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Charlie Puth is very transparent about his songwriting process. A scroll through his TikTok will offer fans a behind-the-scenes look at how some of his songs come together. But before the age of TikTok, one of his earlier hits has been revealed to have quite an interesting backstory.

During an interview on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen last month, Meghan Trainor said that she and Puth made out in the studio during the writing and recording session for their 2015 duet, “Marvin Gaye.”

In a recent interview with Interview, Puth confirmed that this did, in fact, happen after a bout of drinks.

“I had just moved to LA and yeah, I’m not denying that happened,” said Puth. “That definitely did happen once in 2015. I also don’t think I’d ever had vodka before, Grey Goose vodka.”

This event took place around the time Puth was garnering mainstream pop airplay with his collaboration with Wiz Khalifa, “See You Again.” The song proved to be a breakthrough for Puth, who was riding the high of having a song in one of the Fast And Furious movies.

“I felt like I was on top of the world,” said Puth. “So sure, if Meghan wanted to kiss me, I was definitely down. I think Meghan’s one of the most brilliant songwriters still. I even love her new song.”

Puth is currently on his Charlie: The Live Experience tour in support of his self-titled third album.

Charlie Puth is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ex-President Donald Trump has been indicted (for the second time) for a laundry list of 37 counts, including 31 counts of the Espionage Act, for hoarding all those classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. This development caused Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade’s spirit to deflate on live TV and Donald Trump Jr. to get twitchy. And of course, two of his biggest congressional enthusiasts/MAGA yahoos, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, are offering up the most absurd defenses imaginable. In the process, the latter tripped over so many lies that it’s astounding.

Then again, Greene appears to peddle lies and doesn’t even want her own staff educated, so this is normal for her. The congresswoman from Georgia took to Twitter in a lengthy video that reaches a crescendo pretty fast. Lawyer Ron Filipkowski posted this shorter clip, in which she declares of the indictment, “This is a communist country… We’re not a free country anymore.”

Here’s the longer video where those remarks appear after the 0:50 mark.

So many lies surface in this video that it’s not even worth counting them, but in her caption, she falsely claims that Trump’s second arraignment is based upon “charges of election interference.” Then she goes on in the video to acknowledge that these charges are due to classified document mishandling, but Greene also falsely claims that Trump had every right to hang onto national secrets and stuff those boxes into a bathroom and shower stall:

“Today, President Trump is being arraigned on 37 charges having to do with documents that he absolutely, by the Presidential Records Act, has the right to possess, but here they are, the Biden Administration, really arresting their top political opponent and enemy. This is a communist country.”

She’s echoing Trump’s own lies words on the subject, as relayed by CBS News: “Whatever documents a president decides to take with him, he has the right to do so. It’s an absolute right. This is the law.” That, too, is false.

At this point, it can be hard to tell whether Trump believes his own lies or simply believes that his fans will believe anything that he says. He doesn’t have the right to hang onto “presidential records” via the Presidential Records Act, only “personal” records. And going back to Greene, she doesn’t acknowledge that Trump was not indicted for being a political enemy. He simply happens to be a “top political opponent” who did a bunch of illegal things.

Again, yeah, there are so many lies involved with Greene and Trump that it’s fruitless to single them all out, but man, they never run out of energy, do they?

Katy Perry has had some viral moments on the latest season of American Idol (the show that may or may not have started the “downfall of society,” depending on which The View host you ask). For example, she blew up on TikTok a few months ago over some fun-but-unhinged behavior. It hasn’t all been good, though, as she was accused of mom-shaming and was later booed on the show. Fellow judge Luke Bryan thinks Katy’s doing just fine, though.

In a recent Fox News interview (as People notes), Bryan said, “Katy Perry’s been dealing with stuff like that her whole career,” he said. “We all get it… I mean, we’re judging kids that people at home fall in love with. We’re not gonna bat 1,000 as judges.” He also noted, “I think we get set up. As judges, you know, we kinda fall on the sword a lot of times, and get set up to where people can get very vocal on socials and stuff. My thing is, I think when me and Lionel and Katy sit down at the desk, in our hearts, we’re doing the best we can.”

He continued, “Katy gets picked on for going out and trying to have fun making a TV show. You can’t be so safe in the moment that you’re so homogenized, you can’t ever go for a joke, or go for a fun moment. Sometimes you just gotta say stuff. It may be my year next year. It makes me appreciate her even more, just how big of a scale she’s had to deal with that her whole career.”

Former contestant Oliver Steele recently came to her defense, too, writing on Instagram, “Katy is not a bully, nor does she shame people. I remember being nervous at my audition, nervous during Hollywood week, hell even nervous throughout various points in the competition. Katy has an incredible ability to not just tell what emotional state you’re in, but to be able to tell what’s holding you back. I love all the judges, but Katy always seemed to be able to look into my soul and tell exactly what was troubling me, or what it was I was struggling with. It’s one thing to teach someone to believe in their ability, which the judges are fabulous at. Katy reminded me to believe in who I am as an artist. She challenged me to push myself, to take on challenges that made me uncomfortable. I’m a better musician and artist after Katy Perry pushed me to believe in my potential, and to exceed my limitations.”

The Weeknd and Sam Levinson’s new HBO series The Idol is here, and so far, the response has been… not great: It has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score for any HBO show ever, currently at 26 percent (with a 58 percent audience score). The Weeknd doesn’t seem fazed by this, though. In fact, it looks like he’s happy with how things are going, as he indicated in a new GQ interview.

At the top of the conversation, he was asked how he’s feeling about the response to the show after the first two episodes, and he responded, “I’m loving it. It’s definitely shaken up the culture for sure [laughs]. We knew we were making something dark and controversial but true to what we want to say.” When asked if he thinks “the audience is engaging with it in the way” he intended, he replied, “I just think discussion is healthy, no matter what. To me it’s like, I’m just happy that there’s conversation. That’s important for anything I do, especially this new medium that I’m in.”

Meanwhile, The Weeknd continues busting out new music as new episodes premiere. The fresh tracks that followed this past weekend’s episode were “Family” by The Weeknd with Suzanna Son and “Devil’s Paradise” by Mike Dean.

The pop world has been eating in 2023. Though, it hasn’t always been because of new music. For pop fans, the biggest shaking of their cultural core has occurred in stadiums, as Taylor Swift has swept through the South and East, while Beyoncé’s massive tour has taken Europe by storm. 2023 has also featured big-ticket tours from Harry Styles, SZA, and Lizzo as well, making for a year where pop fans can gather and scream their lungs out together.

But that doesn’t mean the albums of 2023 haven’t been impactful. From critical darlings like Caroline Polachek and Jessie Ware to stadium-ready institutions like Karol G and the Jonas Brothers, there has been plenty for pop fans to savor. It’s a world that still might favor the single to the full release, but the following offerings argue the opposite. Check out the best pop albums of 2023 so far below (including one from December 2022, which is basically just 2023 a little early).

Caroline Polachek — Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

Caroline Polachek is by no means new to the music world. Despite this, her solo sophomore release, Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, finds her experimenting with a range of influences and elevating herself beyond the initial sound that first drew listeners in. Here, she plays with flamenco on “Sunset,” while also not alienating anyone by adding the catchy, electronic early preview of “Bunny Is A Rider.” In her present chameleon fashion, she then flips the script once more for the quiet tension on “Crude Drawing Of An Angel.” Just as the title suggests, Polachek reaches a new peak by being able to play with the concept of transformation and versatility on this album. – Lexi Lane

Gracie Abrams — Good Riddance

“You fell hard / I thought, good riddance,” Abrams twists the knife on the album opener “Best,” while maintaining themes of self-criticism throughout. The new album finds her exploring new horizons by working with Aaron Dessner and putting her biggest fears, worst behaviors, and an expanded level of emotional vulnerability on full display — all while backed by some gentle production. She also provides pauses to lift the energy, like the sweet caught-by-surprise moment on “The Blue.” Yet, staying true to the themes of struggling with the rollercoaster of entering adulthood, the album ends with the darkly contemplative “Right Now,” where Abrams wonders if her “little brother thinks my leaving was wrong,” as she continues growing up, getting out, and saying good riddance. – L.L.

Jessie Ware — That! Feels Good!

Jessie Ware snuck “Free Yourself” under the wire last July. She’s ahead of the game this year with a disco-pop indulgence inspired by divas like Donna Summer. “Lightning” is ready-made for dog days, oozing romance. “Freak Me Now” is brash lust. “Begin Again” is pure refreshment. Pick one, and you will feel good. – Megan Armstrong

Jonas Brothers — The Album

The Jonas Brothers are a trifecta, but the Jon Bellion-produced The Album underscores their dynamism. “Waffle House,” TikTok’s favorite single, reframes their formative fights with loving eyes. “Little Bird” delicately illustrates their newer roles as girl dads. They haven’t lost their edge in marriage — just listen to “Summer In The Hamptons.” Life keeps changing, and Joe, Kevin, and Nick keep writing. The ‘70s-inspired LP propels them into a boundless future. – M.A.

Kali Uchis — Red Moon In Venus

Kali Uchis’ third album Red Moon In Venus is without question her best album to date. Maybe it’s because she’s more in touch with herself than ever or maybe it’s because she’s more at peace than ever. The result of either, or maybe both of those observations, is a 15-track body of work that captures Uchis majestically and graceful float through elements of R&B and pop, while also tapping into her Spanish roots, to make what sounds like Uchis’ idea of paradise. Whether it’s “Fantasy” with Don Toliver, “Deserve Me” with Summer Walker, or solo efforts like “All Mine” and “Moonlight,” Kali Uchis’ Red Moon In Venus has plenty of music to get lost in and find your own paradise. – Wongo Okon

Karol G — ‘Mañana Será Bonito’

After a very public breakup, Karol G chose to heal the way she knows best — through music. The Colombian superstar’s fourth album Mañana Será Bonito proves to be a therapeutic experience, for both Karol and the fans. Over the course of 17 flawless tracks, Karol engages in self-care, debates returning to an ex, falls in love on her travels, and has several good cries. All while repeating the very phrase that got her through it all — “Mañana será bonito.” – Alex Gonzalez

Lana Del Rey — Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

Lana Del Rey’s career has been defined by a hot and cold reaction from the press, and equally hot and cold moments of self-sabotage and self-mythologizing. But if anything, it speaks volumes that any online spat that might accompany a rollout is generally forgotten by the next album cycle. That’s how continually surprising and sharp Lana is as a songwriter, that mild controversy slides off her. And that talent is underscored on Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. “A&W” is another high point in sonic adventurousness and lyrical insight, while “The Grants” and the title track are so instantly familiar, they might as well be pulled directly from the singer-songwriter canon. We just can’t quit you, Lana. – Philip Cosores

Myke Towers — La Vida Es Una

Puerto Rican artist Myke Towers couldn’t be held in a box while making his third album, La Vida Es Una. On the album, Towers showcases his versatility by way of lightly revisiting his rap roots, but mostly experimenting with a multitude of genres. While 23 tracks may seem saturated for an album in 2023, Towers delivers through reggaeton, dancehall, and ‘80s-synthpop sounds, defying the pigeonholing of the industry. Needless to say, he’s keeping fans fed. – A.G.

RAYE — My 21st Century Blues

After years of having her debut album delayed, UK singer/songwriter RAYE took matters into her own hands. Two years ago, RAYE outed her previous label, Polydor, for holding her music hostage. In February, she finally released My 21st Century Blues independently. And in turn, she flipped the industry on its head, with tales of heartache, insecurity, and gaslighting. Having finally earned number one song and album on the UK charts, it’s safe to say RAYE’s big risk paid off. – A.G.

