In 1999 there was a popular song that I learned all the words to when I was way too young to know what I was actually saying. The chorus to “What Would You Do?” by the band City High included a line that said, “What would you do if your son was at home, crying all alone on the bedroom floor ‘cause he’s hungry / and the only way to feed him is to sleep with a man for a little bit of money?” 
At the time I didn’t think much about the message behind the pop song. But I can’t say the same holds true after slogging through 656 pages of Kathryn Stockett’s latest historical fiction release, “The Calamity Club.” This was the author’s highly anticipated follow-up to her runaway hit in 2009, “The Help.”
Stockett used way more words to say essentially the same thing as the brilliant lyricists behind “What Would You Do?” The entire book is a defense, and an unrealistic portrayal, of “ethical” prostitution that’s as predictable as it is exhausting. The author tries to convince the reader that having sex for money is fine if it’s for a good cause. 
The extra-long book, which is currently holding strong at #2 on the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/combined-print-and-e-book-fiction/">bestseller list</a> in the fiction category, was most certainly a calamity. It was also sorely lacking an editor — not to mention a reality check.
It’s interesting how the book’s description doesn’t explicitly mention the gist of the novel, which paints prostitution in a sympathetic light. I can’t say I’m privy to the marketing agenda of publisher Spiegel &amp; Grau, but my guess is that the team was intentionally vague to attract a larger audience. Even in the age of OnlyFans, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-onlyfans-success-story-thats-missing-a-dark-reality">explicitly glorifying sex work</a> is a hard sell for most readers.
“In 1933 Oxford, Mississippi, Prohibition is on the wane, and the Great Depression is tightening its grip. Poor and rich folks alike have fallen on hard times, even as the old social order remains. For women on the margins, the options are few and the price of dignity and self-determination is unbearably high,” the book’s synopsis <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228820257-the-calamity-club">says</a>. 
The wokest among us will call it female empowerment, of course. But what’s even more baffling is how Stockett tried to convince the reader that the female characters would line up to sell sex for quick cash and, even worse, that this was all inevitable. 
The action takes place in 1933 as the Great Depression wreaks havoc on the nation. Stockett repeatedly mentions well-to-do families who lose everything, including the millionaires down the road and the main characters themselves, who are hoodwinked by a lying husband/son who is both terrible at investing and secretly gay. 
Women have the right to vote but lack the ability to purchase mass quantities of condoms without being shamed or outright denied. The implication is clear: These women are oppressed, and their only recourse is to sell their bodies for money. What would you do if your son was at home, crying all alone on the bedroom floor? What would you do if you were about to lose your childhood home? Your daughter? Your sanity?
There is pushback from the main character, the wise spinster sister Birdie, who is painted as being more clever and level-headed than anyone else in the book. But eventually she caves to the pressures of Charlie, who was previously arrested and thrown in prison for solicitation, or possibly just for speaking to a black man, it’s not exactly clear which. Charlie thinks a short-term brothel is the answer to all their problems. And she has enough life experience to put it all together.
Spoilers ahead. The main conflict in the book is financial, but it’s also about sex-based discrimination. The women are painted as being resourceful, but they are also products of their time and therefore unable to earn living wages on their own. Given that the men in their lives are useless, they are forced to take matters into their own hands. Which, in this case, means resorting to the world’s oldest profession.
Charlie becomes the madam of the temporary brothel, and Birdie is her skeptical accomplice. They are always one step ahead of getting caught: by the police, by the homeowner whose mansion they are using to entertain customers, and by the overtly religious busybody in town, Garnett Pittman, the hypocritical chairlady of the local orphan asylum who becomes president of the Anti-Vice League for the state of Mississippi.
It’s worth spending some time on the novel&#8217;s primary antagonist. Garnett is cartoonishly evil and is the one who pulled strings to have Charlie sterilized and institutionalized to protect Garnett&#8217;s husband&#8217;s secret — that he fathered the now 11-year-old Meg during a one-night stand when Charlie was 17. Garnett punishes Meg at the orphanage for her parentage and conspires to keep her mother locked away forever.
Modern fiction is chock-full of hypocritical Christian characters just like Garnett. It’s almost a given that once devout Christianity is mentioned, that person will be one of the bad guys. Meanwhile, the true virtuous people are always the ones questioning religion, questioning authority, and generally ditching traditional moral virtues for a “do what I want” existence.
It sounds a lot like the modern day progressive party, come to think of it.
Stockett says during the “Author’s Note” section at the end of the book that she was inspired to write the story because of a law passed in 1928 that allowed the sterilization of women deemed to be “imbeciles,” including “promiscuous women.” She felt compelled to speak out against these atrocities, but instead of arguing against eugenics, she wrote a book that essentially says short-term prostitution is a great way to solve financial hardship.
One of the downfalls of the book is that the brothel never gets busted. The homeowner, a well-to-do older woman who would ostensibly not agree to her family home being turned into a house of ill-repute, goes along with the plan after she figures out what’s going on. So do the maids and Birdie’s bank manager boyfriend. This kind of behavior from all the main characters would be far-fetched in 2026 and feels even more so in the mid-1930s.
As a reader, it feels like the whole 600-plus page story is barreling toward disaster. But then in the end there’s just nothing. The women make a lot of money. The homeowner pays off the mortgage and keeps her home. Charlie gets her daughter back. The cops bust a different, more corrupt brothel instead. The women involved get in, get out, and then move on to live the rest of their lives completely unscathed by their actions. 
As popular as it was, “The Help” became controversial because it centered on a white savior narrative, marginalizing the voices of black domestic workers, as the critics said. “The Calamity Club” has so far been embraced by mainstream critics because it does none of that. Instead, it presents a problem and provides a solution that’s free from legal or moral consequences, despite how ludicrous that is in the real world. 
But why would the critics take issue? They’re a lot more scandalized by racial narratives than they are by prostitution for a good cause.
Last year, OnlyFans creator Sophie Rain went viral for <a href="https://x.com/sophieraiin/status/1932540900749758841?lang=en">chastising Bonnie Blue</a>, a pornographic film actress, for “the trauma she’s causing herself and so many women.” Rain was upset that Blue’s stunts of sleeping with thousands of men in a single day were turning her profession into a laughingstock and said her antics meant it was “no longer about female empowerment.”
Rain’s issue is not realizing that being a little bit of a porn star is not possible, just like Stockett’s version of prostitution doesn’t make it morally acceptable. It doesn’t matter if the women only slept with men for money for a short time. It doesn’t matter that they paid off their debts. In this book, the ends do not in fact justify the means. 
Blue’s antics do the world a favor because they are honest. Her line of &#8220;work&#8221; is gross and seedy and should be seen as such. Stockett is never able to make a case for “ethical prostitution” any better than a vegetarian can justify ordering Big Macs from a McDonald’s drive-thru. 
“The Calamity Club” is moral relativism at its finest, which is probably why the leftists are fawning over it. 
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-2288230963

