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Mayans M.C. keeps on riding, long after Sons Of Anarchy‘s final rodeo saw Jax Teller greet The Reaper. Spinoff co-creator Elgin James is firmly carrying out showrunner duties (and those of writing and directing while inspiring Danny Pino to follow suit in that last category) as the show finishes its fourth season this week. The ensemble series now sees JD Pardo‘s EZ Reyes calling the shots for the Santo Padre chapter (as VP) and pushing the club to war with the Sons after sending a message to Charming. It’s been a bloody escalation so far, and there’s no indication of any form of peace on the horizon, especially with Kim Coates’ Tig returning to the franchise in the season finale.

Alongside EZ would be his wary brother, Angel, portrayed by Clayton Cardenas in an increasingly layered way this season. Don’t get me wrong, though: Angel’s always been multi-faceted, at once helping to pioneer a rebellion while also taking time to crack morbid jokes about a decapitated head. This season, however, Angel’s journey feels amplified. His complicated personal life (including the Nails business) sprouted more wrinkles with Adelita’s revelation that their child is still alive. And Angel, who helped his little brother join the Mayans, is now witnessing EZ’s transformation in a different way.

It’s all a recipe for explosive turmoil, and a very uncomfortable brotherly confrontation (after the devastating death of a beloved club member) helped close out the season. Clayton was cool enough to help us process all the fallout and give us some levity on where he’d love Angel to go from here.

I wasn’t sure if we were on camera or not, but I wore a Sons of Anarchy shirt to see if I could start a rivalry here.

Well, let’s see it! You’re gonna piss me off already.

Am I on? This is going to be war, I know it, and I’m also messing with you. The real truth is that I only have Sons shirts, no Mayans shirts yet.

[Laughs] We’re gonna have to send some stuff out.

We are already off the rails, so let’s keep on rolling. It feels like only yesterday when we were all waiting for Mayans to begin. It’s already been four seasons, do you stop and marvel at that sometimes?

Of course! I still, specifically, remember with JD, when we were at Salton Sea. Well, we did two pilots. The first pilot in early 2017 and in late 2017, but I remember the first pilot, there was a picture of us. It was the first picture that we ever did together, and it was not eerie but really comforting to have this feeling of, “Wow, we’re in this together.” We don’t have brothers in real life, but there was this instant bond of brotherhood. Me and him really circle back to that moment. You never saw it as part of the pilot, but we documented it on our own. It was really cool.

Speaking of JD, I can’t figure out, between Angel and EZ, who has changed more over the show so far?

I think it’s fairly even. I’m not aware these arcs being known from the inception of this. You’d have to ask the creators, so a lot of it was new to me. I know a lot of it was new to JD as well, but I think what we really see, in this season in particular, is the dominant characteristics of each individual. With EZ, we see his need to always feel empowered and feel in control. With Angel, it was always (from childhood) the need to feel loved. And to see how these two have met in the middle, and now, the apex of where they’re headed to in life? It’s fairly even. It’s different, obviously, but the same.

Angel began the show as a pioneer of the rebellion, and now, well, he’s got a complicated personal life. He’s a freaking dad who’s talking about lactation. How do you balance all of the sides of him?

I don’t know if it’s as much of a struggle as the audience sees it. What we’re seeing now is Angel morph into this person that he’s always yearned to be. I think when he saw his brother join the club, he saw bits and pieces of reasons to want to move on and grow beyond the club. I think with having a family now, it’s kind of like a justice to the means now. Like a reason to lean into the life that he yearned for, with Felipe never being the father that he wanted. That’s kind of his path now, being the father that he never had and having a life and Adelita and his son that he always wanted, quite honestly.

If you had any advice for Angel right now, what would you say to him?

With Angel, it’s all heart with how decisions are made. I would tell him to take his time and have a little bit of trepidation. I would tell him to slow down and to try and circle back to his father and try and mend the relationship. It isn’t broke, it’s definitely scarred, but I feel like we’re always needing a father figure in life. It doesn’t have to be a father necessarily, but that figure’s needed. I’d like him to circle back on that.

