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There’s no shortage of stories out there showing how emotionally distant or out of touch some baby boomers can be. Younger generations are so fed up with it that they have their own catchphrase of frustration, for crying out loud.

The disconnect becomes especially visible in parenting styles. Boomers, who grew up with starkly different views on empathy, trauma and seeking help, have a reputation for being less than ideal support systems for their children when it comes to emotional issues.

But even if they often have a different way of showing it, boomer parents do have love for their children, and many try their best to be a source of comfort in some way when their kid suffers.

Occupational therapist Jacqueline (@jac.rose8) recently shared a lovely example of this by posting a video of her boomer dad helping her through a divorce in the best way he knew how.

Turns out, it was the perfect thing.

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“My husband just said he’s divorcing me and my dad came over and I was non-functional in bed,” Jacqueline wrote her video, adding that “…boomer dad didn’t know what to do, so he played his favorite song, the Dua Lipa ‘Rocket Man’ remix 😂”

In the clip, Jacqueline’s dad never really looks at her, but shifts the focus by describing what he imagines while listening to the song and performing the sweetest dad dance ever.

Watch:

@jac.rose8 #divorcetok #divorcesucks #divorcesupport #divorcesupportforwomen #divorcesupportsquad #supportivedad #disabilitytiktok ♬ original sound – Jacqueline

The heartwarming moment served as a great reminder that words aren’t always necessary.

‘“I am CRYING. This is so precious, he is trying his hardest to be there for you in any capacity. How pure ❤️,” one person wrote.

Another added, “This would instantly make me feel better.”

Even Jacqueline shared in the comments that her dad “didn’t know what to say but he was there and helped me in such a sweet way. He’s the best 🥰”

Proving that he has multiple love languages, Jacqueline later shared that her dad also went out to Home Depot to replace her lightbulbs. Not only that, but her mom also made Jacqueline’s favorite dinner. Maybe boomers are okay after all.

Really, it goes to show that great parents can be found in every generation. Part of what makes them great is knowing that they don’t need to be perfect in order to show up when things are hard. Being there and sharing their love is enough.

When we think of a “troll” in the internet age, we usually picture some sad sap wasting his one wild and precious life making inflammatory statements and luring people into inane arguments online.

But out in the physical world, some very different kinds of trolls are luring people away from their computers and out into nature. These benevolent trolls tower over humans with their enormous size and have an important message to share.

Also, they look really freaking cool.

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Danish “recycle artist” Thomas Dambo has spent the past nine years building dozens of giant trolls all around the world. Each one is made entirely of recycled materials, and each is unique, with its own delightful name and origin story. Hector the Protector, who lives on the water’s edge in Puerto Rico, came first in 2014. When Hector was first built, he was holding a rock to throw at anyone who threatened to hurt the island. After being damaged in Hurricane Maria, Hector “learned from his violent ways” and was rebuilt holding a lantern instead of a rock to guide sailors coming in during a storm.

Now there are at least 100 different trolls residing on nearly every continent.

Dambo has even created an entire elaborate folklore involving these trolls. For instance, legend has it that a global gathering of trolls that happens every 211 years, and in the last gathering, the trolls became angry with the humans who have stopped listening to nature and have been harming the Earth. They ultimately decided the best course of action was to eat the humans to save the planet.

But a group of six young trolls believed the humans were just young and ignorant, and because they “only live around eighty circles of light,” they can’t grasp the big picture. These young trolls decided to form a gang to save the humans and help them learn instead of destroying them.

Perusing Thomas Dambo’s website makes it clear that these trolls are not just cool art sculptures, but living parts of an ongoing story that involves all of us, both in a literary sense and a literal one. The lore puts a fun and fantastical spin on the very real issue of humans being out of touch and so often in conflict with nature.

Take a look and listen to this brief tale about seven trolls and the magical tower they built to help the humans see more clearly.

And this magical world just keeps expanding. In the summer of 2023, he’s bringing his troll installations to the U.S. with his “Way of the Bird King” tour. Dambo and a group of 22 builders will be traveling from coast to coast creating 10 new trolls out of more than 1,000 discarded wooden pallets.

“It’s always been a dream for me to go on this coast-to-coast road trip, especially when I was a rapper touring around Denmark in a big bus,” says Dambo. “So in some way, this feels like my big American breakthrough. My hope is that these sculptures not only showcase the beauty of repurposed materials, but also inspire people to reconnect with nature, spark their imagination, and foster a greater sense of environmental responsibility.”

The first four trolls to be created on the tour will be:

6/28 Hainesport, New Jersey — a female troll named Big Rusty

7/5 South Londonderry, Vermont — a male troll named Lost Finn

7/21 Germfask, Michigan — a male troll named Benny Beardfisher

8/4 Cripple Creek, Colorado — a female troll named Rita Rockplanter

After that, Dambo and his team will head to the Pacific Northwest, where six more trolls will make their homes. Exact dates are still to be announced, but these trolls will be built in that region: Ole Ole, Pia Peacekeeper, Iduns Flute, Jacob Two Trees, Oscar the Bird King and FiFi Feet Splinter.

If they are anything like the trolls that currently live in Denmark, China, France, South Korea, Australia, Chile, Ireland and other places (including a handful of locations in the U.S.—you can find them all on the Troll Map here), they will surely draw people’s attention. (But hopefully not too much attention. Poor Isak Heartstone, a troll in Breckenridge, Colorado, that was built as part of an arts festival, had to be destroyed and rebuilt in another location because too many tourists wanted a troll selfie with him, which caused complaints from locals.)

Check out a few other trolls from Dambo’s ongoing “Trail of a Thousand Trolls” project.

Some of Dambo’s trolls interact with the human world:

It takes a team of people to bring the trolls to life.

What a wonderful, whimsical way to bring attention to how humans and nature interact.

You can find more about Thomas Dambo and his magical world of Earth-loving trolls on his website, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

Mr. Rogers was a kindness icon, and his lessons continue to ripple out in the world around us. People quote Mr. Rogers when they’re feeling afraid and not sure what to do during moments of tragedy. Some of his songs are sung in preschools and homes to this day. The man just exuded kindness, empathy and compassion and continually showed it on and off his show.

Looking back on some of his actions, it seems he was pretty consistently ahead of his time, from inviting his Black mailman to put his feet in the baby pool with him as a form of public protest against segregation to him finding a way to model diversity and inclusion after he received a letter from a blind girl who was worried about his fish eating. It’s why he started saying out loud, “I’m feeding the fish,” in an effort to include blind children.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Mr. Rogers didn’t shy away from the talk of sex education for children while on “The Tonight Show” in 1980.

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While holding his comments to 2023 standards wouldn’t be fair, it’s safe to acknowledge that any talk of sex education for children was way ahead of its time in 1980. Of course, there were gender-normative teachings in the song itself—it was 40 years ago after all—but while Johnny Carson and the audience laugh about children thinking they could change genders, Mr. Rogers did not. It was obvious that he took the topic seriously while others may have been a bit uncomfortable.

Rogers explained that while his show is mostly watched by preschoolers, there may be older people that watch the show as well. When Carson asked if preschool was too young for the topic of sex education, everyone’s favorite neighbor informed the talk show host that children start noticing the differences between bodies around that age. This is where his song, “Everybody’s Fancy” came in as he recited two verses.

The song doesn’t go into detail about sex, but it is a way to talk about the differences in bodies and how just because every body is different, that doesn’t mean something is wrong. When people think about sex education, they often think about it on adult terms and experiences, so Rogers coming right out and giving an example of what sex education looks like for young kids was extremely progressive for the early 80s. In fact, he started singing this song in 1967, but in true Mr. Rogers fashion, he updated the lyrics in the early 90s.

“Becoming more sensitive to gender issues, Fred Rogers slightly altered the third verse of this song for the ‘You Are Special’ CD release,” according to The Neighborhood Archives.

The original third verse read, “Only girls can be the mommies. Only boys can be the daddies,” but the revised lyric read, “Girls grow up to be the mommies. Boys grow up to be the daddies.” This may seem like a minor change, but it removes the binary of “only,” which when accompanied with the second verse didn’t account for people whose “fancy insides” didn’t quite match their “fancy outsides.”

While we will never know how Mr. Rogers would speak on today’s understanding of gender, based on his history, his change in lyrics and his thoughts around early introduction to sex education, it wouldn’t be a jump to think he’d be in favor of kindness and compassion.

Dish soap is one of those things that you have to buy even if you have a dishwasher. Sometimes pots need to soak or you only need to wash out a bowl and spoon for a late-night snack. Either way, there’s no real getting around buying dish soap, and there’s nothing more frustrating than using soap that has the consistency of water, or worse, leaves your dishes greasy.

