Why everyone hates this concrete building

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 video managing producer Valerie Lapinski.

Hi everyone! I’m Val, the managing producer for Vox’s video team. Our work lives over on YouTube, where over 11 million subscribers follow our channel full of visual explainers on history, geopolitics, movies, science, policy and more. My days are spent leading our team’s operations, programming, and special projects — and when I’m not doing that, I’m consuming absolutely tons of news media. 

I’ve worked at Vox for several years and am constantly impressed by how thoughtful my colleagues are in covering an endless stream of complicated news stories. This week marked the start of the second month of the Israel-Hamas war, a US election, and the opening arguments for a Second Amendment case before the Supreme Court. Fortunately, my colleagues were here to help me understand it all. Here are a few pieces that helped me navigate this week: 

🎧 Ceasefire

Ceasefire? Humanitarian pause? I’m grateful to the Today, Explained team for breaking down what these terms mean (or not) as they’re bandied about in headlines across my feeds, and more importantly, how these proposals can play out. My office neighbor Jonathan Guyer’s presence in this episode is so good here, full of helpful history and context. And guest Jon B. Alterman brings a clarifying perspective on diplomacy that helped me grasp just how exhausted opposing powers have to get before they’ll open up to compromise. 

The world’s largest child displacement crisis is in Sudan

This Future Perfect piece by Bryan Walsh is the meditation I needed about how we can begin to comprehend the scope of the crisis happening in Sudan as we look at the emergency happening in Gaza (or, in Afghanistan, and on and on.) There are no clear answers, but that doesn’t mean we should look away. [Bonus recommendation: watch our video, Sudan's conflict, explained, for helpful background on what’s happening this week.] 

🎧 Should domestic abusers lose gun rights?

On our daily news podcast Today, Explained, Noel King and her guests take us through the (rather messy) details of United States v. Rahimi, and then explain how last year’s controversial Bruen opinion will shape this and other Second Amendment cases going forward. After listening to this episode I had a much clearer picture of the grim landscape of gun legislation in the US. 

Killers of the Flower Moon and who gets to tell an Osage story 

I’ll be honest — I’m still not sure when I’m going to carve out several hours to see this film. But I’m consuming all the content about it, and this piece is the one I’ve been waiting for. Indigenous film critic Jason Asenap lays out the essential problem of having an Osage story being told by someone else — even if that someone is Marty Scorsese. This line killed me: “Killers of the Flower Moon is a long film — mostly because it has a lot to say, but also maybe because there’s too much to say. Perhaps it’s so long because these are not the people who should be saying it.”

📹 Why everyone hates this concrete building

I love our Design, Explained show because I learn things like: “Brutalism” stems from the French for “raw concrete.” The only thing I knew about brutalism before watching this video was that the architecture style looks great alongside cats. I also truly love our YouTube commenters; our callout to ask our audience to name their most infamous local brutalist buildings inspired a lively thread. 

This email was sent to you. Manage your email preferences or unsubscribe. If you value Vox’s unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring contribution.

View our Privacy Notice and our Terms of Service.

Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Floor 12, Washington, DC 20036.
Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved.