When the trailer for Netflix’s animated sitcom &#8220;Dang!&#8221; dropped in August, I responded by saying what nearly all of us are already thinking: the Asian diaspora seems physically incapable of creating media that isn’t about disappointing or hating their parents, being traumatized by ethnic food at lunch, or turning a rejection of a white boyfriend into an eternal racial grievance.
Maybe that was unfair. It was only a trailer, after all. So I watched all eight episodes.
It was not unfair.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Asian-Americans are physically incapable of creating any piece of media that isn&#8217;t about disappointing/hating their parents, being scared of eating ethnic food during lunchtime at school, or an Oxford study fantasy
— Kangmin Lee | 이강민 (@kangminlee) <a href="https://x.com/kangminlee/status/2087550509968199769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 12, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Dang!&#8221; follows three Chinese-American siblings in New York. Andrew and Eunice are aimless 20-somethings living together when their older sister, Ruthie, a high-powered attorney, watches her life implode and moves in with them. From there, we get what increasingly feels like the default template for Asian-American prestige media: dysfunctional children, suffocating expectations, progressive identity politics, and immigrant family baggage dressed up as cultural insight.
The first episode gives you a pretty good idea of what you&#8217;re in for. Eunice livestreams her feet next to a loaf of bread while insisting it isn&#8217;t porn. From there we get National Coming Out Day, pride flags, Hayley Williams from Paramore materializing as Eunice&#8217;s hallucination-slash-subconscious, and Greta, her maximally politically correct coworker, lecturing her through one progressive social norm after another. Ruthie hates socialism, which might sound like an ideological curveball until you realize that the politics aren&#8217;t really the point; the worldview is. The writers go out of their way to make the show as unbecoming, degenerate, sleazy, gay, and racially obsessed as possible. Not to mention how unfunny and cringe-inducing the dialogue is.
Take away the Chinese surnames and Asian faces, and what exactly makes this an Asian-American story? Most of &#8220;Dang!&#8221; could be about virtually any group of terminally online, sexually dysfunctional, politically progressive millennials in Brooklyn. The characters are ethnically Asian, but their cultural inheritance feels largely ornamental. That&#8217;s what makes the show so representative of a certain kind of diaspora media: ethnicity is the costume boba liberals wear while the substance underneath it comes almost entirely from contemporary coastal liberalism and sexual perversion.
It&#8217;s always the same story. Overbearing immigrant parents. Miserable high achiever. Childhood embarrassment about being Asian. Racism incident. Identity crisis. White boyfriend. Therapy. Eventually somebody realizes that Mom and Dad traumatized them by caring too much about grades, being tiger or helicopter parents, and packing them some kimchi for school lunch.
Obviously these experiences exist. I am a Korean immigrant, and I have experienced some as well. The problem is that one extremely narrow slice of Asian-American politics has somehow acquired an outsize claim to representing all of us. Again and again, Asian tradition is portrayed as suffocating, high academic achievement as psychologically damaging, and rebellion against our Asian parents’ conservative values as liberation.
The Asian-American creatives elevated by Hollywood, particularly during its post-2020 obsession with &#8220;diverse voices,&#8221; have only come from a very specific ideological and cultural class. They are progressive, are heavily shaped by elite coastal institutions, and often operate within feminist, LGBTQ, and racially Marxist cultural frameworks. Hollywood then selects Asian stories that already speak its language, creating a feedback loop in which the same narrow worldview keeps getting presented as authentic Asian-American representation.
You can see the result in how these stories treat family and achievement. The parents are unreasonable and controlling. The successful child is miserable. The model minority must be &#8220;deconstructed.&#8221; Tradition is baggage. Expectations and standards are trauma. Liberation means rejecting whatever your parents valued. And while they complain about old-school Hollywood typecasting Asian men as weak nerds and kung fu masters, as we see in &#8220;Dang!,&#8221; they represent Asian men as weak, emasculated, gay, passive, or decorative. I’d take the martial arts guru over the gay, passive beta.
There’s a similar phenomenon constantly found in Asian-American literature: diasporic whining and agency abdication. The protagonist spends the story processing the psychological burden of being Asian in host countries while demonstrating remarkably little interest in actually inheriting anything from the culture supposedly central to his identity.
That&#8217;s what bothers me most about &#8220;Dang!&#8221; — I&#8217;m Korean-American. I grew up in an immigrant family. I love my family, and while my parents were not perfect, I lwould never portray them in the way self-hating boba liberals put down their parents in a vain attempt to self-aggrandize. I don&#8217;t need immigrant parents portrayed as saints, and I don&#8217;t expect Asian-American art always to align fully with traditional values. But why does so much of our supposedly authentic cultural output seem interested primarily in resenting what we inherited?
Our parents crossed oceans, learned new languages, worked absurd hours, built businesses and families in a country they didn&#8217;t fully understand, and sacrificed so their children could have opportunities they never did. They made mistakes; some made terrible ones. But there is something incredibly shallow about inheriting all of that and deciding our great artistic contribution is another therapy session about how Dad wanted us to become doctors, lawyers, and engineers.
The same thing happens with the &#8220;model minority&#8221; stereotype. Yes, Asians aren&#8217;t universally wealthy, brilliant, successful, or well-adjusted, but Asian-American media is always so desperate to dismantle the (quite frankly positive) stereotype that it creates another one in its place: the miserable, directionless, sexually dysfunctional Asian screw-up.
What makes this even more embarrassing is that you only have to look across the Pacific to see how unnecessary it is. Korean dramas, Japanese anime, and East Asian cinema tell stories about family, war, duty, ambition, revenge, love, sacrifice, religion, honor, crime, history, failure, and everything else real human beings experience. Yet Asian-American cinema seems allergic to creating creative stories with timeless truths and instead opts in to lecturing others about grievances and trauma.
Think about the global successes of &#8220;Parasite,&#8221; &#8220;Squid Game,&#8221; &#8220;Godzilla,&#8221; &#8220;Demon Slayer,&#8221; and the list goes on. The world already knows Asians can be funny, tragic, heroic, evil, romantic, ambitious, complicated, and human. It&#8217;s the Asian diaspora prestige machine that seems determined to keep putting us in a box of perpetual grievance.
So after eight episodes, was Asian Twitter unfair to &#8220;Dang!&#8221;? No, the trailer and the clips online show exactly what the series turned out to be. &#8220;Dang!&#8221; takes the familiar Asian-American diaspora formula, adds pride flags, preachy woke dogmas, and toe-curling millennial Tumblr writing, then packages the resulting insufferable collage as another entry in Asian-American representation.
I want more Asian-American stories about faith, business, war, romance, ambition, history, family, and sacrifice — stories where Asian characters can wrestle with their inheritance without treating it as a disease they need to recover from. Until then, I’ll be watching K-dramas and anime.
***
Kangmin Lee is a Korean-American political and cultural commentator, speaker, and host of the Kangmin Lee Show. He speaks and writes on politics, culture, and the ideas shaping the modern world, focused on restoring faith, identity, and civilization.
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.

