Nevada is home to over 600 ghost towns, many of which are the remnants of the gold rush era of the 1800s and 1900s. Some of these ghost towns are well-known, like Rhyolite, but others are just coordinates on a map — hidden like secrets to the true history of Nevada.

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Vox video producer Dolly Li road tripped through northern Nevada to try and find some of these hidden ghost towns and learn about the real history behind the boom and bust cycles of mining in the state. Along the way, she stops by a town that many call a ghost town, but is still partially occupied by a dozen residents.

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Through visiting a few abandoned mining towns and speaking to historians about the technology and infrastructure that made mining a key industry of the state, we piece together a rich and fascinating story of Nevada’s development.

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We had a chance to speak to a lot of great experts and historians for this video. Here are some links to their work:

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Tami Force’s website, Nevada Ghost Towns & Beyond, where she’s documented hundreds of ghost towns in the state:

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https://nvtami.com/

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The archives of the W.M. Keck Earth Science and Mineral Engineering Museum (The Keck Museum), curated by Garrett J. Barmore, where we also conducted one of our interviews:

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https://www.unr.edu/keck-museum

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The Friends of Midas, a nonprofit organization currently run by Dana Bennett, that has a great collection of photos and history about the town of Midas:

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https://friendsofmidas.com/

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#ghosttowns #nevada #travel #roadtrip

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This video is presented by Travel Nevada. Travel Nevada doesn’t have a say in our editorial decisions, but they make videos (and adventures!) like this one possible.

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This week, Sean talks with Emily Baker-White, author of Every Screen on the Planet, about why TikTok feels uniquely addictive, how it turned social media into a push-not-pull entertainment feed, and what happens when human editors inside the company can override the algorithm.

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A few days after they spoke, TikTok was in the headlines again. So they jumped on a follow-up call to unpack the latest twists in the saga of who will ultimately control the app's US-operations.

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Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

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Guest: Emily Baker-White, reporter and author of Every Screen on the Planet: The War Over TikTok

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The Gray Area has been nominated for a Signal Listener’s Choice Award. Vote for The Gray Area here: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2025/shows/genre/thought-leadership

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The sun will save us

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Bill McKibben has spent four decades warning us about climate change. Much of what he predicted has come true. And yet, his new book Here Comes the Sun is more hopeful than you might expect. That’s because, for the first time, we have a genuine alternative: Solar and wind energy are now the cheapest, fastest-growing sources of power on Earth. The revolution has already begun.

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This week, Sean is joined by McKibben to talk about the peril and promise of this moment. They explore how close we are to catastrophe, why each fraction of a degree of warming matters, and how the fossil fuel industry is fighting a desperate last stand. They also discuss the politics of energy in the age of Trump, why Texas and Utah may hold surprising lessons, and how cheap, abundant power could transform not just the climate fight but democracy itself.

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This episode was made in partnership with Vox's Future Perfect team.

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Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.

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Free speech is often treated as a timeless and sacred right. But what if it’s more myth than reality?

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This week, Sean is joined by historian Fara Dabhoiwala, author of What Is Free Speech? They trace the history of free expression from 18th-century pamphleteers, to John Stuart Mill, to the digital platforms that dominate our lives today. They explore why speech is never just “speech,” how context and power shape who gets heard, the dangers of harmful speech, and the challenges of regulating platforms in a global media environment.

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Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.

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