The Highlight: The Parenting Issue

Welcome to the June issue of The Highlight. Each month, we seek to carve out a space for stories that are a little removed from the headlines but nonetheless speak to the moment. The Highlight is our monthly magazine boasting in-depth features, conversation-starting essays, and deep explainers tackling the ideas and issues defining our present and shaping our future. It also has a companion podcast that features interviews with people who are doing work that matters. Vox Members receive early access to stories in The Highlight as a thank you for their direct support of our journalism.

Every issue of The Highlight features an array of smart, surprising articles on a wide range of topics, with a few anchored around a certain theme.

For this June issue, that theme is a perennial: parenting.

Katie Reilly writes about how the transition from childhood to young adulthood can strain the relationship between mother and daughter. How can you avoid a blowup? Allie Volpe takes on the “eldest daughter syndrome” fad and asks: Does birth order actually matter? Anna North looks across the Atlantic and at the longtime phenomenon of American moms seeing their French counterparts as idyllic examples of parental laissez-faire and whether that’s a model to make parenting less stressful. Finally, Rachel Cohen examines a new experiment some American cities are running with: subsidized child care for the children of police department employees.

Elsewhere in the issue, writers tackle TV in the age of the binge-watch, the fight against antibiotic resistance, Japan’s ambitious plan to export captured CO2, and more.

We loved assembling this issue, and we hope you’ll love reading it!

—Elbert Ventura, executive editor

How to handle tension in the teen years without ruining your relationship.

by Katie Reilly

Are you destined to always be the “eldest daughter”?

by Allie Volpe

The French: They’re just like us.

by Anna North

Day care as public safety and public relations.

by Rachel M. Cohen

Forgotten shows, chaotic release schedules. It seems like the root of our TV dissatisfaction might be the way we watch.

by Aja Romano

Blood-based biopsies could make screening less icky — if we can make them more accurate.

by Charlotte Hu

Scientists are testing futuristic tools to dismantle antibiotic resistance.

by Cecilia Butini

Scientists spent ages mocking panpsychism. Now, some are warming to the idea that plants, cells, and even atoms are conscious.

by Sigal Samuel

Japan has a vision for exporting its carbon pollution to address climate change. But will it work?

by Nithin Coca

Some experts think “far-UV” technology could slow down the bird flu.

by Kenny Torrella

Important things are decided in the Supreme Court’s “shadow docket,” where the Court hands down rulings that, by tradition, are unexplained and can show up at any time, without vote counts or reasoning behind them.