This Bestseller Turns Prostitution Into ‘Female Empowerment’

Book Review

Books

Prostitution

Reading

Upstream

The thesis wasn’t particularly radical. Drawn from the pages of C.S. Lewis’ 1960 book &#8220;The Four Loves,&#8221; an exploration of the four expressions of love according to the Greek language, I began a video essay on the alleged homosexuality of &#8220;Frog and Toad&#8221; by channeling Lewis: “Those who cannot conceive Friendship as a substantive love but only as a disguise or elaboration of Eros betray the fact that they have never had a Friend.”
Posted in July 2025, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAi3T4coh8g">video</a> titled “Friendship Is Not Gay, Actually” for the GeekyStoics YouTube channel was written in the wake of Pride Month and to respond to the children’s classic by Arnold Lobel, &#8220;Frog and Toad,&#8221; which appears on LGBTQ reading lists — cited as “<a href="https://bookriot.com/a-history-of-frog-and-toad/">queer</a>” literature. If you grew up reading these books, you might balk at The New Yorker’s <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/frog-and-toad-an-amphibious-celebration-of-same-sex-love">suggestion</a> that they were always “an amphibious celebration of same-sex love,” when other words exist to describe what these characters were up to, namely: friendship.
That is not satisfactory for much of the online world still afflicted by the lingering effects of Tumblr-induced brain rot, where “shipping” subcultures require the pornification of platonic forms of love (affection, friendship, charity).
The blowback to this video was predictable. “You know Lobel was gay, right?” “Dood, Arnold Lobel was f*cking gay.” I remain puzzled by this soft form of homophobia, which suggests that a gay man is incapable of writing a story about male friendship and affection that isn’t concerned with sex stuff.
This is left-wing orthodoxy, of course. Lived experience is required for certain modes of storytelling. Aladdin’s Jasmine <a href="https://rtfgenderandmediaculture.wordpress.com/2020/11/18/the-same-old-world-how-the-2019-aladdin-fails-to-rectify-the-mistakes-of-the-original/">must be played</a> by an Arab actress rather than by Naomi Scott, who is of British-Indian extraction. Taron Egerton can’t play Elton John because he isn’t gay. The same logic flows down the river of stupidity to suggest, without actual evidence, that Lobel couldn’t conceive of a world where a frog and a toad go fishing, cook, and read together in perfect comfort.
“Toad sat and did nothing. Frog sat with him.” Young people, particularly boys, know what this mode of friendship is like and why it’s so important. You play Halo 2 for several hours and say nothing of importance, or nothing at all — and it’s great.
It took at least six years, and possibly the reelection of President Donald Trump, for America’s elite liberal publications to slow the pace of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/12/learning/is-it-becoming-more-acceptable-for-men-and-boys-to-cry.html">think pieces</a> (written almost always by women) dedicated to examining the decline in male friendships as fruit born of “toxic masculinity.” They should just cry more, gossip, and talk about their feelings while playing Call of Duty, like women might be inclined to do. Then they’d be less depressed.
The Atlantic ran a piece titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/07/friendships-men-activities-emotions/688123/">I Love My Emotionally Stunted Friendships</a>,&#8221; which perfectly summarizes the observable male preference for carefree shared activities rather than hangout sessions of emotional exposition. The author appears to unknowingly reference C.S. Lewis’ &#8220;Four Loves&#8221; when he alludes to the quote, “Lovers are normally face to face, absorbed in each other; Friends, side by side, absorbed in some common interest.” Written with men in mind, Lewis&#8217; book points to how men enjoy laboring together on projects, whether that’s a literary club or sitting quietly for hours on end in a hunting stand.
Perhaps women’s book clubs do delve into the details of the book, but even the TV sitcom &#8220;Malcom in the Middle&#8221; <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0640289/">posited in 2001</a> that suburban women’s “book clubs” were a likely cover for petty-drama-venting sessions fueled by white wine and personal insecurities. Sexist? Maybe. But even the casual sexism about <a href="https://en.meming.world/wiki/I_Bet_He%27s_Thinking_About_Other_Women">men having nothing going on</a> in their minds late at night, except technical nonsense and reflections on the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/DW-Qk6FDWo_/">sacrificial death of Boromir</a> in &#8220;The Lord of the Rings,&#8221; is virally funny because it’s based on truth.
No, he is not “thinking about other women.” He’s working out <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/WouldYouRather/comments/157tkam/genuinely_how_many_3rd_graders_do_you_think_you/">how many third graders</a> he could fight off at once before having to use weapons.
Over the course of a year, “Friendship Is Not Gay, Actually” netted a million views and countless rebuttal videos, along with spinoffs emphasizing why men are starved for connection today. Why?
I believe it’s because men and boys know that modern storytelling is obsessed with the idea of repression and hidden pain, and they’re sick of it. Only a few months after the video, the Netflix hit &#8220;Stranger Things&#8221; went all in during its final season by having Will give a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsQEE3pRiyg">painfully over-the-top coming-out speech</a> to all his friends. The seeds were planted in prior seasons, when Will had feelings for his best friend, Mike Wheeler, and, in defense of &#8220;Stranger Things,&#8221; many guys have had a friend who turned out to be gay in adulthood.
In one sense, it’s relatable; in another, it’s not what the vast majority of audiences hunger to experience on-screen: childlike adventure, free of more mature concerns. Could &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brsEFRGvq6I">The Sandlot</a>&#8221; or &#8220;Stand By Me&#8221; be made today without one of the boys having a somber, repressed gay backstory? Unlikely.
Men today are hungry for a quest, risk-taking, and shared struggle. Dip into #masculinity content on YouTube and Instagram, and it’s an endless stream of shorts about men longing for the rivalry between Dragon Ball Z’s Goku and Vegeta, as well as the painful hike to Mount Doom for Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins.
Tolkien’s hobbits are, of course, another popular example of <a href="https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=44d7f0e7266e9015&amp;rlz=1C5MACD_enUS1057IS1059&amp;sxsrf=APpeQntmNsgt044q59RaQdNRwyhdAuTe1w:1785786888675&amp;udm=2&amp;fbs=ABfTbFVyMZGZf1hfvX9uKjN_-G8c4u0nXx4bEIpwm1lnNH832cSpkWkfSwsmpNIrD_OQ-UdFAe4qAwsQWVbrtprjzBSpjDzGa2iAzCYjz69Mu1iWx7YiTantfWOFDWCMjxKLxzXxra2f_zPPc_lbtxnt2jB4m_oP2EMgsBePHyaggZyPjrGQdqSW3hRAKsZ4cyb9nWYL1Iz5CC5w-Apawf0PLDdxg1E2OA&amp;q=sam+and+frodo+gay&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjNiJPJnoWWAxUqKFkFHRZANekQtKgLegQIGBAB&amp;biw=1352&amp;bih=666&amp;dpr=2">a friendship marred</a> by 21st-century notions of intimacy where it’s all a cover for sexuality. Lewis addressed this tiresome trend of gay conspiracy theories by saying, “The very lack of evidence is thus treated as evidence; the absence of smoke proves that the fire is very carefully hidden.”
&#8220;The Four Loves&#8221; is marked by a rather humorous tone of frustration with the women of Oxford University, who, it seems, might have been peddling rumors of secret gay romances between Lewis, Tolkien, and their friends in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inklings">Inklings</a>. The simple fact that these men didn’t want women in their literary club was besmirched as, in the words of modern folk, “<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=OS49fUdoqM4&amp;pp=ygUGZ2F5eXl5">GAYYYY</a>.”
It is undeniable that we live in lonely times, and it hurts for both men and women, with the pain manifesting itself in <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/why-are-fewer-young-people-identifying-as-trans">unique ways</a> for both of the sexes. Every time <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@GeekyStoics">GeekyStoics</a> does a video on friendship, it outperforms everything else on the channel. Understanding why that is will continue to affect our shared culture and world politics, for good and for ill. We must work toward the good and start from the fertile ground of reality: men and women are different, male friendship is going to look different than female bonds, and friendship is still not gay.
***
Stephen Kent is the founder of Geeky Stoics and co-author of the upcoming book &#8220;<a href="https://l.gourl.es/l/2beff5247af94cb029bfe4aa18be8996f9da1251?u=11850803" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://l.gourl.es/l/2beff5247af94cb029bfe4aa18be8996f9da1251?u%3D11850803&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1786128367253000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0cb44wUePT23Ieafuhs7r7">Great Escape: 30 Reflections on Stoicism, Faith and the Wisdom of Great Stories</a>.&#8221; Available for pre-order now. 

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-931375860

Male Friendship Isn’t Gay

Friendship

How far would you go to save your son? That is the question David Burroughs (Sam Worthington) must confront in Netflix’s “I Will Find You,” an eight-episode adaptation of Harlan Coben’s thriller.
It is refreshing to see Worthington apply his talents to a role that does not involve portraying a Native American Smurf alien (&#8220;Avatar,&#8221; for the uninitiated). Convicted of murdering his three-year-old son, Matthew, Burroughs has spent five years in prison, and Worthington convincingly embodies the defeated posture of a man who has accepted his penance and no longer imagines a life beyond his cell.
The prosecution argued that Burroughs, suffering from night terrors, bludgeoned Matthew to death with a baseball bat and buried the weapon without remembering either act. The body was mutilated beyond visual identification. The legal logic is questionable at best, and the supposed night terrors strangely never recur. If Burroughs committed the killing unconsciously, his criminal responsibility would hardly be straightforward, and the series never explains why he is serving his sentence in a federal penitentiary. Still, the setup produces some of the most gripping fugitive suspense since “Prison Break.” Both series revolve around innocent men discarded by corrupt authorities, though “I Will Find You” carries greater emotional weight through its father-son relationship.
The plot kicks into gear when Rachel Mills (Britt Lower), Burroughs’s former sister-in-law and a disgraced investigative reporter, visits him with a photograph discovered on social media. In the background is a boy who looks uncannily like Matthew might five years later, down to the birthmark on his cheek. Taking an abducted child to a crowded amusement park without concealing such an obvious identifying feature is an extraordinarily careless plot contrivance, but it gives Burroughs his first reason in years to hope. Resigned to dying in prison, he suddenly has renewed resolve and a reason to escape.
Lower brings a harried, quick-thinking energy to Mills, whose motives blend guilt, familial loyalty, and professional ambition. Matthew’s possible survival offers Burroughs salvation; for Mills, it may resurrect her career. These competing motivations give them engaging chemistry as they improvise their way through the conspiracy.
Like “Prison Break,” however, a story powered by conspiracy must keep adding layers to sustain itself. “I Will Find You” piles on police officers, trial witnesses, prison officials, FBI agents, mobsters, wealthy benefactors, and compromised medical personnel whose connections to Burroughs remain obscure. By the midpoint, the plot begins to resemble a Candace Owens podcast, minus the monologues about Jews.
Among the expanding cast is sharp-witted, tech-savvy FBI investigator Greer (Logan Browning). There is also Hayden (Milo Ventimiglia), Rachel’s extravagantly wealthy former boyfriend, whose affluence the series emphasizes by having him place a $1.5 million bid at an art auction and stroll out as the gavel falls, like an action hero walking away from an explosion. Other characters arrive with similar fanfare, hover suspiciously, and then evaporate.
The series also depends on its characters failing to ask obvious questions. A neighbor’s testimony that she saw Burroughs bury the murder weapon helped secure his conviction. Once it becomes clear that she lied, the case should begin collapsing. Why did she lie? Why does law enforcement display so little curiosity about perjury in a child-murder prosecution? The revelation becomes another clue in an overcrowded scavenger hunt, and the series rushes onward.
Despite its Swiss-cheese plotting, the holes never overwhelm the suspense. Hull and the series’ directors maintain such relentless forward motion that Burroughs seems one mistake away from capture. From rooftop pursuits to Scorsese-style street shootouts, the series packs so much action into eight episodes that there is scarcely room to breathe. Whenever the conspiracy threatens to buckle under scrutiny, the show accelerates. You may get lost in its web of corruption, but you will never be bored.
Amid the pulp machinery, “I Will Find You” raises a more serious question: What happens when institutions entrusted with maintaining order are corrupted?
As a criminal-justice hawk, I support tougher and longer prison sentences, more restrictive bail policies, and capital punishment in at least some cases (brutal child murder being one). That makes the series’ subtle warning especially relevant. Conservatives distrust government in nearly every other sphere yet often grow deferential when the state puts on a badge. We all want safe cities. But the same power used to punish the guilty can be corrupted and turned against the innocent.
Midway through the series, Burroughs is urged to question his assumptions about those closest to him: “Start asking yourself questions you’re too afraid to ask.” Beneath eight episodes of unnerving tension, this becomes the story’s lingering libertarian lesson. Institutions wielding coercive power demand scrutiny, and families cannot outsource their duty of protection to systems vulnerable to corruption. We cannot blindly trust institutions to keep us or our children safe. That is what fathers and families are for.
***
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/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

