If you&#8217;ve ever finished a satisfying dinner and found yourself standing in front of the refrigerator 20 minutes later, not out of hunger but out of a relentless mental pull toward food, you already know what food noise is. You just may not have had a name for it.
Food noise is the constant, low-grade (or sometimes deafening) mental chatter about food that won&#8217;t quiet down, even when your body has had enough. It&#8217;s the craving that ambushes you at 9 p.m., the inability to feel truly full, the thought loop that makes resisting certain foods feel like a full-time job. The term is gaining traction because millions of people finally feel seen, and because science is beginning to explain why it happens in the first place.
Before we go further, something important needs to be said. Normal hunger is not the enemy here. It is one of the most satisfying and elemental parts of being alive. The anticipation of a good meal, the deep satisfaction of eating well, the way food anchors community and celebration and daily rhythm — these are wholesome and worth celebrating. Strength, satiety, and the pleasure of eating are signs of a body working as it should.
What we&#8217;re talking about when we say food noise is something different, something that has less to do with real hunger and more to do with a metabolism that has lost its footing. Decades of ultra-processed foods have done something truly damaging to the body&#8217;s natural hunger cues. The signals designed to tell us when we&#8217;re hungry, satisfied, and done have been disrupted in ways that, for many people, genuinely require healing rather than simply more willpower.
But here&#8217;s what most diet culture gets wrong: Food noise isn&#8217;t a character flaw. For many people, it has a biological root. 
When we eat, our gut releases small hormones called incretins, primarily GLP-1, GIP, and PYY. These peptides travel through the gut-brain axis and signal the brain&#8217;s &#8220;full&#8221; receptors, creating that calm, satisfied feeling after a meal. Think of them as your body&#8217;s natural volume dial on food noise.
Not everyone&#8217;s dial works the same way, though. Some people genetically produce fewer of these hormones. Others have fewer receptors for them, meaning even a normal amount of GLP-1 doesn&#8217;t register as strongly. Add in aging, estrogen loss, or a long history of restrictive dieting, and that dial can get stuck on loud.
A landmark 2011 <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1105816">study</a> published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that even a full year after weight loss from strict dieting, subjects still had significantly suppressed incretin hormone levels. Chronic dieting doesn&#8217;t just fail; it can biologically amplify the very food noise that makes eating wisely harder. The diet industry has been blaming people for falling off the wagon when it was actually pushing them off.
So what about GLP-1 medications like semaglutide (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-ozempic-question-nobody-wants-to-answer">Ozempic</a>, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/weight-loss-medication-may-have-dangerous-side-effects-i-dont-care">Zepbound</a>)? For the right people, they can be genuinely life-changing. Called &#8220;mimetics,&#8221; they mimic the body&#8217;s own incretin hormones but are engineered to last much longer in the system, keeping those satiety signals circulating well beyond a normal meal. The result, for many, is a mental calm around food they may never have experienced before. 
Still, these medications are most appropriate for those whose struggles persist even after diet and lifestyle are genuinely dialed in. They work best alongside a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-ozempic-side-effect-thats-changing-americas-morning-coffee">protein-anchored diet</a> and strength training, and aggressive dosing can backfire, suppressing appetite so dramatically that people skip meals, lose muscle, and slow their metabolism. The goal is to turn food noise down, not off.
For those looking to support their body&#8217;s own incretin output naturally, the strategies are straightforward and well-researched. Bioavailable animal protein is the most powerful lever. A <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7468821/">2020 study published in Diabetes Metabolism Research &amp; Reviews</a> compared a plant-based diet to a Mediterranean diet that included animal proteins and found that subjects had significantly higher GLP-1 levels after Mediterranean meals than vegetarian ones.
What else can help your body produce more of its own GLP-1? Fermented and fiber-rich foods like kefir, sauerkraut, oats, and beans feed the gut bacteria that produce GLP-1, and a thriving microbiome can meaningfully turn down the volume on food noise over time. 
Exercise matters too, particularly strength training. A 2025 study in the Frontiers in Clinical Diabetes and Healthcare found <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/clinical-diabetes-and-healthcare/articles/10.3389/fcdhc.2025.1720794/full">that exercise increases GLP-1 levels by up to 37%</a>, and the muscle mass built through consistent training further improves insulin sensitivity, compounding the effect. 
And perhaps most counterintuitively, severe restriction makes food noise louder, not quieter. Eating enough is a biological necessity, not a reward to be earned.
Food noise is not a moral failing; it&#8217;s a hormonal conversation between your gut and your brain, one that science is only beginning to understand. For some, that conversation needs medical support. For most, however, strategic nutrition and lifestyle changes can move the needle meaningfully. For almost everyone, understanding why the noise is there is the first step toward finding peace with food and reclaiming the deep, simple pleasure that eating was always meant to be.
***
Pearl Barrett and Serene Allison are the founders of Trim Healthy Mama and New York Times bestselling authors of the forthcoming title &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+seven+skills+to+lasting+health&amp;adgrpid=185689537145&amp;hvadid=779621993755&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvexpln=0&amp;hvlocphy=9210807&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvocijid=5550474026117812759--&amp;hvqmt=e&amp;hvrand=5550474026117812759&amp;hvtargid=kwd-2460996756465&amp;hydadcr=15555_13842827_8870&amp;mcid=ef3debac22cb3f278916e22a279fd059&amp;tag=googhydr-20&amp;ref=pd_sl_1os91ya29f_e">The 7 Skills to Lasting Health</a>.&#8221;
<div>
<section class="css-86hvvx">
<div class="css-1kja2d9">
<div id="post-body-text" class="css-1tho4p7">
<div class="ebmlhox0 css-jpqt6g" data-narration-container="true">
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>
</div>

Measuring tape wrapped around fork lying on color surface. Diet concept

What The Diet Industry Doesn’t Want You To Know

Health

Upstream

More and more adults are moving back in with their parents to save money, the Wall Street Journal recently <a href="https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/relationships/living-with-parents-finances-0c35530c">reported</a>. One of the subjects of the article remarks, “No one ever judges me. The conversation tends to be more like, ‘That’s awesome, and I bet you’re saving money.’” But it’s not awesome to be 33 years old and have no plans to move out of your parents’ house. 
This article speaks to one of the issues young Americans are facing as they progress into adulthood: a total lack of self-reliance. But home prices are higher than they used to be! That may be true, but it does not justify an attitude of apathy.
First of all, suck it up, buttercups. Rent an apartment until you can afford a house. Split the cost with some roommates. The challenges of today may be different from the challenges of the past, but that doesn’t mean they’re worse, and it certainly doesn&#8217;t mean they&#8217;re insurmountable. Your grandfather had problems too. He figured them out.
Secondly, the high-cost argument would be more understandable if living with one’s parents was seen as an absolute last-ditch option for somebody who truly couldn’t afford independent living. The article makes clear, however, that the subjects feel no shame about living at home. They view it as a smart or “savvy” way to save some money. 
This is where the problem lies. What young people should view as an unfortunate byproduct of a serious problem, they instead see as a perfectly reasonable solution. This is indicative of a culture that prioritizes material pleasure over pride and independence. 
This culture of shamelessness is a large part of what’s driving the popularity of a socialist handout culture among American youth. When you strip away the cultural stigma on freeloading, people will expect their hand-outs to be institutionalized.
“Not everybody has rich parents” no longer becomes a cause for living independently; it becomes a cause for manufacturing a state-sponsored “rich parent” for everyone else.
Shame, to be clear, does not mean cruelty. There is, at least for now, a social stigma around being unemployed. This is not a license to abuse or bully the unemployed, nor does it mean that the unemployed should be stripped of their basic dignity. There is, however, an understanding among both the unemployed person and his peers that he is in an inferior situation and should be actively working to remedy it. He receives a lesser degree of social respect and, for that reason, is motivated to find a job.
This type of shame should extend to broader situations, especially financial dependence. The entire concept of a welfare system requires a certain degree of shame in order to function. The difference between a social safety net and a nanny state is an inherent desire not to be the guy in the net. 
If the proponents of the welfare state gave it a moment’s thought, they would see that shame is actually their ideal motivator. So often left-wingers decry the binary choice of “you work or you starve.” One would think they would be delighted to have a motivator that does not use the threat of danger or physical harm to motivate work.
The objective has never been emergency support. It has been the destruction of the meritocracy. 
Let’s be clear about something. It is shameful to be an adult who is unable to provide for yourself and your family. Whether you’re taking handouts from the government, your parents, or any other third party, if you’re not the one putting food on your child’s plate, you should be embarrassed. 
That doesn’t mean that we should let your child starve, simply that we should differentiate between treating welfare as a safety valve whose necessity we all strive to eliminate and placing it on equal social footing with self-reliance. When we teach that there’s nothing shameful about failure, we naturally instill the lesson that there’s nothing prideful about success.
More and more, young people are becoming alienated from the connection between hard work and the comforts that it brings. Whether they rely on government handouts or parental handouts, they live in comfort through no struggle or effort of their own. Can we really be surprised that they keep electing socialists?
Conventional wisdom on the Right has always been that socialism looks attractive when you’re a kid living on Daddy’s credit card, but it becomes a lot less appealing once you’re out in the real world. Only nowadays are people living on Daddy’s (or the state’s) credit card well into adulthood. 
The life of a dependent is bound to beget dependence. Perhaps the trend of young people taking longer to mature than their parents comes from the incessant culture of infantilization. 
The epidemic of shamelessness is a failure on multiple fronts. It’s a failure of the grown men and women who see no issue with freeloading off their parents into adulthood. It’s a failure of the education system not to instill a sense of self-reliance. It’s also a failure on the part of the parents who never told their children it was time to move out. 
Living at home when you’re 23 and when you’re 33 are two very different things. By never placing the responsibilities of adulthood on your children, you enable them to stay children forever.
The sense of being owed handouts and the attitude that it is “thrifty” or “savvy” rather than pathetic to live on someone else’s dime is not localized to the Left. For far too many Republican populists, the question is not “Why are there so many handouts?” It’s “Where’s my piece of the pie?”
None of this is to say that our problems aren’t real. Housing costs are high, and living independently has certain new challenges attached to it. But the solutions lie in tenacity, self-respect, and the individualist values that built our country. Not in surrendering to laziness and hedonism. 
Young America, a little shame goes a long way. It’s time to grow up.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-3377736

