Camila Cabello rose to fame when she auditioned for The X Factor and was placed alongside several other talented singers in the pop group Fifth Harmony. Cabello has since shined in her solo career, sharing sophomore record Romance at the end of last year. While the singer has been open about much of her personal life with fans and followers, Cabello has now decided to get candid about her struggle with mental health and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Cabello addressed her struggles with mental health in a story she wrote for the Wall Street Journal. In the article, Cabello said that while the public can see many positive aspects of her life that she shares on social media, she has been quietly struggling with “relentless” anxiety and OCD:

“Here’s what there ​aren’t​ pictures of from the last year: me crying in the car talking to my mom about how much anxiety and how many symptoms of OCD I was experiencing. My mom and me in a hotel room reading books about OCD because I was desperate for relief. Me experiencing what felt like constant, unwavering, relentless anxiety that made day-to-day life painfully hard.”

Cabello admitted that she hasn’t been open about her mental health struggles because she feared the public would change their perception of her. “I didn’t want the people who thought I was strong and capable and confident — the people who most believed in me — to find out that I felt weak,” she wrote. “The little voice in my head was telling me that if I was honest about my mental health struggle and my internal battles (i.e. being human), people would think there was something wrong with me, or that I wasn’t strong, or that I couldn’t handle things.”

The singer continued that her fight with anxiety had come to a tipping point and it was affecting her general well being. “For a long time, anxiety felt like it was robbing me of my humor, my joy, my creativity and my trust,” Cabello admitted. “But now anxiety and I are good friends. I listen to her, because I know she’s just trying to keep me safe, but I don’t give her too much attention. And I sure as hell don’t let her make any decisions.”

Cabello concluded her story by saying social media oftentimes pushes unrealistic standards, but she has since learned that there is power in prioritizing mental health. “We live in a culture that pursues an unattainable perfection,” she wrote. “Social media can make us feel like we should be as perfect as everybody else seems to be. Far from being a sign of weakness, owning our struggles and taking the steps to heal is powerful.”

Read Cabello’s full article here.

Romance is out now via Simco/Epic. Get it here.

Previously on Total Bellas: Brie and Bryan tried to convince Nikki to buy a $30,000 pool fence and Brie took Artem to look at $500,000 diamond rings.

Was There Anything About Wrestling On This Week’s Episode Of Total Bellas?

No, but there was a lot of Daniel Bryan, so let’s just jump into that part of the show!

Love Yurts

Just in time for next week’s proposal-and-double-pregnancy season finale, Bryan and Brie make a breakthrough with their marriage. They’ve been trying to stop growing apart and wondering what will happen to their relationship if they can’t all season, and they made so little meaningful progress at this it seemed like the reality TV version of the Danielson-Bella marriage might be too far gone. However, it turns out this wasn’t because their love was lost, but because they hadn’t consulted any shamans yet.

Brie and Bryan start their path to healing when they head off on a trip to “a place from their past,” the “wellness resort” in Sedona, Arizona, where they got married (in the season two finale of Total Divas.) So many of their interactions this season have been tense, but from the time they start heading to the resort, they seem like a sweet, granola-y couple and you’re reminded that these people genuinely like spending time together.

They visit “a Native American healer” (the first of two people in this episode the show introduces with the job title “shaman”), and with the “wellness” thing and Brie saying that Bryan “loves the Native American culture” (which one?), it seemed like this segment might take things from granola to Goop. It has some questionable, “mystical” production aspects, but the heavy meditation Brie and Bryan do with Shaman #1 gets intense and effective results.

Bryan starts crying and voicing dark thoughts that are largely bleeped out because of swearing, Brie comforts him, and the healer has him do some breathing exercises to recover. In a talking head, Bryan explains that he was in a deep trance and felt like he was observing his behavior from outside his body. I’m not sure what exactly happened here because it’s so heavily edited, but it leads to a much clearer discussion about both Bryan and Brie’s marriage and Bryan’s long struggle with depression.

