Our No. 2 problem

FromToday, Explained

Start listening View podcast show

Our No. 2 problem

FromToday, Explained

ratings:

Length:

27 minutes

Released:

Jul 21, 2021

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

America’s sewage system is total crap, but there’s a new plumber in town.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained.
Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Released:

Jul 21, 2021

Format:

Podcast episode

More Episodes from Today, Explained

Skip carousel

Paramount’s looking for a deal they can’t refuse: Media behemoth Paramount Global is struggling. Stock prices are down. The CEO was just ousted. And the head of this family business is ready to cash out. Puck’s Matthew Belloni explains what comes next. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
One Flu Over The Cowcow’s Nest: Avian flu, which recently leapt from chickens to cows, has now been detected in milk. Vox’s Keren Landman and Kenny Torrella explain how worried humans should be about the outbreak. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
North America’s biggest city is running out of water: Officials say “Day Zero” is imminent in Mexico City. A walk through the city reveals the historical roots of the water crisis, its present-day challenges, and the potential solutions. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
The failed promise of egg freezing: Egg freezing was once hailed as a reproductive game changer, but as Vox's Anna North reports, it might not live up to the hype. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Honey, We Saved the Bees: Millions of bees died because of colony collapse disorder over the past few decades, but America’s honeybee population has now rocketed to an all-time high. The Washington Post's Andrew Van Dam explains how. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
The TikTok “ban” is law: President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that would ban the app unless it’s sold to an American company. Vox’s Christian Paz explains. by Today, Explained
25 min listen
Columbia’s free-speech fight: Daily Spectator news editor Sarah Huddleston reports on the protests at her university. AAUP President Irene Mulvey explains the stakes for campus free speech. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Florida man wants immunity: You can beat the heat if you beat the charges too. Vox’s Ian Millhiser previews the Donald Trump immunity case going before the Supreme Court this week, and lawyer Jeffrey Green explains Trump’s role in a related case involving January 6 defendants. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Just in: Trudeau’s plan to fight populism: Canadian-American podcast host Sean Rameswaram goes one-on-one with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to find out how he might win over Gen Zed. by Today, Explained
28 min listen
Feeling Bluey: Bluey delights children and reduces their grown-ups to tears. But the latest episode has fans young and old wondering whether the ride is coming to an end. Vulture’s Kathryn VanArendonk speculates. by Today, Explained
28 min listen
The great American squatter panic: Politicians and conservative news outlets say there’s an epidemic of people moving into a stranger’s house and refusing to leave. Curbed’s Bridget Read and Semafor’s David Weigel explain what’s actually happening. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
How car ownership got so expensive: Drivers are increasingly paying sticker price or more for a new car. Then there are sky-high insurance rates and mortgage-level car payments. Vox’s Marin Cogan explains how we got here. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Florida man’s first criminal trial begins: The first of former President Donald Trump's four criminal trials began this week. Vox's Andrew Prokop explains what's at stake, and Vox's Abdallah Fayyad explains how he might (or might not) pay the mounting legal bills. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Why Iran attacked Israel: The Economist’s Gregg Carlstrom explains. Jerusalem-based journalist Noga Tarnopolsky explores whether the unprecedented attack hurts or helps Benjamin Netanyahu. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