The Real Reason So Many Adults Refuse To Grow Up

Steven Spielberg has spent much of his career asking audiences to believe in the impossible. In &#8220;E.T.,&#8221; &#8220;Close Encounters of the Third Kind,&#8221; and &#8220;A.I.,&#8221; he treated the unknown with awe rather than fear. &#8220;Disclosure Day&#8221; continues that fascination with first contact, but this time Spielberg aims higher than simply telling another alien story. He wants to ask what happens when humanity learns, beyond all doubt, that we are not alone — and more provocatively, what happens to religion and civilization itself when that truth arrives.
It is an ambitious premise. In many respects, it is exactly the kind of grand, philosophical science fiction Hollywood rarely attempts anymore. Which is precisely why it&#8217;s so disappointing that Spielberg settles for arguments that are far less sophisticated than the filmmaking surrounding them. &#8220;Disclosure Day&#8221; is a pretty film, it is often an exciting film, it is occasionally a fascinating and mysterious film. However, it ultimately undermines itself by constructing a theological debate in which only one side is allowed to be intelligent.
Visually, &#8220;Disclosure Day&#8221; is a delight for the eyes. Shot on 35mm film, the movie finds Spielberg returning to the warm, glowing aesthetic that defined much of his earlier work. There is a softness to the image that digital cameras struggle to reproduce. Neighborhood streets, dark hotel rooms, laboratories, warehouses, forests — even scenes bathed in fluorescent lighting — carry the nostalgic warmth of &#8220;E.T.&#8221; and &#8220;Close Encounters.&#8221; Rather than chasing blockbuster sharpness, Spielberg embraces the old texture.
His camera remains as inventive as ever. Tight compositions from unusual angles constantly reveal information in fresh ways without calling attention to themselves. Nothing feels static. Even simple conversations possess an energy created entirely through visual language.
As with all of his outings, John Williams&#8217; score is remarkable, and historic in this case, &#8220;Disclosure Day&#8221; is Spielberg’s and Williams’ 30th film together. The low brass themes accompanying the escalating confrontation between government factions possess genuine weight, while the recurring clarinet motif accompanying scenes of psychic manipulation gives the alien presence an eerie identity without resorting to horror clichés. At 94, Williams might have composed his final film score, and in the theater I relished it. 
All that is to say, technically, Spielberg has lost very little with age.
The performances are similarly strong across the board. Josh O&#8217;Connor gives Daniel Kellner enough humanity to remain engaging despite a screenplay that often treats him more as a passenger than an active protagonist. Emily Blunt delivers perhaps the film&#8217;s strongest emotional performance as Margaret Fairchild, whose gradual psychological collapse — and eventual rediscovery of purpose — anchors much of the movie&#8217;s emotional core.
Colman Domingo&#8217;s Hugo Wakefield is intriguing almost immediately because the audience senses they&#8217;ve arrived at the final chapter of a much longer story. Hugo carries himself like someone who&#8217;s spent decades fighting battles the audience never witnessed. Rather than feeling underdeveloped with his limited screen time, he feels mysterious, but lived-in.
The standout, however, is Colin Firth&#8217;s Noah Scanlan. Scanlan begins as what appears to be a conventional corporate villain but slowly reveals himself to be something considerably more interesting: a man convinced that secrecy is not merely necessary, but morally righteous. He isn&#8217;t protecting power for power&#8217;s sake, contrary to Hugo’s accusation. He&#8217;s protecting civilization itself — or at least he believes he is. That conviction gives the film its best dramatic tension.
Throughout &#8220;Disclosure Day,&#8221; the audience gradually realizes they&#8217;re watching the final moves of a years-long chess match between Scanlan and Hugo. The younger protagonists frequently feel less like central characters than pieces being maneuvered by two men who have spent their lives preparing for exactly this moment. Ironically, that dynamic also exposes one of the screenplay&#8217;s biggest weaknesses. Neither Kellner nor Margaret possesses much agency for large portions of the film. Events happen to them more often than they happen because of them. The word passenger gets used on more than a few occasions by Hugo to describe both Kellner and Fairchild.
Curiously, the characters with the most meaningful agency are actually their romantic partners. Kellner&#8217;s girlfriend — Jane, played by Eve Hewson — believes him, supports him, and willingly joins his increasingly dangerous mission. Margaret&#8217;s boyfriend — Jackson, played by Wyatt Russell — reacts in precisely the opposite way, attempting to stop her because he believes she&#8217;s losing her mind.
Their contrasting responses create one of the screenplay&#8217;s more subtle observations about faith, trust, and love. Unfortunately, subtlety becomes increasingly scarce once Spielberg begins engaging directly with religion.
This is where &#8220;Disclosure Day&#8221; begins sabotaging itself. Spielberg recently remarked that alien disclosure could fundamentally shake religious belief. That concern forms the central thesis of the film. The problem isn&#8217;t that Spielberg asks the question. The problem is that he refuses to let serious religious voices answer it.
Instead, nearly every explicitly religious character exists primarily to demonstrate how easily faith can be manipulated. Religious belief is repeatedly portrayed as fragile, irrational, emotionally driven, and ultimately incompatible with objective truth. It is an astonishingly simplistic treatment of a remarkably complex philosophical subject.
The film repeatedly frames the conflict as one between reason and religion, as though Christianity has spent two thousand years opposing truth itself. That simply isn&#8217;t true. Spielberg either doesn&#8217;t know this or chooses to ignore it. The result is a debate in which science argues against caricatures rather than genuine theological positions. This becomes particularly frustrating because the film repeatedly hints at far richer conversations.
One remarkable sequence involves Scanlan invading Jane&#8217;s mind and manipulating her through her own religious convictions. The conversation itself, however, collapses into another straw man. Rather than confronting sophisticated religious arguments, Scanlan manipulates simplistic ones that were designed to lose from the outset.
Spielberg clearly wants to champion objective truth and transparency, and while the audience may recognize that as a good thing to stand for, problems arise when he constructs the opposing side so poorly that victory becomes meaningless.
Oddly enough, Scanlan himself becomes the film&#8217;s most compelling victim of this weak writing. Everything about his characterization suggests tremendous intelligence and fortitude. He physically deteriorates throughout the film as repeated psychic intrusions into the minds of Jane and other protagonists gradually destroy his body. Every time he staggers, refuses assistance, and insists he&#8217;s fine, we see a man literally sacrificing himself for what he believes is the greater good.
By the film&#8217;s conclusion, when he quietly accepts defeat rather than continuing to resist, Spielberg perhaps accidentally grants him more dignity than intended. Scanlan&#8217;s final moments on screen suggest a man honestly wrestling with the collapse of his worldview rather than merely a cartoon authoritarian. 
Unfortunately for Spielberg, this isn’t the only stumbling block. For a film centered on exposing history&#8217;s greatest conspiracy, &#8220;Disclosure Day&#8221; develops an enormous plot problem that becomes impossible to ignore. The protagonists possess overwhelming evidence proving alien existence. Their chosen method of revealing it? Cable news.
Not social media, not WikiLeaks, not public document dumps. Cable news. What year does Spielberg think it is? 
The screenplay even acknowledges this problem early in the film. Kellner suggests uploading everything online. The antagonists marvel that there are no internet leaks as they hunt down Kellner and the files he possesses. Then everyone collectively decides the better option is commandeering a television broadcast.
The finale becomes increasingly absurd as virtually the entire planet appears to stop what it&#8217;s doing to watch one American cable broadcast simultaneously. Russian soldiers watch it. Civilians watch it. Military command centers watch it. The entire world apparently abandons the internet in favor of live television. It’s an extraordinarily out-of-date solution to a modern problem.
Ultimately, &#8220;Disclosure Day&#8221; is defined less by what it gets wrong than by how close it comes to greatness. The technical elements work. The music, perfectly, works. The performances work. Some of the story works. The central ideological conflict simply doesn&#8217;t.
Rather than trusting audiences to wrestle with competing visions of truth, Spielberg rigs the debate before it begins. His religious characters become foils rather than equals, reducing what should have been genuine philosophical inquiry into something much closer to a lecture.
Ironically, &#8220;Disclosure Day&#8221; spends two-and-a-half hours arguing for the importance of confronting uncomfortable truths. Yet whenever the screenplay encounters ideas that might genuinely challenge its own assumptions, it quietly looks away, as if afraid it may not hold up. The bones of a great film are here. What it needs is just a little more confidence in the audience&#8217;s ability to think through difficult questions.
A few changes might have elevated &#8220;Disclosure Day&#8221; into Spielberg&#8217;s best science fiction film since &#8220;Minority Report.&#8221; Instead, it settles for being a well-made movie that ultimately lacks the intellectual courage its premise demands.
Grade: B-
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-2280465031

