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Nashville health officials approved nearly 400 tattoo festival permits in 4 hours
Nashville health officials issued nearly 400 permits to tattoo artists, body piercers, and technicians in just four hours for the 2026 Villain Arts Tattoo Festival.
Health and Safety at the Villain Arts Tattoo Festival in Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE--The City of Milwaukee Health Department spent an afternoon inspecting over 300 artists at the Villain Arts Tattoo Festival in Milwaukee. MHD is
Opinion | Screens Are Not the Problem
If we make screens the villain, then we let the people who control children’s health care — Congress, insurers and health systems — off the hook for their failures.
Zuckerberg's image is in trouble - but Meta's business is booming
A new film paints the Meta founder as a villain. But the tech firm seems immune to bad publicity, writes our North America tech correspondent.
We have to take emotion out of Saints derby
Pompey midfielder Ebou Adams says there is a fine line between becoming the hero or the villain against Southampton.
I’m actually going to go for Sandro Tonali
We invited a number of regular/irregular contributors to The Mag to give us their Newcastle United heroes and villains. Our thanks to Aaron Gales for taking up the challenge.
Saoirse Ronan addresses husband Jack Lowden’s 007 rumors after admitting she wants to play a Bond villain
Saoirse Ronan discussed her husband Jack Lowden’s rumored new 007 role after admitting she’d love to play a Bond villain one day.
The Newcastle United heroes and villains of the 2020s
Here at The Mag we invited a number of regular/irregular contributors to give us their Newcastle United heroes and villains. Our thanks to David Hutchinson (you can hear Hutch every week on The Mag Podcast, along with Simon and Jamie, discussing all things NUFC) for taking up the challenge.
Sports quiz of the week: winners, losers, prodigies, heroes, villains and rivals
Have you been watching football, chess, cricket, rugby, motor racing, hockey, boxing, table tennis and horse racing?
Comic Fans Flock to Ninth Annual IV Entertainment Convention
Heroes and villains came to life at the ninth annual Imperial Valley Entertainment Convention, as attendees got the chance to meet artists and voice actors and have fun dressing up like their favorite fictional characters.
Primetime Review: That’s Entertainment?
If you decide to see Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime, it’s important to remember the title as you watch. Yes, this is a biopic of sorts about Chris Hansen and his work on To Catch a Predator, but it is more accurately about the quest for fame and using people’s trauma to attract ratings. True crime entertainment continues to have a prominent place in many people’s television habits, and this film asks us to examine what that means both for those whose stories have become our viewing pleasure and those of us watching. Primetime starts as Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) is told that his show, To Catch a Predator, is moving to a 9 PM spot opposite LOST. Chris and his producer, Andie (Merritt Wever), see this as an opportunity to make the program even more sensational, looking for bigger, more horrific predators. As part of their plan, they hire a young actor, Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo), to play “Decoy Dan,” the person who greets the would-be predators who were catfished by Xavier Von Erck (Matthew Maher). Oppenheim, along with writers Ajon Singh and Luke Dittrich, is less concerned with an accurate retelling of the show as much as they are interested in interrogating the why of it all. That decision sometimes leaves Primetime feeling less like a biopic and more like a satirical look at the nature of programming like this. Visually, the movie is impressive. Oppenheim uses light and color effectively to cast Hansen as both villain and savior. Pattinson plays Hansen in an almost comical manner, as we see him wake his two young sons to watch a clip of the show, just to brag that he was moving into a prime spot on television. Even Andie struggles to accept a “nice” job when there is so much more fame to be found producing salacious true-crime content. Wever does an excellent job showing how the hunger for fame is not just in front of the camera, but in every aspect of the production. The heart of the movie, and the standout performance, belongs to Gisondo as Dan Plum. He is someone who just wants to get enough hours to be admitted into the Screen Actors Guild, and stumbles into this job without really knowing what it is. Throughout the film, we watch him suffer one trauma after another, ending with him witnessing the suicide of a District Attorney who is about to become the next unwitting star of Hansen’s show. If there is a sympathetic character in Primetime, it is Decoy Dan, and Gisondo plays him brilliantly. If you’re a fan of programming like To Catch a Predator, then Primetime will probably make you feel uncomfortable, and I think it’s worth sitting with that feeling and examining why we turn on shows that display the worst of humanity while we judge from our couches. Yes, it is correct to want to see people who would hurt children brought to justice, but perhaps it shouldn’t be something that we watch as entertainment. Rating: 3.5/5 This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on September 25, 2026. MacGuffin or Meaning: Film & TV Reviews and Reflections is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
The NCAA used to be the villain. Now Congress wants it back in charge
Originally, politicians wanted college athletes to make money. As it turns out, just not that much money.
The Trump Admin Is Airing Yet Another Taxpayer-Funded Political Ad
The video, originally from Trump's 2024 campaign, shows the president vowing to destroy "villains" with the disclaimer, "Paid for by the U.S. Government."
The entertainment value of cruelty
Ariana Grande's body has been the hot topic for the last few months, as it is for most women celebrities, but the commentary isn't as much focused on her body as it is on her ethics. Her apparent thinness has branded her a victim, a villain, a case to be analyzed, diagnosed, and ridiculed. Cruelty online is rampant; we all know this. But why?
Parasites, often seen as villains, may help shape gut and metabolic health
Blastocystis has long been viewed mainly as a marker of parasitic infection. Emerging research suggests that its presence is not necessarily linked to disease, but may instead reflect greater microbial diversity and metabolic health in certain contexts.
American turn to villain costumes to protest city cameras
What do Darth Vader, Dr. Doom, and The Lorax have in common? People have dressed up as them to protest license-plate reader cameras and data centers.
They’re the Greatest Political Villains in America. Trump Can’t Stop Talking About Them. I Went Into Their Shadowy Lair.
“It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or even 9/11,” Trump declared.
Cody Fern says he was cast as a ‘Jared Kushner type’ villain on ‘House of Cards’ before the show imploded
‘American Horror Story’ actor Cody Fern says he was cast as a ‘Jared Kushner type’ villain on ‘House of Cards’ season 6 before the show imploded amid the firing of Kevin Spacey.
Steve Bannon, Bernie Sanders and when AI becomes the super villain
The unlikely duo from opposite sides of the political spectrum will share the stage at a D.C. rally. The strange bedfellows have slammed AI "oligarchs."
Steve Bannon, Bernie Sanders and when AI becomes the super villain
From opposite sides of the political spectrum, Sen.
Instant Canadiens Analysis: Former Villain Kreider A Smart Addition
The Montreal Canadiens shocked many fans on Saturday, announcing the signature of a relatively unlikely target, forward Chris Kreider. Kreider, […]
Heroes Of The Storm Gets First New Character In Six Years, Arriving Later This Month
World of Warcraft: Midnight's villain is arriving later this month. - Game Informer
Sharon Stone 'nearly died' after 'Basic Instinct' role, she says
Sharon Stone says "darkness" came into her life after her villainous role in "Basic Instinct."
Jodie Sweetin is unrecognizable as evil sorcerer queen in ‘Vampirina’ season 2 (exclusive)
Jodie Sweetin talks to EW exclusively about her wild transformation into a wicked — and unrecognizable — villain for season 2 of Disney Channel’s ‘Vampirina.’
"Be in the TV Business": ESPN’s Paul Finebaum Changes Stance and Publicly Sides With $91M Head Coach
Paul Finebaum watched Lane Kiffin shift from college football’s problem to its new draw after one night in Baton Rouge. LSU head coach had been the villain in the eligibility fight before the 2026 season began, but now that same story is being sold as must-watch TV now.
“Really Angered Phillies Fans” – Philadelphia Sports Reporter Bemoans Ronald Acuna Jr.’s ‘Curtain Call’ After HR in Braves Comeback Win
NBC Philadelphia sports anchor and Phillies analyst John Clark explained why Braves right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. became a villain in the eyes of Phillies fans after his heroics on Sunday night, which helped Atlanta complete a dramatic comeback at Citizens Bank Park.
Dolly Parton was up for Faye Dunaway’s villain role in “Supergirl”
The “9 to 5” actress discussed potentially playing the “witch” character in a resurfaced 1982 interview.
Lane Kiffin Shades Clemson After Dominant LSU Debut Win
The Lane Kiffin era at Louisiana State is off to an emphatic start.The #11 Tigers dominated all three facets of the game against Clemson in a 51-10 route in Baton Rouge on Saturday night.The 51-year-old has been a longtime villain in the college football world, and is continuing to embrace it at this moment.Kiffin Shades […] The post Lane Kiffin Shades Clemson After Dominant LSU Debut Win appeared first on HEAVY.
Built-in backlash: Musk’s toxicity complicates his return to politics
Jen Psaki looks at how Elon Musk's tone deafness on issues like data centers and his evident antisemitism, not to mention his image as a villain to many Americans since his disastrous implementation of DOGE at the start of Trump's second term, makes him a likely political liability for Republicans even as he hopes to help them financially. Jesse Lehrich and Rob Flaherty, co-hosts of the "Nobody Knows Anything" show, join to discuss.
The 30 greatest movie and TV villains of all time
These characters are a little too good at being bad. From chilling killers to scene-stealing schemers, EW looks back at 30 of the most unforgettable villains in movie and TV history.
Phoenix Suns Are Being Slept on According to Former Rival
Infamous franchise villain Robert Horry defies skeptics, betting on a deep roster and elite youth movement to propel Phoenix toward a surprising top-four Western Conference finish.
Kyle Chandler and ‘Lanterns’ team liken Sinestro reveal to Hannibal Lecter
‘Lanterns’ Sinestro became the Hannibal Lecter of the HBO series. Kyle Chandler and the creators explain how they incorporated the classic DC Comics villain.
Sports Media Pod: From tennis star to movie villian, Andy Roddick’s Hollywood adventure
On this week’s Sports Media Podcast, SBJ’s Rob Schaefer draws out a side of Andy Roddick that fans rarely get to see. He shares stories from filming The Dink, working with actor Jake Johnson, and hearing his kids’ reactions to his over-the-top villain role.
Michael Cohen, Trump's former fixer-turned-enemy, is hosting the president on his radio show
President Donald Trump is expected to make a public reunion with the man who once called him a “Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain” and testified against him both in court and before Congress.
'X-Men' lures Adam Driver as archvillain, 'Obsession' star Inde Navarrette
ANAHEIM, Calif. — The X-Men are finally assembling in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with a surprising archvillain.
'X-Men' movie recruits Adam Driver as Marvel's archvillain Mr. Sinister
ANAHEIM, Calif. — The X-Men are finally assembling in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Marvel's 'X-Men' movie recruits Adam Driver as archvillain Mr. Sinister
ANAHEIM, Calif. — The X-Men are finally assembling in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Aston Martin's Latest Special Supercar Is A V12 Villain
With 838 horsepower on tap, Aston Martin's Valen is the world's most powerful front-engine production car.
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ villain Tramell Tillman reveals what was ‘frustrating’ about his role
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ villain Tramell Tillman says this one thing about the Marvel movie was ‘frustrating.’
Seedy K’s Preseason Prattle: Oligarchs, Senators & Cards’ Greatest Villain
The oligarchs who run college football met this week to begin to perhaps decide the future of the sport. How to maximize revenue. Especially for the oligarchiest among them, Big Ten, SEC and that school Paul Hornung attended. They met virtually. Though the meeting was originally set for the new Four Seasons Resort at Del […]
Snyder's Soapbox: Yes, the Dodgers are a villain, and that's good for MLB
Any form of entertainment is more fun when there's a bad guy
Dillon Brooks signs extension with Suns
Dillon Brooks' agitator role as the self-proclaimed villain played a part in the Phoenix Suns' cultural shift and playoff appearance in 2025-26.
The Beauty Of Settled Science
Commenters convinced me I made a subtle mis-step in my framing of Psychology Research Is Mostly Fine. My framing emphasized that social priming studies had failed to replicate, but that many other subfields of psychology hadn’t. This naturally led commenters to point to failed replications in other subfields. Although none of these were as bad as social priming, few or none were entirely problem-free. Instead of emphasizing the difference between social priming and other subfields, I should have emphasized the difference between settled science and novel research. Here are some of my favorite psychology findings: The brain is sculpted by reinforcement learning, and a key driver of this learning is a prediction-error-based algorithm located in the nucleus accumbens and implemented through dopamine. Psychedelic drugs exert their effects through 5-HT2A receptors, pointing to a role for these receptors in some sort of construct like the balance between priors and new evidence. Certain cognitive functions are localized to certain brain areas (for example, impulse control to the frontal lobes; linguistic structure to Broca’s area, linguistic meaning to Wernicke’s area. But injure one of these areas, or render a certain function useless (eg a blind person having no more use for their visual cortex), and these mappings can gradually shift - suggesting that neurons are general-purpose compute whose specialization is a contingent fact about convenience and efficiency rather than a necessity. Most personality traits and general capabilities are about 50% genetic and 50% random, with little role for family environment or childhood history, with a few notable exceptions like partisan preference. Recent research complicates this story, but the further you go from this basic picture, the gnarlier the chains of indirect causation you require. Neurons fire together in “brain waves”, whose exact frequency corresponds with the character of consciousness; These divide neurons into natural subpopulations and linked graphs. The gamma rhythm corresponds surprisingly well to items in conscious awareness. GABA receptors seem to be involved in something like relaxation. By hitting different GABA receptors in different ways, you can modulate the exact type of relaxation you produce. Hitting GABA-A directly is too powerful and can cause dangerous levels of sedation, but allosteric modulation of GABA is an incredibly fruitful strategy that underlies drugs from benzos to barbituates to alcohol. If you know your GABA-A subunits, you can target specific subtypes of relaxation; for example, Ambien hits GABA-A1 and induces sleep. Memory divides somewhat fuzzily into bins of immediate-sensory, short-term, and long-term, with separate retrieval and storage functions, and separate systems for declarative vs. procedural learning. These can be harmed selectively, usually by hippocampal injury, so that some patients can remember their life stories but not form new long-term memories, or learn new skills like bike-riding but not new facts. The exact substrate of memory is unclear but seems to involve new synaptic connections between neurons in at least some way. The ability of modern psychology and psychiatry to treat mental illness is real but limited. SSRIs work for half or slightly fewer than half of patients; antipsychotics work with extreme side effects; benzodiazpines work but produce addiction and tolerance in many (not all) people. Most supplements are stuck in Poor Quality Study Replication Crisis Hell, but melatonin and l-theanine stand out as especially promising. Psychotherapy works with moderate effect size, but (with a few exceptions) seems to be more about the relationship with the provider than the details of the therapy itself. Mental hospitalization can sometimes defuse immediate crises but work less well than mental hospitals would like, with some studies showing overall negative effects. Schizophrenia is mostly genetic, but risk also increases with prenatal infection (especially rubella) and obstetric complications; there is suggestive evidence for roles of social stress and drug use (with psychedelics and marijuana making things worse, and nicotine if anything making things better). Bipolar and schizophrenia are so closely linked on a pathophysiological level that it seems like they might be the same disease; on the clinical level, they do seem to follow two separate courses/prognoses but can sometimes surprise clinicians by eg someone who seemed condemned to permanent schizophrenia unexpectedly recovering. The brain’s native reinforcement learning algorithms cash out in the phenomena of classical and operant conditioning; different reinforcement schedules reinforce at different levels, which can be exploited by bad actors to make especially compelling products (eg slot machines). None of these are immune to doubt. A few are speculative; one or two are genuinely unorthodox. But they’re all a step above one p = 0.049 paper that might not replicate. If they get overturned, they’ll be overturned by the same sort of genuine scientific shift that replaced Ptolemy with Copernicus or Lamarck with Darwin, not some sort of sordid discovery about someone entering random numbers into a spreadsheet. In 2008, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote about The Beauty Of Settled Science: If you only care about scientific issues that are controversial, you will end up with a head stuffed full of garbage. The media thinks that only the cutting edge of science is worth reporting on. How often do you see headlines like “General Relativity still governing planetary orbits” or “Phlogiston theory remains false”? So, by the time anything is solid science, it is no longer a breaking headline. “Newsworthy” science is often based on the thinnest of evidence and wrong half the time—if it were not on the uttermost fringes of the scientific frontier, it would not be breaking news. Scientific controversies are problems so difficult that even people who’ve spent years mastering the field can still fool themselves. That’s what makes for the heated arguments that attract all the media attention. Worse, if you aren’t in the field and part of the game, controversies aren’t even fun. Don’t be embarrassed to read elementary science textbooks, either. If you want to pretend to be sophisticated, go find a play to sneer at. If you just want to have fun, remember that simplicity is at the core of scientific beauty [...] A steady diet of science news is bad for you: You are what you eat, and if you eat only science reporting on fluid situations, without a solid textbook now and then, your brain will turn to liquid. Psychology isn’t centrally the new paper in Annals Of Recently-Breaking News saying that an n=5 study showing that large portion sizes increase support for terrorism. Psychology is centrally ideas like brain waves, GABA receptors, reinforcement learning, twin studies, and connectionism. People who think differently are worrying too much about BREAKING NEWS!!!, and should stop. The key distinction isn’t “recent research in social psychology” vs. “recent research in cognitive/bio/behavioral psychology”, as my essay last week unfortunately implied. It’s recent research in general vs. the deposit of settled science, battle-tested hypotheses, and carefully-earmarked speculation. And part of the reason social priming in particular was such a disaster was that it defied that heuristic, building itself up over hundreds of studies until it approached or even entered the pantheon of settled science - before collapsing (5-HTTLPR was also sort of like this). This isn’t a claim that settled science is always right - Freud was “settled science” for a long time - just that there’s an intuitive distinction between the level of credence you should have in the existence of power posing vs. the existence of Broca’s Area. (I compounded this error by calling the last post “Psychology Research Is Mostly Fine”, which suggested I was talking about the new research rather than the settled science. I actually meant to distinguish between research-psychology-the-field vs. clinical-psychology-aka-therapy, but this framing unintentionally pushed against the point I wanted to make) Some commenters on the previous article understood this point, but challenged its weight. It’s very cool, they said, to know how many neurons are in which brain lobe, but the main way that Psychology affected their lives was through bad clickbait studies used to buttress dumb policies; some p = 0.049 study says that exposure to microaggressions makes minorities’ brains shrivel into raisins, and now their company has to implement punitive DEI or be sued for hazardous work conditions. I won’t dispute this as an accurate description of how the sausage gets made, but it’s worth examining the trains of thought that connect this observation to a campaign against psychology in general: The dumb woke psychology was wrong and bad, and I don’t have good heuristics for distinguishing dumb woke psychology from other psychology, so I’m going to assume it’s all wrong and bad. The dumb woke psychology was wrong and bad; it seems useful to punish/discredit psychology as a whole to assist my campaign against it, so for propaganda purposes I will try to discredit psychology as a whole. To people in the first camp, my response is: come on, your heuristics aren’t that bad. “Microaggressions makes minorities’ brains shrivel up like raisins” is in the woke category; “the hippocampal theta rhythm seems to be associated with both memory and pathfinding, suggesting an unexpected yet surprisingly compelling relationship between the two” is in the not-woke category, don’t play dumb here. To people in the second camp, my response is: deliberately exaggerated propaganda campaigns are bad and this is a confession, not an excuse. Inability to view science through anything but a political lens was what got us into this problem; doubling down on it is a temporary solution but a recipe for permanent disaster. If you pronounce entire fields of science to be acceptable collateral damage in your campaign against bad political actors, you will alienate not just scientists but patients, clinicians, and general lovers of truth. Instead, you can say the thing you mean - that woke partisans shouldn’t try to occupy and exploit the otherwise-noble science of psychology for their own political gain - and wage the same campaign with a halo rather than a comic-book-villain goatee. From the font of oracular wisdom that is Weird Sun Twitter: [ Vessel Of Spirit@VesselOfSpirit i love you all conditionally but i love the good part of you unconditionally. even if it becomes a very small part 2:11 AM · Jan 22, 2015 1 Reply · 5 Reposts · 29 Likes ](https://x.com/VesselOfSpirit/status/558084551772471298) This is how I feel about psychology1, too, but with a touch more optimism. The good part of psychology is enormous, a hoard of endless treasures. You just have to look past the headlines! 1 To play devil’s advocate - should one always be so magnamious? Astrology? Phrenology? These seem different in that their entire orientation was flawed from the start; they didn’t simply fail to find the correct constellation-personality connections, the whole project of searching for connections between constellations and personality was doomed from the start. More difficult might be asking the same question about education research, which is notoriously bad. I don’t know enough about education research to know if there’s some settled science of correct and enlightening results lurking in the background beyond the day-to-day froth of poorly-conducted and politically-motivated studies. I think if it’s 90% bad, 10% good, it’s correct to call it bad as a compact way of communicating a useful truth; I think psychology is better than that, but admit it’s a tough judgment call.
'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' fights superhero fatigue with love
The web-swinging and villain foiling is great fun, but 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' is, above all, a multilayered love story.
Does public health *need* MAHA?
Last week, our friend Dr. Craig Spencer sparked an ongoing volatile discussion with his Atlantic article “Public Health Needs MAHA.” Some have come out in strong dissent, others are cheering, and others are simply lamenting that we find ourselves in such a divided world to begin with. We will dare to dip our toes in these controversial waters, too. Does public health need MAHA? We think in some ways yes, and in other ways, no. MAHA leaders versus the everyday MAHA supporter The vitriol in this debate mostly comes from one collapsed distinction: the leadership of MAHA is not necessarily the same as the people who support it. Say “MAHA” and most people picture RFK Jr. Fair enough, as he coined the term and holds most of the power. And, yes, some MAHA followers treat Kennedy as something close to a saint. But talk to the grassroots, and it’s not a monolith. They’re Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. People who distrust vaccines and vaccine supporters. It’s a wide, eclectic coalition. The data backs this too: 4 in 10 Americans support the movement—that’s a lot of people! But according to polls, vaccines and medical choice (the issues most tied to Kennedy personally) are cited by only 4% as their reason for supporting the movement. For many, the motivations are much broader. Many MAHA supporters are signing up for the idea that “something needs to change” with health in this country. They’re asking good-faith questions about corporate influence on our health systems, health care costs, nutrition, chemicals, and clean air and water. These are all questions that plenty of public health professionals recognize as legitimate and also care about very deeply. Blurring the lines between the leadership and grassroots does real damage in two important ways: It hands the 4 in 10 exactly the narrative already fed—that the health ecosystem doesn’t listen, doesn’t care, and paints every critic with the same brush. It gives the actual bad actor more power. RFK Jr. has done irreparable damage and can’t be trusted. What the MAHA movement gets right A healthy population is something the public health field was literally built on, and many of these topics are things we have dedicated our lives to. Yet the MAHA movement has captivated nearly half the country in a way the public health establishment has failed to achieve. So that means MAHA is doing something right. Some of it may be timing (after a Covid-19 pandemic and deep frustration and mistrust with institutions). The movement also does three other things really well: 1. It gives a new, louder voice to system failures. While MAHA is not a monolith, one theme stays consistent across their stories: the system failed them. For some, it was the system that flooded their communities with opioids and then walked away. For others, it was the system that let their business collapse during Covid with no safety net in sight. For others still, it was the system that failed to help them manage a complex chronic illness, bouncing them from physician to physician without any real answers. And in many ways, our health ecosystems are failing Americans. Why are medical bills so incomprehensible? Why do some kids get a healthy school lunch and others don’t? Why do an epidemiologist and a MD/PhD student have to start newsletters in the middle of the biggest public health emergency in a century, just so people can get straight information? Because the systems failed. This deep-seated frustration driving many Americans to search for solutions elsewhere needs to be recognized. 2. MAHA has brilliant comms central to their efforts. MAHA figured out something most health institutions still have not: the information landscape changed. It’s participatory now, not top-down; influence runs through many nodes in a community, not one institution; and storytelling and telling audiences “what you really think” moves people more than data dumps do. MAHA goes where audiences are listening, using podcasts, social media, and memes in ways most health institutions would scoff at—but it works. 3. They are very good at organizing. A MAHA meeting feels like a rally: energy, speakers, music, and most importantly, an action for everyone. Someone’s writing the next policy brief, someone’s seeding a narrative, someone knows the next legislative deadline, someone’s sending the text messages for a campaign. None of this is new (ask the civil rights movement), but MAHA knows it works and has capitalized on it. What MAHA gets wrong This list could be much longer, and this newsletter has spent a lot of time covering it, but here are a few things: Poor use of scientific evidence. This is the fundamental problem with many MAHA policies: the hype outpaces the science, and experts are often villainized for pointing this out. MAHA leadership has traded real solutions for cheap wins. For example, instead of taking on the powerful food industry and passing real reforms, it has celebrated french fries made of beef tallow and taken out artificial dyes from still very sugary children’s cereal. These changes won’t move the needle on America’s diet. MAHA leadership has tried to dismantle vaccine access in the U.S. While many MAHA supporters emphasize other issues, the effort to change vaccine policy has become MAHA’s signature effort. This is not surprising given RFK Jr.’s extensive track record campaigning against vaccines. It has rallied behind the wrong leader. RFK Jr. has a decades-long track record of villifying doctors, scientists, and public health workers, well before he became HHS secretary. He is known for his decades-long work sowing distrust in vaccines as well as life-saving treatments like antiretroviral therapy for HIV. This is not a serious person who can move the needle on health in the U.S, and he has already done serious damage. Public health needs more than defense Defending the evidence is absolutely necessary so health in the U.S. doesn’t move further backward. The public health establishment is very good at defense. The problem is this defense often sounds like defending the status quo, which has failed many people. Public health needs to offer an alternative to RFK Jr.’s MAHA—one that is rooted in evidence, truly listens to and addresses people’s frustrations, and has innovative solutions and the courage to change the systems. How do we get there? Find common ground. Do you know what most people care most about? The abysmal cost of healthcare. Start there. Fight for the human loudly. Too often, communications and engagement center on science with a capital S, funding mechanisms, or the CDC/FDA/NIH. Not the person. So the public doesn’t see themselves in it. Instead, they see people fighting for the very powerful systems that they feel negatively impact their health and well-being. Let the public feel and hear that you see their frustrations, you get it, and you’re fighting for them within the system. Recognize when pro-science messages are alienating people. Facts absolutely matter, but angrily venting only alienates people further. Our friend Elisabeth Marnik recently wrote a New York Times article about her experience growing up unvaccinated and how listening and empathetic conversation are the only ways to reach people that really work (a position backed by communication science). Her comments section was full of hateful comments from pro-vaccine individuals attacking her for daring to suggest we approach vaccine-hesitant individuals with empathy. It is possible to both stand firm behind scientific evidence and empathize with people who don’t trust it. Lean into politics smartly. Often, public health has shied away from politics: Don’t touch it, lest you get burned. But this fails to recognize that the third rail is what fuels the train: who is elected determines our budgets, our priorities, and our authority. Being political means being very savvy in strategy on both sides of the aisle, knowing your audience, and recognizing that political capital is as scarce as financial resources and needs to be allocated accordingly. Bottom line So does public health need MAHA? That’s not really the right question. Public health has a responsibility not to dismiss 40% of the country who feel heard by this movement and are frustrated that the system has failed them. And it has a responsibility to stick to the evidence and recognize MAHA leadership for what it is: a danger to our nation’s health. Both can, and should, be done. Love, YLE and KP A big thanks to Craig Spencer, who had the courage to put his neck out there to start a much-needed discussion at such a critical moment—one that is determining the identity of an entire field. Kristen Panthagani, MD, PhD is completing an emergency medicine residency and research fellowship focusing on health literacy and communication. In her free time, she writes the newsletters You Can Know Things debunking health myths and rumors and The Public Health Roundup. Views expressed belong to KP, not her employer. Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) comprises a team of experts, ranging from physicians to immunologists to epidemiologists to nutritionists, working together with one goal: to “translate” ever-evolving public health science so that people are well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. The YLE suite of newsletters reaches over 475,000 people across more than 132 countries. This newsletter is free to everyone, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support the effort, subscribe or upgrade below: Subscribe
After Hobbes vs Rousseau: Politics must move beyond human nature
Since the great debate between Hobbes and Rousseau, our political theory has been organised around a single question: is human nature essentially good or essentially corrupt? Graham Harman, the philosopher behind object-oriented ontology, argues that this is simply the wrong question to be asking. The real forces governing our collective fate - climate change, artificial intelligence, geography, and pandemics - are non-human; therefore, questions about human nature are not the central ones. Instead, Harman proposes a politics reorganised around our relationship to non-human objects and environments, in which quasi-government institutions incentivise and deter actions with the aim of extending the survival of the human race. “It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” This has become one of the most popular phrases among twenty-first-century intellectuals. Often misattributed to Fredric Jameson, it has been warmly embraced by such influential authors as Slavoj Žižek and the tragically departed Mark Fisher, and has fueled the notion that the major problem with the political Left is that it simply needs to become more speculative and creative. Naturally, this is never a bad idea in any human pursuit. But what if the political distinction between Left, Right, and Center itself results from a failure of imagination? SUGGESTED READING Hobbes vs Rousseau: are we inherently evil? By Robin Douglass This particular division has been with us only since the summer of 1789. During the simmering prelude to the French Revolution, it referred originally to the physical position in the National Assembly of radical figures on one side and loyal monarchists on the other. These positions are linked with two entirely different camps of modern political theory. On the Left we find a series of authors ranging from the moderate (Locke) to the supercharged (Rousseau) to the truly radical (Marx), all of them contending that exploitation of the many by the few justifies revolutionary overthrow of the existing order. On the Right they are countered by the likes of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Schmitt, a group of thinkers convinced that corrupt human nature can be tamed only by force. In the words of the Nazi supporter Schmitt: “One could test all theories of nature and state and political ideas according to their anthropology and classify these as to whether they consciously or unconsciously presuppose [humans] to be by nature evil or by nature good.” This is the division we continue to face today, even in the daily retail politics of Western democracies.___Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims.___The most refreshing feature of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s 2021 book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity was their awareness that the forced choice between Rousseau and Hobbes (as they put it) is no longer sufficient. Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims. Far from being stationed “beyond good and evil,” we seem to be fully entangled with both. We are not naturally good or evil, Graeber and Wengrow contend, but naturally experimental and imaginative. They rest their case on the archaeological record, which seems to bear witness to numerous episodes of seasonally shifting governments and festivals, which vacillate in the same society (even in the same year) between the egalitarian and the dictatorial. Such praise of political experiment makes a good fit with the generally anarchist position defended by these authors. Yet it is also what I find most disappointing in their position. Although they are right that the forced choice between Hobbes and Rousseau falls short of what our new situation requires, the authors simply replace it with praise for the human being as a political tinkerer and performer. In other words, they give us just another theory of human nature, one that would not have been out of place in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. What other options might we have?___The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature… We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them___One fresh approach would be to treat politics within a broader framework than human nature, given that the polis does not exist in a vacuum filled exclusively with people. When Bruno Latour went to observe the baboons of Kenya with the San Diego anthropologist Shirley Strum, they jointly concluded that these primates were more socially interdependent than our own species. Each baboon is so reliant on the dynamics of the group that they find themselves locked into constant surveillance of their potentially dangerous peers. The group structure turns out to be inherently volatile. Humans, by contrast, are able to stabilize their societies to a large degree through the mediation of inanimate objects. Although one’s position in society may seem to fluctuate over time, considerable stability is produced through such items as apartment keys, wedding rings, and identification cards, all of them serving to secure us a place distinct from that of our fellows. The Italian philosopher Maurizio Ferraris has written at length about the crucial role of documents in establishing social relations, making him a hero among notaries in his country. Proper names and license plates cement our position amidst other humans, as do symbolic achievements such as graduation from a top university or distinguished wartime service with its various medals and ribbons. None of this is found among baboons, despite their closeness to us on the evolutionary tree: after all, we did share a common ancestor just 25 to 30 million years ago. SUGGESTED VIEWING The goodness paradox With Richard Wrangham The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature, whether understood in the manner of the Left or of the Right. We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them. But initially, it is true, we face non-human things primarily in the form of constraints. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to form a human civilization underwater, deep underground, atop Mount Everest, or in outer space. Human dependence on the non-social background takes on subtler form in discussions of political geography, especially unloved on the more idealistic Left. Consider the luckless position of Poland during World War II, sandwiched between Hitler on one side and Stalin on the other. By contrast, note the good fortune of the United States in not having a military peer positioned on any land border. Anglo-American geopolitics, since the writings of the American naval commander Alfred Thayer Mahan and the British geographer Sir Halford Mackinder, has been wedded to the notion that one or more liberal offshore naval powers should prevent any authoritarian “heartland” regime from gaining effective control of Eurasia. That remains the case whether the opponent is the impatient Napoleon, the swashbuckling German Kaiser, the villainous Hitler, the murderous Stalin, or the industrial juggernaut Chinese. In their current Foreign Affairs article “Heartland vs. Rimland,” Michael Beckley and Hal Brands analyze the current and coming state of the world on the basis of these same rather durable principles. In recent years a similar outlook has been embraced, in inverted form, by the Putin-loving Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, an icon of the Rightist intellectual underworld. For Dugin, the Anglo-Saxons are an evil force bent on destroying the spiritually superior people of the land: much like Athens in its failed war with Sparta, or Carthage in its eventual collapse against Rome. But the shared notion on both sides is that any strategy that fails to take geography into account is likely to end up as a defeated form of excessive optimism.___When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole.___More striking for us today than geography is the non-human object called climate, which threatens rimland and heartland equally. Even if we contend that humans are one hundred percent responsible for triggering the climate crisis, it remains non-human in the sense of being an independent force beyond our effective control. In a major work published just before his death in 2002, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, the American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould noted the tendency of evolutionary theorists to focus too closely on the fate of individuals in view of their successful or failed adaptation to circumstances. With climate change, however, we confront a force that goes well beyond the scope of any individual life. Whereas Richard Dawkins extended evolutionary questions downward from individuals to the sub-individual gene, Gould pushed it upward, speaking of entire species or clades as impacted by environmental change. The asteroid that struck the Yucatán 66 million years ago is only the most famous example of this sort. In the wake of that catastrophe, large animals needing abundant supplies of food were at a fatal disadvantage by contrast with the smaller birds and mammals of the planet. When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole. The effect is to shift our attention away from individual beings towards the survival of the group.In the United States in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked considerable backlash among those who asserted a nearly absolute degree of individual freedom. In California I encountered those who demanded that their businesses be allowed to reopen, that it was enough to cover their mouths but not their noses, or that they should have the right to enter any public area despite refusing vaccination. Yet public health is probably the clearest argument against libertarianism, which often merely asserts the autonomy of individuals against any claims of the commons. In normal times the individual is worth defending; under conditions that threaten the survival of part or all of our species, compulsion may be our only resort, as with perfectly reasonable blackouts and rations in wartime. To rebuild human society under the constraints of climate change will be one of the great challenges of the century to come, as will our improvised grappling with artificial intelligence. Such phenomena pose existential risks for humanity, and leave far less room for tolerance of individual brattiness. Cases are mounting of devastating wildfires caused by arson. Recently it was reported that there is even a website where one can bet on the location of coming wildfires, raising the specter of deliberate blazes set to collect on wagers. The death penalty has steadily lost support in a world where many stress the infinite value of human life. But if we focus instead on entire ecosystems, those who purposely burn the forests may begin to look worse than serial murderers.___The politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere.___So far I have spoken of force, authority, and punishment: measures sure to have greater appeal to those who identify with what we know as the Right. But other implications of the post-anthropocentric world are likely to have different backers. If non-human objects are seen as structuring political space, it stands to reason that they can no longer be introduced solely by the pace of technical breakthrough. Fields ranging from cybernetics to energy will demand increased politicization once they are reconceived not just as products of individual human investment, but as renovations of collective political geography. This need not involve world government, with its inherent risk of tyranny, but may involve quasi-governmental enforcers of prestige along the lines of a less corrupt FIFA or International Olympic Committee, punishing deviant states not with violence but with less tangible incentives.Politics will never lose its historic links with conflict and faction. But rather than factions aligned by differing theories of human nature, the politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere. This will prove just as incommensurable with the modern Left/Right spectrum as a globe is with a two-dimensional map.
Pedro Pascal teases Reed Richards’ dynamic with Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’
‘Fantastic Four’ star Pedro Pascal is sharing Reed Richards’ perspective on Robert Downey Jr.’s villainous Doctor Doom in ‘Avengers: Doomsday.’
Robert Downey Jr. breaks down Doctor Doom’s parallels to Tony Stark in Avengers: Doomsday (exclusive)
‘Avengers: Doomsday’ star Robert Downey Jr. is opening up about the striking parallels between the villainous Doctor Doom and the late hero Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man.
Dillon Brooks Sends Strong Message About Future With Suns
After a career-best season under Jordan Ott, the veteran wing discusses his "dream come true" partnership with Devin Booker and embracing his signature villain role in Phoenix.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom arrives in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ trailer
Robert Downey Jr. is officially revealed in the ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ trailer. The Marvel veteran returns as comic-book villain Doctor Doom after playing Iron Man for a decade.
'House of the Dragon's Ormund Hightower cooks up a villainous plan that isn't in 'Fire and Blood'
A new challenger for the Iron Throne approaches.
MAGA has a new villain: Amy Coney Barrett
A new poll finds that Barrett is the least popular justice. A Republican revolt against her is the biggest reason why.
Fight them for the beaches: the real villain of Europe’s overtourism is big business
From Albania to Portugal, privatisation of the coastline is bringing locals out on to the streets. For them, the economic benefits are few and far between, says Adam Almeida, a writer living in London
'Mad Max' star Kjell Nilsson, known for playing Lord Humungus, dies at 76
Kjell Nilsson, memorable 'Mad Max' villain, died from kidney disease on Thursday, July 2, 2026. He was 76.
Dillon Brooks: "My villain goal would probably be not …
Dillon Brooks: "My villain goal would probably be not …
Enter The Sadie-Verse
After ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘John Proctor Is the Villain,’ Sadie Sink is burning up stage and screen in equal measure. Next stop: ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day.’
Kevin O'Leary's latest villain arc: data centers
Kevin O'Leary, the acerbic "Shark Tank" investor, is everywhere trying to sell a skeptical American public on the idea of a data center in their town.
Susan Collins is testing whether old school politics still work
In the modern era, political activists want their representatives to fall strictly in line. To the base, the independent centrist is no longer a hero; they are a villain to be purged. But Susan Collins has a pitch that she is an independent voice.
Fenway Sports Group wasn’t perfect, but it left the Penguins in a very good position
As the Penguins move into new hands, it's time to admit Fenway Sports Group was not the villain it was perceived by many to be.
The best Prime Day Lego deals include 'Star Wars' ships, Disney villain cars, and more — top finds start at $28
Lego fans can save big during Amazon Prime Day, with deals on “Harry Potter,” “Star Wars,” Lego Technic, and Ninjago sets, plus builds inspired by Marvel, Disney, “Jurassic World,” Minecraft, Formula 1 racing, and more. We've rounded up Prime Day’s 17 best Lego deals, including several at their lowest prices ever
'Toy Story 5' has an iPad-like villain. As a parent, I loved it.
As a parent who strictly limits screens, I left 'Toy Story 5' feeling unexpectedly validated by its message.
Famitsu review scores - June 13, 2026 - first score for The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales
The latest Famitsu review scores for the week of June 13, 2026 are as follows: 007 First Light – 9/9/10/9 The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales – 8/8/9/8 Unrailed 2 – 9/8/9/7 World of Tanks: Heat – 8/7/8/8 Isekai Villain – 7/7/8/8 Inkonbini: One Store. Many Stories – 6/7/8/8 Note that for each review, four editors gave out scores....
Victor Wembanyama achieves New York sports villain status with dominant Game 3
Wembanyama's performance in Game 3 stunned the Knicks home crowd and vaulted him into lofty company among New York sports opponents.
Six Flags Great Adventure's summer additions show the park is investing beyond rides
Six Flags Great Adventure's new summer lineup has A Great Day Parade, Boardwalk Nights, DC Heroes & Villains Fest, and more.
Fable: Meet the Incredible Cast - Including the Villain Played by Hayley Atwell
Fable’s XBOX Games Showcase trailer revealed that Hayley Atwell will play the game’s villain, Isabel – but there’s far more to this brilliantly British cast list. Find out more inside.
Texas Tech bought a softball superpower — and doesn’t care who hates them for it
Every sport needs a villain and Texas Tech softball is more than happy to assume the role in their run to the Women’s College World Series Finals.
Spurs’ Julian Champagnie Embraces Hometown Villain Role Against Knicks
San Antonio Spurs guard Julian Champagnie is embracing the villain role against his hometown team in the NBA Finals.