I_Will_Find_You_n_S1_E3_00_16_24_04_R

Netflix’s ‘I Will Find You’ Outruns Its Own Absurdity

Entertainment

Netflix

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

Weekend Plans With Chloe Cole, Detransitioner And Child Advocate

Chloe Cole

Chloe Cole Act

weekend plans

Americans are obsessed with true crime. &#8220;Crime Junkie&#8221; is still one of the biggest podcasts in the world. The Idaho murders documentary just hit number one on Netflix.
When I was growing up, true crime was my favorite genre. I would sit inside with my friends on hot summer days to watch the latest episodes of &#8220;SVU&#8221; and all things Olivia Benson. I’d be embarrassed to count up how many hours of my life I spent listening to true crime podcasts. Name one, and I’ve probably spent 10 hours of my life learning all about it.
But if you pause and think about it, the idea of saying, “I love true crime,” is actually bizarre. The real world is heavy enough without going out of our way to seek out even more darkness just for the sake of entertainment. Just a scroll through TikTok and I will see stories of girls talking about how someone stalked them or questioning if a weird encounter they had was a sign of human trafficking. Flip on local news, and the top stories will be last night&#8217;s shooting. 
After listening to true crime podcasts and books almost daily during my early twenties, the concept of what I was really consuming dawned on me. How much is this affecting my health and how I see the world?
Considering the TV true crime demographic is 80% female, I know I’m far from the only one facing this dilemma. Psychology Today cites women&#8217;s need for understanding the murderers&#8217; motives as a means of making them less scary, as a reason for our morbid curiosity. Experts also say we want to be more aware and informed if we are ever to find ourselves in a similar situation. It makes sense. Often, the girls who get out of bizarre scenarios cite their true crime obsession as a lifesaving tool.
The education component is indeed a useful tool for an otherwise senseless matter. I think some shows glamorize and monetize other people&#8217;s suffering for the sake of entertainment, while there are better options that seek to educate and inform rather than harp on every gory detail of a crime.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/enADjPJsmHE?si=pVNfvUk1aWRVCbjC" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
My biggest concern with our undying love for dark subject matter is how it seems to desensitize humans to real-life suffering and evil. It reminds me of the way people attribute video games to desensitization. Whats worse about true crime is it&#8217;s true crime. Real people&#8217;s lives.
Mix in our obsession with the internet&#8217;s need to comment on every single detail, and a crime will quickly turn into everyone&#8217;s next conspiracy theory on TikTok. Every viewer now needs to become the entertainer: sharing her insights into the possible perpetrators of the crime even when there is no evidence to suggest it.
Take the Idaho murder case, four students slain in their off-campus house. The now infamous house was also home to two young women who survived the horrors. Within hours of the details reaching social media, the innocent roommates became prime suspects in the eyes of TikTok sleuths. No decorum or empathy displayed toward real survivors of a real horror. In reporting on real-life evil, we partake in downright evil gossip ourselves.
The online activity around Charlie Kirk&#8217;s assassination follow eerily similar patterns as well. Just because the salacious content scratches the itch of a generation obsessed with true crime, that doesn&#8217;t make the content right, morally or factually.
When I took a step back from the true crime gossip, a striking question filled the void. Isn’t there anything better you can fill your brain with? The answer, of course, was yes. You become what you consume. If I&#8217;m consuming darkness, how do I plan to shine the light?
Now I ask myself, is this just gossip and gore? If so, I steer clear. And so far, the switch-up has done wonders for my health, the way I view the world, and the way I can still operate joyfully within it.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

young woman scrutinising safety of her online data

The Dark Truth Behind Our True Crime Obsession

Crime

Media

True Crime

Bright Side: The Country Craze Spreads From Texas To Japan

bright side

A manufacturing malfunction in a supply line nearly destroyed our almost 100-year-old home in Los Angeles. We were away for a week-long road trip to Oregon, and upon returning home, our family found it flooded and severely damaged. To say I was shocked is an understatement. 
As we settle into rental life before we can return to our home next summer, I&#8217;ve moved all the way through the phases of grief to the advice-giving stage. I want to make sure that if something like this happens to you, you&#8217;re prepared. So here are some things my husband and I have learned through this process.
Review your insurance policy
You need to know how much your insurer values your dwelling and personal possessions (everything not an appliance or nailed down). Just like a new car, pretty much anything you buy will depreciate the moment you purchase it. The Zara sweater I bought in Spain last fall: depreciated. The family room couch where we’d snuggle and watch family movies: depreciated. Allegedly, the only things insurers cannot depreciate are the vintage rugs and the damaged midcentury furniture. Buying second-hand, getting hand-me-downs, and purchasing vintage items and antiques will help you collect things that will retain their value in a debate with your insurance company on what your belongings are worth.
Next, understand the coverage for your hotel or temporary rental, something I didn’t even think or know about until this incident. Most <a href="https://www.usnews.com/insurance/homeowners-insurance/what-is-loss-of-use-coverage">“loss of use coverages</a>” mean 20 to 30% of the value of your insured home will be budgeted to find a place to stay while you’re out of it. Depending on your real estate market, it’s good to assess whether or not your policy has enough coverage.
To house a family our size (a minimum three- to four-bedroom space), you are looking at a national average of $3,000 a month. I can attest that it’s much much more in Los Angeles where an <a href="https://www.apartments.com/rent-market-trends/ca/">oversaturated</a> market, still-displaced fire victims, and our family having to house three adults and four children made it challenging to find a spot for the next year.
I know some people talk about being “over-insured,” but after going through this, I don&#8217;t know if that&#8217;s possible. Who can really afford to pay a mortgage and rent? Not many. Being insured (life, home, property, auto) is the wise decision for yourself and your family.
Save for a rainy day
Our policy coverage is good, but it’s slow. An emergency fund is vital. You&#8217;ll still have to pay your mortgage. Believe it or not, if you have a leak like us, you’ll have to contact your local department of water and power to figure out forgiveness or a payment plan. Your life may be in chaos, but the world still continues. Bills have to be paid, clients have to be served, and kids have to go to school, be fed, and sometimes watched at a financial cost to you.
Additional costs for us so far include loss of work, the hotel, the security deposit for our rental, childcare, and extra fuel for the added commutes due to the new housing situation. We had to re-purchase basic items such as toiletries, medicine, pajamas, swimsuits, shoes, and clothing for our kids and my mother-in-law.
We spent three times as much on food and fuel as we do in our normal lives, having to live in a hotel for a month. Even if insurance reimburses that, it adds up fast. Having a nest egg to cover yourself for a couple of months is key. Any monies or gifts you get from your community, family, and friends are a bonus. 
Ask for help
A friend recommended we set up a fundraiser. We didn’t until a month later, and we should have done it earlier. “Strike while the iron is hot” might seem slightly crass, but it’s true. If a friend or family member can do this for you, assign it to a capable person, even if you think you might not need it.
I splurged and got groceries delivered for the first time ever because I had to be on a podcast, had no childcare, and also needed to feed my kids and get my toddler pull-ups. God bless the friend who gave me an Instacart gift card so I could get the grocery delivery and the friend who gifted us a DoorDash gift card that paid for the lunch I ordered while I restocked the rental chest freezer and fridge with food for my brood. Adrenaline, caffeine, and willpower can only carry you so far.
I also reached out to friends in our community for aid. I told them we needed clothes, and they brought hand-me-downs. I told them we’ll need school uniforms, and they brought their extras. I told them my kids needed to get out of the hotel, and they brought them to the movies, to play dates, and to lunch. Learning to ask for help can be hard, but we, especially moms, need to exercise that muscle more.
Be honest with yourself and your family
We had a lot of questions. We still have a lot of questions. This is the most “unknown” our kids have ever experienced, and it hurts my heart how much it’s rocked their world. But it’s been so precious to see the things they truly cared about. Stuffed animals from their great-grandparents who have passed away, a family photo from a trip we took for their dad’s birthday, our family Christmas ornaments. Not just toys and clothes, but items that held special meaning.
When they ask, “What’s going on?” I tell them honestly. It’s been a lot of me saying “I don’t know” and “Mommy doesn’t totally understand either.” And, “This sucks. I’m sorry I can’t fix it.”
Our kids are learning a lot about the cost of real estate, plumbers, electricians, contractors, permitting departments, adjusters, lawyers, engineers, total loss inventory, and how many blue collar businesses there are that deal with mold remediation, water removal, and moving and storage. We protect them in a lot of ways, but I will tell them every step of the way what’s going on and why.
They lost their home too, and they deserve to know. It’s helped them pause and process with us how they feel because they get we’re in this together and we, their parents, are doing everything we can to advocate for them.
You cannot always know how you will handle an emergency situation until you’re in it, but putting prior preparation in place before something big happens is good practice. There are so many strangers who will roll into your house to do their jobs, so many decisions to be made, so many emotions occurring, and so many details to manage that having a game plan will help you in the midst of the chaos.
One thing is for sure: We will rebuild!
***
Elisha Krauss is a conservative commentator, writer, and speaker who resides in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and their four children. She is an advocate for women’s rights, school choice, and smaller government.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-1791232364