DANG!_n_S1_E1_00_18_25_16 copy

Netflix’s New Cartoon Exposes Hollywood’s Favorite Cultural Obsession

arts

asian american representation

dang

hollywood

identity politics

netflix

Canada’s medical assistance in dying program has gone off the rails. Last week, two Canadian doctors sounded the alarm, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/opinion/medical-assistance-in-dying-counseling.html">telling</a> the New York Times “too many people are receiving the procedure without the opportunity for careful reflection about it with a health provider … In some cases, patients are being approved who should not be.” In one case, a woman in her 70s told her doctors that she felt she had lost her value as she was struggling to cook meals for her family. The woman was approved for MAID, though thankfully she decided not to go through with it.
More Canadians die at the hands of their own government than Americans are killed with firearms. Considering that Canada is about a tenth the size of the United States, this news is disturbing. But in Canada, it’s business as usual. 
Canada legalized MAID in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/04/canada-assisted-suicide/478257/">2016</a> for people with terminal illnesses, after the Supreme Court of Canada determined that this right was “critical to their dignity and autonomy.” The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was a key reference in the decision, as the court <a href="https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/14637/index.do">determined</a> that criminal laws prohibiting “physician-assisted dying” interfere with Canadians’ rights to life, liberty, and security of the person.
A problem with arguing that MAID is a “right,” of course, is that it opens up the debate to one around who is being “deprived” of this “right.” While the original law required that an individual’s death be “reasonably foreseeable” in order for them to be eligible, everything changed when a new federal bill challenging this exclusion was <a href="https://parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-1/bill/C-7/first-reading">introduced</a>. This bill passed in 2021, creating a <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/ad-am/bk-di.html">“Track 2”</a> option for MAID: &#8220;an assessment pathway for individuals requesting medical assistance in dying whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable.”
This opened up the possibility of allowing those with disabilities, with mental disorders, and simply suffering physically in ways they no longer wanted to or could tolerate to access MAID. The slippery slope had been unlocked. What constitutes “chronic suffering,” anyway? It’s an incredibly imprecise measure and open to widely varied interpretation depending on the individual.
Since 2021, rates of physician-assisted death have exploded. In 2016, 1,018 people in Canada died via MAID, but that number rose to a shocking <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1189529/total-reported-number-medically-assisted-deaths-canada/">10,064</a> in 2021. That year, only 4% of those who filed written applications were deemed ineligible.
A recently <a href="https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16136457/Our-83-year-old-Christian-grandmother-euthanised-against-Canadas-assisted-dying-died-covered-blood-hands-clasped-prayer.html">publicized</a> case out of Ontario describes a distraught granddaughter asking her grandmother, Brigitte Stegemann, who had been living in a care home, “Do you know that you’re going to die on Friday?” The 83-year-old began crying and was “inconsolable,” saying, according to her granddaughter, Brigitte Kranendonk, “I’ve made a mistake.” According to the care home, Stegemann had legally consented. But Kranendonk says she was hard of hearing, that English was not her first language, and that she had “answered every question wrong” when given a cognitive test to assess her ability to consent to MAID.
When a nurse failed to insert an IV correctly, a medical port was placed under her skin to administer the “medicine” that would kill Stegemann. After it was fitted, The Daily Mail reports, “the 83-year-old repeatedly ripped it off, screaming: ‘I don’t want the death shot!’”
Kranendonk felt her grandmother was pushed into the situation and that the whole procedure was rushed through, with Stegemann confused about what she was agreeing to. The Daily Mail headline was shocking: &#8220;Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother was euthanised against her will under Canada&#8217;s assisted dying system — she died covered in blood with her hands clasped in prayer.&#8221;
In London, Ontario, a doctor assessed a patient with inflammatory bowel disease and a history of mental health issues outside a Tim Hortons. Thomas Dillon, 45, suffered from Crohn’s disease and had a history of depression, alcohol abuse, and opioid addiction. Dr. James MacLean determined Dillon was eligible for MAID under Track 2, personally driving his patient, after his coffee shop assessment, to the MAID provision location, described in <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/ontario-man-dies-of-maid-after-being-assessed-outside-tim-hortons">news reports</a> as “an industrial-like facility where bodies are prepared for funerals.”
According to statistics, 76,475 people have died by assisted suicide between 2016 and 2024. MAID now accounts for at least <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypipes/2026/04/06/what-canadas-euthanasia-surge-reveals-about-single-payer-health-care/">one in 20</a> deaths in Canada (official 2025 and 2026 stats have not yet been released by the government). With groups like The Canadian Psychiatric Association arguing that “patients with a psychiatric illness <a href="https://www.cpa-apc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020-CPA-Position-Statement-MAID-EN-web-Final.pdf">should not be discriminated against solely on the basis of their disability</a>, and should have available the same options regarding MAID as available to all patients,” these numbers seem likely to increase. 
What’s happening in Canada is not as simple as more and more people eagerly requesting MAID. It is also being suggested to patients by doctors as an “option.” In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAkXNcfNemc&amp;t=45s">Vancouver</a>, an 83-year-old woman named Miriam Lancaster was taken to the hospital with foot pain, and was offered MAID by a young doctor in the ER.
“The very first thing she said to me was, ‘I would like to offer you MAID,’” Lancaster told EWTW News, adding that she knew what MAID was as her husband had been offered MAID three years prior, at the same hospital. Lancaster and her husband were both Catholic, and she explained that, as such, “There is no way that we are going to take measures to end our lives — that is in the hands of the Lord.” 
“Just as soon as you arrive at the hospital, and you’re of a certain age, that is just offered before asking any questions,” she told <a href="https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/03/31/bc-woman-claims-she-was-offered-maid-in-vancouver-hospital-before-other-treatments/">City News</a>.
Bringing up euthanasia is not prohibited in Canada, except in Alberta, where a <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/alberta-to-ban-doctors-from-bringing-up-maid-before-patients-do">recently passed bill</a> will ban doctors from raising MAID with a patient without them first bringing it up. This is the norm already in the minority of states in the U.S. where euthanasia is legal. Similarly, in countries such as Australia and New Zealand, where MAID is legal, raising or initiating assisted dying with a patient in prohibited. As assisted suicide advances across the U.S., these precedents <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-catholic-nuns-fighting-new-yorks-suicide-mandate">should</a> concern all Americans.
The aim of MAID is purportedly compassion. When a person is suffering to such an extent, and when their death is near and inevitable, the argument that we should respect the individual’s wishes to be put out of their misery may sound like the right thing to do. Arguably, it is any individual’s prerogative to choose death if they wish. So MAID has been framed as the “compassionate” and “kind” way forward. 
But it is also rational to assume that the goal of a doctor is to do everything possible to keep their patient alive, not propose death to resolve discomfort, distress, or disease. 
Proponents of MAID use words like “dignity” and “compassion” in its defense. But what about dignity in life? And true compassion for the living, via genuine care and treatment? In truth, MAID sounds like a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/socialized-medicines-dangerous-solution-to-high-costs">cost-saving</a> solution for the government, not care for its citizens. 
***
Meghan Murphy is a writer from Vancouver, now living in Mexico. Find more of her work at <a href="http://www.meghanmurphy.ca/">www.meghanmurphy.ca</a>.
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.

GettyImages-2224657274

The Deadly Secret Behind ‘Compassionate’ Health Care

assisted suicide

canada

euthanasia

healthcare policy

medical assistance in dying

world

The “Cornell 7” case has reignited a longstanding debate about consent, sexual regret, and #MeToo, roiling the already tense dynamic between the sexes to an extent they may never recover. While much outrage has centered on the young men’s alleged behaviors, which were indeed egregious, we must hold young women to the same standard.
Jane Doe’s lawsuit, which alleges she was plied with drugs and alcohol and sexually assaulted for several hours by seven fraternity brothers, has spurred a new wave of activism <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/campus-rape-allegations-are-upending-the-tenure-of-cornells-president-09dba446" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/campus-rape-allegations-are-upending-the-tenure-of-cornells-president-09dba446&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139189000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0D8SN9nOtjcy1RHj7cFX2C">on Cornell’s campus</a> and online. Women have taken to social media in solidarity, posting videos with the caption, “I Am Jane Doe,” or, “We Are All Jane Doe,” to act as decoys to protect Doe’s anonymity. Some users have shared their own stories of being sexually abused or assaulted in the context of date rape.
As unfortunate and tragic as these disclosures are, these women share little in common with Jane Doe, who says she was coerced into group sex. More importantly, Doe’s own actions point to her sexual experience being consensual.
A woman who has been sexually assaulted does not text her attacker afterward to <a href="https://abcnews.com/video/136905132/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://abcnews.com/video/136905132/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139189000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1Wf7yLi05tmdVrZQTdj9Ts">tell him</a> that she loves him and will use violence to defend him, or that “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/nyregion/cornell-rape-accusation-reporting.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/nyregion/cornell-rape-accusation-reporting.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139189000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1kCS6exxbvsz4obaUA8pN2">none of the sexual stuff</a> was illegal.”
It was only after Doe suffered reputational damage from gossip spreading around campus and the fraternity disinvited her from an upcoming party, that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/nyregion/cornell-rape-accusation-reporting.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/nyregion/cornell-rape-accusation-reporting.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139190000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0bZa195hCYDwUfVWw9i7Rn">her tone changed</a> and she went to the police.
What led Doe to make decisions that were — to any objective observer — not in her best interest, and then, instead of reflecting on them, double down and blame everyone else involved? My answer is: sex positivity. And the sooner young women reject this way of thinking, the better off they will be.
Doe showed up to the fraternity house, by herself, at nearly midnight to meet a male friend to whom she was attracted. The male friend asked if she’d be interested in having a threesome, to which she agreed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/09/28/nyregion/tompkinscornell.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/09/28/nyregion/tompkinscornell.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139190000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2rvcY_gRK4RTzGsOCIC9Vd">before ascertaining</a> whom the second male partner would be.
After consensually consuming alcohol and ketamine, by her own admission, Doe <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/09/28/nyregion/tompkinscornell.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/09/28/nyregion/tompkinscornell.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139190000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2rvcY_gRK4RTzGsOCIC9Vd">swapped in</a> new male partners as necessary to facilitate multiple threesomes. When one of the accused men appeared concerned upon entering the bedroom, Doe <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/nyregion/cornell-rape-fraternity-chi-phi-men.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/nyregion/cornell-rape-fraternity-chi-phi-men.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139190000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1Tkb-hUcWVyG7BZWCGC_Lx">told him</a>, “This was normal in the medieval times.”
Sex positivity tells women to lead with their sexuality. Popular female podcasters, influencers, and mainstream sex educators tell young women that sexual permissiveness and open-mindedness are the way to a man’s heart. They advise women to have sex on the first date, and if a man can’t handle a woman’s high “body count,” he’s insecure and unworthy of her time.
Pair that with <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sextinction/Debra-Soh/9781668057391" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sextinction/Debra-Soh/9781668057391&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139190000&amp;usg=AOvVaw00REkrwN5_QIW_ZJv5ExeC">early exposure</a> to pornography, and it’s no wonder so many young women are confused about what healthy sexual values look like and don&#8217;t believe they have the right to demand respect from themselves and their partners.
A man who is genuinely interested in a woman isn’t going to proposition her to have sex with him and his friends. Men have a hard-wired aversion to female promiscuity because it obscures the paternity of potential offspring. It would be a complete waste of a man’s resources and effort to invest in raising a child, only to find out later he isn’t the father.
If a woman agrees to sleep with multiple men without knowing anything about them, not only does this increase a man’s likelihood of being cuckolded, but it also leads him to question her judgment. She thereby becomes less attractive as a potential girlfriend and wife.
A man will typically invest little in a woman he deems promiscuous and will, quite frankly, treat her as a “<a href="https://digital.abcaudio.com/news/cornells-jane-doe-said-she-felt-sex-doll-after-alleged-rape-newly-reviewed-texts-show" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://digital.abcaudio.com/news/cornells-jane-doe-said-she-felt-sex-doll-after-alleged-rape-newly-reviewed-texts-show&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139190000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3o1PrjPb-RoSovAQ9I-oxd">sex doll</a>,” as Doe succinctly observed.
Research shows that women are more likely to experience <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2008-06950-003" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2008-06950-003&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139190000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2HPaLWcRGjb7RhIbWkMrGG">regret and feeling used</a> after casual sex. Women are also more likely to be shamed by <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-00965-001" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-00965-001&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139190000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1Iq9gsaaLksZw6V3Y5n3vg">both sexes</a> for promiscuity.
No one likes feeling icky after a sexual experience, but believing that an autonomous decision was non-consensual after the fact leaves an individual vulnerable to making the same mistakes again. Sex positivity’s adherents will interpret negative feelings post-sex as an indication that something nonconsensual took place because they can’t conceptualize the reality that some forms of sex are indeed shameful and distasteful.
As for young men, do not treat women’s bodies like sexual objects to be passed around at whim. Do not engage in group sex or casual sexual activity, especially if the woman is a stranger or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If a woman shows up alone to an establishment populated with men, the gentlemanly response would be to ensure her safety instead of preying on her.
We must differentiate between sexual regret and non-consent. Failing to do so does a disservice to actual victims.
***
Dr. Debra Soh is a sex neuroscientist and the author of “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sextinction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sextinction/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139189000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1GLnCld7W6SeoEcFbmTS3Q">Sextinction: The Decline of Sex and the Future of Intimacy</a>.” She was featured in Matt Walsh’s film, “What Is A Woman?” Visit her at <a href="https://www.drdebrasoh.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.drdebrasoh.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791594139189000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1wogN5Ho6cZQdKui2EJ0QU">DrDebraSoh.com</a>.
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.