At this point, I think I need to mention the other discussion about wrestling, reality TV, and mental health that’s been going on since last week as part of the fallout of Hana Kimura‘s suicide. Basically, though there are some topical similarities, there’s not much to compare. Her death brought up issues, to different degrees, with mental illness, cyberbullying, reality TV production, misogyny, racism, and celebrity culture, but only she knows why she committed suicide. As you’ll hear from people trained in suicide prevention, suicide isn’t a way to make others understand your pain and no one can control how it impacts the people who knew you. With Kimura, there is clear evidence of the harassment she was facing, but the public has almost no clues as to why she reacted to it in such a permanent way. Mental health wasn’t addressed as such on Terrace House and Hana didn’t talk about it as a public figure.

Total Bellas is much less slickly produced than Terrace House and much worse at making anything that happens on it seem real, but it’s weirdly one of the few examples of a humane depiction of mental illness in a medium known for allowing viewers to voyeuristically revel in the breakdowns of others. Daniel Bryan’s struggles with his physical and mental health on Total Bellas have sometimes been so uncomfortable because they seemed so real and so serious that they shouldn’t be watched, but they’re also not treated as a reason to grab some popcorn.

It brings to mind how Bryan’s real-life problems have been used to enhance his WWE storylines. Maybe it’s in bad taste, but the whole art form is in bad taste. And while reality TV and WWE are also both known for exploiting performers, Bryan seems to manage to escape that enough to be a part of personal stories that are actually meaningful and beneficial. (To make the Kimura connection again, she clearly did not have the ability to do that on Terrace House and she didn’t have it in a lot of ways in Stardom, if the episode of The Wrestlers about the company is anything to go by.)

Storylines about Bryan’s health create some of the best dramatic TV that Total Bellas can do, and they stand out as something clearly based in a reality in a very fake world. When Brie and Bryan turn the emotional breakdown into a marriage breakthrough, they’re talking to Shaman #2, a white lady you can tell definitely has crystals charging at home who seems to really just be a marriage counselor who does her sessions outside. It’s a setting made for TV and this specific couple, but the conversation gets into some stuff that just feels like people trying to deal with problems as they go through life. It’s also the first time this season you can tell that the Total Bellas version of this couple is also a fictionalized version of the couple that brought about the moving “Fight for your dreams, and your dreams will fight for you” part of Bryan’s return-to-the-ring speech.

Bryan is reluctant to open up to Brie about his depression because “You have enough on your plate already” (“That’s the first thing I want on my plate,” she replies.) He has a history of doing this; he brings up when three years earlier he had a “mental breakdown” and just left for Washington state for three months. There are apologies, resolutions, and reminders of what Brie and Bryan love about each other (Brie tells Bryan she loves that “You are the same to every single person”), and they go home having experienced healing in their relationship. It seems like Bryan opening up about what he’s going through finally removes that block they’ve had when they’ve tried to talk about other issues with their family and lifestyle this season.

Though it’s a happy ending to this one of this episode’s plots and one of this season’s subplots, it’s the type of ending that shows the characters ready to face more difficulties together, rather than an end to difficulty. Despite all the heavy editing and scripting that makes much of Total Bellas feel so artificial, Bryan’s mental illness is presented in a way that feels true to life and not like a conflict that should be solved at some point on the show. It’s shockingly responsible and a much weirder phenomenon in reality TV history than John Cena’s house rules.

From Russia With Love

The lighter storyline this week focused on those two crazy thirty-somethings in love, Artem and Nikki, as they make long strides down the path to marriage. The Bellas and Artem are going to France for a wine-related business trip and Artem reveals that his parents will come over from Russia to meet them. For Nikki, this kicks off an attempt to learn a little more about the Russian language and culture. She is not good at any of it, but Artem thinks all her failures are super endearing, so it still basically works out. (I am concerned that it seems like she’s given up on pronouncing her future in-laws’ last name though.)

Meanwhile, Brie and Kathy, the more observant women in the family, immediately clock that Artem inviting his parents means a proposal is imminent. I think Brie not realizing that Artem was planning to propose soon when it seemed like she was encouraging him to do that exact thing last week and even TOOK HIM TO A RING STORE is a continuity error, but she and Kathy not being sure how Nikki will react makes sense. If I didn’t know from real life she said yes, I would be unsure too because we’ve seen her flip flop so much on major life decisions this season.