The Costly Mistakes Too Many Homeowners Make

Disasters

family

Housing

insurance

Personal finances

Conservatives love to talk about what’s wrong with my generation: why college kids are marching in support of terrorists, why they have so many genders, and why so many of them are impossibly woke. I’m sure there are plenty of reasons. But as a 13-year-old myself, I’m here to tell you that social media is the problem.
Social media platforms have always had some sway over what adults think politically, but now that kids are getting on them at younger and younger ages, kids are getting radicalized sooner.
We can spend hours arguing about whether kids should be on social media, but the reality is that most of them already are — and have been for some time. The result is that most people in my middle school can’t tell you anything about President Donald Trump or Republicans other than the fact that they’re supposedly evil.
Of course, my classmates have never read articles about this; they just watch short videos on various social media platforms and assume everything they hear is true. These videos twist words, tell lies, and change the narrative because it’s progressives telling the stories, and conservative videos aren&#8217;t on the algorithm.
The day after Charlie Kirk was shot, almost all of my grade had watched his murder on video multiple times. It was all anyone was talking about. But instead of making everyone feel sick, like it should have, it simply turned into a meme. Kids kept singing the viral Charlie Kirk song, not because they were honoring him but because they saw it online and thought it was funny. I asked some of my friends if they knew what Charlie stood for, and I wasn’t surprised that they had no idea. They probably still don’t know today.
Social media had not given them Charlie&#8217;s whole story, only the end. Watching social media turn his death into a meme shows how addictive social media is, and how thoroughly it brainwashes young minds.
It also shows that conservatives aren’t trying to reach kids my age. The internet is full of left-wing ideas, so it is not surprising that so many kids are growing up to have extreme views. Conservative adults worry that college kids are being brainwashed, but by the time these kids reach college, it may already be too late. When they get on social media at younger ages, they also get brainwashed earlier.
Middle schoolers today are already being propagandized from every angle: We go to school, where hyper-partisan teachers tell us we live on stolen land, and then we come home and watch videos about how terrible and evil conservatives are. Right now it’s college kids who are marching in the streets, but in the years to come, it will be my generation, and then the kids behind me who are barely in middle school.
We see a rainbow and think of Pride, and we see coed bathrooms and think it&#8217;s normal because conservatives aren’t making online content aimed at kids. People my age don’t see the other side, and they don’t have conservative voices to inspire them. Conservatives like to talk about the future, but it’s time they started reaching out to the kids who will be that future before it is too late. I wish I could say that rational thinking as we get older is enough to win over my generation, but the reality is the battle is already being fought, one swipe at a time. And right now, conservatives are losing.
But all hope is not lost. I have a front-row seat to what social media is doing to your kids, and it&#8217;s time for you to take a stand and keep them off social media platforms. They may push back, but I’m proof that they can live a completely normal and happy middle school life without it — or even a phone!
We should be learning our values from our family, our history, and our pastors, not letting influencers tell us how to live our lives and view our country. If your kids don&#8217;t have social media, keep it that way. If they’re already doomscrolling, get them to stop before it’s too late. And if you’re my age and happen to be reading this: I hope you put down your phone, go touch grass, and realize that America’s grass will always be greener.
***
A.H. Bell is a middle school student living a perfectly normal, happy life despite not having a cell phone.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

Midsection of friends sharing smart phone in hallway at high school

I’m A Middle Schooler. Here’s The Biggest Threat To My Generation.

