This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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Back in the &#8217;80s and &#8217;90s, no one had ChatGPT to find the words to say how she really felt. Instead, everyone had access to the world’s most reliable form of communication: the cassette mixtape. Cool kids mastered the fine art of meticulously assembling other people’s songs with a flow that told a story, capturing the vibe in Sharpie, adding a makeshift “album cover” revealing each track so you could fast-forward to find it, and neatly folding everything into a clear plastic case. After all that work, gifting the epic masterpiece to its recipient felt as majestic as lighting the Olympic flame.
First-gen mixtapes were totally rad manna from heaven. Never had anyone heard these songs in this order in their lives. 
Smash cut to now, NFL reporter Dianna Russini sure understood the power of a playlist when she reportedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-spotify-playlist-we-cant-pause-the-dianna-russini-and-mike-vrabel-scandal">made one on Spotify</a> for then-Titans Head Coach Mike Vrabel back in 2022. The catch was that both of them were (and still are) married to other people. Oops. Supposedly designed to pump Coach up after a series of losses, it was one hour and nine minutes of pure, unadulterated proof of adultery. At least according to the court of public opinion, which is always in session. 
Track 1: “<a href="https://youtu.be/yrtWLyp5gLI?list=RDyrtWLyp5gLI&amp;t=9">Cuff It</a>” by Beyoncé starts out like, “I feel like falling in love, I’m in the mood to f*ck something up.” Say less, Dianna. The sunny R&amp;B beat doesn’t make the line “Can I sit on top of you?” any more okay when it ain’t ya husband. 
It wasn’t a great look considering the Spotify debacle happened two years into what we know about the timeline of their alleged affair, but Track 2 (“<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8GpG8C0YzA&amp;list=RDT8GpG8C0YzA&amp;start_radio=1">Big Energy</a>” by Latto) revealed Dianna’s real feelings for Big Mike through song. “I could be your fantasy, I can tell you got big d*ck energy.” Maybe she didn’t have time to dash off a burner text or book a “work trip” to a casino in <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2026/04/23/mike-vrabel-dianna-russini-smile-at-mississippi-casino-after-titans-firing/">Mississippi</a>, but she knew Mike could get away from <a href="https://www.justjared.com/2026/04/23/who-is-mike-vrabel-married-to-meet-his-wife-jennifer/">his wife, Jen,</a> to listen to “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7qR7xvKFEU&amp;list=RDH7qR7xvKFEU&amp;start_radio=1">Pump It Louder</a>” by Tiësto and the Black Eyed Peas, thinking warmly of how much his colleague Dianna cared about his football career. His big, wandering football career. 
Someone tell this reporter we can search public Spotify playlists. And that sharing your “<a href="https://x.com/DavidCovucci/status/2048914416704409689/photo/1">TURNIN THE PAGE</a>” compilation with someone named “Mike” made it too easy. There’s no way she didn’t want to get caught and criminally charged with bad taste in music. Tracks by Styx, Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses, and KISS seemed less “workout playlist” and more like <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2026/04/28/dianna-russini-spotify-playlist-mike-vrabel/">Vrabel’s reported</a> favorite way to pump up the volume.
Dianna allegedly named <a href="https://www.justjared.com/2026/04/23/dianna-russinis-2021-tweet-about-her-son-named-michael-goes-viral-amid-mike-vrabel-2020-kissing-photo/">her firstborn son Mike</a> after her NFL side piece. It’s not like she’s suffering from excessive creativity. 
The other day outside my apartment building, I noticed a boom box with none of the usual bells and whistles of modern “ghetto blasters.” This matte gray OG featured only a single cassette tape slot and a power cord. It was obviously a trap set by 1980s aliens. 
I wondered aloud to my dog about who’s going for a bulky cassette setup over streamlined Apple Music. Analog audio like this requires excruciating commitment to preserve it: avoiding <a href="https://everpresent.com/do-cassette-tapes-go-bad/#:~:text=As%20sturdy%20as%20the%20plastic,MECHANICAL%20WEAR">humidity</a>, dust, and sun. The magnetic film degrades with every play (and rewind!) and can spontaneously spew its guts at any moment. 
It’s also sturdy and portable. And decades after it went mainstream, the mixtape is still the greatest medium for sound ever invented.
Cassettes shaped the future of the music industry. Originally invented in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/blackwaxcafe/posts/this-day-in-history-aug-30-1963-compact-audio-cassette-first-introduced-by-phili/1171660748318428/">1963</a>, mixtapes took off as a broke-friendly strategy for aspiring <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/history-of-mixtapes-future/#:~:text=The%20mixtape%20goes%20all%20the,was%20born%20out%20of%20necessity.%E2%80%9D">hip-hop artists</a> to get their tracks into the hands of fans. Once the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/postpunkmagazine/posts/on-this-day-in-1979-the-first-sony-walkman-made-its-debut-on-store-shelves/1210476187791768/">WalkMan came along in &#8217;79</a>, listening to music via two-by-four-inch plastic became everyone’s favorite way of tuning in.
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Mixtapes also served as mini hubs of self-expression, where anyone could be an artist through song and the creative use of Xerox machines and colored pencils. With personalized <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/cassetteculture/comments/1gx3r9v/best_ever_name_for_a_mixtape_and_best_homemade/#:~:text=Alternative%20Mixtape%20Titles:%20One%20user%20recounted%20making,Sex%20Action%22%20and%20%22Teenagers%20High%20on%20Drugs%22.">liner notes</a> dedicated to none other than the recipient, “Crystal’s Mix” felt like an on-air radio dedication from the Billboard Hot 100 chart to regular, totally awesome Crystal. 
It’s a little more complicated now that most of us don’t stuff tape players into our back pockets before heading out, but there’s a growing fanbase for mixtapes on cassette. Satisfying the need to <a href="https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/gen-z-social-media-instagram-tiktok-poll-b2964488.html">go back in time</a> without leaving the sofa, enthusiasts on forums such as <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/cassetteculture/comments/1i2lqib/naming_mix_tapes/">r/cassetteculture</a> share everything from lo-fi concert recordings to art inspo, titling tips, and mixes for every moment.
Major artists answer Gen Z’s call for old-school by wooing the cassette set. <a href="https://shop.iamchappellroan.com/products/the-rise-and-fall-of-a-midwest-princess-anniversary-edition-cassette?srsltid=AfmBOoq1J2I8dG0CU0mxZoRSTPFZOyJkvAWuT4kLY632uv9B_zMRZbO7">Chappell Roan</a>, <a href="https://store.sabrinacarpenter.com/products/mans-best-friend-d2c-alt-cover-cassette?variant=52024297554285&amp;country=US&amp;currency=USD&amp;utm_medium=product_sync&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_content=sag_organic&amp;utm_campaign=sag_organic&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23521253893&amp;gbraid=0AAAAApCfFnBIFESkTKcjopa2JeCITX0ea&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwtcHPBhADEiwAWo3sJtsyf2dHOsWPxulrP_TduY4GQRiuaL2-IXkVmt8SestlyRRRowbypRoCBtYQAvD_BwE">Sabrina Carpenter</a>, and <a href="https://store.taylorswift.com/collections/cassettes?srsltid=AfmBOoq_5GoLxSFujpzxVA09ztusx4qZEbtDN2TBT3VTAoEjlossKLzo">Taylor Swift</a> are all available on plastic for more than anyone should pay for something that melts in your car. 
I’m cool with a digital playlist. But I’m not over here clasping my hands under my chin, staring out the window, dreaming about Spotify. Maybe it’s just me, but random ads about inflammation from Jardiance diabetes meds don’t exactly set the mood. 
I got an unsolicited mixtape from a classmate once. Schmave Schmith (his name has been changed) in junior high. I’m pretty sure Schmave hoped the sonic tapestry would wrap me up in the crush he was feeling. But the first emotional beats of U2’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujNeHIo7oTE&amp;list=RDujNeHIo7oTE&amp;start_radio=1">With or Without You</a>” landed between my ears like a wet blanket. I wasn’t ready for the adult feels of “I caaan’t liiiiiiiive … with or without you.” I was a definite “without you” as I listened to the first track of “For Lauren” in my bedroom at a volume my parents couldn’t hear, even if they were glued to the other side of my door. I pressed eject, unspooled the tape myself, and chucked it in the trash. 
I found the same song now, on YouTube, remastered and streamed more than 217 million times. It still gives me the heebie-jeebies, but only because mixtapes meant something. They said something real and pure, with an underground ritual required for their creation that just can’t be replicated with links. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUsrYVxrDwI&amp;list=RDnUsrYVxrDwI&amp;start_radio=1">Ella Langley</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ah9tWTkmk&amp;list=RDu2ah9tWTkmk&amp;start_radio=1">Alex Warren</a> might make people fall in love or become best friends, but their perfectly tuned tracks have nothing on the timeless warbled melodies of “SUMMER ROADTRIP &#8217;99!”
Maybe we’ll never be able to revisit the glory days of mixtapes. But we have Spotify bangers like Dianna Russini’s Track 3 “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjki-9Pthh0&amp;list=RDyjki-9Pthh0&amp;start_radio=1">Break My Soul</a>” by Beyoncé to help us express the words we can’t, or really should never, say.

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One Playlist, Two Marriages, And A Story That’s Getting Messy Fast

dianna russini

Mike Vrabel

mixtape

Music

Upstream

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
When Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles and Queen Camilla would visit the United States to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, I knew I had to call Mark Helprin.
The bestselling author’s fifth novel, 2005’s “Freddy and Fredericka,” is a thinly veiled sendup of Charles and Princess Diana — who, in this case, must travel to America and recapture “the colonies” in order to be blessed by an immortal, magical falcon who selects the true kings of England.
If you’ve never read one of Helprin’s novels, that summary is a pretty good glimpse into the experience: discursive and funny with a healthy shake of magical realism.
“Freddy and Fredericka” is a darkly comic romp across the United States that finds our heroes falling in love with the country they were sent to recapture, urging Americans to “let everything in the nation flow through you” and to return to “your original principles … immaterial and bright, ever enduring.”
It’s been more than a decade since I first read “Freddy and Fredericka,” and I’ve returned again and again to this book, essentially “Democracy In America” in novel form. So I was excited to ask Helprin how much Tocqueville was on his mind while he wrote the novel.
“He wasn’t,” Helprin said, for one simple reason: He had never read Tocqueville.
He was, however, in the process of reading “Democracy in America” in French, along with &#8220;The Wealth of Nations,&#8221; another classic he’s never gotten to. Shakespeare and Dante are in heavy rotation, however, as is fiction until the Lost Generation. Nothing after Fitzgerald and Hemingway holds much interest for Helprin, which, he stresses, has everything to do with his personal taste and nothing to do with snobbery.
There’s nothing about Helprin’s oeuvre or demeanor that would suggest he is anything other than well-read. But if yielding at Dos Passos for some reason stirs up doubts about Helprin’s literacy, the thousands of volumes that line the shelves of Helprin&#8217;s Charlottesville home should put them to rest. I once heard that Helprin has every paper he’s ever written, going back to his undergraduate career at Harvard, if not high school.
I didn’t ask him about this because I didn’t want it to not be true. After our conversation, I’m certain it is.
Helprin is everything you want him to be. Smartly dressed in a light check blazer, occasionally self-effacing and always captivating, he’s like a character from one of his novels — the latest of which, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Elegy-Blue-Novel-Mark-Helprin/dp/1419786083">“Elegy In Blue,”</a> hits shelves this week. All told, he’s written nine novels, three collections of short stories, and three children&#8217;s books illustrated by “Jumanji” author Chris Van Allsburg.
In addition, Helprin maintains a steady stream of political commentary, weighing in on everything from copyright law to foreign policy. Helprin’s fans, myself included, say he’s one of the greatest living American novelists. Helprin almost certainly wouldn’t say that about himself, which is likely why, despite a half-century in the public eye, he manages to fly somewhat under the radar.
Helprin’s relative anonymity is especially ironic considering his downright cinematic backstory. His mother was an actress in the Golden Age of Hollywood who left the Silver Screen to join the Group Theatre, a famous Method acting collective. His father, an American commando who worked for Winston Churchill during the Second World War, later became the head of London Films. It was there, in an office in Mayfair, that the first seeds for “Freddy and Fredericka” were planted by the king and queen themselves.
“Part of his job was, when the Queen and Prince Philip wanted to see a film, they would come in one Rolls Royce, no security or anything like that,” Helprin recalls. “He would greet them on the sidewalk and then escort them upstairs and into the screening room, where there was a buffet laid out with caviar and shrimp and everything, champagne, whatever.”
“And they would sit down, and then he would introduce the film, tell them about how it was made, what the subject was, whatever screen the film,” he continues. “And then afterwards, he would take questions from them, if they had any, and then escort them down to the street and see them off and say, thank you very much for coming.”
“They never thanked him, ever,” Helprin notes.
Helprin never forgot that. Not as he did his graduate work, which kept him at Harvard before taking him to Oxford; not during his time in the Israel Defense Forces, a tour of duty he embarked on after he was asked — and declined — to move to Cairo and serve as the Middle East editor for the New York Times.
Somewhere toward the end of his itinerant youth, he began a career as a writer. His first novel, “Refiner’s Fire,” was published in 1977. He achieved mainstream success with 1983’s “Winter’s Tale” and 1991’s “A Soldier Of The Great War.”
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<div id="attachment_1086299" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1086299" class="size-medium wp-image-1086299" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-50466632-300x192.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="192" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-50466632-300x192.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-50466632-900x576.jpg 900w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-50466632-768x491.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-50466632.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Photo by Mario Ruiz/Getty Images</div>
It was during a three-month book tour for the latter novel that the seeds planted by his family’s royal connection finally began to sprout. It was the &#8217;90s, and Charles and Di were all over the news. Seeing a man and a woman washing dishes at a restaurant kitchen one night, one of his daughters asked if the scullions were the duke and duchess.
Helprin saw an opportunity for “misapprehension,” which he calls “the funniest part of all humor.”
“If you think about the royals in Britain, they have so much opportunity for that because they live in a completely different world,” Helprin says. “But there&#8217;s even greater opportunity if they&#8217;re here amongst the colonials incognito.”
“Freddy and Fredericka” was a success in the United States. It was not published in Britain, where audiences were less receptive to Helprin’s take on the monarchy. Helprin has no regrets.
“I mocked the royals because they&#8217;re mockable,” he says. “They&#8217;re insanely mockable. They&#8217;re freaks, right? And they live in a freakish world.”
But Helprin appreciates that by separating their head of state and the head of government, the British monarchy “allows a really stable, decent government.” That attitude didn’t fly with “the loony Left” across the pond.
At least one person in Great Britain received a copy, however.
“Just by chance, I was invited to dinner that Prince Charles was supposed to attend in Washington, D.C.,” Helprin recalls. “And I said, &#8216;Well, you know what I better do? I better send Freddy and Fredericka to the palace,’ because, you know, to give them advance warning you don&#8217;t want to sandbag people.”
“So I sent it to the palace,” he explains, “and then without any word whatsoever, I was just disinvited to the dinner.”
Had he met Charles, Helprin says, he would have “approached him as an American.”
“We don&#8217;t believe that people are born with privilege, that, in other words, that privilege is legitimate, that they&#8217;re entitled to it, and we see them eye to eye,” Helprin adds. “That&#8217;s what America is about, and that there&#8217;s a very, very powerful force behind that, our history, our power, our ethos and the founding, which was, I think, divinely inspired.”
“If I&#8217;m sitting across from the King of England,” Helprin says, “I don&#8217;t feel lesser in any way.”
It’s a line that could have been spoken by most of Helprin’s protagonists. The typical Helprin hero is a kind of Aristotelian great-souled man with a Brooklyn accent. Most of Helprin’s novels take place in and around New York City, where Helprin was born and lived the first five years of his life, and a city that still captivates him and feels like home, despite the oppressive scale of “way too tall” buildings and the scourge of bike messengers zipping around with food, &#8220;because everybody has to have instant gratification.”
Of all Helprin’s New York novels, “Winter’s Tale” stands alone. Set simultaneously at the turns of the 20th and 21st centuries, the novel has at least 100 characters, a lengthy subplot about rival 19th-century newspaper barons, a magical realist upstate New York town with its own magic language, and a flying white horse.
That barely scratches the surface of what “Winter’s Tale” is about, and I’m not sure I could accurately describe it if I tried. The book has stuck with me, almost haunted me, for years. Whenever I’ve read another of Helprin’s books, I hope to find within it the key to understanding it. I never have.
Helprin, it seems, is in the same boat.
“I can&#8217;t explain it, but it possessed me day and night,” he says. “I would spend days in the New York Historical Society … and I&#8217;d walk the streets, looking at things and getting very, very obsessed and emotional about it.”
“So in a sense, I&#8217;m not the one to explain it, because it seizes me as much as other people who report that it did the same to them,” Helprin adds. “I felt as if I was just a medium of something that was speaking through me.”
To the extent that the book is about one thing, Helprin says, it’s about justice. Divine justice.
“People say God works in mysterious ways. Well, they&#8217;re not necessarily mysterious,” he says — they just come “from the past.”
“Who said that everything has to be made right in the timeline that we can perceive? Maybe it&#8217;s different, maybe from the divine perspective, the timeline is infinitely long, and the balances are affected and affect justice over a long period of time, so that after an injustice, maybe 20 years later, there&#8217;s some sort of a compromise,” Helprin adds.
“If you look at the whole of humanity and the whole of the universe as being one construct, if you think that from the divine perspective, that&#8217;s what it is, because you see from very far away, and it&#8217;s as one thing actually, without time.”
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<div id="attachment_1086301" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1086301" class="size-medium wp-image-1086301" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-502546985-300x224.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="224" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-502546985-300x224.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-502546985-773x576.jpg 773w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-502546985-768x572.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-502546985.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Photo by John Mahler/Toronto Star via Getty Images</div>
We mortals, of course, cannot see as God sees. But this is what Helprin aims to do in his novels. More than that, it’s how he sees the world, day in and day out.
“If you ask my wife, she would tell you, it&#8217;s very difficult to be married to me,” he says. “Very, very difficult.”
To stay grounded while thinking these lofty thoughts, Helprin works. He has been an agricultural worker, a surveyor, a dishwasher, and a stevedore.
“I spend so much time working, doing hard, physical, exhausting labor, that while I&#8217;m doing that often I think of things and think of what I&#8217;m going to do about the book, and when I get the chance to actually write the book, I’m so grateful for it because it&#8217;s different from, you know, spending hours on a tractor in the hot sun or getting rid of trees that fall,” he says. “So you come in from the heat and the dust and the dirt and the blood — if you work on a farm, you&#8217;re gonna have a lot of blood, and you&#8217;ll be lucky if you keep your fingers when you come in — then you have a refuge. And it&#8217;s a great privilege.”
“It&#8217;s almost like — to return to where we started — almost like being a royal,” he adds.
Helprin is on the cusp of turning 80, and while he says nothing to suggest that he wants to give up the punishing labor that’s driven so much of his life (and allowed him never to take a publisher’s advance), mortality is at least a little on his mind.
“Elegy In Blue,” he notes, “is probably not going to be my last book, as I&#8217;m working on another one. But, who knows, I may not be able to finish the other one. I might die before I do.”
Like his novels, Helprin feels neither outdated nor contemporary. He is a man out of time, a bridge between this century and the last who would likely feel equally at home in both. He speaks as he writes, and he lives like the characters he creates, a true American original.
But, unsurprisingly, the anti-monarchist with Tory sensibilities does miss the world he grew up in.
“I have to say, I do miss it, I really do,” he says. “When you&#8217;re going to be 80, then you&#8217;ll probably miss it, too. You know, that&#8217;s the way it is. And it&#8217;s okay.”