Great Filmmaking, Lazy Philosophy: How ‘Disclosure Day’ Settles For Straw Men

Movies

Some on the Right have spent the last several months complaining about Christopher Nolan’s “Odyssey.” The controversy has largely centered on two things: transgender-identifying Elliot Page playing a male soldier (but not Achilles, as rumors suggested) and the race-blind casting, particularly the choice to feature black actress Lupita Nyong&#8217;o as Helen of Troy.
Elon Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2055338961841869105" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> in May that “Chris Nolan desecrated the Odyssey.” Earlier this month, the X account Wall Street Mav, which has over a million followers, <a href="https://x.com/WallStreetMav/status/2073851956343312386" target="_blank" rel="noopener">predicted</a> “financial disaster.”
Just a day after its release, “The Odyssey” is already proving haters wrong. Forget the critics’ score (though that is hovering at 95%). On Rotten Tomatoes, audiences <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_odyssey_2026" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave</a> the film an even higher 97% score. It <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2026/07/17/the-odyssey-earns-huge-176-million-in-previews-biggest-haul-of-the-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">earned</a> $17.6 million on Thursday, the day before its official release, and the numbers keep growing.
Online outrage doesn’t always translate to the real world. And in this instance, perhaps the legendary “Interstellar” and “The Dark Knight” director knew a thing or two about what audiences were craving.
“As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before,” Nolan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unreal-first-trailer-for-christopher-nolans-the-odyssey-drops" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in an interview last year. “And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with — Ray Harryhausen movies and other things — I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do.”
In a year dominated by sequels — the year’s top films so far have been “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and “Toy Story 5” — Nolan’s “Odyssey” revives a classic story for a new generation who, if we’re being honest, probably were never going to thumb through a copy of “The Odyssey” (even the Emily Wilson translation favored by liberals). It’s become popular internet slang to respond to a lack of pop culture knowledge by saying “we’re losing the ancient texts.” But when it comes to stories such as “The Odyssey,” we <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-one-family-habit-could-save-reading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">actually are</a>.
This means Nolan’s “Odyssey” comes at the perfect time. The archetypes, the themes, and the drama of Homer — it&#8217;s all there. Nolan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-ancient-lesson-christopher-nolan-may-have-completely-stripped-out-of-the-odyssey" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raised some eyebrows</a> by marketing the film with the tagline “defy the gods.” If you know anything about “The Odyssey,” you should know that you cannot, in fact, defy the gods. But in the actual film, Nolan makes that clear.
“The Odyssey” is a big, glorious summer blockbuster based on a pillar of the Western canon. It explores mercy, hospitality, vengeance, family bonds, honor, and, of course, homecoming. The score is bracing, the 60-foot puppet cyclops is nightmare-fuel, and Robert Pattinson is particularly chilling as the suitor Antinous.
That said, Page’s role as Sinon (a character from Virgil’s “Aeneid”), does distract from the narrative. Nolan worked with Page on “Inception” in 2010 (a decade before she began identifying as a man), and he likes to recast actors he’s worked with before. But with just a few minutes of screen time, Sinon’s brief appearances can’t distract from the greatness of the rest of the film.
The race-blind casting, on the other hand, allows for some stellar performances, mostly notably Zendaya as Athena and Himesh Patel as Odysseus’ second in command, Eurylochus.
With the “Odyssey” controversy, conservatives are getting hung up on the details (some more troublesome than others) when the headline is that one of Hollywood’s best directors just made a three-hour long film about a father returning home to his family, facing terrifying monsters and deftly wielding his bow and arrows on the way. It’s beautifully shot, it has mass appeal, and there’s little in the film itself to subvert Homer’s epic tale, which is now reaching a new audience.
Ignore the performative “Odyssey” hate, and go enjoy the film.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

the-odyssey-ODY_AdvHorse1Sht1_RGB_2_rgb

Go Ahead, Watch ‘The Odyssey’

Move over, Leonardo Da Vinci. There’s a new Renaissance humanist on the block — at least, <a href="https://x.com/eve_bouff/status/2075978772629835994">according</a> to the internet. You might know her as the global pop star Dua Lipa, and she wants you to read banned books.
This past week, the &#8220;Levitating&#8221; singer <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DaX7tuJjAKN/?img_index=6">unveiled</a> her new “Manifesto Library” in Portugal, which features hundreds of books she claims were once banned or otherwise controversial. Posing with a copy of Margaret Atwood’s &#8220;The Handmaid’s Tale,&#8221; a book that has now <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/margaret-atwood-handsmaids-tale-new-memoir-60-minutes/">sold</a> more than 10 million copies worldwide, she tells her 650K+ “Book Club” followers that her initiative opens up “conversations around censorship, resistance and the importance of preserving voices that challenge power and refuse to be silenced.” 
There’s only one problem. None of the books in her library were ever “banned” or &#8220;censored&#8221; in the first place. 
Among the <a href="https://vogueadria.com/dua-lipa-banned-books-library/">other titles</a> in Dua Lipa’s library are George Orwell’s &#8220;1984,&#8221; a book that has <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-does-george-orwells-1984-mean-in-2024-180984468/">sold</a> over 30 million copies as of 2024, and J.D. Salinger’s &#8220;The Catcher in the Rye,&#8221; a novel that is read in virtually every single high school English class across the country. I don’t necessarily disagree with Dua Lipa that we all should read these great books, but calling &#8220;1984&#8243; and &#8220;The Catcher in the Rye&#8221; “banned” books is like calling &#8220;Game of Thrones,&#8221; one of the world’s most widely watched TV shows, a “banned” show.
As I <a href="https://x.com/pensandpoison/status/2076800465040195947">pointed out</a> the other day on X, you can call anything a “banned book” as long as it was removed from an elementary school library that one time in 1978. 
That hasn’t stopped the political Left from co-opting the term “banned books” to create an imaginary controversy around censorship. Slapping the label onto virtually any novel with a remotely political bent, the Left frequently pretends conservatives are responsible for instituting Nazi-era book bans and for silencing leftist voices. Walk into any indie bookstore in a blue state, for instance, and you’ll immediately be met with a “banned books” display featuring carefully curated titles promoting a certain political agenda. One such <a href="https://x.com/TheMuppetPastor/status/2077019394907996560/photo/1">display</a> making the rounds on X contains Frantz Fanon’s &#8220;Black Skin, White Masks&#8221; (a far-leftist call to violence against “colonizers”), Sally Rooney’s &#8220;Normal People&#8221; (a novel she herself has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1S5bOdJq3U">called</a> “Marxist propaganda”), and Maia Kobabe’s &#8220;Gender Queer&#8221; (I will let that one speak for itself). 
Nor is the “banned books” trend a recent invention. Back in 2023, for example, the American Library Association referred to an effort to remove sexually explicit content from school libraries as a demand to “censor library books.” These books, meanwhile (the aforementioned &#8220;Gender Queer&#8221; among them), contained “graphic depictions of how children can masturbate,” as well as “cartoons of homosexual activity,” according to a Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/library-group-frames-removal-of-graphic-sexual-content-from-school-libraries-as-record-number-of-book-bans">report</a>. And while these titles were removed from certain school libraries, they remain widely available for purchase on Amazon or your local bookstore.  
One can only conclude that the “banned books” trend is nothing more than a convenient way for leftists to promote books with certain ideological messages over others. 
Because the same people crying so vehemently about “banned books” when the books promote leftist ideologies are the very people quietly banning conservative-leaning books from ever hitting our shelves in the first place. 
You can lament the removal of &#8220;Gender Queer&#8221; from an elementary school library all you want, but the fact is that the novel continues to enjoy mainstream institutional backing. The same goes for Sally Rooney’s Marxist BDSM fantasy &#8220;Normal People&#8221; and Caro Claire Burke’s &#8220;Yesteryear,&#8221; the internet&#8217;s latest literary fad <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-new-book-that-treats-traditional-wives-like-the-enemy">attacking</a> conservative Christian “tradwives.” Other recent celebrated titles include Pulitzer Prize finalist &#8220;Stag Dance,&#8221; which <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stag_Dance_(novel)">depicts</a> a “Vegas transfeminine gathering” and NPR’s best book of the year &#8220;Bellies,&#8221; a trans romance that everyone’s favorite celebrity Elliot Page has <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1335490884?lv=shuf&amp;channelId=500&amp;plpRedirect=mhFallback">called</a> “smart, hilarious, and deeply moving.”
I am not here to argue that these books shouldn’t be published in the first place. But it is undeniable that the publishing industry consciously prioritizes far-leftist stories, creating a homogenous reading culture in which contemporary fiction has become synonymous with far-leftist ideology. 
Don’t believe me? Publishing professions can tell you themselves. 
Before a book reaches the shelves of your local Barnes and Noble, it must first go through several stages of the editorial process, the first of which entails the procurement of representation from a literary agent. While several non-fiction literary agencies still (thankfully) devote themselves to conservative authors — someone has to publish Ben Shapiro, after all — the fiction world has become so ideologically captured by the “banned books” mob that it is now virtually impossible to get a book with a more “traditional” message published in the first place. I’m not even talking about books with overtly Christian themes or Zionist protagonists, though those are most certainly no-gos. Literary agents now explicitly <a href="https://manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/claire-draper/">declare</a> that they will not even consider “dated ideals of partnership or relationship.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
How come the &#8220;banned books&#8221; advocates are the same people making these lists that effectively ban certain books&#8230;? <a href="https://t.co/aW3JNcnxFP">pic.twitter.com/aW3JNcnxFP</a>
— Liza Libes (@pensandpoison) <a href="https://x.com/pensandpoison/status/2077410105797071155?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I don’t speak leftist very well, but I’m pretty sure that means that this agent won’t look at a book that positively depicts marriage between a man and a woman. 
One could argue that if these were just the preferences of a single agent, then we wouldn&#8217;t have a problem on our hands. But when an entire literary establishment begins declining certain morals and themes, then an entire publishing institution effectively institutes a soft ban on certain books. 
Indeed, other agents <a href="https://manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/thais-afonso/">decline</a> to review “copaganda,” “protagonists who are <a href="https://manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/rebecca-matte/">aligned</a> with American police or military,” or even “<a href="https://manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/caitlin-white/">morality stories</a>.” Meanwhile, one independent press <a href="https://manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/samiha-hoque/">warns</a> that book submissions “must have a Muslim protagonist,” while a children’s editor at Hachette <a href="https://manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/erika-turner/">requests</a> books that “center marginalized voices, especially related to queer women and femmes.” Editors at Macmillan’s <a href="https://www.flatironbooks.com/staff">Flatiron</a> — the same imprint that publishes Elliot Page and Joe Biden — request “contemporary fiction that centers Black and queer voices” and “literary fiction that explores music and art, friendship, gender, and progressive politics.” 
A single editor’s “preference” for progressive fiction and antipathy towards traditional messages does not constitute a book ban, but when large swaths of literary agents and editors across an entire industry begin parroting the same message, then it becomes clear that conservative fiction — or simply books with traditional moral messages in the vein of &#8220;The Brothers Karamazov&#8221; or &#8220;Anna Karenina&#8221; — are no longer welcome on our shelves. 
The irony is impossible to ignore: the same people who have built an entire cultural identity around &#8220;banned books&#8221; are often the very people deciding which books never get the chance to exist in the first place.
No, conservative books aren’t being banned in public squares or ritually burned at the stake. They are simply being filtered out long before they ever get the chance to find an audience in the first place. 
Banned books are in. But they’re not the banned books that Dua Lipa wants you to read or the books that do not belong in elementary school libraries. They are the books with great moral messages that we once venerated as a society but whose contemporary iterations will be forever lost on us because they never made it to our shelves.
That’s the book ban that should worry us the most. 
***
Liza Libes is a writer and the founder of Pens and Poison. She holds degrees in English from Columbia University and writes about literature and culture at <a href="http://pensandpoison.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://pensandpoison.org&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1784347615882000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2GAA5qwHERjxoFhiQFN_lD">pensandpoison.org</a>. Follow her on X <a href="https://x.com/pensandpoison">@pensandpoison</a>.
<div>
<section class="css-86hvvx">
<div class="css-1kja2d9">
<div id="post-body-text" class="css-1tho4p7">
<div class="e3x7q210 css-jpqt6g" data-narration-container="true">
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>
</div>