Skrillex — Quest For Fire, Don’t Get Too Close

Skrillex is most readily associated with the early 2010s, but he’s been killing it lately, too. Aside from his beloved Coachella performance alongside Fred Again.. and Four Tet, he dropped a pair of albums in February, his first since 2014: Quest For Fire came first and Don’t Get Too Close followed the next day. The list of artists featured across the projects (including Justin Bieber, Missy Elliott, Kid Cudi, and PinkPantheress) evidence how much esteem Skrillex has in the industry, while the top-rate albums illustrate why he remains an icon. – D.R.

SZA — SOS

Yes, this album came out in 2022, but with most of its success taking place in 2023 and the fact that it came after our 2022 lists, it’s only right that SZA’s SOS makes the cut here. Five years removed from her debut album, SZA returns to a world riddled with troubled waters that people from all over hoped to survive and swim out of. Through the album’s expansive 23 songs, SZA guides us on a journey of surviving life’s elements, the lessons learned along the way, and what it looks like to make it to shore. The ups and downs of life, growing pains, and artistic struggles are all present on this album, and it’s even more impressive that she made its 23 songs not feel like an absolute drag. It was a long time coming for SZA, but boy did she arrive. – W.O.

Twice — Ready To Be

One of my close friends is a gigantic Twice fan, which by association, has led to me getting into their Ready To Be mini-album from earlier this year. While I’m not as familiar with their past records to compare, the early singles, “Moonlight Sunrise” and “Set Me Free,” showcase the group’s romantic side over the bubbly production that truly just pulls you in. (Plus, their live performances are so impeccable and synchronized.) On other tracks from the record, Twice shift into fiery, flirty territory with the rock-influenced “Blame It On Me,” which shows off the band’s wide-spanning inspirations that push the boundaries of the general K-Pop conceptions — and prove that they really are the ones to watch. – L.L.

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

Arlo Parks just released her transcendent new album My Soft Machine, whose opening track “Bruiseless” is a slam-poetry supernova. So it’s not a surprise that the 2021 Mercury Prize winner just announced a poetry collection.

The Magic Border: Poetry and Fragments From My Soft Machine will arrive this fall. It features 20 new poems, as well as lyrics from her latest LP. Read her statement about the book:

“Writing poetry, to me, is about profound interiority. It is about wading into the saltwater of your own body, capillaries bursting, eyes brimming, unmoored. This collection is the fruit of that inner probing. It is a tangled mass of everything that has made me angry or giddy or low or impossibly happy to be alive. It has taken me almost [23] years to share my poetry beyond a few trusted friends. Poetry was my place, my little clearing in the forest, where I could quietly put everything I was holding. I’m not sure what gave me the courage to open up that space to you but here I am, doing it. I am proud to show you this personal lens that life shimmers through. This book is no longer mine. It is yours.”

The Magic Border: Poetry and Fragments From My Soft Machine is out 9/12 on HarperCollins, 4th Estate, and Dey Street Books. Find more information here.

For decades Nazis were reliable go-to movie baddies. They’re the villains of films as disparate as The Sound of Music and Inglourious Basterds. When Steven Spielberg and George Lucas bowed their tenured professor action hero Indiana Jones, who did he duke it out with first? Frickin’ Nazis. He did it again in the also delightful threequel. But in the last decade a funny thing happened that’s not funny at all: Nazis improbably made a comeback, all thanks to You Know Who.

Indy is back to battling Nazis in his fifth and final outing, which takes place in the late ‘60s. But what if Indy was around today? What would he make of the debates about whether to not it’s right to coldcock a real-life Nazi like Richard Spencer in his stupid face? That’s what someone asked Harrison Ford, who gave a not very surprising answer.