Untitled design – 2026-04-29T101512.647

He Turned The Royals Into A Joke. His Take On America Is Anything But.

Books

King Charles III

Literature

Novel

Royal Family

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
When news broke last month that a Minnesota district would include Islamic prayer rooms in its new high school buildings, many commenters drew the wrong conclusion. Some expressed legitimate concerns about the scale of Muslim migration, but others seemed committed to accusing the district of hypocrisy.
“Separation of Church and State for 1 religion only it appears,” one X user <a href="https://x.com/lanedrivinsmoke/status/2046246050508263593?s=46">snarked</a>.
To which another <a href="https://x.com/jacktomczak/status/2046275017302757521?s=46">replied</a>, “What do you mean? Christian and Jewish kids can use this room too.”
They both have a point. The blueprints include foot-washing stations for Islamic ritual ablutions, which makes it pretty obvious which religion these <a href="https://alphanews.org/plans-for-prayer-room-and-foot-washing-station-at-minnesota-schools-go-viral/">prayer rooms</a> are designed to serve. At the same time, there’s nothing stopping Christian students from using these rooms. They just won’t do it. And that should set off alarm bells for Christians.
A quick example should suffice to illustrate what I mean. One day last spring, when I was between jobs working as a substitute teacher at a local public middle school, a few Muslim students approached my desk and let me know they’d be leaving class to pray in a room set aside for that purpose.
A few minutes later, the conclave in Rome elected Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope. I’d been monitoring the election closely (<a href="https://spectator.com/article/betting-on-a-papal-conclave-felt-mildly-degenerate/?edition=us">because I had money on it</a>), so I saw the news right away and decided to share it with my students, of whom a plurality, if not a majority, were Hispanic. 
And because I still had the prayer room on my mind, I mentioned that I’d be happy to let any Catholics among them leave class briefly to pray for their new pope. In response, I got nothing but blank stares.
I realize this is a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison. The obligation to pray at five set times each day is one of the five pillars of Islam. There’s no comparable Catholic tradition of laypeople interrupting their day to pray for a newly elected pope (or for any other reason).
But maybe that’s the problem.
American Christianity has become invisible in the public square. We don’t wear headscarves, grow forelocks, carry <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirpan">special daggers</a>, or stop what we’re doing to flop down on prayer rugs. Our Sabbath-keeping is a joke compared to how the Jews do it.
We don’t even fast much anymore. In 1966, U.S. Catholic bishops “ended the obligation to abstain from meat on the Fridays outside of Lent” as long as “some other form of penance or work of charity was done,” the <a href="https://dio.org/catholic-times/hey-father-what-is-the-history-of-no-meat-on-friday/">Catholic Times explains</a>. That leaves a grand total of seven mandatory meatless days per year. Whoop-dee-doo.
Evangelical Protestants, meanwhile, tend to define their faith as a liberation from man-made rituals and religious obligations. They might endorse fasting as a valuable personal discipline, but the idea of requiring everyone to fast in the same ways on the same days sounds too much like works-based righteousness.
Why Christianity has adapted itself to secularism more fully than other religions is a tricky question. Tom Holland addresses it at length in his book &#8220;Dominion,&#8221; but the short answer is that this transformation is the product of the Christian West’s unique history and of Christianity’s own internal logic.
The reasons might be complex, but the negative consequences are obvious. 
First, Christians lose cultural influence. A religion that’s willing to make demands on secular institutions can often extract concessions. Muslims get foot-washing stations in public schools. Jews get “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabbat_elevator">sabbath elevators</a>” that stop automatically on every floor so they don’t have to break their law by pushing an electronic button. <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/features/how-a-catholic-businessman-put-the-filet-o-fish-on-the-mcdonald-s-menu?amp">Catholics got the Filet-O-Fish</a>, but that was back in 1963. Today, with the fasting rules relaxed, McDonald’s would have little reason to introduce it.
Second, Christians internalize the idea that there’s nothing different about them. This is especially true during adolescence, the stage when <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9167890/">peers become a bigger influence than parents</a>. If faith is part of a tween&#8217;s home life but doesn&#8217;t matter at school, it will naturally become less important to him over time.
Third, non-religious people come to regard Christianity as thin and ephemeral, something anyone can simply “<a href="https://www.wishtv.com/news/national/taylor-swift-calls-gop-sen-marsha-blackburn-trump-in-a-wig-in-new-documentary/">identify as</a>” without any skin in the game. Remember, these &#8220;nones&#8221; don’t see what happens at mass or mosque. They’ve watched their Muslim friends, even those for whom religion is mostly cultural, suffer through Ramadan fasts. But what do their Christian friends do? Try to be nice to people? That’s fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t exactly scream “<a href="https://biblehub.com/john/1-46.htm">come and see</a>.”
Fortunately, I have a solution: Catholics should use the noon <a href="https://www.usccb.org/prayers/angelus">Angelus</a> as a ministry to members of their church who attend public schools. This medieval devotion consists of ringing a bell, followed by a few scripture verses commemorating the Annunciation and a few Hail Marys. The whole thing takes about two minutes.
Implementing the Angelus in public schools would be easy. All you’d need is a bell, a parent, or a mature student to lead the prayers, and an empty room reserved from 11:55 to 12:05. If the school won’t give you a room, sue them. You’ll win.
For Protestants, a shortened version of <a href="http://bcp2019.anglicanchurch.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/07-Midday-Prayer.pdf">the midday prayer service from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer</a> would be just as workable.
It is, of course, possible that some kids would attend these services just to get out of class. But that’s a feature, not a bug. 
Carving out space for Christian worship in public schools would strengthen the faith of devout students, but it would also give nominal adherents a stronger sense of themselves as Christians while showing non-believers that Christianity is a religion worth taking seriously.
The reason Muslims have public school prayer rooms and we don’t isn’t because administrators favor Muslims over Christians (though I’m sure they often do). It’s because Muslims demand them and we don’t. It’s time for that to change.
***
Grayson Quay is the author of &#8220;The Transhumanist Temptation&#8221; and a former editor at the Daily Caller.

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Why Public Schools Are Making Space For Faith And Christians Aren’t Part Of It

Christianity

Public Schools

Religion

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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Over the past few years, the story about microplastics has shifted from a focus on ocean pollution to human health, and the science has moved faster than many people realize. Researchers have detected these tiny particles — fragments that often are invisible — in human blood, breast milk, and most recently cardiac arteries and brain tissue. The question is no longer whether we’ve been exposed. It’s about what that exposure means and what, if anything, we can do about it.
It’s next to impossible to opt out of microplastic exposure. I want to say that upfront, because too much writing on this topic implies that the right combination of shopping and lifestyle choices will keep you clean. It probably won’t. By the time food gets to your kitchen — whether it’s labeled organic and brought home in a cloth bag or it was handed to you at a drive-through window — it has already traveled through a plastic-intensive supply chain. Factory equipment, storage, and transport all contribute layers of plastic exposure — often with the intention of preventing you from being exposed to other contaminates — long before you go shopping or open the refrigerator.
There’s a growing body of evidence showing <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2309822">harm from microplastics</a>, but some of the findings might feel distant from daily risk calculations. That’s where the animal studies on endocrine disruption come in. What we now understand is that <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12249724/">microplastics can disrupt the hypothalamus</a>, the part of the brain that sends hormonal signals that tell you when you’ve eaten enough or that it’s time to go to bed. I know that some people who are reading this are saying to themselves: The studies she’s talking about were done in mice, not people. Fair enough. We don’t have human randomized controlled trials on microplastics, and we probably never will. But we’ve been here before. We acted on the endocrine disruption that we saw in the animal literature related to BPA before we had definitive proof of human harm. We didn’t wait before pulling it from baby bottles. The precautionary logic was sound, and the same reasoning applies here.
So where is the exposure actually coming from? It turns out that it’s everywhere, everything, and all at once, but not equally. A recent study found that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749123022352">chicken nuggets</a> contain significantly more microplastic contamination than plain chicken breast. Same animal, radically different plastic load because every additional processing step means more contact with plastic manufacturing equipment. Ultra-processed foods aren’t just nutritionally inferior; they carry a higher plastic burden as a result of the process used to produce the food.
What you can do about it comes down to two habits, neither of which costs anything.
Heat is the enemy. Microwave heating causes the highest release of microplastics of any common kitchen scenario. One <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c01942">study</a> found billions of nanoplastic particles per square centimeter were released within three minutes of heating time. The label “microwave safe” means the container won’t melt. It says nothing about what it does to your food. If you’re heating something that was packaged in plastic — a frozen meal or leftovers in a takeout tray — transfer it to a glass or ceramic dish first. Same microwave, dramatically lower microplastic exposure.
Your dishwasher is doing more damage than you think. Heat degrades plastic, and repeated dishwasher cycles accelerate that breakdown, increasing the rate at which particles shed into whatever you store or eat from those containers. Wash plastic by hand.
That’s it. I’m not telling you to throw out your Tupperware. In an ideal world, replacing plastic storage with glass and stainless steel makes sense, but that’s a financial commitment that not everyone can make right away. I’m a doctor and a mom and I’ll admit to having heated up more than a few meals in whatever container they came in. The goal isn’t perfection or beating yourself up over your past choices. These are two easy habits that don’t require new equipment and address the highest-exposure moments in your daily routine. The science on microplastics is evolving, but the direction of the evidence is clear. Meaningfully reducing your exposure is free. That’s a pretty easy call.
***
Monique Yohanan, MD, MPH, is a senior fellow for health policy at Independent Women. As a physician executive and healthcare innovation leader, Yohanan has more than 20 years of experience at the intersection of clinical medicine, technology, and health policy.

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The Plastic Problem No One Can Opt Out Of And Two Easy Fixes You’re Probably Ignoring

Health

MAHA

Daily Wire Moms Share The Mother’s Day Gifts They’ll Never Forget

gift ideas

moms

Mothers Day

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
As we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, it seems our nation is falling apart. Assassinations have claimed the lives of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unthinkable-charlie-kirk-31-assassinated">Charlie Kirk</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lawmakers-spouses-gunned-down-in-targeted-shootings">Melissa and Mark Hortman</a>, and UnitedHealthcare CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-murder-of-brian-thompson-how-individual-acts-of-evil-get-justified">Brian Thompson</a>. President Donald Trump has now survived three assassination attempts in the past two years, including the incident at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner this past weekend. While political violence has long been part of our country’s history, this recent wave reflects a deeper deterioration of America’s core values. But the origins of this cultural and spiritual rot are not a mystery.
Since the early 2010s, America’s polarization has been furthered by individuals and interest groups profiting from emotional outrage. Groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, which was recently exposed for fraudulently siphoning money to the white supremacists it was publicly fighting, have engaged in malicious smear campaigns designed to make us suspicious of one another. This political stratification, deepened by online echo chambers, has spawned a new generation of violent radicals.
One of these radicals, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, checked into the Washington Hilton Hotel on Friday with the alleged intention of carrying out a mass assassination at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner the next day. The event has been held for over 100 years to celebrate America’s press freedom.
The sound of shots fired outside the banquet hall brought the celebration to an abrupt end. Journalists and attendees hid below tables as administration officials were quickly swept away. Erika Kirk, widow of the late Charlie Kirk, was seen leaving in tears. The shooter was quickly subdued by security officials and taken into custody.
As news broke, Americans around the country were likely struck with deja vu. This shooter is one among many who have attempted to silence political opponents with bullets in the past few years.
Cole Tomas Allen does not fit the American imagination of a mass shooter. He was not a bullied, anti-social teen or a crazed maniac, as far as we know. He blended into society as a well-educated teacher and video game developer who participated in No Kings protests and donated to Kamala Harris. His manifesto offered more insight into his motivations for carrying out the attack. 
“I apologize to everyone who was abused and/or murdered before this, to all those who suffered before I was able to attempt this, to all who may still suffer after, regardless of my success or failure,” he <a href="https://katu.com/news/local/read-the-full-manifesto-by-shooter-at-white-house-correspondence-dinner">wrote</a> to family members. “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.” Allen evidently feared being morally complicit in Donald Trump’s presidency and viewed everyone in attendance at the dinner as fair targets for being in his proximity.
The grandiose sense of self and catastrophic views expressed in his manifesto are eerily similar to the rhetoric repeated daily across social media platforms and news stations. For years, Americans across the political spectrum have been spoon-fed paranoid and hyperbolic narratives about their political opponents. On the Left, this was particularly aided by groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The SPLC gained prominence in the 2010s for its <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/">&#8220;Extremist Files,&#8221;</a> which frequently equated conservative groups such as PragerU and figures such as Daily Wire host Matt Walsh with neo-Nazi and far-right organizations. Soon its practice of labeling moderate political and religious opinions as hateful, racist, and bigoted trickled into the language of mainstream media, college classrooms, and our homes. This language is often used to justify violence against conservatives.
According to the federal <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.almd.90265/gov.uscourts.almd.90265.1.0.pdf">indictment</a> released last week, the SPLC took things further than mischaracterizations. The group paid $3 million to leaders and organizers in the KKK, the American Nazi Party, and others between the years 2014 and 2023 without the consent of donors. The group now faces 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
When the Southern Poverty Law Center was unmasked last week as the Scooby-Doo villain hiding under the KKK hood, it called into question how much of our political reality has been falsely constructed or magnified for financial gain. The SPLC <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/us/southern-poverty-law-center-doj.html">claimed</a> the money was used to save lives through information gathering and infiltration, but Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-grand-jury-charges-southern-poverty-law-center-wire-fraud-false-statements-and">said</a>, “The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence.”
As political rhetoric and violence continue to heat up, we must ask ourselves: Where does this end?
If we continue to fan the flames of political hysteria, America will not see another 250 years. This great experiment in peaceful democracy and diversity of thought could disappear because we’ve lost the understanding that our civic responsibilities secure our rights. When shots ring out, people harden their hearts as if they are at war. Journalists and politicians will likely continue to turn up the heat, but we must do something different. We must extend an olive branch of understanding to one another and love our neighbors. If we don’t, we risk losing it all.
***
Maggie Anders is a video journalist and commentator at Young Voices. Her work explores international political movements, history, pop culture, economics, the cost-of-living crisis, and Gen Z social issues.

GettyImages-1304923265

The Moment That Shattered The Night Started Long Before The First Shot

Political Violence

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

White House Correspondents’ Dinner

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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“Our First Lady, Melania, is here,” <a href="https://youtu.be/GRjKhsJc95o?t=486">Jimmy Kimmel</a> said in a sketch for a hypothetical All-American White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where he imagined himself as host. “So beautiful … Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” Two days later, at the official dinner, the first lady would be forced to take cover behind her dinner table as gunfire erupted outside the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/25/politics/live-news/trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner">press gala</a> in Washington, D.C.
Kimmel’s live audience, screaming with laughter, couldn’t have known what would unfold post-show. And maybe they forgot about the other near-tragedies for the Trumps. It’s been almost two years since President Donald Trump was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsfMPTiIuvY">shot in the ear</a> in Butler, Pennsylvania. And maybe the headlines about the two armed conspirators hoping to shoot their shots near <a href="https://www.wpbf.com/article/florida-mar-a-lago-intruder-shot-dead-3-months-before-incident-in-washington/71128207">Mar-a-Lago</a> and Trump International Golf Club are fading into the distance. 
Kimmel pressed on, bagging that low-hanging fruit like he was working the checkout at Target, following up the dead husband joke with laughs about the “Melania” documentary’s Rotten Tomatoes score (a website he says was “named after her husband’s testicles”) and an Epstein tie-in. 
Kimmel was practically throbbing with “witticisms.” Do not continue using if you experience symptoms of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_derangement_syndrome">TDS</a> such as sweaty palms, limited perspective, and blah late-night comedic instincts. 
Calling him a coward, Melania Trump later posted to <a href="https://x.com/flotus/status/2048769128513585618">X</a>, “Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and [deepen] the political sickness within America.”
Melania turned 56 on Sunday, possibly still reeling from surviving what <a href="https://people.com/melania-trump-56th-brithday-after-husband-donald-said-whcd-shooting-was-traumatic-for-her-11958613">President Trump</a> called “a rather traumatic experience for her.” While Melania exudes Slovenian-style strength, it seems everyone piles on the First Lady any chance they get. She has filled the most visible unelected White House role for years. Is this really still an itch that needs to be scratched?  
My eyeballs first popped out of my head regarding Melania Trump Derangement Syndrome (MTDS) when first lady Jill Biden’s sensible pumps shuffled into the White House in 2021. Outlets such as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CKR-RbIBABb/?img_index=1">The Cut</a> lamented the so-called “fashion drought” of the first Trump administration (dismissing Melania’s Jackie Kennedy-besting style) and praising hum-drum inauguration day fits by Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, and Dr. Jill (with a Ph.D. in serving a look, apparently) in her <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/markarian-designer-jill-biden-inauguration-day-look">tweed</a> dress, coat, and COVID-19 mask.
Never mind Melania’s actual career as a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/09/03/melania-trump-vanity-fair-vogue/85851129007/">fashion model</a> for GQ, Sports Illustrated, and Vanity Fair. That was before she entered 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and was snubbed by <a href="https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/first-ladies-in-vogue">Vogue</a>, which has been documenting first ladies since 1929. Curious about U.S. history according to Condé Nast? Here’s a crash course: Mrs. Lou Henry Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower — everyone in between — Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, [BLANK], Jill Biden, [BLANK]. No offense, but not every FLOTUS is a looker. And some of them are obviously Republicans.
When Vanity Fair reportedly flirted with the idea of finally putting Melania on its cover <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/08/24/2025/vanity-fairs-new-cruise-director-will-have-to-choose-between-his-reporters-and-his-friends">in 2025</a>, an editor for the magazine told <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/09/03/melania-trump-vanity-fair-vogue/85851129007/">the Daily Mail</a>, “I will walk out the motherf***ing door, and half my staff will follow me. We are not going to normalize this despot and his wife; we’re just not going to do it. We’re going to stand for what’s right.” 
Former first lady Michelle Obama, who graced the covers of <a href="https://x.com/grok/status/1985565486407680059">15 major fashion magazines</a> during her husband’s presidency, later complained about not getting the same “<a href="https://nypost.com/2025/11/03/us-news/michelle-obama-moans-she-endured-white-hot-glare-as-first-lady/?utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social">grace</a>” all the other first ladies got. Waah.
Even if you hate her husband with an orange-tinted passion, you can’t deny Melania’s elite status. Go ahead and make fun of her accent, but she speaks <a href="https://www.cnn.com/us/melania-trump-fast-facts">six languages</a> (Slovenian, French, Serbian, German, Italian, and English). She married up, bore and raised a son (who actually seems pretty well adjusted for growing up in <a href="https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/melania-donald-trump-barron-childhood-home/">Trump Tower</a> and the White House), stuck by her man, and graciously puts up with an onslaught of mainstream donkey doo no matter what she does. 
Remember <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THr_seahKUI">Melania’s first all-white Christmas</a> at the White House, complete with a <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/articles/christmas-white-house-2017/#:~:text=Roosevelt's%201866%20edition%20of%20%E2%80%9CA,White%20House%20and%20features%20Mrs.">350-pound gingerbread house</a>, 53 bedazzled trees, and 31,000 holiday cookies? Yeah, the internet hated it! <a href="https://time.com/5039367/melania-trump-white-house-christmas-decorations-meme/">Memes</a> flooded the internet, featuring Melania as a winter witch and describing the minimalist decor as a reflection of her cold, dead soul. 
Her “Be Best” anti-bullying initiative, advocating for the mental health of kids suffering from online abuse, was bashed when she launched it in 2018. She battled headlines describing the platform as having “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-childlike-strangeness-of-melania-trumps-be-best-campaign">childlike strangeness</a>” and calling her “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/07/melania-trump-be-best-campaign-donald-trump">disingenuous</a>” for being married to a “bully” of a president and trying to help others.
&#8220;It is not news or surprising to me that critics and the media have chosen to ridicule me for speaking out on this issue, and that’s okay,” <a href="https://people.com/melania-trump-expand-be-best-initiative-second-term-8773443">Melania said</a> at the time. “I remain committed to tackling this topic because it will provide a better world for our children.” 
Notably, according to the <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/03/1167111">UN Human Rights Council</a>, 66% of surveyed kids in 2026 said online bullying is only getting worse. Maybe it would be a different story had there been a few flattering headlines about the first lady’s idea. But whatever, exploited children. Trump sucks! 
Just so we have all our historical ducks in a row, first ladies have been doing some pretty wild things since we started electing presidents. The original popularizer of “millennial pink,” Mamie Eisenhower, decorated with so much of it that the press started referring to the White House as the “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/WhiteHouseHistory/posts/happy-national-pink-day-first-lady-mamie-eisenhower-loved-pink-so-much-so-that-t/194044859642652/">Pink Palace</a>.” Mary Todd Lincoln held literal <a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/seances-in-the-red-room">séances</a> (some with Abe!) in the White House to cope with her children’s deaths. And gaining fame as the “secret president,” <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/1600/first-ladies/edithwilson">Edith Wilson</a> basically ran the country when Woodrow Wilson suffered a paralyzing stroke while in office, “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-16-bk-anthony16-story.html">seizing control</a>” of presidential duties she was not elected to do. 
And we’re supposed to believe Melania wearing a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45853364">$39 Zara jacket</a> that said “I really don’t care, do you?” was the worst?
Until Melania entered the scene, America largely gave every first lady a pass for rising to the occasion in a role they were compelled to agree to and crush. Read to kids, pretend to help choose the state dinner menu, and decorate for every holiday. You have “one” job; better nail it in pantyhose, lady.
Maybe you can blame the ire toward Melania on the clickable outrage of the media cycle. Someday soon, we’ll all be focused on a different POTUS and every last detail of his or her ever-loving spouse. But for now, wouldn’t it be nice if we could critique the main character and not the woman keeping the first family afloat? I’m inclined to agree with Melania, who stated on <a href="https://x.com/dalepartridge/status/2028482118918283663?s=46">X</a>, “Enough is enough.”

Being First Lady Is Hard. Being Melania Trump Is Something Else.

birthday

hate

Jimmy Kimmel

Melania Trump

shooter

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
I’ll never forget the night Johnny Manziel was drafted into the NFL. He walked on stage doing his famous “money” gesture — hands raised, fingers counting an invisible stack of cash — with a big grin on his face. For him, it was a choice to celebrate what came with this moment. This past Thursday night provided a redo, as many young men chose to promote what they brought to the moment.
Three hundred and twenty thousand people in attendance. Another 12 million people are watching the broadcast on some of the world’s biggest networks, including ESPN, ABC, and the NFL Network, using 55 cameras and eight production trucks. For 32 young men, the biggest moment of their lives was about to be on display for all. The NFL draft is the ultimate spectacle in celebrity. 
And yet, the number one pick didn’t show up. And when his time to speak came, he honored God. When asked how the last few months have changed his life — which included an NCAA national championship, a Heisman Trophy, and now being selected as the first pick in the NFL draft — Fernando Mendoza said, “The last five months have been such a blessing by God, and I can’t thank him enough.” Mendoza gave this interview from his parents’ home as he made the decision to be with his mother, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, and he didn’t want to burden her with traveling to Pittsburgh.
And he wasn’t alone. Two picks later, Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love emphasized that his success was in God&#8217;s plan. After being selected eighth overall by the New Orleans Saints, Jordyn Tyson said, “The Lord’s doing work on me.” He went on to say, “The Lord said it’s going to be hard. Life is hard.” Spoken like a true contrarian member of Gen Z. And later, the eleventh overall selection, Caleb Downs, gave “all glory to Jesus Christ.”
In fact, this became the theme on Thursday night, when fame appeared to take a back seat to faith and family. At least a dozen first-round picks explicitly invoked God, the Lord, or Jesus during draft night. In a moment manufactured to glorify them, these men deflected. And like Mendoza, more than half (18 of 32) prospects decided not to be in attendance and instead celebrate the biggest moment of their lives with family. 
Faith in sports isn’t new. We all remember Tim Tebow’s famous kneeling-in-prayer celebration. And many players cross their hearts and point to the sky after big plays. What’s different is the context. In our new social media environment, there is so much pressure to brand oneself personally. And on the night when it mattered most, many took the focus off themselves.
I hope Gen Z football fans were observing their peers. After all, they are the “anxious generation,” with six in 10 reporting <a href="https://www.youthmentalhealthcoalition.org/gen-z">feeling overwhelmed</a> by news and events. Amplified by the fact that one in three <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/12/12/teens-social-media-and-technology-2024/">say they are on social media</a> “almost constantly.” Surveys are great, but sometimes we need to taste the real thing to create countercultural pressure. And draft night delivered a full serving of faith, discipline, responsibility, and meaning on the biggest stage. 
What we also can’t ignore is the connection between these players’ mindsets and the brutality of their profession. While Gen Z’s unemployment rate sits at <a href="https://econofact.org/factbrief/fact-check-is-unemployment-for-young-us-workers-the-highest-since-the-pandemic">twice the national average</a>, these men are entering perhaps the hardest profession to make it in, the NFL, where only a tiny percentage succeed, and careers are short. Add to that the constant and extreme levels of physical and mental pressure. While some in our culture are teaching young people to avoid hardship and redefine standards, these men are proving and promoting that hardship is part of the deal.
To re-quote Jordyn Tyson, “Life is hard.” He followed that up with, “You have to persevere; life is not easy.” Translated for Gen Z: Hard is the norm. You prepare to deal with it. You don’t negotiate your way out of it. 
We keep hearing that young men are lost, but maybe we’re looking in the wrong places. While not all, many men who pursue an NFL career come from the socioeconomic backgrounds that researchers typically blame for bad life outcomes: poverty, fatherless homes, and crime-ridden neighborhoods. Hardship is their common denominator. The NFL doesn’t select for comfort; it selects for resilience. Maybe all of Gen Z isn’t lost. Some are just stuck in a comfort crisis.
This year’s draft was a metaphorical contrast for the lives of many young Americans. On one side, the stage. On the other, the living room. On one side, entitlement; on the other, hardship and gratitude. For many young men entering the NFL this week, the latter choice prevailed in each scenario and, along the way, provided waypoints on the map of meaning: where to look for hope, what moments really define a life, and who to bring with you on the journey.
Johnny Manziel wasn’t counting money for long. He played two seasons and exited the NFL stage almost as quickly as he crossed it on draft night. 
But this year, the prospects waited to count their money. Instead, we saw young men select mom over the moment and God over the glitz and glamor. The only thing more ordered than the draft selections was the prospects’ priorities.
***
Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast We The People with Gates Garcia. Follow him on X and Instagram @GatesGarciaFL.

Las Vegas Raiders Introduce Fernando Mendoza

The NFL Draft Just Delivered A Lesson Gen Z Desperately Needed

Faith

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
What began as a glittering evening at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner ended in chaos Saturday night when gunfire shattered the calm in the ballroom and sent journalists, officials, and their spouses scrambling for safety. According to reporting, the suspect, identified as Cole Allen, later admitted he had been targeting Trump administration officials. In an instant, the glitz of the night became irrelevant, and instincts took over. When there is no time for calculation, no time for messaging or spin, what you see is character — unfiltered and immediate.
When the first shots rang out, White House adviser Stephen Miller reacted without hesitation. He immediately moved his wife, Katie — pregnant with their fourth child — down beneath him and covered her with his body, placing himself between her and the direction of the gunfire. Video shows that as they were evacuated, he remained close behind her, steadying her and guiding her forward. In the hours that followed, critics on social media attempted to twist the scene, falsely accusing him of using her as a shield. The shots came from behind him, and his body position reflected that reality. His instinct was not to hide; it was to protect.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
You can tell a lot about a man about how they instinctively respond when it hits the fan.
In this photo, Stephen Miller moves on top of his pregnant wife to protect her.
Pete Hegseth stands over his wife, surveying the scene while leaning over, protecting her. <a href="https://t.co/kEvHgg56bo">pic.twitter.com/kEvHgg56bo</a>
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) <a href="https://twitter.com/bethanyshondark/status/2048356399675998620?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He wasn’t the only one.
Nearby, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth responded with similar decisiveness. As everyone around him hid under tables, he stood to assess the situation, physically placing himself between danger and his wife, Jenny. When agents moved to evacuate the room, he cleared a path, pushing aside chairs and obstacles with a flick of his hand, and ensured that she moved ahead of him toward safety.
Accounts from inside the ballroom suggest that President Donald Trump himself behaved in much the same way. Spanish journalist David Alandete <a href="https://x.com/alandete/status/2048378082990440893" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/alandete/status/2048378082990440893&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1777378046758000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1fKzvoxVrKo257m-MqaYqR">described</a> how Trump resisted being rushed out blindly, demanding clarity about what was happening even as agents attempted to move him. He insisted that Melania Trump be evacuated first and that the visibly pregnant press secretary be prioritized as well. Only after ensuring others were being moved to safety did he leave, on his own two feet, even after being jostled by agents trying to hurry him along.
These moments matter precisely because unlike the rest of the night, these moments were not rehearsed. No one is thinking about optics when shots are fired, and there is no time to construct an image. There is only the split-second decision of whether to turn inward or outward — whether to preserve yourself or protect others.
For years, we have been told that masculinity is something to be softened, redefined, or even <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/america-tried-to-fix-men-for-two-decades-heres-what-it-got-instead">suppressed</a>. The phrase “toxic masculinity” has been applied so broadly that manhood has been under attack for years. But what unfolded that night offered a reminder: In moments of danger, the best men do not retreat into themselves. A real man responds to danger by deciding to shield, guide, and then acts.
Not every member of the administration that night reflected that instinct.
Videos immediately emerged of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as chaos broke out, showing his wife, Cheryl Hines, left navigating the disrupted room behind him. In heels and formalwear, she struggled to move across the space and ultimately had to seek assistance on her own, tapping an agent to help her as others focused on evacuating him. It is an uncomfortable contrast, with Stephen Miller being seen gently guiding his own wife in the same video angles.
Later that evening, as the Cabinet regrouped, another image began circulating, one that captured the same instinct. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood in a white dress shirt on a chilly night. His suit jacket was draped around his wife, covering her strapless gown as the shock of the night set in. It was not as dramatic a moment as the one we saw in the ballroom, but it was telling. The instinct to be a caretaker remained, and Rubio displayed the fact that his wife came first.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1084627" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1084627" class="size-medium wp-image-1084627" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273154054-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273154054-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273154054-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273154054-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273154054.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images</div>
We have seen this instinct before under even more harrowing circumstances. During the assassination attempt at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Corey Comperatore was killed shielding his family, placing his body between them and the gunfire.
That same event became, in many ways, a defining moment of the election cycle. When President Trump rose to his feet after being shot, bloodied but defiant, and shouted “fight, fight,” it crystallized something for millions of Americans. It was not simply about politics. It was about projection — about what kind of strength a country wants to embody.
It is difficult to imagine a similar moment playing out the same way for former President Joe Biden. Fair or not, the contrast is part of the broader perception voters carry with them. Leadership, especially in moments of crisis, is not only about policy positions or speeches. It is about strength, resilience, and the ability to project confidence under pressure. The image from Butler was not crafted or rehearsed; it was incredibly revealing about the man running for office. And for many, it confirmed what they already believed they were not seeing from the current Biden administration.
The same dynamic, on a smaller but still meaningful scale, played out at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. In a room filled with some of the most powerful people in Washington, stripped of ceremony and pretense, instinct took over. Some men stepped forward into that role without hesitation. Others did not.
There is a tendency in modern discourse to treat differences between men and women as largely constructed, to downplay the idea that certain instincts are deeply rooted rather than socially imposed. But moments like these cut through that fiction. When danger is immediate, men act according to who they are.
Saturday night revealed that there are still men who understand, at a fundamental level, what it means to protect the people entrusted to them. They do not wait to be told. They do not calculate how it will look. They simply act.
There are, in fact, good men in this administration. And in moments like the shooting at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner, that reality is impossible to ignore.
***
Bethany Mandel (<a href="https://x.com/bethanyshondark">@bethanyshondark</a>) is a homeschooling mother of six and a writer. She is the bestselling co-author, with Karol Markowicz, of &#8220;Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation.&#8221;

