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Warhammer 40k: Space Marines Codex Moves 16 Units To Legendary Status!
Some universe-shaking changes are coming for Space Marines this fall. Just an hour after the reveal of the new Outrider Captain, a full preview of the new Codex: Space Marines is here! The studio kicked things off with a brief video overview of what to expect, so take a few minutes to watch and let’s […]
Warhammer 40k: A Legend Returns — New Space Marine Captain On Bike Revealed
A brand new kit is here for a venerable 40k hero. Get a closer look at the new Space Marine Captain!
Building the beat: How New Orleans can grow the business behind the music
People dance to the music of the TBC Brass Band Photo by Michael DeMocker / The Times-Picayune This week New Orleans hosts the annual Cutting Edge CE Conference, which brings together members of the music industry, musicians, lawyers and others to learn about and discuss the latest changes in the business of making, producing and selling music. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1492300'); }); The conference comes as AI and streaming are causing upheavals in the industry. Meanwhile, we’ve seen at least a partial collapse of the global festival industrial complex which has long been a key financial lifeline for many artists.All of that can feel a bit removed from life in New Orleans. After all, we are a city filled with music. On any given day or night, there are dozens of shows across the city, ranging from jazz and blues to hip-hop, bounce and house. Whereas in other cities kids dream of being the star of their local sports team, in New Orleans more often than not they dream of leading their own band.And music is a huge part of our economy. Before New Orleans was known as a foodie destination, it was already drawing millions of visitors from around the globe to experience our jazz, soul and funk scenes firsthand.But the reality is, if you want to make it big, you’re probably going to end up leaving the city. We’ve seen major performers like Lil Wayne, Master P and Jon Batiste (though he’s back on the Northshore) decamp to Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Likewise, up-and-coming musicians like Greer Grimsely, $leazy EZ and Lucky Daye have also left town in search of more profitable pastures.Meanwhile, our local universities train some of the best producers and engineers in the business — only to see them head to one of the big music industry cities after graduation.It’s not a new phenomenon, though the reasons have changed over the years. Like a lot of early jazz musicians, Louis Armstrong famously left New Orleans, first for Chicago before ultimately settling in New York City. But while those early migrations had more to do with racism, in today’s day and age, musicians end up leaving because New Orleans doesn’t have the industry infrastructure necessary to sustain the kind of growth and, well, success, a lot of folks dream of.It’s a hard, but very real, truth. Artists have to go to Nashville for publishing, Los Angeles for production, Atlanta to join a label or New York for representation. That, in turn, is a drain not only on the city’s talent pool but on money that could be staying here at home.Not being an industry town inevitably makes it that much harder for musicians who don’t leave to get the recognition and success they deserve. It also undoubtedly plays a part in keeping the wages working musicians in New Orleans make at their gigs here lower than in places like Austin or Nashville.That’s not to say we don’t have any of the infrastructure needed to make New Orleans a music industry town. We’ve got live music venues, studios, record labels, management companies, copyright attorneys ... all the various building blocks are there. We just haven’t ever built upon that solid foundation. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1492297'); }); The question is how do we do that in a way that supports our existing industry and artists, respects our cultural traditions and ensures the wealth generated is equitably distributed so it isn’t just C-suite executives who end up reaping the benefits. And the time to start figuring out the answers is now: next year the legislature will focus on taxes and spending, making it vital that New Orleans leaders have a plan to try and secure funding to help grow our industry.So we asked a group of New Orleanians to give us their thoughts, ranging from industry attorneys and venue operators to working musicians and cultural advocates. Their answers point toward turning New Orleans into a music industry city without leaving musicians behind or abandoning what makes us the greatest music city on earth.If a dusty city like Austin can transform itself into a major hub not just for music but the industry behind it, surely the birthplace of jazz — and pretty much all modern music by extension — can figure it out as well. +3 Mailbox Money: The Recording Academy’s Reid Wick on supporting, and growing, New Orleans’ music industry Reid Wick has been a part of the New Orleans music landscape from virtually every angle. He'… California Dreaming: Pell discusses his time in L.A. and how New Orleans can help young musicians In 2015, New Orleans-born rapper Pell decided to make the move to Los Angeles. He was fresh … +2 Up from the street: To build a stronger music industry, support community first. At MaCCNO, most of our team aren’t just advocates, we’re also working musicians. Here are a … +2 Live and direct: Public investment in independent venues is key to a robust music economy. I’ve spent most of my adult life looking at the New Orleans music business from every side o… +2 Helping Hand: New Orleans doesn’t need more talent. It needs more infrastructure. People love to call New Orleans a music town. And they’re right. +2 \We out here: New Orleans doesn't need to be Austin. It's already a music industry city. +2 Futureshock: New Olreans has the music talent. Now it needs the innovation. New Orleans has long been known as a place for music creation and innovation. People travel … .donate-gambit-article-module-container { text-align: center; padding: 10px; /* background-color: #24da6d; */ background-color: rgb(153, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 20px; } .donate-gambit-article-module-title { font-weight: bold; color: #fff; } .donate-gambit-article-module-copy { color: #fff !important; font-size: 16px; } .donate-gambit-article-module-button { background-color: black; width: 50%; border-color: black; font-size: 16px; } .donate-gambit-article-module-button:hover { background-color: black; } @media only screen and (max-width: 600px) { .donate-gambit-article-module-button { font-size: 14px; width: 100%; } .donate-gambit-article-module-copy { font-size: 14px; } } BECOME A GAMBIT MEMBER AND JOIN OUR KREWE TODAY For more than 40 years, Gambit has covered New Orleans, for New Orleans. We’ve stood up to city hall with you, cheered the Saints with you, danced in the streets with you and cried over our collective loss with you. And we’re plannin’ on being here for 40 more. To do that, we need your help. Become a Gambit member today and help us continue our mission SUPPORT GAMBIT
Miyazaki suggests FromSoftware is keen to return to single-player games after The Duskbloods and Elden Ring: Nightreign
Souls house FromSoftware has done back-to-back multiplayer games with The Duskbloods and Elden Ring: Nightreign. But it hasn't forgotten solo players.