Bias

Cellphone bans

Charlie Kirk

Children

College

Leftism

Middle School

Social Media

Socialism

It happened in a split second. I was sitting near the edge of my parents&#8217; pool, watching my daughter and chatting with a friend when I turned to talk — just for a moment.
&#8220;Did Abby just go under?&#8221; my friend interrupted my sentence. 
My heart dropped. My daughter&#8217;s head was bobbing just below the surface. I jumped in, pulled her out, and held her shaking body against mine while a terrifying could have pinged through my mind.
&#8220;It&#8217;s okay, Ericka, it was only a second,&#8221; my friend told me. It didn&#8217;t help. In that instant, I viscerally understood how any parent, no matter how vigilant, could lose a child to drowning.
I was lucky. Christi Brown was not. Her three-year-old son, Judah, had already taken traditional swim lessons and was wearing a puddle jumper at the pool. He took it off to dry, but jumped back in the pool without it — thinking he was safe because he was used to a flotation device. She found him underwater minutes later, and Judah died that day.
&#8220;All they taught him at the age of three was to be confident in the water, without teaching him competence in it,&#8221; Brown told me of her son’s past swimming lessons. 
That distinction — confidence versus competence — is the whole argument for why every parent of a young child should seriously consider infant survival swim lessons. These lessons are easily identified on social media by striking videos of young children being tossed into the water, where they immediately roll onto their backs and float, a technique designed to help them survive an accidental fall into a pool. 
The videos can be shocking to watch. Despite their controversial nature, I believe it’s worth the cost to potentially save your child’s life. 
Recently, influencer Emilie Kiser lost her three-year-old son, Trigg, to a drowning accident, which has caused many moms to reconsider safety measures. But Kiser isn’t alone; there are drowning incidents reported every week in this country, especially in the summer months. 
Drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages one to four, and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7320e1.htm">the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report</a> that drowning rates in that age group jumped roughly 28% in 2021 and 2022 compared with 2019. 
It doesn&#8217;t look like the movies. Kids don&#8217;t thrash and yell; they just quietly go under in a silent tragedy. 
&#8220;It&#8217;s remarkably undramatic in nature, and most of the time it&#8217;s not recognized by people who are watching swimmers,&#8221; ER physician Dr. Scott Youngquist <a href="https://healthcare.utah.edu/the-scope/all/2024/07/what-does-drowning-look">said</a>. 
Survival swimming lessons train children as young as six months to float unassisted and swim to safety if they fall in unexpectedly. 
I spoke with <a href="https://pediaswim.com/">Pediaswim founder Joy McGinty</a>, one of the method&#8217;s best-known practitioners, and she doesn&#8217;t mince words about the flotation devices most parents rely on instead. A puddle jumper, she says, is &#8220;like cocaine — because it can kill&#8221; a child by giving him false confidence.
 &#8220;With a huge percentage of kids that drown, if you ask a parent what is the last picture they have of their kid alive, they&#8217;re in a puddle jumper,&#8221; she said. Someone took it off, and the child jumped back in without it. That is precisely what happened to Judah.
I know the skepticism firsthand — because I hesitated too. My son started traditional lessons at age one; two years and three different swim schools later, he still couldn&#8217;t have saved himself if he fell in.
<a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/swimming-lessons-save-lives-what-parents-should-know-201806151630">Harvard health expert</a> Dr. Claire McCarthy, M.D., has noted that children under five simply aren&#8217;t cognitively or physically ready to learn conventional swimming. Survival swimming exists precisely because of that gap.
Critics raise real questions, and parents deserve to hear them squarely. Some object to the brief distress babies show in early sessions, calling it traumatic. Others point out that infants under one most often drown in bathtubs — a risk survival swimming doesn&#8217;t address. 
Dr. Clay Jones has argued <a href="https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/summer-is-here-and-infant-swimming-programs-are-still-unproven/">in Science-Based Medicine</a> that the marketing oversells the method and that it&#8217;s wrong to place &#8220;the onus of drowning prevention on an infant.&#8221; Concerns about so-called &#8220;dry drowning&#8221; circulate too, though <a href="https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/resources/articles/dry-or-delayed-secondary-drowning?srsltid=AfmBOorxuEdfQzgMCyaJ_5AGEZoDszHwZI268cyLwkUStRZSdlUtZaTT">the Red Cross has pushed back</a> on sensationalized reporting that it says has needlessly terrified parents.
These are fair points to weigh, not reasons to dismiss the method outright. No one — least of all instructors like McGinty — claims survival swimming replaces supervision. It&#8217;s a last line of defense, not a substitute for watching your kids. 
&#8220;You don&#8217;t want your kid to have to use this skill,&#8221; my sister Shelby Gil, who left a nursing career to become a certified instructor, told me, &#8220;but you can know that they will have skills to save their own life if they need to.&#8221;
Unfortunately, the lessons aren&#8217;t cheap or convenient. They can run $75 to $300 a week, and instructors are somewhat scarce outside places such as Florida where pools stay open year-round. I drove 25 minutes each way, five days a week, for six weeks of ten-minute sessions.
Nonprofits like <a href="https://judahbrownproject.org/">the Judah Brown Project</a> (created in honor of the Judah in this story), McGinty&#8217;s Gift of Swimming, and <a href="https://www.hopefloats.foundation/">Hope Floats</a> now offer scholarships precisely because families keep learning about this option only after tragedy strikes nearby — a pattern that repeats itself, town by town, drowning by drowning.
When I finally enrolled my daughter, I braced for tears. Instead, she came to enjoy her lessons and her teacher. On the last day, her instructor had us dress her in boots, a jacket, and gloves — because real emergencies don&#8217;t happen in swimsuits — and she jumped in fully clothed. She floated, and I felt safer knowing she’ll always know how to do that now. 
&#8220;Don&#8217;t be us,” said Judah’s mom, Cristi. “We don&#8217;t want you to live the rest of your life without your child.&#8221; 
It’s not about guilt or shame. It’s a warning worth heeding and an investment worth making.
***
Ericka Andersen is the author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Freely-Sober-Rethinking-Alcohol-Through/dp/1514013363/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Freely Sober: Rethinking Alcohol Through the Lens of Faith</a>” (InterVarsity Press, 2026)
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-1309421929

