The Walking Dead universe is still kicking with second seasons of both Dead City and Daryl In Paris to come, and the latter hasn’t even premiered yet. One fun and underrated side effect of that franchise, however, would be the reality series from the franchise’s stars. There was Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Friday Night In With The Morgans and Colman Domingo’s Bottomless Brunch At Colman’s, but first, there was Ride With Norman Reedus. In the series, he does one of the things that he does best, which is to get more motorcycle action than Daryl Dixon seems to be getting in France (from the looks of previews).
Soon, Season 6 of Ride will premiere, and maybe it might be the best season? Everything is subjective when it comes to these things, after all, but I’d wager a guess that this season might rule because Keanu Reeves is on the scene. He will surely be both cool and excellent as always, and if Reedus doesn’t casually exclaim, “Whoa!” then that’s a wasted opportunity. We’re also not receiving much of a preview (yet), but this tiny little description bodes well: “Norman Reedus and actor Keanu Reeves ride through the otherworldy landscapes of the Utah desert.”
That episode shall be the season premiere airing on September 10, and from there, expect to see a season that includes Johnny Knoxville in Rome and Josh Holloway in Northern Italy. Want a synopsis?
Join Walking Dead star and motorcycle enthusiast Norman Reedus on epic road trips around the world. Each episode features Reedus and a riding companion – a fellow actor, musician, or friend, exploring local culture and seeking adventure on the road.
Despite increasingly aligning himself with conservatives to the point where he may have reversed his longstanding ban on having Donald Trump on his show, Joe Rogan is not feeling the right-wing outrage over the Barbie movie. In fact, he’s downright “perplexed” by the number of people freaking out.
“People are upset that it’s this like progressive metaphor for life that they’re pushing progressive politics in this and I’m like, it’s a f*cking doll movie!” the newly-minted Barbie superfan told guest Post Malone on the recent episode of his show. “It’s a doll movie. It’s a fun movie about dolls who come to life and try to interact with the real world.”
While continuing to gush about the Greta Gerwig film, which he clearly loved, Rogan dunked on pundits like Bill Maher and Ben Shapiro, who have openly railed against Barbie.
“I know some people personally who said it’s anti-men. I’m like, no, it’s making fun of dorks,” Rogen said before going even further and saying the film actually has a point.
“They think it’s a super woke movie… But it’s also a movie about how Barbies are the dolls that everyone cares about. And Ken is just a f*cking accessory, which is real,” Rogan said. “And then in the movie they go to the real world and the real world sucks and it’s run by men. And so this is what people are saying makes this an anti-man movie.”
The podcaster ended his remarks by once again expressing his disbelief at how anyone could be mad at a Barbie movie.
“I don’t get it,” Rogen said. “I’m appalled at how easily outraged so many people are.”
I like soda a lot. Like, too much, frankly. It’s a bit of a problem. Look, I love a great cocktail as much as the next person. The complexity of coffee and tea? Love it. An ice-cold beer on a hot day while the sun is setting and my schedule is free? Golden! Beautiful! But there are times when nothing slaps quite like an ice-cold Coca-Cola. Yes, soda has a lot of calories and sugar. It’s without a doubt bad for you in excess, but it’s just so damn good that I can’t get enough.
As such, I’m always on the hunt for delicious flavors and I have no allegiance towards Coca-Cola — or any brand for that matter. If it’s good, I’ll drink it and love it. Having said that, I’m not sure there is a brand that has as many delicious flavors as Sprecher Brewing.
The Sprecher Brewing Co. is one of the oldest craft breweries in Milwaukee and makes its craft beer and soda with an old-school gas-fired brew kettle, and real raw Wisconsin honey. It’s soda that’s elevated. So much so that the New York Times even declared Sprecher’s Root Beer as the best in America. That’s quite the accolade though our very own Steve Bramucci vehemently disagrees. I’ve had it, and it’s true! And I know my word holds a smidge more weight than the NYT right? Right??!?
Anyway, Sprecher has several different versions of its root beer. If you’re thinking of picking up a case the next time you’re in a Total Wine, BevMo, or your favorite craft drink store, I say why stop at root beer? So in an effort to help you navigate your way through Sprecher’s many flavors, I tasted and ranked every flavor in the brand’s Best Sellers and Popular Mix variety packs alongside a few other hard-to-find flavors.
For convenience’s sake, we’re going to link directly to Sprecher’s website on the price links. But please note that a lot of these soda bottles are available at craft beverage dealers in your local area (and some markets) for a cheaper price. Let’s dive in!
A syrupy rush of purple grape flavors overtakes the palate in this stunningly sweet soda. As I said in the intro to this piece, I love soda, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a soda quite this sweet. It’s straight-up overwhelming, so much so that I had to peak at the Nutrition Facts label after my first drink.
I was shocked to find that a single bottle of this stuff has 72 grams of sugar, which is 144% of the typical daily allotment (a 12-oz. can of Coca-Cola has 39 grams for comparison’s sake). That’s a lot of sugar, and you can really taste it. Soda should be sweet but this is too sweet and too overwhelming.
The Bottom Line:
The sweetest soda on earth. Even if you like super syrupy sugar sodas, you might find this much too much. For that, we’re ranking it last.
A ginger ale can never be too spicy so if you like your ale with a lot of bite, Sprecher is your brand. This ginger ale has a wince-inducing quality to it that I love as spicy ginger notes attack your palate and fizz on the tongue. The finish is dry with the slightest sense of barrel notes. This is a craft ginger ale through and through. But I like it less as a straight soda and maybe more with a pour of whiskey.
The Bottom Line:
This is a great mixing ginger ale. On its own, it’s sharp, biting, and spicy.
Lush and creamy with strong notes of floral vanilla and rich warm honey. It’s incredible that Sprecher was able to pull this off with a soda that has only 40 calories and 7 grams of sugar(!). I wasn’t aware that this was a low-calorie version of the brand’s Cream Soda until I was uploading the photo for this article.
The Bottom Line:
This is a low-calorie cream soda with no compromise. This tastes like dessert in a bottle.
I’m a California boy through and through, so unlike people in the Pacific Northwest (where it’s so popular that burger joints make Green River milkshakes) or Midwest (the iconic green soda even appears in The Bear), I don’t have any nostalgic connection to Green River. I had never tried it until recently and I have to say … I don’t get it. I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine soda. But it sort of tastes like green Jell-o to me.
It has a very artificial lime-forward flavor that is candy sweet. The fizz is nice and strong. But given the choice, I’d pick so many flavors above this one.
The Bottom Line:
This is a Midwest classic that is over 100 years old and tastes like lime-flavored Jello.
I was dreading ranking this one because while I’d like to reiterate that I have no brand loyalty when it comes to cola-flavored sodas, Coca-Cola is king. Hands down. Most brands can’t hold a candle to the Georgia classic and I’m sorry to say that while I like Sprecher’s Puma Kola, it doesn’t have anything on Classic Coke.
Having said that, Puma Kola does do the balance of cinnamon, vanilla, and earthy cola nut flavors characteristic of a proper cola. It leans heavily on the cinnamon notes which play nicely with the earthy honey sweetness. What it lacks is the sharp bite of Coke though. I’m sorry to compare this with Coca-Cola, but it’s kind of hard not to.
The Bottom Line:
It’s a good well-balanced cola. Better than Pepsi and RC, but not as good as Coca-Cola.
This is juicy and refreshing with a light crispy flavor that feels gently kissed by the essence of watermelon, rather than drowned in artificial fruit notes like the Grape soda. The bottle’s mascot is a mythical creature known as the Hodag, a Norther Wisconsin legend that apparently loves watermelons. That little bit of lore helps to endear me to this flavor a bit more. There is a little bottle of Hodag in all of us!
The Bottom Line:
This is a deliciously crisp and refreshing watermelon soda that delivers sweet juicy notes without being overwhelming.
I honestly feel bad about ranking Sprecher’s Lo-Cal Root Beer in the middle of this list because I think it’s delicious. But … this brand makes too many different root beer flavors, and one of them has to rank the lowest. This root beer has a creamy vanilla-forward flavor with a rooty, earthy aftertaste and is sufficiently sweet despite being only 45 calories with 6 grams of sugar. It’s great, but Sprecher makes several root beers that are objectively better and more complex.
The Bottom Line:
If you love root beer but hate calories and excessive amounts of sugar, this will more than exceed your expectations.
If you’ve ever wanted to experience the refreshing flavors of an ice-cold creamsicle in a soda, no brand does it better than Sprecher. Orange Dream Soda is delicious. It begins creamy with balanced vanilla and honey flavor before hints of citrus zest take over and leave you with an aftertaste that is equal parts zesty and rich.
The Bottom Line:
A winner through and through, the fact that the brand has even better flavors is a true testament to its craft. This could easily be your favorite and is the best creamsicle soda on the market hands down.