Nothing makes me want to throw dishes in the trash faster than grabbing a “clean” dish from the dish rack and feeling that familiar slimy film slip across your fingertips. That’s it. Paper plates for all eternity. But why does that happen and what does dish soap actually do? Once again, Melissa Pateras, the queen of “laundry-tok,” has an answer and it’s fascinating.

In this particular video, she brought along two friends to help her explain what the deal is with dish soap—a disembodied Ken and Barbie doll glued to two different bottles of dish soap.

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Ken is Palmolive and Barbie’s head and extremities are attached to the bottle of Dawn. Pateras uses the dolls to explain that the difference between dish soaps is usually the surfactants. (I think it’s a safe guess that most people aren’t thinking about surfactants when shopping.)

“Think about Dawn as Barbie and Ken as Palmolive. Now think about surfactants as outfits. Barbie has a huge wardrobe of outfits and accessories, whereas Ken only has a few, mostly just the same in different colors,” Pateras says while holding the two bottles. “Now, if Ken is all you have to play with, he’s fine, but he’s never anybody’s first choice.”

@melissadilkespateras

What soap would you choose #dishes #dawn #compare #barbie

She explains that while Ken can do things, Barbie has had over 80 careers and has adapted over the years, while Ken has essentially stayed the same. Obviously, we’re still discussing dish soap, but the visual and descriptive explanation helps bring the point around before she does a test with both soaps to demonstrate how the surfactants work.

“I understand surfactant so much better now. Thank you,” one commenter wrote.

“I loved this!!!! And I learned something,” another person said.

One thought she should be compensated by Dawn for her demonstration, writing, “Melissa I stg if Dawn doesn’t pay you for this…”

Through her demonstrations, there’s a clear better choice, and it’s Dawn. Now whether the dish soap giant will send Pateras a check for her entertaining and informative video is yet to be determined, but maybe she’ll get a few free bottles of the good stuff.

Americans are waiting longer to have children than they ever have in history. Since 2007, the birth rate for women in their 20s has fallen by 28%. Over the past three decades, the median age for women giving birth has jumped from 27 to 30.

“The story here is about young women, whose births are plummeting,” Caitlin Myers, an economist at Middlebury College, told The New York Times. “All of a sudden, in the last 10 years, there’s this tremendous transformation.”

There are many reasons for the change in the birth rate. Women are dedicating more of their time and energy to building their careers and putting off having children. Further, the cost of living and raising children makes it prohibitive for younger people to have kids.

A poll taken earlier this year found that more than 50% of 18 to 34-year-olds said they would consider having children if the cost of living was lower.

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Actor Chris Pratt, star of two of the summer’s biggest hits, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” thinks that people should push back against the trend of waiting until later in life to have kids. He says he got the idea from fellow actor and father, Adam Sandler.

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Pratt has three children—Jack, 10, whom he had with his first wife, Anna Faris, and Lyla Maria, 2, and Eloise Christina, 1, from his second marriage to Katherine Schwarzenegger. The couple tied the knot in 2019.

“People say all the time, ‘Don’t rush to have kids.’ I personally disagree,” Pratt told Men’s Journal. “Rush. Have them. Of course, make sure you find a great partner but don’t wait.”

“I was talking to Adam Sandler a while back, and he said, ‘Every day you wait is a day they don’t get to have you in their life,’” he continued. “The younger you have kids, the more time they get to have with you. It’s wild. Having kids is incredible. The things you normally take for granted in life are new.”

Sandler, 56, has two daughters Sadie, 17, and Sunny, 14.

“As they grow up, it becomes more about connecting with them as individuals and what makes them unique,” Pratt continued. “The softness of their hearts. How their minds work. How they’re the same as you. How they’re different.”

Sandler and Pratt have a point. The earlier you have kids, the more time you can spend with them. You will also share the years when you are healthier and more energetic. When many people think about the time in their lives they spend with their kids, they only consider when they are young and living at home. But the adult parent-child relationship can also be very meaningful.

As a parent, having more years with your child also means you’ll have more time with your grandchildren as well.

However great the advice sounds, Sandler and Pratt are both very successful actors, and they probably don’t have the same concerns about having the means to raise children that most parents do. So, it’s a little easier for them to believe that people should have children while they’re younger instead of waiting until they are more financially stable.

