Vox

Monday morning, the Roman Catholic Church made its biggest foray yet into the discourse on artificial intelligence and the role it should play in human life as the technology develops. In the first encyclical of his papacy, titled Magnifica humanitas (Latin for “magnificent humanity”), Pope Leo XIV argued that AI is not intrinsically immoral, but […]

The average person works 80,000 hours over the course of their career. Ideally, that time should be fulfilling, well-paid, and spent doing things that make the world a better place. Of course that’s much, much easier said than done. In an increasingly fragile job market made still more fraught by AI, there’s no longer such […]

The first observance of what came to be known as Memorial Day was on May 30, 1868, when a Civil War general called on Americans to commemorate the sacrifices of Union soldiers. It was initially called Decoration Day, for the practice of decorating graves with wreaths and flags. And there were so many graves — […]

Before Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy took his great big American road trip, Mikah Meyer did it first.  Meyer is a travel writer and blogger. In 2019, he became the first person to visit all of the National Park Service sites in a single journey — over 400 in total. The full list includes national monuments, […]

Your Mileage May Vary is an advice column offering you a unique framework for thinking through your moral dilemmas. It’s based on value pluralism — the idea that each of us has multiple values that are equally valid but that often conflict with each other. To submit a question, fill out this anonymous form.  The questions I tackle in […]

Our social media feeds are being inundated by clips. Big names like Justin Bieber, reality shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race, and even AI companies like Perplexity — they’re all using bite-sized video segments to advertise themselves on social media. And they’re not just posting from their own accounts; they’re paying thousands of anonymous people to […]

Death doulas, also called end-of-life doulas, wear many hats. In helping patients and their families prepare for a peaceful end of life, they can offer solace and companionship, handle logistics, mediate with medical staff, and more. As my colleague Anna North reported recently, public interest in the job is growing. Celebrities like actor Nicole Kidman […]

You’ve probably never heard of the term “RCP 8.5” — the highest-emission scenario used by climate scientists to project the planet’s future. But if you’ve read about climate change, you’ve seen the numbers and nightmarish outcomes it produced: 4°C of warming by 2100, sometimes 5°C, sea level rising multiple feet, parts of the planet too […]

On a cool April morning at the height of Washington, DC’s always brief spring, the science fiction novelist Ray Nayler and I found ourselves in a staring contest with the world’s heaviest flying bird. We were standing at the fenceline of the Kori bustard exhibit at Washington’s National Zoo when the largest of the already […]

If you’re looking for insights into why Democrats lost in 2024, you won’t find many in the DNC’s disavowed “autopsy,” which was released after much pressure Thursday. The incomplete and error-ridden report, written by a friend of DNC chair Ken Martin, offers various takes on the election but little convincing evidence, and avoids many contentious […]

With a little over five months until the midterm elections, Democrats in Washington and on the campaign trail are trying to show voters they care about cost-of-living issues.  To make that pitch, some parts of the party’s usual message may be going by the wayside. That includes the conversation about combating climate change. Once a […]

There are few things NBA fans can agree on. Is Michael Jordan or LeBron James the greatest player of all time? Do the Boston Celtics have the greatest legacy, or does that belong to the Los Angeles Lakers? Who’s the best player to never win a championship? These questions spur debates that have existed perhaps […]

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump’s hand-picked arts commission is clearing the way for his building spree. What happened? On Thursday, the Commission of Fine Arts signed off […]

In a family of killer diseases, pancreatic cancer has long been one of the scariest. It could grow undetected for years, and by the time most people knew something was wrong, their prognosis was grim. The vast majority of patients, nearly 90 percent, would die within the first five years of their diagnosis. Even as […]

The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it will not decide Hamm v. Smith, a case involving a genuinely difficult constitutional question about whether an Alabama inmate may lawfully be executed. The immediate upshot of this decision is that Joseph Clifton Smith, who’s at the heart of this case, will not be killed. Smith prevailed […]

Donald Trump’s self-dealing and profiteering from high office, a longtime subtheme of his presidency, has just become its defining story. Consider the following list of news and revelations, all from roughly the past week: It is not hard to see the problem with this behavior. Most people intuitively know it’s bad for politicians to abuse […]

Summer travel is just ramping up, but our country’s pride and joy is being put through the wringer.  Since President Donald Trump took office in 2025, the National Park Service has been gutted. Staff have left or been laid off, historical signage has been removed, and funding to maintain and operate the parks has been […]

In any given week, more than a billion people now look to chatbots for information and advice — as well as robo-plagiarism, erotica, and myriad other services. ChatGPT alone boasts 900 million weekly users. And these figures are likely to rise. In the near future, a handful of AI platforms could shape the way that billions […]

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is indicting former Cuban President Raúl Castro as it seeks to ramp up pressure on the island.  What happened? The indictment against […]

There are few animals humans fear more than sharks. This is understandable: Sharks are big, dramatic creatures that have been permanently lodged in our culture as underwater killers since Jaws. They also kill about six people in a given year. Snakes, on the other hand, kill roughly 100,000. After mosquitoes, which spread diseases like malaria, […]