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It can be easy to write-off younger generations as entitled, lazy and unwilling to work hard, without taking into account the very real challenges being faced.

Just like their “whiny millennial” predecessors, Gen Zers often find themselves in this predicament—unable to land a job, much less one that reflects their personal values, all while being labeled as“difficult” for wanting something better.

But the truth is, even hard-working people are struggling right now. That goes for people who are employed (many of whom are living paycheck-to-paycheck, despite having well-paying jobs) and those looking for employment.

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Job hunting is particularly grueling, as looming fears of recession have caused companies to make candidates go through more obstacles than a contestant on “American Ninja Warrior” just to get one interview. Followed by six more interviews. Followed by crickets.

With these types of barriers set in place, how is an age group, likely just out of college, with virtually no workplace experience, supposed to stand a chance? And furthermore, how can they not be distraught when their survival is on the line?

This is why a video shared by 26-year-old Lohanny Santos has struck a chord with so many.

In the clip, tears stream down Santos’ face after going around the city with a “stack” of resumes and being rejected by every potential employer she reached out to.

The college grad explained how she had two degrees—one in communications and one in acting—and spoke three languages. Not even this was enough to get her an interview.

“It’s honestly a little bit embarrassing because I’m literally applying for, like, minimum-wage jobs,” she says. “And some of them are being like, ‘We’re not hiring’ and it’s like, ‘What?’ This is not what I expected.”

Far from being entitled, Santos concluded the video by wiping her eyes and saying “ … I’m just going to keep trying.”

@lohannysant I got tear stains on my resume 😔😔😔 #nyc #unemployed ♬ original sound – Lohanny

Luckily, this is where the story turns around. After her video went viral, with over 23.4 million views on TikTok, Santos received a wave of support from viewers.

“Never feel embarrassed. You should feel proud that you’re pushing your pride to the side and being realistic,” one person wrote, commenting on the fact that Santos had begun her job search after her aspirations for being a TikTok creator weren’t paying the bills.

“This is precisely how you apply for jobs before the internet. nothing to be embarrassed about as this gives you real world sales experience,” another added.

Some even provided some tips. One person suggested: “Don’t ask if they’re hiring. Just say you want to apply & speak to a hiring manager. Be assertive.”

“GIRL APPLY TO BE A FLIGHT ATTENDANT!!! BARELY AND EXPERIENCE NEEDED AND WITH THREE LANGUAGES THEY WILL WANT YOUU,” another exclaimed.

Not only that, But Santos revealed with Business Insider that her following skyrocketed overnight, that she was being offered opportunities not previously available. In a follow-up video, she even shared that she scored a brand deal.

A brand deal which…..may or may not have taken her out to London? Not a bad gig. And it certainly seems like those TikTok dreams aren’t so unattainable after all.

@lohannysant I woke up like this for real. Brb let me wake up. #nyc #london #travelday ♬ original sound – Lohanny

Most people want to be contributing members of society. But times are tough for a lot of folks out there, regardless of age, background and education. A little compassion, as we see here, does in fact go a long way.

After spending months very openly shopping Dejounte Murray, De’Andre Hunter, and Clint Capela, the Atlanta Hawks chose to stand pat at the trade deadline in a fairly surprising pivot amid a bit of an upswing for the team.

The Hawks have won six of their last eight to create some breathing room for the 10th spot in the East and certainly seem destined for another Play-In appearance, but at 24-29, they’d need an incredible second half to really create some true optimism for the future with this group. Most expect the Hawks to make a trade of some kind this summer, both for roster reasons and tax reasons (Tony Ressler has yet to pay the luxury tax as an owner and Atlanta has not exactly been stealthy when making moves for cap reasons in the past), but what that trade is remains to be seen.

Murray’s play of late has sparked a certain segment of fans in Atlanta to call for the Hawks to build around him rather than All-Star guard Trae Young, and it appears the front office is at least willing to consider such a course change, as reported by Marc Stein in his newsletter on Monday.

I can tell you this much: They’ve certainly convinced various rival teams that a Dejounte In/Trae Out course is going to be legitimately considered.

The Hawks, to be clear, have not made a firm decision yet. This isn’t the time to lock into such a lane with 29 games left in Atlanta’s season and a trip to the Play-In round, at the very least, more than within reach. How the rest of the season plays out is obviously going to factor into those next steps.

The decision to keep Murray, however, certainly has more than a few front offices out there believing that the Hawks could reach the point — provided this season doesn’t end well — that they entertain the most dramatic possible reset.

