Vox

How capitalism ate the culture - April 6, 2026 - Vox

Kalle Lasn has been trying to jam consumer culture for decades. Now he thinks that was only the beginning.

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Sean talks with the Adbusters founder about advertising, culture jamming, meme warfare, surveillance capitalism, and why he believes the old left-right political script is dead. Lasn argues that consumer culture is not just shallow or manipulative but part of a system pushing us toward collapse. His answer is bigger than protest and weirder than reform. He wants a cultural revolution that starts with new ideas, new language, and maybe an entirely new politics.

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling)

Guest: Kalle Lasn (@KalleLasn)

1:19 The Adbusters origin story

5:57 Advertising as a tool for change

14:29 Is consumerism broken?

30:34 Mimetic warfare

40:29 What would make the next Occupy movement work?

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Sen. Murphy vs. Trump's corruption | Today, Explained - April 4, 2026 - Vox

President Donald Trump’s blatant, sometimes open corruption can feel disorienting. While other White Houses have made a point to show their administration is not for sale, this one has seemingly done the opposite — making a big show of their transactional relationship with corporations, Silicon Valley, and other governments, given the right price.

This kind of pay-to-play politics was the focus of a recent forum in Washington, DC, hosted by the American Economic Liberties Project, a think tank focused on corporate consolidation, breaking up monopolies, and accountability for rogue businesses. It’s also an interest of Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who has made this anti-corruption a focus of his message and policy proposals since the 2024 election. Vox’s Astead Herndon interviewed Sen. Murphy at this live event. He asked about the effectiveness of this message, what role the Democratic Party also plays in Washington’s current culture of open corruption, and if there's anything the public can do to push back.

Today, Explained publishes video episodes every Saturday tackling key issues in politics and culture. Subscribe to Vox’s YouTube channel to get them. New episodes of Today, Explained drop every day of the week on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite listening app.

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.

00:00 Intro

00:50 Has the Trump admin changed the definition of corruption?

02:48 How is Trump’s transactionalism different?

06:36 Prediction markets problem

09:58 Corruption v. corporate consolidation

12:10 Dems’ responsibility for corruption

17:08 Whether there will be constraints on corruption

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How an A note became an A note - April 3, 2026 - Vox

The Gray Area is taking a short break this week — but we’ve got something special for you.

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We’re dropping an episode from one of our favorite podcasts, Unexplainable. In it, host Emily Siner explores deceptively simple questions: What is a musical note? And how did something as fundamental as the note A become standardized across the world?

It’s a story about science, history, and the hidden complexity behind the sounds we listen to every day.

0:47 The note that the orchestra tunes to

3:05 What is the current standard for the note A?

6:57 Why would we standardize A?

15:16 The history of pitch standards

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The end of birthright citizenship as we know it? - April 1, 2026 - Vox

Is the Supreme Court considering a radical reinterpretation of the 14th amendment?

President Donald Trump has been on a crusade to end birthright citizenship for years. Challenging the long-held legal consensus that anyone born in the United States is granted citizenship, he signed an executive order stripping that right away from the children of undocumented parents and temporary visa holders.

The executive order after returning to the White House set in motion a series of lawsuits challenging Trump’s ability to make sweeping changes to birthright citizenship. And now it’s headed to the Supreme Court in a case called Trump v. Barbara.

The 14th Amendment was passed to guarantee citizenship to freed enslaved people and their children, but was later clarified to apply to anybody born on US soil with a few very specific exceptions. For well over 100 years, birthright citizenship has been enshrined in the Constitution with that understanding.

In Trump v. Barbara, the Trump administration claims that the law applies to those who are not just born in the United States but also “owe allegiance” to it — except…the words “owe allegiance” don’t appear anywhere in the 14th Amendment.

The plaintiffs are representing a group of people affected by Trump’s executive order, and their argument is simple: Leave birthright citizenship alone.

If you want to read more about the case, here are some of the sources that contributed to our reporting:

Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/

The ACLU’s web page for Trump v. Barbara:

https://www.aclu.org/cases/barbara-v-donald-j-trump

Vox’s in-depth explainer video on why the US has birthright citizenship:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBFX4EuAWHc

Writer and law professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández’s SCOTUSblog series Immigration Matters:

https://www.scotusblog.com/author/chernandez/

Brennan Center for Justice’s coverage of Trump’s challenge to birthright citizenship:

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/birthright-citizenship-under-us-constitution

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Why humans need to matter - March 30, 2026 - Vox

Why do humans have this deep need to feel like we matter?

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Sean Illing talks with the philosopher Rebecca Goldstein about why “mattering” is not the same thing as being important, how the hunger for validation can go really, really badly, and the different ways we try to justify our lives to ourselves. Love. God. Winning. Greatness. Service.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Rebecca Goldstein, author of The Mattering Instinct

Chapter Titles

1:13 Why do we want to matter?

8:39 How important are other people in our quest to matter?

14:48 Why are we so needy?

21:08 What are the different ways to matter?

31:18 What happens when a “mattering project” fails?

32:26 What does it mean to matter in politics?

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