Would you say that his relationship is EZ is broken?

No, I don’t think that relationship’s broken, but it’s just misunderstood now. I feel like if anybody’s gonna be in EZ’s ear and have an effect, with where Angel sees EZ going, it’s gonna be his brother. That’s the only person who knows all his secrets and knows him at his best and his worst. He’s known him since his inception. Those kinds of people that we have in our life, there’s this tight bond that cannot be broken, no matter where we are in life, no matter how far away we are from one another. That will always be there.

Angel began the episode in an emotional way while reacting to Letty’s speech at Coco’s funeral. Other than the obvious, what was that about, do you think?

Besides the obvious, I think the big moral mistake was to sleep with his dead brother’s daughter. Beyond not wanting to disrupt what was going on, Angel’s absolutely torn up inside about doing what he did, but also, I don’t think he ever got to say his last words to Coco. There was never a resolution to it. There were definitely apologies needed for not being there when Coco was hurt and needing help. There was a scene where, when the two of them were together, I think that Angel was more in disbelief by what Coco was saying. He didn’t get to say the words that needed to be said, and I think that’s what’s running through Angel’s head because, coming up when Angel was getting patched in, Coco was his best friend. Coco was there with him every day, in flashbacks, they were tight-knit, and I think when Angel started to see him go down this path of drugs, he had to step back and take care of himself. He didn’t know how to help his friend, and I think he feels remorse and regret.

A lot of fans compared Coco’s death to Opie from Sons.

100%! These are two monumental characters in each of these storylines, and they both have huge fandoms, and they both meant a lot to the story and meant a lot to the leads of both shows. They both had resounding effects and trickle down from each of those. Of course, it’s hard not to compare the two, I think that only one would respectfully have to. It’s somebody that we, obviously with the cast, know that Richard [Cabral] is an amazing talent, and he’ll go on to do great things. But you know, in Mayans and in Sons, nobody’s safe. That’s what makes our show so riveting and compelling to watch because you never know how it’s gonna go. And people that you think have important storylines can be killed off right away, and it’ll shift right into somebody else’s storyline. That’s through the beauty of Elgin James’ poetry. You never know what you’re gonna get, but everything will always be [justified].

Well, if you had a way to write Angel’s ending in this show, whether he makes it out alive or not, where would he go?

[Smiles] I would write Angel running off into the sunset. I’m from these types of neighborhoods, this culture, and because you’re born into something, or at a formative age, you start leaning into this group of people because you think that’s what’s cool and right and where you think you want to be in the future, sometimes you outgrow yourself. And I see that with Angel. I see him viewing the club as not what he thought it was anymore. He’s maturing, and I think he sees the future differently than his brothers do. I could see him running off into the sunset [gestures] and having a farm.

[Laughing]

Yeah, man! A nut farm. Oh man, I love nut farms. Angel loves nut farms. Sunflower seeds! He’d be growing a nut farm with Adelita and his son. And they have animals around. I could totally envision that for him. Something total polar opposite from what we’re seeing right now, I could see him living that life.

If you could have him run off into that sunset and join another TV show, though, where would you want him to go?

Oh my god. If he had a British accent, he would be on Peaky Blinders.

That would work. And the final season is on Netflix now.

I’m on episode 4 now, and they do great work over there. And there’s a variety of shows, but that’s the latest one right now. I could see him on Snowfall, too. I could see that drug world crossing over into the Mayans culture, especially the bike subculture and pushing drugs to the border.

Gonna get a little dicey with this next question, but from what I’ve seen, fans are zeroing in on one criticism: where is law enforcement when trouble goes down, say, during the hospital scene? Does this jibe with how you see this subculture operating at the border, or do you have to suspend belief?

