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How Gen Z went MAHA | The Gray Area - May 8, 2026 - Vox

Sean talks with Vox senior correspondent Anna North about the strange rise of the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement. They explore why MAHA resonates, especially with younger people, how legitimate concerns about food and public health blur into conspiracy thinking, and why social media has become such a powerful engine for both. They also discuss the collapse of trust in institutions, the emotional logic behind wellness movements, and what it would take to rebuild trust in science and public health.

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Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling)

Guest: Anna North (@annanorthtweets)

00:00 Intro

01:35 MAHA: Vaccines and Medical Distrust

08:49 MAHA's Subcultures

15:37 Gen Z Wellness Influencers

29:41 Gen Z Institutional Distrust

36:28 Tools For Rebuilding Public Trust

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How to feel awe every day | The Gray Area - May 4, 2026 - Vox

Sean talks with psychologist Dacher Keltner about the science of awe and why it might be one of the most important emotions we have. They explore how awe quiets the ego, shifts our attention away from ourselves, and reconnects us to other people, nature, and larger patterns of meaning. Along the way, they discuss why music, moral courage, and even grief can trigger awe, how modern life may be starving us of it, and what it reveals about the limits of reason, the power of the body, and the deeper ways we make sense of being human.

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Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling)

Guest: Dacher Keltner

00:00 Intro

02:39 Awe vs fear

08:14 Awe and human achievement

12:23 How awe quiets the self

20:17 How awe reconnects us to the world

29:29 Awe and moral beauty

37:56 Awe in unexpected places

And you can watch new episodes of The Gray Area on YouTube. New episodes drop every Monday and Friday.

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

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America 250: What does a “more perfect union” look like? | America, Actually - May 2, 2026 - Vox

Are we in a period of reinvention, or is the 250-year-old "American experiment" now hitting a wall?

This week on America, Actually, historian Heather Cox Richardson explains our current political climate and how the US is facing its biggest stress test since the Civil War. The substack author helps us write a new social contract for the next 250 years.

00:00 Intro: The state of the “American experiment”

01:00 Is the US reinventing itself every 80 years?

02:19 How art and history shape politics

04:09 Understanding the rise of Donald Trump

08:40 Reclaiming patriotism and our national narrative

14:52 Drafting a new social contract

15:45 Voting rights and protecting our environment

18:40 Supreme Court terms and universal healthcare

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.

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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.

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Hegseth's holy war - May 1, 2026 - Vox

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has a longstanding fascination with the Crusades. That’s right, the Crusades: the series of late 11th to 13th century medieval wars in which Europeans fought to control the Holy Land. He has tattoos that reference the Crusades, something that actually came up in his confirmation hearing in 2025. And his 2020 book is titled American Crusade. The final chapter is titled “Make the Crusade Great Again.”

Hegseth paints the Crusades as a “defensive war” in which Christianity had to react or face being overrun by Islam. According to professor of medieval history Matthew Gabriele, this is an extreme oversimplification of the actual history. And viewing the past in this way could have possibly dangerous ramifications on the current war in Iran.

Pete Hegseth’s obsession with the Crusades may seem like a personality quirk, like your uncle who is obsessed with World War 2 submarines. But when that worldview influences how a defense secretary thinks about modern conflicts, it stops just being about the past — and it starts shaping the future.

Vox producer Nate Krieger took a closer look at this “Holy War” to investigate the actual history of the Crusades and to understand how Pete Hegseth’s interest with medieval history might actually affect US foreign policy and the future of the war in Iran.