“He’d push them out of the way to get in the first punch — as well he should,” Ford said to Yahoo’s Kevin Polowy. “That was a black-and-white world,” he said of the rise of the Third Reich. “This evil presented itself to the world. It’s incalculable that this vision of evil not be confronted.”

In Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Mads Mikkelsen plays a former Nazi hired by NASA to work on the Apollo moon landing mission. Of course he has ulterior motives. Mikkelsen’s character is inspired by Wernher von Braun, who worked in Nazi Germany’s rocket development program, only to wind up in America, working for the U.S. Army, NASA, even Walt Disney.

“To see a threat of it in 1969, to know that Wernher von Braun was a Nazi and worked for America on the space program after all we knew about his history and who he associated with,” Ford explained. “I mean, these are shades of gray in a world we’d thought was black and white.”

Anyway, it’s been a while since there’s been a movie where Nazis eat it en masse. But there’s always Inglourious Basterds. And that movie where Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton spend 2 ½ hours gunning down wave after wave of Nazis.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny hits theaters on June 30.

(Via The AV Club)

The 2023 BET Awards are going to be exciting this year. Drake and GloRilla have the most nominations, with the Her Loss performer having seven nods and the “Tomorrow 2” rapper with six.

The highly anticipated event is coming up fast. The ceremony is set to air live on Sunday, June 25 at 8 p.m. ET, less than two weeks away. Be sure to mark it on your calendars.

The prestigious Album Of The Year category is packed with lots of instant-classics. The nominations are Anyways, Life’s Great by GloRilla, Breezy by Chris Brown, God Did by DJ Khaled, Her Loss by Drake & 21 Savage, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar, Renaissance by Beyoncé, and SOS by SZA.

Last year’s BET Awards were surrounded by controversy after Lil Nas X called them out for not nominating him. “My relationship with BET has been painful and strained for quite some time. It didn’t start with this year’s nominations like most people might think,” the “Industry Baby” rapper explained to Rolling Stone after the situation. “They did let me perform on their show last year, but only after [I gave] assurances that I was not a satanist or devil worshiper, and that my performance would be appropriate for their audience.”

Back in Season 9 of The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes had the worst day ever. He took his final, ill-fated horse ride, ended up being impaled, took a few moments to blow up a bridge and save his community, got carted off by the helicopter people, and ended up in CRM custody. From there, the zombie-franchise meant to put Andrew Lincoln’s character into a movie trilogy, yet shortly thereafter, a different kind of virus wreaked havoc on real life. Years later, the TV and movie landscape has largely shifted to streaming, and few projects can motivate people to leave their home TV set up. AMC must have seen those signs and decided that Rick would be better off in spinoff land, and the same goes for other enduringly popular TWD characters, too.

As we speak, Fear The Walking Dead is currently wrapping up its final reinvention, and AMC has paved the way for at least three new spinoffs. This includes Rick, yes, who will co-headline his show with Michonne. We’ll get to see Daryl Dixon inexplicably wash ashore in France for Daryl In Paris, where someone will hopefully convince him to bathe before going to the Louvre and wandering through the catacombs, as one does. Before that happens, Maggie and Negan will make a complicated team in The Walking Dead: Dead City.

Actually, these two are a nightmare together, but since Maggie justifiably loathes Negan, plenty of fruit for conflict exists. Both Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are also beloved by Walking Dead fans, even if people still have issues with the latter’s so-called “redemption” arc. They must now rescue Hershel Rhees, son of Maggie and the late Glenn, who of course died when Negan bashed his brains out with a baseball hat. (Awkward.) To do so, the pair must *gulp* head into Manhattan.

Obviously, this is a bad idea on its face. For the most part, The Walking Dead avoided cities since the first time that Rick was dumb enough to hop onto a horse. Still, if characters’ bad decisions led to Dead City existing, then so be it. Don’t expect a quick in-and-out trip, either. The first season runs six episodes, which end with a clear intent to keep the story going, and the show succeeds at blending the past and present of TWD in a few ways.

