You might not know that Kevin Sorbo — TV’s Hercules in the back half of the ‘90s; star of Kull the Conqueror — found a second life as a star of the far right. He played a mean atheist professor in the first God’s Not Dead. He played a mean atheist in a faith-based movie he directed himself. Sorbo has range! You might not have seen those, but you may have seen him getting dragged online for opinions ranging from the efficacy of masks to him mocking Hunter Biden’s drug addiction.
Now Sorbo is back making dunkable tweets. On Monday, he tried to make an obscure point about vaccines and, of course, only succeeded in accidentally singing the praises of free universal healthcare.
If the shots were given away for free because they’re life-saving, why isn’t insulin free? Chemotherapy? Epipens?
“If the shots were given away for free because they’re life-saving, why isn’t insulin free? Chemotherapy? Epipens?” Sorbo tweeted.
It’s a fair question, Kull: Why are people who are born with or catch deadly diseases forced to pay through the nose just to stay alive? Assuming he was genuinely concerned for people with diabetes or cancer — a big if — it sure would make sense to extend the same care the government is bequeathing so that people don’t die from a highly transmissible disease. (Then again, diseases like diabetes and cancer aren’t contagious like COVID, which fellow winger Marjorie Taylor Greene didn’t seem to understand either. But the larger point he almost certainly didn’t mean to make remains.)
In any case, a lot of people who don’t normally agree with Kevin Sorbo — perhaps even his sometime co-star Lucy Lawless, who dragged him over a year ago about a separate matter on which he was emphatically wrong — found themselves agreeing with him on the subject of socialized medicine.
A lot of acclaimed auteurs don’t like superhero movies. Ridley Scott thinks their scripts “are not any f*cking good.” Argentinian director Lucretia Martel, who was approached to direct one but declined because Marvel wouldn’t let her actually direct the action scenes, finds them “hard to watch.” And then there’s Martin Scorsese, the poet laureate of comic book movie haters, who slammed them for turning a once-diverse industry into, in his summation, a one trick pony.
Steven Soderbergh, who was once nominated for two separate Best Director Oscars in the same year (and won for Traffic, losing to himself for Erin Brockovich), has a more specific gripe. He doesn’t like them because they’re insufficiently (or, really, nonexistently) horny.
In a new interview with The Daily Beast, the director of the Ocean’s trilogy, who hasn’t worked for a major studio in ages and even briefly “retired” from movies in 2013, was asked if ever gets asked to return to franchises.
“Not really,” he replied, adding, “and I’m not a snob; it’s not that I feel it’s some lower tier in any way.” He said he simply prefers making movies with realistic “Newtonian physics” (like his remake of Andrei Tarkovsky’s sci-fi drama Solaris). But there was another issue he had with them:
“Also, for a lot of these, for me to understand the world and how to write or supervise the writing of the story and the characters—apart from the fact that I can bend time and defy gravity and shoot beams out of my fingers—there’s no f*cking. Nobody’s f*cking! Like, I don’t know how to tell people how to behave in a world in which that is not a thing.”
On top of why the genre “typically doesn’t involve a lot of f*cking,” Soderbergh had other questions, like, “who’s paying these people? Who do they work for? How does this job come to be?” (Tony Stark really is the only one who seems to be independently wealthy.) He did add, “If people want to go experience that universe, that’s fine. As a filmmaker, I just don’t know where to start.”
Meanwhile, Soderbergh is hard at work on his own franchise, and it is full of sex, or at least randiness. He’s prepping for Magic Mike’s Last Dance, the third in the beloved male stripper genre starring Channing Tatum and his latest for HBO Max, who also ponied up for No Sudden Move and the forthcoming KIMI. He teases that the threequel is “ as close to a full-blown musical as I’m ever going to get.” So Soderbergh does like franchises, long as they’re realistic or at least realistically titillating.
One the more mysterious aspects of being human is our sense of intuition. This “sixth sense” isn’t something we can see or measure, but many people have experienced it in some form or fashion. Maybe it comes as a strong feeling that something isn’t right, or that we or someone else should or shouldn’t do something. It can be hard to read—not every feeling we get is truly our intuition—but there are plenty of examples of people trusting their instincts and being glad they did.
One such story has gone viral on TikTok. Jessica Higgs, a mom who works as an Instacart grocery delivery person, shared a story in an emotional video that illustrates the importance of listening to that inner voice when it prompts you to make sure someone is OK.
