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Eric Swalwell's "best friend" regrets defending him - April 19, 2026 - Vox

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) regrets defending Eric Swalwell, who resigned from Congress following sexual assault allegations.

”This is the kind of thing that makes all of us relook at what we have been accepting, versus not accepting," Gallego told Vox’s Astead Herndon.

Get early access to the full interview with Gallego on Vox's Patreon later this week. The full episode releases next Saturday on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

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How the deportation machine was built | America, Actually - April 18, 2026 - Vox

Immigration might be President Donald Trump’s signature issue, but what do Americans actually think about border security and enforcement? And how should elected officials go about reforming the system?

Host and editorial director Astead Herndon sits down with The Atlantic’s Caitlin Dickerson to discuss the ways in which 9/11 shaped immigration enforcement in the US, and why it’s so difficult to change.

Later, Report for America corps member and Arizona Luminaria reporter Yana Kunichoff joins from Tucson to explain how people’s views on immigration in the border state have shifted since the 2024 election.

00:00 Intro: Immigration beyond Trump

02:01 History of immigration policy in the US

04:46 Stephen Miller’s next steps

06:52 What sort of immigration policy do Americans want?

08:46 Can ICE be reformed?

11:46 The fallout from the Laken Riley Act

13:20 Why Democrats fail on immigration

17:34 The view from a border state: Arizona

21:22 Shifting Arizona politics

24:25 Beyond immigration, what’s driving political engagement in Arizona?

America, Actually publishes video episodes every Saturday tackling key issues in politics, culture, and the economy. Subscribe to Vox’s YouTube channel to get them. Listen to episodes of America, Actually on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.

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American democracy is breaking in a very predictable way - April 17, 2026 - Vox

Back in 2015, before President Donald Trump, before January 6, before all the craziness of the last decade, Matt Yglesias made a blunt prediction: American democracy is doomed.

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Guest host Zack Beauchamp talks with Matt about what that argument got right, what it missed, and why the real problem might not be any one politician but the structure of the system itself. They get into presidential power, partisan loyalty, why Congress keeps folding, and how the two-party system might be quietly making everything worse. They also discuss what it would actually take to fix it — or whether things have to completely break first.

Host: Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp)

Guest: Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias)

00:00 Intro

5:32 Executive authority in the US

7:05 Systemic issues in American democracy

9:44 Opposition strategies

18:29 Coalition building when democracy is on the line

21:36 Brazil’s democratic system

29:58 January 6 and the end of the first Trump presidency

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The credit card crisis - April 15, 2026 - Vox

Americans are carrying more than $1.2 trillion in credit card debt, and for a lot of people, it’s not from splurging. It’s everyday stuff: car repairs, medical bills, groceries. And if you only make the minimum payment, that debt can grow exponentially, sticking around for years.

The average credit card interest rate today is close to 20%, nearly doubling since 2010. So what’s driving these high rates?

Part of it is the broader economy. When the Federal Reserve raises rates to fight inflation, credit card APRs usually go up too. But that’s not the whole story.

Credit cards are unsecured loans, meaning there’s no house or car to repossess if you don’t pay. And Americans have become more and more reliant on credit cards as wages stagnate and health care costs continue to rise.

Read more about how credit card interest rates are impacting everyone:

Why did my interest rate go up on my credit card? | Bankrate https://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards/news/what-to-do-after-card-apr-increase/

Why are credit card interest rates so high? | Nerd Wallet https://www.nerdwallet.com/credit-cards/learn/credit-card-interest-rates-high

Why is your credit card rate so high? | Wharton https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/why-is-your-credit-card-rate-so-high/

This video is presented by Klarna. Klarna doesn’t have a say in our editorial decisions, but they make videos like this one possible.

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The contradictions of wokeness - April 13, 2026 - Vox

What does it mean to be “woke”? It's become a catch-all term to smear or dismiss anything that has any vague association with progressive politics. So anytime you venture into an argument about “wokeness,” it becomes hopelessly entangled in a broader cultural battle.

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Today’s guest, journalist and professor Musa al-Gharbi, helps us untangle “wokeness” from its fraught political context. The author of the book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite, al-Gharbi discusses what effects the movement is and isn’t having on our society.

This episode originally aired in November 2024.

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling)

Guest: Musa al-Gharbi (@Musa_alGharbi)

6:11 What is wokeness?

18:48 Why George Floyd only mattered to the public after his death

20:32 How elites navigate the tension between their status and their values

28:43 How culturally significant is “wokeness”?

32:21 Do social movements produce change?

42:22 Will our politics remain polarized?

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