Buy less, what happens under extreme pressures, and more curated picks

We’re rounding the corner on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and holiday shopping season. While I love picking out presents for my loved ones (and, let’s be real, for myself) as much as anyone, this week I helped publish a package of five stories about why we should all consider buying… less (and how to do it). 

I’m the editor for Even Better, Vox’s section devoted to service journalism; our goal, always, is to provide useful context and actionable advice so our readers can live better lives. To that end, my colleagues and I worked on an array of pieces addressing topics like how to raise kids to be less consumerist, how to fix the stuff you already have, and where massive companies like Shein and other fast fashion giants come into play. There’s a canny look at how the internet fuels hyperconsumption and a lovely, intimate personal essay about searching for (and neglecting to find) a new self via shopping. 

This isn’t nearly our last (or first) word on the topic of being a more conscious consumer. We’d love to hear from you and what you’d like to see us tackle in this space, so please fill out this form or reach out to evenbetter@vox.com with questions, ideas, or responses to the project. And of course, there were many other useful, informative articles, videos, and podcasts published by my fellow Vox journalists this past week — check out a smattering below.

— Alanna Okun, senior editor 

🎧 A call from Gaza

Today, Explained ran a must-listen conversation with Mohammed Ghalaieny, a Palestinian and British citizen who came back to Gaza after 20 years and is now grappling with the decision to stay or go. “I change my mind every day,” he says, later adding, “If I leave now, I won’t be able to come back.” It’s a harrowing, humanizing look at the conflict, and the episode’s second half provides useful context on the Rafah crossing at the Egyptian border — the only way Mohammed, or any Palestinian, could leave Gaza at all. 

📹 Something weird happens when you keep squeezing

If there is a more compelling video title on all of YouTube, I for one would like to hear it. This video is a perfect distillation of what makes Vox Vox: it boils down some pretty high-level physics concepts (in this case, what happens to matter in environments with extreme pressure) into a digestible, easy-to-understand format, without sacrificing intellectual rigor. Also, it’s just delightfully bizarre? Do yourself a favor and watch it on your lunch break. 

Your phone is the key to your digital life. Make sure you know what to do if you lose it. 

This article is an invaluable resource for a less than ideal situation: losing your phone, especially in this moment when it’s likely the way you access huge swaths of your work, personal contacts, and life in general. There are steps you can take right now to prepare yourself, so take 15 minutes to read through and maybe set up some authentication codes; your future self will thank you. 

When Trump tells you he’s an authoritarian, believe him

The headline really speaks for itself here, and puts the stakes of the 2024 election in stark relief. As Vox senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp puts it, “We in the press need to convey this to our readers as clearly as we can, a commitment which does not require abandoning the media’s core values of accuracy and fairness. On the contrary: It would be a betrayal of those values to shirk from reporting what the Trump people are telling us about themselves.”

🎧 How to keep panic from attacking

If you need it after this lineup of stories. For real, though, this is an emotional, nuanced discussion with Matt Gutman, an on-air correspondent for ABC News and the author of a new book called No Time to Panic: How I Curbed My Anxiety and Conquered a Lifetime of Panic Attacks. As someone who periodically deals with panic attacks myself, I appreciated his candor and insight, particularly his commitment to untangling the physiology of it all in addition to reckoning with his own brain and body. (And for his use of the phrase “orgasm of anxiety.”) 

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