Remember when Modern Family won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series five years in a row? The Peabodys would never.

The Peabody Awards are given to “the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and digital media,” and unlike many other award voting bodies, the jurors usually pick the worthiest programs. This year’s winners include Watchmen, Fleabag, Succession, Ramy, Stranger Things, When They See Us, and Chernobyl in the Entertainment category, and Apollo 11 and Surviving R. Kelly for Documentaries. The Simpsons also won an Institutional Award for finding new “ways to remain funny, fresh, and insightful while trusting and respecting its audience’s intelligence.”

“Of the 30 winners, PBS leads with seven, followed by HBO and Netflix with four each; and CNN and NBC with two. First-time winners, AppleTV+ and OWN, join Amazon Prime, Lifetime, and Hulu with one award each,” the Peabodys wrote in a statement. “Additional winning platforms include APM, BBC Sounds, Montana Public Radio, Newsday, WBBM Chicago, and WNYC Studios.” Congratulations to farting Jeremy Irons and “you can’t make a Tomlette without breaking some Greggs” for winning a Peabody.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

Entertainment

“Chernobyl” (HBO)
“David Makes Man” (OWN)
“Dickinson” (Apple TV+)
“Fleabag” (Prime Video)
“Ramy” (Hulu)
“Stranger Things” (Netflix)
“Succession” (HBO)
“Unbelievable” (Netflix)
“Watchmen” (HBO)
“When They See Us” (Netflix)

Documentaries

“Apollo 11” (CNN)
“For Sama” (PBS)
“Independent Lens: Hale County This Morning, This Evening” (PBS)
“POV: Inventing Tomorrow” (PBS)
“POV: Midnight Traveler” (PBS)
“POV: The Distant Barking of Dogs” (PBS)
“POV: The Silence of Others” (PBS)
“Surviving R. Kelly” (Lifetime)
“The Edge of Democracy” (Netflix)
“True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality”

Podcast/Radio

“Dolly Parton’s America” (WNYC)
“Have You Heard George’s Podcast?” (BBC Sounds)
“In the Dark: The Path Home” (APM Reports)
“Threshold: The Refuge” (Auricle Productions)

News

“A Different Kind of Force: Policing Mental Illness” (NBC News)
“American Betrayal” (NBC/MSNBC)
“Long Island Divided” (Newsday)
“The Hidden Workforce: Undocumented in America” (CNN)
“Unwarranted” (WBBM-TV)

Children’s & Youth

“Molly of Denali” (PBS Kids)

Most weeks, Las Vegas Aces guard Sydney Colson speaks for just one minute on her social media talk show, 60 Seconds With Sydney. This time, that wouldn’t suffice. Instead, Colson brought together nearly every Black WNBA player to put forth what Colson called a “statement of fact:” Their lives matter.

“We were never trying to convince you, this was always a statement of fact,” Colson says in the intro, “that black lives matter.”

Dozens of players from around the WNBA then joined Colson to reiterate the message: “My life matters.”

youtube.com/watch?v=nUOhmINjLKE&feature=youtu.be

The league has boosted the 90-second video on its social channels throughout the week. The league is also donating portions of the proceeds from its “Bigger than Ball” apparel line to organizations fighting for racial justice after urging from the Players Association. At the same time, the Players Association is in talks with the league on a plan to play out the season, possibly at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

While other major American sports leagues plot out how to speak on police brutality and racism when they next take the field or court, women’s basketball has often been at the forefront of public displays of protest. The Notre Dame women’s basketball team wore “I Can’t Breathe” warmup shirts back in 2014, and in 2016, the Minnesota Lynx donned shirts at a postgame press conference that said “Change Starts With Us.” Back then, the league was not nearly as supportive of public demonstrations by players, but has since softened its stance.

Sharing Colson’s powerful video is a step, but the recent history of the WNBA shows the players often lead the way against the instincts of the league, and this moment has been no different.

“Trollz” isn’t just the name of an ill-fated, millennial update of the long-running doll franchise, it’s also the title of Nicki Minaj‘s upcoming reunion with Tekashi 69. It’s certainly apt — over the past couple of years, both rappers have become better known for attention-baiting antics than their music, but the former often seems to drive consumption of the latter. Since their last collaboration, “Fefe,” went multi-platinum, reached No. 3 on the Hot 100, and became one of the most successful singles for both artists, they’ve apparently decided to go back to the well with “Trollz,” which they announced releases this Friday, June 12. Proceeds of the song will reportedly be donated to The Bail Project.

