Vox Sentences - We are what we watch 👀

Each week, a different Vox editor curates their favorite work that Vox has published across text, audio, and video. This week’s recommendations are brought to you by Vox editorial director for audio A.M. Hall.

Hey, I’m A. Hall, editorial director of two Vox podcasts, The Gray Area and The Weeds. What that means is that I work with the teams on each show to oversee the editorial decisions and production, from the topics and guests we cover and the questions we explore, to the logistics of making it all happen. 

On The Gray Area, we wrestle with a range of complicated issues, from things that animate our politics to issues that affect us on a deeply personal level, like our psychology, morals, and philosophy. Each episode of the show brings insightful guests and offers clarity and nuance on these deep existential topics.

Over at The Weeds, we use history as a guide to understanding politics and policy. In recent months, we’ve covered topics like why health care is tied to our jobs in the United States, or how the space race propelled the US government into the student loan business.

Like my colleagues across the newsroom, my teams are driven to produce journalism that helps our readers, listeners, and viewers understand our complicated world. And on that note, here are a few stories across audio, video, and text that delivered that for me this week. 

If you haven’t already, check them out! 

🎧 Gaza’s humanitarian crisis

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the Today, Explained team has been hard at work covering the news as it unfolds while simultaneously providing the necessary historical context to help our audience better understand how we got here. 

Because of the blockade and lack of electricity in Gaza, making contact with people on the ground is extremely difficult. But hearing those voices is incredibly important to our understanding of what’s happening. This is why I love audio journalism as a format, and it’s what immediately pulled me into this episode. Producer Haleema Shah, working with the Institute for Middle East Understanding, obtained a short voice memo from Hind Khoudary, a Palestinian journalist who describes being in Gaza on the night of October 27. It’s a must-listen.   

The boycott movement against Israel, explained. 

This piece from Vox reporter Whizy Kim came at just the right moment for me. I was aware of the BDS movement but much less familiar with the history and scope of the controversy. This explainer gave me the context I needed to understand why it became a hashtag. And stay tuned for an upcoming episode of The Weeds inspired by Whizy’s reporting! 

🎧 We are what we watch 

This week’s episode of The Gray Area was guest hosted by senior correspondent Alissa Wilkinson, who covers movies and culture here at Vox. This conversation provided a much needed respite from some of the more serious news of the week, but it’s not without substance! It’s a really fun conversation with author Walt Hickey about all the ways pop culture affects us and our world, from the surge in St. Bernard adoptions after the movie Beethoven came out to how your blood changes when you watch scary movies. Don’t have your headphones? You can read an excerpt of Alissa’s conversation with Walt too. 

Lahaina schools are open again. Parents worry they’re ridden with toxic waste. 

As a member of the Vox newsroom, I’m in the unique position of hearing about stories long before they’re published. And this is one I’ve been waiting for —  seriously, I’ve actively stopped myself several times from bugging the editor about when it would run. Weeks after national attention has moved on to other things, our climate team has kept a careful eye on the recovery following the devastating wildfires in Maui. The fear about reopening schools is eerily familiar to many of us nearly four years after Covid-19 shut the country (and the world) down. The concern here is the toxic ash that has contaminated the soil; the local community and especially parents are worried about exposure. It’s a problem without a simple solution, although I was surprised to learn there is a nontoxic adhesive that can be spread over the area to essentially glue the soil so the wind doesn’t continue to blow the contaminants around — that’s pretty cool. 

📹 How The Conjuring became the Marvel of horror

This piece from our video team got me in the mood for spooky season. Horror isn’t a genre I typically follow, but who can say no this time of year? Also, I’m a total sucker for these sorts of behind-the-scenes hidden histories. This video brilliantly tells the story of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, the couple whose case files have inspired so many horror films. 

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