{"podcast":{"title":"Today, Explained","slug":"today-explained-663276","podcast_index_feed_id":663276,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/VMP5705694065","website_url":"https://www.vox.com/todayexplained","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/23d52a2a-1c5f-11ea-9a0e-b70170f2a827/image/uploads_2F1588357113366-jjsdfzx6x4m-c0339c10f9b113a5fcc93436e66e5ef4_2FTodayExplained+V2_Tile_3000x3000+_281_29.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Vox","episode_count":2217,"summary":"Today, Explained is Vox's daily news explainer podcast. Hosts Sean Rameswaram and Noel King will guide you through the most important stories of the day. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-29T08:17:28.089018+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/today-explained-663276"},"episode":{"title":"The Mitch McConnell mystery","slug":"the-mitch-mcconnell-mystery","published_at":"2026-07-14T18:24:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/today-explained-663276/the-mitch-mcconnell-mystery","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/today-explained-663276","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/257/traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP8588068364.mp3","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/257/traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP8588068364.mp3","summary":"You'd probably get fired for not showing up to work for a month — unless you're a member of Congress. This episode was produced by Peter Balonon-Rosen and Ariana Aspuru with help from Denise Guerra, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by David Tatasciore and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and his wife Elaine Chao, in a photograph released by his office. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices","meta_description":"You'd probably get fired for not showing up to work for a month — unless you're a member of Congress. This episode was produced by Peter Balonon-Rosen and…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1550,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/today-explained-663276/episodes/the-mitch-mcconnell-mystery/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/today-explained-663276/the-mitch-mcconnell-mystery.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}