702 episodes
The Weeds Vox
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- News
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4.4 • 7.7K Ratings
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Politics is how people achieve power. Policy is what they do with it. Every week on The Weeds, host Jonquilyn Hill and guests break down the policies that shape our lives, from abortion to financial regulations to affirmative action to housing. We dive deep and we get wonky, but we have fun along the way. New episodes drop every Wednesday.
Produced by Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
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Can Black churches lead the way on teen mental health?
It’s hard to get Americans to agree on any topic these days, but a majority of them do agree on one thing: The country is in a mental health crisis. Young people in particular are struggling, and Vox senior health correspondent Dylan Scott wanted to see what is being done to help them. He found the work of Sherry Molock, a researcher and retired pastor, who is running a suicide prevention pilot program out of Black churches in New York State. Today on The Weeds: The current mental health crisis and the story of one researcher’s long pursuit of good, empirical data.
Read More:
More reporting from Dylan Scott
Lifeline.org
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We want to know what you’re curious about.
Credits:
Dylan Scott, host
Sofi LaLonde, producer
Cristian Ayala, engineer
A.M. Hall, editorial director
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The Devil wears fast fashion
Most of us love a bargain, but when it comes to our wardrobe, there’s a high cost for those cheap clothes. Fast fashion has taken the world by storm, with brands having tens of thousands — if not over a million — designs available at any moment. The consumption comes at a cost: the factory workers making those outfits are often underpaid and working in terrible conditions, and some countries have literal mountains of synthetic clothing filling their landfills. This week on The Weeds, host Jonquilyn Hill talks with Vox deputy editor Izzie Ramirez and author Elizabeth Cline about the scope of fast fashion, and how we got here in the first place.
Read More:
Buy Less Stuff - Vox
Why you shouldn’t shop at fast fashion retailers like Shein - Vox
Your stuff is actually worse now - Vox
Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion
The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good
Submit your policy questions!
We want to know what you’re curious about.
Credits:
Jonquilyn Hill, host
Sofi LaLonde, producer
Cristian Ayala, engineer
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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Barack Obama on AI, free speech, and the future of the internet
This episode of Decoder with Nilay Patel originally ran in early November. Patel and former President Barack Obama discuss AI and the future of the internet. They talk about President Biden’s recent executive order on AI, the First Amendment, democracy, and if the government could – or even should – regulate social media.
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Why everything is (still) so expensive
If you are frustrated with how expensive everything feels right now, you’re not alone. Inflation has fallen from last year’s high, but prices haven’t. And while the rise in prices of goods has slowed, people are pretty unhappy with the economy right now. But a lot of experts are saying the economy is in a good spot right now. So why doesn’t it feel that way? Weeds host Jonquilyn Hill discusses with Vox senior correspondent Emily Stewart and Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute.
Read More:
Inflation in the US isn’t the issue. High prices are here to stay. - Vox
Sign up for The Big Squeeze newsletter - Vox
Submit your policy questions!
We want to know what you’re curious about.
Credits:
Jonquilyn Hill, host
Sofi LaLonde, producer
Cristian Ayala, engineer
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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BDS and the history of the boycott
If you turn on the news, or scroll through your social media feed of choice, there’s a good chance you’ll see the latest on the Israel-Hamas war — and the reaction to it. But there’s one call to action making its way down social media feeds that feels different from all these other responses. It’s called BDS, short for boycott, divest, and sanction. And like just about everything related to this conflict, it’s complicated and controversial. This week on The Weeds, host Jonquilyn Hill sits down with Vox senior reporter Whizy Kim to explain the controversial movement, and with Cornell professor and author of Buying Power: A History of Consumer Activism in America Lawrence B. Glickman to discuss the history of boycotts, and if they even work.
Read More:
The boycott movement against Israel, explained
Buying Power: A History of Consumer Activism in America, Glickman
Is B.D.S. Anti-Semitic? A Closer Look at the Boycott Israel Campaign — the New York Times
Submit your policy questions!
We want to know what you’re curious about.
Credits:
Jonquilyn Hill, host
Sofi LaLonde, producer
Cristian Ayala, engineer
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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Will school choice change the future of education?
The school choice movement is having a moment again. Charter schools and voucher programs have been around for decades, but the Covid-19 pandemic has created another explosion in popularity for the choice movement. And since the pandemic, a slew of Republican-led states have passed choice policy aimed increasing access to other choice options. But does the choice movement come at the expense of public schools? Cara Fitzpatrick, author of the new book The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America, joins Weeds host Jonquilyn Hill to discuss the origins of the school choice movement, how Covid shook everything up, and if public schools can survive this political moment.
Read More:
The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America | Cara Fitzpatrick
Is public school as we know it ending? | Vox
The conservative push for “school choice” has had its most successful year ever | Vox
Submit your policy questions!
We want to know what you’re curious about.
Credits:
Jonquilyn Hill, host
Sofi LaLonde, producer
Cristian Ayala, engineer
A.M. Hall, editorial director of talk podcasts
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
Customer Reviews
Aug 9 episode on behavioral/mental health care
I am a therapist and I feel there are a lot of
Important nuances that are being left out of the conversation here and elsewhere, including the Biden proposal. It’s frustrating to me that the bulk of this conversation is being led by policy experts and not the people on the ground providing care.
First and foremost, the mental health reimbursement rate from most insurance companies is simply inadequate to provide quality care. It’s not just “not lucrative” it’s just not enough. It’s expensive to become a therapist. It’s 2 years in a graduate program plus post graduate supervision as well as licensure fees and continuing education. Then we have to pay for expenses as well as our own livelihoods. A huge chunk of therapists are also small business owners who need to figure out their insurance, retirement, etc, and the reimbursement rate is just too low. So we leave the networks for our own survival. Most therapists really don’t want lucrative, they just want enough to feel financially stable.
Second, people come to therapy for a lot of different reasons, just like some people go to the doctor for a lot of different reasons. If you have a therapist seeing mostly low risk patients with strong support networks, they can take a much higher caseload than clients who take high risk or complex cases, yet the reimbursement rate is the same. 45 min of therapy is 45 min of therapy regardless of the diagnosis or work outside of session.
Also, none of that work outside of face to face therapy is compensated. If I have a patient who needs to seek inpatient care and I have to coordinate with the care team at the hospital, that could be hours, but I won’t get paid.
This is ESPECIALLY burdensome and problematic for therapists of color, who are more likely to have higher student loan debt and less likely to have any generational wealth to lean on. There is a reason people of color cannot find therapists of color and it’s because the system is horrible for them. Horrible behind reimbursement rates but that’s for another day.
Yes, insurance providers put up barriers for patients that make it harder for them to access care. That needs to be stop. But until therapists are paid what they are worth for their work, the issue simply will not be solved.
Please stop
Vocal fry. Is like nails on a blackboard. I am forced to boycott all podcasts who use women that slip into this annoying habit that’s become epidemic. Stop it!
Too much vocal fry
Y’all do a terrific job, really, and I want to keep listening. But you sound like a couple of Valley Girls explaining the news. I just can’t take it anymore. Unsubscribing