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The biggest peach myth in America - March 19, 2026 - Vox

Peaches are one of America’s most recognizable fruits. In the US, hundreds of thousands of tons are produced each year, and the fruit is closely tied to one place in particular: Georgia.

The Georgia peach is on license plates, road signs, and even county names. But today, the state doesn’t grow the most peaches. Not even close.

This video explores how peaches became a state symbol, how that reputation spread through active mythmaking, and why the Georgia peach identity has lasted even as the industry changed.

Read more about the history of the Georgia peach:

The Georgia Peach Culture, Agriculture, and Environment in the American South, William Thomas Okie https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/georgia-peach/714FA4E59376F142CD71F9E2742E6C61

“The Georgia Peach: A Labor History,” JSTOR Daily https://daily.jstor.org/the-georgia-peach-a-labor-history/

“The Un-Pretty History Of Georgia's Iconic Peach,” NPR https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/07/21/537926947/the-un-pretty-history-of-georgias-iconic-peach

The Fuzzy History of the Georgia Peach,”Smithsonian Magazine

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fuzzy-history-georgia-peach-180964490/

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Consciousness is a mystery - March 16, 2026 - Vox

What is consciousness, really?

We don’t know. Scientists aren’t sure. Philosophers can’t agree. All we have is the fact that it feels like something to be you right now. Beyond that, human consciousness remains a complete mystery.

Sean talks with Michael Pollan about his new book, A World Appears, which is about what we do and don’t know about consciousness and why it continues to be one of the great miracles of nature. They get into why consciousness has proven so hard to define, whether the self is real or just a useful fiction, what psychedelics and meditation reveal about the mind, and why even serious neuroscientists are starting to question strict materialism. Along the way, they wander into plant intelligence, AI psychosis, ego death, and the unsettling possibility that not knowing might actually be the right place to land.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Michael Pollan, author of A World Appears (@michaelpollan)

2:06 Why is consciousness hard to define?

6:45 The evolutionary purpose of consciousness

16:39 AI and consciousness

18:26 Is the ‘self’ an illusion?

25:24 The endpoint of consciousness

33:30 Becoming less enamoured with the ego

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Bernie vs. the billionaires | Today, Explained - March 14, 2026 - Vox

Sen. Bernie Sanders has a whole new reason to go after the world’s billionaires. This week, we ask the longtime Independent senator from Vermont about his proposed annual wealth tax and how he plans to rein in AI.

He has called for a moratorium on AI data centers. But with aggressive actions like that, does he think the Democratic Party runs the risk of getting left behind when it comes to AI?

Sen. Sanders recently introduced his Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, a 5 percent annual wealth tax on anyone making more than a billion dollars. It’s less than a thousand people, but they are some very big names.

Elon Musk would pay up to $40 billion under the law. Mark Zuckerberg about $11 billion. But Sen. Sanders said it would fund up to $3,000 in direct payments for anyone living in a household that makes less than $150,000.

This bill has little chance of becoming law. President Trump would almost certainly veto it, and it’s a hard chance it wouldn’t even get through Congress. But the effort speaks to something that’s been growing among the American public: disillusion with the wealthiest among us and the billionaire class. Sen. Sanders is sending out a signal for the 2026 elections — and for the 2028 presidential election, too.

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, and your favorite listening app.

00:00 Intro

02:10 Response to attacks on Iran

04:30 Wealth tax on billionaires

11:11 Moratorium on data centers

14:30 Impact of AI

17:36 Future of Democratic Party

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The architecture of aging well - March 13, 2026 - Vox

By 2040, the US Census Bureau projects that, for the first time in the US, adults over the age of 65 will outnumber children under 18. The trend is set to continue as Gen X and millennials age, but where will everyone live, and who is designing those spaces?

Vox visits The Pryde, an affordable senior housing community in Boston, to see the design features of the Hyde Park community and understand how thoughtful design can transform what senior living looks and feels like.

This video is presented by T-Mobile: Broadband. T-Mobile: Broadband doesn't have a say in our editorial decisions, but they make videos like this one possible.

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The end of world order as we know it - March 13, 2026 - Vox

Venezuela. Greenland. Iran.