“I just want to start this off by saying if you see something, say something,” Higgs said.
She explained how she had done an Instacart order the previous day for a daughter who was ordering for her older dad who couldn’t shop for himself. She said she was going the extra mile like she always does for her customers, and that the daughter told her to just drop the groceries on the porch and he’d get them. That’s what Higgs would usually do.
“I get there and something was telling me no, you gotta help this man out,” she said. “He came out, and I was like OK let me help you, and I got the groceries. You’re not supposed to go into someone’s house, but I used my judgment and I brought the groceries inside and put them down wherever he wanted me to put them down. You’re not supposed to, but I did. And you’re supposed to just take a picture and leave, and I could not just leave.”
Higgs noticed that the man looked really sick and she was really concerned. A voice in her head said, “You gotta say something. You gotta say something, Jess.” Rather than mark the order as complete, she messaged the man’s daughter and told her that it was really unprofessional to say something like this, but she felt like her dad wasn’t doing well. “There’s a propane tank in there,” she told the woman. “I was in there maybe five feet and I got dizzy. There’s got to be a leak. He might not be doing good because of this leak.”
The woman said she would send her son over to check it out and Higgs left. The woman changed her tip from $14 to $100, which Higgs appreciated, but the message she sent her the next morning was a much greater reward for her going the extra mile.
“Thank you so much, once my son went to check on my dad it turned out it was definitely leaking,” she wrote. “You definitely saved my dad and my younger son’s life!!!”
Through tears, Higgs said, “I’m just an Instacart worker, but if you see something, say something. I did and I’m so happy I did.”
Higgs’ TikTok has been viewed more than 15 million times and has been shared widely on social media. It has also attracted the attention of big companies.
Royal Caribbean Cruises shared a TikTok video of its own praising Higgs for her heroic act and offering her and her family a seven-day cruise anywhere in the world. “Cause even heroes need a vacation,” the company wrote.
Stitch with @jessicahiggs3 – cause even heroes need a vacation. Thanks @captaincruiseguy
Old Navy connected with her and arranged a shopping spree where she got to model several new outfits. People Magazine commented, “You’re literally a HERO! Good job trusting your instincts. 💕” Even TikTok itself wrote, “You are amazing ❤️thank you for sharing this with all of us.”
Lots of commenters also pointed out that she’s not “just an Instacart worker.” Her work is important, she’s providing a needed service and any job done in a spirit of helping others should not be minimized. If she hadn’t been there doing her job well, that man may not be here. Never underestimate the difference each of us can make by the simple act of looking out for one another, friend and stranger alike.
Higgs’ heartfelt story touched millions, and she’s being rightly rewarded for listening to her heart and going out of her way to help someone. Gotta love seeing good things come to people doing good. Well done, Jessica Higgs.
Scotch whisky between $50 and $60 is where things get pretty interesting. While there are still plenty of standard bottles at this price point, we’re starting to get into the better stuff. We’re looking at specially blended malts with big-name brands in the mix alongside single malts that are a little more niche.
Overall, finding a great bottle of Scotch whisky at this price isn’t too hard. There are plenty of bottles in this range on the shelves these days. Add in that the years of Trump-era tariffs have ended on Scotch whisky imports and you simply have more options at a better price. That’s a win-win for the average whisky drinker out there.
The ten bottles below are whiskies I vouch for. I’ve ranked them according to taste to give you a sense of where the prime cuts are in the $50 to $60 range. Hopefully, this will help you make a more informed decision the next time you’re looking to try something new from Scotland.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Scotch Whisky Posts of The Last Six Months
Master Distiller John Campbell created this whisky to highlight the diversity of the casking process behind Laphroaig’s classic expressions. The juice is a blend of four casks. Their quarter, Pedro Ximénez, triple wood, and ten-year-old casks are married to create a deeply satisfying bottle of whisky.
Tasting Notes:
The whisky draws you in with hints of red fruit, plums, nuts, and a bit of peated maltiness. The fruit leads the way on the palate while the wood leans mildly spicy with a bit of alcohol warmth, Ace bandages, smoked salts, and more of that malt. The end lingers as the fruit and wood come together with an ever-so-distant wisp of smoke and Band-Aid.
Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for a light and almost airy introduction to the world of medicinal peated malts, this is the bottle for you. I’d also argue that this is a mild and accessible introduction to the wider and heavier peated world of Laphroaig, especially if you pour it over a rock or two.