Gemini_Generated_Image_r4nbnnr4nbnnr4nb

The Real Book Ban No One Talks About

Books

Weekend Plans is our exclusive lifestyle feature where we highlight the real off-duty routines of the most exciting people in culture. 
This weekend, Emmy-winning ‘Sopranos’ star and host of the “<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ultrafree/id1873411221">ULTRAFREE</a>” podcast Drea de Matteo chats with The Daily Wire about embarrassing her kids in the streets of Los Angeles, why mornings revolve around her dog, and how one little “picture in a bikini” earned her the $75,000 she desperately needed to save her house. This Hollywood icon may be outlaw country and mobster royalty, but she’s totally punk rock. 
* * *
Drea de Matteo will be described as a “<a href="https://x.com/AndymRight/status/1696593084530737236?s=20">MILF</a>,” “<a href="https://x.com/LUVontheR0CKS/status/1695280747886637238?s=20">absolute dreamgirl</a>” and a “<a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/DOYzqEfkSMX/">booyah hottie</a>” for the rest of time. And she’s perfectly fine with that. 
She joins me on a sunny Los Angeles afternoon from her home office, flanked by an American flag in the next room. Delightful chaos erupts as her rescue dogs Moose, Blankie, and her “Chinese mafia princess Shar-Pei” Lucky Luciana tumble through her eclectic Laurel Canyon house, vying for attention. Drea famously paid off a lien against her home using $75,000 she made in her first minutes on OnlyFans. 
“It was a picture of me in a bikini, man. I paid off a freaking lien in 75 minutes.” She caught flak for the move from Ben Shapiro, among others. It stung, but she doesn’t hold a grudge.
“I got dropped by everybody. In a way that just turned me off so much to Hollywood … All they have to do is tell a Democrat, ‘She didn&#8217;t get the vaccine.’ And that automatically pegs you as racist. You&#8217;re all the things. You&#8217;re a hippie who only eats flowers.”
Drea originally sought out the censor-free OnlyFans platform to host her podcast after being canceled for speaking out against the vaccine. The dip in her income was devastating. 
“They tried to make a story out of it, like female empowerment,” she recalls. “I was like, no, this is not that. I hope you are never in the position that I found myself in at that time. And it was all born out of the vaccine mandates and standing my ground.”
We spitball about her character returning from the dead for a “Sopranos” spin-off, or how a “Sons of Anarchy” reboot might feature her character among the last stars standing by the series’ end.  
The HBO hit that transformed television as we know it, &#8220;Sopranos&#8221; now streams all day. And it’s keeping Drea’s glamorously mob-adjacent Adriana La Cerva persona fresh in adolescent minds. 
“It is like a phenomenon,” she laughs. “I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s because, you know, I fixed my face a little bit so I still look the same? Teenagers are skidding on the road in California, like ‘Holy sh*t, it’s Adriana!’ And I’m with my 15-year-old who thinks it’s so uncool … He’s like, ‘I gotta watch it. My whole feed is “Sopranos.”’”
Drea laments the fact that her son Waylon “Blackjack” Jennings — whom she shares with Grammy-winning music producer Shooter Jennings — has watched all of “Breaking Bad” but has yet to crack into a single episode of “mommy’s show.” 
Unlike some other celebrities, Drea welcomes enduring notoriety as part of the deal. I almost bumped into her last year at Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell’s show in downtown LA. I didn’t want to bug her while she was with her daughter, Alabama Gypsy Rose Jennings, but she says I totally should have.  
“My favorite pastime is to give hugs to fans,” she confirms. “I don’t leave the house very much, but when I do — I’m like the Dos Equis guy — I am stopping and taking pictures with a zillion people. I feel like we’re all just this one big universe and that I can’t just shut people out. They love me, and I have to love them back.”
She keeps things apolitical these days, but she dives headfirst into topics that pique her interest, such as geoengineering and the weaponization of musical frequencies. But as a native of New York City (Drea says her father was “offered a button” from every crime family but the Gambinos), I have to ask if she’s personally offended by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani forgetting Little Italy on a map of “immigrant enclaves.” 
“I don’t want to be that person that gets on a soap box about it because that always annoys me, but at the end of the day, we built that city. The skyline, it’s all immigrants,” she says. 
“All of these mayors and governors hate f*cking everyone. I don’t think any of them care about any particular race, nationality, religion. I think they’re all bought and sold, I think they have a script and they f*cking stick to it. He’s the son of a famous movie director. What does he know about running a city? He was hired. I’m an actor — he got hired to do an acting job, too … Maybe I should run for one of these fake f*cking acting jobs and see if they’ll put me in office.”
Drea may be too much of an independent thinker to be relegated to any one box. 
“We are punk rock,” she says. “This is the only version of punk rock left. So if everyone in the f*cking music industry and the entertainment industry is following that protocol, they have left their punk rock credentials behind.”
Nights turn into mornings for the dogs
Drea briefly contemplates her morning routine before offering me the timestamp that’s really on her mind: her college-aged daughter’s latest endeavor.
“My daughter just started driving last week, so I&#8217;m a nervous wreck. What I do is I watch her drive on my phone. If she&#8217;s in the car alone and it&#8217;s late I sit here for 30 minutes if I have to, just watching what street she&#8217;s on, following her phone like a psychopath.” Drea laughs.
“She writes me, ‘I got home,’ and I send her a screenshot of her at home, like, ‘I already know I followed you for 30 minutes.’” Drea’s determined to let her daughter grow up under her watchful eye. “Me and a girlfriend were actually sitting at Norm&#8217;s Diner until four in the morning while she was at an afterparty, to pick her up and bring her and her buddy home. I want her to have that feeling that I had when I was a kid — that freedom. But at the same time, I can&#8217;t really give it to her because I don&#8217;t trust people … I am a few blocks away in a car like a psycho.”
Considering Drea’s evening routine, I’m shocked she sees mornings at all. “Listen, I&#8217;m not sleeping as well as I used to because I am 54 and that happens,” Drea shrugs. But she shares her earliest hours with her longtime boyfriend, musician Robbie Staebler. “We wake up at nine, sometimes we can even wake up at 11 a.m. It depends on what time we go to bed.” 
“The mornings are always the same,” she tells me. “It&#8217;s a cup of coffee, sitting outside on the front deck with all the dogs. The big one doesn&#8217;t stop barking. My boyfriend calls them ‘No reason barks.’ She&#8217;s just barking in the wind, hitting her tail on the wind chimes. It&#8217;s chaos.”
Relaxing into another dimension
For someone battling it out on the front lines in Hollywood, Drea’s a pro at letting negative energy pass on by. “The only thing that really stresses me out are continuous EMFs (Electromagnetic Fields) because I&#8217;m always researching or doing my work on a phone or a computer,” she says.
But when she needs a little rest, she picks up one of the “15 different books” she’s currently reading. “I get my little neck light and a book because my house is pretty dark. I can&#8217;t have LEDs all over me. I&#8217;ll have a bigger headache.”
She’s not kidding when it comes to a diverse collection of reading material, which multiplies as we speak. “I am in all these different dimensions,” she explains of the content she later peppers into her podcast. “I am trying to draw a diagram in my mind and put together pieces of a puzzle from ancient religions, secret societies, astronaut theories, all the different schools of thought, and all the different philosophers.”
“I am reading a hundred different books at once and trying to see where they overlap. People are so afraid of a lot of this stuff and then when you really get into it, it&#8217;s like, ‘Oh this isn&#8217;t really that scary.’”
Quality time with “la famiglia”
Drea’s mother <a href="https://people.com/sopranos-alum-drea-de-matteo-mom-dead-exclusive-8660256">Donna de Matteo</a> died unexpectedly in 2024. In celebration of her life, and hoping to forge new family memories, Drea took her kids on a six-week adventure through Italy and Greece.
“When I graduated high school, she took me and my friends to Italy, to Capri, because that was her favorite place to go with my dad,” Drea remembers of her mother. “We went with a group of 20 people … it was such a beautiful trip.” 
“Both my parents are gone and I was like, I&#8217;ve been broke for a while. I&#8217;m taking a piece of this money and going on a trip with my kids because I don&#8217;t know if the world&#8217;s going to shut down again … and I don&#8217;t know if they&#8217;ll ever want to go with me again. Right now, they&#8217;re still mine and they have to do what I say. So, we&#8217;re going to Italy. Now when they talk about it, they&#8217;re like, I can&#8217;t believe you took us on that trip. It was really worth it.”
But the family already knew how to make the most out of their time together, however luxurious it might be. Especially during lockdown. “We literally ran out of money because of COVID and the foreclosure and everything. So, we did roadtrips nonstop. We would go to Mount Zion or Moab. We spent a lot of time in Utah and Arizona. Lots of national parks and hiking.”
She feels this precious time with her kids slipping away. “Everybody&#8217;s busy. I wish I could get them to do more. We&#8217;ll see.”
An outlaw legacy
Drea describes how she rearranged an entire room of her house to turn it into a makeshift studio where her boyfriend Robbie’s band could record their latest album. Those tracks are still under wraps, but Drea’s got them on repeat. 
Also on her playlist, her daughter Alabama lends keys to her own New York-style punk band, The Pinups, as well as providing under-the-radar vocals on higher profile projects. Drea’s son Blackjack leverages his family’s outlaw country status, with a decidedly unique spin on his rap track “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/4mVxkznwq47MmZ927MeSaV?si=e82301e73ae14066">YUHH</a>.” Drea clearly encourages her kids to blaze their own trails.
“We are outlaws,” she recalls telling Blackjack. “I go, dude, you are part of a crazy legacy. From my dad to Shooter&#8217;s dad [Waylon Jennings], even Shooter. We&#8217;ve all gone against the system in our own way. So, this is your life, buddy. Like, you&#8217;re born into it. And you are already a rebellious maniac. So, embrace it. Don&#8217;t believe what your friends say. Find the right people who mirror who you really are.”
She may be a rebel, but Drea lets her heart guide the way. “I lead with one thing no matter what, and it&#8217;s love. I know it sounds so corny.” I assure her it doesn’t. “At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the connection we have with people, how we make others feel, and how we love them.”

