdmipYqM
“The white gold rush”:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-white-gold-rush/id1346207297?i=1000710906124
“The clean energy transition can’t happen without these minerals”:
https://www.vox.com/climate/415038/critical-minerals-supply-chain-lithium-innovation
Subscribe to our channel and turn on notifications (🔔) so you don't miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO
If you enjoy our reporting and want to hear more from Vox journalists, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/vox. Each month, our members get access to exclusive videos, livestreams, and chats with our newsroom.
Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE
Follow Vox on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@voxdotcom
Check out our articles: https://www.vox.com/
Listen to our podcasts: https://www.vox.com/podcasts
How is progress measured? | The Gray Area - December 1, 2025 - Vox
We’ve never had more wealth, more data, or more ways to be entertained. So why doesn’t it feel like progress?
Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO
Sean’s guest today is Brad DeLong, an economic historian at UC Berkeley and author of Slouching Towards Utopia. They talk about the difference between getting richer and living well, and why the real hinge of the 21st century might be attention rather than growth. DeLong explains how AI could make life easier or simply make us more distracted, why the world’s progress continues even as American politics falters, and what smart policy could do for the people left behind by technological change.
Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)
Guest: J. Bradford DeLong, economic historian and author of Slouching Towards Utopia
This episode was supported by a grant from Arnold Ventures. Vox had full discretion over the content of this reporting.
00:00 Intro
00:43 What is progress for?
08:41 Are we building and progressing in a way that’s sustainable?
18:55 Is technology developing more quickly than politics?
31:15 How do we navigate upheaval?
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
Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o
Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H