Things have been moving so quickly that we weren't even at war with Iran when we recorded this episode of The Gray Area with Sean Illing. It’s only March, but it’s been a long year.

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The war in Iran is only the latest sign that something deep is shifting in our global politics. Alliances fraying. Norms weakening. Democracies wobbling. So what exactly is happening? Is the liberal international order slowly eroding? Is it just going through a particularly turbulent chapter? Or are we watching it all collapse?

Sean talks with Zack Beauchamp, author of Vox’s On the Right newsletter, about the global democratic backslide and whether the American-led liberal order is slipping, imploding, or just going through a rough patch. Their conversation, which was recorded before the conflict in Iran, digs into the Greenland saga, alliance politics, and why democratic decay can be both obvious and hard to see at the same time.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp)

1:10 Covering democracy and the rise of the right

5:45 The US-led world order

11:10 Democratic peace theory

15:55 Trump vs. the world order

21:36 If the world order shifts, what happens to America?

25:00 Is this an era of liberal decadence?

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.

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The banana is under threat - March 12, 2026 - Vox

Bananas are one of the world’s most popular fruits. They’re a staple crop in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In the US, the average person eats more than 25 pounds of bananas per year.

The banana found in nearly every lunch bag, smoothie, and cereal is likely a Cavendish banana (a single variety that accounts for 99 percent of global exports), despite there being over 1,000 different species of bananas. This kind of uniformity is what allows the beloved banana to be cheap, durable, and ubiquitous.

It also makes them extremely vulnerable.

A variant of Panama disease, a soil fungus that once wiped out the world’s most commercial banana, the Gros Michel, in the 1950s, is back. And this time, there’s no obvious replacement for it waiting around the corner. So what will it take to save one of the world’s most beloved fruits?

This video explores how monocropping became both a blessing and a curse in the search for the most commercially viable banana, how this assumed ubiquity could lead to the end of the banana as we know it, and what scientists are doing to prevent the extinction of the Cavendish.

Read more about the future of bananas:

Yes, we have no bananas? (Again!) | US International Trade Commission: https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/executive_briefings/ebot_decarlo_legrand_bananas.pdf

The Most Interesting Fruit in the World | Freakonomics: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-most-interesting-fruit-in-the-world-ep-375/

A Banana-Destroying Fungus Has Arrived in the Americas | Smithsonian: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/banana-destroying-fungus-has-arrived-americas-180972892/

How superbananas can heal the world | TEDx Talks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jOvgP76jy0

Interpreting the 1954 U.S. Intervention in Guatemala: Realist, Revisionist, and Postrevisionist Perspectives | History Cooperative: https://historycooperative.org/journal/interpreting-the-1954-u-s-intervention-in-guatemala-realist-revisionist-and-postrevisionist-perspectives/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World by Dan Koeppel

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How do you bring the FIFA World Cup™ to the world? [Partner content from Verizon] - March 11, 2026 - Vox

The FIFA World Cup 2026™ will be the largest sporting event of all time. With millions attending in person and another billions more tuning in across the globe, designing a network to support all those fans is no easy feat. So, how do you prepare for the most technologically advanced FIFA World Cup™ to date? Partner content from Verizon, official Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup™

Learn more at http://www.verizon.com/FIFAWorldCup

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You've been lied to about addiction | The Gray Area - March 9, 2026 - Vox

Addiction is one of those words that seems obvious until you try to explain it. We tend to fall back on two simple stories. Either addiction is a moral failure or it’s a brain disease that robs people of agency entirely. But neither of those stories feels complete.

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Today’s guest is philosopher Hanna Pickard, author of What Would You Do Alone in a Cage With Nothing But Cocaine? Pickard argues that it’s a harmful mistake to treat addiction as either sin or sickness. Instead, it’s a form of behavior that’s shaped by trauma, isolation, identity, social conditions, and often deep psychological pain.

Sean and Hanna talk about her theory of addiction and why our society has built the cage that so many people are trying to escape.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Hanna Pickard, author of What Would You Do Alone in a Cage With Nothing But Cocaine?

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

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YouTube Chapter Titles

5:08 Writing about addiction

8:44 Defining addiction

15:23 Wanting something vs. being addicted

20:15 Agency and responsibility

31:15 Untangling blame and responsibility

38:33 Support structures and accountability

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