Killers of the Flower Moon, killer whales, and our other top picks

As the war between Israel and Hamas approaches the two-week mark, so too does our coverage of it. We’re in the midst of an incredibly fast-moving, complex, and terrifying news moment, and our reporters are continuing to do thoughtful work as the situation evolves. You can find all of our coverage here.

While those stories have taken up much of our time and energy, I’d be remiss — particularly as someone who oversees the culture corner of the newsroom — not to highlight all the other excellent work coming out of Vox this week. My team is especially excited for the release of Martin Scorcese’s latest, Killers of the Flower Moon, an adaptation of David Grann’s cinematic nonfiction book of the same name. The movie comes out today, and we’ve got a look at the film itself (from our outstanding critic Alissa Wilkinson) and its true-crime origins (from Aja Romano, a standout authority on true crime). Look out for an ending explainer coming later today too. 

—Julia Rubin, editorial director for culture and features

🎧 The Vox guide to open enrollment

One of the best parts about working at Vox is having experts as colleagues. Few things in America are more confusing (or frustrating) than health care, and I’ve long looked to our health care reporter, Dylan Scott, for his deep knowledge on the subject. While asking  him insurance questions is a great job perk, I’m glad he helped put together an incredibly useful package that tackles all kinds of stories relevant to the open enrollment of benefits season, from why health insurance is tied to your job to why flexible spending accounts are nonsense. A fun bonus: Two reporters from my team contributed to the package too! See Emily Stewart, explainer of scams, go in on dental insurance, and service journalist extraordinaire Allie Volpe with actionable advice to take into your own health care signup.

📹 Where was the Israeli army on October 7?

I’ve been so impressed by our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war across all of our mediums and platforms. This week, we published a context-filled video answering a question that so many Israelis, as well as those watching from afar, had two Saturdays ago: Where was the army when Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israeli civilians in the south of the country? This piece by Liz Scheltens explains how the proliferation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank left the south vulnerable to attacks from Gaza-based Hamas, with the video team’s signature use of maps, charts, primary source video clips, and experts (including Vox’s Zack Beauchamp, a reporter I’ve been reading on Israel-Palestine since before I worked here). 


Noah Kahan is bringing back “stomp clap hey” music. It’s better now.

Rebecca Jennings knows a lot about a lot, but a pop culture story about Vermont? Too perfect. Vox’s native Vermonter taught me all about maple creemees years ago (can confirm the syrup-flavored soft serve is delicious), and having her weigh in on the state’s homegrown musical sensation Noah Kahan was a no-brainer. Do enjoy Rebecca explaining what “stick season” means, the despised “hey ho” predecessors that came before Kahan, and how he went from pandemic TikTok sensation to selling out stadiums. She knows it’s all a little cringe, but “it’s the kind of music that makes me want to call my sister and tell her what if we all moved back, you could run for city council and I’d write for the local alt-weekly — it’s the kind of place where there’s still an alt-weekly.”

Make people happier — not just wealthier and healthier

Leave it to Sigal Samuel to once again explode my framework around something I hadn’t even thought to reconsider. That thing is happiness, and in this piece, she lays out the case for a half-century’s worth of data borne from self-reported surveys about people’s well-being. There’s so much to dig into here, including what it means to be content in a given moment versus life satisfaction, and how the data should or shouldn’t be used in concert with other measures like GDP. She ends on a particularly interesting question I’ll be thinking about for a while: Should we prioritize saving lives or improving them? 

🎧 The Orcanizing

As per my job description, I spend a whole lot of time thinking about culture writ large. So this Unexplainable episode from Mandy Nguyen on how killer whales form their own cultures was total me-bait. I don’t want to spoil the episode, but this is a fascinating look at what culture means on the most basic level — learned behavior that spreads across a community — and how orcas organize around language, food, and other things we think of as culturally human. In fact, if you need a little break from the news, I’d suggest the whole Unexplainable back catalog; this episode on love is a personal favorite.

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