NPR gives Weird Al the respect he deserves.
Plenty of incredible artists have stepped behind the Tiny Desk at NPR’s DC headquarters, from Juvenile and T-Pain to Soul Glo, Tyer the Creator, and even the cast of Sesame Street. But Weird Al Yankovic has now joined the illustrious list of performers invited back for multiple sets. [Media: https://youtu.be/o4I-Y8XiBIs]
Reviews Hail New Action-RPG as 2026’s Best Soulslike
The sequel is far from a shell of the original
Mortal Shell II Review
Mortal Shell II is a fun-forward souls-like, one that values flexibility and variety over sheer difficulty. It grabs you and plies you with a plethora of options for tackling its monsters, dungeons, and bosses, handing you shiny toys and trusts you to work out what to do with them.
The Bluey Movie teaser shows Keepy Uppy in Disneyfied CG.
The good news: The beloved children’s series is coming to the big screen! The bad news: The charming 2D animation has been replaced with some bland 3D computer animation. And knowing Disney, we’ll probably get a soulless “live action” remake in about a decade. [Media: https://youtu.be/zZqTUZGMzpw]
I spent $100,000 testing my sock business idea
Allison Strumeyer says ordering 10,000 pairs of socks before launching doublesoul helped prove demand and gave her the confidence to build the company.
Things I Said Out Loud While Suffering Through King's Field 4
This is just like Dark Souls
Arc System Launches Marvel Tokon PC Update, and Some Players Are Saying It's Fixing Most of Their Issues
Developer Arc System Works has launched a major Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls update that seems to have fixed many of the PC issues players reported following its launch.
Review: Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls (PS5) - The Most Exciting Fighting Game in Years
Superheroic
KFF HEALTH NEWS: Medicaid Work Rule Leaves Homeless People in the Cold
By Katheryn Houghton KFF Health News August 6, 2026 MISSOULA, Mont. — Tywon Pugh has seizures that make it hard to find and keep a job. “They called me a ‘liability to the job site,’” Pugh said, recalling the words of his manager when a seizure cost him his last job at a fast-food restaurant
New Lies of P documentary teases next game "is going to be really fun and emotionally moving"
One of the teams behind Neowiz's Souls-like Lies of P has released a short documentary detailing how they kept "testing and refining" the game.
Launch Family Entertainment signs lease for Missoula location
MISSOULA, Mont. — Launch Family Entertainment (Launch), a leading family entertainment franchise, has announced a signed lease for its first location in the state of Montana. The park will be situa…
The Ocarina of Time and Star Fox Remakes Feel Like Overly Safe Bets From a Typically Bold Company – Has Nintendo Lost Its Creative Spark?
The Switch 2 is an iterative update console. The Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Star Fox remakes are safe bets with generic art styles. The Mario movies are by-the-numbers. Is Nintendo losing its soul?
Launch to open family entertainment park in Missoula in 2027
A family-focused entertainment company plans to open an activity park in Missoula early next year, offering fun for all ages.
Big Easy Entertainment Curates Celebrations with Soul
For more than 25 years, Big Easy Entertainment has brought vibrant, culture-rich celebrations to Utah.
Review: Lies Of P: Complete Edition (Switch 2) - No Strings On This Superb, Immersive Soulslike
Little puppet made of pine, awake
This Week’s Japanese Game Releases: MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls, Beast of Reincarnation, more
MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls for PlayStation and PC, and Beast of Reincarnation for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC are the highlights of this week’s Japanese video game releases.
Sandra Bullock Shares Never-Before-Seen Photos With Lookalike Sister Gigi
“I am so lucky to have this brilliant soul by my side.”
Beware of spoilers as some fans have reported that Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has broken its street date in some areas
The Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Open Beta came to its conclusion last week. The game is now set to be officially launched on August 6, 2026.Marvel Tokon is set to feature a base roster made up of 20 characters ...
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls releases final trailer featuring a quip-happy Deadpool
The last trailer for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls gives us a look at the
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls' Biggest Secrets Are Already Online
Make mine Marvel, and mute some keywords.
Marvel Tokon PlayStation Plus pack revealed with 'free' bonuses for subscribers
After more than a year since its initial reveal, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is almost here, and the PlayStation 5 version of the game will apparently receive some extra content.PlayStation has announced a special PlayStation Plus Pack for Marvel ...
'Tormented Souls': ZQ, Prime Universe & Longevity Acquire Film Rights
'Tormented Souls': ZQ Entertainment, Prime Universe & Longevity Pictures Acquire Film & TV Rights To Horror Video Game
Xbox Outage Locks Players out of Games and Accounts for Over 12 Hours
Following a similar story relating to PlayStation Account server errors just a few days prior, on the launch of the Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls beta, Xbox has seemingly run into issues during the advanced access launch of Halo: Campaign Evolved. The resulting Xbox outage has resulted in gamers...
Historic Phoenix building once listed in the Green Book is now a launchpad for Black-owned businesses
The Swindall Tourist Inn was once listed in the Green Book. Today, that same building is home to the Afri-Soul Education Center, a community hub where Black-owned businesses are being built.
