Vox Sentences - Oura rings, hustle culture, and more

Has anyone ever had a positive interaction with a car dealership? My last interaction with a car dealer — in which my husband and I looked up online which car we wanted to buy ahead of time and walked into the dealership with a plan — ended with us spending four whole hours at the dealership (with a very bored nearly 2-year-old in tow), buying a different car than what we saw online, and paying more than what we saw online. It was incredibly frustrating, but it’s also just about what I have come to expect from car dealerships. In every interaction I’ve had, whether it’s buying a car, selling a car, getting repairs, or getting new tires, I’m constantly worried that we’re going to get tricked somehow. 

So that’s why I loved Vox senior reporter Whizy Kim’s piece this week for the Explain It to Me newsletter, in which she answered a reader question on why car dealerships are so shady, and whether the car buying experience is so frustrating for everyone. (To that reader: Yes, it’s not just you.) It’s an excellent question, and one many people I know have wondered about, so it was a great question to answer in our new franchise. 

It’s truly wild to me, that in an age where we can buy nearly everything online and see prices upfront, car buying continues to be one industry that is resistant to innovation. But Whizy explains that there are some new FTC regulations on the way that could hopefully make this process much easier for consumers — and save you a lot of money. If you, too, have ever wondered why car shopping is so frustrating, this piece is worth your time! Here are a few of my other favorite stories from the week. 

—Nisha Chittal, chief of staff

Democrats’ pro-union strategy has been a bust

One of the things that has seemingly always been very certain about American politics is that Democrats could count on union voters — but that’s no longer a sure bet in 2024. In this piece, part of a larger package on the state of the American left, senior correspondent Eric Levitz dives deep into why unions and unionized voters are no longer voting staunchly Democratic, including how we got here, and where Democrats go from here if they want to win back union voters. 

The new burnout generation

Hustle culture has trickled down to teenagers. Senior correspondent Anna North, in her excellent Kids Today newsletter, explores how more teens now report feeling like they need to always be doing something productive and optimizing for their future — robbing them of some of the essential joys of childhood and growing up. 

Why is everyone wearing Oura rings?

I love my Apple Watch almost a little too much — I love the fitness tracker and love trying to hit all my movement and exercise goals every day. So I probably seem like someone who would be the target audience for the Oura ring, which I had seen on social media but knew very little about until I read senior technology correspondent Adam Clark Estes’s helpful explainer on why people are obsessed with this thing for sleep tracking. I likely still won’t get one, but at least now I understand why there’s so much hype around them. 

🎧 Ta-Nehisi Coates on complexity, clarity, and truth

The writer, journalist, and thinker Ta-Nehisi Coates, who wrote "The Case for Reparations," is back with a new book that challenges Americans’ views on Palestine and Israel’s treatment of Palestinian people, which he compares to the Jim Crow era of the American South. This is an excellent conversation between The Gray Area host Sean Illing and Coates that will challenge you to think differently. (And if you prefer your podcasts in video form, you can also watch the episode here.) 

The new Eater app

One of my most frequently visited websites, outside of Vox of course, is our sister site Eater — I’m obsessed with restaurants, and I use Eater’s maps constantly, both in my own neighborhood (I’m always tracking what’s on the Brooklyn Heatmap to figure out what spots I need to try next) and when I travel (to plan where I want to eat and what part of a city I want to stay in). So I am very excited about Eater’s new app, which lets you look at a map of your city — or any city! — and see where all the Eater-approved restaurants are around you, all in one map. It’s exactly what I wanted from an Eater app, and I know it’s going to quickly become one of my most-used apps. 

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