I hear the same thing. Let’s keep in mind that this is television and not reality, but through the lens of reality, I’ll play with it. In some of these small border towns, there isn’t a large abundance of police… let’s just run through the hospital. I know it looked like it was 20 freaking minutes long, but in reality, it was probably 5-10 minutes max. Granted, there’s security there, but let’s just say that we do have police at the end of the scene coming in there. But I hear people saying, “Oh the police would be there in a second, and a SWAT team.” Hey, in Santo Padre, we don’t have SWAT. We have, two hours away, it’s Calexico. We have to have them come down. I understand that the fans want a sense of realism, but hey, that’s real, man. These aren’t metropolitan cities we’re talking about here. These are underprivileged towns that don’t have what you would think as the amount of firemen, police, and just public resources as a whole. So I understand it, and we are definitely conscious of the realism involved here.

People do love to have opinions and quibbles in forums.

People want to create a conversation, and they want to debate, and hey, we’re up to it. You guys wanna debate small little tidbits in our show, we’re all here for it, but my point here is that I don’t want it to be overlooked that the creator and writers of our show aren’t aware of those things. They’re fully aware of it. It’s something that’s talked for hours. It’s not that we’re overlooking it, but we’re playing along the lines of television and reality. It’s a fine line, but we’re always trying to lean on the side of realistic for sure.

It’s about time to say goodbye, but real quick here: I recently talked with Danny Pino about the episode he directed.

Danny Pino? [Grabs his heart.]

Oh yes. Do you have any aspirations to do the same?

Of course. I would love to move into directing, I think that’s probably the most realistic transition and something that I want. Obviously, there’s a lot of work that I need to do to move forward with that, but watching Danny? Oh my god. He was phenomenal. He was probably — I’m gonna hear a lot of sh*t for this — after Elgin James, Danny Pino is probably my favorite director of the season for sure. And here’s the reason why: Danny is a well-seasoned, respected actor in our industry, so there’s many times that Danny would say just one little thing, and I knew exactly what he meant. With other directors, there’s sometimes a freaking 20-minute conversation trying to get a point across, and a lot of times when you’re working with a variety of directors on the show, that’s half the job. Learning their language, learning what they mean, that takes 50% of your time. But Danny Pino, he knew what to say to me and he knew exactly when to say it, and when to lean in.

He’s so humble and gracious, so I can imagine he was great as a leader.

I’ll tell you a real quick story. At the end of Danny’s episode, we had a very emotional scene with Carla [Baratta], and everyone’s moving onto the next scene and set, but I’m still emoting, and I’m sitting on the edge of the bed, and Danny Pino — he has the next thing to shoot and needs to move on — but he sees me there, emoting. And everybody’s left where I was at. And he just comes right over and sits next to me on the bed, and no words were said. We’re both just staring at the wall. We had this beautiful nonverbal communication. And it was literally for about 10 minutes, but in this nonverbal dialogue, he was saying, “Thank you, I hear you, I know what you did. I know what it takes to get there.” It was the most beautiful, unspoken poetry that I’ve heard in my life. And I commend him for that and respect him so much for that and I love him for that, and I told him the story recently in Miami, and we both got emotional. Love him to death.

FX’s ‘Mayans M.C.’ is currently streaming the entire fourth season on Hulu.

Chewy customers are for life (and beyond), according to the many, many testimonies from incredibly grateful pet owners. And yup, there’s a reason to notice what’s happening with Chewy because nearly everyone loves dogs. That includes perpetual movie villain Danny Trejo (who doesn’t trust anyone who doesn’t love dogs), and Better Call Saul knows how to give good dog-fan service, but boy, Chewy goes 100 extra miles to honor humanity’s best friend, who does everything from provide owners endless love and devotion to save Ukrainian lives while sniffing out explosive devices.

I’m not sure what we did to deserve dogs, but I’m awfully glad that we have them. And Chewy feels the same, as a new viral tweet (from Anna Brose out of Alaska) indicated. Brose wrote about how she contacted the pet supply company to return dog food after her beloved pooch passed away, and she was asked to donate the food to a shelter. She also received a refund, flowers, and a personally signed note from the Chewy rep.

