Massive invasive snakes, AI art, and more picks from Vox

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 senior politics and ideas editor Patrick Reis.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

—Mary Oliver, in her poem “The Summer Day”

I’m obsessed with my phone. More specifically, I’m obsessed with playing speed chess on my phone. Since I started a Chess.com account in 2013, I have played 40,034 games. Each game lasts about 2 minutes, which means I have spent no fewer than 55 complete days of my “one wild and precious life” playing chess. 

On its face, playing a beloved board game might not seem like a terrible use of time, and for some people, I’m sure it isn’t. But here’s the thing: I don’t play speed chess for enjoyment. It’s my coping mechanism, a numbing agent I use to stave off unpleasant thoughts or put off difficult tasks. And the whole time I’m playing, half my brain is pleading with the impulsive half to do something — anything! — else.

Which is why I feel so fortunate that, as an infrequent-at-best reader of poetry, I came across Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day.” Because recently, when I start to fall into the chesshole, or the Twitter doomscroll, or the YouTube algorithm, I hear her asking: “Is this really what you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” And it’s helping! I find myself reading for enjoyment, or listening to podcasts as I walk my dog, or just simply paying closer attention to what I’m allowing to take up my attention.

You may be wondering what my chess addiction saga is doing in your Vox Recommends newsletter. Fair question.

I’m betting that a lot of you have your own version of the chesshole, something on your screen that demands your attention and gives you little, if anything, in return. So, so much of the internet is exactly that. But one thing I really enjoy about Vox is that we’re not just working for your attention, we’re working to deserve your attention — to produce articles, podcasts, and videos that linger after you’re done with them and leave you richer for it.

So this weekend, should you find yourself lured toward your own personal chesshole, here are some things to read, watch, or listen to instead. I hope you’ll find them worthy of your one wild and precious life.

Massive invasive snakes are on the loose and spreading in Puerto Rico

“Hundreds of eyes reflected back at me from all directions: spiders. Moments later, as I neared the rocky coastline, my beam caught something even more unnerving.” So opens Benji Jones’s retelling of his trip to Puerto Rico’s Cabo Rojo wildlife refuge, where scientists are rushing to stave off an incursion of non-native snakes that threaten Puerto Rico’s entire ecosystem.

 📹 How screens actually affect your sleep

If you’re like me, the evening is a particularly dangerous time for the lure of phone addiction. And, as we’ve all heard, it’s a particularly damaging time for your quality of sleep (and, therefore, quality of life) to be thumbing through your phone. But do you know why? Edward Vega’s clever video explains the science of screen-inspired-sleep-deprivation, and, even better, some simple steps you can take to mitigate the harm, even if you can’t bring yourself to go to bed screen-free. (As a bonus bit: I loved hearing a scientist who studies the effect of phones on sleep admit that he can’t stay off his at night.)

Inside a US ally’s secret war on its American critics

India is the world’s most populous democracy, and it’s currently conducting the largest election in the history of the world. But there’s an ugly undercurrent brewing: Narendra Modi — the current incumbent prime minister (and runaway favorite to win the election) — has overseen an anti-democratic backslide, including via repression of his critics. That repression extends to Modi’s critics overseas, and this week, Zack Beauchamp revealed the lengths to which the Modi administration will go to crack down on Americans who speak out against him — and, perhaps more shockingly, how successful those intimidation techniques have been. Here’s how Modi himself puts it: “Today, even India’s enemies know: This is Modi, this is the new India. This new India comes into your home to kill you.”

Why AI art will always kind of suck

“Should we take seriously the artistic vision of someone who considers ‘pooping rainbows’ the pinnacle of creativity?” That’s the question posed by Rebecca Jennings, who examined the newfound abundance of cheap and available AI “art.” But, despite promises from AI’s proponents and warnings from its critics, Jennings questions whether AI art will really ever be able to compete with what the human brain can do, particularly if “the owners of these technologies fundamentally misunderstand why people make and enjoy art?”

🎧 Did trees kill the world?

I guess, on some level, I knew that there was a time when there was life on earth but no trees, but I’d never really thought about it. The development of trees, as my colleagues at the Unexplainable podcast lay out, likely triggered one of the planet’s great mass extinctions — radically reshaping our oceans with disastrous consequences for most of the creatures who swam in them. It’s a fascinating story, as well as a reminder that, while the planet can survive a shift in climate, it tends to go very poorly for the species who inhabit it.

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