Artem, who also got a choreography gig this week and generally seems very happy and confident, eventually confesses to Brie that he bought one of those rings and he did invite his parents to France because he’s going to propose. This and all the other Artem/Nikki scenes don’t make up much of a subplot this week, but they do set up next week’s proposal in France to be romantic and maybe a little suspenseful, but mostly romantic.

Bella Lines Of The Week

• Brie describing Artem in the ring store to her mom: “He was sweating balls. He was like ‘I can’t afford this shit.’” I don’t think he said those exact words?
• Nikki and Artem babysit Birdie, which puts Nikki in a positive headspace about raising kids with Artem in the future. Then she asks Birdie if she thinks she would be a good mom, and the angelic toddler replies, “Um, you would be an alright mom.”

David Guetta has performed all over the world, captivating some of the largest and most rambunctious audiences that any musician is capable of pulling. It’s his comfort zone, the perch from which he’s established himself as perhaps the most well-known DJ on earth. The issue is that those sorts of performances can’t happen right now, as shows around the world are on an indefinite hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That doesn’t mean Guetta has to stop performing, he just needs to find outside-the-box ways to do what he does best. So earlier this month, Guetta put on a show in Miami under radically different circumstances than usual — he set up poolside between a pair of buildings and performed for 90 minutes, with people taking to their balconies and computers to enjoy his show. And even he, a master showman, needed some time to get used to his new surroundings.

“I was super nervous because it’s the first time that I’m not performing in front of a crowd,” Guetta told Uproxx over the phone. “But actually, my idea was to do it in the middle of towers so that people could be on their balconies. And I also had screens, and people could interact with me on Zoom.”

Guetta’s goal wasn’t just to perform. He wanted to use music as a way to fundraise for those struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, and with his show in Miami, he was able to raise $750,000 for charity. For the first few weeks of quarantine, Guetta admitted that he spent a whole lot of time in thought. He’s used to life on the road, with airports and hotels as constant in his life as studios and packed venues.

This, in a bit of news that will excite fans, gave him the opportunity to make new music, saying “I’ve made more music than I don’t even know since how long. It’s just the fact that it’s the time and also the focus, there was nothing else, no social activities, no nothing. I realized how much it makes me happy to focus on music only.”

But even beyond music, Guetta took some time to think about his life, the platform he has, and how he wants to do more for those in need. As such, it took 10 days to throw together the Miami event. While on the makeshift stage, Guetta held up a David Beckham shirt. A football fan and a Parisian, Guetta’s nod to Beckham — a member of the ownership group of MLS expansion side Inter Miami CF — caught the former PSG player’s eye.

As a result, Beckham and Guetta spoke, and on Saturday, Guetta will team up with Major League Soccer and Heineken to put on a show in New York City to raise money for the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, Feeding America, the World Health Organization, and Fondation Hôpitaux de Paris — Hôpitaux de France. The 90-minute show will kick off at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 30, following the the city’s daily clap for frontline healthcare workers.

It will be broadcast on a host of mediums: Guetta’ Guetta’s Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, VK, and TikTok pages, along with MLS’ Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube channels and the league’s website. And like his Miami show, the NYC performance will feature the chance for fans to interact with Guetta via Zoom.

“The location that we’re doing this in New York is really crazy,” Guetta said. “So it’s going to be very special. But yeah, it’s a different approach, but now, I’m less nervous because I know I can really bring a vibe and atmosphere, and that’s what was scaring me. But now I’ve done it, so I know I can do it.”

The location is a surprise — Guetta says it’s in an attempt to keep people from gathering and violating social distancing recommendations. It’s hardly the only surprise Guetta has up his sleeve, as he’s promising to lead off his set with a tribute to his host city.

“I thought it was cool to be in such as special city,” Guetta said. “Since I was a kid, it’s a city that made me dream and I wanted to open the show with a homage to the city, so I prepared a special remakes that I’m going to use only for this occasion.”

New York City has been hit particularly hard by the virus, as it earned the unfortunate distinction of being the global epicenter of the pandemic for a spell. Normalcy, to whatever extent it is possible following a traumatic event that touched every corner of our planet, is some time away, a harsh, sobering reality for all of us as we count down the days until a vaccine is found.