The Pool Safety Myth That Could Cost A Child’s Life

Safety

Swimming

water

The Make America Healthy Again movement is in and out of headlines every week, and women are reacting to every win. Conservative and liberal women alike have found something to rally behind with the MAHA momentum. It seems like all the ladies, especially moms, have decided to ditch food dyes, embrace natural fibers, and question vaccines. But why? 
The surface statistics tell one story: Women are the primary shoppers in <a href="https://capitaloneshopping.com/research/male-vs-female-shopping-statistics/">78.2%</a> of households, giving them a front-row view of the decisions involving food, personal care, cleaning products, and the many other daily choices the MAHA movement affects. And moms are often the ones attending pediatrician appointments, planning lunches, and managing their children’s health habits. Women are seeing ingredient lists, hearing health claims, listening to vaccine schedule recommendations, and wading through mixed marketing messages.
But these daily decisions only show part of the picture, and the medical stats and stories reveal just how fed up many women are with the health system in America.
Women are <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7980266/">four times</a> as likely to develop an autoimmune disease as men. This results in <a href="https://health.osu.edu/health/general-health/women-higher-risk-autoimmune-disease">70-80%</a> of people with autoimmune diseases being female. Possible reasons for this percentage divide include genetics, female chromosomes, hormones, and the female reproductive system, but the bottom line is that more women suffer from the growing autoimmune disease epidemic than men. In fact, rates of autoimmune disease (not just detection of the conditions) have been <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/autoimmunity-indicators-on-the-rise-among-americans">rising</a> since at least the late ’80s.
And yet, even obtaining an official autoimmune diagnosis can take <a href="https://www.uvahealth.com/healthy-balance/detective-work-autoimmune-disease">years</a> and typically requires seeing <a href="https://autoimmune.org/resource-center/autoimmune-summit/2021-autoimmune-summit/path-to-rare-disease-diagnoses/">multiple doctors</a> over that time period. All the while, a real woman — not just a number in a medical coding system — can be suffering daily with pain, physical impairment, and even cognitive symptoms. Not to mention the mental stress of navigating the diagnosis process. 
There’s even <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10592987/">evidence</a> to suggest that women wait longer for diagnoses more generally — as compared to men. And <a href="https://prenuvo.com/blog/the-most-common-health-misdiagnoses-in-women--and-why-they-keep-happening">some studies</a> suggest that women are also more likely to be misdiagnosed than men. While much of the language surrounding these statistics is often focused on gender bias as a bogeyman, it doesn’t change the reality women face.
Many women in my own life have gone to their doctors about a medical concern or recurring pain, only to be told their symptoms are “normal” or “nothing to worry about.” Certainly, men can also experience the same issues, but many of the women I’ve personally known who have been frustrated with the medical system are facing complex reproductive or hormonal challenges that go ignored, get dismissed, or begin an uphill battle through the years-long diagnosis process.
Indeed, the female reproductive system is so complex that there are entire fields of medicine dedicated to pregnancy and female anatomy, bundled together into the “OB/GYN” moniker. And the female biological clock ticks much faster than the male biological clock, making fertility and any health concerns an urgent issue for any woman facing reproductive struggles or simply in her reproductive years. 
For example, <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/10857-endometriosis">endometriosis</a> — growth of uterine tissue outside the uterus that can cause painful side effects, fertility problems, and a host of whole-body symptoms — takes an <a href="https://www.endofound.org/endometriosis">average of 10 years</a> from first symptom onset to official diagnosis for American women. And yet, this is an inflammatory condition that affects <a href="https://prenuvo.com/blog/the-most-common-health-misdiagnoses-in-women--and-why-they-keep-happening">10% of women</a> in their reproductive years. Beyond infertility and more extreme effects, symptoms can include severe menstrual cramps, heavy bleeding, or bloating — all of which can be dismissed as “normal” period symptoms. Similarly, <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/8316-polycystic-ovary-syndrome-pcos">polycystic ovarian syndrome</a> (PCOS), a condition that affects anywhere from <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7879843/">4–20%</a> of women, can have symptoms as varied as excess hair to skin tags to acne to infertility. And women often go through <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-with-endometriosis-and-pcos-wait-years-for-a-diagnosis-attitudes-to-womens-pain-may-be-to-blame-179500">multiple doctors over the course of years</a> to receive a diagnosis.
My own experience with the American health care system is no different than many women’s stories. I arrived at the emergency room as a teenager with abdominal pain so debilitating that I could barely walk. That morning, I’d gotten out of the shower and had to sit on the bathroom rug before gathering myself enough to stand up again. I then lay in bed for what could have been a few minutes or more than an hour before deciding with my parents that I needed to go to the hospital. I crawled down the hall and lay reclined in the car ride to the ER. There, after an ultrasound and when the pain subsided hours later, I left with a diagnosis of mere cramps. To this day, I haven&#8217;t received an official diagnosis. 
Certainly, I understand that diagnosing conditions that have lengthy and complicated symptom lists is not an easy undertaking. I know that doctors are not miracle workers who can easily cure any condition and that their time has many demands on it. But I also know that this is a system that is clearly broken. 
Whether caused by a lack of research, the complexities of the female hormonal system, dismissed symptoms, or sheer medical incompetence, the reality is that women have ample reason to be frustrated with the medical status quo. And finger-pointing at “gender bias” is little comfort to real people who are suffering without answers. 
As a result, the MAHA women are asking why the system seems so broken. Why are rates of autoimmune disease rising? Why is the solution to so many problems a prescription, especially to hormonal birth control? Why do many medical professionals seem to dismiss patient concerns? Why is there so much pressure to follow the vaccination schedule at pediatrician appointments? 
When none of these questions have easy answers — or solutions — the questions only get louder. Now, there’s a national movement that is addressing these concerns, and though there’s a long way to go, many women finally feel like their voices are heard.
***
Jordan Jantz is the assistant editor at IW Features as well as a freelance writer, editor, and website designer.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-2224220230

Why All The Moms Are Suddenly Going ‘Crunchy’