But that being said, most parents would probably agree that they hope to spend as many years with their children and grandchildren as possible.

Nikola Jokic is an NBA champion for the first time in his career, delivering one of the great playoff runs in NBA history on his way to a Finals MVP and Denver’s first ever NBA championship.

However, after the game the celebration from Jokic was fairly muted. He was clearly happy about winning the title, but it seemed as much a relief that the season was over as much as it was jubilation to be a champion. In his walk-off interview, he responded to Lisa Salters‘ question about how it feels to be a champion “the job is done, we can go home now.”

He was apparently not joking about his plans to immediately head back to Serbia, where he spends his offseasons with his horses, family, and friends (I believe in that order). In his postgame interview at the podium, Jokic was informed that the Nuggets championship parade is not until Thursday and he looked like a man who just found out he has to change some non-refundable travel plans — “No, I have to go home.”

This is the face of a man who spent his whole weekend telling himself Monday was his last day of work for the whole summer if he got the job done, only to learn after taking business that he can’t leave until Friday. The reason? You guessed it, his horse is racing on Sunday.

Adding to Jokic’s tough night of revelations at the podium was him trying to see if Novak Djokovic text him to congratulate him, only to see his phone blowing up and tossing it aside in disgust.

Jokic’s postgame celebration wasn’t all looking gloomy at the fact that he still has to work or respond to a bunch of texts, as he did tackle Jamal Murray into the pool in the training room, looking very happy about it all.

The second season of All-American: Homecoming came to a close earlier this year and it was unknown if the show would be renewed for a third season. The question was left unanswered for some time by its home channel CW as it was lumped in with two other shows that were under review for season renewals. “We’re still looking at those analyzing these shows… and looking at our budgets in 2024,” Brad Schwartz, President of Entertainment at The CW, said about All American: Homecoming as well as Superman & Lois and Gotham Knights. Nearly a month after that statement was given, we finally have an answer for All-American: Homecoming season three.

Will There Be A Season 3 Of All-American: Homecoming?

At long last, All-American: Homecoming was officially renewed for a third season by CW. The show was renewed for another season alongside Superman & Lois. “We are thrilled to bring All American: Homecoming and Superman & Lois back to The CW,” Schwartz said about the renewals according to Deadline. “These series are two of our strongest performers across our linear and digital platforms with some of the most passionate fanbases in all of television. We are grateful to our partners at Warner Bros. Television and Berlanti Productions for their continued collaboration, and we cannot wait to get started on the new seasons.”

Though the renewal is good news, it does come with some bad news. Season three of All-American: Homecoming will only have 13 episodes, a decrease from season two’s total of 20. There will also be some cast reductions that could include series regulars as well as supporting roles.

The season three renewal of All-American: Homecoming joins All-American in the renewal realm as that show was given the green light for season six.

All American: Homecoming’ season 2 is now available to stream on Netflix.

It’s been more than three years since Kiana Ledé gifted the world with a full-length project. That last body of work was her 2020 debut Kiki which was certainly one of the better R&B albums of that year. Since then, Ledé has taken on the ups and downs of life, love, and everything in between and it’s led to the upcoming release of her sophomore album Grudges. The project is just days away from becoming available to fans who have waited years for it, so with that being said, let’s get you up to speed with everything you need to know about it.

Release Date

Grudges is locked in for a release on June 16. It comes three years after Ledé released her debut album Kiki.

Tracklist

Ledé announced the tracklist for Grudges just days before its release. The tracklist goes as follows:

1. “Bitter B*tch” (Introlude)
2. “Irresponsible”
3. “Promise Me”
4. “Gone” Feat. Bryson Tiller
5. “Gemini Slander”
6. “LMK”
7. “Jealous” Feat. Ella Mai
8. “Focus”
9. “Damage”
10. “Too Far”
11. “Deeper”
12. “Grudges” Feat. Kiki & Friends
13. “Deserve”
14. “Same Type”
15. “Where You Go” Feat. Khalid
16. “Closure”
17. “Magic”

Features

Kiana Ledé’s Grudges comes with features from Bryson Tiller (“Gone”), Ella Mai (“Jealous“), and Khalid (“Where You Go”). The album’s self-titled track is listed with a feature from “Kiki & Friends” and based on the tagged names on an Instagram post that Ledé used to announce the tracklist, the “Friends” could be Joyce Wrice, Sinead Harnett, Kyle Dion, and Destin Conrad.

