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Self-love is a skill, and learning how to develop it from an early age can make a world of difference.

And this is exactly what the students at Brooklyn’s Excellence Boys Charter School are learning each and every day—one hype up at a time.

Performing Arts teacher Ivan Marrero had the idea to let the boys try saying an affirmation to themselves in the mirror, starting with the phrase “One thing I like about myself is…” Basically, anything that made them happy was fair game.

One by one, each student went up and praised their reflection, commending their eyes, their smile, their strength, their ability to climb, you name it. Marrero posted the heartwarming video online, where it immediately went viral.

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“It really showed the humility of our black and brown boys in a way that we don’t often see,” Principle Jaz Grant shared with Good Morning America. “As loving beings, loving themselves.” Granted explained that Excellence Boys serves 95% children of color.

“It is so important that our young black and brown boys know ‘you’re worthy, you are special, you are talented,’” from an early age, so that they’re “really ready to tackle and face the world,” he told GMA.

As it turns out, self-affirmations aren’t the only part of Excellence Boys’ confidence-boosting curriculum. Every morning, school faculty await the boys at the gate, where they take them to the cafeteria for morning motivation—basically a group hype-up.

In addition, each classroom is also named after a college or university. Grant stated that this strategy was specifically incorporated to “embed in our boys from day one that college is a place that they all have access to,” since many children of color “statistically fall to the bottom of the equity gap,” making it harder to pursue higher education. Each and every self-love ritual is designed to disrupt a prevailing narrative and set the boys on the path towards confidence and success.

Man, can you imagine a world where every kid learned how to engage in healthy self-talk? Where education touted not only hard work, but pure joy? Where school was not only a place to gain academic knowledge, but also learn crucial skills for emotional resiliency? The educators fighting to make that possibility a reality for young children are truly planting seeds for a brighter future for everyone.

Even though same-sex marriage became legal across the U.S. in 2015, some still refer to marriage between a man and a woman as “traditional marriage.” The fact that people need to differentiate between different types of marriage makes many feel the term is disparaging to LGBTQ people.

When people refer to traditional marriage, they’re usually describing the union of a cisgender man and woman that is rooted in love and equality, where both partners have the same rights under the law. However, according to a video by Matt Baume, this notion of traditional marriage looks a lot different than marriages of the past.

Baume is a YouTuber who makes videos about pop culture history from a queer perspective.

In his video “What’s the Definition of ‘Traditional Marriage’?” Baume points out that marriage isn’t exactly the “one man, one woman” story you’ve always heard.

For example, 4,000 years ago, in Mesopotamia, marriage was akin to slavery. During the Roman Empire, public displays of affection weren’t tolerated. Baume also notes that marrying for love is a relatively recent development, and it’s only been a few decades since interracial marriage was legal and married men and women began sharing the same rights.

The video discusses what it means to be married from a historical perspective, making it evident that the institution is constantly in flux. “Look, marriage has been a lot of things. But when you get down to it, it’s always been an agreement between people,” Baume says in the video. “And as people strived to improve themselves, to become a more fair and just society, the marriages they form improve with them.”

When Eric Weber, owner of The Slice in Evansville, Indiana, discovered that a man had been sleeping in a tent next to the dumpster behind his pizza restaurant, he had basically two choices: make him go or let him stay.

For Weber, the decision to let the man continue living behind his shop was an easy one. “I know it’s wrong just to kick a poor homeless guy down the street when you can provide care for him just as easily as anybody else can,” he told local CBS and Fox News affiliate 44News Evansville.

It’s not like Weber hasn’t attempted other solutions. He told the outlet that he had tried reaching out to other organizations to help for years, but always came upon dead ends. Knowing that forcing the man to leave would likely only cause more instability and worsen the situation, Weber felt like letting him stay was the only way to do the right thing.

“Either you kick him down the road until somebody complains—and then he gets kicked down the road again—or you deal with it,” Weber said.

The city’s planning commission, however, seems to feel differently. According to the institution, the man’s tent represents a structure that violates a city ordinance for land use. The fine for this type of offense starts at $500 and exponentially increases each day afterward. In less than a week, the fine will surge to over $7,000 a day.

Weber, who has already been given the initial fine, is determined to continue helping the man and feels that the commission’s values are misaligned.

“If you’re looking at the greater good in this situation—the aesthetics of the alley and taking care of a homeless person—which one makes more sense?” Weber said.

More than 580,000 people experienced homelessness in the United States on any given day in 2022, according to the 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report. The issue might be more prevalent in large cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, but states nationwide have seen a visible increase in homelessness within the last decade, particularly due to the rising cost of housing…what little housing is available, that is.