This Speyside whisky is all about Spanish wood and Scottish malts. The whisky is matured exclusively in sherry casks for 12 years before vatting and proofing without any additives or coloring.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a soft sense of blackened bananas next to vanilla beans, a hint of lemon oils, and a whisper of dried roses on the nose. The palate marries that lemon and banana into a banana bread with plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg with a touch of vanilla next to a savory melon vibe. That savory fruit drives the mid-palate towards a finish with almost a lemon cream pie feel to it next to a hint more spice and soft vanilla rounding things out.
Bottom Line:
This is a very easy-drinking sweet whisky. While I tend to reach for this when making highball, you can drink it on the rocks for a fruity change of pace.
Back on Islay, this peated malt is another great gateway to the Island’s smoke whiskies thanks to being extremely lightly peated. This expression is made from 12-year-old barrels that once held bourbon or sherry. Those barrels are vatted and the whisky is proofed down and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
The nose on this opens with mild notes of smoked cherry next to burnt candle wax, tart apples, and salted caramels laced with orange oils. The taste mellows with a creamy vanilla pudding base with notes of Black Forest Cake with plenty of brandied cherries and dark cacao and a faint hint of cherry wood smoke way back in the background. The finish leans into that dry and fruity wood and leaves you with a touch more vanilla silkiness and singed cherry wood.
Bottom Line:
This is so subtly “peated” that you’d be forgiven for not even noticing it. The fruitiness and softness are the stars of the show, making this a good candidate for on the rocks or cocktail applications.
This Lowland malt is renowned for being triple distilled (much like Irish whiskey). That extra distillation allows the juice to go in the barrel with an extra layer of refinement. The whisky spends 12 years mellowing in mostly ex-bourbon casks with a few ex-sherry casks in the mix too.
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a rich and creamy vanilla-pudding-with-burnt-sugars covered in ground almonds countered by a lemon-lime vibe with a touch of orange zest that leads towards fresh tea leaves and a touch of fresh mint. The palate lets that orange and lime really shine with a tartness and sweetness that leads back towards that soft vanilla pudding with a touch of Almond Joy and spiced malt. The finish lets that spice warm up your palate with cinnamon and clove as the almonds make a nutty and dry comeback.
Bottom Line:
This is a pretty big outlier in the broader Scotch whisky scene. This whisky is deeply hewn and unique while also being very drinkable — neat or on the rocks. I do like this one in a simple cocktail even though those ABVs are pretty low.
This Island’s whisky is all about reaching over the pond. The 100 percent malted barley juice is aged exclusively in ex-bourbon barrels (for an undisclosed amount of time) before it’s vatted, proofed, and bottled as-is to highlight that barrel.
Tasting Notes:
This has a nose full of ripe apples and pears with stems and cores alongside soft and damp cedar and chewy vanilla-laced toffee. The palate counters with grapefruit pith, silken vanilla cream, and apple butter brimming with dark spice. The finish comes about with a singed cedar bark feel next to soft powdery spices, orange oils, and a very light vanilla ice cream scoop.
Bottom Line:
This feels both like a really approachable and fruity single malt and a subtle bourbon-infused whisky. It’s a great bridge between Kentucky and Scotland and perfect for anyone looking to check out something from Scotland.
Glengoyne uses unpeated Highland barley that they airdry themselves before fermentation. The uniqueness of this whisky doesn’t end there. They also season their own American and European oak barrels with sherry for six years before filling them with their juice. After ten years of maturation, those barrels are vatted, proofed, and bottled for this expression.
Tasting Notes:
This starts off fairly familiar for a sweet Highland malt with notes of apple candies, butter toffee, and a few chocolate-covered almonds. Then a note of buttered popcorn arrives on the nose, which is inexplicable for a non-corn-based whisky. The taste leans back into the apple but it’s more tart and juicy now as minor notes of anise and wet cedar bark lead to a little bit of warm cream sitting on top of a shot of espresso and hint more of those almonds. The finish lets the malts sweeten with a hint of orange marmalade on toast rounding things out.
Bottom Line:
This is a soft and somewhat wild ride for both a ten-year-old whisky and one this inexpensive. This is definitely a whisky to try on the rocks or with a few drops of water to let it bloom a bit.