Now, how much of this is opposing front offices wishcasting Young onto the trade market is unclear, as it wouldn’t be surprising if other teams wanted the All-Star guard to become available rather than Murray. That said, I wouldn’t put anything past this Hawks front office and it also could come down to whether Young applies any pressure to the organization after another difficult year.

Young is having one of his best statistical seasons as a pro, yet needed an injury replacement selection to make the All-Star team, and despite a noticeable uptick in defensive effort this year, he still carries a reputation as a one-way, “empty stats” guy to many fans. He may come to the conclusion sooner than later that a fresh start might be needed to shed that label. Adding to the intrigue of the guard dilemma in Atlanta is both Murray and Young are repped by the same agency, and Klutch Sports has to walk a fine line navigating what’s best for both of their clients.

In 2022, Kim Petras dropped the Slut Pop EP. Now she’s coming back for more with the recently announced project Slut Pop Miami. Here’s what to know about the upcoming release.

Release Date

Slut Pop Miami is out 2/14 via Republic. Find more information here.

Tracklist

So far, Petras has yet to share a tracklist for the project. In November 2023, she and David Guetta released the collaboration “When We Were Young (The Logical Song),” so perhaps that will be included on Slut Pop Miami (or perhaps it’s just a one-off collab that has nothing to do with Slut Pop Miami).

Singles

Petras has not shared any confirmed singles from the album, although as aforementioned, perhaps “When We Were Young (The Logical Song)” is one. A teaser video that Petras shared on February 7 includes a snippet of new music, though.

Features

Since there is no announced tracklist, there are no confirmed features on the album. Furthermore, Petras does not appear to have teased any collaborations for the project.

Artwork

Slut Pop Miami does not yet have confirmed album cover artwork, but there is a Slut Pop Miami logo featured in the teaser video above.

Tour

Petras hasn’t announced tour dates specifically in support of Slut Pop Miami, but the European leg of her Feed The Beast World Tour starts on February 13. (Here’s what the setlist for that tour has looked like.) Find Petras’ upcoming tour dates below.

02/13 — Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy Birmingham
02/15 — Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy Glasgow
02/16 — Manchester, UK @ O2 Victoria Warehouse
02/19 — London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
02/24 — Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique
02/25 — Paris, France @ L’Olympia
02/27 — Cologne, Germany @ Palladium
02/28 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ AFAS Live
03/01 — Berlin, Germany @ Columbiahalle
03/02 — Warsaw, Poland @ EXPO XXI
03/04 — Munich, Germany @ Zenith
03/05 — Milan, Italy @ Fabrique

At Super Bowl LVIII, not only did the Kansas City Chiefs break the dreaded “Drake curse,” but they also won him $1 million after his 2:1 bet on them paid off big time. Drake’s partnership with betting app Stake has notoriously earned — and lost — him a lot of money, but this time around, he had a good reason for putting his money on the eventual winners: “I can’t bet against the Swifties,” he wrote in the caption of his Instagram post declaring the bet.

Later, after all was said and done and the 49ers’ defensive coach failed a simple pattern recognition test in overtime, Drake posted his celebration to his Instagram Story, revealing that he and his friends had accidentally broken a plate in their excitement, ruining some “good crepes” in the process. Drake also teased his mans about taking credit for the win, correcting him for saying “we won a million dollars” with a quick, “I won a million dollars.”

This marks the second time Drake has won over a million betting on the Super Bowl; last year, even he couldn’t believe his bet on Kansas City Chiefs, calling it “psychotic.” Maybe the curse only applies to non-Super Bowl sporting events — or Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes are simply immune.

Jon Stewart sits down at The Daily Show this week as the iconic host returns to his old stomping grounds. Stewart’s return was such a huge surprise that it even caught his old co-worker John Oliver by surprise.

As for why Stewart chose to come back after exiting the show heading into the 2016 election, the comedian opened up to CBS Mornings on Monday about his decision to wade back into America’s chaotic landscape.

“Who better to comment on this election than someone who truly understands two aging men past their prime?” Stewart quipped before getting surprisingly candid about his recent departure from Apple TV. Despite The Problem with Jon Stewart being renewed for Season 3, Stewart reportedly walked after Apple wanted him to refrain from commenting on China and AI.

“I very much wanted to have some place to unload thoughts as we get into this election season,” Stewart said via The Hollywood Reporter. “I thought I was going to do it over at — they call it Apple TV+. It’s a television enclave, very small. It’s like living in Malibu. They decided, they felt that they didn’t want me to say things that might get me in trouble.”

However, Stewart made it very clear that he has no aspirations about affecting the outcome of the 2024 election as Donald Trump and Joe Biden become the likely candidates.