Just as with their previous collaboration, the announcement drew a massive reaction from fans online. Nicki previously drew criticism for working with Tekashi on “Fefe” because of his trolling shenanigans and his past sexual misconduct case. That was before Tekashi was arrested as a part of a racketeering sweep of the Nine Trey Bloods gang who backed his rise to fame by lending him legitimacy and muscle — and before Tekashi agreed to testify against them in exchange for a shorter sentence.

This time around, the Barbz stepped up to defend their queen once again, but had a much harder hill to defend from critics. While some pointed out Tekashi’s upcoming collaboration with Akon based on Akon’s hit single “Locked Up” in an attempt to deflect, others noted that it’d still be a hit thanks to all the buzz surrounding it, based on the success of “Fefe.”

However, plenty of people expressed disappointment in Nicki for reuniting with 69 in light of the latest round of hip-hop rules he’s supposedly violated.

As usual, it appears that controversy is the best promotion — for a while, at least. We’ll see how things turn out for Nicki and Tekashi on Friday. For now, you can check out the reactions to her latest collaboration above.

Since Lil Peep’s death in 2017, the rapper’s mother, Liza Womack, has pushed tirelessly to honor his music. Womack and a team of producers have released several posthumous projects by Lil Peep, as well as the documentary Everybody’s Everything. Now, to celebrate its fourth anniversary, Lil Peep’s 2016 mixtape Crybaby is available on streaming services for the first time.

The mixtape was remastered by Joe LaPorta, who worked on the rapper’s posthumous Everybody’s Everything, Vertigo, and Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 2. While LaPorta lent a hand on Crybaby, Womack told Pitchfork that the mixtape was only “slightly” mastered but otherwise is “totally untouched.” “So it’s the same thing that he made, and that matters to me…. I’m very proud of that,” Womack said.

While Crybaby is seeing its first digital release four years later, Womack has worked incessantly to clear the array of samples Lil Peep used. The rapper pulled from Oasis’ “Wonderwall” for his track “Yesterday” and the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” for “White Tee.” The only sample Womack wasn’t able to clear was Radiohead’s OK Computer song “Climbing Up the Walls,” which appeared on Lil Peep’s “Falling 4 Me.” But Womack says she plans on leaving a black space on any future vinyl pressings in the track’s honor.

Speaking further to Pitchfork about Lil Peep’s mixtape, Womack said Crybaby was a highly prolific era for the young rapper:

“I think he was really kind of hitting his stride. This is the first time he was working with producers live, human, physically. So that was a turning point where he actually met his producers in person. I think an important thing about this mixtape was that he was feeling a sense of power, as somebody who had positive social feedback for his work. He had a group of people to work with, and there were all these people doing videos and writing music and producing music, and all this intense creativity. That must have been very nice for him.”

Crybaby is out now via Lil Peep/AUTNMY. Get it here.

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Social media has given everyone a platform. Unfortunately, not everyone uses their platform responsibly. That goes double for those with massive followings. Over the past several years we’ve watched one celebrity after another put their proverbial feet in their mouths by either misunderstanding or misusing the newfound power of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other virtual soapboxes. However, if there’s one person who does understand her power, it’s Cardi B. The outspoken Bronx rapper has become the voice of reason for a generation of music fans, using her social channels to address current events in a way that is insightful, informative, and most importantly, relatable for the average person.

How did the rambunctious, wine-throwing loudmouth from Love & Hip-Hop: New York become the mouthpiece of the zeitgeist — especially as imperfect as her own approach to social media has been? Perhaps it’s because Cardi is willing to be so authentic to herself, owning her own humanity. While many stars fight back against backlashes to their faux pas, or issue boilerplate Notes App apologies before falling silent on important issues, Cardi accepts the criticism, correcting it where it’s wrong, acknowledging where it’s right, and growing up right before our eyes. Controversies regarding her use of racially insensitive insults, her admittedly criminal past, or feuds with other entertainers have all given Cardi the chance to learn on the job and she’s risen to the occasion every time.