Weekend Plans With ‘Sopranos’ Star Drea De Matteo

Drea de Matteo

weekend plans

Welcome to the Bright Side, a weekly roundup of all the good news and ideas you might have missed from the past week.
***
Okay, we’re officially up to here with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-ranch-craze-just-took-a-strange-turn-and-people-cant-look-away">ranch dressing</a>, but after surviving the longest tournament in the history of sports — and the popularization of “hydration break” aesthetic — the World Cup final is happening on Sunday. If you haven’t watched this season of America Doing Fútbol, Spain v. Argentina will be a great game to play in the background while you’re scrolling your socials. (More below for the girlies who just realized how hard soccer stars are hotmaxxing sports.) 
Just mix enough margs to get through the Super Bowl-style halftime show featuring <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c1wyw9wx19yo">Madonna</a>, K-Pop’s BTS, Justin Bieber, and Shakira, who wouldn’t let an international sporting event pass her by if it kicked her in the shins and got a yellow card.
Tom Cruise will also have something to do with the festivities, along with Jennifer Hudson handling the U.S. National Anthem (this is all going down at the place temporarily not-known as New Jersey’s <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/why-did-metlife-stadium-change-192825318.html">MetLife Stadium</a>, after all). Even if you don’t love soccer, cheering for sports is good for your health, providing an instant <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/consumption-and-lifestyles/202408/why-we-get-excited-during-sporting-events">sense of community</a> and belonging, and a serious chance of chips and guacamole. 
The kids are owl-right
Many innocent youth may be permanently affixed to Roblox, but others are taking their phones outside for their favorite rizz: <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/07/birding-millennials-genz/687910/">birding</a>. Yep! Checkin’ up on birds in nature isn’t just for your retired gammy anymore. 
It may have risen out of pandemic times, but new tech brings birding to life like never before. The first time I walked around Hollywood recording with <a href="https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/">Merlin Bird ID</a>, I tracked over 20 bird species (I assumed there were maybe two) including ducks, parakeets, hummingbirds, and hawks. After immediately sharing my bird list with everyone I know, I suddenly had no shame about appropriating the leisure activities of the elder set. Being able to name the bird you’re watching pop-off in a tree is great.
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" style="max-width: 605px; min-width: 325px;" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@diabetic4one/video/7662175463149800735" data-video-id="7662175463149800735">
<section><a title="@diabetic4one" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@diabetic4one?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@diabetic4one</a> Bird call request&#8217;s part 2! Keep sending your request, Samuel loves to do them <a title="fyp" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyp?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#fyp</a> <a title="nature" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/nature?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#nature</a> <a title="birds" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/birds?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#birds</a> @Bird Collective Shop <a title="♬ original sound - Lori, Samuel's mom" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7662175495420726047?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">♬ original sound &#8211; Lori, Samuel&#8217;s mom</a></section>
</blockquote>
<script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
But I would love to know how bird-listening apps respond to one unique human talent. Twelve-year-old Samuel Henderson from Oklahoma City went viral after performing his spot-on bird calls for his classmates. Now, he’s everywhere. “I’ve always wanted to share my bird calls with the world,” <a href="https://www.audubon.org/magazine/meet-kid-who-wowed-internet-his-incredibly-accurate-bird-calls">Sam said</a>. Show me an American crow that does a more realistic “caw” than Sam’s, and we’ll talk. 
Snakes, but make it fashion
I’ll be on the lookout for PETA, but one fashion designer is turning the Sunshine State’s wildest invasion into sustainable style. We can’t all be as elegant as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/DaspG_Psw0I/">Kate Middleton at Wimbledon</a>, but we can realistically don the Florida gal fashion that (ahem) “repurposes” invasive Burmese pythons. 
<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/p/DaqdkcRlSQJ/?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/p/DaqdkcRlSQJ/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by ELLE BARBEITO 𓆆✭ 𓆊 (@ellebarbeito)</a>
</div>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
Spotting a niche market for recently departed 20-foot, 200-pound snakes, New York City fashion school grad <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/burmese-python-everglades-fashion-recycling">Elle Barbeito</a> boats into the Florida Everglades to hunt down her muse. She then preserves and dries the python skins in her backyard, south of Miami. Letting nothing go to waste, she flips her snake leather into boot straps, bustiers, handbags, jackets, and belts.
But she’s not the only one cashing in on Florida’s <a href="https://www.popsci.com/environment/florida-python-challenge-starts-2026/">Python Challenge</a>, running July 10 to 19, where whoever catches the most snakes gets $10,000. One “<a href="https://nypost.com/2026/07/16/lifestyle/florida-restaurant-gives-away-free-pizza-in-exchange-for-dead-pythons/">swampreneur</a>” is even accepting captured pythons as fair trade for free pizza. (He also uses the fat for soaps and lotions, the bones for jewelry, and the skin as pepperoni — upon request.) It’s unclear whether the competition will solve Florida’s South Asian snake infestation, which arose from exotic reptile trading that nearly obliterated the <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/earth-systems/blog/florida-vs-the-burmese-python-how-an-invasive-giant-is-changing-the-sunshine-state/">rabbit and raccoon</a> population of the Everglades. But we’ll take a plain cheese to go, easy on the “special” sauce. I think I have exact change in my python clutch. 
Soccer’s greatest bromance
Sometimes you just need a gateway into a sport to appreciate it. For example, I just discovered that <a href="https://x.com/espn/status/2077549968039059765">baseball</a> involves dancing and singing per the Savannah Bananas performance opening the ESPY Awards on Wednesday. Five, six, seven, and — Take me out to the ball gaaaaaame …
Norway and England have officially lost hope in making it to the World Cup final this year, but what they haven’t given up on is love. Between the handsomely talented Jude Bellingham (England #10) and the iconic Erling Haaland (Norway #9), it’s clear the chemistry between teammates (and fans) knows no bounds.
<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/DauLNTDi7ZV/?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/DauLNTDi7ZV/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Vogue Australia (@vogueaustralia)</a>
</div>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
For the record, both stars are dating models (please see: <a href="https://people.com/who-is-ashlyn-castro-jude-bellingham-12012778">Jude and Ashlyn</a>, <a href="https://people.com/erling-haaland-girlfriend-isabel-johansen-dolce-gabbana-date-night-12019881">Erling and Isabel</a>). Proving that two guys from different teams can forge a platonic friendship in elite sports, Bellingham and Haaland have no chance at the FIFA trophy, but at least they have each other. 
“Welcome to Jurassic Park”
If you were around to witness the jaw-dropping dinosaur reveal in 1993’s original “<a href="https://youtu.be/E8WaFvwtphY?t=131">Jurassic Park</a>,” you probably felt a little tug on the ol’ heartstrings when news broke that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-late-jurassic-park-stars-life-offers-a-lesson-america-still-needs">Sam Neill</a>, who played paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, died on July 13. 
I re-watched the first installment a few years ago at the Hollywood Bowl with live orchestra accompaniment, and I broke into tears at the first sweeping lines of the orchestral theme. I also wondered if young kids could appreciate &#8217;90s-era special effects and slower pacing. I stand by this: Nothing beats the O.G. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
When the world seems close to pear shaped, 
When leaders fill you with despair 
When things look dark and dreary 
And love seems far too rare &#8211; 
CUDDLE A DUCK 
[ It works &#8230;] <a href="https://t.co/S3YP5E5eob">pic.twitter.com/S3YP5E5eob</a>
— Sam Neill (@TwoPaddocks) <a href="https://x.com/TwoPaddocks/status/1211440096005672962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
More recently, Sam used to drive around his New Zealand farm and share short clips of his life with fans. The one where he cuddled his “gorgeous” duck named Charlie is particularly soothing to watch. His poem feels appropriate:
When the world seems close to pear shaped, When leaders fill you with despair, When things look dark and dreary, And love seems far too rare — CUDDLE A DUCK [ It works &#8230;]  
I can’t help but think of Jeff Goldblum’s iconic line in the movie: “<a href="https://youtu.be/kiVVzxoPTtg?t=26">Life, uh, finds a way.</a>”
***
If you’re watching the World Cup, just making guacamole, or trying to get a duck to come closer by practicing your bird calls, tell us about it in the comments — or send me an <a href="mailto:lbair@dailywire.com">email</a>! I get a kick out of hearing all about whatever’s brightening your day. And I know someone else will, too. See you next week! — Lauren