GettyImages-2298237293

Sex Positivity Failed The Cornell Students

campus sexual assault

consent

cornell university

metoo movement

opinion

sex positivity

Weekend Plans is our exclusive lifestyle feature where we highlight the real off-duty routines of the most exciting people in culture. 
This weekend, actor and producer Kevin Sorbo — who electrified audiences around the world by slaying monsters while wearing leather pants and a muscle shirt for the hit TV series “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” — lends his time to The Daily Wire to discuss why he thinks every movie is faith-based, his winning philosophy on choosing your path, and why even the varsity football star should never write off high school drama class.  
* * *
Kevin Sorbo enters our chat with an energized flurry. He’s been doing press for one of his latest projects, the faith-based feature “Elijah Peel,” in which he plays the semi-cynical, seasoned talent manager to a drug-addled rock star on the road to redemption. At 68, having spent most of his life in the biz, Kevin lends a certain industry greasiness to the role. It’s not his first rodeo.
“I tell people all the time I&#8217;m a 13-year overnight success,” Kevin laughs. “I know what it&#8217;s like in Hollywood. Rejection is part of the norm.” 
He’s certainly no stranger to controversy, either. Kevin is often portrayed as a Hollywood outcast who ruffles feathers by speaking out on his faith and values. He was “canceled” before it was cool and dropped by his agent and manager at the height of his career. Even though the tide may finally be shifting, as far as Kevin’s concerned, he’s always been himself. A Christian since childhood, he unwittingly disrupted a system that demanded upending. Getting dragged for it on X doesn’t change the fact that some tables need to be flipped.
But Kevin managed to forge an exciting path running parallel to the mainstream, and that path has brought him riches beyond a box office take. With the founding of his own production company <a href="https://sorbostudios.com/">Sorbo Studios</a>, he could finally tell the kind of positive stories the whole family could watch. And collaborations with other boutique production houses, like the upcoming “Eating with the Enemy” — a biblical depiction of the Last Supper, which Kevin narrates — only beefs up his ever-expanding portfolio.
As we speak, he’s still babying the knee he recently had replaced. Somehow that hasn’t kept him from his golf game, his gym sessions, or his jet-setting itinerary. He’s about to head out with his wife on another tour of Israel — an immersive experience they open up to the public. “We&#8217;ve had atheists and agnostics come on the trip because they don&#8217;t deny there was a person named Jesus,” he says. “If you love history, come to Israel. It’s amazing and you’ll have a blast.” 
If you see a guy zipping around Florida in a golf cart, blasting Led Zeppelin, it’s probably Kevin — one of those Hollywood outlaws on the hunt for the good kind of trouble.
New roots 
He’s a Minnesota native, but Kevin spent the majority of his career in Los Angeles working as a model and leading hit TV series such as “Hercules” and “Andromeda,” along with a deep roster of movies. But after spending over three decades in Tinseltown, he wanted something more.
“We escaped in January of 2019,” Kevin phrases it. “We live in the free state of Florida and we love it here. I don&#8217;t miss the taxes and the traffic. I don&#8217;t miss the majority of the people.” But some relics of his SoCal chapter still pull on his heartstrings. “I miss some of my dear friends that are still there suffering. I miss the house I lived in.” He’s talking about his Mediterranean villa with the pool, spa, and gym, along with miles of fruit trees and a million-dollar view.
“I miss the weather,” he adds. Once he finds out I left LA too, he asks if I also relocated to Florida. I’m in Nashville — “the other one,” I say, noting the popular destination for California expats including buddies of Kevin’s, like actors Kirk Cameron and Gary Sinise. 
Now happily settled in West Palm Beach with his wife, actress Sam Sorbo, Kevin’s busier than ever, with his hands on every step of filmmaking. “The people I&#8217;ve met and the work that I&#8217;ve been getting to do with other independent producers and production companies has just been great. I&#8217;ve been shooting four or five movies a year,” he says. 
Morning person
Kevin’s not the guy pressing snooze on the regular. “I&#8217;m an early riser. I&#8217;ve always been, my whole life,” he assures me. “I think it started because I had a paper route as a kid, getting up at 4:30 a.m. six days a week for seven years in Minnesota winter.” 
He’s not chucking the Sunday news onto people’s porches anymore, but his morning routine is non-negotiable. “That first hour is usually ESPN to catch up on sports,” he says. “I don&#8217;t have the patience to watch baseball or basketball games anymore, but I love the highlights.”
Most mornings, he’s out the door before he remembers to eat. “Breakfast, you know — it&#8217;s weird. Half the time I have breakfast, other times I skip it,” he says. If he’s eating anything, it’s gonna be nourishing. “I try to go for the protein, mixed with a little carb, and then I hit the golf course.” (He always gets his greens.) “I don&#8217;t go to any golf course unless they let me tee up first,” he admits. If you follow his Instagram, you know he’s not wasting any time lingering on the fairway trying to make friends. It takes him “about an hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes for 18 holes. I&#8217;m a 6-handicap. For people who golf, they know that&#8217;s not great, but it&#8217;s good.” 
Once he’s back home, Kevin’s all business. “I&#8217;m always trying to raise money,” he says. “I&#8217;m always looking for funders to help our little independent movies. Most of my movies are in the two to three million range. People think that&#8217;s a lot of money.” Kevin notes that’s more of a “catering budget” on the typical blockbuster feature. 
Kevin and Sam’s three kids are in their twenties now, but after successfully homeschooling their brood, the hard-working couple hasn’t pumped the brakes. Sam frequently travels around the country, teaching the techniques she used to educate her own children. “It&#8217;s always about work,” Kevin confesses. But he tells me, “I love work.” 
Kicking up some dust
Some guys in their late sixties might be content to cruise along at the leisurely pace of a stereotypical Florida retiree. But not Kevin. “I work out every day,” he explains. I’ve seen the receipts on Instagram. Same goes if he’s on the road. “I mean, I can&#8217;t lift like I did in my ‘Hercules’ years,” he says with a laugh. “I do my 30 to 40 minutes of cardio every day. I don&#8217;t like sitting around.”
He maintains his sanity by putting his own spin on an active lifestyle. “Golf to me is relaxing even though I play fast.” Of course, he’s gotta queue up the perfect podcast or soundtrack for the moment. “Whether it&#8217;s going to be a Led Zeppelin day, a Billy Joel day, or a Frank Sinatra day, it all depends. But to me, it&#8217;s my two-hour break of the day. I love mornings. That&#8217;s sort of my Zen moment.” Kevin’s confident that he’s one of the OGs behind up and down-dogs. “I love to stretch,” he says. “I mean, I was doing yoga moves before it was called yoga, you know?”
Couples who laugh together stay together
Kevin and his wife Sam have been married since 1998, which equates to about 17 decades in Hollywood years. How do they do it? With good communication and great comedy.
“When we go to bed, we talk about the day, what&#8217;s going on tomorrow, if we&#8217;re going to be on a podcast together, whatever it may be,” he says. “But we&#8217;ll always put on a sitcom because we want to laugh before we go to bed.” They have high praise for the writing behind Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell’s new show “The Madison.” Kevin says, “We&#8217;ve gone through all of ‘30 Rock,’ and Tim Allen’s ‘Last Man Standing.’ Right now we&#8217;re in season two of ‘The New Adventures of Old Christine,’ and it&#8217;s a very funny show.”
As far as a nightcap, you might find Sam sipping a glass of wine if the day calls for it. But Kevin describes himself as more of a once-a-week cocktail guy. “I like a good margarita or a good Crown Royal,” he says. I teasingly tell him a marg is very “Florida” of him. But he’s been doing the tequila thing since way back. “I was ‘margarita’ before that,” he laughs. “Maybe key lime pie more, now. I&#8217;m still a water guy more than anything else.”
A new frontier for entertainment
He may not be living it up in the film capital of the world (if Los Angeles can still claim the title), but Kevin’s got showbiz in his blood. “I still love making movies,” he explains. For over a decade, he’s been heavy into the faith-based genre. But he thinks every film has its own ideological bent. “I call every movie faith-based. If you&#8217;re an atheist, ‘I believe in nothing’ is a pretty strong faith. Every movie has a message in it.”
Kevin’s one of a handful of true Hollywood veterans who broke the mold and are now dedicated to making high quality content for the conservative crowd. But he leads the movement for never missing the point of entertainment. “I like doing movies that Hollywood used to do, so I&#8217;m always looking for the next one,” he says. “I&#8217;ve got plenty of good scripts. It&#8217;s just a matter of finding the people that realize we have a spiritual war as much as we have a cultural war in America and we’ve got to fight back.” 
“There&#8217;s a lot of craziness in the world right now. A lot of hate and a lot of anger,” he acknowledges. Hoping to shift the culture, he’s like a real-life superhero raging against the machine. Maybe he’s more of a David taking Goliath to task. Or maybe he’s Kevin freakin’ Sorbo — three time stroke survivor, indestructible target of angsty leftists, proving that the best revenge isn’t revenge at all. It’s resilience.
“Don&#8217;t let anyone set your limitations,” he says, when I dig for a little life advice. “Don&#8217;t let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do. Follow your dreams as corny as that is. I knew since I was 11 years old that I was going to be an actor. I told my parents that. I got a ‘That&#8217;s nice.’” He laughs. “I&#8217;m sure they thought it was a phase, but I knew what I wanted to do.” 
He only suffered from being a theater kid stuck in the body of a star athlete. He remembers his football and basketball teammates making fun of his love of the stage. But from his point of view in drama class, he recalls with a wink, “I was just like, ‘All the best looking girls are in that class, guys.’ Being a flaming heterosexual, for me it worked out great.” He was still on his game when he met his future wife Sam years later on the set of “Hercules.”
“Love what you do, and be good at what you do,” Kevin says. “It makes life a lot easier.”

