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  • Falling behind on retirement savings? 4 steps to get back on track in 2024.

    Falling behind on retirement savings? 4 steps to get back on track in 2024.

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    For a substantial number of people approaching retirement, the future looks grim. Their savings rate is low, their anxiety level is high and they aren’t even sure they’ll be able to retire at all.

    More than one in five adults — 22% — have no retirement savings, according to AARP. Meanwhile, 64% are worried that they will not have enough money in their later years, and 47% of adults who are not yet retired think they will need to work at least part-time in retirement for financial reasons, AARP said.

    “It’s a public health crisis. Many people don’t have any retirement savings. People feel lousy — that they haven’t done enough — and say, ‘There’s nothing I can do about it.’ They put their head in the sand and try not to think about it,” said Mary Liz Burns, senior director of communications strategy at AARP.

    To raise awareness and in hopes of reversing this trend, AARP, the lobbying group focused on issues facing older adults, has launched a public service campaign with the Ad Council called “This is Pretirement.” The campaign is aimed at people who might feel invisible as they grapple with the stress of financing retirement, Burns said.

    “The average American is having a tough time saving. They’re not alone — there are many, many people in that same position,” Burns said. “There’s no judgment about what you have or haven’t done.”

    The multi-year “pretirement” campaign started in November and will continue to roll out to more markets and media outlets including TV, radio and social media. 

    The ads encourage pre-retirees to face the daunting aspects of saving for retirement. There’s also a website, ThisIsPretirement.org, that features free tips, resources and tools. Near-retirees can take a quiz and get a recommended action plan.

    “Think about actions you’re taking that may be harming you, such as carrying over credit-card debt each month. Think about the steps you can take to start,” Burns said.

    “Start somewhere. Anything is better than being frozen.”

    Where to start? 

    First, experts say you should create a budget that includes your income and all your expenses. You can do this on your own or with a financial adviser. 

    “Make sure you have a plan. If you don’t do the planning, you really won’t have a successful retirement,”  said David Schneider, founder of Schneider Wealth Strategies.

    JB Beckett, founder of the Beckett Financial Group, suggested working with a financial adviser who can examine your tax strategies, insurance coverage, Social Security strategy and healthcare expenses with an eye toward longevity and the unknown.

    And Joel Russo, founder of N.J. Retirement Planning, noted that retirement can last a long time. “A lifetime these days can be 100-plus years. People think retirement isn’t going to be that long, but it can last 30 years or more. That’s hard to finance without a comprehensive plan,” he said.

    Advisers need to look at a client’s whole situation to see the reasons someone may not be saving enough money.

    “People aren’t saving enough. But why aren’t they saving enough? What else is going on for them that they can’t?” Russo said. Getting an overview of your budget and your expenses can show you where your money is going.

    Catch up on contributions

    “Your 50s are a really important time to be very serious,” Schneider said. “Hunker down and get serious. Every investment needs to be prudent and diversified. Increase any savings, if possible. Make catch-up contributions, if possible.”

    Starting at age 50, you can make extra investments called catch-up contributions to your 401(k) and individual retirement accounts. In 2024, the 401(k) contribution limit will be $23,000, but catch-up contributions will allow you to save an additional $7,500. For IRAs, the contribution limit is $7,000, with a catch-up contribution of $1,000.

    Check in with Social Security

    As you work on your long-term plan, get your Social Security statement from SSA.gov and check it for errors. This will let you make sure you’re receiving credit for all your work over the years and find out where you stand with Social Security benefits, Schneider said.

    And because the last 10 to 15 years of your career are often peak earnings years, Beckett said to take advantage of savings opportunities to maximize your retirement efforts and minimize your expenditures.

    “You’re entering that retirement red zone in the last 10 to 15 years. If you haven’t saved enough, [then] cut expenses and save as much as you can,” he said. “Be careful not to spend too much. Don’t celebrate and buy a car when you get a promotion and end up with a $1,000 car payment. Use that extra money to sock away more money. Use science and math when it comes to money. Don’t get emotional with money.”

    It’s also crucial to prepare for the cost of long-term care.

    “The one thing that can erode an estate is long-term care,” said Eric Bond, wealth manager with Bond Wealth Management. “You might have $300,000 for long-term care, but that needs to be $500,000. It’s the most unsexy thing in the world to plan for, but you have to.”

    Earn more, save more

    You can also think about leveraging your experience and skills to get a higher-paying job that can help you close that savings gap, Bond said.