In the meantime, we can all find little things that help us forget about the current situation and experience an element of joy. Music is a constant, even if performers who want to put on shows are forced to find unique ways to accomplish that goal. Sports, slowly but surely, are returning — soccer leagues in Europe in particular are making their way back onto the pitch, and stateside, leagues like MLS and NWSL are inching closer and closer to their returns. In Guetta’s eyes, getting to sit at the intersection of those two things, even for a night, has the potential to give people something that everyone needs right now.

“The connection is not so obvious between football and music,” Guetta said. “I come from Europe, and the soccer is really a religion where I come from. And I think that sports and music is what brings people together and the world is in so much need of unity right now. So this is perfect.”

David Guetta is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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The NBA is currently exploring its options for resuming the season, with Disney World in Orlando the presumptive choice as a bubble location that, depending on the scenario that wins out, would host either an abbreviated season or a direct jump into the playoffs. The specifics still haven’t been ironed out.

There are some, of course, who aren’t too thrilled about these options. Damian Lillard, for instance, said earlier this week that he isn’t interested in participating in a restart unless the Blazers have a legitimate chance at the postseason, given the multiple risks involved.

That statement drew the ire of one member of the Get Up crew. ESPN football analyst Dan Orlovsky criticized Lillard for his stance, calling him a “spoiled and entitled brat.”

Lillard obviously wasn’t going to sit this one out, and on Thursday night, he tweeted this response to Orlovsky.

Given that Lillard is one of the hardest-working and most principled players around the league, not to mention the large sums of his own personal money he’s donated to COVID-19 relief for Blazers workers, Orlovsky’s comments hardly justified a response to begin with. But it bears mentioned that Get Up guests Domonique Foxworth and Doris Burke jumped to his defense immediately after Orlovsky’s insensitive comments, and after Lillard responded, Orlovsky appeared to backtrack on his criticism.

Despite this, Lillard was, understandably, not happy with Orlovsky’s remarks, including alluding to a lowlight from his NFL career.

To be clear, any player who doesn’t wish to put themselves or their family at risk is well within their right. Should the NBA return with a normal postseason after only 70 games played, the Blazers would almost certainly miss out. Players sit out all the time when squads are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, and considering we live in the midst of a pandemic, Lillard’s position makes all the sense in the world.

Even though governments both local and foreign are beginning to loosen restrictions, many world citizens are still doing their best to quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. That apparently includes pro wrestling fans, as well. Despite Raw and Smackdown’s ratings cratering throughout the pandemic, and AEW Dynamite and NXT continuing to battle back and forth for ratings supremacy, when it comes to live pay-per-view events, wrestling fans are apparently showing up en masse.

In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reports that AEW’s latest pay-per-view, Double Or Nothing, is on track to be the highest-selling event in the nascent company’s history. Current data from B/R Live and FITE TV account for between 100,000-110,000 buys, which is a 10 to 15 percent increase from what AEW Revolution did in February — itself a 10 percent increase from AEW Full Gear last November.

Additionally, Meltzer speculates that the final tally could be somewhere near 120,000 buys, which would make Double Or Nothing 2020 the biggest pay-per-view in AEW history, dethroning Double Or Nothing 2019. The final numbers won’t come in for a few months, though, as Meltzer explains:

Traditional cable buys are harder, and take three months to get an accurate number although estimates are usually there within a few days. There’s also the aspect that streaming buys as a general rule over the past year are increasing at a higher level than cable buys, which are decreasing. So streaming buys both in the U.S. and overseas being the biggest in company history does not necessarily mean cable numbers will follow suit.”

Still, AEW has to be happy with Double Or Nothing’s success. Will the pattern continue with All Out 2020? We’ll find out after September 5.

In what could be a sign that the return of Amazon‘s brutal superhero bashers is just around the corner, The Boys has dropped a new promotional poster for season two that pretty clearly spells out what Karl Urban and his ragtag crew are all about: Sticking it to The Seven.

The hit Amazon series that pulled in record numbers for the streaming service stars Urban as Billy Butcher, a tough-as-nails Brit who’s obsessed with getting his revenge on the seemingly heroic group called The Seven. While the public adores these superhero saviors, who are pretty clearly a satirical riff on the Justice League, the “heroes” got their powers from perverse drug experiments, and they’re not exactly the most stable or wholesome group. In fact, thanks to an evil corporation cleaning up their messes, The Seven basically do whatever they want without any concern for the consequences, which puts them squarely in the sights of Butcher and The Boys who also have some very personal axes to grind.