As the challenges facing homeless communities become more visible, cities are making better incremental efforts to help. Lawmakers in Oregon, for example, have proposed a bill that would decriminalize homeless camps and allow unhoused people to sue if they are forced to leave. Other towns are building “tiny home villages” to help clear out homeless encampments on the street.

Though Weber isn’t waiting around for help to do what he feels is right, he said that his own city has the means to provide better solutions for helping the man and others who are struggling. “If you give him food and water and a basic-shelter situation, it seems to me it could be done in an economical fashion that makes sense, and I definitely think the city could do it.”

Hopefully, Weber will not have to pay the price for having compassion.

On Tuesday, some two weeks after being kicked to the curb by Fox News, Tucker Carlson revealed he’d found a new home: the same place where Catturd lives. The host who’s been fired from three separate 24-hours news networks announced he was producing a version of his Fox News show for Twitter. Given that Carlson had reportedly had a secret meeting with the service’s owner, Elon Musk, over the weekend, it sounded like the two had worked out some kind of deal. Not so, Musk later said, adding that he’d be policing Carlson should he say anything false — which, you know, good luck with that.

As per Deadline, Musk claimed he and Tucker “have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever,” adding, “Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators.”

In his announcement video, Carlson had called Twitter the “last big” platform for unfettered free speech “remaining in the world.” Alas, it sounds like it won’t be as free as Tucker would like. On Fox News, Carlson regularly spread bald misinformation about matters such as the pandemic and the Jan. 6 riot. He even spread white supremacist conspiracy theories. He also used to sing the praises of “testicle tanning.”

But while Musk rarely deletes tweets (at least lately), misleading or incorrect posts do often receive annotations. Tucker, it seems, will be no different, with Musk vowing that should the firebrand say “anything misleading,” he’ll incur the wrath of Community Notes, the team responsible for affixing corrections to prominent posts boasting misinformation.

That said, Musk was stoked that someone as big as Tucker Carlson was not only a paid Twitter Blue subscriber, but was also creating content for him, for pay. He encouraged liberals to become “content creators” for him, just like Tucker.

So did Tucker Carlson potentially leave millions from his Fox News contract on the table — to say nothing of any legal fees and/or settlements he’ll incur should he and his old employers go head-to-head in court — so he could be just another schnook paying a service to give them free content? And will his videos be graffitied with reams of corrections written by overworked fact checkers? If so, this was surely not the outcome anyone imagined for the network’s erstwhile biggest star.

(Via Deadline)

Entering the fourth quarter of Monday’s Game 2 between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors, the Warriors held an 84-77 lead, looking to knot the series at 2-2. A quarter later, they’d fallen, 104-101, and now face a 3-1 deficit heading back home for Wednesday’s Game 5.

Aside from an offensive drought and some costly blunders, a primary reason behind the Warriors’ loss was Lonnie Walker IV exploding for 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting in the final frame. He made some crucial plays off the bounce and buried a three. After the game, Warriors forward Draymond Green discussed the loss on his podcast and gave credit to Walker for delivering in crucial moments.

“You tip your hat to Lonnie Walker. That’s a guy who’s been in and out of the lineup,” Green said. “On the biggest stage, he came through. We were right there at tying the series up 2-2 and he came through and he beat us.”

Walker signed with the Lakers last offseason and was a mainstay in the rotation roughly until they remade their roster at the trade deadline. He even started 32 games. But head coach Darvin Ham reinserted him into the rotation in Game 4 and he’s played a key role on both ends, helping Los Angeles stake a 3-1 lead, one win away from the Western Conference Finals, with no bigger stretch than his fourth quarter on Monday night.

In case you haven’t heard, the Writers Guild of America is striking. The strike has led to the postponement of Stranger Things, as well as the shutdown of Severance. The writers are looking for better pay and structural changes at both Hollywood studios and streamers.

Tuesday, May 9, the strike continued at the Netflix headquarters in Los Angeles, California. Totally unexpectedly, Imagine Dragons vocalist Dan Reynolds and guitarist Wayne Sermon showed up and gave an acoustic performance with only a microphone, a guitar, and a speaker. They performed songs like “Radioactive” and “Whatever It Takes.”

In an interview with a TMZ reporter, Reynolds explained why he wanted to support the movement: “We just want fair compensation for people who put in the time and are the incredible creators who drive so much of the entertainment that influences the world. And we have many friends also who are writers,” he said. “The writers are the ones that make all the magic happen.”

Over the weekend, Pete Davidson also showed up to a strike in Brooklyn with a stack of pizza boxes. “I got Spumoni’s for everyone,” Davidson said while giving out the food to those picketing. “Gotta support the writers, man! No shows without the writers.”

The Philadelphia 76ers were able to survive Game 4 of their series against the Boston Celtics on Sunday. Philly blew a fourth quarter lead, managed to come back and force overtime, where they once again fell behind before rallying, getting a clutch three by James Harden, and benefitted from some curious decision-making by the Celtics on the final possession of the game.

Instead of trying to elongate the game by going quickly, Boston decided to run the clock all the way down, and while Marcus Smart was able to make a three that would have won the game, the team took so much time off the clock that he wasn’t able to get the shot off in time. This led to plenty of debate about how the team approached this, especially if Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla should have called a timeout, something he has chosen to not do time and time again late in games over the course of the season.

Prior to Game 5 on Tuesday night, the Inside the NBA guys opined on all of this. You will be surprised to know that, primarily, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal got into it with one another, with both dudes agreeing on only one thing: the other person was wrong.

This is one of the best genres of Inside moments, as Chuck and Shaq could talk about this for two straight hours and not budge an inch on their position being correct. Hopefully they keep talking about it for the rest of the night so we can put this theory to the test.

Shania Twain has been having a big year. In February, the iconic country legend shared her new album Queen Of Me. Last month, Megan Thee Stallion presented her with the Equal Play Award at the 2023 CMT Music Awards. “I believe in an all-inclusive country music,” Twain proclaimed in her speech. “We’re a family.”

Swain isn’t done. She’s bringing her new material to the road on The Queen of Me Tour, which kicked off at the end of April and is about to come to the United States after several dates in Canada. The setlist has been packed with hits, from “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” to “Any Man of Mine.”

Find her setlist below, based on her performance in Alberta, Canada on May 5, according to setlist.fm.

1.” Waking Up Dreaming”
2. “Up!”
3. “Don’t Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)”
4. “I’m Gonna Getcha Good!”
5. “Roll Me on the River”
6. “You’re Still the One”
7. “Giddy Up!”
8. “Any Man of Mine”
9. “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?”
10. “Honey, I’m Home”
11. “Last Day of Summer”
12. “Inhale/Exhale Air”
13. “Rock This Country!”
14. “Nah! / She’s Not Just a Pretty Face / Waiter! Bring Me Water! / When / Thank You Baby! (for Makin’ Someday Come So Soon)”
15. “Pretty Liar”
16. “From This Moment On”
17. “Shout Out”
18. “Number One”
19. “Party for Two”
20. “Forever and for Always”
21. “Queen of Me”
22. “That Don’t Impress Me Much
23. “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”

Once upon a time, Pedro Pascal was a struggling actor suffering so much that Sarah Paulson had to help keep him afloat. Now look at him. The Chilean-born actor has developed the golden touch, starring in not one but two of the biggest shows on TV. He’s got a bunch of other high-profile projects in the pipeline (more on that later). Now he’s another.

As per Deadline, the Mandalorian and Last of Us star is teaming up with Zach Cregger for his follow-up to Barbarian, the twisty-turny and freaky horror hit that also did wonders for Justin Long. He’ll star in Weapons, and its title, that it’s Cregger’s first film since having a smash, and that it stars Pascal is all that’s being made public about it so far.

It’s yet another sweet get for the beloved actor, who first came to prominence on Netflix’s Narcos. He has other biggies on his docket, too. There’s Strange Way of Life, a Western short by legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar in which he and Ethan Hawke play lovers. He’ll be in Drive-Away Dolls, Ethan Coen’s solo directorial debut — his first film without his brother Joel (who himself made Macbeth without him). And he’s in that Gladiator sequel starring Paul Mescal. Thanks again, Sarah Paulson!

(Via Deadline)

A few months ago, Ashley Morgan Smithline, who previously accused Marilyn Manson (real name Brian Warner) of psychological, sexual, and physical abuse, rescinded her allegations. She claimed that actress Evan Rachel Wood pressured her into making them. Meanwhile, Manson sued Wood and her friend Illma Gore last year for spreading “malicious falsehood,” which included a forged FBI letter.

The defamation case has been ongoing since the premiere of Wood’s two-part HBO documentary Phoenix Rising about Manson, which featured graphic details of abuse. Today, May 9, it’s been reported that Wood won’t have to face the defamation claims.

The ruling reads: “The Court does not find that Plaintiff has demonstrated that Wood had ‘concurred’ in Gore’s alleged defamatory statements about Groupie with knowledge of their unlawful purpose, or that Wood intended to aid in achieving Gore’s objective of making such alleged defamatory statements.”

Upon Smithline accusing Wood of pressuring her into making allegations, a representative of Wood shared a statement. “Evan never pressured or manipulated Ashley,” it read. “It was Ashley who first contacted Evan about the abuse she had suffered. It’s unfortunate that the harassment and threats Ashley received after filing her federal lawsuit appear to have pressured her to change her testimony.”