Singles

Ledé has released three singles ahead of Grudges. They are “Irresponsible,” “Jealous” with Ella Mai, and “Deeper.”

Tour

A tour in support of Grudges has yet to be announced, but if we had to guess, you can bet that Ledé will hit the road for Grudges.

More Details

In a cover story interview with Fault Magazine, Ledé shed some light on some aspects of Grudges.

In response to the most “emotionally challenging song” to write on the album:

I would say the most challenging to write was “Deserve.” I had to go back to the time I got raped and process all of the complexities of the situation. I had to choose to forgive myself for some of the choices I made following my rape. Including keeping in contact with the person who did it to seek some sort of closure since I know I wasn’t in a space to seek justice. I realized that putting the blame on myself was more about having control to protect myself. I had to release the grudge I held against myself and really put the blame on him. This song is the closest to revenge I’m gonna get and I am comfortable with that.

In response to the “biggest change” Ledé has felt on this album compared to other projects:

I think this album is just more grown. I have lived more life and processed my experiences from a more mature perspective. (Even though some shit still be toxic – ha.)

Grudges is out 6/16 via Republic Records. Find out more information here.

While much of the sports world was focused on Denver on Monday night, where the Nuggets won their first NBA championship with a 94-89 win over the Miami Heat, Texas and Stanford were playing for a spot in Omaha at the Men’s College World Series.

After splitting the first two games of their super regional in Palo Alto, the two teams still hadn’t separated themselves through 8.2 innings in the third game of the set to decide who would advance. Stanford put runners on first and second with two outs, but Texas was able to get a pop-up that seemed destined to send the game into extra innings.

However, the entire Texas team lost the sky-high pop fly in the lights, watching it fall to the outfield grass in front of the right fielder, who was standing there helpless.

Stanford’s runner on second did his job, running it out until the umpire made the out signal, and to his surprise that hadn’t happened when he got to home plate to score the winning run, taking off as his teammates chased him to celebrate their trip to Omaha. It is an all-time thrill of victory/agony of defeat moments, as Texas’ entire team seemed to be in shock, all collapsing to their knees trying to process how that was how their season ended. It is as brutal a way to go out as there is and just a gutting feeling for the right fielder and everyone else who just flat out lost the ball off the bat and could never find it in the worst possible moment.

Jonathan Wilson creatively pulls from everything around him. Whether he’s working with frequent collaborators such as Father John Misty or making something near and dear to him, such as his song, “There’s A Light,” nothing is left unexplored. On his latest single, “Charlie Parker,” off his forthcoming album Eat The Worm, the multi-instrumentalist channeled the tragic life story of another music legend.

Named after the late jazz pioneer Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker, the song explores the saxophonist’s tragic battle with drug and alcohol addiction. Throughout the song, Wilson taps into the darkness addicts cope with at their lowest points.

The second verse is the most piercing, as Wilson sang, “Well I guess I needed cheap thrill and long limousine / I hankered for whiskey and pretty ladies plenty / I hunkered right down, and I passed me around / I fell asleep under a Satanic spell / I wrestled with substance I struggled for fame /, But I came back singing this melody / Yes, I came back whistling a pretty melody / So said melody it will happen now.”

In a statement, Wilson discussed the inspiration behind the song, saying, “‘Charlie Parker’ is one of my favorite songs on Eat the Worm. It’s a fantastical and fictitious flight of fancy and fantasy. It also touches on the ups and downs of my life over the past decade as a touring musician and more. It’s filled with strings, horns, fuzzy guitars, tubular bells, and a few bebop elements as well, hence the name. In a way, ‘Charlie Parker’ encompasses what the new record is all about adventure, fidelity, and fun.”

Listen to the full track above. Check out Eat The Worm’s tracklist below.

1. “Marzipan”
2. “Bonamossa”
3. “Ol’ Father Time”
4. “Hollywood Vape”
5. “The Village Is Dead”
6. “Wim Hof”
7. “Lo And Behold”
8. “Charlie Parker”
9. “Hey Love”
10. “Stud Ram” (vinyl exclusive)
11. “B.F.F.”
12. “East LA”
13. “Ridin’ In A Jag”

Eat The Worm is out 9/8 via BMG. Find more information here.