Judging by this latest poster for season two, The Boys are ready to tear things up:

As of this writing, there is no definitive release date for season two of The Boys, but showrunner Eric Kripke recently provided an optimistic update on Twitter. Filming for the second season had fortunately wrapped before the pandemic started shutting down productions left and right, and according to Kripke, post-production has still been chugging along remotely, which should be a good sign that the second season will debut some time during Summer 2020.

The Boys season one is currently available for streaming on Amazon.

(Via The Boys on Twitter)

Hip-hop is moving as fast as ever. Luckily, we’re doing the work to put the best new rap music in one place for you. This week, there were visuals from Gunna, Jpegmafia, and Lil Yachty. There were also new songs from Flatbush Zombies, and Brockhampton. Here’s rest of the best new rap music of the week:

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist — Alfredo

After Freddie Gibbs, Currensy, and The Alchemist’s Fetti topped many people’s best of 2019 lists, Alchemist and Freddie Gibbs are back with another one entitled Alfredo. Currensy isn’t involved this time, but Gangsta Gibbs is more than capable of handling the lyrical duties alone on the 10-track pyrex parable that features guest spots from Tyler, The Creator, and Griselda MCs Benny The Butcher and Conway.

Joell Ortiz & Kxng Crooked — H.A.R.D.

Joell Ortiz and Kxng Crooked’s H.A.R.D. collaboration album is finally here. They’ve been steadily dropping lyrical exercises over the past few weeks in prep for the project, but now their cult fanbases (especially Slaughterhouse fans) have the full album to bump for the rest of the summer.

UFO Fev — “Fentanyl Flow” Feat. Fat Joe

Fat Joe has been in his “Joprah” bag while holding online interviews during the quarantine, but the bars are still there. He lent some bars to UFO Fev’s “Fentanyl Flow,” showing off his admirable ability to still get busy over modern production 30 years into the game.

Dave East — “My Loc”

Dave East released a melancholy ode to his “best friend” and labelmate Kiing Shooter, who tragically died on May 5 of liver failure. On the Dee C-produced track, Dave East bemoans, “We asked each other questions, and I wished i woulda asked more.”

Fivio Foreign — “Fully Focused”

Fivio Foreign is still “Fully Focused” and letting us know on his latest track. The track is true to Fivio’s burgeoning trademark sound pairing eerie synths with drill percussion as he rhymes, “They say I’m the GOAT / I still look in the mirror like go harder.”

NLE Choppa — “Different Day” (“Emotionally Scarred” Freestyle)

On “Different Day,” a remix of Lil Baby’s “Emotionally Scarred” track, NLE Choppa proclaims, “If I ain’t hard on a b*tch that mean I don’t give a f*ck,” offering a glaring but honest account of the toll that trauma has taken on his ability to have healthy relationships.

Jackboy — “Go” Feat. YFN Lucci

This week, Jackboy released the video for “Go” from his self-titled album. The juxtaposition of he and Lucci going expensive shoe shopping and relaxing in the lap of luxury while rhyming about “hella smoke we gon’ smoke his ass like he medical / vegetable we gon’ turn that boy into a vegetable” is a chilling reminder of the costs that some pay to enjoy opulence.

Duckwrth — “Find A Way”

Duckwrth’s “Find A Way” merges classic synths and two-step worthy percussion into a sonic tuft that hits your ears like a breeze on a summer day. If “Find A Way” is any indication, his upcoming SuperGood album is aptly titled.

The Kickdrums — “The Power Of Ideas” Feat. Blu

This week, The Kickdrums released the lead single from their latest EP, which will be released this summer. On the cheerful soundscape, Alex Fitts ponders, “Would you still do your thing without the crowd?” while Blu impresses in his guest verse, getting equally inquisitive by asking, “Am I a hollow man, or am I someone’’s role model?”

Kenny Mason — “Angels Calling”

This week, Atlanta rapper Kenny Mason dropped off more visuals to support his Angelic Hoodrat album. The Nasser Boulaich-directed video shows Kenny rhyming over an acoustic version oF the stream-of-consciousness track, giving more weight to bare lyrics like, “My dogs that ride for me in darker times finna get all the shine.”