Made with real Door County cherry juice and Wisconsin raw honey, Sprecher’s Door County Cherry Soda is a bottle of Wisconsin pride. And it pays off. The sourcing is incredible, delivering a bright and sparkling body with rich cherry notes. While the main flavor is juicy and bright, the aftertaste is kissed by a slight almond flavor which really helps to set this soda apart from any cherry soda I’ve ever tasted.
The Bottom Line:
This is a bright and deliciously refreshing cola-free cherry soda. It’s kind of like a highly elevated cherry Sprite.
Vanilla forward and creamy with a warm floral maple finish. The aftertaste lives in caramel and toffee flavors with a deep molasses finish. Unlike most Sprecher soda flavors, this one isn’t sweetened with honey. Instead, they’re using cane sugar, which gives it a nice depth of flavor that sits on the tongue in the best ways.
The Bottom Line:
This is a nice maple-infused version of Sprecher’s famous root beer. It’s less vanilla-focused and more floral and rich.
Sprecher’s Black Cherry makes no mention of using Door County cherry juice. As a result, it doesn’t have the same bright and juicy quality as the straight Cherry Soda. But having said that, I like this one a bit more. It has a deep rich dark cherry flavor that is intensely sweet, but not off-putting in any way. It’s tart, rich, and has a wonderful depth of flavor.
The Bottom Line:
It’s not as bright and refreshing as the Door County Cherry Soda flavor, but it’s rich and deep with a Black Forest cake vibe.
I’m not sure what the flavor of Dr. Pepper is supposed to be (some kind of spicy plum cocktail?), but Dr. Sprecher is not trying to replicate it in any way as far as I can tell. What you get here is a sort of spiced cherry soda. It’s rich with dark fruity notes and a spicy cola-like finish. Even though I think it’s a far cry from Dr. Pepper, it tastes delicious. So, no complaints here.
The Bottom Line:
Sprecher seems to have a knack for making cherry sodas, and this is one of the brand’s best. It’s not Dr. Pepper, it’s spiced cherry. Nevertheless, it’s insanely delicious. I hold this even above the soda that inspired it.
There is no difference between Sprecher’s Rev’d Up Root Beer and its stock Root Beer flavor other than some added caffeine. Tasting these side by side, I don’t think the caffeine affects the flavor in any way. So I’ll save my tasting notes for the next entry. I’m only ranking this one lower than the non-caffeinated version because root beer is typically caffeine free. I don’t think it needs caffeine. But hey, this is there if you need it.
The Bottom Line:
This is just a caffeinated version of Sprecher’s amazing root beer.
This is a perfect root beer. Rich vanilla leads the way and is backed by the flavor of floral honey with a deep creamy finish. The mouthfeel is wonderfully dessert-like. It’s creamy but not too soft or sweet like cream soda. It still retains a sharp bite to it and a nice fizzy body. It’s hard to imagine a better root beer than this. Having said that, it’s still not my favorite Sprecher soda.
The Bottom Line:
We’re dealing with a perfect root beer here. Sprecher is well known in the soda community for making some of the best root beer on the market. Believe the hype.
I know Sprecher is known for root beer. But if that’s all that you know the brand for, you’re seriously missing out on this Cherry Cola. Right from the start, this cherry soda will win you over with its intoxicating and natural cherry aromas that dance from the bottle to the nose as soon as you twist the cap off.
The taste begins with a fizzy bite before introducing natural juicy cherry flavors, a hint of vanilla, some citrus, and warm cinnamon on the back end. The flavors constantly shift, making it so that every sip is a journey of flavors on the palate.
Like the cherry soda, this bottle uses real Door County cherry juice mixed with honey and infused into a cola base.
The Bottom Line:
Hands down Sprecher’s greatest flavor and one of the best sodas I’ve ever tasted. I know the root beer has the hype, but Cherry Cola is where it’s at! It’s a perfect soda.
When you’re a kid, summer means enjoying the fun of the season—plentiful sunshine, free time with friends, splashing in pools and sprinklers. But not every child’s summer is as carefree as it should be.
For some, summer means going hungry. According to Feeding America, summer food insecurity affects some 22 million kids—that’s 1 in 8 children—in the U.S., largely because families lose the free or reduced-price meals at school that help keep them fed during the school year.
But back-to-school time doesn’t make food insecurity disappear, either. Hunger is a year-round issue, and with the increased cost of groceries, it’s gotten harder for families who were already struggling to put food on the table.
So what can be done—or more specifically, what can the average person do—to help?
The good news is that one simple choice at the grocery store can help ease the burden a bit for those experiencing food insecurity. And the even better news is that it’s also a healthy choice for ourselves, our families and our planet. When we’re out on our regular shopping trips, we can simply look for the O Organics versions of things we would already buy.