Can Football Go Global Without Losing Its Soul?
As Sunderland head Stateside, Paul Lee looks at the growing American influence in football — has it gone too far?
Singer Zach Top slams modern country music, says it lacks 'soul'
Zach Top says modern country music sounds "perfect" and has lost its "soul," explaining why bluegrass and raw sounds are resonating with fans now.
I’m using my phone way less, and it’s making me happier
After some soul searching I realised my phone use is absolutely out of control and some changes were needed.
Blue Eyed Soul joins Yates Concert Series July 29
PENN YAN — Blue Eyed Soul brings its blend of 1960s’ and ’70s’ funk, soul, and rock and roll to the Yates Concert Series next week.
Games Workshop: Warhammer+ Adds New Features, Increases Price
Warhammer+ subscribers will receive two minis each year and other new rewards, prompting a subscription price increase.
PlayStation Network down, as tens of thousands of players queue to play Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls newly-launched beta
PlayStation owners trying to get a few hours in during work hours are reporting network issues en masse.
Ranking Members Markey, Velázquez Push to Roll Back Trump Administration’s Discriminatory SBA Lending Policy that Blocks Immigrant Entrepreneurs from Pursuing the American Dream
Bicameral resolution would rescind Trump administration policy banning green card holders from accessing SBA loans Resolution Text (PDF) | One-Pager (PDF) (Washington, July 23) – Ranking Member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and House Small Business Committee Ranking Member Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY-7) today introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to rescind the Trump administration’s policy that bans green card holders from accessing essential Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to start and grow their businesses and invest in Main Streets nationwide. Trump’s SBA restrictions buck decades of precedent, attacking immigrant small business owners who are lawfully in the U.S. with no justification. The Trump administration’s green card holder ban is the most recent escalation of SBA’s draconian citizenship restrictions that are killing jobs and putting the American Dream further out of reach for entrepreneurs. In Fiscal Year 2025, the SBA made an estimated $5.7 billion in loans to green card holders, which supported more than 80,000 American jobs. Ranking Member Markey’s introduction of the CRA resolution follows his introduction of the Investing in the American Dream Act alongside Ranking Member Velázquez earlier this year. The Investing in the American Dream Act would roll back the SBA’s draconian lending restrictions and restore previous SBA lending policies for immigrant entrepreneurs lawfully in the U.S., including green card holders, refugees, and asylees. More than 100 organizations have called for the passage of the legislation and over 60 Massachusetts state legislators have raised concerns about the impact of the citizenship restrictions in their local communities. “Once again, Donald Trump is shutting hardworking immigrants out of the American Dream with his discriminatory and dangerous policies, fear tactics, and violent rhetoric. The anti-small business lending requirements implemented by Trump’s SBA won’t Make America Great Again—they are Making America Hate Again,” said Ranking Member Markey. “I am fighting every single day to roll back Trump’s brazen attempt to steal the American Dream from entrepreneurs in Massachusetts and across the country who enrich our communities, strengthen our Main Streets, and create jobs in the United States.” “Starting and owning your own business is one of the pillars of the American Dream. Under the Trump Administration, the SBA has sought to deny immigrant small business owners and entrepreneurs that dream by preventing them from accessing the capital they need to grow and scale their businesses. Not only is this policy cruel, but it is also self-defeating and holds our country back economically. As Ranking Member of the House Small Business Committee, I will do everything in my power to reverse this terrible policy,” said Ranking Member Velázquez. Massachusetts state legislators applauded Ranking Member Markey’s actions and emphasized the critical contributions of green card holders to Bay State communities and the Commonwealth’s economy. "Green card holders are our neighbors, workers, entrepreneurs, and taxpayers,” said Massachusetts State Senator Adam Gómez (D-Springfield), Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Businesses. “They open restaurants, launch small businesses, create jobs, and contribute every day to the economic strength of Massachusetts. Denying lawful permanent residents access to SBA loan programs doesn't make our economy stronger—it makes it harder for small businesses to succeed. I support this resolution because opportunity should never be limited by unnecessary barriers that prevent hardworking people from investing in their communities and pursuing the American dream." “Senator Markey’s CRA Resolution provides a valuable moment for our federal leaders to show their commitment to small businesses and the American Dream,” said Massachusetts State Representative Andy X. Vargas (D-Haverhill), House Chair of the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Businesses. “The SBA’s recent policy restricting lawful residents from accessing the popular 7(a) and 504 programs has shut out some of the most entrepreneurial and hard-working members of our community from much-need capital. In Massachusetts, these programs have invested millions of dollars into small businesses owned by green card holders, supporting thousands of jobs. This should not be a partisan issue. People who worked hard, have legal status, and contribute so much to their communities via employment and economic impact don’t deserve to be in the crosshairs for political purposes. The Senator’s resolution is a step forward in restoring access to the American Dream that small business owners across the country deserve.” Several small business advocates and stakeholders voiced their support for Ranking Member Markey’s efforts to roll back Trump SBA’s discriminatory lending rules. “Immigrant-owned businesses are the foundation of the American economy. They power our neighborhoods, provide essential services, and employ our loved ones. Yet, systemic hurdles like the Small Business Administration’s citizenship restrictions unfairly block their path to prosperity," said Elizabeth Sweet, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition. "We applaud Senator Markey’s continued leadership and look forward to a future where immigrant entrepreneurs can share their ingenuity without arbitrary restrictions that hold us all back.” “Independent restaurants have always been built by people