As Brose soon learned, Chewy does a lot of good for their customers. Many customers tweeted about similar happenings when their pets passed away, or simply for no reason at all. Flowers, notes, refunds on unused equipment and suggestions to donate. It’s all in there, and it’s in plentiful supply. Chewy loves pets and their owners, and their customers love them for it. A shelter employee even stepped up to attest how the Chewy-directed donations are a real thing, and this helps cats and dogs so very much while they wait for their forever home.

In addition, Chewy apparently even keeps an eye on quietly removed pet profiles and reads between the lines before sending out handwritten notes of condolences after pets pass away.

Oh, and then there’s the individualized portraits that come from Chewy’s art department.

Simply stunning. They’re creating brand loyalty in such an organic way and it’s coming from a place of sheer joy and love. Are you getting a little misty-eyed after seeing these portraits? Same.

Ahead of his upcoming album, Drill Music In Zion, Lupe Fiasco has revealed the album’s title track. Contrary to its title, “Drill Music In Zion” features Fiasco delivering his brand of conscious rap over a jazz beat — not a drill beat.

On “Drill Music In Zion,” Fiasco examines humankind’s transactional nature and how people’s love of money and material objects drives and ultimately corrodes them.

“Position jostlers monitor hegemonics / Robots make the robots that solder electronics / Nostradamus couldn’t bother to keep a promise / Logic’s on a rocket, where profit defeats the conscience.”

In an interview with Financial Times last month, Fiasco says that he plans to rap until he dies. He also says he’s at a point in his career where he’s no longer driven by numbers.

“I care about rap, but I don’t care anymore about the business side or selling records,” he said. “I’ve always been a storyteller. When I was in the third grade, I wrote a play about a warring cat and mouse. I will be rapping right until the day I die.”

Check out “Drill Music In Zion” above.

Drill Music In Zion is out 6/24 via Thirty Tigers. Pre-save it here.

Lupe Fiasco is a Warner Music Artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Given Lady Gaga’s sustained level of extreme success, it’s a given that there have been plenty of tributes to her over the years. Now, though, Gaga has offered a co-sign to a new one that moved her by sharing a few words about “Gaga,” a new song by 20-year-old singer-songwriter Grace Gaustad.

Gaga tweeted, “Grace and I share a vocal coach who is deeply meaningful to us both and changed our lives, through him I found her and she found me. So proud of her and feel touched she wrote a song inspired by me. Love her! Check it out!”

The tune is named after Gaga but she’s not the only pop icon referenced on it, as the chorus goes, “Baby, I just wanna be a rockstar / Dancing like a virgin like Madonna / Flashing lights, I’m front row with Rihanna / On the edge of glory like I’m Gaga, Gaga.”

Upon releasing the song, Gaustad wrote, “This song and video is one of the most important things I’ve ever released because it’s a tribute to the woman who made me want to follow my dreams in the first place. @ladygaga Thank you for being you. Thank you for inspiring MILLIONS of people including me. Thank you for being a light in a dark world. 10 year old me is somewhere dancing to the telephone music video in her bedroom. I love you.”

Watch the “Gaga” video above.

Famously nice guy Tom Hanks showed off his angry side when a crowd of overly exuberant fans tripped his wife, actress (and fellow former-COVID haver) Rita Wilson.

While leaving a restaurant in New York City on Wednesday night, Hanks and Wilson were swarmed by selfie takers, autograph seekers, and one guy holding a Wilson volleyball from Cast Away. About 15 seconds into the video (which you can watch here), Wilson briefly loses her footing while the crowd is swarming her and Hanks. “Stop it,” she yelled, while Hanks used more forceful language. Understandably so:

“My wife? Back the f*ck off! Knocking over my wife?!” Hanks screamed before the couple hustled into a waiting car. One fan could then be heard apologizing, saying, “Sorry about that, Tom.”

The lesson here is: do not come between Oscar-winning actors and their wives.

Earlier this month, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu tweeted about a “not great altercation” he had during a book reading in Philadelphia. Some “professional autograph seekers” followed the actor “out of the Philly event and then threw soda on our window. They then ran to their car to remove the front license plate so we couldn’t ID them.” Both Liu and Wilson were fine, but people really need to chill.

(Via Page Six)

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is on the defensive at the moment, and gosh darnit he should be. While speaking with the House Select Committee about the events leading up to the events of January 6, 2021, several people within Donald Trump’s inner circle have claimed that Rudy—then serving as Trump’s personal attorney and seeming hype man—was three sheets to the wind on election night 2020. And that it was a very visibly inebriated Rudy who urged Trump to forget what the polls said or who Americans had voted president and to just get out there and declare himself president!

This would all make a kind of funny anecdote if it had been kept within MAGA world’s walls, but it’s now part of the public record—and public discourse—as Liz Cheney talked about it during Monday’s committee hearings, and Rudy is PISSED! On Tuesday, he issued a statement on the claims being made against him, where he hilariously swore that he ​​”REFUSED all alcohol” on election night and that his favorite drink is Diet Pepsi.

Yet, on Thursday night—just two days later—Giuliani was back to his rambling old self during a fundraising dinner for his son, New York gubernatorial candidate Andrew Giuliani (who has been banned from attending any debates in-person because he’s not vaccinated).

First, he made some super funny jokes about Steve Bannon showing up to the event as a “surprise” guest and poked fun at the contempt charges being lodged against Trump’s former chief strategist, saying that Bannon “came here all the way from court with his shackles on and his leg irons on. You know, like that scene in Scrooge.” Ha ha ha—jail is funny! When a young woman draped herself around Rudy to talk more about the younger Giuliani’s run for governor, Rudy surprisingly didn’t need to “tuck his shirt in.” In fact, he seemed oblivious to the conversation being had with him at all as his mind had already trailed off toward golf. A few too many Diet Pepsis will do that to you!

To his credit, Giuliani’s small talk seems to have improved. For years, we’ve witnessed him show up at events and steal the spotlight with his rambling and oft-incoherent chatter. Like the time he spoke at an otherwise somber event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 talks, and veered so off-topic as to claim he “Never had a drink with [Prince Andrew], never was with a woman or young girl with him. Ever, ever, ever.” Which, for whatever reason, just didn’t seem appropriate when the topic at hand was how nearly 3,000 people died on September 11th. Or the time he spoke at the 2021 New York Young Republican Club gala and talked about Hitler and Stalin and child pornography and killing babies for no discernible reason.

So, all in all, boring the audience with golf talk is a step up. Way to go, Rudy!

(Via Ron Filipkowski)

Beloved TV actor Henry Winkler is coming for Herschel Walker. On Wednesday night, the Barry and Happy Days star took a break from posting fishing photos to fire off a tweet directly calling out the football player, who’s running for a Senate seat in Georgia.

“I need to repeat this again I am an American First with every right to an opinion … then I am an actor,” Winkler tweeted. “Got that Mr. Walker .. Mr famous Athlete.”

Unfortunately, The Fonz didn’t provide any context for his barb. His missive wasn’t a quote tweet, so there wasn’t much to go on. But after a little digging through Winkler’s timeline, it’s clear the iconic actor was not over Walker’s recent criticism that celebrities are one of America’s biggest problem.

Here’s the full Walker quote, and our apologies if you can’t make heads or tails of it because this is the kind of word salad that would make Sarah Palin, or her lesser form Lauren Boebert, green with envy.

Via NotHoodlum on Twitter:

I think some of the biggest problems going on in our country today we have so many celebrities telling people they can’t do it – telling a lot of people oh you know … you can’t do it like you gotta feel bad for yourself feel sorry for yourself which is sad to me because they done it but they telling you you can’t do it and it’s like God you did it why they can’t do it? I think that tell all kids that uh that you know, they can’t do it or … making our kids feel sorry for themselves. And ah not having it don’t want to educate. You don’t quit.

After seeing the almost incomprehensible quote, Winkler tweeted, “Aren’t [you] kind of a celeb, Hersh?” The actor also dipped into the replies and quote tweeted a user who couldn’t believe that Walker is not only on the ballot, but is polling well.

“Celebs are AMERICANS first,” Winkler tweeted.

Maybe someone gently nudge Winkler that “America First” is kind of Trump’s whole thing. The Fonz means well, of course. He’s got a good heart.

(Via Henry Winkler on Twitter)

While Flying Lotus is no stranger to vocal collaborations on his albums, the producer is best known for the prolific canvases he creates on his own. Sure, the Kendrick Lamar-featured “Never Catch Me” is considered by some as FlyLo’s magnum opus, but for some diehards, we’d love to hear more tunes like 2014’s “Your Potential//The Beyond,” where vocalist Niki Randa adds thick vocal textures to the tune. It seems as though FlyLo is indeed entering the point in his career where he’s leaning further into vocalists to help him bring new depths to his music. Look at his last album Flamagra, which featured notable collabs with vocalists in Anderson .Paak, George Clinton, Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano, Thundercat, and others. But those are all known commodities, which don’t have the same allure that someone like say, Randa, brought in the past, as perhaps his muse.

Enter Devin Tracy, a classically-trained future R&B vocalist, who released an EP in Soulection’s Black Label series in 2018 and last year’s Don’t Take It Personal EP, but is a relative unknown. Lotus discovered Tracy at a recent session and it seems as though a creative connection quickly blossomed between the pair. Now, FlyLo’s new singles, “The Room” and “You Don’t Know,” feature Tracy on vocals and the diehards will be pleased.

“The Room” kicks off the two movement release with those familiar FlyLo layered strings intertwined with snares, as Tracy ranges all over the map with his evocative delivery. “You Don’t Know” is definitely more drums focused, but Tracy is a revelation on both, going from high registers on down and back.

Flying Lotus will be performing at the Hollywood Bowl on August 21st, backed by the Bowl Orchestra, and this new release effectively whets the palate for more new tunes this year from the Grammy-winning producer.

Listen to “The Room” and “You Don’t Know” above.

There’s no shortage of companies, governments and organizations around the world searching for talented workers with a deep knowledge of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The demand is providing a clear pathway to rewarding, world-changing and well-paying STEM careers for many young people.

However, some students are missing these incredible opportunities because they haven’t envisioned themselves in STEM or encountered any mentors to show them a pathway for success.

FIRST is a global nonprofit that provides robotics-based programs and mentorship from adult volunteers such as educators and STEM professionals to students ages 4 to 18. FIRST is a mission-based robotics community that aims to get kids excited about STEM and allows them to build these talents, along with critical life skills such as communication and leadership, through team-based robotics competitions.

FIRST has a proven impact in guiding young people into STEM careers, all while having fun and making useful connections.

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FIRST Championshipvia FIRST

Nearly 700,000 students and 320,000 adult mentors, coaches, judges and volunteers participate in the nonprofit community year over year, and the transformational power of FIRST programs was featured in the 2022 Disney+ documentary “More Than Robots.” Students develop problem-solving skills and learn confidence, cooperation, empathy and resilience—skills that will serve them well in their future careers.

Fazlul “Fuzz” Zubair, systems engineering department manager at Raytheon Technologies, an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate, mentors FIRST Team 4201, The Vitruvian Bots, in Los Angeles.

Zubair has hired 15 Raytheon Technologies employees from his FIRST team, creating a FIRST-to-work pipeline. Better yet, many of the new employees then give back to FIRST by mentoring their own teams. Zubair’s dedication to mentorship has created a cycle of positivity that continues to grow.

“Here, at FIRST, it’s a sport where everyone can go pro. They can come out of this program, and they can get a good-paying job and contribute positively to society and solve the tough problems that we have,” Zubair told Upworthy.

“Raytheon Technologies understands this, so it supports students in the program and its employees who mentor. Through FIRST, we’ve created a pipeline of people who already know how to collaborate with engineers and when they come into our companies, they have a head start,” Zubair continued.

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Wireless communications innovator Qualcomm Incorporated is another multinational company that supports FIRST. It has been hiring FIRST students because of their advanced skill sets since 2006.

“They’re working on robots and learning things like coding and critical thinking, but they also have 21st-century skills like teamwork and the ability to collaborate with students that come from diverse backgrounds. Those are all things that are important in the workplace,” Natalie Dusi, corporate social responsibility manager at Qualcomm Incorporated, told Upworthy.

As employees, FIRST students join the workforce with experience and vital collaboration skills. “They roll up their sleeves and start innovating right away. When FIRST students come into Qualcomm Incorporated, they are confident,” she added.

Zubair says that FIRST students are valuable, in part because they understand that failure is part of learning and innovation.

“Learning through failure is something that’s really hard to teach,” he said. “You must go through that process. I like to tell my students all the time, ‘I’d rather you fail on this robot than a billion-dollar satellite. Learn now, fail often, fail early.’”

For FIRST CEO Chris Moore, the opportunity to gain confidence in STEM is an important and deeply personal issue. When he was in middle school, a teacher dissuaded him from pursuing a career in technology and he believes it had lasting, negative effects on his career. “Even now, as someone with decades of experience leading youth-serving organizations, this STEM inferiority complex has stuck with me, and at times I still doubt my own STEM competency,” he told Upworthy. “The reality is, STEM is achievable and rewarding for everyone, no matter their gender, age, race, economic standing orientation nor any other factor.”

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Statistics point to a high demand for STEM workers and a short supply, especially in the United States and especially among women, underserved, and underrepresented groups. FIRST provides young people from any background with the skills they need to succeed in their STEM studies and future careers. Notably, FIRST reached more than 20,300 youth in underserved communities during its 2019 season.

FIRST students are twice as likely to express interest in a STEM career than their peers.

FIRST understands the value of inspiring all students and does so by providing innovation grants to teams from underserved communities and developing strategic alliances with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, National Society of Black Engineers and Girls, Inc., and other like-minded organizations.

One of the lasting impacts FIRST has on students is an understanding that no matter who they are or where they come from, they can solve the world’s most pressing issues.

The theme for the 2022 – 2023 season is energy. Students will explore the essential role that energy plays in keeping the world moving forward, the possibilities that different energy sources unlock, and how we can all realize a brighter future through innovative ideas in energy generation, efficiency, and use.

Cooperation, empathy, and resilience are skills that last a lifetime and it’s never too early for a child to enjoy their benefits. Learn more about FIRST programs in your area and how you can become involved!

Go to firstinspires.org.

Mitski is having a good year after releasing her new album Laurel Hell, and so is Harry Styles after he unveiled Harry’s House. Today, the “Washing Machine Heart” singer took to Twitter to express her appreciation for Styles and what she’s learned from him in some heartfelt tweets.

In a pair of tweets, Mitski wrote, “From Mitski: Watching Harry Styles & his band from the audience last night, I felt so honored to get to be a small part of these giant joyful events. Thank you for having us! We still got more shows to go, but I’m already learning so much, I feel like I got a scholarship! It’s awe-inspiring, watching hundreds of people work together to put on an amazing show each night. Thank you so much to Harry and his team for the opportunity to see it all up close, to witness all the love and energy you put into your shows. It’s a real privilege.”

In February, Mitski also took to Twitter to discuss the usage of phones at concerts. “But sometimes when I see people filming entire songs or whole sets, it makes me feel as though we are not here together,” she wrote. “This goes for both when I’m on stage, and when I’m an audience member at shows.”