In this special live episode of the Weeds - Ella Nilsen joins Matt and Jane to highlight the most contested senate races, and what to watch for as results come in.

Resources:

2020 Election Coverage

Live results for the 2020 Senate races

Vox’s live results for the 2020 presidential election

2020 House election live results

Hosts:

Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Senior Correspondent, Vox

Jane Coaston (@cjane87), Senior politics correspondent, Vox

Ella Nilsen (@ella_nilsen), Politics & Policy Reporter, Vox

Credits:

Jeff Geld, (@jeff_geld), Editor and Producer

The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production

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About Vox

Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.

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Facebook group: The Weeds

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Nearly four years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and years after school reopenings, schools still face a major challenge: Students aren’t showing up. An estimated 14.7 million students didn’t show up regularly in the 2022-23 school year and were “chronically absent.” As data rolls out, states are realizing that they can’t address chronic absences without strategic plans to target it. Today on The Weeds, Vox reporter Fabiola Cineas explores what chronic absenteeism is, how it affects children's learning in both the short and long term, and what strategies have a proven track record of getting kids back to school.

Read More:

Why so many kids are still missing school - Vox

Read more from Fabiola Cineas

Submit your policy questions!

We want to know what you’re curious about.

Credits:

Fabiola Cineas, guest host

Sofi LaLonde, producer

Erica Huang, engineer

Colleen Barrett, fact-checker

A.M. Hall, editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

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Matt is joined by Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer, author of the new book The Cruelty Is the Point. They discuss the racial politics of the Trump-era, how these tactics persist in the GOP today, and how the dynamics of the present moment have led us to relitigate Reconstruction-era problems that go against the fundamental understanding of American equity. They also have a few things to say in there about Die Hard and Indiana Jones.

Resources:

"The Cruelty Is the Point" by Adam Serwer (The Atlantic; Oct. 3, 2018)

The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump's America by Adam Serwer (Penguin Random House, June 2021)

"The Flight 93 Election" by Michael Anton (Claremont Review of Books; Sept. 5, 2016)

"The Great Awokening" by Matthew Yglesias (Vox; Apr. 1, 2019)

"The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic; June 2014)

Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior by Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird (Princeton' Oct. 2021)

Schoolbook Nation: Conflicts over American History Textbooks from the Civil War to the Present by Joseph Moreau (U. Michigan; 2004)

Guest:

Adam Serwer (@AdamSerwer), staff writer, The Atlantic; author, The Cruelty Is the Point

Host:

Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.com

Credits:

Erikk Geannikis, Producer

Ness Smith-Savedoff, Engineer

As the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter.

The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production.

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

About Vox

Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.

Follow Us: Vox.com

Facebook group: The Weeds

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind are joined by Washington Post reporter Toluse Olorunnipa (@ToluseO) to talk more taxes for our hot! tax! policy! episodes this month. Today’s topic: Sen. Rick Scott’s 11-point plan to rescue America. Dylan, Dara, and Tolu get into the specifics of Scott’s policy proposal and speculate if the culture wars have seeped into tax policy. Plus, a white paper about unemployment benefits and opioid overdose mortality rates.

References:

Preorder His Name Is George Floyd by Toluse Olorunnipa and Robert Samuels

The Tax Policy Center’s analysis of the Rick Scott plan

How many people don’t pay income tax?

The original 47% remarks

The folk Republican morality behind the plan

White paper: “Unemployment Insurance and Opioid Overdose Mortality in the United States”

Medicaid expansion reduced opioid deaths too

The relationship between the economy and the opioid epidemic

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Dara Lind (@dlind), Weeds co-host, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weedsletter

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

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Dylan Matthews, Dara Lind, and Jerusalem Demsas talk about affirmative action. They dig into the current Supreme Court case about Harvard’s admission rates and ask: How do we make sure our elite institutions adequately reflect the population? Plus, a white paper about the effects of education on mortality.

References:

• Vox senior correspondent Ian Millhiser’s explainer about the SCOTUS cases
• Peter Arcidiacono, Josh Kinsler, and Tyler Ransom's empirical papers on Harvard admissions
• Jay Caspian Kang on the Harvard case
• Ending affirmative action in California pushed Black and Latinx students into worse schools and jobs
• Randall Kennedy’s case for affirmative action
• Sheryll Cashin’s case for “place-based affirmative action”
• An argument that class-based affirmative action produces more racial diversity than regular affirmative action
• Nicholas Lemann on affirmative action for the New Yorker
• How the Texas “10 percent” rule changed high school enrollment
• White paper: "The Effects of Education on Mortality: Evidence Using College Expansions"
• “A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost,’” the Wall Street Journal
• Opinion | “Affirmative Action Was Never a Perfect Solution,” the New York Times
• “Estimating Benefits from University-Level Diversity”

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Dara Lind (@dlind), Weeds cohost, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weedsletter

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices