Nine Recipes That Dish Summer’s Boldest Flavors

recipes

summer

Upstream

August is supposed to be fully clear of Pride month, according to the calendar. But when I popped by a popular harvest festival in my neighborhood, it looked like summer had surrendered to the rainbow flag.
Picture a sweet 3-year-old girl wearing a green tutu and glittery stickers clapping alongside a parade of high school marching bands writhing to Penthouse-style routines, at the instruction of male choreographers who stepped out in full faces of makeup. At the same moment, a (drunk?) man I didn’t know made a joke by purposely touching my backside after I apologized for accidentally bumping into his. An eye for an eye. He said he was sorry. I’m an adult; I said it was fine. 
What was happening? This was a freaking vegetable festival at 9 a.m. on a Saturday. Calm down, Nashville. 
An hour later, EDM blared from a popular gay bar as a tomato red disco ball glimmered in the sunlight. A couple running their homemade gelato cart tried to make the best of the heart-thumping beat spilling onto the street. Small children looked on as revelers dressed in booty-baring festival garb gathered with friends. At least the bar got the memo on the theme. The Bloody Marys and micheladas on the cocktail list featured tomato-ish ingredients.
Fifteen minutes in, things were going off the rails. 
Every August, the historic Five Points neighborhood in East Nashville cranks its eclectic spirit up to an 11 for the <a href="https://www.tomatoartfest.com/">Tomato Art Fest</a>, a two-day event that goes all in on the savory fruit. Now in its 23rd year, the official motto declares the tomato as “A Uniter, NOT A Divider! Bringing Together Fruits &amp; Vegetables.” But I’ll be the judge of that.
Just like the first time I voted for Obama, I was filled with hope. (Leave me alone — I’m a tomato fest survivor.) After moving to the state several months ago, I was desperate to dive into local tradition. And how cute! A festival based on the season’s harvest. Coming from the dirty, soulless streets of Los Angeles where I learned that “stronger together” means “every man for himself,” I imagined a cozy farmers market-style craft fair with tomato-focused foods from local farmers. Fried green tomatoes! Wood-fired pizza! Gazpacho! Weird heirloom varieties we never see in stores! Tomato ice cream! Tomato beer! A blue ribbon for whoever can grow the biggest tomato! The Hallmark Channel works.
Instead, the few ripe tomatoes I saw all day were strung together as a necklace by a guy in a t-shirt that used to be white. Bless his heart. (I’m learning.) Call me crazy, but acai bowls, mac and cheese, and barbecue aren’t exactly screaming “tomato fest.” 
Per usual for a warm weather celebration, the “all are welcome here” crowd turned out. In reality, the unspoken guest list for this kind of party is pretty restrictive. But please enjoy social bonus points for having a thing for fishnets, vodka sodas, socialism, and an insatiable need to get away to Palm Springs. You seem fun.
I got a hot dog (they were out of ketchup) and watched an LGBTQ marching band squawk its way through a song the Girl Scout troop parading behind them would have played better, even if they had to form a band from scratch on the spot. Several trans-identifying men passed by me in the crowd. I handed one of them a paper fan I wasn’t really using. We smiled at each other. He was kind. Would he hate me for writing a feature on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/weekend-plans-with-chloe-cole-detransitioner-and-child-advocate?author=Lauren+Bair&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Weekend+Plans+With+Chloe+Cole%2C+Detransitioner+And+Child+Advocate">Chloe Cole</a> for work? Are we all really welcome here, like, with our thoughts and everything?
You know those neighbors who keep Christmas trees up all year long? Some people around these parts display tomato signs in their yards 365 days a year. Now I see why. The concept started out earnestly, as far as I can tell. The tomato has served as Tennessee’s official <a href="https://sos.tn.gov/civics/pages/tennessee-state-symbols">state fruit</a> since 2003 (so what if the Supreme Court classified it as a veg in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nix_v._Hedden">1893</a>), and the festival grows bigger every year, promising a weekend of wholesome fun for the whole family that includes a costume parade, 5K race, full roster of live musical performances, arts and crafts vendors, kid-friendly science experiences, portrait painters, food trucks, and drink tents for fun aunts. 
I tried really hard to conjure the collective kumbaya I assumed was baked into the neighborhood’s biggest event of the summer. But it remained elusive. Political campaigns dotted the parade for candidates I don’t know yet. A small leftist organization shouted something about voting and planting seeds. Tomato-ish, but I assume they’re talking about voting only one way. Another woman seemed better suited for Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade dressed in a fish tail and tomato bikini instead of seashells. She and her cool bikini friends navigated large groups of children representing their magnet and charter school programs.
I was having trouble wrapping my head around the “heartland risqué” aesthetic. I wondered if Spain’s La Tomatina festival — the one where 20,000 people throw tomatoes around for an hour until everyone looks like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/DakFFFaz-KM/">human meatballs</a> sloshing around in street pulp — has a more cohesive je ne sais quoi.
Maybe what was missing were the actual tomatoes. I know they’re out there. The devil works hard; that tomato vine in your backyard works harder.
But I was also missing a real sense of community. I’m new here, but I can already feel the neighbors picking sides. The “Pride” vibe can be exclusive, weaponizing the rainbow — a promise that was meant for everyone — as a symbol of one particular team. With all the LGBTQ venues opening in my neighborhood, Tomato Fest will likely become an all-rainbow party someday. I watched it happen in my Los Angeles neighborhood. Families will still go, but they’ll be consuming 100% more drag in order to do it. (And even fewer tomatoes.)
Later that afternoon as the festival rocked on, black storm clouds rolled in, and a sudden crack of thunder unleashed a downpour. I wondered if this is what everyone not in Noah’s Ark felt like, back in the day. I imagined all of those ancient folk somewhere on the other side, throwing tomatoes at each other, with some divine understanding of where it all went wrong. Sure, we’ve been promised no more epic floods. But we definitely needed to be cleansed from whatever just happened at Tomato Fest.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" 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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The Tomato Festival That Turned Into A Culture War

Food

Nashville

Pride

Weekend Plans is our exclusive lifestyle feature where we highlight the real off-duty routines of the most exciting people in culture. 
This weekend, prominent detransitioner Chloe Cole sits down with The Daily Wire with a fresh perspective on life. She gained notoriety as a teen after exiting her own “gender-affirming transition” where she received life-altering surgery and puberty blockers. Even amid ongoing backlash from the pro-trans movement, she’s become the face of the “<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5483/text">Chloe Cole Act</a>” designed to protect healthy children from devastating medical and chemical intervention. Now, she’s encouraging everyone to love themselves just as they are — because God doesn’t make mistakes.
* * *
Chloe Cole laughs as she tousles her newly sun-kissed highlights to softly frame her face. She looks radiant, having just celebrated her 22nd birthday. You’d never guess there was a time when she didn&#8217;t think she&#8217;d live to see 18.
“I&#8217;ve had a craving for cake for the last month. I had an ice cream cake made for me for my birthday, and a friend of mine just brought over a cheesecake,” she explains. Other guests arrived with cupcakes in hand. We joke that party-related calories don’t count. “It&#8217;s just cake central here right now. I don&#8217;t know how I&#8217;m going to keep the weight down, but it&#8217;s worth it. It&#8217;s my birthday week.” 
I ask about the Instagram birthday post where she mentioned a spiritual transformation that saved her life. She dives in without blinking an eye.
“When I was a teenager, I was going through a really rough time with the transition, and the psychological and physical damage from that,” she explains. “I felt like I didn&#8217;t really have a purpose. I didn&#8217;t feel like anybody around me really appreciated me for me. I didn&#8217;t know that I was created beautifully in God&#8217;s image.” 
“I didn&#8217;t know that he had a purpose for me through all the suffering. I just thought ‘I&#8217;m here by chance,’ and by the end of my life, there&#8217;s not going to be any meaning. And if there&#8217;s no meaning, why should I even be here? I thought, ‘I don&#8217;t want to be an adult. I don&#8217;t want to grow up. I don&#8217;t want to live.’”
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Chloe was born a girl. She grew up in a home where her father had been raised Mormon and her mother grew up Catholic. Chloe attended church as a young child. But instead of guiding Chloe to explore a deeper faith, her parents backed away from the church, hoping Chloe would think freely for herself. “I think what that does, unintentionally, is set up your child to lack the single biggest foundation that they need in their life, which is faith,” Chloe says.
She had been diagnosed with ADHD during childhood, but says, even today, most people in her life suspect she’s “on the spectrum somewhere.” Chloe ultimately chose her own path: one that, as a child, she couldn’t possibly have known she could never walk back. She decided she wanted to be a boy.
She watched other kids her age speak openly about their own transitions on social media. She already identified more with boy stuff, and the trans community seemed ready to welcome her with open arms. After seeking professional therapy, she began puberty blockers and testosterone injections at age 13. She underwent a double mastectomy at 15, which she almost immediately regretted. She began to detransition just before she turned 17, but she only sank further into depression, describing feeling like “the best parts were already over.”  
“I just thought there&#8217;s no getting past high school. I&#8217;ve already peaked, and this is going to be it for me,” she recalls. “All it took was for me to go through those painful parts, which I think ended up being God pruning all the bad connections … and then eventually bringing me purpose through using my testimony to help other families.” 
Chloe now applauds <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DaRJMYQga67/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1">her mom</a> for refusing to hide her childhood photos that were on display around the house, even though Chloe desperately wanted to erase all evidence that she was a biological girl. Those portraits served as a critical reminder of who she really was. But she pulled a 180 after catching a glimpse of her future.
“It was a very slow realization of all these different things,” Chloe explains. “What if I have kids one day? Am I even going to be able to have children? And if I do have kids somehow, what are they going to call me? Am I going to be Mom? Am I going to be Dad? If I get married, who am I going to be? A wife or a husband? None of it makes sense. All I had to do was get a little bit older, and I was going to become comfortable with these parts of myself.”
Chloe manages extreme joint pain following years of unbalanced hormones and puberty blockers. And she admits to having a tough time trusting the same industry that mutilated her body in order now to get the medical help she needs. But her life remains a testament to the real transformative power of divine love.
“There&#8217;s been a great deal of joy in discovering new beautiful things about my life … being able to re-embrace my femininity that I had forgotten about for years. Now, I feel like a completely new person. A lot of my friends who are close to me know me for my sense of humor. The best antidote to all the difficulty is humor and gratitude. When you practice those two things consistently every single day, that greatly improves your life.”
No place like home
Having just moved out of her parents’ home in Central Valley, California, on her birthday, Chloe is busy settling into her new digs. She assures me that hauling boxes was a breeze compared to more stressful events that have fallen on her big day. “On my 19th birthday, I was testifying before Congress for the first time,” she says. 
“Whenever I&#8217;m traveling to D.C. or anywhere else, I get so much of the city that it&#8217;s basically like living in it,” she shares. “I love all the people, I love all the hustle and bustle, but at the end of the day, I like having a quiet place to come home to. I&#8217;m surrounded by nature, and that&#8217;s how I like it.”
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<div id="attachment_924043" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-924043" class="size-medium wp-image-924043" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-1243386581-300x200.jpg" alt="Chloe Cole speaks as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) looks on during a news conference on Capitol Hill September 20, 2022 in Washington, DC." width="300" height="200" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-1243386581-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-1243386581-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-1243386581-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-1243386581.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images</div>
Chloe notes how Left-leaning outlets often claim she’s “raking in millions” as a “grifter.” (She’s not.) When I ask what most often occupies her downtime, she swivels in her gaming chair and tells me, “I&#8217;m a boring person. You know what I do every day when I&#8217;m not working? I play Minecraft with my brothers and friends. I lift. I work out. I run.”
“I have a whole home gym set up,” she notes. “I&#8217;m pretty sure I hit a new [personal record] on my deadlift right before I met [HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] last December. I forgot to tell him about that,” she laughs. But her new home offered her a little fitness inspiration of its own. “Funnily enough, the previous owners left a photo of Marilyn Monroe working out in a bikini top and jeans. Maybe I might have to start RFK-maxxing and working out wearing denim, myself.”
Reinventing a lost childhood
As a tween, Chloe was forced to make adult decisions that were well beyond any child’s ability to grasp. But now, she’s relishing her glow-up era. I watch her eyes sparkle as she talks about bringing her childhood back to life.
“I&#8217;m rereading a lot of books I love from my childhood. My favorite book to read in high school English class was ‘Ender&#8217;s Game,’” she says, referencing the novel about a government-born child genius trained to battle invaders from other planets. “I love science fiction. I love stuff that has some form of psychological horror and great moral questions behind it.”
Chloe’s hoping to rebuild a treasure trove of memories to fill in the blanks. “I have a collection of hobbies,” she notes. “I love fashion. I&#8217;m collecting a lot of my childhood dolls that I loved. The way that I decorate my room — it&#8217;s very nostalgic. It&#8217;s very feminine. It&#8217;s very reminiscent of the way that I grew up before the transgender thing happened to me.”
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<div id="attachment_1153329" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1153329" class="size-medium wp-image-1153329" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2258795463-300x169.jpg" alt="Chloe Cole" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2258795463-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2258795463-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2258795463-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2258795463.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Photo by Bastien Ohier / Hans Lucas via AFP</div>
“I&#8217;ve always been a tomboy. I&#8217;m closer to my brothers and boys in my classes than my sisters,” she explains. But she’s found the sweet spot between her unique personality traits and her true identity. “I have always had this very girly, pink — I don&#8217;t even know what you call it. Almost like a very sugary, feminine side of me that I just love to tap into.” 
An artist for this moment
There’s no question Chloe has always been creative. “Pretty much as soon as I was old enough to pick up a Crayon and a notebook and scribble on a piece of paper, I&#8217;ve been an illustrator,” she says.
“From the time that I was two or three years old up until my senior year of high school, I&#8217;ve always loved drawing cartoons, manga-style illustrations, and making my own characters and stories,” she shares. “Throughout my mom and dad&#8217;s house, I just have stacks upon stacks of notebooks, papers, anything I could possibly draw on.”
Since she’s recently had so much on her plate, she hasn’t been feeling the creative spark like she once did. As she works through a lull in inspiration, luckily, she knows where to go for help. 
“I honestly would appreciate some prayers in breaking that artist block because that was one of things I have loved doing most in my life. But the story writing that I used to do as a kid is something that now I bring out when I&#8217;m telling my own story to new audiences through speeches.”
Chloe sees a real need for art to come from people of all walks of life, including kindred creators on the conservative side of things. 
“We used to have these big, beautiful cathedrals with beautiful drawings, and so much human love just poured into every little detail. There&#8217;s such a hunger amongst young conservatives to see more art, more stories, more movies, more music that reflects our values, and there&#8217;s such a shortage of that,” Chloe says.
“I feel like I have a responsibility as an artistic person to tap into that part of myself, so that other artists can see that influence. We can, little by little, effect change in the lives of people around us.”
A real life redemption
Considering how much heat Chloe has taken from the pro-trans movement, I ask her how she perceives trans-identifying celebrities flooding headlines with “live your truth”-style clickbait. Miraculously, she views people like Dylan Mulvaney, Kim Petras, and Elliot Page with surprising grace.
“There&#8217;s this instinct to immediately label them as these evil, horrible people. But at the very core of it, it&#8217;s very clear from the outside that these people are suffering. They&#8217;re dealing with confusion around one of the most fundamental parts of the human experience.”
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<div id="attachment_315795" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-315795" class="size-medium wp-image-315795" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/12/GettyImages-1340132913-300x200.jpg" alt="NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 13: Elliot Page attends The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City." width="300" height="200" />Theo Wargo/Getty Images</div>
“I have a heart for these people,” Chloe says. “Especially knowing what it is like to go through that, to have this bubble around you of people who are encouraging you to continue destroying yourself. You&#8217;re constantly being told this is a fundamental part of who you are. You can&#8217;t change it. The only way you can help it is by undergoing a lifetime of medical experimentation — and also there&#8217;s a ‘genocide’ being waged against people like you. It&#8217;s no wonder that they continue fighting so hard to make sure other people stay indoctrinated.”
She puts the onus on trans-identifying adults — not the kids getting caught in the current — to flip the script.
“With adults, there&#8217;s a little bit more culpability. They should be held accountable for their actions if they are doing anything wrong. But we should also be praying for these people because they are suffering deeply.”
Writing her next chapter 
Missouri Rep. Bob Onder’s H.R. 5483 bill, known as the “Chloe Cole Act,” is currently making its way through Congress. It seeks to ban “the chemical or surgical mutilation of a child” and lengthen the statute of limitations for victims of these practices. It’s groundbreaking legislation, and Chloe is at the front of the movement.
“It&#8217;s still so strange for me to think about the fact that I&#8217;ve become prominent enough for there to be federal legislation named after me,” she says. “Just a few years ago I was the shy, nerdy kid in high school who could never even do group projects or present in front of class.”
Chloe describes how most states currently allow only two or three years for victims of medical malpractice to take legal action. That’s not nearly enough time. Chloe says trans-identifying children can develop regret “seven to 10 years after a major procedure such as surgery.”
“I want this to honor every single young person who has been pushed down this path of confusion and been hurt for life. I&#8217;m very much looking forward to the day that it is signed into law and every child in America will be protected.”
I get chills just listening to Chloe speak. She’ll live the rest of her life with scars on her body and on her heart, but she won’t be defined by old stories. Instead, pointing to “the grace of God,” she’s looking at a future without limits. 
“It&#8217;s almost kind of paralyzing to think about the possibilities,&#8221; she says. &#8220;I have had so many blessings over the years that I thought would never come to me.”
She’s hoping to harness her artistic talent for the masses. “I&#8217;ve always been sentimental about the idea of making entertainment for future generations. I would love to illustrate comics for people of all ages. I’m actually working on a book of my own right now about my story. But I also want to make a more digestible, more creative form of that as well.” I tell her if she ever publishes a graphic novel, I’ve already mentally added myself to her preorder list. 
Chloe’s just beginning to unlock her potential. But perhaps most importantly, she radiates with the kind of love she wants to share with someone else someday.
“I would love to have a family,” Chloe muses. “Whether God calls me to give birth or adopt, I want my kids to grow up knowing that they are loved, and that they are beautiful the way they are.”

Weekend Plans With Chloe Cole, Detransitioner And Child Advocate

Chloe Cole

Chloe Cole Act

weekend plans

Bright Side: The Country Craze Spreads From Texas To Japan

bright side

UpstreamSophie

How Sophie Cunningham Became The WNBA’s Biggest Target

Sophie Cunningham

Women's sports

UpstreamPetersen

Weekend Plans With Tori Hope Petersen, Champion For Foster Families

Foster Care

interview

tori hope petersen

Welcome to the Bright Side, a weekly roundup of all the good news and ideas you might have missed from the past week.
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Break out the confetti because Punch the monkey just turned one this week! It’s been a journey since this adorable Japanese macaque first broke the internet, but I’m happy to report Punch is thriving. 
In the time since his mother abandoned him as an infant, leaving him alone in the world with his IKEA stuffed orangutan buddy, he’s made lots of monkey friends in his habit. And word on the street is he’s even got a girlfriend! (They grow up so fast.)
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The Ichikawa City Zoo reports Punch has already received more than 2,500 birthday cards from fans who identified with his struggle to belong. One human visitor who was raised without her mother got teary as she <a href="https://abcnews.com/video/135135618/">told ABC</a>, “I feel like [I] have the same vibe as Punch.” You could celebrate Punch’s birthday by eating a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/big-banana-is-coming-for-your-coffee-candy-and-closet">banana</a>, but these <a href="https://www.realsimple.com/4-ingredient-chocolate-banana-bites-i-make-on-repeat-12009534">four-ingredient banana bites</a> might add a little more fun to the festivities. Here’s to Punch — and whatever band of monkeys you happen to be hanging out with this weekend. 
Jimothy, but make him art
It’s officially Jimothy summer. Just as the most awkward raccoon outside of Seattle was commended for his “resilience” by being named “<a href="https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/governor-names-jimothy-washingtonian-of-the-day-seattle-raccoon/281-047dc68a-a790-4e64-abdb-023bb13612a0">Washingtonian of The Day</a>,” a local art contest revealed the insatiable fever around this hunchback bandit. 
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People gathered in Seattle to share art inspired by Jimothy, the city&#8217;s beloved unique-looking raccoon, at an art contest hosted by Seattle City Council members. Attendees voted on which piece of Jimothy art would be displayed in City Hall. <a href="https://t.co/z061XbW2Wf">https://t.co/z061XbW2Wf</a> <a href="https://t.co/fsRw4GhVhQ">pic.twitter.com/fsRw4GhVhQ</a>
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) <a href="https://x.com/washingtonpost/status/2082247353101119741?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2026</a></blockquote>
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As an art school graduate (hold on, let me slide my spectacles up the bridge of my nose), I was partial to the hilarious papier-mâché Jimothy-on-a-stick, as well as the piñata, stuffed animal, and denim jacket interpretations. Of course, the winners deserve their laurels. Kudos to whoever created the stunning stained-glass “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2026/07/28/prize-best-art-jimothy-place-seattles-city-hall/?utm_campaign=wp_main&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social">Saint Jimothy</a>” masterpiece as well as the oil painting of his likeness, both of which will spend the rest of Jimothy summer on display at city hall.
Why do we like tiny things so much?
My Amazon algorithm is determined to sell me on miniatures. Every other “for you” suggestion involves microscopic soft-serve ice cream machines, 1:12 replica grocery items, and scaled-down greenhouse dioramas with functional lighting and thimble-sized fauna. I have yet to buy a single item, but like it or not, Amazon tells us what we want. 
When I lived in Los Angeles, I was obsessed with the smaller garbage truck that crawled around the winding Hollywood Hills, collecting the leftover debris of the rich and famous. It was half the size of the usual truck, and since it was built with the exact same proportions, it was cute. Spotting it was like seeing WALL-E out on his mission for the day. I imagine this toddler feels similarly, in reverse, being the small one admiring the great big garbage truck that regularly drives by his house.
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A toddler who is obsessed with his neighborhood garbage truck got to meet his idol when a sanitation worker stopped to say hello and give him a present. <a href="https://t.co/TXqUegc6dS">pic.twitter.com/TXqUegc6dS</a>
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) <a href="https://x.com/ABC7NY/status/2080644443435057522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2026</a></blockquote>
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But the (mini!) gift from the friendly sanitation worker? So sweet. There’s a psychological aspect to our love of the teeny-tiny. Along with the sense of control we feel when interacting with fun-sized objects, organized or neatly designed miniatures present a calming order, which can ease feelings of chaos in actual-size life. Admiring something small, even a mini garbage can, evokes a sense of magic. As one tiny taco company explains, it can <a href="https://tinytacobk.com/blogs/tiny-taco-bk-blog/6-big-reasons-why-we-love-small-things">serve</a> as “a playful reminder of our size in relation to the world.” 
Something to hold on to
My parents recently forced me to listen to them talk about their end-of-life plans. (For the record, I hate this conversation. But like Algebra II, it may be useful someday 200 years from now. Hopefully Jesus comes back first.) On a lighter related note, a survey by 1-800-GOT-JUNK revealed exactly what possessions people actually hope to inherit from their dearly departed. Spoiler alert: It’s almost nothing. Take your Beanie Babies and Precious Moments figurines to the gulag, and send cash. 
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Maybe it’s because no one has the room for extra stuff, or that one great aunt’s treasures become her great niece’s trash, but many Americans hope to inherit “a few” things from a loved one, instead of everything. (And half would prefer zilch.) A list of my favorite “aw, you shouldn’t have” keepsakes that people have actually received:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“A pair of lamps in the shape of legs”</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“An antique dentist chair”</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“A talking fish” </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“A statue of Abraham Lincoln”</li>
</ul>
Brian Scudamore, CEO and founder of 1‑800‑GOT‑JUNK, <a href="https://www.1800gotjunk.com/us_en/research/the-great-junk-transfer-2026">knows</a> these are more than late-night QVC impulse-buys. “The things people leave behind are never really just things — they’re memory, identity, and sometimes, unfinished conversations,” he says. Maybe that talking fish can keep the dialogue flowing … to the tune of “<a href="https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=2c719d755bc25006&amp;sxsrf=APpeQnt1CE_rwZ2GRQUHxdNQSuTQWSx3fw:1785418549413&amp;udm=39&amp;fbs=ABfTbFVyMZGZf1hfvX9uKjN_-G8cxpBkeIeqYwoCbfNVc4vKE7plZzta63Pe5DpJ3XFR9XzI_yj6fb6bfPt1x_5u3nRcvq4bRLsnJ59QppoKXKFS-PyrS1YB9KYNpvbmZoG0axWhUf-aTVdBCC-lhzHyeGUUwVByY6x0JuKtHBizQS6WWvQpFG4UXcVPP6nD5d99A8YGT-yUARbwCXVk8H8WDsa2xq6S3Q&amp;q=talking+fish+don%27t+worry+be+happy&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjg3aazwvqVAxVP_8kDHZuJAooQs6gLegQIFxAB&amp;biw=1512&amp;bih=770&amp;dpr=2#fpstate=ive&amp;vld=cid:5ad83f12,vid:ycuk2CbcAAM,st:0">Don’t Worry, Be Happy</a>.”
***
One more for the road … after watching <a href="https://x.com/hilary_559/status/2082438875641761814">this video</a> of a squirrel snuggling someone’s fingers, assistant editor Andie Valdes revealed she’s on a mission to pet the wild bunnies in her neighborhood. Saying “hi” hasn’t worked so far. Send help (and tips in the comments — or <a href="mailto:lbair@dailywire.com">email</a>)! While we wait for updates on BunnyWatch &#8217;26, have a wonderful weekend! — Lauren

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Bright Side: The Unexpected Trend Making People Smile

If you’re relishing the rise of fermented cucumber these days, hold on to your gherkins. Not only are pickles clutch for charcuterie, but the brine can bring you back to life. 
There’s a time and place for <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@morganchompz/video/7627558422073937165?embed_source=121374463%2C121468991%2C121439635%2C121749182%2C121433650%2C121404359%2C121497414%2C122349556%2C122221973%2C122122240%2C121351166%2C121811500%2C121960941%2C122122244%2C122122243%2C122122242%2C121487028%2C121679410%2C122258714%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%2C121885509%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&amp;refer=embed&amp;referer_url=www.allrecipes.com%2Fwhat-are-kool-aid-pickles-12016646&amp;referer_video_id=7627558422073937165">Kool-Aid pickles</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/DVuSXTlD7xj/">24-layer pickle cake</a> (that time may be never), but standard pickle juice can help your muscles recover faster than you can say “please pass the emergency cornichons.” 
This protocol played out in real time in front of nearly 70,000 people at Seattle Stadium during the World Cup. As the U.S. battled it out against Australia, field referee <a href="https://time.com/article/2026/06/26/does-pickle-juice-help-muscle-cramps/">Felix Zwayer</a> suddenly fell to the ground with a muscle cramp in the middle of the game. After a little stretching did nothing to quell the pain, Zwayer downed a shot of pickle juice and was back in the game. 
So was it some kind of miracle pickle-lixir? More like the right minerals at exactly the right time.
Muscle cramps can happen for a variety of reasons such as holding a position too long, pinching a nerve, or straining a muscle. But when you sweat out body-balancing electrolytes during exercise, your muscles freak out. That’s where pickle juice comes in. 
Pickle brine boasts concentrated amounts of <a href="https://www.verywellfit.com/pickle-juice-nutrition-facts-and-health-benefits-4164284">potassium and sodium</a>, both of which are essential for body function. Known as electrolytes, they serve as two key minerals that form an electric charge when mixed with body fluids, helping to regulate hydration and keep your cells nourished. Sodium and potassium, in particular, do the heavy lifting when it comes to <a href="https://medlineplus.gov/fluidandelectrolytebalance.html">muscle</a> function.  
Since the brine also has no protein or fat, it’s quick to digest. FIFA Official Zwayer may have chugged something similar to <a href="https://picklepower.com/">Pickle Juice</a>, which reportedly goes to work in 60 seconds.
Another factor may be the cheek-pinching flavor. If you’ve ever felt a pickle juice kick in the back of your throat, that’s precisely the characteristic this remedy leverages. Pickle Juice, the registered performance beverage, claims to interrupt the stressed-out nerve signals between your brain and your muscles (via zippy shock to your throat), thus lessening the pain of a cramp. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19997012/">Studies</a> show that it works.
If straight pickle brine isn’t exactly your jam, a more palatable <a href="https://www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-weight-loss/a71871221/pickle-juice-recipe-recovery-drink/">pickle lemonade</a> offers the benefits with a refreshing twist. Providing sip-worthy recovery for runners and other athletes looking to replenish sodium more quickly than they would by drinking plain water, lemon and a little sweetener help the pickle juice go down. An added benefit? Unlike store-bought <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whats-really-hiding-in-your-electrolyte-drink?author=Jordan+Jantz&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=What%E2%80%99s+Really+Hiding+In+Your+Electrolyte+Drink%3F">electrolyte drinks</a>, a DIY recipe gives you more control over the ingredients you put in your body.
But this isn’t the only reason it might be time to swap that hot sauce in your bag for a jar of bread and butter chips. If you think the phrase “good for you” also applies to your soul, get ready because “pickle” is the flavor of the summer. 
Calling it a “pickle renaissance,” food trend spotter and author of the Snaxshot newsletter <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/14/us/pickle-flavor-summer-cec">Andrea Hernandez</a> says, “It’s not something that just feels gimmicky — it’s a major unlock for a category that has been sleepy for a while.” Contrasting the overdone mid-2000s bacon trend that was not-so-secretly <a href="https://www.salon.com/2023/01/31/heres-how-we-fell-in-and-out-of-love-with-bacon/">engineered by Big Pork</a>, she says the pickle rise was more of a grassroots initiative. Even snacks that were never cucumbers have gotten the pickle treatment.
There’s a world in which dill pickle-flavored popcorn, peanut butter, protein bars, jelly beans, pretzels, jerky, and canned tuna exists, and we’re already living in it. But more unexpected flavor pairings also seem to be fair game. 
Sam’s Club is so confident in the enduring popularity of its cake pops that it’s camouflaging <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Daygd-Ch3jQ/">“surprise” pickle pops</a> among fan-favorite pineapple and blue raspberry flavors. And <a href="https://www.smoothieking.com/stories/pickle-smoothie-at-smoothie-king-made-with-grillos-pickles/">Smoothie King</a> hopes to leverage the electrolyte craze with a pickle smoothie featuring fresh-blended Grillo’s Pickles spears. If that sounds weird, maybe the bananas and coconut water will help.
While pickles and ice cream may have been the pregnancy craving trope of the &#8217;80s, it’s now what you’d call a thing. Whether you <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1288412380088327">shave frozen pickles</a> on top of a scoop of vanilla, or concoct a pickled syrup, it’s the sweet and savory combo to erase all other pairings from your mind.
Over in the drinks category, pickle juice is popping up in <a href="https://parade.com/food/viral-pickle-margarita-recipe-review">margaritas</a>, and frozen pickles add dimension to a glass of <a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/frozen-pickle-sauvignon-blanc-trend-11989639">white wine</a>. Despite being a fan of wine-flavored wine, I had to see what all the pickle fuss was about. It’s also not beyond my talents to slice up a few gherkins, freeze them, and drop them into a glass of sauvignon blanc. I actually loved the briny contrast to the herbaceous citrus of the wine, and my frozen pickles kept things chill without diluting the flavor like ice. Five out of five stars, would recommend. (Snacking on room temp, wine-soaked gherkins I forgot at the bottom of the glass? Maybe not.)  
I fully reject <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DWrI7TakYjr/">pickle-flavored Oreos</a> and <a href="https://www.oakpark.com/2019/12/13/behold-the-peppermint-stick-in-a-dill-pickle/">peppermint stick pickles</a> with the ferocity of a toddler who refuses to eat her favorite foods when they touch. But for further proof of a heartily embraced variation on the theme, look no further than the pickle festivals and state fair offerings that remain unapologetic about brazenly expanding your dill-pickled horizons.
As some of us prepare to pay our respects to <a href="https://www.arlingtontx.gov/News-Articles/2026/June/Snooki-to-Become-Americas-Pickle-Queen-at-The-Big-Dill-in-Arlington">Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi</a>, the official pickle queen of the World’s Largest Pickle Party in Texas, the Minnesota State Fair hopes to tempt visitors with <a href="https://www.kaaltv.com/news/ranch-dressing-beer-dill-pickle-seltzer-minnesota-state-fair-unveils-dozens-of-featured-drinks-for-2026/">dill pickle seltzer</a>. Kentucky’s Dainty Fest already hosted a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DbBD_xdDg_K/?hl=en&amp;img_index=6">pickle juice-chugging contest</a> that was less about balancing electrolytes and more about crushing the competition.
Traveling festivals such as <a href="https://www.picklepaloozafoodanddrinkfest.com/">Pickle Palooza</a> offer mechanical pickle rides along with food creations like “Dilled Cheese,” “Dilly Cheesesteak,” and pickle candy. Pittsburg, Pennsylvania’s <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/pittsburgh/2026/07/15/picklesburgh-2026-guide">Picklesburgh</a> leveled things up with pickleball and pickle-bobbing contests for anyone who thinks too many pickles is never enough.
Maybe we’re tipping into oversaturation in this current pickleconomy, but until then, brine on.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" 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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America’s Weirdest Food Obsession Comes With A Surprise Benefit

Weekend Plans is our exclusive lifestyle feature where we highlight the real off-duty routines of the most exciting people in culture. 
This weekend, the Emmy-winning host of “Dirty Jobs” and the founder and CEO of the MikeRoweWORKS Foundation chats with The Daily Wire about how to land a six-figure job without a four-year degree (even in the AI era), the real reason he’s not married with kids, and the secret to his phenomenal success. All while charming your socks off. 
* * *
He built a multimillion-dollar empire on harvesting bat guano, cleaning up roadkill, and upcycling Vegas casino food scraps into pig feed. But while skilled trade champion and whiskey buff Mike Rowe is doing a little less work with septic pits at meat processing plants these days, he’s still leading the charge toward what he calls “AI-proof six-figure jobs.”
He greets me from his home office in the Bay Area, where he’s got a killer view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Books, awards, and old photos occupy the wooden bookcase behind him. Thirty seconds into our conversation, I realize there’s no escaping his sparkling wit. I feel compelled to grab beers and ask him about everything he knows.
At 64, Mike also seems to be getting younger with time. I can’t imagine how he keeps up his busy schedule of appearances along with producing his show “Somebody’s Gotta Do It” and his podcast, “The Way I Heard It.” He’s also helmed <a href="https://mikeroweworks.org/">mikeroweWORKS</a> since 2008, awarding <a href="https://mikeroweworks.org/#:~:text=This%20year%2C%20we%E2%80%99re%20awarding,in%20work%20ethic%20scholarships">$10 million</a> a year in trade school scholarships.
“Well, whiskey plays a huge role, methamphetamines, whatever I get my hands on. I mean, I&#8217;m heavily medicated all the time.” I confirm that he is, in fact, joking. He offers the real secret sauce, adding, “I maintain what I hope is a steady state of curiosity, humility or something like it, and bemusement. I try to be bemused all of the time.”  
After beating the drum on reinvigorating trade skills over the last 15 years, Mike’s foundation launched <a href="http://buildfreedom.us">BuildFreedom</a> this year with $10 million in funding, in partnership with the Pentagon. In the age of AI, Mike says “electricians, plumbers, steam fitters, pipe fitters, and so forth” could not be more in demand. 
“I personally know more than a few [licensed electricians] in data centers who are making well over $200,000 a year. No debt, and they&#8217;re being poached every few months … there&#8217;s nobody in the pipeline,” Mike explains. “There are maybe 400,000 jobs available right now in the defense industrial base, and virtually none of them require a four-year degree. They require training.”
Before landing his hit shows “Dirty Jobs” and “Deadliest Catch,” Mike spent six weeks paying his dues, working on an Alaskan crab boat as a host-turned-greenhorn for the Discovery Channel. He says he attended six funerals during that time.
“It&#8217;s the most dangerous job in the world, crab fishing on the Bering Sea. Nothing comes close,” Mike says. “They wound up ordering ‘Dirty Jobs’ and ‘Deadliest Catch,’ but I had to choose which one I was gonna host. When in doubt, take the one with your name in the title, and narrate the other one. ‘Deadliest Catch’ is still on the air 22 years later; it&#8217;s crazy.”
As anyone familiar with his work already knows, Mike naturally offers something far beyond the approved script.
“People can choose to be curious, they can choose to be humble, they can choose work ethic, they can choose attitude. It&#8217;s all a choice,” he says. As to whether these qualities were passed down to him from his parents John and Peggy Rowe, he says, “My mother is relentlessly, abusively curious. My dad is relentlessly and abusively patient and persistent.” 
After Mike read on air a funny story his mom had written (she tells it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH35c1EjP9U">here</a>), she got a book deal and became a New York Times bestselling author at 80 years old.
“What&#8217;s crazy is how much time I spend talking about dirty jobbers and men in my life who have prospered as a result of hard work and delayed gratification,” he says. “But this whole time, my mom is right in front of me, probably the prima facie example of everything that I try to do with my foundation, just slugging away for 60 years until she knocks it out of the park.”
It’s been ages since Mike’s first job as a home-shopping host on QVC, back in the &#8217;90s. In the time since, he completely transformed entertainment. 
“I can&#8217;t stand television that&#8217;s done in a traditional way,” he says, recalling the behind-the-scenes camera that captured the essential gritty reality of ‘Dirty Jobs,’ proving it wasn’t a staged set-up. “I didn&#8217;t want the viewer to think that they were seeing anything that was contrived or rehearsed. It let me do something in TV that is very, very, very, very rarely done, which is to truly be honest, you know, just be yourself. And it changed my life.”
Mornings with Mike Rowe
Mike’s private about his personal life, but when I light-heartedly joke about who might be waking up beside him in bed, he expertly bobs and weaves. “Who’s not?” He laughs. “I&#8217;m on fire these days. Have you seen me? Just drink this in and think about the futility of your question.”
“I&#8217;ve been with the same woman for like 30 years,” he adds. “She keeps a low profile. She doesn&#8217;t understand my business. I don&#8217;t understand hers. We give each other a wide berth and it works out.”
His parents are still together, and his grandparents were married for 75 years. I see a window to dig into whether he ever saw himself as being married with kids.
“I did until I was about 30. I&#8217;m a big fan of the institution, and I&#8217;m a serial monogamist myself. It didn&#8217;t work out with the one I thought it was gonna work out with, and then I really refocused on my career, which I loved. When ‘Dirty Jobs’ happened, I realized, ‘If you&#8217;re gonna do this right, you&#8217;re gonna mess up your kids.’”
He and his girlfriend are on the same page. “We each just kind of were like, okay, if you&#8217;re cool, I&#8217;m cool. And then we just suddenly woke up one day and it&#8217;s like, ‘Yeah, you&#8217;re too old for that.’ You play the cards you got.”
Mike usually heads out early in the morning with a 65-pound weighted ruck for an eight-mile working walk through the neighborhood hills. When he gets back home, he hits the floor.
“I do as many push-ups as I can, and I rest for three minutes and then I do as many push-ups as I can, and then I rest for three minutes and I do as many push-ups as I can,” he says, often hitting about 250 reps. “At the end, I&#8217;m just a quivering mess of drooling, incontinent disappointment.” 
After that, he’s in his office recording commercials for his podcast and exploring yet another one of his many talents.
“You know what I do that&#8217;s fun? I write unauthorized jingles for sponsors,” he says, panning his camera over to a keyboard. “I do them in four-part harmony, right? I sing all the parts myself. It just amuses me to write these old-timey jingles. I used to sing in a barbershop quartet when I was a kid, and so it never really got out of my system. It&#8217;s ridiculous.”
Something to sip on
Mike’s whiskey brand, <a href="https://shop.knobelspirits.com/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=18719292714&amp;utm_content=631519433017&amp;utm_term=mike+rowe+knobel&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=18719292714&amp;gbraid=0AAAAAo9yzEgP4tFnvRxNlBMC76rUsggQK&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw1IHTBhAaEiwA4AYNFgnsTpEUPMoC-HfVJMxbNES8yVXpSRJ5Zm9i_8siopi1B1Dwv25sOxoCa3AQAvD_BwE">Knobel Spirits</a>, was named 2026’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemicallef/2026/05/23/the-top-american-whiskeys-according-to-the-american-distilling-institute/">Best Tennessee Whiskey</a> by the American Distilling Institute. But during the warmer months, you’ll find Mike sipping something a little more herbal in his glass.
His foundation occupies most of his time, and “there are books, public appearances, endorsements, jingles, and more podcasts. And then, in the afternoon, I don&#8217;t read as much as I used to, but obviously I like books. I try and stay curious. Maybe in the evenings, a gin and tonic this time of year goes down pretty well.”
“I got a nice deck, and it&#8217;s a nice view. I&#8217;ll sit out there, I&#8217;ll sip a gin and tonic and think about all my mistakes, hopes and dreams, and regrets,” he says. He’ll do the same with his bourbon in the fall. He named his whiskey brand after his grandfather.
“I put my pop&#8217;s name on it because ‘Dirty Jobs’ was a tribute to him, and so was the mikeroweWORKS Foundation.” When his show returned to production in 2021, Mike leveraged a friend’s unclaimed five-year-old barrel whiskey stash as part of the reboot. 
“Now I&#8217;m in the whiskey business, I guess, which is so crazy cause my pop didn&#8217;t even drink,” Mike says with a smile. “He only went to the 7th grade, but he was an electrician, he was a carpenter, a plumber, a pipe fitter, a welder. Guy could build a house without a blueprint.”
“That handy gene, tragically, is recessive, and I didn&#8217;t get it,” Mike alleges. “But I got a real appreciation for the work, and that appreciation was the thing that allowed me to get ‘Dirty Jobs’ on the air.”
Still doing the work
Thanks to his enduring dedication to the trades, Mike has catapulted the next generation of journey-workers toward greatness. “It&#8217;s very gratifying to see the headlines catch up with us after all these years,” he says. “We have 3,500 people we&#8217;ve helped through mikeroweWORKS, and I hear from them every day. They&#8217;re crushing it.”
So is Mike. “I was shooting in Las Vegas four days ago in the only rare earth mine in the country. It&#8217;s about 1,000 feet deep. It was 114 degrees. I mean, jeez, these guys earn every penny.”
Mike is clearly grateful to return to comfier conditions at home. And no one does their best work without a little rest.
“You know, sometimes I&#8217;m just tired. When that happens, I do this thing called napping. Man, I&#8217;m such a fan of the nap now.” He chuckles to himself. “I never thought I would be, but being older than I&#8217;ve ever been, it&#8217;s just a delight to lie down. It&#8217;s great. Ten minutes with my eyes shut and I&#8217;m good to go. I probably shouldn&#8217;t tell you this, but I fell asleep about 10 minutes ago, actually. I&#8217;ve been asleep for most of this, if I&#8217;m being honest.” 
Leaning back in his office chair he surveys the landscape. “It&#8217;s a nice place — I&#8217;m not here a ton, maybe seven or eight days a month — but it&#8217;s home.” When I appear shocked that he isn’t reaping his own rewards on the daily, he responds accordingly. “I still work, woman!” Of course he does.

Upstream_Rowe

Weekend Plans With Mike Rowe, Blue Collar America’s Biggest Advocate

Mike Rowe

Bright Side: This One’s For Jimothy

Alexandra Ashcroft amassed nearly 1 million fans of her tarot card readings and astrology practices on TikTok. But after she found Christianity, she abruptly shut down her account, sacrificing viral status for salvation.
Formerly known as Alex Reads Tarot on TikTok, Ashcroft was so popular she was name-dropped in “<a href="https://youtu.be/29UawRk5nDc?list=RD29UawRk5nDc&amp;t=146">Love Me Different</a>” by Paramore singer Hayley Williams: Endless scrolling up ‘til 3, Alex Reads Tarot reads the sh*t out of me. Williams later <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/DaHCWSRRyx4/">amended</a> the line in a live performance as: Alex Reads Tarot, oh my God, R.I.P.
Ashcroft’s departure was a shock to her community. She broke the news of her spiritual awakening in a post. “I noticed that as my faith grew, I began to find myself wrestling with questions that I couldn’t quite ignore,” <a href="https://www.perthnow.com.au/entertainment/influencers/tiktok-tarot-reader-alex-reads-tarot-loses-thousands-of-followers-after-revealing-shes-following-jesus-c-22501066">she said</a>.
“Over the past nearly a year, my faith has become the most important thing in my life. Through that journey, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting, questioning, praying, and trying to understand my faith more and where God was starting to lead me. This hasn’t been an overnight change. This has been a gradual journey that has slowly changed the way that I see my life and my faith.”
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" style="max-width: 605px; min-width: 325px;" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@whatstrending/video/7655111842905230606" data-video-id="7655111842905230606">
<section><a title="@whatstrending" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@whatstrending?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@whatstrending</a> The internet is completely losing it over Alex Reads Tarot (@yourfiresignbestie)   She just wiped her entire platform, rebranded to @alexintheordinary, and announced she is completely leaving the spiritual space because &#8220;Jesus Christ has saved my life.&#8221;   Now, the entire community is in a total frenzy.   Major creators are calling her out, demanding she delete her account entirely instead of keeping a massive following she built off tarot readings to launch her new religious journey.👀   Let’s settle this in the comments: Is it completely gross to pivot an entire following instead of starting over from scratch? Or should people just let her live? . . . <a title="alexreadstarot" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/alexreadstarot?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#alexreadstarot</a> <a title="alexintheordinary" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/alexintheordinary?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#alexintheordinary</a> <a title="yourfiresignbestie" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/yourfiresignbestie?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#yourfiresignbestie</a> <a title="witchtok" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/witchtok?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#witchtok</a> <a title="whatstrending" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/whatstrending?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#whatstrending</a> <a title="♬ original sound - WhatsTrending" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7655111967031479054?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">♬ original sound &#8211; WhatsTrending</a></section>
</blockquote>
<script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
She then vowed to stop posting occult-related content, immediately retooling her social media handles to read “Alex The Ordinary” and “<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@alexcourageinchrist">Alex Courage In Christ,</a>” where wands, cups, and swords were replaced by personal testimony and Bible passages. It was a total 180 from the goldmine that made her famous. She lost <a href="https://www.facebook.com/christianvideo.kenosis/posts/popular-tiktok-creator-alex-reads-tarot-lost-over-30000-followers-in-48-hours-af/1981556885974121/">30,000 followers</a> in a matter of hours.
“I don’t know exactly what comes next for me,” <a href="https://cbn.com/news/world/ex-psychics-advice-tiktok-star-alex-reads-tarot-who-renounced-occult-jesus">Ashcroft noted</a>, “But what I do know is that Jesus Christ has saved my life, and I can no longer ignore that reality.”
Comments on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@whatstrending/video/7655111842905230606">her video</a> were brutal, with one reading, “To be honest, I never got a good vibe from her,” and another stating, “Immediately unfollowed and blocked her.”
On Reddit, a debate erupted over whether tarot was even considered to be a sin, with some claiming that divination, playing cards, and Christ can coexist. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/tiktokgossip/comments/1uf8tac/comment/otujwuk/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button">Someone</a> suggested, “It truly seems like she is in full blown religious psychosis. It&#8217;s extreme and really sad to see.” <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/tiktokgossip/comments/1uf8tac/comment/ott7luk/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button">Another claimed</a>, “She’s fallen down the alt right pipeline.” On another thread, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/TarotReadersOfReddit/comments/1ueo848/comment/oto345m/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button">one user</a> warned, “A sudden pivot to Christianity is never a good sign.”
But believers welcomed Ashcroft’s evolution with open arms. Host of the “Relatable” podcast <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=26368829009460299">Allie Beth Stuckey</a> posted, “Please pray for Alex … Pray that the Holy Spirit would fill her with the peace that passes all understanding, and would give her the strength that’s needed … People who are making money from bad, sinful content, it’s so hard for them to give that up.”
On <a href="https://www.facebook.com/christianvideo.kenosis/posts/popular-tiktok-creator-alex-reads-tarot-lost-over-30000-followers-in-48-hours-af/1981556885974121/">Facebook</a>, a fan shared, “She lost 30,000 haters and gained the realest love there is.”
“I used to do tarot and my crystals and deity, but guess what, God has brought me things that stuff never could,” another <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@whatstrending/video/7655111842905230606">TikToker</a> added. “He’s taught me more than that stuff could. Now my blessings are 10x more and I’m even more at peace. Don’t knock it till you try it. God is good.”
While speculation continues to circulate as to the real reason behind her change of heart, some who share a similar journey to Ashcroft’s are opening up about walking away from dark spiritual practices. 
One former psychic, Jenn Nizza, offered her perspective on Ashcroft’s transformation. Now a born-again believer, she recalled how mystic cards were for her a “gateway into the demonic,” first gaining a foothold when she was just a curious 13-year-old. 
“When Jesus first called me, first started to draw me, I was a psychic medium,” she told the <a href="https://cbn.com/news/world/ex-psychics-advice-tiktok-star-alex-reads-tarot-who-renounced-occult-jesus">Christian Broadcasting Network</a>. “When Jesus first started drawing me out of that darkness, it was not an instant deliverance; it was a process. At the end of that 10-month journey … Jesus fully set me free and I became born again. [I] accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and believed in the Gospel.”
But Nizza knows the straight-and-narrow isn’t always easy to walk. “Even though the enemy will come at you, the enemy comes at Christians as a whole, the church as a whole, you have the victory in Christ,” she noted in support of Ashcroft’s next chapter. “Never look back, because what you’ve put behind yourself could never have measured up to Jesus. Nothing is better than Jesus. Always reach out when you need support and help.”
While Ashcroft continues to battle criticism in the weeks following her initial announcement, she seems to be restructuring her following by leveraging biblical truths — at least, it seems, what she understands of them so far.
“I cannot say sorry for finding Jesus,” she posted to <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@alexcourageinchrist/photo/7664984745859730710">TikTok</a>. “He opened my eyes to the reality of the spiritual world.”
“When I speak out against witchcraft now, it doesn’t come from a place of malice or forgetting where I came from. It comes from a place of deep love,” she wrote. “When you encounter the ultimate truth, you naturally want the people you care about to see it, too. I accept that this truth causes friction, but my silence would mean I don’t care about your soul, and I care too much to stay quiet.” 
***
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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Viral TikTok Star Explains Why She Turned Against Witchcraft