The undead are overwhelmingly dangerous again: TWD only occasionally made walkers the main threat, but it’s a nice shift of pace to return there (and away from the politics that consume humans) for the visceral hell of it. And yes, there are baddie humans in NYC, but they’re initially dwarfed by Manhattan’s status as a sealed-off-from-the-mainland time capsule. Millions of walkers endlessly roam in the city that never sleeps. The hoards are bigger than we’ve ever seen, much more so than in the TWD finale that bid RIP to Rosita. These “new” zombies are also presumably a well-fed bunch, unlike those Season 7 TWD stragglers, all decaying and weakened, right before Jesus slammed into Rick. That arrival had widened the show’s breadth and should have made it more interesting through long-ass seasons.

Yet even Jesus got bored. He felt “over it” after repeatedly being elected Hilltop leader, so the show conjured up more soap operatics. And when The Whisperers showed up while shuffling alongside walkers, this only reinforced that humans were the main villains as the series continued… for eleven long seasons that contained much padding filled with people-on-people conflict.

What I’m saying is this: Dead City is leaner and meaner and takes the franchise back to its gory brass tacks with a gruesome new playground while the leading duo deals with walkers falling from the sky and whatnot. The danger is constant, so the show never downshifts in intensity, which is nice during a compact season and more like an action movie than a zombie soap opera.

Showrunner Eli Jorne also promised that we’d see some of the “most awesome, disgusting, terrifying walkers” ever on this series, and yep, he delivers. Also, don’t forget about good old-fashioned NYC cockroaches.

A New Spin On That “Truce”: By the end of TWD, Maggie and Negan had agreed to some form of peace, but I think we all knew that couldn’t last. Yet in Dead City, Negan is the only person who can help her on this mission. He doesn’t even want to help, but for reasons I won’t spoil, he has no choice. And that leverage from Maggie is a good way for the show to roast Negan’s previous redemption arc, which always felt forced on TWD. It also felt obvious that the show kept Negan around because Jeffrey Dean Morgan is such a charismatic actor, and the show had already lost several originals, including Rick. So, Negan endlessly toiled towards impossible redemption, yet Dead City drags him enough to make it almost funny.

Granted, this is no comedy, and Negan did change in TWD. That’s partially the case because he had to adapt in order to remain in Alexandria. Although he did take some bullets for the team, it’s nuts that Dwight was exiled and sent to FTWD land whereas Negan got to stick around — not only after the baseball-bat madness but many other terrible Negan deeds, which included taking a harem of “wives,” sometimes by force, and disfiguring their husbands.

In this spinoff, he’s not let off the hook so easily, and I love to see it. Maggie makes him work his ass off and never gives him an inch. Yes, there’s been some promotional talk of the “Old Negan” coming back, and there are slight shades of the Saviors leader that return. And that’s kinda fun, even while the show dives deeper into Maggie’s trauma and how it has shaped her to grow ever more hardened. All of the Old Negan parts do serve a purpose, too, so the show earns those moments.

So, we do get to see Negan let loose with that bravado once more, but there’s no glorification for what he’s done in the past. That also allows for a more textured take on this dynamic other than “Negan is such a swell guy now” and “Maggie is 100% good.” Let’s just say that this show does not forget that most characters have done terrible things to survive in this world. And in a way, Dead City feels like redemption for the redemption arc.

The two halves make a whole: Maggie and Negan’s relative strengths and weaknesses actually do add up to an effective team, and the show’s blending of past and present themes make Dead City as watchable as the better TWD seasons. We also get to see the duo throw down in a completely different environment — obviously a grime-soaked, more potentially lethal one — where they must fight harder than they ever have to stay alive.