Security Scare at The White House Correspondents’ Dinner with President Trump

After Panic In DC Ballroom, A Quiet Act Of Protection Is Stealing The Spotlight

Masculinity

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
I was in the room at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner when shots rang out and chaos followed.
I’m not a journalist. I was invited as a guest of The Daily Wire. I accepted immediately — why wouldn’t I? It’s an experience I&#8217;d never had. I had no idea how memorable it would be.
 I went alone, and as an introvert, the thought of entering a ballroom filled with 2,600 strangers and making small talk filled me with dread. This was small talk on steroids. Still, it felt like a cultural bucket-list moment. I’ve been to the Grammys, several Super Bowls, the MTV Video Music Awards (back when they were a hot ticket), and Coachella many times. These are the kinds of happenings you remember. Why not add this one to the list?
I got dressed up, had my makeup done, and headed to the hotel. My Uber couldn’t get close, so I walked the last six blocks in the rain. By the time I arrived, I looked like a drowned rat. Oh well, I thought, no one will be looking at me. Protesters screamed as I approached.
“F*ck you!”
“Pedophile!”
“If you go in there, you’re complicit!”
“Free Palestine!”
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<div id="attachment_1084513" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1084513" class="wp-image-1084513 size-medium" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/IMG_1766-300x225.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/IMG_1766-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/IMG_1766-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/IMG_1766-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/IMG_1766.jpeg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Credit: Clay Travis</div>
It was unsettling, but I’ve faced protesters before. I ran inside, showed my ticket, passed purse check and a metal detector, and went straight to the bar for a glass of wine.
I found my hosts: Brent Scher, editor in chief of The Daily Wire, and his wife, Cassie. The other guest of The Daily Wire that I’d share a table with was Jessica Reed Kraus of House Inhabit. We laughed about our soaked hair, ruined makeup, and now crooked fake lashes, then made our way to our table in the back of the massive room — true nosebleed seats, perfect for people-watching.
Despite my initial anxiety about the event, I was having fun.
“There’s Harris Faulkner.” “There’s that media guy. What’s his name? <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/brian-stelter">Brian Stelter</a>!”
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<div id="attachment_1084515" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1084515" class="size-medium wp-image-1084515" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/IMG_1738-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/IMG_1738-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/IMG_1738-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/IMG_1738-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/IMG_1738-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Credit: Jennifer Sey</div>
We took photos and settled in as the energy built. We wondered what a mentalist would actually do on stage, and we wished the organizers had risked a comedian instead of avoiding controversy.
Then it happened.
Shouting. “Get down! Get under the table!”
Three loud pops. Gunshots. I didn’t know if they were in our room.
Is this really happening?
I dropped under the table, clutching the hand of a woman I’d met barely an hour earlier. We were teary-eyed but not hysterical. Two waitstaff huddled with us. One woman at our table kept her composure, calmly repeating, “You’re okay, you’re okay. Stay down.” Over and over.
We watched FBI Director Kash Patel rush past while we stayed low.
I never thought I&#8217;d experience anything like this. I work in fashion. As the chief marketing officer for Levi’s, I hosted some of the biggest parties at Coachella. Our worst fear was someone taking too many party drugs and getting sick. We never worried about gunfire.
Yet every major cultural or conservative event I attend now — Turning Point USA’s Young Women’s Leadership Summit, a Moms for Liberty event, and now the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner — carries the real risk of leftist violence. I knew it the moment I was under that table. Some deranged leftist believed he was a hero, just like the alleged killer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/luigi-mangione">Luigi Mangione</a>.
I have a stalker who leaves threatening voicemails. Friends tell me to “be careful,” but what does that mean anymore? If a shooter can get <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-never-went-through-whcd-security-at-the-washington-hilton">anywhere near</a> the president at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner, there’s no safe level of careful. You simply live your life and hope fate is kind.
I wasn’t with my husband or even a close friend. I had no idea how close the gunman was. Would he burst into the ballroom and start spraying bullets? I was in the back — perfect collateral damage for someone who views shooting at this president as a heroic act.
Eventually Jessica and I decided to run. We slipped out a side door and walked as fast as we could in heels. It was cold. My bad ankle screamed with every step, but adrenaline pushed me forward. We sat down somewhere, sirens blaring, still unsure what had actually happened.
We caught an Uber, but police blocked everything. We ended up standing on a corner with other women in evening dresses while National Guard troops pointed guns and shouted. I just wanted out. We eventually slipped around the yellow tape. I left the group and walked alone back to my hotel. Protesters and homeless people yelled at me on the streets, but it barely registered.
I finally reached my room, called my husband, and texted my oldest son.
I wasn’t in real danger; the gunman never reached the ballroom. But in those terrifying minutes, you don’t know that. You hear shots, huddle under a table with strangers, and wonder whether a tablecloth will be the only thing between you and death.
I went to the dinner to celebrate a free press and free speech. Instead, I ended up squeezing the hand of a woman I’d just met, huddled under a table, wrestling with the very real possibility that this might be it for me. I was certain it was a deranged leftist who believes violence is justified when it comes to anything connected to President Donald Trump. And that’s exactly who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/manifesto-shows-shooter-was-willing-to-kill-everyone-at-correspondents-dinner">it appears it was</a>.
I gave up my career when I began advocating for open schools during the pandemic because I believe in free speech. I realized under that table that if I had to, I would risk my life for it.
***
Jennifer Sey is the CEO of XX-XY Athletics. She is an author, filmmaker, and retired national champion gymnast.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

I’m Not A Journalist. I’ll Never Forget What I Saw At The White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

