Is Earth alive?

A cell is alive. So is a leaf and so is a tree. But what about the forest they’re a part of? Is that forest alive? And what about the planet that forest grows on? Is Earth alive? Science writer Ferris Jabr says: Yes.
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Up Against the Mob: The Cooperator

Up Against the Mob is CAFE’s six-episode series, hosted by former prosecutor Elie Honig, that lifts the veil on the world of the mafia and law enforcement’s efforts to bring mobsters to justice. 

Episode 1 tells the story of Michael Visconti. Once a rising star in the Genovese crime family, Visconti decided to leave the mafia and become a cooperating government witness. Visconti opens up to Elie Honig about his life and rise in the mob — how he first got mixed up with the mafia, the violent crimes he committed, and his decision to flip against his mob “family.”  

Up Against the Mob is produced by CAFE Studios and the Vox Media Podcast Network. Binge the whole season now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.
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Democrats made a strong case against Donald Trump. Republicans are being punished for supporting it. Vox’s Zack Beauchamp explains.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained.
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How to broadcast live TV from the moon... in 1969

Robert Stone directed the new PBS series "Chasing the Moon." It's chock full of new archival footage from the period. And behind all that footage – some fascinating stories.
Stone tells Emily VanDerWerff about a very famous, very recognizable piece of footage that has been lost forever... and about the truth behind the "faking" of the moon landing.
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Sucking the carbon out of the sky

Most of our efforts to fight climate change, from electric cars to wind turbines, are about pumping fewer greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But what if we could pull out the gases that are already there? Akshat Rathi, a reporter at Bloomberg with a doctorate in chemistry, knows more about this technology, called “direct air capture,” than just about anyone. He follows companies like Carbon Engineering and Climeworks that are trying to figure out how to take regular air and pull carbon dioxide out of it.
If their plans work, they could mean a world with net negative emissions: less carbon in the sky than there is right now, and a cooler planet. But his reporting has also highlighted how elusive carbon capture can be, and how tricky it can be to make the tech work at an affordable price. Rathi and Vox’s Dylan Matthews discuss how direct air capture works, how it’s different from capturing carbon at a fossil fuel plant, and the struggl

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.
This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
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40 Acres: Reaching reconciliation

What good are piecemeal reparations? From Georgetown University, where school leadership once sold enslaved people, to Evanston, Illinois, where redlining kept Black residents out of homeownership, institutions and local governments are attempting to take reparations into their own hands. But do these small-scale efforts detract from the broader call for reparations from the federal government?
Fabiola talks with Indigenous philanthropist Edgar Villanueva, founder of the Decolonizing Wealth Project and creator of the Case for Reparations fund, about the reparatory justice efforts underway across the country and the role that individual donors might be able to play in reparations. Fabiola also speaks with activist Kavon Ward, who worked to restore Bruce’s Beach, waterfront land in California, to the descendants of Black families who were pushed off the land by eminent domain. (Ward’s work was funded by Villanueva’s organization.) They di

The end of the World(ly)

In the very! last! episode! of the Worldly podcast, Zack interviews renowned economic historian Adam Tooze about his forthcoming book, Shutdown — an early history of the year 2020, one that felt to many like the end of the world as they knew it. Zack and Adam discuss what the fateful year taught us about the global economic system, the rise of China, and the stability of the US-led world order. And don’t miss goodbye messages from Jenn and Zack (at the start and end of the show). We love you, listeners!

References:
Preorder our guest Adam Tooze’s new book, Shutdown, the subject of the conversation.
Hosts:
Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), senior correspondent, Vox
Jennifer Williams (@jenn_ruth), senior foreign editor, Vox
Jen Kirby (@j_kirby1), foreign and national security reporter, Vox
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Mahershala Ali, from Moonlight to True Detective

Few actors have had as surprising a past few years as Mahershala Ali. Known for his parts on TV shows like The 4400 and House of Cards and in movies like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the Hunger Games films, Ali went from steadily working actor to legitimate star with his 2016 role in Moonlight. He’s only in the film’s first half-hour, playing Juan, a drug dealer who can tell that a sensitive young boy needs a space to just be himself, but he’s magnetic and warm, caring and thoughtful, in a role Hollywood rarely allows to have much care and thought. Ali won an Oscar for Supporting Actor, and from there, he’s charted an eclectic, fascinating past couple of years. He’s getting Oscar buzz again for his Golden Globe-nominated role in Green Book, and he voices a pivotal character in the highly acclaimed Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Then in January, he’ll be playing the lead character in the long-awaited third season

Everything's a cult now

The internet has fractured our world into a million little subcultures catering to the specific identities and habits of everyone online. Writer Derek Thompson believes this has led to a widespread cult-like mentality that has crept into all facets of modern life — pop culture, media, politics, and religion itself. He joins Sean to explain this theory, and why it’s maybe not such a bad thing.

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area
Guest: Derek Thompson (@dkthomp). His podcast is Plain English, and he writes for The Atlantic.
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Producer: Jon Ehrens 
E

Alexa, is Amazon a monopoly?

If you’ve never used Amazon, you almost definitely know someone who has. Amazon is pretty much everywhere. In the three decades since its founding, Amazon has grown from a small startup to a trillion-dollar company, skirting rules, taxes, and accountability along the way. Then, in 2023, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against the company for monopolistic business practices. Reporter Dana Mattioli has covered Amazon for years, and chronicled their rise to power in her new book, The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power.


Read More:
The Everything War: Amazon's Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power 


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