Today, Explained

On Monday night, the Senate parliamentarian gave Democrats an unprecedented blessing. Vox’s Ella Nilsen and Li Zhou explain what they might do with it. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Major League Baseball, Delta, and Coke are calling out Georgia for its new voting reforms, but some of these corporations were involved in crafting the legislation. WABE’s Emma Hurt explains. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We asked if you still had vaccine questions, and you did. We found answers. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York is the latest state to legalize recreational marijuana, but President Joe Biden won’t budge. This means that it’s possible to become a billionaire or a convicted felon for selling weed in the US. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s infrastructure week in America. President Joe Biden unveiled a plan to spend trillions on bridges, roads, housing, and clean energy to prove it. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More than half of US states are working to ban, or even criminalize, trans athletes playing sports. Vox contributor Katelyn Burns explains how conservative politicians came to care so much about women’s sports. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After six days, a very big boat is finally afloat. While stuck, it brought international trade through the Suez Canal to a halt and cost companies billions of dollars. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When a Swedish American pastor refused to get a smallpox vaccine in 1902, he ended up in the United States Supreme Court. The Atlantic’s new podcast The Experiment tells the story of Pastor Henning Jacobson. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Democrats in charge, there is a lot of talk about big ideas for the country, including … banning menthol cigarettes? Politico’s Sarah Owermohle explains why Black lawmakers are split over whether a ban would help or hurt Black communities. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Trace’s Jennifer Mascia explains why two gun reform bills the House recently passed are likely to fail in the Senate. Patrick Blanchfield from the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research argues the American gun control debate is a big part of the problem. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Monday, a tweet sold for $2.9 million. That followed a JPEG that went for $69 million. The Verge’s Liz Lopatto explains how internet ephemera turned to gold. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The United States and China met in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday to air grievances, and the cameras were rolling. Vox’s Alex Ward explains how the meeting set the stage for one of the world’s biggest rivalries. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People want to move on from Covid-19, but that doesn’t mean forgetting its victims. Historian Paul Farber and Vox reporter Alissa Wilkinson explain why a memorial could help us all heal and find accountability. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eight people were killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area spas. Most of the victims were women. Six were Asian American. Georgia state Sen. Michelle Au explains how her community is coping, and author Kate Manne explores the intersection of racism and misogyny. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. V...

A growing number of unaccompanied minors at the US-Mexico border is highlighting President Biden’s struggle to fulfill his campaign promises on immigration — as well as the difficult path to comprehensive immigration reform. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s a question the US has struggled with since its founding. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Biden says all adults will be eligible for a vaccine by May 1. But for the world to truly return to normal, young people will need shots, too. ProPublica’s Caroline Chen explains how, and when, that might happen. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Believe it or not, scientists still don’t know how the sense of smell works. But that isn’t stopping one guy at MIT from trying to reverse-engineer it. Sounds like a job for Vox’s new podcast, Unexplainable. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The year in revue. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Biden’s American Rescue Plan has been approved by Congress. It’s a revolution in American welfare disguised as stimulus. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New guidelines from the CDC for fully vaccinated people suggest it’s finally time to hug your grandparents. Dr. Kavita Patel explains the do’s and don’ts as we inch back towards “normal” life. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Darryl Richardson, a worker at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, explains why he helped initiate a unionization effort that now has President Biden’s support. Recode’s Jason Del Rey explains how the Bessemer vote could be a game changer for American labor. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Beset by controversy, The Bachelor’s latest season is winding down with an identity crisis. It’s a rare case of reality TV reflecting our cultural reality. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The United States is stumbling through two racial reckonings at once. Author Jeff Chang says it’s an inflection point centuries in the making. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joe Biden won the presidency, but it’s Joe Manchin from West Virginia who seems to be the decider. The Charleston Gazette-Mail’s Joe Severino shadowed Senator Joe in the spotlight. Mountain State Spotlight’s Greg Moore explains why this is West Virginia’s moment. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices