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The summer of resurgent travel continues, and with that comes new experiences, epic adventures, and yes, probably a few delayed flights. Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or you’re hitting the road for the first time, every trip presents a slew of opportunities to enjoy, meals to indulge in, and challenges to overcome.

The ups and downs of travel are inevitable. In fact, they’re part of the mystery and magic of travel, in general. So to help you gear up for your next big trip, we spoke with Sebastian Modak, the Editor-At-Large at Lonely Planet.

We covered everything from his best packing hacks to budget travel tips to making friends in new places. Modak even shares his biggest travel mistake and why he travels in the first place. Check out the full conversation below, and catch Modak on the latest episode of You Gotta Go, an Uproxx Life travel series on Instagram Live, on Wednesday, July 13 at 12 pm PST.

You are extremely well-traveled, but there are tons of people who have never even gone out of the country. What would you say to someone who might be nervous about going abroad for the first time? Do you have any advice for them?

I think the first thing would be that it’s natural to be nervous. It’s a big step out of your comfort zone. And I think it’s okay to be nervous, especially with how inundated we are on social media with people who are just seemingly effortlessly trancing around the world and doing these incredibly cool experiences. It can feel intimidating or offputting when you’re doing your first international trip, and you can be pretty nervous about it. Explore the limits of your comfort zone and try not to step too far out of it on your first trip. If you’re an introvert and you’re more comfortable alone, maybe you try to do a more nature-based trip outside of the country.

If you’re the opposite, maybe you go to another big city, like the one that you live in and you explore that way, but you’re taking a smaller step than it might be if you’re living in a small town in Montana and you decide to go to Tokyo as your first international trip. It’s very different. And some people might want that. So it really depends on what you’re looking for. One of the things that I believe in, and that Lonely Planet really believes in and we’ve always put forward, is that there are an infinite variety of types of travelers. It can take a while to figure out who you are. So I would say, if you’re a little bit nervous about it, try doing something closer to your comfort zone. That doesn’t necessarily need to mean closer to home. I’m not saying go to Canada if you’re in the US and it’s your first international trip. I’m just saying in terms of the type of things you’re looking for and the type of environment you want to be in. Think about that as a stepping stone in terms of finding something a little closer to home.

What would be your top tips for making the absolute most out of every trip, whether that’s international or domestic, but without burning yourself out?

It’s easy to burn out. Especially when you’re starting out traveling internationally, you get so excited. You feel like you gotta pack in the day with a jam-packed itinerary — you’re gonna have breakfast here, you’re gonna go to this museum and have lunch here — and you think you need to have everything figured out. My biggest piece of advice would be to go with the flow and don’t be afraid to spend two hours sitting at a cafe, watching the world go by. Give yourself the space to really be in a place and experience it beyond just a list of things to do.

Social media and stuff are very easy to get lost in. I need to get as much content as possible. I need to show people I’m doing all this cool stuff. But I think it’s important to put the camera down, put the phone down and just be for a little while. I mean, even I who do this for a living when I’m traveling somewhere new and I have to get photos and videos and be interviewing people and doing all these things, I’ll still give myself like four hours where I leave the camera at the hotel room. I leave the phone in my pocket and I just wander around and maybe I post up at a bar and talk to a couple of strangers. Maybe I go to a bookshop. Maybe I just walk aimlessly without really knowing where I’m going. I think that’s such a good way to not burn out is reminding yourself that you’re having this new experience, but you’re also not gonna experience it unless you give yourself a space to experience it. I find it’s really important to be intentional about that and not get carried away with a jampacked itinerary and checklists and posting up a storm on Instagram.

What about really getting to know the culture and history of a specific destination? What are your techniques there?

I think one of the main things I’ve learned, and I say this as a travel journalist for Lonely Planet where our job is to know things, is that the first step is to realize how little you know. I think oftentimes we go in having done our research, we’ve read all the books, we’ve got a list of things to do. We’ve read the history, maybe we’ve even read some novels from that country, and we go with those preconceptions. But I think if you’re gonna open yourself up to the culture, really learn about it, the first step is admitting your own ignorance. You’re never gonna know about a place to the level of someone who’s born and raised there. Who’s lived it every day, who is from there. You’re never gonna know a place the same way they do.

Admitting that can be tough for experienced travelers or globetrotters, but I think admitting that is the first step to asking the right questions and meeting people. If you’re curious and you wanna know about a place, you have to first admit that you don’t know anything. I think that’s really hard to do, especially the more traveled you are. I’m not trying to say anything bad about travelers in general, but I think the more we travel, the more we’re like, “oh, I got this. I know how to navigate an airport. I know how to live. I’ve negotiated with taxi drivers. I’m doing all these things. I’m good. I got this. I know my way around.” But I think the first step to really engaging with a place and immersing yourself in it is admitting how little you do know.

No matter how much you travel or how well experienced you are, things can go wrong when you’re on the road. Can you share a story about your own biggest travel mistake and what you learned from it?

I think a big and complicated one is identifying your threshold for risk. We associate travel with risk. You’re taking a risk. The moment you step out of your comfort zone, the moment you step out from home. Of course, there’s a lot you can use do to minimize that risk, right? You can do your reading and know about some safety concerns or whatever else, but you’re still taking a risk. The moment you’re going into a place where maybe you don’t speak a language, you don’t know your way around, where you’re alone, which I think is a good thing. I think it’s important to take those risks. And I think what’s important is figuring out what your own personal threshold for risk is.

I think depends on so many factors. You know, I’ve been able to do things as a straight dude that I think a lot of people can’t. There are just a lot of things you gotta take into consideration when you’re traveling in terms of identity and prejudices and everything else. But I’ve also crossed that threshold a few times in different ways. I remember one time when I was trying to get to this place in Ontario, a rural part of Ontario on Lake Superior. I had to drive from Detroit and it was the middle of winter and I just got slammed by this crazy winter storm. Oh, wow. And I kept driving and I was like, “you know what? This is part of the adventure. I just gotta get there tonight. ”

And I drove for 12 hours through white-out conditions. I was the only one on the roads. When I got to the other side, even the Canadians who know a thing or two about driving in the snow were like, “you drove through that, really? Probably shouldn’t have done that.” There was a real wake-up call for me where I was like, oh, damn, you’re right. To be alone on those roads at two in the morning not being able to see anything and kind of sliding my way across the highway. It was just a moment of realizing I’m not invincible. And I had long associated travel with taking these big risks. And every once in a while you gotta pull the reins a little bit and be like, okay, that was too much.

Now I had a better understanding of what I am and what I’m not comfortable with doing. So the next time this comes around, I can make a more informed choice. So that would be one of my biggest learnings is that your threshold for risk is always gonna be different. I think this is also something that can come up when you’re traveling with other people, especially friends who maybe have a different threshold than you do and all of a sudden they’re trying to do something that maybe you’re not comfortable with and you feel pressured into it or whatever else. I think it’s very important to know what you’re comfortable with and what you’re not comfortable with. I want to push myself and I wanna push myself with my own boundaries and limitations. It’s a learning process. It’s a give-and-take process that takes time, takes repeated travel experiences to realize kind of where you fall on things.

What are a few of your best money-saving hacks for the budget traveler?

There are a lot of resources out there. I mean, Lonely Planet being a good one. We’ve always been in the business of budget travel as well as understanding that people have different ideas for travel. We kind of started really as a resource for backpackers, and I think while we’ve expanded, we’re still very much interested in that form of travel. But beyond that, the answer is always the more local you go, the cheaper things are gonna be. If you’re going into a place, you have to understand that people live there, right? Not everyone there is on vacation. People live there, they go out to eat on their lunch break. They go out for drinks at the end of the day with friends, and they do things that you might also want to do, but they’ll do it in a much more affordable way than if you’re just following the tourism hit list.

So follow the locals’ lead. Ask the questions. You’ll find pretty quickly that there’s this incredible little noodle stock that a lot of people go to for a $3 bowl of noodles when the Four Seasons down the street is doing the same bowl of noodles for $25. Or you’ll get invited out for drinks with people who show you the local spots instead of the cocktail bar that made it on the “top 10 bars in the world” list because of some crazy molecular mixology that they do. I’m not trying to hate on the places that are popular with tourists because they are popular for a reason. But I think especially if you’re budget conscious, your best bet is figuring out what locals do, where locals go, where they eat, where they drink, and where they spend their time. They’re all not functioning with vacation budgets, they’re functioning with life budgets. They’re functioning in their daily life.

What’s something that comes in handy while traveling, but that most people probably don’t think about packing?

It’s a great question. I think this is well-celebrated among people who travel often, but I think it’s can be a revelation for those who are kind of just getting their feet wet, so to speak. And that is packing cubes. It’s such a game-changer. And I am like the least organized person on earth in general, but having my stuff packed away in cubes is just a game-changer in terms of not leaving things behind because you know where everything lives and saving space because you have it all kind of compressed into compartments. That really opened up the whole world of more efficient travel for me when I started using packing cubes. So that’s one thing that I think people overlook and don’t necessarily go for.

Another thing I’ve talked endlessly about over the years for travel is merino wool. Merino wool is this fabric that’s a type of wool and they make a lot of performance gear out of it, like shirts and socks. But the stuff is magic. I swear to you, it keeps you warm when it’s cold, it cools you down when it’s hot. It has moisture-wicking properties and it’s all-natural. I traveled the world for a full year and I had like three shirts in my bag and they were all merino wool and that’s all I needed. So that is also a game-changer. Packing cubes and merino wool. I will spread that gospel on my dying days.

How do you make an ultra-long flight ess miserable?

There’s no sure way. And I think I’ve heard all the good advice from doctors and stuff where it’s like, “stay hydrated, wear compression socks, make sure to get up and move around and walk a few laps of the plane every 20 minutes. All that stuff is probably true, but also if you need two or three glasses of wine just to fall asleep and get through the next 12 hours, do it. I follow some of that advice. I definitely gotta keep moving. I’m six-foot-two, and being in an economy class seat for 17 hours can be pretty rough on the body. So getting up and moving around I think is super important. But if you follow all the advice of every doctor out there, it can end up feeling even less enjoyable because you feel like you’re following this military routine to get through this experience.

But my answer to that question is more like whatever is gonna make you feel less miserable in the moment, do that. So if you need to download a show so you can binge-watch something for 12 hours even though the conventional wisdom is you should be sleeping to get on the right time schedule, do that. If you need a glass of wine or two. do that. I think it’s whatever’s gonna make you feel most comfortable and happiest. If you have to suffer a little bit on the other side and take an extra nap, do that. I don’t ascribe to being as healthy as possible, right? Do all these right things and drink four gallons of beat juice before you get on the plane or whatever. I think that’s overthinking it a bit. The answer should be whatever makes you feel happiest, do that because it can be a pretty miserable experience. And then also, yes, it can be a miserable experience, but just remind yourself how lucky you are.

In this metal tube shooting through the air, going across the world. You’re gonna go to the other side and just suddenly immerse yourself in this incredible new culture and meet these incredibly new people and see this incredible planet you live on. Just remind yourself of that. When there’s a baby screaming behind you and someone’s foot is up on the seat next to you and you’re feeling miserable, just put things into perspective.

So once you actually get to your destination, specifically for solo travelers, you can often find yourself getting a little bit lonely. Do you have any techniques for making friends on the road?

My number one tip, and I said this before but in another context, is to put the damn phone away. I think it’s like if you’re sitting at a bar in a new city and you’re staring at your phone because you’re lonely and you want to use that social crutch to scroll Instagram or whatever, no one’s gonna talk to you cause you look busy. You look like you’re doing something, even if you’re really not. You’re not comfortable, you know, being alone somewhere. No one’s gonna talk to you. As soon as you put that phone down and you just look up and look around, someone’s probably gonna say hi. And the next thing you know, you’re meeting a local. I’ve literally had experiences where I’ve done that at a cafe or a bar or in a park.

And next thing I know I’m being invited to someone’s family’s home for dinner because they’re so excited that I’ve decided as a solo traveler to come to their part of the world. All it took for me was to just be present and not be so reliant on all of the social crutches that people tend to use, myself included. Being available is my number one tip. Of course, there are instances where maybe you’re in an uncomfortable situation and you need a way out. Then, yeah, totally take out the phone and pretend you have a phone call or do whatever you need to do to get out of it. But I think in general, I tend to immediately reach for my phone or a book or a notebook or whatever, just something to keep my mind occupied. But then you’re signaling that you’re off-limits, that you’re busy doing something else.

While if you just sit and be, I think a lot of people will come to you. Then, I think the next step is also something I kind of mentioned earlier, which is being intellectually available and curious by asking questions and by showing interest in the place that you’re in and the culture that you’re immersed in. Come in with as few preconceptions as possible and instead just come in with a very open mind. I think the rest will flow because that’s what’s gonna come across from that is that you’re just a good hand who likes to learn. And so next thing you know, you’ve made a new friend. It’s really just about what you put out into the universe, and as soon as you show that you’re interested, a lot flows from there. At least in my experience. That’s how I’ve met people.

I agree. I would argue that some of my very best travel experiences come from just being alone and making friends with the locals around me. It definitely leads to unique opportunities. So, how do you feel about Lonely Planet’s legacy and how it has shaped the common travel routes and trails around the world.

For me personally, it’s a real honor to have joined the team because I, like so many people, grew up on Lonely Planet. I mean, when I was traveling as a kid, which I did a lot extensively because my parents were living around the world, my mom always had a Lonely Planet book wherever place we were going and would read from it. That legacy definitely speaks to me in a lot of ways. But honestly, what most excites me is what we’re doing now and what’s looking ahead. I kind of mentioned this earlier, but I think one of the biggest things that I think we’re trying to do as we navigate a new landscape of travel that we’re all trying to figure out is getting past the “what” of travel, which we’ve always done very well. Which is like where to eat, where to stay, what to do, all these things.

But I think what we’re starting to really dip our toes into and what we’re starting to really lean into is getting at the “why” of travel and the “how” of travel. It’s like, why are we even leaving our homes in the first place? And how are we interacting with places once we’re there? I think that’s gonna be the future of conversations around travel and that’s at least what’s in front of my mind. How do we be more responsible travelers? How do we be more conscious of our impact as travelers? I love that all your questions here were about meeting people and engaging with places and things like that because that really is, I think, the answer to why we travel. That’s what we’re trying to do, to really get into it with features that we’re working on and assigning. When we launched our best travel campaign earlier this year, it was the same kind of thing.

We really had to have a reason why each of these places was on the list. I think that’s a great direction for travel to be going into, just thinking more critically. There’s nothing wrong with sitting on a beach with a cocktail and a good book and relaxing, but that can’t be the be-all and end-all of travel. The word vacation comes from vacating, right? We’re not just trying to unplug. We’re also trying to plug in. That’s really where Lonely Planet is headed. That’s what I’m excited about is the stories that we get to tell through that.

Well, now I’m curious, what is your why? Why did you start traveling and why do you continue to travel?

I think there are two main things that I’ve come to realize about why I travel. One is to just have my mind blown. To feel my depth, the limits of my perception to be broken open by the beauty of this world and by like the fragility of it and what we have left of it — and the importance to preserve that. I think the main one is people…I’ve been to dozens and dozens of countries around the world. I’ve had these incredible experiences. I’ve seen solar eclipses and I’ve scuba-dived with dolphins and I’ve done all these amazing things. But when I think back to the travel experiences that really changed me, that really reoriented my mind, that really threw me for a loop, I always say good people. It’s always the people I met.

It’s, you know, the guy I met who surprised me with this drive across town. The next thing we knew, I was seeing this tradition that not a lot of tourists get to see because he just trusted me with that. Or the woman in Denmark who invited me to her home. And next thing I knew, I felt like I was part of this family in the middle of nowhere in Denmark. These experiences. That’s what I think of when I think back to my most formative travel moments.

So that’s why I travel now is to have more of those moments — those moments of connection, those moments where I could be talking to a 75-year-old who grew up in Soviet Russia, and we just have completely different world views, but we’re sharing a bottle of grappa and laughing and making jokes and having a good time. That’s why I travel. And I think that’s what I’ve learned over the years. I don’t think that was always the case. You know, I was definitely chasing other things at other times. I was chasing bragging nights. I was chasing good photos. I was chasing all these things that I think we do travel for sometimes. I realized, “Hey, wait. What are the moments that really make me want to go back out there and travel more?” And they all involve other people. So that’s my firm answer on that.

I think as travelers, it’s important to have those moments of reflection where we look back and really consider why we do what we do.

I think we’re in a moment where more of us are doing that. I think the last two years have been absolutely disrupted in that sense, where we’ve been given a moment where we literally couldn’t travel. I definitely don’t have the impression that all of a sudden all these enlightened travelers are gonna be more intentional about our decisions. But I do think for a lot of people, it gave the opportunity to be self-reflective and self-critical about travel. We didn’t always have the opportunity before because we were moving so fast and after each trip, we were booking the next. We weren’t even thinking about why the hell we were doing it. I think the last two years have been like hitting the pause and the reset button in that sense. I think it’s no coincidence that in the last few years, Lonely Planet has kind of reoriented itself and started thinking about those questions as well. We’re not just doing that in isolation. Hopefully, we’re doing that because a lot of people are having those same thoughts and the same conversation.

It’s been a minute since we last dropped a React Like You Know video, so you know we had to come back strong. Not only do we have a new panel featuring Uproxx cover star Coi Leray and fan favorites like ASAP Tyy, BIA, Kali, and Kidd Kenn, but we’ve given our millennials/Gen Zers an absolute classic video to rock with: Junior Mafia’s “Get Money” featuring The Notorious B.I.G. and Lil Kim.

For some readers, it might be mind-boggling to realize that many of today’s rappers weren’t even born yet when Biggie was shot to death in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997. But his impact still reverberates through their lives and music — even if some of them aren’t even aware of it. The same can be said of Lil Kim, whose influence is one of the common threads in the recent resurgence of female talent in the hip-hop world.

Coi even acknowledges as much, nodding to her own homage to one of Kim’s iconic outfits in her recent Uproxx cover shoot. Meanwhile, Lakeyah sums it up best: “She definitely opened doors for girls like me,” she explains. “She a tough rapper and she owns her sexuality. She knew she was a sexy bitch.” Of course, for a generation that wasn’t raised on the same MTV as the rappers whose videos they’re watching, some of the aesthetics are certainly eye-opening.

When Uproxx’s Cherise Johnson asks whether the rappers back then were raunchier than the ones today, Kidd Kenn wholeheartedly disagrees. “The girls today are disgusting,” he jokes. “I’m one of the girls.”

You can watch our panel react to the “Get Money” video above.

Disclaimer: While all of the products recommended here were chosen independently by our editorial staff, Uproxx may receive payment to direct readers to certain retail vendors who are offering these products for purchase.

Welcome to SNX DLX, your weekly roundup of the best sneakers to hit the internet. This week’s list has one foot in the past and one in the future. For every envelope-pushing design there is a revamped classic following close behind. It’s the first SNX we’ve put together that will appeal to both fans of futuristic footwear and people looking for yet another dope Dunk or Air Max to add to their collections.

Whether you’re looking for a sustainable sneaker ala Nike’s Space Hippie line or you want to add a forgotten classic to your collection like Social Status’ Air Max Penny 1, we’ve got you covered! This week’s highlight is hands down the Maison Château Rouge Jordan II and if the thought of a II being the best release leads you to assume this week must be lacking the good stuff, wake up — we’re living in the Air Jordan II renaissance. It’s a beautiful thing!

The last couple of weeks SNX has been a bit on the bloated side but we’re back with a tight eight this go-around. Here are this week’s best sneaker drops, let’s dive in!

Women’s Nike Space Hippie 04 Refresh Volt

Since Nike’s launch of the Space Hippie collection, we’ve been singing the praises of this creatively sustainable line but it’s been a minute since we’ve seen a notable drop in this series. That changes this week with this new Refresh Volt colorway of the 04.

The Refresh Volt 04 features a lightweight and stretchy upper made from Nike’s proprietary “Space Waste Yarn,” a material made from old plastic bottles, clothes, and yarn scraps. Rounding out the design is a speckled foam midsole and a heavy traction Grind outsole. It looks kind of like trash, admittedly, but it takes its wasteland origins and makes it a part of the design, and that’s cool!

The Women’s Space Hippie 04 Refresh Volt is set to drop on July 13th for a retail price of $130. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Women’s Nike Dunk Low Teal Zeal

It’s never a bad week to buy a pair of Dunks, especially when Nike is dropping something as fire as the Teal Zeal. Featuring washed teal and kumquat colorway atop a tumbled leather upper, this sneaker exudes warmth and retro 80s style. It’s in keeping with modern sneaker tastes, while still looking like something one of the kids from Stranger Things might’ve rocked.

The Women’s Nike Dunk Low Teal Zeal is set to drop on July 13th for a retail price of $110. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT and Flight Club.

Converse x DRKSHDW TURBODRK Chuck 70

In typical Rick Owens fashion, this Converse collaboration is a bit nuts. Taking reference from some of Owens DRKSHDW designs, this limited run of Chucks features an altered upper with distorted design lines, a tall tongue, DRKSHDW branding, and a shimmering colorway. It looks, like most Rick Owens designs, like something a vampire obsessed with clubbing in Hollywood would wear.

The high-top version features a glossy black colorway, while the low-top goes metallic. It’s weird, but if you’re a Rick Owens fan, this delivers exactly what you want it to.

The Converse x DRKSHDW TURBODRK Chuck 70 High and Low are set to drop on July 13th for a retail price of $170 and $110 respectively. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Nike Jordan Series Mid x Maison Château Rouge Sail

Nike and Paris label Maison Château Rouge have teamed up for a two-sneaker collection and they’re both *chef’s kiss*. It’s not every day that a non-numbered Jordan makes SNX (in fact, it’s never happened) but it’s impossible to look at this Jordan Series Mid and not fall in love. Featuring a vintage basketball sneaker design, this drop features a mid-top silhouette with a textured leather upper, see-saw edging, and “United Youth International” branding on the heel.

The Nike Jordan Series Mid x Maison Château Rouge Sail is set to drop on July 14th for a retail price of $110. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT.

Nike Air Jordan II x Maison Château Rouge Orange and Sail

Go ahead, scoop that jaw off the floor. As if the first Maison Château Rouge collaboration wasn’t enough, this take on the Jordan II is easily one of the best drops of the year. The detailing across the upper and the overall high-end aesthetic is sophisticated and luxurious, everything the Jordan II was conceptualized to be.

Is this a sneaker, or an art piece? Cop this if you can.

The NIKE AIR Jordan 2 x Maison Château Rouge Orange and Sail is set to drop on July 14th for a retail price of $225. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

NIKE AIR Max 97 Coconut Milk and Black

If the Maison Château feels too posh don’t worry, Nike is still dropping grungey dad shoes as well, like this week’s Coconut Milk and Black Air Max 97. Featuring a slightly yellowed upper and a worn aesthetic, the Coconut Milk and Black might not be the most exciting release of the week, but it captures the general vibe of the shoe excellently.

You want your Air Max 97s to look a little worse for wear, and the Coconut Milk and Black captures that look straight out of the box.

The NIKE AIR Max 97 Coconut Milk and Black is set to drop on July 15th for a retail price of $185. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

New Balance MADE in USA 990v3 Raw Amethyst

The Stray Rats collaboration that never was! Last year, Stray Rats and New Balanced teamed up and dropped a 991 in the brand’s typical colorway, a mix of purple and nauseating green tones. It was a dope release, but this week’s 990v3 is even better. Sure, it’s not actually a Stray Rats collaboration, the brand has nothing to do with it, but that mix of purple across the upper and the overall attention to detail recalls the brand in the best ways.

Featuring a hairy suede and mesh upper, the Raw Amethyst features pig suede and mesh accents, a synthetic suede sicklier, and an ENCAP midsole.

The New Balance MADE in USA 990v3 Raw Amethyst is set to drop on July 15th for a retail price of $199.99. Pick up a pair at the New Balance webstore.

Social Status x Nike Air Max Penny 1 Recess

In the brand’s best collaboration of the week, Nike has teamed up with Atlanta retailer Social Status for a revamp of the Air Max Penny 1. The Penny 1 is the latest silhouette to be reintroduced from the Nike archives, and Social Status has given the sneaker two new colorways with interchangeable velcro swooshes.

The concept is simple, like the School Lunch series, Social Status looks to youth for this design, serving as a celebration of your favorite recess activity, be it baseball, basketball, football, tennis, or golf (who is playing golf at recess?) with each sport getting its own special swoosh. One shoe, five swooshes!

Interchangeable swooshes might be an outplayed gimmick, but Social Status nails it. It might not be as great as the duo’s previous collaboration, but it’s a definite highlight of the week.

The Social Status x NIKE AIR Max Penny 1 Recess is set to drop on July 15th for a retail price of $190. Pick up a pair via the Social Status webstore or retail location.

Lately, it hasn’t been entirely clear where things stand with Migos. Rumors started in May that the group was breaking up, and later that month, Quavo And Takeoff teamed up for an Offset-less single, “Hotel Lobby.” Then, in June, Migos pulled out of a scheduled performance at Governors Ball.

The way Quavo tells it, though, Migos is going to be alright. In a new GQ interview, he explained that the group members’ solo activities outside of the group serve to make the trio stronger, both as individuals and as a unit.

Quavo said when it comes to the first decade of Migos, “It was all about Migos, Migos, Migos. The three of us.” He continued, “I feel like every group member has to establish themselves. Their own body of work. If not, you start losing members.” He also threw in a football metaphor, adding, “I’m a quarterback in life, but now that I want it, I’m just going to show you.”

The rapper also said he’s looking to really cultivate an acting career for himself, noting, “I kind of want to be like an Ice Cube when it comes to rapping and acting. I don’t think people realize what that man did. He did it culturally in the music and with the movies. I feel like that’s what the world’s missing right now.”

Check out the full feature here.

After delivering an epic and well-received third season of The Boys that saw Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy and Antony Starr’s Homelander deliver command performances, showrunner Eric Kripke has been opening up about making the wildly satirical series. In a wide-ranging interview that tackled everything from far-right fans only just now realizing Homelander is the bad guy to his days of dealing with an unwieldy fandom on Supernatural, Kripke fired off a profane shot at an annoying trend in the world of streaming shows.

While Kripke has a network TV background, a lot of filmmakers coming into the streaming space do not, which often leads to proclamations that they’re not making a show, they’re making an “8-10 hour movie. Kripke is not here for it. Via Vulture:

They’re more comfortable with the idea that they could give you ten hours where nothing happens until the eighth hour. That drives me fucking nuts, personally. As a network guy who had to get you people interested for 22 fucking hours a year, I didn’t get the benefit of, “Oh, just hang in there and don’t worry. The critics will tell you that by episode eight, shit really hits the fan.” Or anyone who says, “Well, what I’m really making is a ten-hour movie.” Fuck you! No you’re not! Make a TV show.

Of course, Kripke’s remarks could be read as a thinly-veiled barb at Stranger Things, which just delivered a fourth season with some crazy long episodes. However, expanding runtimes aside, that series has been careful to make each episode a distinct chapter in a longer story. The more likely culprit is over at Disney+ where shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Marvel series have been touted by their creative teams as longer versions of their theatrical siblings. It’s made some for some uneven watching experiences that, as Kripke said, feel like someone just kept filling a two-hour movie with unnecessary padding. Show a little respect for your audience’s time, people!

(Via Vulture)

Ahead of her upcoming EP, Inhuman, Australian singer Gordi has dropped the project’s title track. Feeling burdened by the weight of the world, Gordi shares her feelings of exhaustion on her new track, over forlorn guitar loops, emulating the repetitive day-to-day routine, from which she grows weary.

When writing the song, Gordi took inspiration from her time as a healthcare worker.

“When I wrote ‘Inhuman,’ I was thinking about the blackened roadsides on my drive from Sydney to Lismore in 2019,” she said in a statement. “I had to turn back halfway because the fires were too out of control. I was supposed to start work in Lismore Hospital on the Monday where I would meet countless patients who couldn’t be discharged because their homes had been destroyed. Hearing one story after the next made me numb, and being numb to that sort of tragedy feels like forgetting to be human.”

The song’s video, directed by Triana Hernandez, takes us through a day in Gordi’s life, as she eats cereal in the morning with a jumbo-sized spoon, eats spaghetti in her work office, and gets followed by a giant lobster as she tries to go home.

“I pictured a giant red lobster — stalking me until eventually, I couldn’t ignore it anymore,” said Gordi of her conception for the video.

Check out “Inhuman” above.

Inhuman is out 8/19 via Jagujagwar. Pre-save it here.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an ever-expanding canvas of storytelling, and that sense of expansion has never felt more tangible than it does right now. With shows like Ms. Marvel hitting Disney+, films like Blade on the horizon, and Kang the Conqueror building a presence as a major new villain, the phase of the MCU that’s followed The Infinity Saga has so far been built on near-constant growth and change. And that doesn’t seem to be letting up any time soon.

The good news there, of course, is that there’s no shortage of source material lying around at Marvel Comics. But some comics are better suited to the MCU than others, so which ones should make the leap next? There are plenty of possibilities, but we’ve narrowed it down to five stories that make a lot of sense on the MCU’s current trajectory, from new superteams to a promising continuation of a solo story.

“Solve Everything”
Fantastic Four #570-572

The Fantastic Four are on their way to the MCU, even if we don’t know exactly when they’ll turn up just yet. That means a search for the right way to introduce Marvel’s First Family to their new big-screen home, and while there are a lot of possibilities, the story that launched writer Jonathan Hickman’s legendary run with the team seems like a great place to start.

Rather than rehashing the origin story, “Solve Everything” picks up on the FF when they’re already an established superteam, and Reed Richards is troubled not by what they have achieved, but where they’ve come up short. In an effort to combat this, he uses a transdimensional bridge in his top-secret lab to discover The Council, a gathering of all the Reed Richards from across the multiverse who work together to…well, solve all the problems of every universe. But of course, you can never really fix everything without paying a price.

The intellectual angst and hubris of Mr. Fantastic is a centerpiece not just of some of the best Fantastic Four stories, but some of the best Marvel stories period. This arc is a great showcase for that, which could also serve as a launchpad for the entire team with a few tweaks in the right places. Plus, Hickman’s famous knack for plotting and grand-scale worldbuilding means there are plenty of sequel opportunities built right into the narrative.

The Order

In the wake of the Civil War comics event, Marvel introduced “The Initiative,” an overarching story conceit in which every state in America would get its own government-regulated superhero team, providing a superstructure for the hero community backed by an attempt at nationwide accountability. The Order, by writer Matt Fraction and artist Barry Kitson, presents California’s chosen superteam, backed by Stark Industries funding and a PR team constantly working overtime to hold things together.

Though its tenure at Marvel Comics was ultimately short, the premise at the core of The Order is fascinating, particularly in the context of a media landscape that includes satirical shows like The Boys. This is the story of a group of handpicked superheroes trying to live up to the impossible standards of the public, fighting personal battles alongside the ones that involve supervillains, and just trying to figure out what it means to be a new hero in a world that already includes Iron Man and Thor. A series built around that idea, perhaps with Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan around to supervise things, would be a blast.

Inhumans Vol. 2

In the late 1990s, Marvel launched the “Marvel Knights” imprint in an effort to reinvigorate sales through self-contained, prestige stories helmed by major creative teams. Among the stories to come out of the line, alongside groundbreaking new runs on Daredevil and Punisher, was Inhumans, a 12-issue series from writer Paul Jenkins and artist Jae Lee which aimed to re-introduce one of Marvel’s strangest super-teams.

Unfolding largely within the confines of their hidden city of Attilan, Inhumans navigates the strange political, genetic, and personal implications of life in the Inhuman royal family even as the larger world threatens to finally invade the isolationist space they’ve carved out for themselves. If you’ve never read an Inhumans comic before, it’s a great introduction that’s part Game of Thrones, part Dune, and all Marvel Comics.

The Inhumans have already received the live-action treatment in the form of a short-lived, poorly received ABC TV series, but the inclusion of Black Bolt in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness suggests they might be primed for an MCU comeback, and this remarkable series could be the story to help launch it.

Hawkeye Vol. 5

After Matt Fraction’s now-iconic Hawkeye run made her into a standalone star within Marvel Comics, Kate Bishop got her own volume of stories under the guidance of writer Kelly Thompson in 2016. Titled simply Hawkeye, the book followed Kate’s adventures as she attempted to get a foothold as a private investigator on her own in Los Angeles. What begins with a case of trying to track down a collegiate sex creep soon leads to a team-up with Jessica Jones, a run-in with Madame Masque, and much more mayhem in the City of Angels.

Now that Kate Bishop is established in the MCU via the Hawkeye TV show, it makes sense for her to find more story avenues, particularly as the non-superpowered, espionage-heavy side of the universe keeps growing. Sending her to the West Coast for a change of scenery could be just the thing to keep her story rolling, and this series’ blend of action, comedy, and heart sets the perfect tone for Kate’s next chapter.

“Style > Substance”
Young Avengers Vol. 2 #1-5

Speaking of Kate Bishop’s next chapter, it feels like Marvel fans can’t stop talking about the potential of a Young Avengers team forming up in the MCU somewhere in the near future. Many of the ingredients – including Kate, America Chavez, Kid Loki, and Elijah Bradley – have already been introduced to make the team eventually happen, and the idea of legacy heroes picking up after the current generation of Avengers feels like it has a ton of potential, especially after the success of shows like Hawkeye. So, how do you make that story work in the MCU?

Well, you could start with the first arc of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s masterpiece Young Avengers run, which finds the team coming together for a new adventure and fighting a creature that has the ability to assume the identities of all of their parents with terrifying, shapeshifting fury. It’s a comic that feels anything but formulaic, and its tonal dexterity and focus on great character moments could turn it into a hit on the big or small screens for Marvel Studios.

In 1993, Steven Spielberg released Jurassic Park, which was briefly the highest-grossing movie of all-time, and Schindler’s List, which won Best Picture. Kevin Smith’s 2022 is kind of like that, if you replaced Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List with Clerks III and KillRoy Was Here. You’re probably familiar with the former, but the latter made some history: KillRoy Was Here is the first movie “minted” as an NFT.

“This horror anthology stars [Jason Mewes], [Chris Jericho], [Harley Quinn Smith], and more in twisted tales of a local legend who murders anyone who’d hurt a kid! [Robert Kurtzman MUFX] created KillRoy as well as all the bloody gags (like the fake blade in Harley’s face) in my homage to #creepshow and #talesfromthedarkside that I shot before and after my heart attack! KillRoy is making minor history today as the first film minted as an NFT!” Smith wrote on Instagram. It’s available on the KillRoy Was Here website.

The title character is based on this weird lil’ guy that’s been around since the 1940s. It’s been called the first meme in history (“From the holds of the ships to the sides of the trucks to the walls of bathrooms and in school cafeterias, this one iconic phrase attained its heights of popularity in seemingly every place across the globe,” Medium writes), and now the doodle is the first NFT film. What a legacy.

(Via Instagram/Kevin Smith)

Lauren Boebert is taking a page out of Tammy Wynette’s book by standing by her man, husband-of-15-years Jayson Boebert, by blaming her spouse’s 2007 arrest for public indecency and lewd behavior—after he allegedly whipped his dick out at a bowling alley—on one of the women who were subjected to it.

Boebert—who was just 17 years old at the time—was there, and gave a statement to police; she claimed to have not seen him expose herself.

As Raw Story reports, Boebert wrote about the now-infamous incident in her new book, the surely thrilling My American Life. But in Lauren’s retelling of the story, the blame for Jayson’s lewd act rests squarely on one of the women involved. All Jayson was doing was attempting to cozy up to Lauren’s stepfather. As any young man looking to go a-courtin’ does, Jayson invited Lauren’s stepdad to meet up at the local bowling alley, which Boebert—who was just a teen at the time—claims is where the trouble began:

The female bartender flirted with Jayson, having heard previously from his friends what a catch he’d be. They even teased her by saying he’d gotten a great tattoo in a private area, which made her curious, so she pressed Jayson to show it to her right there at the bar. He ignored her and was embarrassed she was doing it in front of my stepfather. She wouldn’t stop.

According to Boebert, her future husband was uncomfortable and felt harassed by the young woman. So he did what most guys in that situation would do and showed her his schlong. Jayson “decided he’d heard enough, stood up, and acted like he was going to unzip his pants,” Boebert wrote. “Before he got that far, the owner of the bowling alley intervened.”

The police were called and charged Jayson with public indecency and lewd behavior, to which he pleaded guilty, leading to a four-day jail sentence plus two years of probation. While Lauren is adamant that her husband was the victim in this assault on the eyes, two female witnesses who were questioned separately gave matching accounts of what went down before Jayson’s pants did, and there was no goading bartender in their tales.

According to the Washington Examiner, however, “A witness, one of the women mentioned as a victim in the 2004 sheriff’s report, said in a statement that Jayson Boebert ‘came up behind us and pulled his penis out of his pants’ after personally bragging to her and another woman about his intimate tattoo,” which sounds a bit more plausible.

It wasn’t the only brush with the law for either Boebert. Shortly thereafter the bowling alley incident, the New York Post reports that Jayson was arrested on a domestic violence charge, with a court clerk claiming that Jayson “did unlawfully strike, shove or kick [Lauren]… and subjected her to physical contact.” It’s possible she was pregnant at the time.

Lauren Boebert herself has a bit of a rap sheet; in June 2015, she was charged with disorderly conduct at a Colorado music festival. In December 2015, after missing two scheduled court appearances in connection with that incident, Lauren was arrested. Less than a year after that, in September 2015, the current Colorado congresswoman was arrested again when she drove her truck into a ditch. She was charged with careless driving and operating an unsafe vehicle, but again failed to appear in court. Probably because she believed it was the ditch’s fault.

(Via Raw Story)

A couple of weeks ago a few friends and I were playing bar trivia at our local New York City Irish pub and, after, the topic turned to our lists of classic movies we’ve never seen. (I’ve noticed more and more, since the pandemic started, people have literal written down lists they are making their way through – as opposed to just rattling off a few titles off the top of their head.) Anyway, it got to one of our players who we will call Melina (because that’s her name) and she listed off a few titles that are good movies, but not entirely surprising that a normal human being hasn’t seen. But then added an addendum at the end, “Oh, yeah, I’ve also never seen Star Wars.”

In 2022, it’s hard enough to find an adult human who has never seen Star Wars. But what’s especially difficult is finding an adult human who hasn’t seen Star Wars but is also willing to, and wants to, watch it. So let’s back up a bit. Because “having not seen Star Wars” isn’t entirely true. She said back in 1999, as a kid, she saw The Phantom Menace, decided, “these aren’t for me” (yeah, that’s fair), then went on with her life never wanting to watch more. Now, the other obstacle are the Special Editions. Enough people had told her the original three movies are great, but it also came with the caveat that she might want to seek out the original cuts of these movies, which, as you may know, is pretty difficult to do. Well, she was in luck on this front because I have the original cuts.

(It’s gotten to the point where this is infuriating that the original 1977 Star Wars isn’t available. It’s a gorgeous movie. And the model work looks so much better than the now bad-looking CGI from 1997. To me, it’s insane that Disney paid all that money for Lucasfilm and their crown jewel movie looks like an ugly cartoon from 1997. I’d be embarrassed to show the Special Edition to someone who has never seen Star Wars and try to pretend, “pretty good, right?” Anyway…)

Watching Star Wars with an adult who hasn’t seen it is an absolutely fascinating experience. I suspect this experience is different than watching it with a child who is seeing it for the first time. A child is kind of seeing everything for the first time. But an adult is already coming in with preconceived notions and a knowledge about how movies are supposed to work. As for myself, I couldn’t help but revert back to what it’s like to watch this movie for the first time because it’s impossible not to think about what the first timer is thinking. In a way, I had never seen Star Wars for the first time. I saw The Empire Strikes Back first in theaters when I was five years old, then in 1981 finally saw Star Wars when it was re-released into theaters. So, on this night, I tried to make my brain process the movie as new, to get into that mindset. And when you take a step back from the monolith that is the Star Wars brand and only focus on the first movie, Star Wars (you know, the one that was nominated for Best Picture and didn’t have a subtitle of A New Hope yet), it’s a remarkable movie for someone to watch for the first time for a few reasons.

(As an aside, speaking of the chapter title of A New Hope, it really was weird at the time when everyone showed up for The Empire Strikes Back and it said “Episode V.” There was no internet to go and check why we had all just jumped four movies ahead in the story. I remember in first grade this was a big debate. Was Star Wars the fourth episode? Or were there three movies in between Star Wars and Empire that we just hadn’t seen. None of this was cleared up for us until the 1981 re-release of Star Wars.)

If I were watching Star Wars for the first time in 2022, as an adult, I would not expect Star Wars. It’s impossible to not have heard about the lore by now. I’d be expecting a very dense movie crammed with a ton of exposition and a lot of big battles that are very difficult to follow. In reality, it is a surprisingly simple movie. I kept thinking, if this were made today, it would be one of the offshoot movies or maybe a Disney+ show. In that the story is so simple, no one would deem it worthy of making a full movie. “Wait, so this movie just focuses on a few characters as they get into a few jams?” Star Wars as an entity sounds so complicated. There’s Jedi and all these powers, the Force, the Sith and all this backstory – and the movie Star Wars has basically none of that. The actual Force is used, what, like three times? It’s a movie about two robots, an retired man, a princess, an ape alien, and two morons who keep screwing up.

Even the final assault on the Death Star is simple. The models move slowly compared to what we are used to (remember, this isn’t the CGI Special Edition), but this is a feature. At all times you, as a viewer, know what the objective is and you know what’s going on. It’s fantastic. Compare that to the assault on Starkiller Base in The Force Awakens, there are so many ships zipping in and out of frame, and, in comparison, the objective is so complicated, you just kind of give up, “Whatever, they are trying to blow it up.” In Star Wars you know there is a small opening at the end of a trench and someone needs to shoot some torpedoes into it. And the pilots try it over and over until Luke finally succeeds. (Han showing up at the last second still gives me an adrenaline rush.) It’s a trick Top Gun: Maverick used to great success this summer: make sure the audience knows what’s going on and can follow your special effects. It seems like a simple rule, but I’m always amazed how many movies don’t do this.

What was Melina’s reaction? Honestly, she seemed pretty stunned that she liked it as much as she did. She picked up right way that there’s very little exposition in the original Star Wars and it just keeps moving along. She admitted, even after agreeing to watch it, her expectations were rock bottom, but couldn’t believe how much she liked it and wants to finish the Original Trilogy.

(A week later, she watched The Empire Strikes Back for the first time. I was going to address that here, but it’s also such a bizarre experience to watch someone watch Empire for the first time, for completely different reasons, that I’m just going to make it a separate post for another day.)

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.