America at war, now in theaters: The new movie Civil War delivers a sensational story about political polarization spilling into mass violence. If that seems reckless, it’s what apocalyptic films have done forever. The LA Times’s Mark Olsen and Northeastern University’s Nathan Blake explain. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Speaker Johnson's next test: Congress is back in session and the House speakership is once again on the line. The New Yorker’s David Kirkpatrick explains how Mike Johnson got the gavel and whether he’ll be able to keep it. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Prosecuting parents: The Oxford, Michigan, school shooter's parents will serve up to 15 years in prison. Jennifer and James Crumbley are the first parents held criminally liable for a mass school shooting in the US, but they likely won't be the last. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
The man with a pig kidney: A pig’s kidney was just transplanted into a human. But Vox’s Dylan Matthews says we shouldn't need the pigs. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Is college still worth it?: More and more Americans feel like college isn’t a good deal anymore. One state thinks it’s found a way to turn things around. by Today, Explained
25 min listen
The Sephora kids: Tweens are shopping for trendy, expensive skincare products. Gen Z worries it’s “aging like milk.” Are today’s young people too afraid of looking old? Allure editor-in-chief Jessica Cruel and Vox correspondent Rebecca Jennings explain. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Israel’s attack on World Central Kitchen: The Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Kalin explains what happened, and Refugees International President Jeremy Konyndyk lays out what this means for Gazans. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Project 2025: Donald Trump arrived at the White House in 2017 without a lot of plans to actually govern. The conservative Heritage Foundation wants to make sure that doesn’t happen again. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
The fight for control of Disney’s kingdom: CEO Bob Iger is fighting off activist investor Nelson Peltz, who argues the company spends too much on message-based “woke” programming and is campaigning for seats on the Disney board. by Today, Explained
25 min listen
Making taxes less taxing: The IRS finally has a brand-new, totally free tax-filing software for you. But not everyone’s excited about it. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
The kids are all home: Living with your parents is so hot right now, with more adults doing it now than at any other time in the modern era. First, we hang out with a member of Gen Z who’s moved back in with the folks. Then, a closer look at the trend with Donna Butts of Generations United. by Today, Explained
25 min listen
Buy a house? In this economy?: Home affordability hasn’t been this bad in decades. Wall Street Journal housing reporter Nicole Friedman explains the economic forces shaping the market. And Dave Ramsey, the popular, controversial finance guy, says this time isn’t that different. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
The Baltimore bridge collapse: The Key Bridge disaster is yet another reminder of the vulnerability of global shipping. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Why ISIS attacked Moscow: The Moscow terror attack could mark the beginning of an even more brutal phase in Russia’s war in Ukraine — even if Ukraine had nothing to do with it. It's also a sign that ISIS-K is making a global comeback. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Spoiler alert: RFK’s VP: Robert Kennedy Jr. is set to announce his running mate this week. To mark the occasion, Semafor’s Dave Weigel explains whether third-party options can move the needle. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Beyoncé country: Beyoncé has a new country album. The first single has already broken records and drawn criticism from those who think of country music as a “white” genre. Except it’s not. Author and songwriter Alice Randall tells the story of country music’s very Black roots. by Today, Explained
27 min listen