Health

MAHA

moms

UpstreamSophie

How Sophie Cunningham Became The WNBA’s Biggest Target

Sophie Cunningham

Women's sports

It’s hard to believe this summer marks six decades since the Beatles, the greatest of pop-rock bands, released the album that truly catapulted them to that title. And I’m not talking about &#8220;Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.&#8221; Rather, I mean the album that consistently ranks among the greatest of all time: &#8220;Revolver.&#8221;
&#8220;Revolver&#8221; was the seventh studio release by the Fab Four. It came at a seminal moment for them as musicians and artists. After their appearance at Candlestick Park in August 1966 — the same month the LP was released — the boys decided to quit the road and focus solely on exploring the studio to its fullest. They no longer wanted to be hindered by creating music they would then have to reproduce live as a stripped-down quartet (not that anyone in the shrieking crowd could have heard the music anyway).
And so, &#8220;Revolver&#8221; became the Beatles’ first post-tour-mindset album (I’ll explain what I mean later). It came on the heels of another phenomenal record, &#8220;Rubber Soul,&#8221; released just eight months earlier. Although this preceding album still contained traditional pop love songs, it also began moving into, for lack of a better term, more mature territory with songs such as “In My Life,” “Norwegian Wood,” and “Nowhere Man,” along with perhaps the band’s first oblique foray into psychedelia: the addictive “Think for Yourself,” with its distorted fuzz bass.
I mention the previous album because some Beatles aficionados posit that &#8220;Rubber Soul&#8221; and the subsequent &#8220;Revolver&#8221; could have meshed well as a double album. Well, yes and no. In terms of simply delivering one great tune after another from first track to last, I place them on equal footing. But when it comes to taking a leap into uncharted musical territory, &#8220;Revolver&#8221; is where we see the transition in full.
All one needs to do is listen to the opening tune, George Harrison’s “Taxman.” It sounds, well, different — right down to a driving bass line and Paul McCartney’s blistering guitar solos that erupt throughout the song. One immediately understands that this was not &#8220;The Ed Sullivan Show&#8221; Beatles anymore. Freed from having to ask, “Alright lads, how will this sound live?” the Beatles let the entire studio become their instrument. And they played that instrument like virtuosos.
In &#8220;Revolver,&#8221; the listener is offered a Venetian hour for the ears — and the mind: a haunting string-octet elegy (“Eleanor Rigby”), wonderful horns (“Got to Get You Into My Life,” “For No One”), winsome melodies (“Good Day Sunshine”), sweet tenderness (“Here, There and Everywhere”), ripping guitar duos (“And Your Bird Can Sing”), an exposition of Indian music (“Love You To”), and even the whimsical undersea tale of “Yellow Submarine,” with Ringo Starr taking up the vocals while the boys make sailor talk and nautical sounds in the background.
However, the real “we’re not in Kansas anymore” moments come from John Lennon’s LSD-inspired creations. The monochord drone of “Tomorrow Never Knows” makes Pink Floyd seem like yacht rock (“Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream / It is not dying”). And the fractured “She Said She Said” (“I know what it’s like to be dead”) plunges us into the bewildered and dislocated mental state of someone on a mind-expanding acid trip.
The LP was released in August 1966, when “Wild Thing” by the Troggs topped the Billboard charts. It was a fascinating musical moment historically: &#8220;Revolver&#8221; arrived just as pop music was pivoting from straightforward rock toward psychedelia, experimentation, and studio-driven albums. The Beatles were not the only ones evolving, of course. The year 1966 saw a remarkable wave of experimentation that also produced &#8220;Pet Sounds,&#8221; &#8220;Blonde on Blonde,&#8221; &#8220;Freak Out!,&#8221; and other ambitious studio works, as popular music rapidly evolved from straightforward rock-and-roll into a vehicle for artistic exploration. A creative arms race, if you will. Still, &#8220;Revolver&#8221; — raw, edgy, avant-garde, kaleidoscopic, and at times unsettling — ushered in a sound that would go on to define the rest of the 1960s.
Even the title hinted that the lads had broken out of their pop-idol shell and that what lay inside was going to blow the listener&#8217;s mind. Which it did. Unlike earlier Beatles albums with straightforward titles, &#8220;Revolver&#8220; feels conceptual even before you hear the music — mechanical, psychedelic, and kinetic all at once. It is as if anyone putting on his headphones is being warned that the musical journey ahead will not move neatly from song one to song two to song three, but rather, in McCartney’s happy turn of phrase, “here, there and everywhere.”
And then there is the cover art. Unlike the clean, traditional group photographs that had defined earlier Beatles albums, the cover of &#8220;Revolver&#8221; was a stark, surreal black-and-white collage of swirling line-drawing caricatures and fragmented photographs created by Klaus Voormann, who won a Grammy for the work. Instead of affable mop-tops in suits, we see the Beatles presented as mysterious, introspective, and slightly unmoored. The photographs of the eyes Voormann inserted into the sockets of his four Beatles renditions belong to the actual musicians themselves, lending the artwork an eerie realism. Even before the needle touched the record, the cover telegraphed a dramatic artistic break from the band’s earlier image, suggesting something stranger, more experimental, and more psychologically complex than the polished Beatlemania of only a few years earlier.
All of this tends to overlook the ultimate reason for the success of &#8220;Revolver&#8221; — and its longevity now. (I have little doubt that, like Bach today, the Beatles’ music will still be ubiquitous 300 years hence, pulling succeeding generations into its creative embrace.) The reason is simple: It is an album without a bad track, one in which so many songs were instant classics that it beggars belief.
And let us not forget that at the band’s core were extraordinarily talented musicians. Great musicality is evident throughout the album. Ringo&#8217;s drumming, for example, was a vital part of the musical brilliance of &#8220;Revolver,&#8221; from the tumbling fills of &#8220;She Said She Said&#8221; and the relentless groove of &#8220;Tomorrow Never Knows&#8221; to the punchy, economical precision of &#8220;Taxman.&#8221; His inventive approach has prompted many modern drummers to cite &#8220;Revolver&#8221; as one of the finest examples of creative rock drumming ever recorded. 
The tightly synchronized and remarkably intricate twin lead-guitar lines played by Harrison and McCartney on &#8220;And Your Bird Can Sing&#8221; showcased a level of precision rarely heard in rock music at the time, while their harmonized passages anticipated the dual-lead guitar style that would later become a hallmark of bands such as The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Thin Lizzy, and Iron Maiden. Harrison, meanwhile, helped bring a beautifully played sitar to the forefront of Western popular music, adding yet another expansive element to the track list.
In the late 1960s and throughout much of the 1970s, &#8220;Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band&#8221; was widely regarded as the Beatles’ unquestioned masterpiece. By the 1990s, however, critical opinion had begun to shift toward &#8220;Revolver,&#8221; which many listeners and music writers felt was tighter, more varied, less concerned with its own artistic importance, and more musically adventurous from track to track. Today, the argument that &#8220;Revolver&#8221; is the greatest rock album ever recorded is no longer seen as contrarian, but as a thoroughly mainstream critical view.
Part of the record’s critical ascendancy may stem from a misconception finally being put to rest. Because 1967’s &#8220;Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band&#8221; was the first Beatles album produced after the band quit touring, it was often presented as the moment when they fully embraced psychedelia and studio experimentation, thus magnifying its artistic importance. But in 1966 the Beatles performed no songs from &#8220;Revolver&#8221; live. So even though they were technically still touring when they began writing the album, it seems clear they already knew what the next chapter would be — and chose not to wait to begin writing it.
And it is a story that will never grow old. 

***
Brad Schaeffer is a commodities fund manager, a columnist, and the author of three <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id=55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id%3D55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1785867990209000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3WzXlBAPGz6eMxbn5e-WIr">books</a>. You can follow him on <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1785867990209000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1EDdEJu5Q1QXos7uMI_nXy">Substack</a>. His latest book, &#8220;A War For Half The World: Why the Real Battle for the Future was Fought in the Pacific,&#8221; will be released in February.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-1036569894

Sixty Years Later, One Beatles Album Still Leaves The Rest Behind

Culture

History

Music

The Beatles

Menu