“You guys know from doing this, just about everything I had wanted to happen over the 16 years that I was at The Daily Show did not happen,” Stewart said. “And I think I’ve learned that post-Daily Show … I don’t really view it as ‘I really want to have an influence on this issue, this election,’ things like that.”

What Stewart does want to talk about is AI and the state of our government. Ahead of his CBS Mornings appearance, Stewart appeared on The Daily Show’s Ears Edition podcast to promote his return as host.

“If you want to be present in this world, you have to be present in this conversation and you have to be as relentless and as tenacious as the counter-narrative that’s being formed,” Stewart said via THR. “It’s not just the election. It’s AI. It’s the way that we’ve militarized all our conflicts. It all ties together to one larger idea, which is the form of government we love so much is an analog — I don’t want to say dinosaur — but it is analog and the world now moves at an increasingly infinite digital pace and reconciling those two things, I think, is the challenge of the moment for people.”

Jon Stewart returns to The Daily Show on February 12 at 11 pm ET.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

When Doc Rivers became head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks after the team fired Adrian Griffin (with Rivers maybe working back channels prior to the firing to work his way into the organization), ESPN suddenly needed to figure out new broadcast plans for the playoffs and NBA Finals.

Rivers had joined Doris Burke as the new lead analysts for ESPN’s top booth alongside Mike Breen after the network let Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson go during layoffs last summer. The new No. 2 booth was Ryan Ruocco, JJ Redick, and Richard Jefferson, and many felt Redick was the natural choice if they were to elevate anyone into Rivers role. The last month have featured internal conversations at ESPN regarding what to do, and on Monday word emerged from Andrew Marchand of The Athletic that it would in fact be Redick joining the Finals broadcast team.

JJ Redick will join Mike Breen and Doris Burke on ABC/ESPN’s NBA Finals broadcast team, sources briefed on the network’s decision told The Athletic.

One would think this would go into effect sooner than later, as they’ll want Breen, Burke, and Redick to get some reps together before they have to call the Finals together. Redick has been one of the fastest rising former players in the sports media space, as he’s quickly climbed the ranks at ESPN and become one of the most popular player podcasters with his Old Man and the Three show.

Marchand goes on to note that Redick’s elevation now creates another decision for ESPN brass with the No. 2 team, as they will either roll with Ruocco and Jefferson or potentially add Bob Myers as the third member of that broadcast booth. At minimum, Myers will call more games in the second half of the year as ESPN regularly splits up its top teams for weekday games to manage everyone’s schedule, but it’s possible he’s on the call alongside Jefferson and Ruocco in the conference semis this spring.

If you watched the trailer for the family-friendly comedy IF and thought “that’s cute, but what if all of my imaginary friends were vaguely demonic” then Imaginary is the film for you.

Imaginary is the latest film to turn your beloved childhood friends into cold-blooded enemies, which is just what we all need right now after Barbie made everyone all nostalgic and whatnot. It’s time for people to be scared again! The Blumhouse production, from Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow, will attempt to make you turn on your favorite plushes in a way that Five Nights At Freddy’s never could. Here is everything you need to know about the upcoming horror flick.

Plot

The movie follows a woman named Jessica, who moves back to her childhood home with her new family and step-children. Jessica’s stepdaughter Alice becomes attached to a little bear named Chauncey she finds unsuspectingly lurking in a dusty basement, at first, everything seems fine, but then Jessica starts to become suspicious that the cute bear might not be an innocent stuffed animal, much like fellow scammer, Lots-o-Huggin’ Bear.

Here is the official synopsis:

From Blumhouse, the genre-defining masterminds behind FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S and M3GAN, comes an original horror that taps into the innocence of imaginary friends – and begs the question: Are they really figments of childhood imagination or is something more terrifying lying just beneath?

When Jessica (DeWanda Wise) moves back into her childhood home with her family, her youngest stepdaughter Alice (Pyper Braun) develops an eerie attachment to a stuffed bear named Chauncey she finds in the basement. Alice starts playing games with Chauncey that begin playful and become increasingly sinister. As Alice’s behavior becomes more and more concerning, Jessica intervenes only to realize Chauncey is much more than the stuffed toy bear she believed him to be.

Wise told EW that adults tend to yearn for childhood while forgetting how hard being a kid can be, which is why it’s the perfect way to spook some adults. “We often cite a desire to return to a level of childhood innocence, but being a kid can be scary! It’s full of uncertainty, vulnerability, and monsters that lurk in dark corners. Imaginary is a horror thriller for the kid inside each and every one of us.”

Cast

The film stars Jurassic World Dominion’s DeWanda Wise alongside The Walking Dead’s Tom Payne. Taegen Burns, Pyper Braun, Veronica Falcon, and Betty Buckley also star.