Rayman Legends Retold announced for Nintendo Switch 2
Following a recent leak, Ubisoft made it official that it’s developing Rayman Legends Retold. The game is heading to Nintendo Switch 2 on October 1, 2026. Rayman Legends Retold is a remake of the 2013 game. Ubisoft has overhauled the visuals, now in 2.5D / 3D. The team is also adding in new content such as a new villain, a...
‘Enough is enough’: Shaq does not hold back his opinion on Angel Reese
Over the years, Atlanta Dream superstar Angel Reese has become one of the most polarizing players in sports, thanks in large part to her high-profile rivalry with the face of the league, Caitlin Clark. Given her role as a sort of villain to Clark, Reese has received a disproportionate amount of criticism and negative attention…
Dillon Brooks’s partnership with Underdog Sports at the heat of controversy
The “Villain” is keeping the Suns in the NBA conversation even a month after their elimination.
Growing Up With The Villains: Misfits Who Matter To Me
Deemed the most hated team in the NHL, the Vegas Golden Knights have become a league-wide punching bag for a long list of reasons. But beyond the villain narrative, they were simply my team.
Game Discussion for St. Louis Cardinals vs Milwaukee Brewers Tuesday
After losing to the Milwaukee Brewers on Memorial Day Monday, the St. Louis Cardinals will try again on Tuesday night as Michael McGreevy will start for the good guys while Kyle Harrison takes the mound for the villains. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40pm at American Family Field in Milwaukee and will be watchable on Cardinals.tv.
Seattle Councilmember Rob Saka 'gravely concerned' about city's business climate
Seattle City Councilmember Rob Saka says he is “gravely concerned” about the future of Seattle’s business climate, warning that city leaders must avoid “villain
In deep blue California, Dems find a villain toxic enough to rival Trump: The power company
Rising electricity prices have frustrated voters, creating a prime target for candidates.
LA mayor's race: AI videos supporting Spencer Pratt shake up political playbook
AI-generated videos depicting L.A. mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt as a superhero and his rival Karen Bass as a villain are gaining traction online.
Opinion | TV Bad Guys Come From Long Island
I noticed that a lot of TV villains come from the town I grew up in. I wasn’t surprised.
Control Science — a one-sided case against managers
From the inspection towers of 19th-century factories to the data architecture of Amazon warehouses, Henry Snow casts those who surveil workers as capitalism’s villains
'Watson' ending explained: How the CBS series says farewell to John Watson
The 'Watson' finale features a long-awaited reunion — as well as the arrival of a famous villain from the Sherlock Holmes canon. Here's how the CBS series, which was canceled earlier this year, says farewell to John Watson.
How to get the Super Rocket Radar to face Giovanni in Pokémon GO?
Team GO Rocket battles are some of the most exciting aspects of Pokémon GO, and the ultimate test in this grind is facing Giovanni. Beating the suave Boss of the villainous group lets you catch a Shadow Legendary, often a new force to be reckoned with in both/either the PvE and PvP meta For more […]
Is Palantir fit for UK consumption?
Supervillain or scapegoat? Controversial software firm’s inroads into British state systems are alarming to some
007 First Light Dev Explains What Makes It Different From A Hitman Game
Also Lenny Kravitz isn't the main villain after all
NBA playoffs 2026 takeaways: MSG has a new villain in CJ McCollum after Hawks shock Knicks
Report: Hideo Kojima's Physint New Casting Details Unearthed, Teasing a Villain
Production on Kojima's return to action-espionage is gearing up, and we've unearthed brand new exclusive Physint casting details.
Anthropic's Mythos sparks Washington's big bank anxiety
Manufacturing a disease and selling the cure is a Bond villain business plan. Is Anthropic all that different?
OKC Thunder growing into NBA's top villain was inevitable
The OKC Thunder's consistent success has turned them into the NBA's new villains, facing backlash and criticism.
TMZ Sics Its Tipsters on a New Breed of Celebrity Villain: Members of Congress
After lawmakers left Washington for a two-week spring break with the Department of Homeland Security shut down, the Hollywood tabloid began publishing photographs of them living it up around the country.
The Villainization of Business: Corporate Tyrants and Government Sycophants
Across political eras, corporations have been recast as either predatory villains or tools of the state—distorting their proper role in a free economy.
‘Congress is the villain’: Ex-Trump adviser slams shutdown blame game
Every pandemic is followed by amnesia. But Covid’s is very different
In this excerpt from their new book “Whiplash,” David Blumenthal and James A. Morone describe how scientists became villains to MAGA.
Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance 'SEGA Villains Stage' DLC Arrives Next Month
Three familiar faces join the fight
SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance DLC ‘SEGA Villains Stage’ launches April 3 alongside free update
SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance downloadable content “SEGA Villains Stage” will launch on April 3 for $9.99 alongside a free update, publisher SEGA and developer Lizardcube announced.
Remembering Jesse Jackson
The late Reverend Jesse Jackson was — and still is — a revered civil rights activist, political trailblazer, and pop culture icon. For his critics, he was also villainized, or at the very least, a punchline. As Jackson's home going ceremony continues, we take some time to remember how Jackson shaped American politics with journalist Adam Serwer, who warns us not to flatten Jackson into a cliche or caricature.
The cost of casting animals as heroes and villains in conservation science
New research shows how these storytelling choices can distort science – and how to move beyond them.
The cost of casting animals as heroes and villains in conservation science
New research shows how these storytelling choices can distort science – and how to move beyond them.
Trump Puts On a Show, Casting Democrats as the Villains
On the defensive over the economy and with the midterms approaching, President Trump made clear that his political strategy is to paint Democrats as unpatriotic and ‘crazy.’
America loves a reality TV villain. Tyra Banks is counting on it.
If the core allegation of "Reality Check" is true, and both Banks and "ANTM" mastered the art of converting provocation into profit, could the furor that's erupted this month put both of them back on ...
Forget Le Pen. French politics has a new archvillain.
The far-right National Rally wants to build a firewall around the hard-left France Unbowed after the killing of Quentin Deranque.
Supervillain: How Suns' Dillon Brooks powered up as a scorer
Nine years into his career, Brooks has reinvented himself in Phoenix