Bruichladdich’s philosophy on whisky making is pretty unique. Each batch highlights local, unpeated Scottish barley that’s fermented and distilled. That juice then goes into some combination of ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and ex-wine casks for a varied amount of time. That means each batch is unique. Bruichladdich then provides a code on their bottles so that you can go to their website and find out what makes the bottle in your hand special.
Tasting Notes:
Though each batch has its own nuance, there will be a through-line on the taste. Expect a nose full of wildflowers, fresh mint, brine, and salted caramel wax paper with a touch of citrus oils. The taste will edge towards malts and sweet woods with hints of sea spray, tart apples, and dark syrups. The end is often very slow and has a well-balanced fade of sea salt, malt, and oak.
Bottom Line:
These are great to collect and sample to help build a palate for unpeated scotch. Overall, I’d still say this is more of an on the rocks sipper than anything else, but it definitely works well neat with a few drops of water too.
The blended malt leans into apples as a predominant flavor note of sweet Scotch whisky. The juice in the bottle is a blend of 39 percent Linkwood single malt that aged in ex-bourbon barrels, 20 percent Clynelish single malt also aged in ex-bourbon barrels, Benrinnes single malt from ex-bourbon barrels. The next eight percent is a single malt from a distillery in the town of Aberlour (not the distillery) that aged in ex-sherry butts with two percent from a Highland malt blend that aged in custom-built and toasted French oak barrels, and the final two percent from a peated malt from Caol Ila that matured in ex-bourbon casks.
Tasting Notes:
Naturally, apples burst forth on the nose with tart, sweet, and juicy notes next to a soft pear vibe, lemon and lime zest, a touch of sweet pineapple, and a soft echo of dry but fragrant Earl Grey tea leaves. The palate leans into fresh ginger soaking in a pot of floral honey next to minor notes of fresh strawberry shortcake with a soft vanilla sponge cake, fresh berries, and a dollop of vanilla-laced whipped cream. The finish leans into a light white floral note while the pear and apple return with a ripeness that feels like they’re fresh off the vine and a final note of lightly spiced malts with a whisper of applewood smoke.
Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for a complex fruit-bomb whisky, this is going to be the bottle for your bar cart. This is so well-built and complex while still being 100 percent approachable. It’s truly an easy-drinking whisky that really benefits from a little water or rock to let it bloom in your glass.
Johnnie Walker’s Green Label is a solidly crafted whisky that highlights Diageo’s fine stable of distilleries across Scotland. The juice is a pure malt or blended malt, meaning that only single malt whisky is in the mix (and no grain whisky). In this case, the primary whiskies are a minimum of 15-year-olds from Talisker, Caol Ila, Cragganmore, and Linkwood.
Tasting Notes:
Soft notes of cedar dance with hints of black pepper, vanilla pods, and bright fruit with a wisp of green grass in the background. The palate really delivers on that soft cedar woodiness while edging towards a spice-laden tropical fruit brightness. The finish is dialed-in with hints of cedar, spice, and fruit leading towards a briny billow of smoke at the very end.
Bottom Line:
This is one of the best blended malts on the market for an amazing price. A 15-year-old Caol Ila costs three times as much as this bottle alone. That aside, this is the perfect whisky for mixing cocktails or highballs or simply sipping on the rocks after a long day.
This single malt hails from a tiny yet beloved Speyside distillery. The actual whisky is also made on their smallest still, nicknamed “Wee Witchie.” That juice then goes into ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks for 12 years. Finally, those whiskies are married, proofed, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
This is subtle yet engaging, with a nose of almost burnt toffee next to bright red berries, mild spice, hints of oak, and a bit of cedar. The palate leans into the berries by becoming jammy with more of that toffee and a mild sense of spicy tobacco arriving late. The end is long-ish with a plummy chew next to that tobacco and malty spice.
Bottom Line:
Mortlach is the whisky lovers’ whisky. While it is becoming more known in the U.S., it’s still pretty niche. That’s changing fast though, as can be seen here — a stellar bottle of whisky at this price point. Just make sure to add a little water to your dram to really let this one shine in your glass.
The NBA trade deadline is rapidly approaching, as we are less than three days away from the 3 p.m. ET cutoff for trades, and as has been the case for months, much of the focus on a national level is on what will happen with Ben Simmons and the 76ers.
Simmons has continued to refuse to play for the Sixers as he demands a trade, while Philly is still trying to extract a star-level player in return for him. To this point, they have not found a trade package that meets their demands, and many seem to believe they’ll drag this out into the summer in hopes of making a run at James Harden (who they’ve tried to talk about getting at the deadline, but Steve Nash squashed that publicly).