But wait—aren’t we all feeling the pinch at the checkout stand? And isn’t organic food expensive? Here’s the thing: Organic food is often much more affordable than you might think. The cost difference between organic and non-organic products keeps narrowing, and many organic and non-organic foods are now almost identical in price. Sometimes you’ll even find that an organic product is actually cheaper than its brand-name non-organic counterpart.
Since 2005, O Organics has helped give health-conscious shoppers more options by making organic food more accessible and affordable. And now, it’s helping those same shoppers take action to fight food insecurity. For every O Organics product you purchase, the company will donate a meal to someone in need through the Albertsons Companies Foundation—for up to a total of 28 million meals.
Look for the O Organics label in every aisle.O Organics
Here’s what that means in real-world terms:
Say you’re throwing an end-of-summer backyard BBQ bash. If you were to buy O Organics ground beef, hamburger buns, ketchup and sea salt potato chips, you’d be donating four meals just by buying those four ingredients. If you added O Organics butter lettuce and O Organics sandwich slice pickles, you’d be donating two more meals, and so on.
And where are those meals going? Albertsons Companies Foundation works with a network of national and local charities fighting hunger, and regional divisions choose organizations to fund locally. So every O Organics product you purchase means a meal on the table for someone in your area who might not otherwise have the nourishment they need.
No kid should have to worry about getting enough food to thrive. We all make conscious choices each time we walk down a grocery store aisle, and by choosing O Organics, we can make a difference in a child’s life while also making healthy choices for ourselves and our families. It’s truly a win-win.
Many of us associate connection with social media: connection to the world, to friends and family, and perhaps even to others who share their ideas and hobbies.
Sometimes, that connection can restore old relationships or begin new ones. For Mavis Moon, however, social media is what helped reunite her with a long-lost family member: a blue, stuffed toy dog.
Moon was raised by her grandfather, who struggled with chronic health problems. One day when they were home alone, he suffered a massive heart attack. She immediately dialed 9-1-1, and when the emergency responders who arrived on the scene recognized how traumatized she was after witnessing the event, they consoled her with a blue stuffed dog. Her grandfather eventually recovered, and from that day forward she was never without her dog. He became a member of the family.
The stuffed animal brought her security and comfort. It was such an integral part of her life that her grandfather would carry it around when she couldn’t—he could always be counted on to be in the stands at her basketball games, holding up the dog to cheer for her. That stuffed animal went everywhere she went for years, until one devastating day when she lost him at a local fair.
Years passed, but Moon never forgot her toy. As an adult, she enjoyed perusing thrift stores and admiring second hand items that once belonged to other people. In the back of her mind, she was always thinking about her dog and wondering where it ended up.
She found a community of like-minded people on social media who enjoyed sharing their “weird and wonderful second hand finds.” One day, as she was scrolling through the posts, she spotted something that caught her eye: a knitted toy with a personalized label on the arm, created by someone’s Aunt Tootie. Reading through the comments, she realized that one of the 2.8 million members recognized the item: her husband’s aunt was the Aunt Tootie, and the toy had once belonged to him! What were the chances? The group sprang into action, bought the toy, and shipped it to the original owner.
Bolstered by this, Moon expressed to the group how happy she was to see the item returned to its original owner, and shared how she’d searched the internet high and low for her own lost item. After giving a description of her beloved blue dog, another member of the group posted a link to an exact replica for $30! Moon purchased it immediately.
Later, she posted a thank you in the group that ended with the postscript: Feel free to use my post to describe childhood toys you lost and wished you could find copies of, maybe the group will work its magic for others. It turned into a mega thread boasting over 7,000 comments, with members posting items they were looking for—everything from dinosaurs to baby blankets—and getting multiple replies in return asking, “is this it?”
“It was truly astounding to see how much effort and time people took out of their own lives to help someone find an object that held so much significance to them. At last count, I believe there were around 400 lost items found. 400 people got to feel the same flood of relief and nostalgia rush over them the way I did,” said Moon.
“My favorite thing about this whole thread was reading the stories of why these items meant so much to the owner, seeing how the loss left scars, and getting to see hundreds of people come together to heal these childhood hearts.”
Never underestimate the vast power of an online community!
Twitter, as you may have heard, is currently in the process of re-branding to X. The social media platform currently refers to itself as X, but its website is still twitter.com. Another part of the process on the in-person side of things is the company’s headquarters. The office is going to need a facelift, so they’re clearing out space by auctioning off some old Twitter stuff.
