Around The Country

• “A made-up life”: Congress has never seen anyone like George SantosJanuary 24, 2023
  Rep. George Santos (R-NY) leaves the US Capitol on January 12, 2023 in Washington, DC. | Win McNamee/Getty Images Why the George Santos scandal — and his growing celebrity — is so historically unprecedented. In ancient Jerusalem, an aged King Solomon observed “there is nothing new under the sun.” Solomon never knew George Santos. Thanks…
• How to reform effective altruism after Sam Bankman-FriedJanuary 24, 2023
  Getty Images Holden Karnofsky, seen as a leader in EA, shares his thoughts on the movement’s future. When Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX imploded in November, and accusations swirled that he’d lost at least $1 billion in client money after secretly transferring it to a hedge fund he owned, it came as a huge blow…
• Peacock’s The Traitors should be your new reality TV obsessionJanuary 24, 2023
  Alan Cumming, the host of The Traitors. | NBC Universal Traitors feels like a game anyone could win, except for the people Peacock cast. This post contains mild spoilers for the The Traitors, which is streaming on Peacock. On American television, the vast majority of competitive reality shows have revolved around a simple rule: there…
• Are we in a new Cold War?January 24, 2023
  Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Forumlar Majmuasi Complex in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on September 15, 2022. | Ju Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images The unnerving similarities — and key differences — between our current moment and the Cold War, explained by an expert. When Russia invaded Ukraine last February, Vladimir Putin…
• Cat Person, Brett Kavanaugh, Fair Play, and the anger of entitled menJanuary 24, 2023
  Emilia Jones and Nicholas Braun in Cat Person, which premiered at Sundance 2023. | Sundance Institute What Sundance movies reveal about the angry “good guy.” Cat Person — the movie adaptation of the New Yorker short story that took over your Twitter feed in December 2017 — starts with a now-familiar paraphrase of a Margaret…
• Saving species, and other storiesJanuary 24, 2023
  What’s lost when focusing on the cute and charismatic. Plus: Why Teslas keep catching on fire, the progressive case for more people, and others. This edition of The Highlight is a collaboration from across the Vox newsroom, a wide-ranging exploration of the policies and personal practices that could make the world a better place. Glenn…
• Yes, you can have kids and fight climate change at the same timeJanuary 24, 2023
  Glenn Harvey for Vox The progressive case for population growth. Let’s get this out of the way first. I am not here to tell you to have children. I’m not your mother or your mother-in-law. I’m not the college classmate who posts endless photos of their progeny on Instagram. I’m not your priest, your pastor,…