Today Vox Media announced “Whose Vote Counts, Explained”—a new limited series produced by Vox and Vox Media Studios, in partnership with Appian Way Productions. The three short-form episodes, narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, Selena Gomez, and John Legend, will cover voting rights, money and politics, and how the system is rigged from gerrymandering to the electoral college. Voting rights activist Stacey Abrams, Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, former Ohio Governor John Kasich, and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are each featured in the series.
“Whose Vote Counts, Explained” premieres today and is available on Netflix, with the first episode—The Right to Vote—made widely available through Netflix’s YouTube channel (available beginning 9/28, 8am PDT).
With the series launching six weeks before the election, just ahead of the first voter registration deadlines, Vox is extending the viewer experience with a companion site—www.vox.com/vote—which will feature Vox’s signature explanatory journalism on topics covered in the series, alongside voting resources through When We All Vote, a non-profit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to increasing participation in every election.
“Our show aims to shed light on topics that are important to the current moment, and few topics are as important right now as the power of our votes, or as interesting as a historic election taking place in the middle of a pandemic,” says showrunner Claire Gordon. “It was an honor to work with such extraordinary talent, all of whom shared our passion for these stories.”
“Whose Vote Counts, Explained” is executive produced by Ezra Klein and Joe Posner of Vox, Chad Mumm and Mark Olsen of Vox Media Studios, and showrunner Claire Gordon. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson and Phillip Watson executive produced with Appian Way.
You can stream “Whose Vote Counts, Explained” today on Netflix.
About Vox
Vox explains the news. In a world of too much information and too little context, too much noise and too little insight—Vox’s journalists candidly shepherd audiences through politics and policy, business and pop culture, science, and everything else that matters, empowering its audience with the context they need to answer questions they didn’t know they had. Vox is home to influential verticals including Recode, The Goods, and The Highlight; a robust podcast lineup featuring “Today, Explained,” “The Weeds,” “The Ezra Klein Show,” “Switched on Pop,” and more; and award-winning video production with popular series like “Explained” on Netflix, “Missing Chapter” and “Earworm” on YouTube, “Answered” on Quibi, and “Glad You Asked” for YouTube Originals.
About Vox Media Studios
Vox Media Studios is an Emmy-nominated full-service production studio that works both independently and in partnership with Vox Media’s category-leading editorial networks—Curbed, The Cut, Eater, Grub Street, Intelligencer, New York Magazine, Polygon, Recode, SB Nation, The Strategist, The Verge, Vox, and Vulture—to extend the company’s storytelling capabilities to the most relevant modern platforms. Vox Media Studios is home to the award-winning Vox Media Podcast Network—one of the largest, fastest-growing, and most topically-diverse collections of high-quality podcasts, with more than 200 active shows—and Epic, the, storytelling powerhouse with dozens of film and TV projects in Hollywood, including Argo, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and “Little America” on Apple TV+.
Based in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, Vox Media Studios is one of the leading independent suppliers of premium non-fiction and scripted programming for television, OTT, podcasts, films, and brand partners including: Eater’s “No Passport Required” on PBS; Vox’s “Explained”—including “The Mind, Explained,” “Sex, Explained,” and “Coronavirus, Explained on Netflix; “American Style” on CNN; Polygon’s “Speedrun” and Vox’s “Answered” on Quibi; and “‘Creators for Change’ with Michelle Obama: Girls’ Education,” “Retro Tech,” and Vox’s “Glad You Asked” on YouTube. Forthcoming projects from Vox Media Studios include: “Eater’s Guide to the World” and “Family Style” on Hulu.
About When We All Vote
When We All Vote is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that is on a mission to increase participation in every election and close the race and age voting gap by changing the culture around voting, harnessing grassroots energy, and through strategic partnerships to reach every American.
Launched in 2018 by co-chairs Michelle Obama, Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Janelle Monae, Chris Paul, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, When We All Vote is changing the culture around voting using a data-driven and multifaceted approach to increase participation in elections.
In the months directly before the 2018 midterm elections, When We All Vote organized 2,500 local voter registration events across the country, engaged 200 million Americans online about the significance of voting, and texted nearly four million voters the resources to register and get out to vote.
When We All Vote is supported by Vote Lab, the innovation and research arm of the organization. Learn more about Vote Lab here.