Vox

We made a fantasy draft of the 2028 presidential race | America, Actually - August 1, 2026 - Vox

Who has a good shot at becoming president in 2028? Vox Media podcaster and journalist Kara Swisher and independent journalist and political commentator Don Lemon join Vox’s Astead Herndon for a fantasy draft of the Democratic and Republican fields, making the case for who could emerge as each party’s nominee.

They debate everyone from JD Vance and Kamala Harris to Tucker Carlson and Lemon himself, while discussing the issues that are shaping the next presidential election, including electability, Donald Trump’s influence and who can actually win in an ever-evolving digital media landscape.

00:00 Why the 2028 race could be the messiest yet

02:24 The Republican fantasy draft

04:13 Is Marco Rubio the GOP's safest bet?

05:35 The surprising case for Tucker Carlson

07:12 JD Vance divides the panel

09:09 RFK Jr., Donald Trump (again), and the outsider candidates

12:55 Could Ivanka Trump inherit the MAGA movement?

14:37 The Republican long shots

18:05 The Democratic fantasy draft

19:00 Gavin Newsom or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Who’s the No. 1 pick?

21:35 Can Kamala Harris make a comeback?

24:15 Mark Cuban, Wes Moore & other outsiders

28:30 Don Lemon’s wildest 2028 pick? Himself.

30:36 Josh Shapiro and the moderate lane

32:55 George Clooney enters the draft

34:35 Raphael Warnock and the final picks

37:15 What we learned about the 2028 race

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.

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.

Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO

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

How Google broke the internet | The Gray Area - July 31, 2026 - Vox

The internet is changing. For years our primary gateway to the internet has been search engines: we ask a question, a list of websites pops up, and we choose which ones to click on. But we are rapidly headed towards a different model, one in which AI-generated answers to our questions are our primary gateway to the internet. How we got here starts with Google.

Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO

In today’s episode, guest host Miles Bryan interviews journalist Ryan Broderick to discuss “Google zero,” a point in time when Google stops pointing us towards a list of search results and instead only produces AI-generated answers. Miles and Ryan discuss the evolution of the internet, how search engine optimization changed content production, why AI may fundamentally change how we find information, and what the future of search might look like.

Host: Miles Bryan, Vox Senior Producer and Reporter

Guest: Ryan Broderick, Editor-in-Chief of Garbage Day

00:00 Intro

02:01 What is Google zero?

10:48 Why did Google become so popular?

16:06 Recipe blogs that SEO trap

21:31 Why the internet stopped feeling organic

28:22 Where did the ‘weird’ Internet go?

31:44 What is Ryan Broderick optimistic about?

We would love to hear from you. To tell us what you thought of this episode, email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 1-800-214-5749. Your comments and questions help us make a better show.

And you can watch new episodes of The Gray Area on YouTube.

Listen to The Gray Area ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members

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

How a Super El Niño affects the global climate - July 29, 2026 - Vox

On June 11, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued an El Niño advisory after temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean remained higher than average for several months. Declaring an El Niño isn’t out of the ordinary, as they happen in cycles every two to seven years. But this one could be extraordinary.

Some are calling it a “Super” or “Godzilla” El Niño, and the NOAA predicts an 81 percent chance that it could develop to a “very strong” level, rivaling the historic and devastating El Niños of 1982-1983 and 1997-1998. Experts are predicting it will likely reach its peak this winter and into 2027, bringing heat, rainfall, and other potential extreme weather events.

But even with that foresight and climate models that can confidently predict what might be in store, we still face a test of what could potentially be the strongest El Niño ever recorded and the wild weather that comes with it. We spoke with atmospheric scientists and meteorologists to find out how a Super El Niño forms, why it changes global climate, and what we should expect in the coming months.

Read more about El Niño:

The latest from NOAA about this El Niño: https://www.noaa.gov/topic-tags/el-nino-la-nina-enso

Vox podcast The Gray Area covers the possibility of a “Godzilla El Niño”: https://www.vox.com/podcasts/495653/el-nino-climate-change-global-warming-david-wallace-wells

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/

World Meteorological Organization’s seasonal outlook for El Niño heat and rainfall: https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/el-nino-forecast-intensify-increasing-likelihood-of-extreme-weather

The Guardian’s coverage of California’s shark surge: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/14/california-sharks-el-nino

New York Times article about powerful El Niños of the past: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/climate/el-nino-history-famine.html

Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO

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

The illusion of the ‘self’ | The Gray Area - July 27, 2026 - Vox

Sean Illing talks with neuroscientist Gregory Berns, author of The Self Delusion. Berns claims that the idea of a unified, persistent self is a kind of illusion, and that we are better understood as multiple selves at different moments in time, tied together by a story — which is what we call our identity. Sean and Greg also talk about whether the brain is a computer, how perception works, the limits of thinking too much about thinking, and what psychedelics can do to disrupt and change the stories we tell about ourselves.

This episode originally aired in November of 2022.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Gregory Berns (@gberns), author; professor of psychology and distinguished professor of neuroeconomics, Emory University

00:00 Intro

06:34 The story we tell ourselves

10:38 The mystery of consciousness

17:32 Psychedelics and the self

25:49 We are constantly changing, even on a cellular level

34:54 Is the brain really like a computer?

39:41 How other people shape the stories we tell ourselves

And you can watch new episodes of The Gray Area on YouTube.

Listen to The Gray Area ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members

Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO

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