While her controversies have drawn more and more eyes to her platform, her willingness to learn and grow while continuing to keep it real has lent her a hard-won aura of empathy. So when she goes on a “rant” decrying Donald Trump’s government shutdown, it not only goes viral, but it also reflects the way the average person might feel about them as well. While Cardi is a self-described history and politics buff — a characterization backed up by her school teachers and high-profile political associations — she is plain-spoken, foregoing the confusing mouthfuls of sociological jargon favored by many social critics on blogs, Tumblr, and Twitter. Her Bronx accent and liberal use of vernacular are more readily accessible than the complex terminology that sometimes gets employed to address complicated topics like systemic racism. It helps that Cardi maintains her blunt sense of humor, which works as the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.

That’s why Cardi could float a wild conspiracy theory about the spread of coronavirus, then use the resulting attention to call scrutiny to inconsistent testing practices. “If a celebrity is saying, ‘Hey listen, I don’t have no symptoms, I’m feeling good, I feel healthy, I don’t feel like nothing, but I went and got tested and I’m positive for the coronavirus,’ that causes confusion,” she said in one of her recent videos, pointing out how the gap between the test and the results could cause much more harm for the average person. “So it’s like if you’re sending me home and I have the corona-f*cking-virus, I’m most likely going to give it to my spouse, my kid, anybody that’s around me.”

When her original post on the virus became a hit song thanks to an enterprising producer, Cardi ensured that her share of the proceeds went to charity, showing her awareness of the moment and her place in it. Rather than pouting about being the butt of a joke, she turned the joke into an opportunity to help. She used the curiosity resulting from her original rant — which became Instagram’s most-watched video for that month — to call out anti-Asian bigotry stemming from the virus’ origin and the insensitive remarks from the White House.

The White House, of course, provides Cardi with much of her ammunition. As protests against police brutality continued across the nation, Cardi again used her platform to give voice to the emotions being felt by the general populace. However, she also offered a set of possible solutions for the current situation. Rather than paternalistic admonitions to “stop burning down your own neighborhood,” she acknowledged that peaceful protests had been ignored. She then urged her followers to vote for change, clarifying that it comes from the local level, “We can vote for mayors, we can vote for judges, and we can also vote for D.A.s (district attorneys)… They have the power to prosecute these cops.”

While no celebrity should be the sole source of hope, inspiration, or information for anyone, seeing a star — one who has made history, one whose career is far from solidified, with only one hit album to her name — risking their status to speak their mind is inspiring, or at least, it should be. It says that someone is finally putting people above profit. It sets that example, that maybe there are more important things to talk about than when your next album is coming out. It shows us that we don’t all need to have PhDs in sociology to join these complex discussions about equality and justice — and that we don’t always need to “sound smart,” so long as we demonstrate empathy for people and understanding of the topics. Cardi B isn’t perfect — nobody is — but she’s become a great example of how we can have these much-needed discussions and take action to bring about much-needed change.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Indie developers have grown used to fielding a standard set of questions from eager fans as they bring games to market. The first two are simple: When will the game come out? And on what platform? After that, things get a bit more specific: When will the game be released for the Nintendo Switch?

Steam and Itch.io are often go-to platforms for indies developing on PC and Mac, getting access to millions of dedicated gamers in the process. For game makers, computer gaming is the place to start. But even today, the console market is an easier way to play for millions more in a decidedly varied market. And the Switch, in particular, is a quick way for a lot of new and casual gamers to enter the market. There’s a reason stock of the console ran out as the COVID-19 pandemic kept people inside looking for things to do, and it’s not just Nintendo’s notorious supply issues.

While Sony and Microsoft plan the next phase of their hardware war, the Switch remains a popular and decidedly different device. It’s also become particularly suited for indie gamers to explore the console market and tailor their games to its unique features. In the process, it’s become the destination for a lot of smaller titles searching for a place in the console market.

“We knew from the beginning that the Switch would be a very, very good match for us,” said Rune Drewsen, co-founder of Dutch gaming company Triband. The company’s physics sim What The Golf? hit PC and the Apple Arcade in 2019, and an announce trailer for Nintendo’s versatile console hit the web in August. But it took nearly another year for a console version to come out, which meant the company dealt with plenty of questions.

“It’s very hard to juggle development time and pleasing the audience at the same time,” Drewsen said. “Because as soon as you say you’re going to do a Switch launch you get those emails instantly that say ‘When is it going to launch on the Switch?’