Bright Side: The Kids Are Owl-Right

bright side

Actor Frankie Muniz earlier this month posted a video of himself dancing with his soon-to-be-ex-wife to announce his divorce. Everyone understandably found this odd, so he deleted it.
For a few hours, though, it was up: The &#8220;Malcolm in the Middle&#8221; star turned race car driver, mid-divorce, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/malcolm-in-the-middle-stars-celebratory-divorce-post-sparks-debate-with-michael-knowles?author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98Malcolm+In+The+Middle%E2%80%99+Star%E2%80%99s+Celebratory+Divorce+Post+Sparks+Debate+With+Michael+Knowles">dancing joyfully</a> to &#8220;Check Yes, Juliet&#8221; with his former bride. The worst part was their young son dancing right along with them like nothing was wrong. 
Muniz seemed to think fans would find it sweet, but thankfully common sense put him back in his place. Commenters called the spectacle sad and strange, especially with a small child unknowingly celebrating the demise of his stable home life. Muniz quickly pulled the clip down under an avalanche of backlash.
His almost-ex, Paige Price, was mad about it. She insisted that two adults who can still function as a team shouldn&#8217;t be mocked for their choices.
“Frankie, I am so sorry that you felt the need to delete an old fun video of our family because people are so cruel to you. This world is so f*cked … divorce is bad, sure — it’s not like we’re excited about it … but we’re two adults who know how to be on the same team. I can’t believe people could scrutinize that,” Price wrote under the revised version of their divorce announcement.
Divorce isn&#8217;t something to take lightly, but celebrities have been doing this for years. In 2014, Gwyneth Paltrow ended her 10-year marriage to Chris Martin with a phrase that briefly took over pop culture. They would &#8220;consciously uncouple,&#8221; <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/gwyneth-paltrow-10-years-of-conscious-uncoupling">they wrote</a>, and continue co-parenting with the same privacy they&#8217;d tried to maintain as a couple. It was mocked mercilessly at the time, eventually becoming a punchline for how out-of-touch celebrities use therapy speak to prove they’re better than us plebs.
This type of thinking about marriage hasn’t changed in Tinseltown. Now in 2026, celebs are often trying to sell divorce as an amicable rebrand, a decision two enlightened adults make together for the good of everyone. The kids are said to be the focus even when they clearly are not.
There’s another version of this phenomenon that goes even further. Last month, country singer Jelly Roll (real name Jason DeFord) and his wife of a decade, Bunnie XO (real name Alisa Andrea Carter), announced they were divorcing. Weeks later, Bunnie XO told her podcast audience that the split changed nothing about their plan to pursue IVF together. 
They&#8217;d call the baby &#8220;Nugget,&#8221; she said, and raise the child as one big happy family regardless of the marriage&#8217;s end. The former stripper said she and DeFord were “trauma bonded” after going through infertility and didn’t think divorce was a good enough reason not to have a baby together.
She also talked about the fight that ended their marriage. 
“On Mother’s Day, we had a little bit of an argument, which I don’t think the details are necessary,” she said. “And, in that argument, I was so fed up and so tired that I just looked at him and said, ‘Well, then file the f*cking divorce papers.&#8217;”
So he did.
Now the couple is choosing to bring a child into the world despite getting divorced — because that’s what they want to do. At another point Bunnie XO said she couldn’t understand why she experienced infertility, arguing that it wasn’t fair for some people to be able to have children if she could not. 
“You get so mad at God, because you’re like, ‘Why is it so easy for people who don’t deserve children to just be able to just pop them out?&#8217;” she said, clarifying that she and DeFord are “two people who really want a baby together.”
Infertility is brutal, there’s no question. But planning to co-parent a newborn with someone you no longer call your spouse treats marriage and family as two separate life goals when really they were meant to exist together. In the same house, preferably.
That&#8217;s where celebrities get it so very wrong. Paltrow pitched her conscious uncoupling as proof of a new, peaceful version of divorce. Muniz and Price are asking the public to believe a marriage bond can end with an upbeat dance number and smiles. And Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO are going further still, arguing that a lifelong commitment can be severed without affecting children, even children who haven’t exactly joined the family yet.
Every one of these stories is told from the adults&#8217; point of view. Muniz&#8217;s son probably didn’t think much of the dancing video, even if the internet saw it for the tragedy it was. Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO don’t seem concerned about the reality of raising a newborn in a broken home.
There are valid reasons for divorce, but the one thing Hollywood forgot is that even when that’s the case, it’s always a tragedy, not a gentle breaking apart. At the very least, no one should be dancing.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

Steve Irwin Gala

Hollywood Divorce Has A New Look, And Somehow It’s Worse Than Ever

divorce

family

Hollywood

A new bookstore has opened in my Oxford <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jul/06/inside-the-uks-first-romantasy-shop-bad-girl-books">neighborhood</a>. Given the academic reputation of this city of dreaming spires with its medieval colleges and historic libraries, one might think such a bookstore would cater to a highbrow and scholarly readership. But no, it exclusively stocks “romantasy,” a fusion of romance and fantasy literature, and the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/28/style/romantic-books-fantasy-romantasy-booktok-cec">fastest-growing sector</a> of the global book trade.
The literary genres of romance and fantasy have been popular for centuries, but their fusion into romantasy is relatively new. Many argue that the 1983 novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley, &#8220;The Mists of Avalon,&#8221; which upended traditional Arthurian mythology, started the trend. This was followed by Diana Gabaldon’s &#8220;Outlander&#8221; books, blending historical adventure, time-travel fantasy, and an emotionally central romance. These books established the template: fantasy as a stage for romantic destiny, psychological intimacy, and female-centered moral stakes. 
Since the turn of the millennium, the formula has been replicated at scale. Self-published authors began producing romance-fantasy hybrids that traditional publishers had overlooked. According to industry analyses, romantasy has become “the single biggest growth engine in global publishing,” with sales in the U.S. and more recently in the U.K. either tripling or quadrupling over the past five years. Prestige publishing houses remain cautious, but with such astonishing sales figures, one wonders for how long. 
The opening weekend of my local romantasy bookstore, Bad Girl Books, reflected that popularity. Even with pre-booked tickets, there was a line down the sidewalk of excited fans, among whom I waited in some trepidation. Once inside, I discovered there are many sub-genres of romantasy, ranging from “Cosy Romantasy,” where characters bake cookies and muffins to woo and enchant each other rather than fighting battles, to the “Reverse Harem” or “Why Choose?” stories, in which the girl ends up with all the guys. (Imagine a gender-swapped “Mormon Wives” and you get the idea.) As one of the more memorable sub-genres, “Monster Smut” (I won’t elaborate) suggests, sex is a big part of the attraction. The degree of explicit content in books is indicated through a “spice” rating, which was illustrated in the bookstore via the relative number of chili pepper icons on shelves, rather like one might find on the menu of a Mexican restaurant to denote how hot a particular dish is.
Fans of the genre are quick to challenge suggestions that the appeal of the books is their “fairy smut,” even if the available <a href="https://badgirlbooks.co.uk/products/read-smut-tote-bag?variant=53057230799180">merch</a> might suggest precisely that. These books are about self-actualization, their defenders claim, about seeking one’s destiny and achieving empowerment of a predominantly female variety. Yet the sex in modern romantasy stories is vastly different from the way sex was treated in the OG romantasy stories, the Arthurian romances that had a similarly popular appeal throughout medieval Europe. 
Arthurian literature is a storytelling tradition built around King Arthur, his knights, and the mythical kingdom of Camelot. It began as an oral Celtic legend in Wales and Brittany and circulated for centuries before being written down. By the late Middle Ages, authors such as Chrétien de Troyes and Sir Thomas Malory had turned these tales into great romances, establishing the themes we still recognize today: the noble quest, the testing of virtue, the tension between love and duty, and the tragic fall of a once-ideal kingdom.
Two of the most famous written versions anchor the tradition. &#8220;Sir Gawain and the Green Knight&#8221; explores chivalry, temptation, and moral testing through a single knight’s ordeal, while Malory’s &#8220;Le Morte d’Arthur&#8221; gathers the whole cycle into a sweeping narrative of Arthur’s rise and fall. 
In these Arthurian stories, adultery is not just about knights and queens swept up in forbidden passion. Rather, it becomes the place where personal desire collides with the hard work of building an ideal society. When those Arthurian lovers Lancelot and Guinevere or Tristan and Isolde give in to desire, they are not simply breaking a marriage vow but are shaking the foundations of loyalty and duty that hold Camelot together. Lancelot, formerly the most heroic knight of the Round Table, fails in his quest to find the Holy Grail and must slaughter his fellow knights and closest friends to save Guinevere from the punishment her adultery brought down upon her. In contrast to such a tragic story, Sir Gawain manages to reject the seductive advances of the wife of the Green Knight. His reward for staying loyal to his values is moral clarity, public honor, and the respect of his fellow knights.
In medieval struggles between right and wrong, the ultimate battleground is the invisible human soul, where a person wrestles with temptation, pride, and sin. But how do you make a silent, internal, spiritual struggle visible and dramatic for an audience? You externalize it through magic. Magic in Arthurian literature provides the moral framework within which temptation, deception, and testing can occur. Enchantments, shape-shifting, and illusions create the narrative conditions for characters to confront their moral vulnerabilities. Magic is used as the stage for an ethical trial: characters must discern truth from illusion, loyalty from seduction, virtue from glamour.
The modern term <a href="https://www.oed.com/discover/revision-glamour/?tl=true">glamour</a> comes directly from this medieval positioning of magic; the word originally meant an illusion or enchantment that makes something appear more beautiful or desirable than it truly is. In Arthurian romance, glamour is not decoration but moral danger, and the shimmering surface tests whether a knight’s inner virtue can withstand the world’s deceptions. By using this magical frame, medieval authors could show how sin rarely presents itself as ugly; it presents itself as enchanting, beautiful, and magically justified. The knight’s task was discernment: piercing through the magical illusion to see the objective moral reality underneath.
The celebrated author of the Narnia books, C.S. Lewis, who himself taught medieval literature at Oxford, positioned magic in precisely this way in &#8220;The Silver Chair.&#8221; The more beautiful and appealing a character was in that story, the more dangerous and dishonest they turned out to be. Undergoing a moral trial like that of the medieval Sir Gawain, the children in the story must resist the temptation to follow a beautiful illusion by choosing to do their duty, however unappealing it feels at the time.
Modern romantasy treats magic differently from the old Arthurian world. In the medieval stories, enchantment was a test. But in romantasy, magic becomes a superpower, a personal strength that expresses identity, desire, and emotional intensity. It is something a heroine “comes into,” something a couple “unlocks together,” something that grows as they grow. That shift matters. Once magic becomes a form of self-actualization rather than a moral hazard, the whole ethical framework of the story has changed. 
Alongside that reorientation, sexual consummation becomes the narrative&#8217;s highest aspiration, and the surrounding moral world must thin out to make room for it. Duty, sacrifice, and communal responsibility have no logical place now that personal fulfillment is the story’s guiding star. Honor becomes the first casualty of this new storyline; the quest is no longer to uphold a kingdom, but to complete the self.
The move away from the ideals of Arthurian altruism has been a slow and subtle constant across the 20th century, from T.H. White’s &#8220;The Once and Future King,&#8221; a retelling shaped by his own pacifism during World War II, to the later habit of casting the Kennedy political dynasty as a modern Camelot. Given the uniformly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/books/review/maureen-callahan-ask-not.html">unchivalrous</a> treatment of women by the Kennedy men, the only point of connection with the Arthurian origins seems to have been physical hotness. The mushy 1995 movie &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq6DJ3JF3iI&amp;t=3s">First Knight</a>&#8221; even portrayed Sean Connery’s Arthur, on his deathbed, blessing Guinevere and Lancelot’s union. 
Romantasy is purely the latest manifestation of a broader cultural shift away from duty and toward self-fulfillment. But has this jettisoning of moral absolutes in favor of expressive individualism made us happier? More fulfilled? More free to be our true selves? The statistical evidence suggests not. Data from long-term scientific studies such as <a href="https://midus.wisc.edu/">MIDUS</a> and the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032725008687#ks0005">Dual-Continua Model</a> now show what earlier generations intuited: that when self-expression becomes the highest good, psychological resilience tends to collapse. One recent <a href="https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/en/publications/virtues-as-protective-factors-for-adolescent-mental-health/">research paper</a> from the U.K. even “explores the decline in adolescent mental health and the weakening of traditional moral frameworks, positing education in the virtues as protective of mental health due to the intrinsic link between moral/existential wellbeing and psychological health.” Well, yes. Quite.
Modern scientific data simply confirm what the compilers of the original Arthurian romances instinctively knew all along: that a strong sense of duty — committing oneself to a community, a code, or a purpose greater than the self — acts as a psychological buffer against mental health crises. A truism familiar to previous generations was “virtue is its own reward.” This is the neglected message of Arthurian romances and a moral truth that all the chili peppers in the world cannot replace.
***
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/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