Weekend Plans With Kevin Sorbo: From Hercules To Hollywood Outlaw

faith based film

hercules the legendary journeys

kevin sorbo

lifestyle

sam sorbo

Jane Doe’s lawsuit states that the 20-year-old had consumed <a href="https://www.nhpr.org/2026-09-28/cornell-agrees-to-an-independent-probe-into-its-handling-of-a-fraternity-rape-case">10 drinks</a> in the three hours before entering the Chi Phi fraternity house on Oct. 19, 2024. The drinks included multiple hard liquor shots at her sorority and then drinks at two downtown bars. 
What she says happened next — that seven men plied her with ketamine and raped her for hours — is now in the hands of a special prosecutor, New York Attorney General Letitia James. Lawyers for several of the men deny her claims, and ultimately a court will decide what is true.
However, one part of the story isn&#8217;t in dispute, though few are focusing on this detail: the night in question was built around binge drinking. 
The national conversation has been deeply focused on other things, including vile group chat that no one wants to reread. All of it matters and deserves scrutiny, but alcohol keeps appearing in this story as background information when it’s actually the main character. 
I spent four years on a “party school” campus at Indiana University, and I know the college drinking culture well. I know it so well that it’s where I honed my problematic drinking skills that turned into 20 years of addiction. Six years ago, I finally gave up alcohol for good. But, watching stories like the Cornell case unfurl reminds me of the sickening permission we give undergrads to drink without boundaries — as if it’s their right in life to be young and stupid. 
The Cornell case is, in a foundational way, a story about this kind of binge drinking. It’s about the way overconsumption of alcohol is sanctioned, promoted, and celebrated on college campuses without question. 
Drunkenness cannot be a scapegoat for rape or any other poor decision. Of course, alcohol doesn&#8217;t rape anyone and those who rape are responsible for rape, drunk or sober. Furthermore, a woman&#8217;s drinking never makes her assault her fault. But saying “it&#8217;s not her fault” doesn&#8217;t make alcohol harmless. Nor does it relieve young men and women of responsibility for what they do with their newfound freedom in young adulthood. 
The research tells the story. Global public health data <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11959743/">find that at least half</a> of all sexual assaults on college campuses involve alcohol. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15248380221134633">Some studies</a> find up to 70% include people under the influence, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism <a href="https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/alcohol-topics-z/alcohol-facts-and-statistics/alcohol-and-young-adults-ages-18-25">says</a> a &#8220;majority of sexual assaults in college involve alcohol or other substances,&#8221; noting that often these cases go unreported. Then we have <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40262283/">this 2025 study</a> comparing data from 73 four-year colleges that finds those with higher rates of binge drinking also have significantly higher numbers of reported rapes. 
The alcohol factor also shapes what happens afterward. <a href="https://www.wdbo.com/news/national/cornell-rape/JI4PXO6334Y3TNI7JVM63AP4DU/">New York is one of 19 states</a> where a person who gets drunk voluntarily cannot be considered legally &#8220;mentally incapacitated,&#8221; the provision the district attorney cited when he declined to prosecute. Some states have closed that loophole. But notice what the debate concedes here: Alcohol is so central to cases like this that it can be the deciding factor in whether a crime legally happened at all.
Alcohol also shapes the hero’s narrative that never emerged at Cornell. For example, a young man in Chi Phi may have been on the infamous Snapchat chain or just downstairs hearing rumors of what was going on. But, five beers deep, he found it far easier to ignore the chaos and head to bed. We know alcohol doesn&#8217;t erase anyone&#8217;s conscience, but it does make one’s conscience slower, quieter, and easier to leave on airplane mode. 
Why aren’t we talking more about drinking? Every podcast and TikTok about this case mentions the drinking, but almost none substantially considers how much it influenced what happened in the first place. If these men and women had not been binge drinking, the odds of this situation occurring are slim. 
This is partially because we’ve decided that college is a license to binge drink. About three in 10 full-time college students <a href="https://collegedrinkingprevention.gov/statistics/prevalence.aspx">reported binge drinking in the past month</a>, according to the most recent federal survey data. And we know that <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/facts-stats/">alcohol kills about 4,000 Americans</a> under 21 every year, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
Why do we treat this like it’s unavoidable? It’s seen as regrettable, inevitable, and, really, no one&#8217;s fault. Campuses have built an entire “harm reduction” system around alcohol instead of questioning why it’s the main point of the Greek system. They’ve got posters reminding students to &#8220;drink responsibly,” online alcohol courses for rule breakers, and medical amnesty policies that protect students from discipline if they call for help when a friend is dangerously drunk. 
It’s not that these things are bad, but the assumption is clear: College students drink too much. And fair or not, it puts women in unsafe and vulnerable positions and always has. The reluctance to name alcohol as a core problem of many rape scenarios is just drinking culture protecting itself. 
We’re told that warning young women about alcohol puts the blame on them if they’re assaulted. But saying nothing only puts more of them in danger. It’s the men who count on women being too drunk to resist, remember, or be believed who benefit from our silence. And even in cases where some bit of consent is given, it doesn’t prevent a woman later questioning what happened, regretting it, or dealing with consequences of shame, guilt, or worse: STDs, pregnancy, or reputation-ruining rumors. 
I think about this every fall in my hometown of Bloomington, Indiana, when I watch students stumble between bar crawls — the same ones I trudged to and from 20 years ago. In an infamous 2011 case, a 20-year-old Indiana University student <a href="https://www.wishtv.com/news/indiana-news/lauren-spierer-missing-15-years/">named Lauren Spierer</a> vanished there after a night of heavy drinking and has never been found. 
I think, too, about my own young adult drinking years: all the rooms I put myself in where I could have been hurt. I may have been lucky or I simply don&#8217;t remember. As someone who frequently experienced alcohol blackouts — when you still appear conscious and functioning to those around you but lose entire chunks of memory from the night — that second possibility still frightens me. On multiple occasions, I had no memory of what had happened for hours the night before. 
What would a reckoning against binge drinking college culture look like? Maybe it would be universities that stop treating drinking as the default social life and fund substance-free housing and recovery communities as seriously as they fund athletics. Perhaps Greek systems held to the law, not just slaps on the wrist. It could be parents who tell sons and daughters the plain truth: Alcohol is the most socially accepted drug in America, and it harms more young people than any other. 
As for my own children, I will tell them addiction runs in our family, that alcohol is a publicly acceptable drug, and there’s so much more to dream, do, and learn in college. I don’t want them to waste their precious young lives inside sticky bars, in gross fraternities, or with people who would never protect them if they were in danger. 
***
Ericka Andersen is the author of &#8220;Freely Sober: Rethinking Alcohol Through the Lens of Faith.&#8221;
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.

Young woman opening bottle of beer at home party

The College Tradition That’s Gone Way Too Far

alcohol abuse

college party culture

fraternity

letitia james

sexual assault

“Hamlet Returns.” “Gatsby II: Carraway’s Revenge.” “Casablanca: The Vichy Years.”
It’s funny to think of classics having sequels, partially because the “Fast and Furious” franchise made sequel titling conventions meme-able, but also because there’s something inherently laughable about touching perfection.
In a just world, “The Social Reckoning” would rank among those titles. Unfortunately, in this world it is an all-too-real sequel to Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher’s 2010 masterpiece, “The Social Network.” That film is a brilliant meditation on what makes us human. Its successor is a two-hour dramatization of a Slate podcast.
“The Social Reckoning” picks up a decade after “The Social Network” left off. Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) is now running a tech empire, preparing for congressional testimony, surrounded by consultants who are trying to make him seem human. But scenes with Zuckerberg are few and far between, with the film largely focusing on Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) and her efforts to expose her company’s secrets with the help of Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White).
We don’t need to dwell on the plot; the film is mostly a beat-for-beat staging of Horwitz’s 2021 stories, though it adds a Zuckerberg testimony that, in real life, happened months before. This actual news cycle dominated headlines recently enough for everyone to remember the details. At Zuckerberg’s instruction, Facebook’s algorithm began weighting reshares and emoji reactions more than likes. This incentivized people to post inflammatory content and caused that content to spread widely, a vicious cycle that Haugen and others felt posed a threat to American democracy.
The more shocking parts of the Journal’s “Facebook Files” dealt with how the company knowingly ignored the deleterious effects of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meta-settles-child-harm-case-for-billions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram on kids</a>, specifically young girls, who joined the platform for friendship and instead found bullying, untoward sexual advances, and in some cases human trafficking. But that’s more or less glossed over in the film, condensed to the essentials to make room for montages of the Jan. 6 riots.
It’s not at all surprising that Aaron Sorkin, the high priest of American liberalism, made a movie critical of social media polarization and Jan. 6. Nor would it be shocking if the movie were preachy; after all, that’s Sorkin’s hallmark. But “The Social Reckoning” isn’t preachy in Sorkin’s usual way. There are no grand ideas or sweeping monologues about human greatness. The banter-filled walk-and-talks that defined “The West Wing” are replaced by technocratic patter. The point is not to make a point, but to convey a lot of information in such a way that the audience will all come to the same conclusion. The whole thing feels small.
And that’s the problem. Sorkin works best when he goes big, when he swings for the fences. The swelling speech, the brilliant debate, the perfect needle drop. The man knows drama and understands the importance of gravitas, a topic upon which his characters frequently opine. But for some reason, “The Social Reckoning” shows no real trace of what makes Sorkin Sorkin.
This is partially an instance of Sorkin’s Achilles’ heel: The more he tries to capture reality, the more likely he is to fail. “The West Wing” works largely because it is a drama. Realistic, yes, and occasionally accurate, but a drama nonetheless, with fictitious countries and characters that advance the plot.
Compare this with “The Newsroom,” the flawed HBO series in which Sorkin built a fictional cable show in the very real world of America in the early 2010s. Even <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a73344814/aaron-sorkin-interview-2026/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sorkin admits</a> that his reliance on real events “was a pebble in my shoe” that prevented him from ever “put[ting] a good episode together of the show.”
Similarly, “The Social Network” is unabashedly cinematic. What is on paper a story about two civil lawsuits becomes, in Sorkin’s hands, a timeless tale of class and ambition. Jesse Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg is a striving outsider so desperate to join the upper echelons of society that, after being repeatedly denied entry to this higher stratum, he creates an entirely new upper class and rockets to its peak. That even this fails to satisfy him — the film famously ends on a shot of Zuckerberg, alone, refreshing the pending friend request of the ex-girlfriend whose rejection inspired him to launch Facebook in the first place — shows that Mark is human, all too human.
In “The Social Reckoning,” Jeremy Strong gives us the common caricature of Zuckerberg, the ruthless automaton uninterested in other people and singularly focused on success. One of the things that made “The Social Network” so profound is that it shattered this image of Zuckerberg. But Mark Zuckerberg can’t have depth for “The Social Reckoning” to work. He must be this frigid titan, willing to sacrifice kids and democracy and everything in between rather than lose even one Facebook user. And so Sorkin completely negates his first film, discarding one of the great characters of 21st-century cinema in favor of a cheap political prop.
The problem isn’t that Sorkin doesn’t give Zuckerberg a fair shake, but that this doesn’t make for a good movie. In “The Social Reckoning,” the heroes and villains are clear, as are their motivations: Zuckerberg is wrong because he only cares about money; Haugen and Horwitz are good because they care about the truth.
In “The Social Network,” the heroes and villains are just as clear, but their motivations and characters are tantalizingly ambiguous. Mark is both sympathetic and pathetic, a man wreaking havoc and a boy begging for attention. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer) have clearly been wronged by Mark, but they’re so arrogant it almost seems like they had it coming.
And then there’s Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, played to perfection by Andrew Garfield. In the film’s <a href="https://youtu.be/QYdma6c04jI?si=FrvHiHU2fxuujBFf&amp;t=201" target="_blank" rel="noopener">best scene</a>, Eduardo confronts Mark for diluting his shares and pushing him out of the company.
“You set me up,” Eduardo says, clearly wounded by his best friend’s betrayal.
“You’re gonna blame me because you were the business head of the company and you made a bad business deal with your own company?” Mark retorts with a condescension both biting and borrowed, as if he were trying on his father’s Hèrmes tie.
It’s an incredible moment, not just for the drama — the betrayal, the reveal, the stakes — but because, for a brief moment, you can see on Eduardo’s face that he realizes Mark is a little bit right. And we, the audience, realize it, too. Which makes it all the more heartbreaking to perceive: friendship became business, trust gave way to transaction, and everyone got hurt while the company succeeded.
There is not a single moment in “The Social Reckoning’s” two-hour run that approaches anything close to that scene, or any of the similarly great scenes that comprise “The Social Network,” one of the most beautifully written, shot, and scored films of all time. It’s a pity, too, because Madison and White are two of our finest working actors. It would have been a joy to watch them sink their teeth into a proper Sorkin script, rather than this warmed-over NPR fanfic.
“The Social Reckoning” has been called a “stand-alone sequel” to “The Social Network.” It’s an absurd, contradictory phrase — but one that makes sense once you’ve seen the film. If I were Sorkin, I wouldn’t want anyone comparing this ordinary historical drama with my magnum opus. That’s fair enough. But you need not have seen “The Social Network” to realize “The Social Reckoning” is a bad film. That much is self-evident; the comparison merely adds insult to injury.
***
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.