Domani — “The Truth”

Domani’s “The Truth” single is a poetic homage to the phrase “drunk words are sober thoughts.” He uses the jazzy, piano-driven beat to ponder the possibilities of love with an admirable vulnerability, and also seemingly pays homage to his father by rhyming “for her I cross my Ts and dot my Is.”

Skooly — “Go”

Multitalented rapper-vocalist Skooly explores the full range of his talent on “Go,” unleashing his velvety vocals on the track’s unforgettable hook before rhyming seductively over glitzy synths. The track is from his recently released Nobody Likes Me album.

Preservation — “I-78” Feat. Mach Hommy

Today, DJ/Producer Preservation released Eastern Medicine, Western Illness, a sonic memoir of his time in Hong Kong. Earlier this week he debuted one of the songs from the project, the scintillating “I-78” featuring Mach Hommy, who delves into a reflective, braggadocious verse over an Asian-flavored soundscape.

Max B — “Goodman”

Any active rapper dragging their feet on releasing music is being put to shame by Max B. The cult hero is still incarcerated and is set to release his third project in seven months with his Charly EP on June 5. “Goodman” is a soulful track where the renown hookman shows off his underrated lyrical ability.

History — Middle Man

This week, Brooklyn rapper-producer released his two-track Middle Man EP. “Tension” is buoyed by a spooky soundscape that sets the mood for History to rhyme about the trials of his native Brooklyn, surmising that all these ills are “just another war we endure / gettin’ profit off the pain we endure.” On the other end of the spectrum, “Water My Wrist” is a bouncy track where History proclaims himself “the voice of the streets” and trades self-assured bars with Connis.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Turning dreams into reality is an arduous road, full of pitfalls. No one knows this better than Greg Koch — who helped usher in the craft beer movement as we know it in the United States. Back in ’96, Koch and brewer Steve Wagner opened up Stone Brewing in San Marcos, California with the now-retired but still iconic Stone Pale Ale. It’d be easy to say “and the rest is history” given the explosive growth craft beer has seen across the U.S. and the rest of the world in the decades since, but it’s never that easy.

We caught up with Koch recently to talk about a documentary that was made about the push to open Stone Berlin back in 2016. The two-year endeavor to build one of the largest craft breweries in Europe — in a country with a staunch view of what beer should be — was meticulously documented in The Beer Jesus From America. (The film’s name was derived from local Berlin tabloid headline that mocked Koch’s long beard and hair.) The documentary covers everything from the ground-breaking of Stone Berlin to the actual opening of the massive brewery, beer garden, and restaurant in the southern reaches of the city.

Beer Jesus — which is available to stream on Amazon Prime — does a good job handling the trial and errors of an American trying to open a massive beer-related project in a very-regulated German city. The film also touches on a moment in time when the perception of craft beer changed dramatically across Europe and became a little more mainstream, in many ways thanks to the work Koch and his team put into the region. Unfortunately, the film ends when Stone Berlin opens, which isn’t the whole story. By 2019, Stone decided to sell their brewery to Scotland’s Brewdog and retreat back to the U.S. with the brewing of Stone’s beer being carried on through a partnership with Brewdog. (I remember being there when Stone Berlin had their last weekend. I was also there when Brewdog reopened the doors with all new branding, menu, and beers a few months later, a fascinating story all its own.)

My conversation with Koch gave me a chance to check in on how his world has changed since the struggle to launch Stone Berlin. We hit on everything from the documentary to beer trends to the realities of a world shaped by COVID-19.

Since we’re a year out from the sale and this film stops at a precarious point, how do you feel about watching the film now?

It’s really interesting watching it. It takes me on a rollercoaster every time. There’s a point in the film that I just want to turn it off out of frustration. Just like, “Okay, I’m done with this.” It’s like feeling this well of tightness around your neck and shoulders. And then the story arc breaks and the clouds began to part and the sun begins to shine a bit. But I find it interesting that it really takes me on that emotional journey every time, even though, not only do I know the story well, I lived the story.

