Features
A collection of Vox's longreads and feature reporting projects.
Featured stories
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House of the Dragon and the Targaryen family, explained
HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel reveals a period of turbulence and upheaval for Daenerys’s formidable family.
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The power and potential of Latino voters
Latino voters’ growing power, what the parties get right and wrong about them, and a brash Congress member on what Democrats need to do better.
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Two dozen tech founders living in a mansion. What could go wrong?
Launch House promised young tech founders community. A Vox investigation found what happens when clout and cash are paramount, and protecting members falls by the wayside.
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Welcome to the Friendship Issue of the Highlight
Inside this issue: The state of American friendship, its radical power, and advice for small talk and making your social battery work for you, even if you’re an introvert.
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The introvert’s guide to actually enjoying a party
It’s all about managing your social battery.
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Too many Americans live in places built for cars — not for human connection
How urban planning contributed to the great undoing of modern friendship.
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How to make small talk when you hate small talk
In defense of the much-maligned conversational form.
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The radical political power of friendship
It can help us push back against tyranny. Philosopher Hannah Arendt’s legendary cocktail parties were proof.
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So you want to end a friendship. Here’s what to consider.
Platonic breakups can be just as painful as romantic ones.
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Why friendship is different than any other relationship we have
As its role in society recedes, Vox asked six people to tell us why their friendship matters — and may just be the most meaningful relationship of their lives.
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Why scientists are desperate to find a salamander that’s been missing for 71 years
More than 2,000 species worldwide are considered lost. Could finding them avert extinctions?
The power of silence in a deafening world
Why there’s more noise, and more kinds of it — and why it might be ruining our focus.
The rise of land acknowledgments — and their limitations
More institutions are making note of indigenous rights to land. Does it make a difference?
What if the suburbs were just a first draft?
Remote work, the arrival of home-owning millennials, and other forces can be an opportunity to remake them for the better.
A Black rodeo rewrites the story of the West
At the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, Black riders and fans bring a sense of swaggering cool to a culture overlooked by the history books.
The deadliest road in America
Being a pedestrian in the US was already dangerous. It’s getting even worse.
Welcome to the July issue of The Highlight
In this issue: How one Florida road became the deadliest in the nation for pedestrians; behind the scenes of a Black rodeo; the rise of the new suburbs; and more.
Women wanted to fly jets in combat. Breaking that barrier would be the fight of their lives.
In the early 1990s, few corners of the military were as misogynistic as the world of fighter pilots. These women Naval officers would break barriers to fly in combat.
“She hardly goes out”: Racism is keeping many Asian Americans from going to the doctor
Pandemic-related hate crimes against Asian Americans have left many feeling unsafe in public. The consequences of missed health care will have lasting effects.
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The economic case for abortion rights
Being able to access abortion is about all kinds of justice — economic justice included.
Juneteenth isn’t just a celebration of freedom. It’s a monument to America’s failures.
The holiday observes the emancipation of enslaved people. Let it also be a time to consider the hypocrisies of the American experiment.
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It’s a terrifying time to have kids in America. It doesn’t have to be this way.
How do you raise kids in a country that seems to hate them?
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Amazon fired Chris Smalls. Now the new union leader is one of its biggest problems.
What’s next for the face of America’s new labor movement.
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When hospitals value nurses as much as jello
Hospitals don’t profit off having good nurses. That’s a big problem.
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The philosopher who resisted despair
Albert Camus and the search for solace in a cruel age.
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In Appalachia, a race to preserve the practice of plant healing
Even as ginseng, St. John’s wort, and other herbs grow in popularity, the region is struggling to keep its age-old practice of herbalism alive for a new generation.
Welcome to the May issue of The Highlight
In this issue: The anti-abortion movement’s post-Roe future, the plant peddlers of Appalachia, the real effect of the child tax credit now that it’s gone, and more.
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The profound impact of giving American families a little more cash
Six months of payments lifted millions of children out of poverty. Then they stopped.
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The anti-abortion movement is about to win. Even it isn’t ready for what comes next.
Tracking down the sources of abortion pills, a brewing internal schism over arresting pregnant people — welcome to the post-Roe future.
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Play-to-earn gaming sounds too good to be true. It probably is.
The video game industry’s clumsy flirtation with Web3 doesn’t feel like it has actual players in mind.
What does it mean to take America’s “jobs of last resort”?
Author Eyal Press on the nation’s most morally troubling labor — and why many refuse to acknowledge it.
Gen Z does not dream of labor
On TikTok and online, the youngest workers are rejecting work as we know it. How will that play out IRL?
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The Amazonification of the American workforce
The e-commerce giant’s labor issues expose the complicated truth about getting what we want when we want it.
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What it would take to make us love our jobs again
Recognizing that many of us find purpose in what we do is a good start.
When your job helps the rest of America work
Why so many are giving up on child care work and what it will mean for everyone else.
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What if the future of work is exactly the same?
For many, the gains in worker pay and power during the pandemic are fading fast — if they even saw them at all.
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How Noom got anti-dieters to go on diets
Noom promises not to be like other diets. But does it pull off the claim?
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Welcome to the Drugs Issue of The Highlight
What’s taking the feds so long to legalize marijuana? Also, therapeutic Covid-19 drugs, abortion by mail, and what a "sober" high might mean.
Federal marijuana legalization is stopped in its tracks
Public opinion, states, and even the GOP have come around to the idea of legal weed. So how hard is it to finally get done?
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The new sober-ish
Tiny doses of magic mushrooms, LSD, and cannabis have hit wellness culture, while the stigma around the drugs recedes.
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The FDA made mail-order abortion pills legal. Access is still a nightmare.
Restrictive states have already set their sights on a new wave of telehealth companies that were supposed to be a panacea for a post-Roe world.
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It’s not too late for new Covid-19 drugs to change the pandemic
The new, easy-to-take antivirals are now on pharmacy shelves. This is who they stand to help the most.