journalists

Media

White House

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
It is happening again: People are mad at <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/sydney-sweeney">Sydney Sweeney</a>.
This time, however, it isn’t because of her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/leftists-crash-out-over-whiteness-of-sexy-sydney-sweeney-jean-ads">good genes</a> or speculations about her “right-wing” beliefs. No, Sydney Sweeney is under fire for her role in the latest season of HBO’s drama series &#8220;Euphoria,&#8221; where her character Cassie begins a career making <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/onlyfans">OnlyFans</a> content.
Surprisingly, the loudest critics are not the usual suspects on the Left. Instead, it is OnlyFans creators themselves who feel the show is misrepresenting them and their profession.
For the uninitiated, Euphoria is a series centered on high schoolers navigating a world of sex, drugs, cheating, and friendships. And Cassie, one of the show’s primary protagonists, is conventionally attractive and popular, yet suffers deeply from abandonment issues and insecurity.
Season 3 takes place five years after the previous season, when Cassie is engaged to another character, Nate. The two argue about the cost of flowers for their wedding, and Cassie decides she will make OnlyFans content to afford it. The photos she takes are much of what you’d expect. 
But the two scenes that hit viewers hardest included Cassie dressed as an adult baby and dressed in a dog costume, drinking from a dog bowl on the ground. During one scene, Cassie gleefully tells her friend how “adult baby” content is very popular, and men ask her to wear diapers and chew pacifiers.
These depictions clearly struck a nerve with actual OnlyFans performers.
Sophie Rain, known for bragging about her massive yearly earnings in the tens of millions, quickly spoke out.
She acknowledged that while it is “cool” to see the platform gaining mainstream visibility, the show’s execution of OnlyFans content is unrealistic. She worried that young girls who watch the show might get the wrong idea about what OnlyFans is all about.
Other big OnlyFans creators told US Weekly that Euphoria presented the platform as an easy way to make money and glossed over how much business expertise it actually takes to succeed.
Interestingly, almost all the criticism revolved around how Cassie’s behavior was not realistic and not conventional. There’s an irony in this, believe me.
There are plenty of elements in season 3 of &#8220;Euphoria&#8221; that invite critique, yet Cassie’s arc stands out from the rest. For many longtime viewers, this season feels a little alien compared to the first two. While the show has always had sexual, gritty overtones, many characters in this newest season have evolved in a way that feels jarring. But maybe that’s the point.
While some perceived Sydney Sweeney’s depiction in the latest season as a personal “humiliation ritual” and punishment for her recent controversies, the more charitable interpretation is that the show’s writers are deliberately holding up a mirror up to today’s culture, especially the sexualized nature of online content.
This season, so far, has successfully made online prostitution and adult content look embarrassing and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/onlyfans-made-a-few-stars-rich-but-what-most-creators-actually-see-is-another-story">revolting</a> from multiple angles — and not only Cassie’s scenes, but other characters’ too.
OnlyFans has become ubiquitous online. The platform has covert advertisements on legitimate news websites. Its own “models” brag about their enormous earnings on podcasts and on social media, subtly encouraging other women to sign up. Their antics are everywhere.
And yet, when the reality of online prostitution is displayed as fetish content and humiliating photo sessions in a television show, suddenly it is all too much.
People forget that this isn’t the first time &#8220;Euphoria&#8221; has dived headfirst into a gritty, sexualized plot line.
In season 1, Kat Hernandez, a friend of Cassie’s, began to do underage camgirling after a sex tape of her leaked. This, while it did highlight the horrifying reality of this profession, also demonstrated how teenagers are extremely hyper-sexualized in modern entertainment.
Ultimately, regardless of whatever drove &#8220;Euphoria&#8221; to put OnlyFans front and center, it is both humorous and sad to watch OnlyFans creators acting as if depicting extreme content is a bridge too far. It is well-established that many creators already go to extremes for views and marketing.
Don’t forget publicity stunts in 2025 such as competing to sleep with as many men as possible in 24 hours. Some women went viral for editing their faces to look like children. Content farms were discovered editing Down syndrome faces onto sexualized videos. Dressing as a dog, or a baby, unfortunately, barely scratches the surface of real depravity on the platform.
As &#8220;Euphoria’s&#8221; writers have seemingly discovered, these platforms encourage creators to escalate their antics and behavior.
The more extreme they become, the more dehumanizing all of this gets. And the more dehumanizing it gets, the more normalized it becomes. This is the tragic reality of online prostitution, and one that these creators know all too well, yet choose to defend anyway.
&#8220;Euphoria,&#8221; whatever its motivations, has hit a raw social nerve. We can hope that more women see the portrayal not as glamorous, but as embarrassing and dehumanizing — and choose a different path.
***
Sydney Watson (<a href="https://x.com/SydneyLWatson">@SydneyLWatson</a>) is a YouTuber and political commentator.

sydney-sweeney-jacob-elordi

OnlyFans Creators Melt Down After ‘Euphoria’ Shows What It Really Looks Like

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
The Cut has a knack for repackaging relational instability as self-discovery. The women-focused online arm of New York Magazine that brought us pieces like “<a href="https://www.thecut.com/article/non-monogamy-equal-parenting.html">Could Opening Your Marriage Lighten Your Mental Load?</a>” and “<a href="https://www.thecut.com/article/women-regret-having-children.html">I Regret Having Children</a>” is at it again — this time with E.J. Dickson’s essay “<a href="https://www.thecut.com/article/its-good-to-have-crushes-when-youre-married.html?utm_source=insta&amp;utm_medium=s1&amp;utm_campaign=nym">The Secret to a Great Marriage? Crushes on Other People</a>.”
In it, Dickson begins by describing a co-worker named Phil, whom she compares to a swarthier Jake Gyllenhaal, and who, she notes, didn’t know what a “nut graf” was. She emphasizes that she did not know him well: by the time they stopped working together, they had exchanged only about 40 words, most of them about Steely Dan.
She mentions him occasionally to her husband of nearly 10 years, who would joke about her “frissons of nervous energy” when asked if Phil had been at work that day. When she knew he would be in the office, she found herself lingering a little longer in front of the mirror — adding lip tint and mascara, taking extra care with her hair before meetings.
Actually, much of the piece focuses on workplace dynamics and so-called “work husbands and wives.” One interviewee, Jill, 32, recalls that her now-husband once confessed to having a minor crush on a co-worker. At the time, she was feeling sexually bored in their relationship, and she describes the admission as unexpectedly “deeply erotic.” The couple later folded the subject into their pre-sex conversations. Jill said it “recalibrated” how she perceived him.
“A crush while you’re married is like a little sweet snack that gets you through the 4 p.m. slump,” said Cara, 35. “It’s harmless and invigorating,” she said, “and reminds you you’re alive and kicking and yearning and thinking.”
While some pushed back on the piece in the comments, most others were predictable: “Brace for puritan moralism,” one said. “Sad to see so many people missing the point,” wrote another, “it’s not about infidelity.” And finally: “It’s not that deep man … having crushes is human. Enjoy.”
I was surprised to feel my body tense as I read the article through for the first time. I had lived out this theory as a college student, and the lessons were still living in my muscles — little &#8220;frissons of nervous energy” that I recognized now for what they were: alarm bells. 
During a long-term relationship, I found myself co-creating a new music festival with an older mentor and friend. At first, it was innocent: writing grants after class, trading notes in a shared Google Doc. I admired his drive, his obvious talent. But admiration has a way of slipping its bounds. Soon, I felt that familiar, muscle-melting pull at the mere mention of his name.
As the months passed, we were pulling all-nighters, contacting venues, creating floor plans, evaluating artist applications, united in a common purpose and building a shared world from scratch. I found my mind wandering: what other worlds might we be capable of sharing? Electric fingers grazed my leg under the table. I was sick with confusion, regret, desire. I was in trouble. 
If this wasn’t “that deep, man,” how did I get here? From ruminating on a nagging desire to indulging it? From a passing thought to a habit of mind; from a shared project to a divided interior life; from keeping a little secret to hiding whole chambers of my heart? 
What I thought was rare, even clandestine, was anything but. Some estimates suggest that as many as 85% of affairs begin at work. “Now we have a shared purpose,” psychologist John Delony <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/DHEDYfFgQC_/">explains</a>. “We’re talking about how we feel about things. We have a goal, we have metrics. I’m spending more time with her or him than I am with my spouse. Of course it happens at work.” 
Conservative politicians have gone to great lengths to avoid precisely this kind of entanglement, most famously Mike Pence, who has said he avoids dining, traveling, or spending one-on-one time with women who are not his wife. Even among my closest friends, this rule tends to draw skepticism, dismissed as a relic of the aforementioned “Puritan moralism” or an overcorrection bordering on paranoia.
But is it overkill? The Christian ethic has never limited fidelity to outward behavior alone; it presses much deeper, into the interior life. Scripture consistently treats the heart as the true seat of fidelity, as Proverbs says: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). Jesus sharpens the point, saying, “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).
Desire untethered from discipline, he points out, is not neutral; it is formative. Thoughts become patterns, patterns become habits, and habits, eventually, become actions. Crushes aren’t “harmless”; they’re the beginning of disordered desire that reshapes the heart and threatens our fidelity.
“Take every thought captive,” Paul writes (2 Corinthians 10:5) because what you dwell on begins to shape what you want, and what you want begins to shape what you do. To indulge a wandering emotional or imaginative life is, in a real sense, to erode the foundation of a covenant that is meant to be steadfast regardless of passing urges. In other words, master your desires, or they will master you.
This ethic serves another purpose: It keeps us from subtly turning one another into objects. The logic of the “crush,” as the article itself admits, depends on a kind of selective vision: “You’re getting to focus on the desirable parts of that person while ignoring the parts that wouldn’t actually be fun to deal with in reality. That’s super-sexy … Relish in the fantasy.” 
That same logic appears more explicitly in other work by E. J. Dickson. In her 2016 article for the Washington Post titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/10/12/dont-worry-about-sex-robots-they-wont-ruin-sex/">Don’t worry about sex robots. They won’t ruin sex</a>,&#8221; she entertains the possibility that even deeply disordered desires might be safely redirected onto objects, writing that technologies like child sex robots could “serve as such an outlet.” 
The mistaken assumption is that desire can be indulged, even trained, so long as it is displaced onto something non-human; that objectification is not only harmless, but potentially therapeutic. But to “relish in the fantasy” is, almost by definition, to flatten a person, to strip them of their full humanity and complexity and recast them as a vehicle for your own emotional or erotic gratification.
In our marriage, my husband and I have resisted this ethic in ways that might seem excessive to secular friends: There are songs I no longer play because of the memories they evoke, restaurants we no longer visit because of vignettes they hold. We’ve chosen, deliberately, to build a shared world. And with each quiet act of discipline, each decision to honor him in thought and action, my desire is shaped and redirected, returning to the person it was always meant for. Every time, my crush on him grows deeper.
***
Grace Salvatore is the senior editor of media, arts, and culture at Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Restoring the West and a contributor to Independent Women’s Voice.

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