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Drew McIntyre has held the WWE Championship for 51 days (or 61 days, depending on if you count from the day his WrestleMania match was taped or when it aired). In that time, he’s successfully defended his title against the Big Show, Andrade and Seth Rollins, and is currently gearing up for his championship match against Bobby Lashley at Payback on June 14. But his name keeps ending up in one loosely WWE-affiliated athlete’s mouth: Tyson Fury.

The Gypsy King and the Scottish Psychopath exchanged words via social media back in April, and everyone presumably figured that would be the end of it. But in a new interview with BT Sport, Fury not only talked up McIntyre again — he said he wanted a WWE Championship match in the U.K.:

“I’m a big, big fan. He’s absolutely in fantastic shape. A real good-looking fella. He may be able to teach me a few beauty tips and a few wrestling moves, who knows? But I did see him talking about a big British fight. For sure, if WWE comes to the United Kingdom and they want a massive pay-per-view event, then look no further than the Gypsy King vs. Drew McIntyre for the WWE belt.”

While Fury might want a championship match, it’s unlikely to happen in the United Kingdom any time soon: WWE has been canceling or rescheduling all their international tours for 2020, including a European trek that would’ve been going on this month.

Kevin Smith’s a few years out from the massive heart attack that prompted his lifestyle overhaul, including a dramatic weight loss. Yet since many people are finding it hard to curb food cravings during these isolating times, he’s opening up on that continued struggle and more. The Clerks filmmaker spoke with the Hollywood Reporter to reveal how he let things slide — as one does in quarantine — for a few weeks before realizing that he needed to regroup with discipline to avoid returning to heart-attack city.

A measured approach with occasional vegan ice cream binges appears to be the groove that Smith has settled into, but not before he imagined what it would be like to emerge from quarantine like the next coming of The Eternals‘ Kumail Nanjiani. You know, all ripped and wearing a hockey jersey as a bandanna along with, of course, jorts. Wouldn’t that be something? Smith says he briefly considered this possibility and then thought better of the daydream:

There was, like, one day where I was like, “You know, you could totally pour yourself into a regimen and f*cking build serious muscle and then just stay off the internet for a while, and then when we’re released into the real world, just rock ’em with these f*cking pictures!” But, you know, I’m not in a Marvel movie.

It’d certainly be a transformation to behold, but man, these sorts of bodybuilding regimes are difficult to sustain. Just ask Kumail, who appears to be over the body-talk in favor of breaking his silence on nerd-loincloth and fantasy-swashbuckler movies.

On Smith’s part, his entire quarantine chat with Hollywood Reporter is worth checking out. He admits to realizing that “I must be an attention whore at heart,” which is a more self-aware state than a lot of people hold these days. He’s looking forward to getting back on stage and in cinemas, but for now, you can read the rest of the piece here.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

The Last Dance spent some time on the Dream Team, with a major emphasis on how his time in Barcelona served as Michael Jordan taking the baton from Larry Bird and Magic Johnson as the face of the NBA. There was also, as is oftentimes the case with Dream Team retrospectives, a little time set aside on Isiah Thomas not making the squad.

In the doc, Jordan made it clear that he had nothing to do with Thomas missing out on the Dream Team, despite the fact that Thomas was one of the best players in the world at his position. Jordan went as far as to say “it was insinuated that I was asking about him, but I never threw his name in there,” a claim that raised a number of eyebrows, if only because it just didn’t sound right for a number of people.

The documentary ended last Sunday, while the Dream Team episode aired several weeks ago. But in recent days, some old audio has cast doubts on Jordan’s claims from the doc. Jordan spoke to Jack McCallum for his 2012 book, Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever, and in McCallum’s new podcast “The Dream Team Tapes,” he played the audio of Jordan drawing a line in the sand with Thomas.

“When they called me to ask me to play, Rod Thorn called me,” Jordan said on the podcast. “I said, ‘Rod, I won’t play if Isiah Thomas is on the team.’ He assured me, he said, ‘You know what? Chuck doesn’t want Isiah. So, Isiah is not going to be part of the team.’”

McCallum made the point that no one on earth would have picked Thomas to make the team if it meant Jordan wouldn’t suit up, as Jordan was a better player and the team’s point guards — Johnson and John Stockton — were stars. Still, one of the major critiques of The Last Dance was how it painted a very specific portrait of Jordan that did not always gel with reality, and the emergence of this audio will help those who have made that argument.

This article was originally published by The Conversation. You can read it here.

Parents have always helped with homework and made sure their children fulfill responsibilities like chores, but the extended and often unstructured time families are spending together during the current crisis creates new challenges.

After a disaster like a hurricane or fire, establishing structure is important to keep consistency and maintain a sense of control for both parents and children. This includes creating a schedule and communicating clear expectations and guidelines on things such as screen time.

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But how do parents get children to follow the schedule and fulfill responsibilities without nagging and in a way that prevents blowups and tantrums?

Wendy Grolnick, a psychologist and parenting expert who has worked with parents in disaster situations, has studied how parents can help children become more self-motivated and decrease conflict in the family. In this piece she shares some strategies to make the house run more smoothly during the coronavirus crisis.

1. Involve children in setting schedules

When children participate in creating guidelines and schedules, they are more likely to believe the guidelines are important, accept them and follow them.

To involve children, parents can set up a family meeting. At the meeting, parents can discuss the schedule and ask children for their input on decisions like what time everyone should be out of bed and dressed, when breaks from schoolwork would work best and where each family member should be during study time.

Not every idea will be feasible – children may feel being dressed by noon is fine! But when parents listen to a child’s ideas, it helps them own their behavior and be more engaged in what they are doing.

There may well be differences in opinion. Parents can negotiate with their children so that at least some of the children’s ideas are adopted. Resolving conflicts is an important skill for children to learn, and they learn it best from their parents.

2. Allow children some choice

Schoolwork has to be done and chores need to be completed, but having some choice about how they are accomplished can help children feel less pressured and coerced, which undermines their motivation.

Parents can present some chores around the house, and children can choose which they prefer. They can also pick when or how they complete them – do they want to do the dishes before or after watching their TV show?

Parents can also give children choice about what fun activity they would like to do at the end of the day or for a study break.

3. Listen and provide empathy

Children will be more open to hearing about what they need to do if they feel that their own perspectives are understood. Parents can let children know that they understand, for example, that it is not fun to be in the house and that they miss being with their friends.

Parents can begin requests with an empathetic statement. For example, “I know it seems like getting dressed is silly because we’re in the house. But getting dressed is part of the routine we have all decided upon.”

Even if they might not agree with their child’s perspective, when parents show that they understand, cooperation is enhanced, as is the parent-child relationship.

4. Provide reasons for rules

When parents provide reasons for why they are asking for something, children can better understand the importance of acting in particular ways. Reasons will be most effective when they are meaningful to the children in terms of the children’s own goals. For example, a parent can say that dividing up family chores will help everyone have more time for fun activities after dinner.

5. Problem-solve together

Not everything will go according to plan – there will be times of frustration, nagging and yelling. When things aren’t working out, parents can try engaging in joint problem-solving with their children, which means employing empathy, identifying the issue and finding ways to resolve it.

For example, a parent might state, “You know how I’ve been nagging you to get up in the morning? It’s probably really annoying to hear that first thing in the morning. The problem is that even though we decided we’d all get up at 8 a.m., you are not getting out of bed. Let’s put our heads together to see what we can do to make morning time go more smoothly. What are your ideas?”

I have seen this take the stress out of mornings for working parents who need to take their children to school before going to work, and I believe it could help during the pandemic, too.

All of these practices can help children to feel more ownership of their behavior. That will make them more likely to cooperate.

However, these strategies require time and patience – something that is hard to come by at times of stress. Research studies show that parents are more likely to yell, demand and threaten when time is limited, they are stressed or they feel worried about how their children are performing.

That’s why its important for parents to find time for their own self-care and rejuvenation – whether it be by taking a walk, exercising, meditating or writing in a journal. A pandemic or other disaster presents challenges for parents, but using motivational strategies can help parents provide a calmer and more effective environment that also facilitates a positive parent-child relationship.

Wendy Grolnick is Professor of Psychology, Clark University

Waka Flocka Flame is devoting himself to a good cause. In a succinct announcement on social media Monday night, the “No Hands” rapper declared that he is “officially” dedicating his life to suicide prevention and raising awareness for mental health.

Announcing his goal on social media, Flocka offered words of encouragement to fans who are struggling. “Y’all not alone Waka Flocka Flame is with y’all now,” he wrote.

While Flocka didn’t elaborate on his plans, the issues are close to home for the rapper. Flocka’s younger brother Kayo took his own life in 2013 and it took the rapper years of therapy to heal. In 2017, Flocka sat down for an interview on Viceland’s series The Therapist and discussed how he coped with his brother’s death. “The only way I could get through it, I had to stay high,” he admitted. “So I’m like ‘F*ck it, I’m gonna get high. I’m gonna pop me some pills. That’s how I’mma do it.’ That was my therapy. That was my addiction, [it] was pills.”

But Flocka said his experience with counseling helped him move forward. “It took me, like, four years—almost four solid years—to get to where I’m at,” Flocka said.

Watch Flocka get personal on The Therapist above.

Lil Yachty isn’t king of the teens anymore, but that doesn’t stop him from still being able to party like a kid in the video for “Split/Whole Time,” his latest single from the upcoming Lil Boat 3. The video opens with a typical rap video treatment — foreign cars, crowded crew scene, big-name rapper cameo (Playboi Carti, who’s been cropping up a lot lately while avoiding releasing Whole Lotta Red) — but quickly switches to something we haven’t seen yet: A private party in a trampoline park.

You may have seen a Sky Zone party on your Instagram feed if you follow any parents — they’re pretty big with kids and for good reason. The trampoline park chain offers them a chance to do what they would do anyway: Bounce off walls (and the floors and pretty much everything else). Parents love them too, because they only require a marginal amount of supervision and give the kids plenty of ways to burn off all that excess energy and wear themselves out. Basketball goals, foam block pits, and other games allow for a modicum of organization too. Lil Yachty and his friends may not exactly be the target audience, but go for broke in the video, proving that you’re never too old to enjoy the simple things in life.

Yachty’s Lil Boat 3 is due on 5/29 and also includes the comeback single “Oprah’s Bank Account” with DaBaby and Drake.

Watch Lil Yachty’s “Split/Whole Time” video above.

Dream-pop group Cigarettes After Sex made their most recent appearance with their 2019 album Cry, and they have yet to share any new music since then. That changed today, though, as the band released a new sitrackngle, “You’re All I Want.” The song is about the passion in a new love, as evidenced by lyrics like, “You’re all I want / We f*ck so hot it left me faded / For all you are / There is no other love, it’s only yours / You’re all I want, all the love.”

The band’s Greg Gonzalez says of the song:

“Recorded in the summer of 2017 during the sessions for our second album, Cry. The initial takes of the song were finished in the courtyard of the house we were staying at in Mallorca, late in the evening, right as a thunderstorm was rushing in over us. Almost 3 years later, having just moved to LA, I finally wrote the lyrics & they ended up telling a story I saw as a fantasy or dream involving my girlfriend & I. Sort of reversing our roles & retelling the way we met, while imagining what a sweet future might look like together…”

Maybe don’t expect to see a visual for the song, though, as one thing the group hasn’t done yet is make a music video. Gonzalez explained why that is the case in an interview last year, saying, “Honestly, it just came from not liking anything we tried. I have some ideas, but I’m being contrarian about it. I’d like to make a short film and then soundtrack it, rather than making a song and then getting someone to direct the video. I’d want to do it backwards: create a bunch of interesting images and then write a song on top of that.”

Listen to “You’re All I Want” above.

A couple weeks ago, it was a tight race for which song would top the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj’s “Say So” ultimately triumphed over Megan Thee Stallion and Beyonce’s “Savage” remix, which placed at No. 2. Now, though, after an extended holiday weekend, the new Hot 100 is out, and on the May 30-dated chart, “Savage” has at last climbed its way to No. 1.

“Savage” is now Megan’s first No. 1 song, and Beyonce’s seventh chart-topper as a solo artist. This one represents a significant milestone for Beyonce: She now joins Mariah Carey as the only artists with solo No. 1 songs in the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s. Additionally, if you count Beyonce’s singles as part of Destiny’s Child, she and Carey are now both the only artists with chart-topping songs in the ’90s, ’00s,’ ’10s, and ’20s.

Megan shared an excited reaction to the news, writing on Instagram, “HOTTIES WE ARE NUMBER 1 ON THE HOT 100 FOR THEE FIRST TIME EVERRRR [fire emojis] WE F*CKING DID IT [crying emojis] thank you god [praying emojis] this is our first but it damn sure won’t be our last ! I love y’all so much [blue heart emojis] HOUSTON WE GOT ONE.”

Megan also recently spoke about crying when she first heard Beyonce’s “Savage” remix, saying, “I know that they say manifest it, but b*tch: that’s a real thing! That is a real thing. Manifestation is a real word. I ain’t know that! […] I just really can’t believe it. I heard it for the first time and I called my grandma, and I was like in f*cking shambles. I was really crying, I was like, ‘I really got a f*cking song with Beyonce.’”

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Key Glock has yet to allow a full calendar year to escape him without delivering a new project to the world since his 2017 breakout tape, Glock Season. Five months after Dum And Dummer, his 2019 joint tape with fellow Memphis rapper Young Dolph, Key Glock returned at the top of 2020 with yet another boastful project, Yellow Tape. Just four months later, Glock flies through with yet another confident collection of tracks thanks to Son Of A Gun.

For the second time in his career — the last in 2018 with Glock Bond and Glockoma — Key Glock graces his audience with a second project in a twelve-month span. While the blaze set by Yellow Tape and standout efforts like “Dough” and “Word On The Street” is still alive, Key Glock adds fuel to the fire with Son Of A Gun. While the term is often used towards a child with an absent father, Glock embraces the term as part of his identity and uses it as the reason to unapologetically flex his blessings and accomplishments following a grim childhood.

Deciding against a slow and steady build-up towards the action, Key Glock arrives with the force of a car accident in a four-way intersection on the album’s intro track, “Son Of A Gun.” Led by erratic swipes on a violin and a thumping bass, Glock mentions the hardships of his youth and promises he made to his mother growing up, “Yeah, b*tch, I’m the sh*t and I came from nothin’ / Told my mama that a change gon’ come / Yeah, yeah, straight out the slums.” Two tracks later, Key Glock glides with confidence and charm on “FYTB” while refuting the credibility of the competition with anecdotes that date back to his pre-rap days. “Yeah, young n**** came from sh*t, but I didn’t tap out, uh / Have you ever spent a night up in the traphouse?” he asks.

Presenting a rags-to-riches story with plenty of riches still left to be made, Key Glock makes it clear that his confidence and authority are nailed gunned into himself and his music. “Money Talks” finds him silencing the competition and the suggestion that the talking should only be done by the dead presidents they all claim to have all by asking, “Money talk, what the f*ck is you talkin’ ’bout?” The celebration of a prosperous life continues as Glock gets lost in his braggadocious bag on “Flexxxin” and “Go Get It.” Both tracks present the Memphis rapper in a proud pile of materialist earnings, with the former being a near-obnoxious celebration of money, cars, fame, and more, while the latter features much of the same tied into a message of relentless hustling and a tunnel-visioned approach to getting money. “Why they hatin’ on me? I’m curious, I’m gettin’ paid and they envious,” he ponders on “Go Get It.”

Yellow Tape and Son Of A Gun are both similar in varying ways. They both present Key Glock with an unblemished armor, diamonds that require a pair of sunglasses to truly appreciate, and the authority to make you second guess an attack whether it be lyrical or physical. However, Son Of A Gun drizzles Glock’s personality across its fifteen tracks, giving us a young man with no desire to alter his upbringing as it is precisely the reason he became the confident being he is today.

Glock refuses to be sorry for himself, and we as listeners shouldn’t be either. “Rich Blessed N Savage” finds him simultaneously aware and accepting of how his childhood has affected him today as he raps, “If you don’t like me, blame my parents.” Son Of A Gun is the boastful proclamation that, as unorthodox as his upbringing was, it’s part of his DNA and the very reason he shines as bright as the string of diamonds that dangle from his neck.

Son Of A Gun is out now via Paper Route EMPIRE. Get it here.

This article was originally published by The Conversation. You can read it here.

Anthony Pinter, a Ph.D. student in information science at the University of Colorado Boulder, recently completed a study on people’s experiences with upsetting and unexpected reminders of an ex on Facebook.

His team’s findings are examples of algorithmic cruelty – instances in which algorithms are designed to do something and do it well, but end up backfiring because they can’t fully grasp the nuances of human relationships and behavior.

How has social media made breakups more difficult?

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Anthony Pinter: Breaking up with a loved one has always meant making difficult choices: who gets the couch, who gets the fridge, who gets the cat.

But before social media, once the messy details were sorted, it wasn’t too difficult to create the physical, mental and emotional space that research has shown to help with the healing process. In the past, you could simply stop going to your ex’s favorite coffee shop. You could box up photos and put them in storage.

Social media has complicated things. Platforms like Facebook are designed to encourage connecting with your network and reminiscing about the past. It recommends upcoming events, suggests people to add as friends, resurfaces old memories and photos and highlights what your friends are doing.

via Unsplash

But after a breakup, you probably don’t want to be alerted about a new friend your ex has made on your news feed.

Nor do you want to see an old photo with your ex reappear as a “Memory.” And with access to your ex’s online life just a search and a click away, it’s easy to succumb to forms of “Facebook stalking,” in which you periodically check in on their profile to see what they’re up to and whom they’re hanging out with.

Not surprisingly, Facebook has been shown to prolong the healing process of a breakup. Conversely, you might also start to realize your ex has already moved on, which can be just as painful.

“Just block your ex,” you’ll hear people say. Why isn’t this enough?

Pinter: First, blocking or unfriending isn’t as simple as it sounds. It can be done in as little as three clicks. But once you’ve done it, it’s hard to walk back from; if you ever decide to unblock someone or refriend them, social media platforms will often alert the ex that you’ve done so – which can send ambiguous signals and expectations.

But yes, platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have features meant to prevent these unwanted encounters – unfollow, unfriend or block. A few years ago, Facebook even developed a feature called Take A Break, which effectively mutes someone for a set period of time.

However, people are still seeing reminders of their exes on social media – even when they’ve actively taken advantage of features that supposedly prevent these encounters.

My colleagues and I conducted in-depth interviews with 19 people who had had an unexpected and upsetting reminder of an ex on Facebook.

One participant mentioned that the mother of an ex’s new partner was suggested as a possible friend. Another saw their ex commenting on a mutual friend’s post.

In one case, an old photo that Facebook resurfaced via the Memories feature – from a beach vacation the two had taken when they’d been a couple – didn’t even include an image of the interviewee’s ex. But being prompted to think about that vacation was upsetting enough.

What’s really going on here?

Pinter: This is happening because the algorithms still don’t fully understand humans.

While you can tell Facebook you don’t want to see your ex anymore, the algorithm doesn’t realize that this might also include peripheral reminders of your ex, like a photo of his or her best friend, or a comment he or she has made on a mutual friend’s wall.

via Book Catalog / Flickr

Context matters, but algorithms often don’t have the ability to understand it. Even though that photo from the beach might not have anyone in it, it’s loaded with memories that you’d rather not think about.

In our work, we want to bring attention to what we call the “social periphery” – the satellites of a relationship, romantic or otherwise. Systems like Facebook are built to cultivate community, but the algorithms that undergird the system often rely on simplistic representations of people’s experiences like “relationship status” or “blocked.”

Features meant to prevent upsetting encounters in the wake of a breakup or other fraught events similarly rely on these simplistic settings, ignoring the realities of a social periphery.

To the algorithm, the suggestion of the ex’s new partner’s mother is a perfectly reasonable suggestion – you probably share mutual friends that alert some sort of internal metric. But a human would know better than to make that suggestion.

Why do these findings matter?

Pinter: Algorithms are becoming more integrated into our everyday lives, and social media isn’t the only place where we’re seeing these undesirable outcomes occur. For example, as people begin to rely more heavily on voice assistants like Siri or Alexa to send texts, we inevitably run into situations in which the programs mishear us and, for example, send a wildly inappropriate message to a boss or parent.

Our findings present a challenge for designers and developers: How can we create algorithms that are better attuned to the deep, lived experiences of the humans who will use these systems? It’s unlikely that there is a one-size-fits-all solution to this problem. On Facebook, features like Take a Break or blocking can be seen as important steps. But it’s clear that there’s a lot more work to do.

Anthony Pinter is a Ph.D. Student in Information Science, University of Colorado Boulder