The Switch has a variety of advantages as an indie console, starting with the fact that its portability means gamers can take full-scale titles with them anywhere. Its storage is also expandable, and SD card prices have gradually fallen to the point that it’s now possible to bring every title you own with you in your backpack. Some gaming computers can say the same, sure, but there are other attributes the Switch has that also offer developers the chance to go the extra mile with Switch games.

What The Golf, for example, uses the Switch’s motion controls to bring a set of 3D-style levels to play independent of the standard console’s television dock. A very different golf title — 2017’s brilliant Golf Story — uses the console’s HD rumble feature to make golf shots out of the rough feel tougher. Tumbleseed is another game that deftly uses that often-overlooked feature of the console, and not every developer makes the most of its unique features. Ports are inevitable that miss the mark, but it’s another example of a way the console becomes more attractive to indie developers.

Drewsen was careful not to speak for the entire market, of course, but the Switch was “the easy match” for his game after the success it had on the Apple Arcade.

“We had to go on that console because that just seems like the perfect console for What the Golf. The game is light, the game is funny. The game is easy to pick up and it’s actually a game that you really want to show your friends,” he said. “But you also want to show your mom or your dad or something like that, and I think it’s one of those consoles that people understand the most.”

Drewsen noted that Nintendo has a history of accessibility — even going back to the Nintendo Wii — that can invite new gamers into the fold.

“From a perspective of age, at least, that’s definitely the Switch. Because you just pick it up and you get it,” he said. “You don’t have to fiddle around with a bunch of stuff and you don’t need to sit on a couch. You can give it to your mom in the kitchen, you can give it to your dad on the golf course or whatever. And I think that was so appealing to us.”

The evolution of the console has made for an interesting dynamic. While many AAA titles and bigger titles reach and are largely preferred on the Xbox and PlayStation, gamers often choose the Switch when it comes to indie titles available on multiple platforms. The Outer Wilds, for example, took a few extra months to land on the Switch after a fall 2019 launch, but for developers of smaller games, it’s often the place where their work can truly shine.

“We really felt like we had to do that extra thing for the Switch,” Drewsen said. “Because that kind of competitive two-player mode were just fit like a hand in a glove.”

Developing a versus mode for the Switch took some extra time, and some hurdles to clear with Nintendo approval are always an issue for any developer. The console has certain rules developers must adhere to when it comes to using JoyCons properly that can make multiplayer games a challenge for small indies. But multiple indies have explained the extra effort is worth it, and the console’s features have made it the recipient of some truly innovative titles. Drewsen said What The Golf tried to poke fun at gaming in general, but also try something very new.

“In a way we’re just trying to show what computer games have done in 20 years but also by exploring unknown country,” Drewsen said. “On the edge of the map, that’s not been explored where there might be dragons.”

It’s tough to occupy space that’s both on the edge of that map while staying accessible for a wide market, but the Switch is certainly the closest console to date to succeed at both.

A recently released WWE Superstar got a big shoutout on last night’s episode of Impact, and it could be a sign of a tag team reunion to come.

Rhyno, who returned to Impact last summer, referenced Heath Slater about as explicitly as he could without saying the name “Heath Slater.” During an argument with Rohit Raju, Raju told the ECW veteran that he needs to treat him more like a tag team partner, and Rhyno replied, “I’ve already got a tag team partner. And he’s got kids.”

This could end up just being a passing reference, but Impact has teased the arrival of laid-off WWE performers in its promotion for July 18’s Slammiversary event. The ad showed a man in a hoodie watching a new report about March’s WWE staff cuts spiced with shots of Eric Young, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, the Bulgarian flag, Mike Bennett, EC3, and Rockstar Spud.

Given that Spud signed a new contract with WWE, all these people referenced clearly won’t be showing up at Slammiversary! But Impact clearly isn’t averse to signing former WWE talent, so Rhyno’s look directly at the camera could pay off. Deonna Purrazzo made her debut last night, attacking Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace, and Joey Ryan wouldn’t be opposed to his former tag partner Karl Anderson joining the company.

Oklahoma State commit and No. 1 overall recruit in 2021 Cade Cunningham has many wondering about a possible departure from the Cowboy’s men’s basketball program after they received a postseason ban for next season. While speculation about his future swirls, he is using the platform he has as a highly regarded prospect to join the cavalcade of athletes speaking out on racial injustice and white supremacy.

