Every Narrator on Vox’s Netflix Series ‘Explained’

Netflix’s latest documentary series is firing all cylinders with new episodes releasing on Netflix every Wednesday. You may not have realized that Explained episodes are often narrated in the presence of a celebrity. Here’s the definitive list of who is narrating each episode.

Not every episode is narrated by a celebrity, episodes like “Tattoos” are instead narrated by the creator of that episode instead. We’ll include their names in the list below too.

Explained Season 1

The Racial Wealth Gap – Samira Wiley

Explained's debut episode focused on America's racial wealth disparity. The episode is narrated by Samira Wiley who is mostly now known for her role on Netflix’s Orange is the New Black.

Designer DNA – Joss Fong

Joss Fong is Vox’s resident science video contributor having appeared in countless Vox videos on Youtube. She appears most in the YouTube series Vox Observatory but her most popular video was “How Americans got stuck with endless drug ads” which has clocked over two million views.

Monogamy & Why Diets Fail – Maria Bello

The episode was produced by Monogamy and featured Maria Bello as the host. She’s mostly known for her role as Jack Sloane on NCIS but also is known for A History of Violence, Coyote Ugly, The Cooler and Lights Out. Maria Bello has narrated only two episodes so far.

eSports, The Stock Market & K-Pop – Estelle Caswell

Estelle is a Vox employee, but she's best known for her Ear Worm video series and music articles. She’s the only person from Vox so far to have voiced over three episodes of Explained. Estelle narrated The Stock Market, eSports and produced the K-Pop episode.

If you liked these episodes, then the Earworm series is a must-see.

Cryptocurrency – Christian Slater

This episode features Christian Slater as the host. He narrates the story about digital currencies around the globe. Christian Slater was probably mostly chosen because of his featured role in USA Network’s Mr. Robot. Christian is best known for his roles in True Romance and Very Bad Things, as well as The Lian Guard TV Series.

 

Extraterrestrial Life – Levar Burton

This episode's cast needs to be promoted immediately. Levar Burton is most well-known for his roles in Star Trek's Generations and First Contact series. He’s since had cameos in The Big Bang Theory and Community but is now working on an upcoming TV series called Weird City.

! Explained – Nick Kroll

Nick Kroll who’s mostly known for his comedy and his recent animated show on Netflix, Big Mouth provided the voice for this episode on the exclamation point. It looks at the rise and fall of the punctuation and also looks at literature and how it’s used on the internet at large.

Cricket Explained – Aasif Mandvi

Going into this episode you’d be forgiven to expect to be bored but it provides a fascinating insight into the game of cricket without getting too technical. Aasif Mandvi, who is the narrator, does most of the work.  Aasif is mostly known for his role in Million Dollar Arm but also appears as Uncle Monty in Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Weed Explained – Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith was the best person to host this episode about marijuana. Snoop Dogg may be the best, but Kevin Smith comes in second. Mostly known for his movies produced in the 90’s Kevin but is mostly known for his work on the show Clerks.

Tattoos Explained – Coleman Lowndes

Coleman Lowndes also produced and narrated the episode about tattoos. Coleman is a Vox employee and you can find him producing many videos on the Vox website as well as their Youtube channel.

Astrology Explained – Yara Shahidi

Yara Shahidi was the narrator of the episode about Astrology and the stars. Yara is mostly known for her role on ABC’s Black-ish as Zoey Johnson. She also appeared in films like Salt, Alex Cross and Butter before that.

Can We Liver Forever, Explained – Kristen Bell

Kristen Bell narrates the Vox episode in her distinctive voice. Kristen Bell has starred in many different films. She was most recently seen in Netflix's Like Father. She’s also starring in the popular series The Good Place and is also known for her voice work on Disney’s Frozen and starring in Veronica Mars.

The Female Orgasm, Explained – Rachel Bloom

Rachel Bloom hosted the episode in which they discussed female orgasm. Rachel Bloom is mostly known for her role on The CW drama ‘My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ which is coming to a close this year. She’s also known for that controversial song on Bill Nye’s Netflix show.

Political Correctness, Explained – Jerry Springer

This episode focuses on political correctness in one of the first episodes that properly covered President Trump. Vox cast Jerry Springer as the host of the popular reality TV show, in an unusual casting decision.

Why Woman Are Paid Less, Explained – Rachel McAdams

This episode which aired on September 5th, 2018 was all about the gender pay gap and how it’s a complicated issue. The episode, which featured Hillary Clinton as the voice actor, was narrated by Rachel McAdams. Rachel McAdams is well-known for her many roles in movies such as The Notebook, Mean Girls and The Vow.

The World’s Water Crisis, Explained – Kyle MacLachlan

We’re not quite sure why Vox chose Kyle MacLachlan to narrate possibly the most depressing episode of the season so far. Kyle MacLachlan is best known for his roles on Twin Peaks. Sorry, Netflix doesn't have it. Kyle's appearances in Agents of SHIELD, Portlandia and Portlandia are both streaming on Netflix.

Music, Explained – Carly Rae Jepsen

In this episode of Vox’s Explained, it takes a look at what seperates sound from music and also takes a look into earworms. Carly Rae Jepsen tells us about the creator of one of today's most popular earworms. Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, here’s my number so call me maybe. There will be no apologies for the song being played in your head once again.

Understanding the Mind

Emma Stone

Multiple episodes of this special spin-off series were narrated by Emma Stone. They were released September 2019.

It covered all things human and everything in between. The best connection that we found was the fact that she was featured on Maniac, a Netflix series about mind.

Season 2 of Explained

Cults, Explained – Lakeith Stanfield

Season 2's first episode was broadcast on Cults. Lakeith Stanfield was the host. The main reason he seems to have any connection with the subject is his participation in Get Out.

Lakeith Stanfield's roles on FX Comedy, Atlanta, as well as roles in Straight Outta Compton and Snowden are also notable.

We’ll update this list every single week with the latest episode and who’s narrating it.