willing to work hard, take risks, and invest in their communities. When lawfully authorized entrepreneurs lose access to the financing they need to start or grow a business, we all lose. These are the businesses creating jobs, filling storefronts, and strengthening our neighborhoods. Access to capital should help good businesses succeed, and that’s exactly what restoring these SBA loan programs would do,” said Jen Ziskin, Executive Director of Massachusetts Restaurants United. “At the Latino Economic Development Corporation, we see firsthand that access to capital transforms lives, creates jobs, and strengthens neighborhoods. Many of the entrepreneurs we serve are lawful permanent residents who have invested their savings, opened businesses, and employ local residents. Restricting access to SBA financing doesn’t just impact business owners, it limits economic opportunity for entire communities. Main Street succeeds when every qualified entrepreneur has a fair chance to grow,” said Andrew Melendez, CEO and Founder of the Latino Economic Development Corporation. "Immigrants and immigrant-owned businesses are the heart and soul of small business communities in cities and towns throughout the Commonwealth, and across America. Limiting access to these SBA loans not only sends the wrong message about immigration, it will have significant negative economic impact on our small business ecosystem,” said Keith Mahoney, Vice President of Public Affairs at the Boston Foundation. “The SBA’s recent policy changes that prevent Legal Permanent Residents, and other non-citizens from participating in any of the SBA’s valuable programs are changes that are unwelcome, immoral, and antithetical to our purpose, our mission, and our vision for Massachusetts communities and businesses. Immigrant entrepreneurs and others have expressed concern that Common Capital will ‘report them to ICE,’ so loan demand has decreased. There is no valid reason for excluding Legal Permanent Residents and other noncitizens who are lawfully present in the U.S. from accessing the SBA’s programs. Immigrant entrepreneurs start businesses, they create jobs, they support their families and their communities. Our government should be in the business of encouraging their full participation in our economy,” said Raymond Lanza-Weil, President of Common Capital. "ECCHO-Latino now represents over 400 educators and 300 microbusinesses across Massachusetts, where immigrants make up 60% of the childcare workforce. When a green card holder is ready to grow her business—from expanding her home child care to opening a center—she shouldn't be turned away by local banks simply because of federal citizenship rules. Blocking access to SBA loans kills opportunity and deepens our state's childcare crisis. ECCHO-Latino strongly supports Senator Markey and Representative Velázquez in passing this resolution to put Main Street first," said Harold Antonio Blanco, Co-Founder & Executive Director of ECCHO-Latino Inc. "This is exactly how political ideology ruins an economy. Washington has taken lawful, tax-paying entrepreneurs who live in our communities, invest in America, and hire American workers, and declared their businesses ineligible for critical financing simply because a green card holder owns even a fraction of the company. Using policies ostensibly aimed at illegal immigration to punish lawful permanent residents is nothing short of ideological overreach and economic self-sabotage. The SBA exists to help viable small businesses grow, rather than imposing nativist tests that ignore an entrepreneur’s credit history, business plan, or ability to create jobs. When the federal government closes the door on qualified entrepreneurs, they’re also closing the door on American entrepreneurship and on American workers, while handing future companies, jobs, innovation, and investment to our competitors. America should be competing to attract people who want to invest and build here, not creating arbitrary barriers that drive their talent and capital elsewhere,” said Javier Palomarez, President and CEO of the United States Hispanic Business Council (USHBC). "The U.S. Small Business Administration's decision to prohibit legal permanent residents, including green card holders, from accessing SBA-backed loans has the potential for disastrous consequences that could reverberate throughout America's economy for years to come. After all, immigrants are twice as likely to start small businesses as U.S.-born individuals. Congress must overturn rules requiring the SBA to block legal permanent residents from accessing lending resources because so many of the entrepreneurs who drive job creation in this country were born outside the United States," said John Arensemeyer, Founder and CEO of Small Business Majority. “NCRC supports the Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn SBA’s citizenship restrictions that bar green-card holders from receiving the 7(a) and 504 loans. When qualified entrepreneurs are denied access to SBA loans, all of Main Street gets hurt. Communities lose jobs. Neighborhoods lose services. Local economies lose the opportunity to build wealth and shrink disparities,” said Jesse Van Tol, President & CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC). “We cannot afford to have the American Dream out of reach for hard-working, immigrant small business owners.” “Asian Americans and Asian immigrants have been integral in building local economies. They create businesses, jobs, and opportunities in communities across the country that benefit everyone. Lawful permanent residents pay taxes, invest in their communities, and strengthen Main Street, yet the SBA's discriminatory citizenship restrictions unfairly deny them access to the same tools that help small businesses grow and succeed. We applaud congressional leaders for advancing this resolution to overturn the latest restrictions on SBA lending for green card holders, and we urge lawmakers to also pass the Investing in the American Dream Act to fully restore access to SBA loan programs for all eligible people in the United States. Ensuring that immigrant-owned small businesses have a fair opportunity to access capital is essential to building a stronger, more inclusive economy that works for all,” said Joanna Derman, Director of Anti-Profiling, Civil Rights and National Security at Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC). "Immigrant-owned businesses often turn to SBA 7(a) and 504 loans because they face higher denial rates from traditional lenders,” said Imani Augustus, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Opportunity. "These programs provide the capital they need to expand operations, hire workers, and invest in their businesses. Reversing the ban on lawful permanent residents is a critical first step toward ensuring these financing tools are accessible to everyone strengthening their communities through entrepreneurship. We applaud this action and urge Congress to fully restore access by passing the Investing in the American Dream Act.” "Last year, nearly 5,700 SBA loans worth $5.7 billion went to businesses owned by green card holders, supporting more than 80,000 jobs. These are entrepreneurs who have put down roots here, hired their neighbors, and invested in the communities they call home. Barring them from capital doesn't protect Main Street—it starves it. What should matter is the strength of a business and its potential to grow, not the immigration status of its owner. This resolution doesn’t eliminate all the citizenship restrictions in SBA’s policy change, but it’s a step toward restoring a commonsense principle that stood for more than 30 years," said Howard Wial, Director of Research at ICIC. "I'm encouraged to see Congress moving to reopen access to capital for green card holders, a key tool for small business survival. Green card holders accounted for an estimated 5,700 SBA loans in Fiscal Year 2025, worth $5.7 billion and supporting more than 80,000 jobs across the country. That capital is often what keeps a business operating through its toughest stretches when cash flow gets tight. When qualified entrepreneurs lose access to that capital over their immigration status rather than their ability to repay a loan, it's the local economy that pays the price,” said Small Business for America's Future Co-Chair Shaundell Newsome, Founder of Sumnu Marketing. “Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, and entrepreneurs —including green card holders — take risks every day to build businesses, create jobs, and strengthen communities. SBA loan programs should be administered with clear, consistent standards that safeguard public resources while ensuring these programs remain focused on supporting eligible entrepreneurs and job creators. This resolution responds to the opportunity to support all entrepreneurs and preserve the integrity of federally supported lending programs. We applaud the introduction of this resolution and remain committed to policies that strengthen small businesses, promote economic growth, and maintain confidence in these vital lending programs,” said Carolina Martinez, CEO of CAMEO Network. “National CAPACD wholeheartedly supports the introduction of this resolution aimed at overturning the SBA's misguided policy prohibiting immigrants from accessing the 7(a) and 504 loan programs. As a coalition, we are committed to creating systems, organizations, and societies that are fair and just. We believe we and our economy are stronger when we uplift our rich and diverse communities. Access to capital helps small businesses create jobs, build wealth, and strengthen neighborhoods. Restoring this pathway is an important first step toward ensuring immigrant entrepreneurs can continue to grow their businesses and contribute positively to our economy as a whole. We urge Congress to build on this momentum by passing the Investing in the American Dream Act, which would fully restore fair access to safe and affordable credit and uphold our commitment to a fair economy that works for everyone,” said Seema Agnani, CEO of National CAPACD. Ranking Member Markey is fighting for small business owners and immigrants that rely on SBA loans to start and run their businesses, create jobs, and contribute to their communities. In May, Ranking Member Markey highlighted the significant contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs in Massachusetts and across the country and condemned the Trump administration’s repeated attacks on immigrant communities at a Small Business Committee hearing. MIRA’s Elizabeth Sweet, who participated in Ranking Member Markey’s listening session earlier in May, provided testimony at the hearing. Also in May, Ranking Member Markey hosted a listening session at the Urban College of Boston to hear directly from several Massachusetts immigrant small business owners, lenders, and chambers of commerce how President Trump’s cruel and callous anti-immigrant policies are hurting Main Streets in the Bay State. Earlier in May, Ranking Member Markey hosted a press conference alongside Ranking Member Velázquez, Democratic lawmakers, and stakeholders to condemn the Trump administration’s harmful anti-immigrant lending policies and to introduce the Investing in the American Dream Act. In March, Ranking Member Markey released a comprehensive report detailing the harms to small business owners, workers, and consumers caused by the Trump administration’s ICE raids in communities across the country. In February, Ranking Member Markey introduced the Small Business ICE Disruption Fund Act, which would provide grants to small businesses that have been impacted by the Trump administration’s violent immigration enforcement actions on Main Streets across the United States. Earlier in February, Ranking Member Markey, Ranking Member Velázquez, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) sent a letter urging the SBA to rescind their lending rule change that bars legal permanent residents from receiving SBA loans. Previously, Ranking Members Markey and Velázquez released a statement condemning the actions of the SBA after it announced that small businesses with legal permanent residents will be barred from receiving SBA loans. In December 2025, Ranking Member Markey and all Democratic members of the Senate Small Business Committee sent a letter to the SBA reiterating concerns with the SBA’s citizenship requirements and highlighting a drop in SBA lending volume. In September 2025, Ranking Member Markey heard directly from SBA lenders about the issues with the citizenship verification requirements. In July 2025, Ranking Members Markey and Velázquez sent a letter to the SBA expressing serious concerns with the agency’s new, draconian citizenship verification requirements that require small businesses seeking SBA loans to be 100% owned by U.S. citizens, nationals, and legal permanent residents. SBA has not responded to the letter. ###
Soulslike action RPG FOUNTAINS coming to PS5, Xbox Series, and Switch in 2026 alongside new DLC
Publisher Crunching Koalas and developer John Pywell will release Soulslike action RPG FOUNTAINS for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and Switch in 2026 alongside a new downloadable content, the compani…
Warhammer 40K Next Week: Exodites Join Kill Team, Plus Heresy Squads
Elves AND Dinos? In this economy? It's time for big Exodite Kill Team boxed set, plus other new Kill Teams, and Horus Heresy Squads.
Cleveland Cavaliers, Black CoLabs, NAACP Cleveland and Aramark Sports + Entertainment Crown Six Black Owned Businesses Winners at A Taste of Black Cleveland 8.0
Cleveland Cavaliers, Black CoLabs, NAACP Cleveland and Aramark Sports + Entertainment named Freshlyfe, House of Creole, Kake Kutters, Mama Joyce’s Soul Food,...