I was around during the opening of Stone Berlin and it felt like a really positive time. But, man, re-watching the film, it feels like there’s almost a sense of PTSD. I kept thinking, “Wow, that was a hard couple of years.”

Yeah. There’s that frustration I was talking about, that tightness and just that feeling of, “I just can’t take this anymore.” And then the opening day was one of the best days of my entire life. It was just such a wonderful day in every respect. Not only what it symbolized, but just the day itself and the people that came out.

Looking at the film from a pure beer perspective, what did you see change over the course of your time in Berlin and Europe overall in the beer scene?

Well, I could feel a tremendous amount. It went from a very small scene in Berlin with a few notable players like Rainier Werth with his beer shop and then the guys at Vagabund. And that was now seven or eight years ago at this point. It was already starting to slowly transform when we arrived. And, I had already been a part of that transformation in Southern California and in the greater in the U.S. So, it was very exciting to be in Berlin and Europe in those founding stages again.

I was just rereading the interview you did with Joe Stange right after the sale. One of my favorite parts is when he asks you if you would change anything if you had had it to do over again, and you rebuffed him and said, “Are you kidding me?” I took that as, “Don’t look back, look forward.” Now with the gift of both space and time from the sale of Stone Berlin, what have you taken with you from the experience?

I think that the conditioning in Germany was stronger. In the US, we broke through the conditioning. People were conditioned to expect a beer to be that industrial, fizzy yellow stuff of the MillerCoors and Budweiser corps, and that was it. Maybe they were aware of the existence of a beer called Guinness. The beer could be dark, but they mostly didn’t think they’d like it. But now, the expectation in the United States is that there’s going to be variety. There’s going to be a range of styles and characters and ABVs and producers and all this. And it surprised me — for the beer country that Germany is — how disinterested the average population is with the conversation of beer.

Beer is not something that they talk about. It’s something they just do. It’s more a commodity. How much talking about your bottle of sparkling water do you engage in? How much talking about a package of deli meats from the store do you engage in? And that’s how beer is looked at too. Sure, it’s changing, but there’s — I don’t want to make too strong comments about the German culture because some of it’s born out of a bit of frustration — but, man, people just weren’t interested outside of what they’ve been sold already.

You still find that in the States too. People still reach for the cheap and easy.

Of course.

What I find interesting though is that you did survive through a partnership with BrewDog. You still have the Stone beer brewing here and a popular beer bar, so it’s not like it was a full retreat. You still have a foothold here in Europe. Hell, I still buy six-packs at my grocery store in Berlin.

Well, the truth of the matter is that we sold more beer in 2019 than we did in 2018, and we’ll sell more in 2020 than we did in 2019. So it continues to look up. And we are continuing to grow. But yeah, for me personally, the Berlin thing was a bit of a setback. But you’re right, as a company, let’s not forget that things continue to go well.

It feels like craft is always growing and yet on the edge. The margins are always razor thin and just the understanding of what beer can be is always a struggle. I can’t tell you how many people still tell me, flat out, they don’t like beer. And, I’m always asking, “well, which kind of beer are you even talking about?

I think that we were in business at least eight years before craft beer started to become popular in the United States. Before that, we endlessly heard things like, “What is it you do? Oh, you make that weird beer. It’s too fancy.” That kind of thing.

So we can look back at the sepia-toned, earlier days in the United States craft brewing movement, and think of how it was clear and all the signs were there for a craft beer boom. But the fact of the matter is, it was and still is pushing a boulder up a hill every day, and that’s just part of being an entrepreneur.

The passion of an artist as they say. I was actually at your Shanghai bar last year before everything.

The sad news that you may not have heard is that we have actually closed the Shanghai operation. The weird paradox of that is that it had been extremely successful. We had won all the awards: Best beer place in Asia, one of the top-rated Western restaurants in all of Shanghai, top 2 percent, all of that. But COVID-19 has just delivered such a sucker punch.

I imagine that had to be a tough decision.

It is really a combination of a lot of things. We were running on thin margins — even though very successful — based upon all this trade war nonsense. And then COVID-19 made it more than we could handle.

I’m sorry to hear about that.

Yeah. It’s crushing blow after crushing blow. That’s entrepreneurism. There you go, that’s back to the movie again.

