Vox Sentences - This app says you're depressed

Here at Vox’s Future Perfect section, we’re obsessed with the topics that you usually won’t find scanning the daily news. Our job is to cover what matters, not just what’s new — what will really stick out as the most important challenges of our era 100 years from now.

Lately, though, it’s felt like so many of Future Perfect’s coverage areas have been front and center in the headlines. Our section is often at its best when we can use our niche areas of expertise to bring context to those stories, like in my colleagues’ Dylan Scott’s and Kenny Torrella’s recent pieces on how to make sense of the spread of bird flu in cows, a major disease risk for humans. Or Sigal Samuel’s deeply thoughtful conversation with political theorist Elke Schwarz on the ethics of Israel’s AI warfare in Gaza (we have a video on that, too). Or Kenny’s new story about Democratic Sen. John Fetterman’s attacks on cell-cultivated or “lab-grown” meat — a risible political spat that actually has immense consequences.

It’s great when Future Perfect has something to say about the daily news churn, but most of the time, I count on the rest of my colleagues at Vox to keep me updated on what I need to know outside of our little corner. Here are some more of my favorites from this week, from Future Perfect and beyond. 

—Marina Bolotnikova, deputy editor, Future Perfect

🎧  Kendrick, Drake, and the last great rap beef

Early this week, I had no clue what was going on on Twitter or on our workplace Slack, where everyone was chatting about the feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Today, Explained host Sean Rameswaram — truly the best in the business — caught me up on the news and on the best new music. 

What a Zoom cashier 8,000 miles away can tell us about the future of work

I’ll read anything by Whizy Kim, Vox’s reporter on economics and inequality who always centers ordinary people in her coverage. My jaw dropped at this story on a chicken shop in New York City that employs a cashier based in the Philippines to take people’s orders via Zoom — and what it says about the future of automation and labor. 

The real science behind the billionaire pursuit of immortality

Long ago, I had the idea of assigning my former colleague and friend Jacob Sweet a story on the eccentric new science of anti-aging, which aims to slow down human aging. Often associated with billionaires trying to achieve immortality, anti-aging research also has serious research behind it that could improve our quality of life into our 60s, 70s, and beyond. Jacob has a knack for capturing the silly or absurd side of things while also taking them seriously — and both come through here. 

What if an app can tell you if you’re depressed?

Would you be okay with your phone knowing about your mental health? I definitely am not, but it may be a moot point: If you have a smartphone, it almost certainly already has that information. In this story, Future Perfect’s brilliant reporting fellow Celia Ford makes a compassionate, pragmatic case for not totally dismissing AI-powered solutions to our societal mental health crisis. 

Mexico City, a city of 22 million, is running out of water

I’m in awe of my colleague Caroline Houck, who edits Vox’s flagship daily newsletter, and somehow also finds time to explain what’s going on all over the world. Her story on Mexico City’s looming water crisis helped me understand how climate change and politics together are driving water shortages in cities all over the world. To get great stories like this every day, sign up for the Today, Explained newsletter here! 

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