All of this stems from growing discontent from Simmons with the situation in Philadelphia, one in which he believes he got scapegoated by Doc Rivers and Joel Embiid for their playoff loss to the Hawks last season after already feeling pushed to the periphery by trade rumors involving him and Harden at last year’s deadline. Embiid spoke, again, about those comments on Monday in an interview with Mike Missanelli on 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia, and detailed why he felt his comments weren’t out of line — noting all the other people he called out, including Matisse Thybulle and himself, for the end of Game 7 — and when asked if he felt Simmons’ reaction was unreasonable, he said “definitely.”
“Do you think his reaction was unreasonable?”
“Oh, definitely.”
Joel Embiid responds to Ben Simmons’ reported frustration with Embiid’s post-Game 7 comments pic.twitter.com/85RG95P3vt
Embiid was later asked what could be done differently and defended Doc Rivers comments, noting the support he offered Simmons all season and saying that Rivers should be allowed to make mistakes in the heat of the moment too.
Joel Embiid when asked by @MikeMiss25 whether anything could have been done differently after the Hawks series to prevent the Simmons situation:
“I mean, the only thing I can think about is the comments…But I really believe that it’s really deeper than that.” pic.twitter.com/UyL5MU2IEs
All told, it just continues to emphasize that there is no coming back from this for the Sixers and Simmons, despite the front office continually stating they want Simmons to return to the team this season. Embiid and the team seem to have completely moved on and it is clear that it’s best for all parties for Simmons to get a fresh start, it’s just a matter of when that happens. The good news for all of us is, no matter whether he’s traded by 3 p.m. Thursday or not, once that passes we can hopefully get a few months reprieve of Simmons reports as there’s nothing that can be done until the offseason once the deadline goes by.
It’s been a while since we got an American Pie entry, or at least one that played in an actual movie theater. The last proper entry, American Reunion, came out 10 years ago, so it’s probably for another. One of the many direct-to-video spin-offs, came out in 2020, but they’re not necessarily cannon, even if many of them actually feature Eugene Levy (though let’s assume he’s finally above them now). Long story short, the title, nicked from the Don McLean classic, is fair game.
Anyway, please don’t assume the newly announced Apple TV+ Mrs. American Pie has anything to do with the series about horny high schoolers (and later collegiates, and later grown-up adults). Because it doesn’t. It’s a 10-episode comedy starring no less than Kristen Wiig and, probably, pending a finalized deal, Laura Dern, and its set-up is decidedly different. As per the press release, it’s set “during the powderkeg era of the early 1970’s,” and it follows Wiig’s Maxine Simmons and her attempts to “secure her seat at America’s most exclusive table: Palm Beach high society.”
The press release also claims it will ask some big questions:
As Maxine attempts to cross that impermeable line between the haves and the have-nots, “Mrs. American Pie” asks the same questions that still baffle us today: “Who gets a seat at the table?” “How do you get a seat at the table?” “What will you sacrifice to get there?”
Wiig is hot off one of last year’s most-liked films, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, as well as a memorable reunion with Will Forte on SNL. Dern, meanwhile, finally won her Oscar two years ago, on top of already being Laura Dern.
British pop singer Rita Ora has joined Disney+’s latest series, an untitled Beauty and the Beast prequel. Ora announced her excitement on Twitter, saying she would watch the classic Disney movie “over and over” as a child. She attached an adorably ’90s photo of herself dressed as Belle, as so many early aughts kids did. Clearly, she manifested this.
Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined joining this fairytale world. pic.twitter.com/gaEvWfvhKQ
Ora added, “Lately I just feel like all my dreams are coming true! Life is feeling like a Disney movie!” Ora has been pursuing acting after her first role in 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey and last year’s Twist. She recently signed with a new record deal after releasing an EP last year.
Luke Evans and Josh Gad will reprise their roles as Gaston and LeFou from the 2017 live-action adaptation. Briana Middleton, Fra Fee and Jelani Alladin are also slated to star.
The story takes place well before the infamous ‘tale as old as time’ love story of Belle and The Beast, instead focusing on Gaston (played by Evans) and his sidekick LeFou setting out on an adventure with LeFou’s step-sister, Tilly, played by Middleton. Alan Menken, who scored both the 1991 and 2017 Beauty and the Beast movies, is set to soundtrack the series, along with lyrics from Glenn Slater, known for his work on Disney’s underrated classic, Tangled.