alex reads tarot

Christianity

Victoria’s Secret angel and Sports Illustrated swimsuit supermodel Heidi Klum may be the last person you’d assume would have a healthy self-image. But at 53, after adding a few pounds to her former size 24 figure, she’s loving the woman she sees in the mirror.
“What makes a person sexy is knowing their self-worth and knowing who they are,” she told <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/heidi-klum-on-marriage-motherhood-and-confidence/">Us Weekly</a>. “When people are looking at every measurement of their booties, [or] at cellulite, it’s like, ‘Is this really what makes me who I am? There’s so much more to me.’ It’s about feeling great in your skin and knowing what you can do.”
If it all sounds like she’s just reading a Post-It on her bathroom mirror, this mom of four practices what she preaches. The host of “Project Runway” and “Germany’s Next Top Model” recently opened up about Ozempic culture and whether or not she would ever consider using GLP-1s in cult-like solidarity with the rest of Hollywood’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/demi-moore-doesnt-look-toned-she-looks-like-shes-starving">shrinking celeb set</a>. While she asserts that she supports others who use weight loss drugs to feel good about their bodies, for her, the answer is a definite no.
“I’m not interested at all,” she explained. “I’ve gained weight over the years. I’m no longer a size 24 jean. But I think with age, we look better when we’re not as skinny.”
It was her husband, German pop-rock musician Tom Kaulitz of the band Tokio Hotel, who convinced her to eat a sandwich, so to speak.
“He said, ‘You should eat more; you would look better if you had more meat on your bones.’ I was like, ‘What?’ This is not something you’re told in the industry, ever, because you’re always supposed to be skinnier than you are. When I look back at photos, I’m like, ‘He’s right!” Proportion-wise, I look better bigger.’”
Klum launched her modeling career in the early &#8217;90s at a time when ultra-skinny “heroin chic” was en vogue. Klum didn’t fit the mold. At 5’9,” she was labeled as short, too “<a href="https://www.success.com/how-heidi-klum-created-her-multimillion-dollar-empire">bosomy</a>,” and “heavy.” She was even criticized for her “stupid” smile. She still beat out 25,000 other women to win a television competition called “Model &#8217;92” and has enjoyed massive success ever since.
“When I looked in the mirror, I was like, ‘I don’t know what the heck they’re talking about. I don’t look fat.’ I wore a size 24 jean, and I’m 5-foot-9-and-a-half; how is that fat? I never understood the size zero thing. You don’t exist if you are a size zero,” Klum says. 
“I had photo shoots back in the day where photographers would make me cry,” the TV personality recalled. “You can’t please everyone, and not everyone is going to like what you do, but you have to look in the mirror and be happy with who you are. I did find my niche, and look who’s still here.”   
But no amount of industry accolades could protect her from backlash in the press. Once she appeared with extra curves, some called her fat while the bobbling skeletons of Demi Moore, Olivia Wilde, and even Oprah were propped up and praised for being fit. Someone commented that Klum looked “<a href="https://news.amomama.com/470001-venice-film-festival-2025-opening-day-in.html?utm_campaign=604_1257894&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_term=page_com&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawTLOaBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeeqyOISVqa6XMkwAsDbgBNFdMB0MlVkRSpe84GOSyBomXyCPhTMFtLWBbhKw_aem_rpfy_FmoKim1f1VLlh6f6g">pregnant</a>” at the Venice Film Festival in 2025, and others seemed to suggest she was letting herself <a href="https://www.hola.com/us/celebrities/20260224885853/heidi-klum-menopause-weight/">gain fat</a> because of her age. Making matters worse, she’s openly happy about maintaining a healthy weight for her age. The nerve.
It’s a stark contrast to the time society spoke obesity to power during the so-called <a href="https://bebodypositive.org.uk/resource/body-positivity-and-reclaiming-bopo/">body positive movement</a> of the 2010s. Weren’t we just saying all bodies were beautiful? 
Klum’s take on her weight feels more balanced and middle-of-the-road than much of what Hollywood is currently trying to pump into our veins. Perhaps it’s an indication that the extreme pendulum swings of diet culture have left most of us wanting something realistic to believe in. Something more akin to good health.
While she seems to be enjoying married life with her much younger hubby (he’s 36), for Klum, the bigger story may have something to do with hormones. With most women entering menopause in their early fifties, Klum could be experiencing the symptoms of <a href="https://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/a65477131/musculoskeletal-syndrome-of-menopause/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=mgu_ga_whm_md_dsa_prog_us_23624903445&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23624903445&amp;gbraid=0AAAAACrQpnyToUUMWsMX8qERoB7IIcg5M&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwjvfSBhDpARIsAEiOpStjkF77OJVqO1j0MNyg2pIa985LAwE5Z7lm-WF6VMkH9xiqAsc1QRoaAoVqEALw_wcB">musculoskeletal syndrome</a> as her body loses muscle with every passing year.
Noting that women often notice a weakening in muscle mass and strength, orthopaedic sports surgeon <a href="https://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/a65477131/musculoskeletal-syndrome-of-menopause/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=mgu_ga_whm_md_dsa_prog_us_23624903445&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23624903445&amp;gbraid=0AAAAACrQpnyToUUMWsMX8qERoB7IIcg5M&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwjvfSBhDpARIsAEiOpStjkF77OJVqO1j0MNyg2pIa985LAwE5Z7lm-WF6VMkH9xiqAsc1QRoaAoVqEALw_wcB">Vonda Wright, MD,</a> said, “Although it&#8217;s critical at this time of life to make muscle, we make it less effectively.” 
Hormone replacement therapy, targeted nutrition, and weight lifting can be beneficial in maintaining muscle as the body naturally loses estrogen. Wright even recommends low-dose testosterone to her female clients.
“I encourage all of my patients to go on hormone optimization with estradiol [and] &#8230; with micronized progesterone,” she explains, advising that your own doctor can suggest the best intervention. “Women just want to feel like themselves and do what they&#8217;ve always done.”
For the record, it seems that Klum is doing what she’s always done, and more. She regularly <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DYX2-BGhz56/?hl=en">strikes a pose</a> for major brands including L’Oreal Paris, hits the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DYRJwZRBh7t/?hl=en">red carpet</a> whenever she can, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dac8ALAxGXG/">judges</a> aspiring fashion designers within an inch of their lives. Squeezing into a size 24 no longer fits into her packed schedule, and that’s okay with her. She even collaborated with German brand Funny Frisch for her own line of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZzywmMRYS8/">potato chips</a>. 
“I love being with my husband on a beach, eating and drinking &#8230; and swimming through the water. I feel so free,” <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/heidi-klum-on-marriage-motherhood-and-confidence/">Klum said</a>. “I’m 53 and just getting started.”

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Lauren Bair