socialreckoning

Hollywood’s Liberal Darling Just Ruined His Own Masterpiece

aaron sorkin

facebook

film review

mark zuckerberg

the social network

Welcome to the Bright Side, a weekly roundup of all the good news and ideas you might have missed from the past week.
This week, we’re rocketing to outer space, the weirdest city in your state, and Paris Fashion Week (but for the dogs!). Then we&#8217;re wrapping it up with a little brain food, AKA the only way to eat Marshmallow Fluff. 
We’re all out of this world
Zip up your shiniest atmospheric pressure suit — it’s World Space Week. With NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 splashdown, and the <a href="https://www.space.com/stargazing/meteor-showers/the-draconid-meteor-shower-peaks-on-oct-8-before-bedtime-heres-how-to-see-it">Draconid</a> meteor shower raining down upon us (hot tip: the best seats are in the Northern Hemisphere, faced toward the Big Dipper), it’s been a stellar soiree. 
Even Pokémon got into the spirit of this year’s theme — “Rocket Revolution” — by giving Pikachu a proper fit for a trip to the International Space Station with French European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot. 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mjkDwgStzuo?si=dKxhMvjnam_p_RAv" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
I’m not one to jump on a bandwagon and rush out to snatch up all the Poké-merch. But my friend just sold an old Pokémon card for $800, and another claims she has a stash that could be worth a million bucks (in the newest condition, of course). Who knows what “plush astronaut Pikachu” will be worth in 40 years. My own experience as a collector remains rather limited. My only claim to “fame” happened during junior high when I once hoarded all the tennis ball can lids from my dad’s time as a high school tennis coach. If I still had them today, I bet I could rake in a whole $1 for recycling them. But a ridiculous family memory I can cherish forever? Priceless.
Is this the weirdest town in your state?
We all know our state capitals (um, mostly), but even a town population of 22 deserves its moment in the sun. This map highlights the weirdest-named municipalities. Raise your hands in the air if you’re from Humptulips, Washington; Ding Dong, Texas; or Ketchuptown, South Carolina!
As a Lancaster, Pennsylvania, native, I can confirm there’s definitely a nearby town called Intercourse, which was not named purely for the entertainment of high school kids, but rather to mark a place where people (or possibly streets) merge together. (For wholesome fellowship, not the other thing!) Intercourse beat out Blue Ball, which was another hit Amish Country destination. Did they miss any oddball cities from your state?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The strangest town names in each state https://t.co/ude2Wxv4dr
— Josh Barzon (@JoshuaBarzon) <a href="https://x.com/JoshuaBarzon/status/2107586991173050567?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 6, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Paris but make it fashion
Paris Fashion Week wrapped up with all the drama and shocking eye candy you’d expect — at least if you like a surprise <a href="https://youtu.be/l5QOGtXvIEc?t=1638">Céline Dion</a> performance at L’Oreal, giant birds at <a href="https://youtu.be/weNFjc2l1Hw?t=332">Chanel</a> accompanied by cello, and the always-provocative, never-ready-to-wear looks from Paris-based fashion house <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdY_R5WTRVQ&amp;t=1288s">Matières Fécales</a>.
I’m partial to the color black and the “matériel” 100% cotton, so I don’t exactly give off “fashion” on the daily. But I love art, and many of these designs are meant to spin your head around and get the creativity flowing. No, you couldn’t pay me to wear the equivalent of a strip of Duck Tape as a top, but it’s fun to float away on the clouds of high fashion from afar. And that cello and piano duet at Chanel felt personal since I played “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Wcjli8KvQ">Le Carnaval des Animaux, Le Cygne</a>” on cello in high school. Definitely not as well, but nevertheless, that song is mind-expanding and enchanting without challenging anyone’s sense of modesty.
But while celebrities may have been dying to sit front row at Dior and Louis Vuitton, the rest of Paris was marching down the Champs-Élysées for the seventh annual Sausage Walk. Hundreds of dachshunds and their owners (some dressed alike in the cutest little striped shirts or cowboy hat couture) flooded the streets and sidewalks to raise money for Teckels Sans Doux Foyer, a charity foundation that helps doxies in need. What I need is a few of these little friends to snuggle up with me like a bunch of furry baguettes and watch a Brigitte Bardot comedy.
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeICLjAtDTn/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
<div style="padding: 16px;">
&nbsp;
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div>
<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"></div>
</div>
&nbsp;
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeICLjAtDTn/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Stay Tuned (@staytunednbc)</a>
</div>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
Happy belated National Fluffernutter Day
This is the kind of research I can get behind. According to neuroscience, a steady diet of fluffy, funny content boosts your cognition and makes you smarter. Couldn’t we all use a little more mirth in our lives? <a href="https://www.drcognitivehealth.com/blog/laughter-and-cognition-the-neuroscience-of-humour-and-brain-health">Laughter</a> triggers some of the most fun parts of our brains to lower stress, strengthen resilience, improve memory, calm our nerves, and increase endorphins. It’s a win, win, win — I lost track, but that’s why we’re here.
In keeping with the light and fluffy theme, I give you the recipe for the ultimate Fluffernutter in honor of its national day on Oct. 8 (National Podiatry Day also happened, but that doesn’t lend quite the same festiveness). If you’ve never tried one, this is your sign:
Special equipment: knife, plate, possibly a napkin
Ingredients: 2 slices of bread, peanut butter, Marshmallow Fluff or other marshmallow creme
Method: Spread a generous amount of peanut butter on one piece of bread, pile marshmallow creme on the other, and gently press together into the shape of a sandwich. Bite. [Bliss.]
Optional: Add chocolate chips and nuke in the microwave for 20 seconds like chef Matty Matheson does it.
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" style="max-width: 605px; min-width: 325px;" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@mattymatheson/video/7427144638751902981" data-video-id="7427144638751902981">
<section><a title="@mattymatheson" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@mattymatheson?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@mattymatheson</a>THE BEST SANDWICH IN 20 SECONDS FLUFFERNUTTER FOREVER! PREORDER SOUPS SALADS SANDWICHES AND COME SEE ME ON TOUR!!! LINK IN BIO FOR ALL THE DEETS<a title="♬ original sound - MATTY MATHESON" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7427144681635482373?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">♬ original sound &#8211; MATTY MATHESON</a></section>
</blockquote>
<script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
You guys, I feel seen by all the dog lovers in the comments section last week (and some brought tears to my eyes)! Loved the tip to check out <a href="http://doesthedogdie.com">doesthedogdie.com</a> for crowdsourced warnings of all kinds for movies and TV, and the reader who commented, “I’d go all John Wick if someone hurt my dogs.” Not to make everything about Brad Pitt, but I imagine the scene at the end of “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” with a flame thrower and the hero pit bull named Brandy. Let me know what content you’d like us to cover (you can <a href="mailto:lbair@dailywire.com">email</a> me, too). Enjoy yourselves more than a dachshund in a beret this weekend. — Lauren