Related podcast episodes

Skip carousel

Mare of New York: New York City is picking a new mayor with a new election system. What could go wrong? by Today, Explained
27 min listen
Why we can’t have nice trains: And how it got so dam expensive to build things in America. by Today, Explained
29 min listen
How the Taliban took back Afghanistan: And did it faster than the US ever imagined. by Today, Explained
25 min listen
For whom the door bells: While the doorbell recovers from Halloween, Nice Try explains how it’s an essential part of the American dream. by Today, Explained
48 min listen
Dry Hot American Summer: As the world heats up, the American West is dryer than at any period in the past 1,200 years. But don’t expect people to stop watering their lawns. by Today, Explained
27 min listen
The Provincetown cluster: Vox’s Dylan Scott explains what an outbreak in a mostly vaccinated beach town taught the CDC about the delta variant. by Today, Explained
22 min listen
Back-to-back crises in Haiti: An assassination followed by an earthquake followed by a tropical storm strike a country where aid organizations often have more influence than Haitians. by Today, Explained
24 min listen
Hullaballoon: The balloon crisis is blown up. Politico’s Alex Ward deflates it for us. by Today, Explained
27 min listen
Johnson & Johnson’s “bankruptcy”: Thousands of people say Johnson and Johnson’s baby powder gave them cancer. They’re suing — but the consumer giant is using a bankruptcy strategy called the “Texas two-step” to limit its liability. by Today, Explained
27 min listen
The 2020* Olympics: *Are being held this summer in Tokyo. And it’s a mess. by Today, Explained
31 min listen
The new meth: While the nation’s attention has been focused on the opioid crisis, a new, more dangerous form of methamphetamine has swept across the country. by Today, Explained
23 min listen
Mexico’s deadly election: Gangs and drug cartels killed dozens of candidates in Mexico’s midterm elections. Voters weren’t intimidated. by Today, Explained
22 min listen
The Lone Star strategy: Republicans in Texas are legislating so far to the right the state’s Democrats up and fled to Washington, DC. Vox’s Nicole Narea explains. by Today, Explained
21 min listen
A world without bail?: With the wave of protests came waves of arrests and record-breaking donations to bail funds across the US, but reformers hope for a reckoning of one of the only for-profit bail systems in the world. by Today, Explained
23 min listen
The spike in gun violence (Part II): A Philadelphia election tested progressive ideas on how to reduce shootings in America. ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis explains. by Today, Explained
28 min listen
Why we still can't predict tornadoes: Most people get about eight minutes' advance warning of a tornado. This episode of Vox’s Unexplainable podcast explores how scientists need to confront more of these storms, head on. by Today, Explained
24 min listen
The lab leak theory: The idea that Covid-19 emerged from a Chinese lab once sounded too fringe to take seriously. That’s starting to change. by Today, Explained
27 min listen
He's Ronning: NBC’s Matt Dixon explains how Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to Make America Florida. Vox’s Andrew Prokop spells out how the governor’s brain works. Please clap. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
The James Webb Space Telescope: This Sunday, the greatest telescope in the history of humanity is scheduled to reach its destination nearly a million miles away from Earth. Vox’s Unexplainable explored what it will do when it gets there. by Today, Explained
30 min listen
A new constitution: This weekend, Chileans head to the polls to decide who will rewrite the country's constitution. CNN's Daniel Matamala explains why it's a historic experiment in democracy not just for the country, but the world. by Today, Explained
31 min listen
The Adderall shortage: There is a nationwide shortage of medications to treat ADHD. One culprit: the DEA. Vox’s Dylan Scott explains. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Havana syndrome: The US military is redoubling its efforts to figure out what’s behind reports of mysterious sonic attacks. So is Vox’s Unexplainable podcast. by Today, Explained
31 min listen
Canada’s residential schools: The discovery of mass graves of Indigenous children in Canada has led to reckonings on both sides of the border. by Today, Explained
28 min listen
Food fight: Restaurant delivery apps have made it possible to order pretty much anything we want to eat with the click of a button. The latest season of the Land of the Giants podcast explores the cost of that convenience. by Today, Explained
36 min listen
Hot infrastructure summer: It’s a big week for President Biden’s infrastructure plans. Vox’s Li Zhou explains the obstacles in his way, and a historian says one of them is our collective memory. by Today, Explained
26 min listen
Delta in the Delta: Covid-19 is surging so high in several states, you’d think we didn’t have a vaccine. A Mississippi nurse who was initially skeptical explains her path to getting the shot. by Today, Explained
22 min listen
Why stuff is getting more expensive: Vox’s Emily Stewart explains how scared you should be of inflation. by Today, Explained
24 min listen
Take this job and shove it: Job growth has slowed, but there are plenty of positions posted. That's got politicians arguing about the cost of benefits. Matt Yglesias explains. by Today, Explained
27 min listen
Human infrastructure: President Biden wants infrastructure spending to include child care, elder care, food assistance, even community college. Vox’s Anna North explains how he might convince Republicans in Congress. by Today, Explained
25 min listen
The fight to ban evictions: Democrats this week scrambled to extend a federal evictions moratorium amid the government's failure to deliver tens of billions of dollars to renters in need. Vox’s Ian Millhiser and Jerusalem Demsas explain. by Today, Explained
24 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

Our No. 2 problem

Our No. 2 problem

Description

More Episodes from Today, Explained

Related podcast episodes