The Vice Guide To Right Now

According to doulas, women are often treated horribly while they're in labor, with medical professionals engaging in abusive behavior that ranges from nonconsensual episiotomies to sexual assault.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We hear about a Palestinian- and Syrian-American chef named Reem Assil, and the intense racist backlash she faced after opening up a bakery in Oakland, California.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

No boss, no problem? Not so fast. The gig economy has all kinds of pitfalls for workers and sometimes even their neighbors.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, we go through the six stages of learning Grimes is dating Elon Musk. It’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but don't worry, we’ve got you. We’re gonna get through this together.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We talk to NOISEY journalist Lawrence Burney about South Africa's up-and-coming music scene.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We discuss how Airbnb is screwing over New York’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We take a look at the global ayahuasca community, and how they’re reeling in the wake of two recent murders.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We talk to Amanda Knox about the new VICE series, The Scarlet Letter Reports, which examines the gendered nature of public shaming.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Meyer lemon is that sweet lemon variety beloved by celebrity chefs for its delicate and not-too-tart flavor. And if you’ve ever had one, you can thank the botanist, adventurer, and “food spy” Frank Meyer. If supermarket shelves could talk, they’d tell wild tales of how Meyer's lemons arrived in America, and the mysterious and troubled man who walked across China to find them. Only to be lost to the sea later...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We talk to the man who helped design a 10,000-year nuclear waste site marker. Plus, this guy was a long-time friend and colleague of Carl Sagan, so you know this is gonna get interesting.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We explore the strange space between wakefulness and sleep, and how some of the most creative minds in history have coveted this special state of consciousness.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This month, we're featuring stories from VICE Magazine’s April publication: The Dystopia and Utopia Issue. And today, we’re focusing on an article about wildly unsuccessful attempts to set up 'utopian' societies throughout history.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, we talk to a man who cured himself of paralyzing OCD with magic mushrooms.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We hear about an indigenous woman named Hozoji Matheson-Margullis, who is making waves in Native American STEM and marine conservation.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This month, we’re featuring stories from VICE Magazine’s April publication: The Dystopia and Utopia Issue. Today, we’re talking about America’s digital divide, and how poor internet connection is more than just inconvenient. It’s an issue of equity.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We take a look at how the far right feeds on male insecurity, and how understanding this better can possibly help us combat right-wing extremism.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Over the next month, we’ll be featuring stories from VICE Magazine’s April publication: The Dystopia and Utopia Issue. Today, we’ll hear from journalist Jimmie Briggs on the trauma of everyday gun violence in New Orleans, a feature story which was done in collaboration with The Investigative Fund.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The setting is La Porte, Indiana, and the year 1908. On the night of April 28, a farmhouse belonging to a widow named Belle Gunness burned to the ground. And when the embers cooled enough for investigators to dig through the rubble, they discovered the headless body of a woman clutching the charred remains of three children. They believed this to be Belle. But that wasn't all they discovered. They also found a number of decomposed, dismembered bodies buried on the same property, which pointed to Belle herself as the female serial killer known as Lady Bluebeard. But the truth still remains obscured, at least in part. Not only is it unclear if Gunness really died in the fire, but the six-foot-tall Norwegian widow may have staged the whole thing—and got away with it.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With Facebook suffering controversy after controversy, calls for tighter regulations on the social media industry have never been louder. To get the conversation started, Motherboard considered what would happen if Facebook were fully nationalized; that is, if the US government seized Facebook today and attempted to operate it in the best interests of its users, under existing US law. The piece is speculative fiction, and is intended to imagine what an extreme version of regulation would look like.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

President Trump has announced that the White House will host a temporary memorial to people who have died from prescription opioid overdoses, called “Prescribed to Death.” The memorial was created by an organization called the National Safety Council, and it consists of a wall depicting 22,000 faces engraved on white pills. But this design has been widely condemned as demeaning and offensive. Critics say it dehumanizes drug users and ignores those who’ve died from street drugs like heroin. Nonetheless, the exhibit will sit in President’s Park in April.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.