Outlander Season 2, ep 201

The Moral Shift Hiding Inside Today’s Hottest Books

Reading

romance

With all the cult-like hype around popular workouts, choosing one to try feels more exhausting than sweating through an actual class. But benefitting your body without damaging your hormones might be easier than you think. 
We tapped experts in high- and lower-impact training to weigh in on the best body-balancing strategies for your routine. Whether you’re into the shaky holds of reformer Pilates, or the sweaty lifts behind CrossFit, nutrition makes a huge impact on results, too. 
You’ve probably discovered that your body changes as you age. But even though new phases of life can create challenges in staying fit, it’s not an impossible task.
Dedicated to my craft — and perimenopause-curious — I committed to trying these two styles of workouts myself. As a CrossFit girlie, I’m used to doing deadlifts, box jumps, and wall walks until I can barely breathe — and balancing macros to fuel it. Pilates, at least for me, was the cool girl I was intimidated to talk to. Until now, when I entered my first reformer class ever.
“It’s not what you think it’ll be. It’s so hard, but it’s also so … boring,” jokes a “<a href="https://youtu.be/MJZsVpXZmKw?t=36">Saturday Night Live</a>” sketch about studio Pilates. “Usually there are eight gorgeous women, one gay man not wearing underwear, and sometimes Kaia Gerber.”
“I’ve been doing Pilates for 20 years now,” Reese Witherspoon’s character says in “<a href="https://youtube.com/shorts/wje14M3rGmc?si=c-G-4qpQXluBMelR">You’re Cordially Invited</a>.” “And my core is a solid-*ss rock.”
I had to find out if this hot gym gossip was true, so I stopped by <a href="https://sessionpilates.com/studios/nashville/">SESSION Pilates</a> in Nashville, along with my Daily Wire colleague and Pilates princess, Lynden Blake. She kindly brought me “sticky socks” so I wouldn’t slip and face-plant on the reformer. These socks would be tasked beyond their intended capabilities.
The soothing studio space instantly calmed my skittering heart (hopefully I didn’t have to know what those rings in the corner were for). A front desk host peeked around a stunning flower arrangement to say hello in buttery tones. Were we also getting massages?
“Moving your body is already intimidating enough. So our goal is to take down those walls from the moment that you book your class,” SESSION Pilates Nashville operating partner and instructor <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lizaaa_myers/">Liza Myers Barnes</a> explains. “Everyone feels safe, everyone feels comfortable, everyone feels welcome. Centering for 50 minutes, yes, your muscles are fatigued, but you’re also rejuvenated within the space between your ears.”
Having come from a spin background, Myers Barnes noticed an improvement in muscle tone once she got into Pilates. “There&#8217;s literally nothing else you can do when you&#8217;re trying to hold your body in a pose. Some clients will notice that they sleep better and they can regulate their stress better.”
It all felt like a total contrast to the “box” membership I have with <a href="https://www.prvnnashville.com/">CrossFit PRVN</a>, just minutes from me and the mermaid pose I would struggle to hold. There, you’re welcomed by a blacked-out warehouse boasting climbing ropes like jungle vines, and rows of dumbbells, assault bikes, and rowers lining the floor in military ranks. 
Unlike the serenity of the Pilates aesthetic, CrossFit rolls in dirty, getting popular for overexerted vomiting and bloodied shins, followed by shotgunned beers and arctic cold-plunges. Less coffee klatsch, more “Survivor” season one.
PRVN is also home to eight-time CrossFit Games winner and the “Fittest Woman on Earth,” Tia-Clair Toomey, who just welcomed her second baby and could kick anyone’s butt in her sleep. 
“Hard WOD, hard bod. I just did 6,000 burpees and I feel great,” a CrossFitter on the “<a href="https://youtu.be/84nSnmSFpO4?t=10">Hot Date</a>” sketch show says just before puking. (A semi-joke. I’ve seen it IRL.) 
But is one workout style better than the other? If you’re deciding between high-intensity or lower-impact workouts, just look to your hormones. 
“Honestly, any way someone chooses to move their body is the best way,” says <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sjradford/">Sarah Radford</a>, general manager and head coach at PRVN HQ. Noting CrossFit’s misunderstood rep for destroying hormones, spiking cortisol, and messing with women’s cycles, she says, “Fitness does put our bodies into a state of stress, but it&#8217;s a healthy stress that causes positive adaptations as long as we&#8217;re recovering properly.” 
Lightly touching on the benefits of maintaining muscle as we age (especially in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-ozempic-side-effect-thats-changing-americas-morning-coffee">culture of GLP-1s</a>), Radford adds, “Menstrual disruption is about energy availability, not intensity. A woman doing CrossFit four times a week who eats enough, sleeps enough, and takes rest days is at much lower risk than a woman chronically exercising (regardless of fitness type) and under-eating.”
That’s where diet and lifestyle enter the conversation. “The right nutrition can really give us a leg up on performance, whether that’s a run, a CrossFit workout, or a Pilates class,” registered dietitian and functional nutrition expert <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ericasedge/?hl=en">Erica Giovinazzo</a> explains. “Getting the right balance of macronutrients (protein, carbs, and fats), along with enough hydration … can impact energy, hormone balance, body composition (gaining muscle and/or losing fat) and recovery.”
Easy-to-digest carbs get you through high-intensity workouts while a carb-and-protein snack easily powers lower-intensity movement such as Pilates. But if you’re thinking about going in with an empty stomach, Giovinazzo adds, “There’s no activity where people perform better completely fasted. Just make sure you eat with enough time for your body to digest.”
“We’ve been so conditioned (especially women) to want to be as small as possible. But the ‘calories in, calories out’ theory is not entirely accurate. One of the biggest things that helps us look and feel its best is actually eating enough to support it.”
“When we under-eat for long periods of time, the body adapts by slowing metabolism, reducing sex hormone production, increasing stress hormones like cortisol, and conserving energy. So what we see is: less strength, more belly fat, waking up in the middle of the night, and feeling ‘tired but wired.’ So if someone wants not only better performance and body composition, but also better hormone balance, recovery, sleep, mood, and energy, they need to eat enough.”
“One of the best things you can do for hormone balance is to eat a high protein breakfast,” she notes. “One of the worst things you can do hormonally is stay in a large calorie deficit for a long period of time, especially if you are trying to get hard workouts in. For most active people, a good protein target is around 0.8 to 1.0 gram of protein per pound of body weight.”
I can report that I feel my best when I’m eating well and enjoying a variety of workouts. Especially when I can share a few jokes, a meal, or develop real friendships with the people in my workout class. 
“Creating a community around you that you enjoy seeing and socializing with makes fitness enjoyable and sustainable,” Radford says. “That community piece matters more than people give it credit for.” 
But no workout is complete without rest days. (<a href="https://youtu.be/LaW4MBwGhF0?t=205">They’re real and they’re spectacular</a>.) Recovery means counting your sheep and regulating your nervous system, not continuously overworking it. “That&#8217;s where our bodies start to live in a chronic state of stress,” Radford notes. “Acute cortisol is normal and actually necessary for adaptation in the body. The problem isn&#8217;t cortisol — it&#8217;s chronic cortisol dysregulation from under-recovery, under-fueling, or under-sleeping.”
Break a sweat, not your spirit. I think this sounds like a good excuse to fill up that Stanley and go (mindfully) crush those goals.