In an interview with Jeff Goodman of Stadium, Cunningham challenged the institutions of our country to be better, but stuck with his own lived experiences as well. The 18-year-old, who was born in Arlington, Texas, and played high school ball in Montverde, Florida, decried the lack of educational opportunities for Black Americans as well as the simplistic Civil Rights curriculum put in front of white students.

“A good start for us would be the educational system and educating black people better,” Cunningham said, “and not having people growing up and the only thing they learn about black history is slavery.”

Even amid the events of the past week-plus, Cunningham maintains optimism that how we craft young people can have a positive impact on society.

“I don’t think racism’s born into anybody, I think it’s taught,” Cunningham said. “We’re all one race, and I think if everybody’s taught that from a young age, I think that’ll change the mindset of a bigger mass of people.”

Cunningham is already among the favorites for the top pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, but isn’t waiting until he turns pro to take advantage of his platform as an athlete.

Jerry Seinfeld was on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast this week. It was interesting, because Maron’s podcast began as one centered on comedians, and in all of these years, he’d never had one of the biggest of all time, Jerry Seinfeld, on it. In fact, this podcast — conducted over Zoom — is the first time that Maron and Seinfeld had ever “met.” Not to read too much into it, but the dynamic between the two was an unusual one for Maron. Seinfeld didn’t really seem to know Maron from Adam, and Maron seemed to want Seinfeld to know that he’s a legit comedian with several hour-long specials.

However, Jerry Seinfeld is a fairly closed-off person, publicly, who doesn’t often talk about process, and to Maron’s credit, over the hour, he was able to get Seinfeld to dig fairly deep into his comedy. It’s notable, however, that by the end of the episode, Seinfeld mentioned how much he enjoyed doing a deep dive on comedy on the podcast, while Maron’s attitude was more along the lines of, “You should come back, because you have barely scratched the surface.” The two clearly have a different idea about what is deep, and those differences are obviously reflected in their respective acts.

In either respect, what’s interesting is that closer to the end of the podcast, Maron asked Seinfeld, “Why does everyone say you were a Scientologist once?” Personally, I didn’t know that people thought Seinfeld was a Scientologist, and to get to the roof of the rumor, one has to go back to a feud between Seinfeld and Bobcat Goldthwait, of all people. Back in the ’90s, Goldthwait was often critical of Seinfeld and his brand of comedy, and he once declared that Seinfeld was a Scientologist.

“Here is this creepy Scientologist guy (dating) teenage girls – which I don’t care about one way or another,” Goldthwait told the Spokesman-Review in 1995. “What I find creepy is that people are convinced he lives in that apartment, and those are his wacky friends. They don’t like each other; they’re actors paid to pretend they like Jerry Seinfeld. He’s a weird guy. But everybody thinks he’s normal and I’m weird.”

Seinfeld addressed the feud last year, ranting about Goldwaithe on his show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, via the Spokesman-Review:

“I don’t like him. At all. I had kind of forgotten about him and then there was a little article about him in the paper and even in that there was a veiled reference to his dislike of what I did. It didn’t have my name, of course. He used to rail against me ’cause they weren’t as wild and dangerous as he was. ‘Cause he sucked. He wasn’t funny. And that’s why he didn’t get anywhere. Cause in comedy, nobody gives a f*ck if you’re cool, if you’re lame. If you’re funny, you win. If you’re not funny, you don’t.”

Anyway, it appears that the rumor was popularized by Goldwaithe, although Seinfeld admits on the Maron podcast that he dabbled in Scientology back in the 1970s. “I did do a course in Scientology in, like, 1975,” he said on the podcast. “I found it very interesting, but I never pursued it.” He did admit, however, that he found the “emphasis on ethical behavior” fascinating, but he wasn’t really into the “avoiding negative people” aspects of the religion. That’s as much as he’d go into it on the podcast, although he has spoken about his experience with it in other interviews in the past.

“Believe it or not…it’s extremely intellectual and clinical in its approach to problem-solving, which really appealed to me,” Seinfeld told Parade magazine back in 2008. “It was very helpful. I took a couple of courses. One of them was in communication, and I learned some things about communication that really got my act going.”

Although he does not practice Scientology, on the podcast, Seinfeld said that he is spiritual, but not “in any conventional terms,” although he does celebrate some of the major Jewish holidays.

Seinfeld’s stand up special, 23 Hours to Kill, is currently available on Netflix.

Source: WTF with Marc Maron