Bright Side: To Infinity, Sausage Dog Fashion Week, And Beyond

bright side

dachshund

national fluffernutter day

paris fashion week

world space week

Allow Andrew Tate to introduce himself in his own words. 
The internet personality has explained his <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2022-12-30/who-is-andrew-tate-the-self-styled-misogynist-influencer-detained-in-romania?">preference</a> for 18- and 19-year-old women by saying he can “make an imprint” on them, while elsewhere insisting that there “is no such thing as an independent female.” Tate was 35 when he said this. 
Or <a href="https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/andrew-tate-final-message-banned-b2151544.html?">how about</a> “women should shut the f*ck up, have kids, sit at home, be quiet, and make coffee”?
And just for <a href="https://theweek.com/culture-life/andrew-tate-women-things-said?">good measure</a>, “My job is to meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her … get her to fall in love with me to where she’d do anything I say, and then get her on a webcam so we could become rich together.”
In a culture that rewards such provocation, Tate has amassed over 10 million followers on X promoting a version of masculinity for young men to adopt if they want to achieve success in a world stacked against them. In his world, your image depends on two things: extraordinary wealth and extraordinary control over your own life. The former turned out to be a lie, and the latter has been legally taken from him.
Tate was recently arrested on charges including rape, trafficking-related offenses, assault, indecent images of a child, and extreme pornography. He and his brother, arrested on similar charges, deny any wrongdoing, but this is hardly their first brush with legal problems involving the same issues. Now, court filings reveal the Bugattis and yachts in their videos were rented due to a professional incentive to appear “uberwealthy.” And this week the public learned of <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2026/10/06/andrew-tate-extreme-porn-allegations/">bestiality porn and child porn allegations</a>.
While these allegations shock no one who has been paying attention, an outsider is right to read the above quotes (provided over years) combined with the brothers&#8217; webcam porn business between 2012 and 2014 and wonder how a person like this can garner so much fame or, worse, have any defenders. Let alone conservative defenders. 
Tate didn’t build his credibility alone, and he has enjoyed the winds of prominent voices at his back for years. 
On a 2023 episode of the Full Send <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-defends-andrew-tate-really-smart-and-not-malicious-spirit-all">podcast</a>, Tucker Carlson said: “The spirit that animates Andrew Tate is very clear and very obvious, and it’s not a malicious spirit at all.” Candace Owens, the Hodge twins, and other figures associated with the Right have hosted him on their shows.
The fallback for these and other conservatives is to focus on what Tate is taking on rather than how he talks about it. Years ago, Tate recognized that society had pushed many boys and men to the back of the line. Decades of feminism culminated with the #MeToo movement. Men became the scapegoat for all of society’s ills. Everyone but them was prioritized from college enrollment to the boardroom — often when they were more qualified.
Pour some internet lighter fluid on this fire, and young men were searching for a water hose. Andrew Tate arrived with a full fire department: aka Hustlers University, whose <a href="https://hustlers-university.ca/about-us/">mission</a> was to “empower ambitious people [read: young men] with an entrepreneurial mindset to become the best versions of themselves.”
And herein lies the catch. Like Tate’s diagnosis of male youth, this messaging is fine — even admirable. But like so many things in life, the messenger is as important as the message.
I recently spoke with a group of conservative teenagers. One raised her hand with a comment and question: “I often begin reading books with an inspiring title and summary and find that halfway in it is either misleading or pure junk. How do you source your reading list?” My answer: “I study the author before I study the book.”
My point is the messenger is as important as the message. Anyone can write inspiring words. What matters is how he applies those words to his own life. And this is where I’m disappointed with any conservative who has ever chosen to elevate or platform Tate’s ideas simply because they fit a particular narrative. Too many virtuous men and women promote solutions to the same problems Tate has built his career on.
I propose a better list for conservatives to source from: 
Truth – Ben Shapiro
Faith – Lila Rose
Marriage – <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-trad-wife-panic-is-running-into-one-big-problem">Brad Wilcox</a>
Women – Allie Beth Stuckey
Discipline – Jocko Willink
Power – Thomas Sowell
Work Ethic – <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/weekend-plans-with-mike-rowe-blue-collar-americas-biggest-advocate">Mike Rowe</a>
Courage – <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-sophie-cunningham-became-the-wnbas-biggest-target">Sophie Cunningham</a>
Patriotism – Victor Davis Hanson
My point is not that conservatives must agree with everyone on this list. It’s that conservatism never reached the point of moral bankruptcy where it needed Andrew Tate as its substitute teacher. Tate didn’t discover truth, faith, discipline, hard work, or patriotism — let alone practice them. Those virtues predate him by millennia, and the Right has so many better messengers. 
But I’m mainly addressing adults. A 16-year-old doesn’t necessarily have the maturity to separate Tate saying “work hard” from “women should…” Most adults can make that distinction. It becomes harder when these ideas are presented to a teenager from a rented Bugatti. This is the responsibility conservative voices should recognize.
The response to Tate’s allegations has caused both movement and paralysis on social media. Some conservatives are racing to delete their social media associations with him while others are leaning on the hope of “false allegations.” Neither should matter. Andrew Tate has been telling us who he is for years.
For every worthwhile thing Andrew Tate has ever told a young man, someone better can teach it. 
***
Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast We The People with Gates Garcia. Follow him on X and Instagram @GatesGarciaFL.
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.

Gemini_Generated_Image_vqhreavqhreavqhr

The Dangerous Trap Young Men Keep Falling For

andrew tate

conservative

masculinity

sex trafficking

tucker carlson

It has been 48 hours since I watched “Digger,” and all I can say is I have never seen anything like it and hope never to again. In fact, I’m not sure if I will be able to go to another Tom Cruise movie. Let’s just say that &#8220;Top Gun 3&#8221; had better be exceptional.
What follows here is not so much a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/digger-gives-tom-cruise-a-belief-system-even-crazier-than-scientology?author=Harry+Khachatrian&amp;category=Upstream&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=7&amp;rowHeadline=New+on+Upstream&amp;rowType=Article+Carousel&amp;title=%E2%80%98Digger%E2%80%99+Gives+Tom+Cruise+A+Belief+System+Even+Crazier+Than+Scientology">review</a> of “Digger” as a reflection on what might have motivated Cruise — after all that goodwill he had accumulated with &#8220;Top Gun: Maverick&#8221; and the &#8220;Missions Impossible&#8221; — to lend his star power to such a dire movie. Cinematic talking heads claim this is Cruise’s bid to win an Oscar. However, could it be that in his choice to don “ugly-face,” Tom Cruise is also mocking us, his audience, made up of ordinary people who are not blessed with his level of beauty?
That was certainly my view watching Cruise play the fat and charmless <a href="https://youtu.be/1EAEQnZiYVU?si=Rtrqj0HBfdLjaOmH">Les Grossman</a> in 2008’s “Tropic Thunder.” I know it was supposed to be funny, but I confess I didn’t get the joke. I like my satire to be more subtle than Cruise’s blatant mocking of those who were not born as beautiful as he (aside from those unfortunate teeth, that is). Cruise seems to want to have his cake and eat it, in his donning of outlandish prosthetics to give himself a fat belly and jowly face for “Digger,” all the while showing us his <a href="https://ew.com/tom-cruise-64-flashes-abs-for-rare-magazine-cover-12123170">chiseled abs</a> and what appears to be a <a href="https://www.longevita.co.uk/blog/tom-cruise-plastic-surgery/">plastic surgery-enhanced face</a> while promoting the movie. What is going on here? 
Now, we all know that actors are emotionally like children, and children love to play dress-up. The pattern of ridiculously beautiful people who owe their careers as much to their looks as to their talent taking pleasure in performatively playing ugly people does have a “look at me, look at me” quality to it. Insult is added to injury when said actors divest themselves of their prosthetics and makeup and expect to be applauded for their bravery and artistic “integrity” in permitting themselves to cosplay as ordinary people for a while.
It is one of Hollywood’s self-evident truths that beautiful actors need to “ugly up” to win awards. Charlize Theron famously gained weight, used brown contact lenses and fake yellow teeth, and applied disfiguring prosthetics to play serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2003’s “Monster,” for which she won an Oscar. Nicole Kidman applied a prosthetic nose to become Virginia Woolf and win her Oscar for 2002’s “The Hours.” Leonardo DiCaprio had to get mauled by a bear for his Oscar.
This pattern of gorgeous and glossy Hollywood actors needing to play gritty and unglamorous to become Oscar-worthy is probably most hilariously illustrated by Kate Winslet’s Academy Award in 2009 for playing a frumpy Nazi camp guard in “The Reader.” Winslet’s success had been <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGuxc9fIMKo/?hl=en">predicted</a> by Ricky Gervais four years earlier in his TV comedy “Extras,” where Winslet gives a speech bemoaning how only films about the Holocaust win people Oscars. 
These performances are presented as acts of artistic humility but feel more like acts of vanity. When an ordinary-looking actor plays an ugly character — Steve Buscemi, for example — nobody notices. But when Tom Cruise does it, the whole exercise depends upon our remembering how handsome he really is. It is a peculiarly heightened form of showing off. Cruise is not simply asking us to admire his acting. He is asking us to admire his rejection of his own beauty. 
Yet it all raises a curious paradox. Why do beautiful actors so often want to be seen as ugly, while biographical films so often want ordinary-looking heroes to be seen as beautiful? This is not always the case: HBO’s 2008 miniseries on John Adams cast “character actor” <a href="https://www.alamy.com/library-usa-paul-giamatti-and-laura-linney-in-the-hbo-mini-series-john-adams-2008-plot-the-life-of-one-of-the-usas-founding-fathers-its-second-president-and-his-role-in-the-nations-first-50-years-ref-lmk106-j6706-040820-supplied-by-lmkmedia-editorial-only-landmark-media-is-not-the-copyright-owner-of-these-film-or-tv-stills-but-provides-a-service-only-for-recognised-media-outlets-pictures@lmkmediacom-image368449752.html">Paul Giamatti</a> in the titular role rather than a more conventionally handsome leading man. Yet historical films routinely beautify their subjects, replacing ordinary-looking reformers or politicians with implausibly attractive actors.
An example is last year’s “<a href="https://youtu.be/Rb0ZhiDD9J0?si=Jw6LmW0iZe0QAOAH">The Testament of Ann Lee</a>,” a deeply weird but also beautiful film about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Lee">Ann Lee</a>, the founder of the religious sect known as the Shakers. No reliable portrait of Ann Lee exists, and the only <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Lee#/media/File:Ann_Lee.png">engraving</a> we have was done by a clairvoyant nearly 90 years after her death. A contemporary description of her, however, states: “Mother Ann Lee was a woman of a strong constitution, rather exceeding the ordinary size of women; rather thick but very straight and well-proportioned in form.” Another account describes “a woman of low stature, thick made, and of a masculine appearance.” Yet the filmmakers decided to go with the elfin and doll-like beauty of Amanda Seyfried to portray her on the big screen. 
Hero of the U.K.’s abolitionist movement William Wilberforce is another historical figure given a Hollywood glow-up for his biographical movie “<a href="https://youtu.be/75jqKloxzOc?si=IJAmY6pbK76jJWv7">Amazing Grace</a>.” His sons remembered Wilberforce as a small man, “little exceeding five feet four inches in height,” whose eyes possessed an “overpowering brightness.” Another contemporary summary states: “His frame from infancy was feeble, his stature small, his eyes weak,” while another describes him as “the little person, with the mild voice and winning manners.” One physical feature stands out here. Yet rather than picking up the phone and calling a Tobey Maguire, or a Tom Hollander, or even a Tom Cruise, the casting directors went with six foot tall, gorgeous Ioan Gruffudd. “Amazing Grace” is a fabulous, inspiring movie, and Gruffudd a charismatic leading man, but why did the casting directors not pick someone who more physically resembled Wilberforce?
Human beings seem always to have assumed that beauty and goodness belong together. Our oldest stories are full of handsome princes, radiant queens, noble knights, and beautiful maidens, while evil is marked by crooked noses, warts, and physical deformity. The witch is ugly because she is wicked; the hero is attractive because he is good. We instinctively want outward appearance to reveal inward character. Beauty suggests harmony, vitality, and wholeness, while ugliness hints at disorder and corruption. Even when experience teaches us otherwise, we continue to read faces as though they were moral texts. We know intellectually that virtue and beauty are not the same thing, yet some part of us still expects the morally good person to look good and the bad person to look bad.
Might we, the viewing audience, therefore be complicit in this strange elevation of outward appearance when it comes to historical figures? Does Hollywood beautify heroes because we demand it? It is true that we reward the tall politician, the handsome newsreader, and the job candidate with perfect teeth and excellent hair. We profess to care about character yet constantly mistake appearance for competence.
The classic 1987 movie &#8220;<a href="https://youtu.be/Fuhxg3mkiIw?si=LugXka3FcX48JeSz">Broadcast News</a>&#8221; is a brilliant exposé of how humans respond better to beautiful faces regardless of what might be going on, or not going on, behind that exterior. William Hurt plays aspiring TV news anchor Tom Grunick, whose extreme good looks are in contrast to his lack of brains, education, or journalistic curiosity. Fellow newsman Aaron Altman, played by Albert Brooks, is more intelligent and better educated, yet he does not have the looks to succeed in front of the camera. When Tom asks the understandably resentful Aaron, who desperately wants the anchor job his homely appearance will never grant him: “What do you do when your real life exceeds your dreams?” Aaron wisely responds: “Keep it to yourself.” 
Tom’s seeming lack of awareness of the pivotal role genetic luck played in his career success rankles Aaron, who has had to earn his professional achievements the hard way. Returning to Hollywood, it is no secret that exceptional actors are routinely <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahmarder/actors-who-were-rejected-for-roles-for-being-ugly">denied</a> roles because they are deemed not sufficiently attractive. Which is why the self-congratulatory application of prosthetics by the beautiful stars feels somehow offensive. It is a form of aesthetic tourism: a privilege available only to those who can safely shed their ugliness at the end of the shoot to return to magazine covers and red carpets. The rest of us do not get to remove the costume. Therefore, a little more humility next time, please, Mr. Cruise — and a little less prosthetic posturing.
***
Bridget Riley studied modern history at Oxford and completed a Ph.D. in medieval history at the University of Reading. She writes on history, culture, and the philosophy of religion.
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.