Perhaps it was only a matter of time before Gerard Butler, onetime Phantom of the Opera-turned-action movie god, teamed up with the John Wick people. The star of the Olympus saga was born to work with Derek Kolstad, creator of the franchise that started with Keanu Reeves killing a ton of people because one of them killed his puppy. And so, as per Deadline, this dream is finally becoming a reality.
Butler is reportedly eyeing the lead role in Just Watch Me, which will tackle the first in a book series by no less than Jeff Lindsay, creator of another beloved murderous sorta-hero: Dexter. The novels follow Riley Wolfe, described by as “a master thief and expert in disguise who targets the wealthiest 0.1 percent.” The film, like the first novel, shows him teaming up with a “master forger named Monique and a team of expert thieves on a job that will make history.” Will they rob Jeff Bezos blind and donate most of their unimaginable haul to charity? Only readers of the Riley Wolfe series know for sure!
Butler teaming with Kolstad is such a no-brainer that it’s kind of incredible that Kolstad teamed up with Bob Odenkirk, once a noted non-action star, first. Last year Odenkirk starred in Nobody, playing an everyman who snaps and starts taking no prisoners. That was inspired casting-against-type, while this is inspired casting-not-against-type.
There are two teams that are clearly sellers as we near the February 10 trade deadline, as the Indiana Pacers and Portland Trail Blazers have both already made trades in the last few days to move some key players to gain cap flexibility and draft assets moving forward.
CJ McCollum has had his name brought up in trade rumors for years, but with Neil Olshey gone and a major retooling (if not rebuilding) under way in Portland, this deadline seems like a very real possibility he gets dealt. On Monday’s edition of NBA Today, Adrian Wojnarowski reported the Pelicans and Knicks have both been “fairly aggressive” in pursuing McCollum, and while Portland will likely take talks into Thursday’s deadline, it’s very likely the Blazers have a very different roster at the end of this week than they do now.
Matching McCollum’s $30.8 million salary this season is a trick, but New Orleans can package a group of Josh Hart, Tomas Satoransky, and Garrett Temple together and make the money work, with the Pelicans gaining $13 million in cap room going forward as Satoransky is an expiring. The Knicks likewise can piece together a few deals to make money work (i.e., Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker), but don’t have a bigger expiring like the Pelicans that would sweeten the deal for a Blazers team clearly looking to remake its cap sheet going forward. What New York does have is young players that might be more enticing to Portland, if they’re willing to part with them, and someone like Obi Toppin is what the Blazers would likely be pushing for.
While so much of the talk around this deadline has been about the Ben Simmons situation, which seems more likely than not to go unresolved by 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, there are some major moves that could be on the way and McCollum could be one of the big names changing teams this week.
This past January 24th, legendary musician Neil Young wrote an open letter threatening to remove his entire catalog from Spotify if the streaming service did not remove Joe Rogan and his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, from the platform. Young cited how Rogan continuously spreads COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on his show. “Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” he said.“They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.” This was the first domino to tip and quite a bit has happened since.
Why Are People Leaving Spotify? Inside The Controversy
Soon after Young’s statement, Spotify sided with Joe Rogan, their $100 million man who signed a very rich exclusive licensing deal in 2020. Young’s music was removed, but other artists began to follow his lead. Joni Mitchell joined Young in removing her music, then the rest of Young’s Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young bandmates announced that they were pulling their music as well. This led to numerous artists beginning to question their relationship with Spotify — who already pays artists a criminally low amount of money per song play — and then India.Arie took an even deeper stand against Rogan and Spotify. Arie announced that she was removing her catalog and her podcast, Songversation, citing not necessarily Rogan’s vaccine misinformation as the reason, but rather his problematic language around issues of race. “Neil Young opened a door that I MUST Walk Through,” she posted on Instagram. Rogan soon issued an apology for his misinformation and later for his language.
Arie later posted a video showing numerous instances of Rogan using the n-word on his show, called for a full-on Boycott, and Spotify, in turn, removed 70 episodes of the podcast from the streaming service. But why this issue isn’t going away anytime soon, and why people will likely continue to leave Spotify, is because of the platform’s tepid measures taken. A “content advisory” warning has been added to the platform and CEO Daniel Ek wrote a letter to all employees, which felt a bit more like damage control and a potential PR play.
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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