Peace Center 2026-27 schedule includes neo-soul, gravity-defying shows
Shows for the upcoming Peace Center season will run from Sept. 2, 2026 through June 2, 2027.
Peace Center 2026-27 schedule includes neo-soul, gravity-defying shows
Shows for the upcoming Peace Center season will run from Sept. 2, 2026 through June 2, 2027.
New Soulslike from the Pokémon team is confusing, challenging, and such a blast
Act like you know what you're doing
Gossip: Sunderland among four clubs keen on Muharemovic
Sassuolo defender Tarik Muharemovic remains a target for Premier League clubs with Sunderland, Newcastle, Leeds and Bournemouth all keen on the 23-year-old Bosnia-Herzegovina international. Corriere dello Sport via Football Italia) Meanwhile, the Black Cats are aiming to make Roma's 23-year-old Argentine winger Matias Soule their first signing of the summer. He is valued at about 35m euros (£30m) (Northern Echo)
TennoCon 2026: Everything Announced at the Warframe and Soulframe Fan Event
Here's everything announced at TennoCon 2026, including all the latest news and trailers on Warframe and Soulframe.
'Soulframe': Sign Up by July 13 for "Unlimited Play Until Official Launch"
©Digital ExtremesTo celebrate TennoCon 2026, Digital Extremes is granting permanent access to the pre-alpha 'Preludes' phase of its new fantasy action RPG, 'Soulframe.Previous...
Entertainment this week: Wild Soul Festival, The Illeagles and more
Friday, July 10 Cowgirls + Cocktails – 5-7 p.m., Alder Creek Adventure Center. Cowgirls and cowboys are invited to gather for an early evening trail ride followed by a social hour with beer, wine and...
West Atlanta organizers gather to preview Healthy Soul & Mental Health Fest Atlanta
‘SOULM8TE’ director talks ‘M3GAN’ spinoff’s return as digital release (exclusive)
‘SOULM8TE’ director Kate Dolan talks about the ‘M3GAN’ spinoff’s return as a digital release. ‘There’s such an audience for this movie, whether it be at home or in the theater.’
“M3GAN” spinoff “SOULM8TE” boots back up: Director talks erotic thriller’s new life as a digital release (exclusive)
“There’s such an audience for this movie, whether it be at home or in the theater,” Kate Dolan tells EW.
Soul-Crushing R-Rated Comedy Will Break You If You’re Not Ready For It
A brutally honest look at the lonely reality of life on the road, this bleak drama is essential viewing for stand-up comedy fans.
George Johnson, pioneering Black entrepreneur, dies at 99
George Johnson, whose hair-care empire was the first Black-owned company on the American Stock Exchange, aided the rise of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the dance show "Soul Train."
George E. Johnson, Who Built a Black Hair-Care Empire, Dies at 99
Mr. Johnson’s hair product company, a longtime sponsor of “Soul Train,” was the first Black-owned company listed on a major American stock exchange.
Marvel Tokon Blocked in 132 Countries, and It Looks Like PSN Requirements Are to Blame
PlayStation and Arc System Works' Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has been blocked in 132 countries in what appears to be another example of Sony's PSN requirements barring players from access on Steam.
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is blocked in 132 countries due to Sony's controversial PSN linking requirement – but its Steam page is still visible
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is blocked in 132 countries, once again due to Sony's controversial PSN linking requirements.
The ‘Weight’ of a Nation: St. Augustine, Dante, and the Soul of American Politics
COMMENTARY: On America's 250th birthday, remember we were made by God to receive love ourselves, and to show love to others.
Preview: Lights on the Lake fireworks show in Sherman
Sherman’s Lights on the Lake event kicks off Thursday at Pecan Grove West Park with free admission and parking. Enjoy food vendors, live music by Collective Soul starting at 7:45 p.m., and an 18-minute fireworks show at 9:30 p.m. Bring umbrellas or shade, but remove them during the concert.
'Legally Blonde' prequel 'Elle' is soulless and senseless
In the seminal 2001 comedy "Legally Blonde," our young fair-haired heroine Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) is a kind-hearted yet naive valley girl who trades beach days for study sessions as
Guns Of Eschaton Is A Western Soulslike FPS Envisioned By The Late Artist Of Half-Life 2 And Dishonored
The late Victor Antonov envisioned this occult spin on 19th century America.
Al-Diriyah join race for Soule who remains unconvinced
Matias Soulé’s future seems far from Rome. Regardless of what happens by tomorrow, the Argentine winger is expected to leave the capital, as the Giallorossi have clear ideas about who will play in ...
Running through challenges: Elite runner returns to Missoula Half Marathon after health complications
Abby Rodseth finished as the 11th woman in the Missoula Half Marathon, completing an emotional return to competitive running.
Juventus hold exploratory talks for Soule’s return
Matias Soulé is among the candidates to leave Roma in the coming days and be sacrificed on the altar of capital gains. The Argentine winger isn’t pushing to leave; on the contrary, he’s stalling....
PlayStation Will Continue To Push Live Service Games Despite Evident Challenges, While Teasing A PlayStation 6 Handheld
Hideaki Nishino doubles down on live services like MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls while teasing a PlayStation 6 handheld.
Lords of the Fallen II delayed to Q1 2027
Publisher CI Games and developer Hexworks have delayed Soulslike action RPG Lords of the Fallen II from its previously planned fall 2026 release window to Q1 2027. It will be available for PlayStat…
Souls and songs take flight in circus musical 'Water for Elephants'
A national tour of the 2023 musical tours to Madison this week, combining a memory play, circus acts and a bluegrass-style score.
This Spirited New Puzzle Platformer Puts A Clever Spin On Celeste
Tethergeist is a clever spin on a familiar genre, with a parade of new and interesting ideas giving it a soul all its own
Jonathan Weber’s 'City on the Edge' Chronicles Decades-Long Battles Over Tech, Politics and the Soul of San Francisco
Weber tells the story of a war waged for the heart of San Francisco that has had an impact far beyond the city’s famed Golden Gates.
How can Jelly Roll be getting divorced?
Jelly Roll has filed for divorce from Bunnie XO, the woman we all thought was his soulmate. Is there hope for any of us?
The Relic: First Guardian launches July 31 for PS5 and PC, later this summer for Xbox Series and Switch 2
Dark fantasy Soulslike action RPG The Relic: First Guardian will launch for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam on July 31, followed by Xbox Series and Switch 2l later this summer, publisher Perp Games …
Mind, Body, Soul: Self-Care Is Health care Community Health Day
Ethan Temple Seventh-day Adventist Church invites residents throughout the Miami Valley and surrounding communities to attend its “Mind, Body, Soul: Self-Care Is Healthcare: Community Health Day” on Saturday, July 25, 2026, at Ethan Temple SDA Church, 4000 Shiloh Springs Road, Clayton, Ohio 45315.The free community event is designed to promote holistic wellness by addressing physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health while connecting individuals and families with valuable healthcare and community resources.The day opens with Morning Worship at 11:00 a.m., featuring guest speaker Alberta Scruggs, a licensed registered dietitian and nutritionist, who will share practical guidance on nutrition, self-care, and healthy living. Following the service, attendees will enjoy refreshments and a light lunch before taking part in the afternoon's health screenings, community resource fair, and wellness-focused activities.From 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., attendees will have access to free health screenings provided through a partnership with Premier Health, along with information and resources from local health and human service organizations.A Community Health Fair from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. will feature representatives from several organizations such as Black Women’s Health Initiative, CareSource, and many more.Recognizing the growing importance of emotional wellness, the event will also feature a Mental Health Panel Discussion from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. led by respected professionals in behavioral health and counseling. The panel will provide an opportunity for open conversation, education, and community engagement around mental health awareness, treatment, and support.In addition to health services and educational opportunities, attendees will receive complimentary lunch bags while supplies last, and school supplies will be distributed to students and families while supplies last.The Community Health Day is open to the public and free of charge. No registration is required.
Elden Ring Director Insists FromSoftware Is Free to Make the Games It Wants To, Teases 'Unannounced Titles'
Dark Souls and Elden Ring creator Hidetaka Miyazaki recently commented on the shareholder pressure that is putting FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa in the news lately. Reassuring fans, he insisted that Fromsoftware can still “freely make the kind of games we want to make without excessive interference."
FromSoftware Shareholders Push for More Sequels, But President Wants to Create "Valuable Games"
FromSoftware president is standing by his approach, despite pressure from shareholders for more sequels to the studio’s most popular games.
One of fall's coolest games has been delayed to October to avoid a September crush
Last Sunday, a trailer that aired during an online Xbox event showed Valor Mortis, an upcoming action game that re-imagines the age of Napoleonic wars as a conflict with the plague-ridden undead. It’s a first-person game that mixes Dark Souls-style combat with parkour—it’s from the developers of the acclaimed, fast-paced cyberpunk wall-running Ghostrunner games—and a setting like nothing else that’s out there. Valor Mortis’ trailer concluded with a release date: September 24. But by the time it aired, the teams behind the game knew that was no longer Valor Mortis’ release date. Days ago, they’d learned the hard way that September 24 would be untenable and that they’d have to change it. Today, they’ve announced a new one, October 13, after speaking to Game File about getting out of the bind they recently found themselves in. “When we picked September 24th, it looked like a very, very clear date,” Blake Rochkind, head of publisher Lyrical Games, told me during an impromptu interview on Monday in Los Angeles. “Very quickly it became not such a clear date.” Lyrical and development studio One More Level had a feeling the deate might need to change, Rochkind recalled. But they had to lock in September 24 “many, many weeks” ago. Really, though, who could know if that was the right call when they made it? “There were so many unknowns,” Rochkind said. “This was before Sony State of Play, before Xbox Showcase, before Nintendo Direct, before Summer Games Fest.” Then on Tuesday, June 2, during a PlayStation showcase held just five days before their planned release date reveal, things changed. “As soon as Control announced September 24th, we knew we were moving the date.” It wasn’t just the PlayStation showcase reveal of the release date for Remedy’s upcoming third-person thriller. There were others. And changing their own trailer this close to its airing, Rochkind would later tell me, wasn’t possible.
Fire would love to be part of the battle for Chicago’s sporting soul
Sporting director Gregg Broughton has big ambitions for the Chicago Fire to be a major player in the Windy City.
Mike Brown Explains What Makes Jalen Brunson So Special
When Mike Brown was hired as the head coach of the New York Knicks, he knew that he had a special talent waiting for him at Madison Square Garden, someone whom he had watched from afar with amazement for many years. That would be Jalen Brunson, the Knicks' All-Star point guard and heart and soul of ...
SeaWorld San Diego Summer Concert Series Returns for 2026
Ashanti, Bow Wow, Soulja Boy and more headline SeaWorld San Diego’s Summer Spectacular Concert Series through Aug. 29.
Crossfire Is a Single Player PS5 Shooter with Soul from Ex-Naughty Dog Devs
Friends close, enemies closer
Presidential museum showcases political and personal sides of Obama with sprawling community campus
The Obama Presidential Center opens to the general public on Juneteenth after a celebratory dedication in Chicago with dignitaries.
