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Movie magic is what makes our favorite films so good: actors flawlessly inhabiting the personalities of totally made-up characters, visual effects transforming a green screen to an otherworldly setting, musical scores making us feel every emotion under the sun. But there’s another kind of magic we don’t talk about as much: one physical location masquerading as another. And it happens all the time.

When filmmakers are trying to make a movie, deciding where to shoot isn’t as straightforward as choosing the location described in the script. They need to find a place with cooperative weather, a few landscapes to choose from, a big enough workforce, and — perhaps most importantly — one that fits their budget. 

All these factors mean that locations with downtowns, country landscapes, mountain ranges, and water features within a drivable distance are highly sought after, especially when they also have good tax credits. While Hollywood might be the legendary film capital of the world, places like Vancouver are becoming more and more popular thanks to the flexible landscapes and tax breaks. 

This is especially true for holiday movies — many of which are filmed in Canada. In this video, we talk to a prolific Christmas movie producer — who has worked on films like the 2024 Netflix hit Hot Frosty — about shooting movies in Canada.

Vice President Kamala Harris is potentially on the verge of becoming one of the most powerful people on Earth. At the same time, in part because her rapid ascent to the Democratic presidential nomination didn’t involve the sustained public attention of a long presidential primary, she’s more of a cipher to many Americans than major party presidential nominees typically are. So who is Kamala Harris? In this video, we hand that story over to four reporters who have covered her at different points in her career.

Kamala Harris first entered public life as the elected district attorney of San Francisco. She tried to distinguish herself from her predecessor, known for taking a progressive approach to crime, by calling herself “smart on crime.” She spoke more clinically and quantitatively than ideologically; she talked about numbers, not ideas or politics. That continued in her next role as California’s attorney general, in which she was often hard to pin down ideologically and reluctant to take political stances. But that role also made her a household name in California, and after six years as attorney general, she won the state’s US Senate race.

Harris quickly became a well-known senator, but not for speeches or policy. Instead she found fame as the Democratic Party’s chief cross-examiner in the Senate, grilling Trump administration officials in confrontations that excited Democratic voters and sparked a movement for her to run for president in 2020. However, the Democratic Party had by that point become more ideologically progressive, and her record of being “smart on crime” no longer played as well with those voters. She struggled to find a political lane in the Democratic primary, and her run was short-lived. But when Democrats ultimately chose Joe Biden as their nominee, Biden vowed to pick a woman as his running mate. And after a summer in which the death of George Floyd and the massive ensuing protests sparked a national reckoning around race, Harris rose to the top of his list.

As vice president, Harris struggled to find a role in the administration. Biden tasked her with an unenviable job: solving the “root causes” of undocumented immigration to the US. It was neither her area of expertise nor her ideological strong suit, and after a disastrous TV interview, she retreated from public view. But after the US Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion, things started to change. Harris had an expertise and authority on reproductive rights that Biden lacked, and she became the administration’s spokesperson on the topic, finding her voice and footing in public life again.

In July 2024, an unpopular and visibly aged President Joe Biden withdrew from his reelection campaign, endorsing Kamala Harris as his successor. Lively and articulate by comparison, Harris quickly captured the enthusiasm of the Democratic Party, gaining momentum in the race against former President Donald Trump. Her continued success will depend on whether she can grow into the role of a galvanizing, inspirational political figure that she’s struggled to fill in the past.

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From 2021 to 2022, one specific type of restaurant grew 105 percent in the US: pop-ups, or temporary restaurants. From 2022 to 2023 there were 155 percent more pop-ups. If you’re a foodie in a US city, it’s made the diversity of food you can get today higher than ever before. Why are so many chefs deciding to “pop up” all of a sudden?

To find out, we talked to the owners of two New York City pop-ups to get their stories. For chef Jorge Aguilar and Amanda Rosa, co-owners of the breakfast taco pop-up Border Town, their story starts during the pandemic. They were unemployed, and instead of trying to rent a space and open a brick-and-mortar restaurant, they started working in temporary locations, marketing themselves via Instagram. Eric Huang, chef and owner of Pecking House, a Sichuan-style fried chicken pandemic pop-up that became a brick-and-mortar restaurant, told us a similar story.

So how did these restaurateurs pivot during difficult times to ultimately find success?

But not all Yuletide melodies are created equal.

In a 2015 analysis, FiveThirtyEight found that nine out of the top 10 most featured Christmas songs on movie soundtracks were in the public domain. In other words, Christmas movies are full of the classic songs we know and love — that also happen to be free from copyright and expensive licensing fees. 

The reason why public domain Christmas songs are so popular may be obvious: Lower-budget films, like the ones our moms have grown to love from the Hallmark channel, can’t always afford to pay for newer, popular songs. But older public domain Christmas songs also hold a unique charm. Their repeated presence over the years has woven them into the very fabric of the holiday season, creating a sense of shared joy and nostalgia.

And composers like Russ Howard III, who we interviewed for this video, know this. He explains that musicians will often use public domain Christmas songs as a starting point for creating original compositions. Taking cues from classics like “Deck the Halls,” they craft new pieces that fit seamlessly into the emotional beats of a scene, while still having a festive flair.

For a closer look at the artistry behind your favorite holiday movie’s tunes, check out Vox Videos’ latest.