| Each week, a different Vox editor curates their favorite work that Vox has published across text, audio, and video. This week’s recommendations are brought to you by climate editor Paige Vega.
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| Each week, a different Vox editor curates their favorite work that Vox has published across text, audio, and video. This week’s recommendations are brought to you by climate editor Paige Vega.
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We are living in a country that keeps getting caught off guard.
Earlier this week, catastrophic flooding swept across central Texas, killing at least 120 people by Thursday afternoon — but many are still missing. Tropical Storm Barry moved many hundreds of miles inland and parked over the region, dropping a deluge of moisture onto the state. Flash flooding turned deadly fast, submerged homes, washed away roads, and overwhelmed emergency systems that weren’t built for this scale of disaster. And yet, it’s hard to call any of it a surprise.
This kind of flood isn’t just about heavy rain. It’s about a warming atmosphere, sprawling development, aging infrastructure, and a public safety system stretched too thin to function. It’s about who got warned, who didn’t, and what happens when we underfund the very agencies tasked with protecting lives. I’m not saying any of this to frighten you. I’m saying it because we are already in the era where climate survival depends, increasingly, on what we can do ourselves.
This week’s stories try to make sense of that reality. We look at what made the Texas floods so deadly, how disinvestment in federal warning systems might have played a role, and what it actually means to prepare for disasters when institutions can’t be fully relied on. Along these same thematic lines, we have the return of measles, the rise of slop content, and the ever-present panic that “kids can’t read.” It’s all part of the same atmosphere: unstable, exhausting, and increasingly unfamiliar.
—Paige Vega, climate editor |
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Why were the central Texas floods so deadly? How missed flood warnings and infrastructure gaps cost so many lives in central Texas.
This wasn’t just “a bad storm.” It was a deadly combination of urban sprawl, outdated drainage systems, a hotter atmosphere, and a warning system that didn’t reach everyone in time. Vox climate correspondent Umair Irfan explains why central Texas is especially vulnerable — and why this won’t be the last time a city gets overwhelmed. Watch: BONUS VIDEO.
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According to current reporting, cuts to the National Weather Service and FEMA didn’t directly cause this flood — but they may have made it harder to predict, respond to, and survive. My colleagues over at Today, Explained explain what cuts to NWS and FEMA could mean for future disasters. Do we have to take climate risks into our own hands now?
We’ve reached the era of DIY disaster prep. Not because it's ideal, but because the systems we rely on are falling behind. Vox freelance contributor Heather Hansman approaches this story just as any of our readers might — as a regular person just trying to keep herself and her family safe. She talks to local disaster preparedness officials and experts about risk — from wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, or dangerous floods — and explores the solutions available for all of us to better prepare before the next disaster hits. In this story, it’s the small things that have outsized importance: go bags, neighbor group chats, and a slightly existential sense of resilience.
The truth behind the endless “kids can’t read” discourse
I really appreciated this piece from my colleague Constance Grady, a senior correspondent on Vox’s culture team, that takes an old question — are the kids okay? — and gives it a reality check: Maybe we’re just old. Every few years, a new wave of literacy panic rolls through — and we’re in the thick of one right now. Constance sorts fact from fear, questioning whether we’re facing a true reading crisis or a moral one. TL;DR: It’s complicated, but our outrage might say more about us than about them.
How little videos took over our phones and cooked our brains
TikToks. Reels. Shorts. We’re drowning in snack-sized content that’s half funny, half horrifying, and often barely coherent. Vox technology correspondent Adam Clark Estes writes about the "slopification" of the internet — and explores how we might reclaim our attention from the infinite scroll. (You’ll get a lot more from this story than advice about screen time limits.) The US just recorded the most measles cases in 30 years
Vaccination rates are slipping for the most contagious disease — and summer camp is here. Measles, the vaccine-preventable disease we all comfortably thought was in the rearview mirror, is back, and spreading through schools, daycares, and summer camps. Dylan Scott, our expert correspondent on the health care beat, is here with another story explaining the latest with the ongoing outbreak — now that it’s shattered yet another record.
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