Why Anna Faris thought she'd never do another 'Scary Movie': 'A concession of my soul'
Anna Faris never thought she'd return to the 'Scary Movie' franchise, fearing 'a concession of my soul.' Now, she tells EW that coming back as Cindy Campbell after 20 years has been a 'huge gift.'
The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science
With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!
Summer concert series returns to Mount Gretna Tabernacle
The Mount Gretna Summer Concert series returns for another season of tributes to icons of pop, rock, country and soul.
Aston Villa and Brighton enquire about Roma’s Matias Soule
Serie A side Roma have to make key sales before the end of June and Matias Soule is one of the candidates who can leave the club. The attacking midfielder didn’t quite make an impact in the second ...
Local sports loses ‘heart, soul, voice’ and a friend
Old-timers called him the “heart, soul and voice” of Hazleton-area sports, and they weren’t wrong. I called Ron Marchetti my friend. Separated by a generation but bonded by an unabashed, unwavering love of faith, family, friends, com…
Dozens of Oakland sports events to catch in June
With World Cup watch parties, the Roots and the Soul on a roll, and the Falcons and Spiders chasing ultimate frisbee championships, it's a packed month .
John Cornyn spent years building the GOP. MAGA tore him down.
It’s a loss for the Republican establishment, which viewed the brutal Texas Senate runoff as a battle for the soul of the party.
New Twitch suspension draws attention to ambiguous rules
It seems like the list is about to grow when it comes to bodyparts you can't show when streaming Dark Souls III on Twitch.
Mind and Soul Festival brings mental health resources to Augusta community
The event featured vendors with resources to help neighbors take care of their minds and bodies.
Mocs Sole Support Gives Back During Public Health Week
Every year during National Public Health Week, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Public Health Student Association (PHSA) aims to educate the campus community on a variety of health topics. Mocs Sole Support allowed students to drop off shoes and clothing for donation to the local nonprofits Soles4Souls and First Things First.
Bill Nye Says 'It's Still Hard to Grasp' the Impact of His Beloved Science Show: 'Put My Heart and Soul into It' (Exclusive)
'Bill Nye the Science Guy' premiered in 1993 and ran until 1998 on PBS, later becoming a staple across classrooms in the country
Spotify Brings Nashville’s Songwriting Community Together for Mental Health Summit
Spotify recently welcomed songwriters, artists, executives, and music students to Nashville for a Mental Health & Songwriter Summit. The event was an extension of our ongoing Heart & Soul, Mental Health for Creators initiative, which offers tools, care, and space to reflect on the emotional side of creative life. The summit at Belmont University’s Fisher...
2026 KPAX-Scheels Sports Awards: Valley Christian's Carys Walker and Nick Karvandi
It's time for the annual KPAX-Scheels Sports Awards, and we begin to reveal our nominees from the high schools in Missoula, starting with Carys Walker and Nick Karvandi of Valley Christian.
Calendar Pick: Weaver D’s Food & Entertainment Festival
Athens’ beloved soul food restaurant Weaver D’s Fine Foods closed its doors at the end of February, but the community will still come together in its name for Weaver D’s Food & Entertainment Festival. The festival theme is “Automatic For The People,” the restaurant’s famous slogan that put it on the map when R.E.M. used it as an album title in 1992. Attendees can enjoy a variety of food options, including but not limited to Londynn’s Lemonade, Taylor’s Treats and Ron & Sandra’s Fish Shack. Dexter Weaver, Weaver D’s owner, will also be serving the restaurant’s full menu. Entertainment will include the New Faith Tabernacle Male Chorus, Lavender House, Mr. Mister, The PRESHA Steppas, Old Gold Sport Peppers, Smackedass, Tonya […]
Knicks fans completely take over Philadelphia local broadcast, too
The Philadelphia 76ers have some soul-searching to do after being swept out of the 2026 NBA Playoffs by the rival New York Knicks. Adding insult to injury, Knicks fans completely took over the Sixers’ home arena, Xfinity Mobile Arena, despite players pleading with the Philly faithful not to let that happen. And if getting swept…
Tanner Thomason gives talks about the latest in entertainment headlines
He chats with Alyse about The Migos, Amber Rose and Tyla. Watch Side Dish on Fox Soul and Youtube
Sports Exchange owners mark 10 years in Missoula
While the Sports Exchange has been around for 43 years in the community, its current owners have just hit 10 years at the helm.
May 7 Vallejo/Vacaville Arts-Entertainment Source: Activities
Mother’s Day Soulful Expedience with Askari, is set for Friday, 8 p.m., at the Vallejo Museum, 734 Marin St.
Leaker claims Dark Souls trilogy remake in development
Shirrako, a leaker with a relatively unknown track record, has stated on X that Bandai Namco is preparing a Dark Souls trilogy remake for undisclosed platforms. A release window was not reported…
Warhammer 40K Next Week: Kill Team Gets The Red Terror
It's a big week for Kill Team fans. A new boxed set brings two new Kill Teams and the Red Terror to your tabletop!
The Trump Administration Casts Out the ‘Soul’ of MAHA
The withdrawal of Casey Means’s nomination for surgeon general is the latest blow to the movement.
This Neurosurgeon Studies the Brain Close to Death. He Believes the Soul Transcends the Body.
Does your brain really reveal the metaphysical? Here’s what brain science can—and cannot—tell us about immortality.
Madrid Locals Are Fighting to Preserve the City’s Soul
As the city morphs into a luxury tourist destination, struggling small businesses are pushing to retain the character that drew many tourists in the first place.