Chauncy The Bear plays himself, after what was likely a long and grueling audition process. Unfortunately for his dedicated fans, Lil’ Cub Pudding did not make the cut.

Release Date

After being delayed, Imaginary is expected to hit theaters on March 8th. Since it’s a Lionsgate film, we can expect it to land on Peacock sometime later this year after its initial theatrical release.

Trailer

The first teaser, which dropped alongside Five Nights At Freddy’s last fall, invited viewers to close their eyes and “imagine” what was happening. Thankfully, they dropped a real trailer soon after that so you don’t have to think so hard. Check it out below.

During last night’s Super Bowl halftime show, Usher took us through 25 years of R&B excellence in a mere 15 minutes. If you didn’t catch the show, it was insane — Usher rolled (literally) through hits, was joined on stage by the likes of Alicia Keys, Lil Jon, and Ludacris, had about four costume changes. It was a testament to the star power and discipline of Usher, who reminded the world he was still on top of his game as a vocalist and performer.

And for sneakerheads paying attention — a reminder that Usher has fantastic taste in footwear. During the final stretch of his performance, Usher strutted around the stage in a shimmering pair of chromed-out Jordan 4s, which may have had you wondering: How can I get a fresh pair of those?

Here is everything we know about Usher’s Jordan 4s:

If you were hoping to score a pair, we’re sorry to say you’re out of luck. Usher’s silver 4s were a custom job crafted by none other than the Shoe Surgeon himself, Dominic Ciambrone. The sneaker featured a simple three-color design with a metallic chrome upper, a white midsole, and blue accents with a custom stone-encrusted “U” logo at the heel.

Chrome uppers aren’t that big of a rarity in the sneaker world but we’ve never seen the metallic color on a pair of Jordan 4s, so if you’re hoping for a dupe that’ll get you in the same ballpark, it’s… not going to happen. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make something similar.

The Shoe Surgeon is currently taking requests on his website, so if you’re looking to build the sneaker of your dreams, hit up the site.

A must-visit for any fan of amusement parks is Wisconsin Dells. The Wisconsin city is known as “The Waterpark Capital of the World” due to its multiple water-based theme parks, including Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park. The Greek-themed resort will not only have you singing “I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)” (most of what I know about Greek mythology, I learned from the animated movie where Danny DeVito voices a half-man, half-goat), but it’s also the future home of America’s tallest waterslide.

If you think the drop at the end of Splash Mountain (soon-to-be Tiana’s Bayou Adventure) is scary, wait until you get a load of The Rise of Icarus. The ride is 145 feet tall, features five body slides, and is the star of the park’s $8 million expansion. Have a look:

When The Rise of Icarus was announced last year, Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park wrote on Facebook:

As the Greek myth goes, Icarus soared too close to the sun on wings fastened to his body with wax, with the heat of the sun melting the wax and Icarus falling to the sea. Here at Mt. Olympus you’ll experience a much happier ending at the bottom of the slides!

(In case you were wondering, the world’s tallest waterslide is Kilimanjaro, located at the Aldeia das Aguas Park Resort in Brazil. It’s 164 feet tall.)

Other attractions at Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park include an outdoor theme park with the Hades 360 Roller Coaster and a Trojan Horse Go-Kart Track; an outdoor water park with a rotating water slide and a fast “lazy” river; and an indoor water park for when it gets chilly (it is Wisconsin after all). The Rise of Icarus opens this summer. You can find more information here, and buy tickets to Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park on the park’s website.

Beyoncé’s mission to break the internet in a recent Verizon commercial may not have been a success (which I think was the point?), but it did succeed in generating substantial hype for her new music — which dropped in realtively short order after the commercial aired in the form of two new singles, “16 Carriages” and “Texas Hold ‘Em.” They’re the first pieces of “Act II,” which fans believe will mark Beyoncé’s first full-length foray into country music. It’s also something she’s allegedly been sitting on for a while, so just when did she record this mysterious project?

According to a statement Beyoncé shared shortly before the release of Renaissance in 2022 (and after a leak of the album hit the internet ahead of schedule), she actually recorded three “acts” of her then-upcoming musical project during the pandemic in 2020. “Act I” was, of course, Renaissance. “Act II” will be the country album, while “Act III” remains shrouded in mystery for the time being. Here’s what she wrote:

“This three act project was recorded over three years during the pandemic. A time to be still, but also a time I found to be the most creative.

Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world. It allowed me to feel free and adventurous in a time when little else was moving. My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom. It was a beautiful journey of exploration.”

Act II is due for release on 3/29.