rev-1-RGU_0170_COMP_V433_INH_r709g24_20260917.0086905_High_Res_JPEG

Why Hollywood’s Most Beautiful Stars Keep Cosplaying As Ordinary People

academy awards

charlize theron

digger

tom cruise

At a Byron Donalds campaign stop in Kissimmee, Florida, last week, a grandmother took the microphone to ask the Republican gubernatorial candidate a question about &#8220;grandparent rights.&#8221; She told Donalds, “I have not seen my grandson since August 7th of this year. And I want to know what can happen to get the fix, because it’s because of pettiness, because I refuse to babysit, because I had plans, and that’s why I’m not seeing my grandson. And so I would like for you to do something, or at least direct me to the right people.”
The right people, she explained, were legislators who could force her grandson’s parents to allow visitation. She went on, “We could do a federal law on this so it’d be nationwide, because grandparents should be able to see their grandchildren.”
A tweet with the exchange went viral with over 8 million views, and Americans across the political spectrum weighed in on a segment of family law few people knew about before this moment. After years of culture-war debates over parental rights, Americans are learning for the first time that grandparent rights exist in the legal code in states across the country.
One such <a href="https://apnews.com/article/relationships-idaho-supreme-court-b4f1ebf9badf5abf83dbd78cd64882d8" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://apnews.com/article/relationships-idaho-supreme-court-b4f1ebf9badf5abf83dbd78cd64882d8&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791034990616000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2JMrcmBGsAIDX6gBysGnPS">case</a> from Idaho shows how these kinds of laws work in practice. Four years ago, the state Supreme Court ruled on a case brought by Dennis and Linda Nelson, who asked a magistrate judge to award them visitation with their grandchildren after the grandchildren’s parents, Brian and Stephanie Evans, cut off contact in 2017. The grandparents requested, under a visitation law, access to their three granddaughters, which the parents fought through the state&#8217;s legal system. The children&#8217;s parents asserted that the grandparents had inserted themselves into the Evans family to an “exorbitant” extent and that the grandparents&#8217; behavior violated boundaries the parents tried to set.
The case made it to the state Supreme Court before returning to a lower court where the parents were overruled. The magistrate court <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2022/09/idaho-court-says-grandparents-dont-have-right-to-seek-visitation-when-parents-cut-off-contact.html">ruled</a> for the grandparents, “despite finding the Nelsons had harmed the grandchildren by acting in the way that they had.”
The parents asked for a ruling on the law&#8217;s constitutionality, arguing that it “did not serve any compelling state interest and that it allowed fit parents to be hauled into court by overzealous grandparents.” The high court agreed, noting that the case had cost the Evans over $50,000 in legal fees. The Evans were granted the right to decide who could access their children.
In legal filings, one conflict stemmed from a visit in which the parents asked the grandparents to take the children on a simple outing. Instead, the granddaughters were brought to Disneyland and weren’t returned at the agreed-upon time. Frequent violations of the parents&#8217; autonomy led them to decide to set boundaries through estrangement.
Estrangement is having a cultural moment, with commentators noting that the frequency with which children are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-ugly-truth-about-treating-your-family-like-its-replaceable">going “no contact”</a> with their own parents is increasing. A recent Wall Street Journal report <a href="https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/why-are-so-many-adults-cutting-off-their-parents-d4e1190c">explained</a>, “Family estrangement is on the rise, driven by shifting family norms and changing therapy practices. ‘We’re at a cultural tipping point.’”
It’s a troubling phenomenon, and more parents (and now grandparents) may try to resolve the estrangement through legal measures, as the mother at the Byron Donalds rally wants to be able to.
Parents and grandparents should work out their differences, and estrangement should be a last resort.But parents have a fundamental right to direct their children&#8217;s moral upbringing. Byron Donalds believes this, or at least he did when he <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DcMDhOGR0f-/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.instagram.com/p/DcMDhOGR0f-/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1791034990616000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0jCYqwIOVjgnfbtC85twrB">signed</a> the Moms for Liberty Parents Pledge a few months ago. The organization&#8217;s motto, “We don’t co-parent with the government,” extends to the government declining to step into a family dispute.
Donalds had an opportunity to say exactly that in Kissimmee. Instead, he directed his staff to get the grandmother’s information and <a href="https://www.alternet.org/florida-byron-donalds-grandma/">promised</a> to &#8220;work with the members of the legislature on this.&#8221; The more principled answer would have been considerably less politically comfortable given his elderly base: Parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children, and that includes deciding which adults have access to them. That principle doesn&#8217;t disappear because the person asking the government to override the parents is a grandparent rather than a progressive school staffer.
Republicans may increasingly find themselves forced to choose between two constituencies they have spent years courting. The GOP has made parental rights a centerpiece of its education and culture-war agenda. But older Americans are also among the party&#8217;s most reliable voters and donors, and an increasingly vocal grandparent-rights movement could put those commitments in direct conflict.
Parental rights are easy to defend when the villain is a progressive school board. The harder test comes when enforcing them means telling a crying grandmother, “No.”
By the grandmother&#8217;s account, she last saw her grandson on August 7. The Donalds event occurred only about seven weeks later. Yet in that remarkably short span, she had already contacted her member of Congress and asked a candidate for governor to create a federal law that could compel her adult child to give her access to a grandchild.
Perhaps her account is exactly as she presented it: She declined to babysit once because she had plans, and her child retaliated by withholding her grandson. If so, the estrangement sounds cruel and disproportionate. But her own account of the estrangement leads one to wonder whether there is perhaps more to the story.
That uncertainty is precisely why the government shouldn&#8217;t presume it knows better than a fit parent. The Idaho case shows how quickly a seemingly sympathetic story about grandparents missing their grandchildren can become something very different, and how much it can cost parents to adjudicate a family dispute in court. Parents should never have to spend tens of thousands of dollars defending their authority over their own children.
Therapists and online culture may encourage people to sever family relationships that could instead be repaired. But repair won’t come from state persuasion.
***
Bethany Mandel (<a href="https://x.com/bethanyshondark" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@bethanyshondark</a>) is a homeschooling mother of six. She podcasts at the Mom Wars and writes for its <a href="https://themomwars.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Substack</a>.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