Another particularly interesting item is a record player that comes with a collection of 24 records dubbed “The Twitter Essential’s.” Included in the exclusive collection are albums by artists like David Bowie, Tom Petty, Marvin Gaye, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, ABBA, Pink Floyd, John Lennon, Nirvana, Elton John, Prince, Bee Gees, Madonna, and Fleetwood Mac. More contemporary releases include My Morning Jacket’s Z, Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, and the Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack.
Beyond that, there’s just a bunch of Twitter signs and office stuff. X/Twitter had another auction earlier this year which included similar lots of workplace miscellany.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Earlier today, CNN published an article spotlighting a Texan family preparing to move to Italy, in part, because of the increase in police brutality and racially-motivated violence happening in the state. The Dawkins family purchased a home overseas as part of a program that sold houses cheap, some going for as little as one euro. Nadine Dawkins had been stationed in Italy for a time and could trace her roots there which influenced the family’s desire for a change of scenery. But the other driving factor for the move was how unsafe and hostile her hometown of El Paso had become.
“Basically, police brutality towards Black people, mass shootings from domestic terrorists, and just the overall hate in this country is why we are leaving the USA,” she told CNN.
And look, no one needs an excuse to move to Italy — the land of pasta, pizza, gelato, and the “attenzione pickpocket” meme — but worrying that your elementary-age kids might fall prey to a school shootings is a good one. But, all Cruz seemed to take away from the Dawkins’ story was an opportunity to double down on the myth of American exceptionalism and tell his least favorite news organization to beat it.
A video of the incident, which took place at Drai’s Beach Club in Las Vegas on July 29, went viral, becoming a meme and CapCut template on TikTok. While there was an investigation by Las Vegas Police, it was decided not to charge Cardi B with a crime. It turned out to be one of two times she chucked her mic at someone that weekend, as she slung another one toward the DJ booth after the DJ apparently screwed up one too many times.
Scott Fisher, the owner of the audio production company (coincidentally named, The Wave, just like Cardi’s son) that rented the mic to the club, put the mic up on eBay a few days later, saying he would donate the proceeds to charity. The mic, a high-end Shure mic, is said to still be in working condition (although the original owner might have been overcharged — the report says the mic cost $1000 but the vocal condenser mic used by most clubs is only about $700).
Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Over the last few weeks, Ariana Grande has been a trending topic across social media. Whether users were discussing her rumored split from her husband, Dalton Gomez, or her alleged relationship with Wicked co-star Ethan Slater, the “Focus” singer has been at the center of thousands of digital discussions. Thanks to Grande’s latest Instagram post, all this attention can be shifted back to her superlative vocal abilities.
In a gallery of images, Grande teased that supporters are in for a treat as she seemingly has something big planned for the 10th anniversary of her debut album, Yours Truly. The series of flicks, captioned “Almost 10,” apparently indicates that Grande had returned to the recording booth with a full orchestra to re-record some of the project’s tracks. Yours Truly was released on August 30, 2013.
According to the image, the songs up to be reimagined are “Baby I,” “Daydreaming,” and “Tattooed Heart.” Overall, Yours Truly solidified Grande’s star power, becoming her first platinum album. Other notable songs from the body of work include “The Way” with Mac Miller (peaked at No. 9), “Popular Song” with MIKA (peaked at No. 87), “Almost Is Never Enough” with Nathan Sykes (peaked at No. 82), “Right There” featuring Big Sean (peaked at No. 84) and of course, “Baby I” (peaked at No. 81).
Ah, Florida. When it’s not giving us the campaign flailings of Ron DeSantis, it’s regaling us with wild stories of absurd amounts of cocaine just floating in the ocean.
This time around, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor reportedly found a massive bundle of coke while on a boating trip with her family to the Florida Keys last week. According to Castor, her brother spotted a strange object “bobbing” in the water. Thanks to three decades working for the Tampa Police Department, the mayor immediately recognized the package.
“Cocaine,” she told her brother. And according to the Tampa Bay Times, it was a heck of a lot of it:
Yes, U.S. Border Patrol would later confirm: 70 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $1.1 million.
The family hauled the package, wrapped in layers of fraying plastic and about the size of a microwave, onto Mayor Castor’s boat, bloodied from hours of fishing. A split in the wrapping revealed tightly packed bricks individually packaged.
While a microwave-sized bundle of coke sounds like a pretty incredible find, the Miami Herald reports that Castor’s find was the fifth load of drugs to be pulled out of the waters near the Florida Keys in July. Castor wasn’t identified in the initial report, but the Tampa mayor has now been confirmed as the “recreational boater” who stumbled on the latest cache of drugs just floating in the ocean.
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