The Stress-Free Secret To Getting Into The Best Shape Of Your Life

CrossFit

nutrition

pilates

I have long felt that Barack Obama’s highest aspiration was always to become an adored celebrity, perhaps even an actor; he settled for president of the United States. Having completed his two terms, Obama wrote memoirs, started a production company, co-hosted a podcast with Bruce Springsteen, and, most recently, executive-produced a new HBO series starring Larry David.
Created by David and his longtime “Curb Your Enthusiasm” collaborator Jeff Schaffer, “Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness” transplants familiar “Curb” sketches and stereotypical Larry-isms into various periods of American history, with a particular emphasis on the country’s founding. The result ranges from passable to downright dreadful.
In what amounts to a collection of loosely connected sketches, the writer and comedian behind “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” first portrays Robert R. Livingston, taking an early pass at the Declaration of Independence. He introduces his draft as “a declaration of common sense,” filled with such characteristically petty proclamations as, “After January 7, it is illegal to wish someone Happy New Year.”
The problem with sketches such as this — and there are far too many — is that David’s shtick works on “Curb” precisely because of its contemporary setting. The social conventions he obsesses over feel recognizable, and his grievances reflect real encounters we have all endured but are restrained by the norms of polite society from confronting. Recasting them in colonial attire creates the impression that David has sauntered onto the wrong set, like someone reciting Richard III’s “Now is the winter of our discontent” in a Michael Bay film.
The same problem recurs in a segment set during the Great Depression, when someone cuts into a soup-kitchen line after recognizing a friend near the front. David immediately launches into his “chat-and-cut” call-out, lifted almost wholesale from “Curb.”
Another sketch imagines David making Alexander Graham Bell’s historic first telephone call, only to become stuck on the phone with his assistant, played by the eminent Richard Kind, who subjects him to endless, numbing small talk until a frustrated David tosses the contraption in the trash. It is one of the better moments, though it ultimately drags on for too long.
A cleverer bit places David’s irritating disposition beside Rosa Parks on the Montgomery bus. He initially insists that she remain seated beside him, only for his intrusive questions and signature mannerisms to drive the beleaguered activist voluntarily toward the back of the bus just to escape him. There is a memorable interview in which Jerry Seinfeld explains that almost everything can be funny: “You just have to have a way of looking at it.” In that spirit, even a segregation sketch can be funny.
Seinfeld himself appears in another episode, reuniting with David for a sketch in which the pair play Lewis and Clark, leaders of Thomas Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery following the Louisiana Purchase. The expedition is reimagined as an elaborate fishing trip devised by two husbands desperate to escape their wives. David’s Meriwether Lewis tries to assuage his suspicious spouse while the duo banter over politically correct terminology in the frontier. Can’t say “squaw” anymore — they can say it; we cannot. “Teepee? I think teepee’s cool.” Wampum? Kind of a gray area.
The series reaches its nadir when it abandons social comedy for political screeds marooned somewhere circa 2016. One dreary segment rehashes trite laments over Hillary Clinton’s Electoral College loss despite winning the national popular vote.
Samuel L. Jackson, the series’ narrator, drones on about how American democracy is supposedly unique because “a candidate can be elected president even if they don’t get the most votes.” Larry David, of all people, should know comedy’s golden rule: that a joke must be anchored in truth. Yet there is none to be found here. Parliamentary democracies including Canada and the United Kingdom routinely produce governments whose parties received fewer votes nationally than their opponents. Jackson then explains that the Founding Fathers enshrined the Electoral College in the Constitution for reasons that “defy logic,” before the camera pans to David throwing a tantrum over losing an election despite having won the popular vote. It is unclear what the series hopes to achieve here. Is Larry David trying to charm Obama with this tripe?
David’s talents have not disappeared entirely. Episode 3 brings back “Curb” favorite J.B. Smoove for a slavery sketch in which David, working with the Underground Railroad, shelters Smoove in his home. The scene moves from David attempting to relate to the experience of being chased by dogs to Smoove fantasizing about “tapping Northern ass,” complaining about the mildew stench permeating the safe house, and continuing to rant about a slave owner who named his slaves after pieces of furniture — “Ottoman” and “Armoire.” Their charming chemistry gives the sketch an energy missing from much of the series.
We also visit a trench on the front lines of World War I, where a frightened soldier confides in David: “I don’t think I can do this anymore. I’ve lost so many friends already.” David predictably responds, “At least now you don’t have to worry about staying in touch.” Short bits such as this can still wrest a chuckle.
Obama reportedly tried playing the “I was president of the United States” card while offering creative advice on David’s scripts. He is among the few people I can imagine mustering the gall to proffer comedy advice to Larry David. David responded, “I’m the president of this.”
But among the pitfalls of “Life, Larry…” is that there is simply too much Larry. He was effective in “Curb” because his idiosyncrasies were carefully balanced by a capable cast. Here, David drives every sketch with too little resistance and frequently drives them into tedium. This elaborate historical pageant seldom reveals anything new about either its star or American history. If David wished to continue portraying the same curmudgeon, he would have been better served writing another season of “Curb.” And if this is Larry David’s pursuit of unhappiness, he is getting us there.
***
Harry Khachatrian (<a href="https://x.com/harry1t6">@Harry1T6</a>) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner. He is a software engineer, holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and writes about wine at <a href="https://www.betweenbottles.com/">BetweenBottles.com</a>.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

larry-david_0

Larry David’s New Series Is ‘Curb’ Without The Enthusiasm

Barack Obama

What happens when an organization founded to preserve history decides it can no longer preserve the very definitions upon which it was founded?
Recently, at its Continental Congress, the Daughters of the American Revolution rejected a proposed bylaw amendment that would have defined &#8220;woman&#8221; for purposes of membership. <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jun/27/daughters-american-revolution-defeats-proposal-block-transgender/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jun/27/daughters-american-revolution-defeats-proposal-block-transgender/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1784134832324000&amp;usg=AOvVaw38iW2zXCsc3k1_fWIVsA6z">The resolution read</a>: “Resolved, That in Article III, Section 1 of the Bylaws, the term ‘woman’ shall be understood to clearly mean a woman who was born female, and therefore, individuals who were born male shall not be eligible for membership.” By rejecting this bylaw amendment, the organization chose not to adopt language that supporters believed would preserve DAR as a female-only organization.
In the days that followed the vote, many chapters expressed disappointment with both the outcome and the organization&#8217;s response. The official DAR message failed to address their central concern over whether the organization intends to remain a space for women only.
If you’re not in DAR, it’s easy at first glance to give this a “so what?”
DAR exists to preserve history, and, ironically, an organization dedicated to preserving truth about the past is now struggling to acknowledge objective reality in the present. But bigger than that, it represents one more step in a broader cultural movement where we are asking — rather, guilting — women to surrender spaces created specifically for them.
Created to preserve American history and uphold constitutional ideals, DAR was founded by women in 1890. The organization exists and is deeply rooted in service because descendants accepted a responsibility to preserve these ideals, not merely sit in the privilege of being born of them. That calling comes with the responsibility to acknowledge hard truths.
My own journey into DAR wasn’t easy. It took years of genealogical research alongside my grandmother, gathering documentation and verifying lineage. I originally intended to join under the lineage of Oliver Wolcott on my maternal grandfather’s side, linking me to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This was complicated by a courthouse fire where all records were destroyed, so I opted to take the path of joining under my maternal grandmother, a path where the documents were easier to find. This linked me to some horse thieves instead, but, hey, they were patriots nonetheless. Every document I located felt like another thread reconnecting my family to the American story. There were so many hoops I had to jump through, and the deeper I dug, the more I appreciated that patriotism is not merely inherited; it is cultivated through understanding the sacrifices that came before us, and that patriotism and our history must be preserved — the good and the bad.
DAR asks its members to honor historical truth. Every application depends upon documents that cannot be altered to fit our preferences. Birth records matter. Marriage records matter. Death records matter. Genealogy is built on objective facts. Historical preservation depends upon objective facts. If those two things are true, why is it not expected that women’s organizations should likewise depend upon objective definitions? If an organization explicitly dedicated to historical accuracy cannot maintain a clear distinction between a man and a woman, both equally important to our society in their own right, that organization risks undermining its own credibility.
DAR was created by women. Women built it. Women have sustained it for generations. Women deserve organizations created specifically for women, and DAR itself is part of women&#8217;s history. At a time when women had few opportunities to lead national civic organizations, these women built one of their own. Preserving that legacy is itself an act of historical preservation.
Increasingly, women are told that maintaining female-only spaces is exclusionary rather than legitimate. The burden has shifted from explaining why men should enter women&#8217;s organizations to explaining why women should have organizations of their own. For women, it is a burdensome responsibility to explain routinely why we matter and why we uniquely bring value. Supporting women&#8217;s spaces is not hostility or hate toward anyone else.
DAR is not without real historical failures. Black women were wrongly excluded despite qualifying ancestry — an incorrect decision that took us far too long as an organization to rectify. And now, we face another one of those moments where we are failing women, women whose ancestors were the reason our nation exists today.
The question before today&#8217;s DAR is whether an organization founded by and for women should remain one. In the pursuit of making every institution open to everyone, we risk forgetting that some institutions exist precisely because they were created to serve a particular purpose.
One of my favorite stories from DAR came during my first visit to its museum in Washington, D.C. Displayed prominently is one of President James Monroe&#8217;s 1817 armchairs. After the chair was sold from the White House grounds in the 19th century, it eventually found its way into DAR&#8217;s collection. Years later, when the White House sought to reacquire pieces of its original furnishings, DAR refused to part with it. The women who said that chair belonged with DAR felt their responsibility was not to surrender history for cash, but to safeguard it for future generations — an edict they would never abandon. I cannot help but wonder what those women would think of today&#8217;s debate over preserving the organization&#8217;s own identity.
Women who believe this decision departs from the organization&#8217;s founding purpose must stand up and speak out about it. Courage requires speaking up when it is uncomfortable. I do not relish this controversy. I do not like the copious amount of hate I receive because I believe in the importance of protecting women and our spaces, but the courage to do what is right and just means speaking unpopular truths.
The women who founded DAR understood that preserving history required courage. Sometimes that courage meant preserving stories that were uncomfortable. Today, it means preserving truths that are unpopular. Institutions are not preserved through silence but through conviction.
When an organization founded to preserve history decides it can no longer preserve the very definitions upon which it was founded, we already know what happens. Institutions slowly lose sight of the very purpose they were created to preserve. If we cannot, and will not, preserve the truths closest to us, we should not be surprised when future generations stop trusting us to preserve the truths of those who came before us.
***
Taylor Hathorn is a visiting fellow at Independent Women. She has over 10 years of experience in cybersecurity, policy, public relations, and nonprofit management.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

Menu