Gemini_Generated_Image_psiehpsiehpsiehp

The Next Parental Rights Battle Is Coming From Inside The Family

2026 midterm election

byron donalds

family estrangement

grandparent rights

moms for liberty

parental rights

She’s a mom of four and lifestyle mogul juggling a high-profile marriage along with multihyphenate success in country music, reality TV, fitness, fashion, and food. But Jessie James Decker always makes time for a home-cooked meal — and her latest cookbook invites the whole family to savor the good life.
Following Jessie’s previous New York Times bestsellers, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GF8WCK1N?lv=shuf&amp;channelId=500&amp;plpRedirect=mhFallback">The Secret Sauce: A Family Cookbook Seasoned with Love</a>” hit shelves on Tuesday, featuring crowd-pleasing recipes and heartwarming stories from Jessie, her sister Sydney Rae Bass, and their mom Karen Parker. Their Southern, Italian, and Cajun heritage pops off the page, accompanied by photos of Mardi Gras chicken pasta, marry me key lime pie, and Tuscan tomato salad. Just reading it almost feels like picking garden vegetables with Nonna, cooking up a storm, and eating like you mean it. 
I chatted with Jessie the afternoon before she headed out on tour for her book. She’s a born entertainer, but I wonder if she still gets butterflies when she’s playing to more bookish, food-loving crowds than those at The Opry or one of her stadium shows. These days, Jessie’s focused on raising her kids at home — not spending life on the road. But no one’s going hungry in this family. 
“I&#8217;m not a chef and I&#8217;ve never pretended to be, but I&#8217;m a really good home cook,” Jessie says. Preferring cooking to baking, she could probably make most of these dishes by heart. Now a Nashville local with a Southern vibe, Jessie explains, “My mom&#8217;s side of the family all came down from Sicily and settled in a little town called Independence, Louisiana, and it&#8217;s filled with Italians. I was literally raised on Cajun and Italian food.”
If she had to pick a favorite from her newest collection, Jessie would point directly to her mom’s red beans and rice. “It&#8217;s a Cajun Louisiana staple,” she says. “It brings me back to my childhood. Anytime I would travel or go on tour, that was the meal I requested be there when I got home. Even now whenever Eric and I go out of town and my mom watches the kids, we’ll come home and she knows to have red beans and rice on the table. It&#8217;s sausage and rice and beans and it&#8217;s got a bell pepper and bay leaf — it&#8217;s just very, very good and the kids love it. So that&#8217;s a very special recipe to me.”
Jessie describes these types of treasured dishes as “genuinely secret family recipes that I still cannot believe my mother was okay with sharing. There&#8217;s a couple that I&#8217;ve asked, ‘Mom, have you told Gigi that that one&#8217;s in there?’” She laughs. Her grandmother ultimately approved the family’s pink maraschino cherry cookies in the final edit. 
Still, Jessie keeps the mother sauce of Italian cuisine secured in the vault. “The Sicilian gravy … will die with us,” she says.
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ddht3eGv7ez/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
<div style="padding: 16px;">
&nbsp;
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div>
<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"></div>
</div>
&nbsp;
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ddht3eGv7ez/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Just Feed Me (@justfeedme)</a>
</div>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
Jessie and her mom and sister have the kind of “fun wine mom” energy you want to participate in — even if they’re just hanging out in pajamas with coffee around the table. It’s an unbreakable bond that just seems to grow bigger as more people get added to the tribe. 
Regarding her light and cheeky Instagram where she entertains over 4 million followers, I suggest that Jessie should win Best Director for convincing her hubby to do stunts like the “naked” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ddz2iNtTOWB/?hl=en">cookbook promo</a>. After spending almost 16 years with her, he clearly trusts Jessie&#8217;s creative eye behind the camera. She could spot talent a mile away. The couple started dating once a mutual friend connected them via Jessie’s Blackberry. 
“She sends me a picture to my Blackberry, and it takes a minute to load,” Jessie recalls. “I saw the photo and I was like, well sh*t, this guy is gorgeous. Totally what I had just envisioned: tall, dark, and handsome.”
Fans caught a first glimpse of Jessie’s marriage to former NFL wide receiver Eric Decker on their first reality show, “Eric &amp; Jessie.” Anyone following along will remember their couple&#8217;s exit from “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” when they confirmed, &#8220;<a href="https://www.eonline.com/news/1424358/special-forces-eric-decker-jessie-james-decker-exit-after-injury">We ride together, we fly together</a>.&#8221; But it’s only an illusion that she’s offering up their full story.
“We&#8217;re actually more private than you would ever realize,” she says. “Our relationship and our marriage is very special and sacred to us. So is our family. That&#8217;s why you haven&#8217;t seen us on another reality show because it&#8217;s just too precious. You don&#8217;t have to share everything.”
As for how she does it all while maintaining a level of fitness to keep her JJD Fit community rolling, Jessie’s all about balance. “I&#8217;ve always had such a great relationship with food, and I know a lot of people don&#8217;t,” she admits. Considering that she entered the music industry as a teen, that mindset is nothing short of a miracle. “I don&#8217;t do the sad salads in plastic, like I just don&#8217;t play that game,” she says. “I want good stuff. Food to me is a celebration. I want it to be just delicious and fabulous. It&#8217;s like a treat. I look forward to it.”
“I don&#8217;t overindulge in anything,” she says. “But I never cut myself off. Don&#8217;t ever cut yourself off from the pleasures of life. If you want to have a cookie, have a cookie. If you want to have a glass of wine, have a glass of wine. Everything in moderation.”
Still, Jessie’s real about not always toiling away in the kitchen. “I&#8217;ve definitely had my McDonald&#8217;s chicken sandwich from time,” she laughs. “But I crave heirloom tomatoes and basil and balsamic as a snack.” 
Considering she’s about to head off to Mexico on a girls’ trip, a food and fitness travel show doesn’t seem completely off the table. “I would love to do kind of what Denise Austin did back in the day where I could travel to all these places, do a workout, and then go eat something after and talk about it. I do feel like fitness and food go hand in hand.&#8221;
When it comes to diet, Jessie’s advice is to go back to basics.
“We’ve gotta make it a little bit simpler. Eat your meat, eat your steak, have your butter, have your vegetables, drink your milk,” Jessie says. “These are all things that our grandparents ate. Just feed your body real food and don&#8217;t overthink it.”
***
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.

Jessie James Decker’s Diet Advice Is Refreshingly Simple

cookbook

country music

diet

eric decker

jessie james decker

The video game industry has laid off tens of thousands of people at companies such as Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, EA, Ubisoft, Sony, Riot, Epic, and Embracer in the past few years. The cuts often come right after a company reports record engagement or record revenue. The internet&#8217;s explanation is always corporate greed. The CEO wants a third yacht, so he fires the guy who animated Kratos&#8217; beard.
But the greed accusation assumes that wanting to make money is wrong in itself. Frankly, I&#8217;d like a yacht. The real explanation is the math of making a AAA, or major, video game.
In 2004, a AAA game such as Halo 2 or Half-Life 2 took 50 to 100 people a few years. Today, core teams average 400 to 500 people. The Last of Us Part II credited more than 2,100 people across Naughty Dog and 14 outside studios. The race toward photorealism demands far more artists, far more programmers, and far longer schedules.
Take a hypothetical game on the scale of 2018&#8217;s God of War: about 300 developers working for four years. At an average salary of $120,000, that&#8217;s $144 million in pay alone. Benefits and payroll taxes add $43 million. Contractors, motion capture, quality assurance, and localization add $25 million, and offices, hardware, and software another $12 million. Marketing can easily run $50 million. That&#8217;s about $274.2 million before a single copy sells.
The game sells for $70, and Steam, PlayStation and Xbox take 30%, leaving about $49 per copy. Just breaking even takes 5.6 million copies.
Most of that budget, $187 million, goes to salaries and benefits. It&#8217;s paid out over four years before the game earns a dollar. Someone has to cover that payroll, and that someone is investors. They put up the money because they expect a return, and that expectation is what creates the jobs in the first place.
Breaking even doesn&#8217;t satisfy them. An investor could put the same $274.2 million in an index fund earning 8% a year and have about $373 million after four years. To beat that, the game has to sell 7.6 million copies.
So a game can sell 4 million copies, rank among the year&#8217;s top 20, and still count as a failure internally. It&#8217;s not because the game is bad. It&#8217;s because the money would have done better elsewhere.
Ownership matters too. Say I own a studio outright, spend $275 million on a game and earn $300 million. I&#8217;d be thrilled with a $25 million profit. If I were CEO of a public company, the same result would have shareholders asking why I tied up a quarter billion dollars for four years to earn less than a Treasury bond.
Public companies aren&#8217;t legally required to maximize profit, but they answer to shareholders who can sell the moment growth slows. Executives are mostly paid in stock, too. When the share price dips, the fastest lever to pull is payroll.
Not even Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima is safe. Last month, it was announced that Sony pulled funding for Physint, his long-running spy thriller, and Xbox picked it up. On the surface that makes no sense. Kojima made Metal Gear Solid, and tens of millions of people played Death Stranding.
But the numbers were thinner than the reputation. Death Stranding cost about $100 million and earned about $243 million. Death Stranding 2 cost $150 million to $200 million, and its sales dropped off after a strong first two months. Analysts estimate the franchise has earned about $413 million, a return of 18% to 38% over roughly six years. Keeping pace with the 8% benchmark would have taken about 59%. With Physint reportedly behind schedule and over budget, Sony walked away.
Then there&#8217;s the live service lottery. Live service games continuously update and allow in-game purchases, keeping the gaming experience dynamic and, for the company, profitable. Every publisher watched Fortnite and GTA Online print money year after year and decided it needed one, too. EA, Ubisoft, Sony, and even Naughty Dog all launched live service projects on top of their usual single-player games. The market had room for two or three winners. Concord, Redfall, Suicide Squad, and Highguard were not among them, and each cost as much to make as a AAA game. For every Helldivers 2, at least 10 others die on the vine. Then come the layoffs.
Microsoft tried to escape the math with Game Pass. On a subscription service, a game didn&#8217;t need to sell 7.6 million copies. It only needed to keep subscribers paying $10-$23 a month. That funded games that would never have existed otherwise: Double Fine&#8217;s Psychonauts 2, Compulsion Games&#8217; strange narrative projects, and Tango Gameworks&#8217; surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush.
But the 8% target just moved to a different spreadsheet. When subscriber growth slowed, the pressure came back for every studio at once. Tango was shut down in 2024, about a year and a half after Hi-Fi Rush launched to great reviews. Compulsion had to buy back its independence from Xbox. Microsoft deserves blame for green-lighting games that were never going to sell — and credit for taking the risks that got them made.
None of this excuses bad decisions. Green-lighting five live service clones at once was foolish, and spending $69 billion on a single acquisition was ambitious, to put it kindly. But trying to make money isn&#8217;t evil. It&#8217;s what pays for games in the first place.
An indie studio can be happy breaking even. A public company has to keep asking whether its money could earn more somewhere else, and, across the industry, the honest answer is often yes.
So the next time a studio you love is gutted the same month its game tops the charts, remember the math. Making money with art is hard. Getting someone to front you $300 million, then paying it back, is even harder.
***
Michael Knipp is a husband, father of five children, and nerd culture enthusiast. He works in IT at The Daily Wire.
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.

GettyImages-2279539971

Why Your Favorite Game Studios Keep Dying

business

hideo kojima

layoffs

microsoft

sony

video game industry

video game industry layoffs

Upstream

Menu

upstream