Speaking of which, physically, Maggie has never been stronger, but otherwise? This spinoff explores that, too. Anyone who’s lived through the horror of watching their husband be brutally murdered is naturally going to have some issues in life. Yet there’s a certain point where both the show and Maggie must also decide whether they will be defined by Negan’s misdeeds. And it’s that exploration that makes Dead City worth watching beyond the spectacle of the undead huddled masses, yearning to be free to eat human flesh. This is all so gross, I agree. If you could stomach The Walking Dead, you will dig what you see on Dead City.

AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ will premiere on April 18.

Two-term Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker gave a clever commencement speech at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, on June 12 based on quotes from “The Office.” Pritzker graduated from the Northwestern University School of Law, which was renamed in his honor in 2015.

Coincidentally, “The Office” star Steve Carell was in attendance at the speech because his daughter was among the graduates.

“Today, graduates, I want to invoke a seminal piece of twenty-first-century culture to help send you forward on the right path in life,” Pritzker said. “I am, of course, talking about the Emmy award-winning sitcom known as ‘The Office’—which in its two hundred episode run gave us all the wisdom you need to make your way in this world.”

His speech was based on six quotes from “The Office.” (The last one comes at the speech’s conclusion.)

“PowerPoints are the peacocks of the business world; all show, no meat.” – Dwight Schrute

“Having a baby is exhausting. Having two babies? That’s just mean.” – Jim Halpert

“I knew exactly what to do. But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do.” – Michael Scott

“I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” – Andy Bernard

A quote from Schrute inspired the most poignant moment in his speech: “Whenever I’m about to do something, I think ‘Would an idiot do that?’ and if they would, I do not do that thing.”

u201cu201cWhenever Iu2019m about to do something, I think u2018Would an idiot do that?u2019 and if they would, I do not do that thing.u201d u2013 Dwight SchrutennAnd what is the best way to spot an idiot? Look for the person who is cruel.u201d

— Governor JB Pritzker (@Governor JB Pritzker)
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“If you want to be successful in this world, you have to develop your own idiot detection system,” Pritzker said before joking that people who prefer the “Star Wars” prequel and sequel trilogies over the originals may be idiots. But then the speech took a serious, heartfelt turn where he talks about two approaches to human nature.

“The best way to spot an idiot? Look for the person who is cruel,” Pritzker says. “When we see someone who doesn’t look like us, or sound like us, or act like us, or love like us, or live like us—the first thought that crosses almost everyone’s brain is rooted in either fear or judgment or both. That’s evolution. We survived as a species by being suspicious of things we aren’t familiar with.”

“In order to be kind, we have to shut down that animal instinct and force our brain to travel a different pathway. Empathy and compassion are evolved states of being. They require the mental capacity to step past our most primal urges,” Pritzker continues. “I’m here to tell you that when someone’s path through this world is marked with acts of cruelty, they have failed the first test of an advanced society. They never forced their animal brain to evolve past its first instinct. They never forged new mental pathways to overcome their own instinctual fears. And so, their thinking and problem-solving will lack the imagination and creativity that the kindest people have in spades.”

u201cThe pressure was on, but I hope Steve and #NU2023 enjoyed my sharing of the wisdom we learned from The Office.u201d

— Governor JB Pritzker (@Governor JB Pritzker)
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Then, instead of showing the graduates how to detect the idiots in the world, he showed them how he finds the most intelligent.

“Over my many years in politics and business, I have found one thing to be universally true—the kindest person in the room is often the smartest,” Pritzker says.

Priztker’s observation may sound nice, but it is rooted in research. Numerous studies have found that people who have lower cognitive abilities—or, as Pritzker and Dwight Schrute would call them, “idiots”—are more likely to harbor bigoted beliefs about people who are different.

Pritzker concluded his speech by summarizing the lessons he learned from watching “The Office.”

“Be more substance than show. Set aside cruelty for kindness. Put one foot in front of the other even when you don’t know your way. And always try and appreciate the good old days when you are actually in them,” Pritzker said. “And remember what Dwight Schrute said, ‘You only live once? False! You live every day! You only die once.’”