Yeah, exactly. I know this is a cliche, but you’ve got to get up and keep going, right?

Absolutely.

The documentary feels resonant now, since it shows that you can get through hard times. So how are you dealing with this pandemic now that months have passed and it’s touched every part of the world?

I have a stoic philosophy and try to understand what things you can and cannot control. What you can control is how you react. Life constantly throws curveballs. COVID is especially unique in that it’s a giant curveball that we’re all getting at the same time.

What changes have you had to make to deal with the pandemic in the short term compared to the long term?

I think our changes aren’t so very different from all the stories out there. We’re all learning how to be apart, yet staying connected as best as possible. We’re learning how to operate safely.

It’s also a time just to pay attention to your core business. We’re continuing to brew beers as best and as safely as we can.

I’ve read some headlines that suggest that consumers are retrenching to major global brands. This is challenging for craft brewers, as many have had their businesses gutted with the loss of on-premise sales at bars, restaurants, sporting venues, hotels, and so on. It’s quite possible that some may not survive, which is sad. This is a story that’s not unique to craft beer, of course. Small businesses in just about every category are being challenged right up to, and past, the breaking point.

What do you think is the best thing a beer lover can do right now to support local craft?

The best thing a craft beer lover can do right now is to be intentional with their beer purchasing. Pick the breweries and brands that you really really want to survive, and support the hell out of them. Shout about them on social media or even to the person hanging out on their balcony across the street!

Let’s shift back to beer for one last question. It feels like — and I don’t mean this in a shallow way — but trends come and go. Whether it be some craft beer style or hard seltzer or bourbons or whatever. As a business in this world, you ride the wave and, hopefully, you get off before the wave crashes into the beach. Then you wait for the next wave. Is that right?

Right. Yup.

I’m a huge fan of smoked beer. You were one of the first craft brewers to produce a smoked beer back in the day, alongside I think just Alaskan in the U.S. Why do you think that beer has never really had its hazy NEIPA or sour beer moment?

So here’s the thing, if some famous person proselytizes about a smoked beer, then it’s entirely possible.

I remember hearing this likely apocryphal story when I was younger that Clark Gable tanked the t-shirt industry in the 1930s. He took his dress shirt off in a scene and he didn’t have an undershirt on underneath. And, that tanked the industry. Because overnight, it went from all men wearing undershirts underneath their dress shirts to all men not wearing undershirts underneath their dress shirts.

Holy shit. I’d never heard that.

So, yeah, you’re right. We made Stone Smoked Porter in 1996. It was the second beer we ever produced. We made it up until about six years ago but the sales just weren’t … enough. I love the style too, by the way.

You can stream ‘The Beer Jesus From America’ on Amazon Prime for $1.99.

The results of a survey sent out by the NBA to its 30 general managers arrived on Friday in the form of a report from Shams Charania of The Athletic, and it shows a majority of league decision-makers prefer a more expansive structure when the season resumes this summer in Orlando.

A whopping 83 percent wanted 20 or more teams to be included, and it’s worth considering why there’s such widespread support for a bigger bubble. More games means more television revenue, and a negotiated expansion of the league’s TV contracts could help offset the loss of ticket and local TV revenue. There is also probably an aspect of fairness, as the race for the eighth seed in the Western Conference was set to be among the top storylines in the league this spring. Cutting those teams out would be hard.

Along those same lines, Charania reports that non-playoff teams are split on resuming the season. Likely the teams that want to come back are younger and value the competition more. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski recently listed the Atlanta Hawks as one young, non-playoff squad that would be eager to play again this summer.

On the matter of playoff seeding, with much discussion among fans this week centering around reseeding or using a World Cup-style group stage, Charania reported 53 percent of GMs want to maintain usual playoff seeding.

The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor provided further clarity on the structure of the back end of the playoffs when he reported that 75 percent of NBA GMs supported a play-in tournament for the final playoff seeds, compared to just 25 percent for a group stage. This would mean sending 3-5 extra teams from each conference to Orlando to play out a mini-tournament for the respective eighth seeds.

The NBA is not due to make a firm decision on the structure of its July bubble season until next week, according to Wojnarowski, but it’s likely that the results of this survey will hold weight when commissioner Adam Silver and the league office ultimately make a proposal to the players.