    “The best way to save more is to earn more. Try to make as much money as you can. Your job is to get another job that pays more,” he said. “In the past, pensions would keep people at companies longer. But now you can’t rely on a company that way.”

    Dial up retirement savings

    “Just try saving a little extra,” Bond said. “If you find you’re only eating mac and cheese, scale it back.”

    Bond also cautioned against borrowing or taking out a mortgage to fund your kids’ college education.

    “They can get just as good a job coming out of a state school. College is college. Unless [they’re] going to be a doctor, an attorney or an engineer — fine. But don’t sell your house or downsize to pay for college,” Bond said.

    Being open to continuing to work — even doing part-time or consulting work — can help you stretch your retirement nest egg. And working in your retirement years, if you’re healthy enough to do so, can provide not just extra income, but also routine and stimulation, which can be crucial for mental health.

    In the end, your retirement is likely going to be financed by your own savings and investments. So squirrel away as much as possible.

    “You only get one shot at retirement,” Beckett said. “There’s a retirement crisis out there. People need to save more — and save even more than they think.”  

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  • Gender War, Civil War, and the Loyalty of a Barber

    Gender War, Civil War, and the Loyalty of a Barber

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    Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay check back in to discuss Simon Biles’s recent interview with husband Jonathan Owens (18:28), and Kevin Hart’s lawsuit against Tasha K (36:49). Plus, Nikki Haley struggles to say “slavery” (51:59), and a barber gets petty (1:16:22).

    ‌Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay
    Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher

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    Van Lathan

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  • Sci-Fi Is Having a Renaissance on Television

    Sci-Fi Is Having a Renaissance on Television

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    From the early days of The Twilight Zone and Star Trek to contemporary hits like The X-Files, Battlestar Galactica, and Lost, television has long been home to compelling science fiction. But the quality of the genre’s offerings hasn’t always been matched with an uptick in quantity. It wasn’t until 1992 that the Sci-Fi Channel (since rebranded as Syfy) debuted, and its programming tends to skew more Sharknado than The Expanse. In fact, The Expanse was shaping up to be one of Syfy’s greatest original series before it was canceled after three seasons: a microcosm of how traditional cable rarely lends itself to big-budget space operas and other sci-fi projects of that scale.

    Of course, Amazon’s Prime Video swooped in and revived The Expanse, allowing the show to end on its own terms after six seasons. (If you’re a sci-fi fanatic and still haven’t watched The Expanse, what are you waiting for?) In hindsight, Prime Video was the perfect home for a series like The Expanse: a streamer that has heavily invested in small-screen adaptations of The Wheel of Time, The Lord of the Rings, and The Peripheral. But Prime Video is hardly an outlier in the streaming landscape. As consumers continue to bypass cable, streamers aren’t just responsible for producing more scripted television than ever before: they’ve helped kick-start a science-fiction boom.

    In the era of Peak TV, audiences have been treated to several sci-fi shows that managed to penetrate the zeitgeist. Westworld might’ve fallen on hard times, but it once had the most-watched first season of any HBO series; heading into its fifth and final season, Stranger Things remains the crown jewel of Netflix’s original programming. But for every hit like Stranger Things, there’s also been high-profile failures in the genre: Altered Carbon, which was once rumored to be Netflix’s most expensive series, was canceled after two seasons; Brave New World was one of the flagship shows of Peacock’s launch, and it lasted only one season. That sentiment extends to a galaxy far, far away: with the notable exception of Andor and the early seasons of The Mandalorian, Star Wars has delivered diminishing returns on the small screen. (The less said about The Book of Boba Fett, the better.)

    All told, science fiction had yet to find the Goldilocks zone on television, striking the right balance between quality and quantity. But if 2023 marked the moment when Peak TV finally plateaued, it has also ushered in a new golden age of sci-fi. It’s not just that there’s more worthwhile sci-fi on television than ever before: the shows that have cut through the noise are doing it in different ways. The best sci-fi series this year covered all the bases: alt-history dramas, dystopian thrillers, AI-infused dramedies, galaxy-spanning space operas, time-traveling character studies. The wider world of television may be in a state of disarray since the streaming bubble burst, but sci-fi fans can keep riding the wave of the genre’s recent successes.

    Leading the charge is Apple TV+, the streaming arm of the world’s first trillion-dollar company. Like Amazon, Apple has the resources to funnel considerable money into streaming without a pressing need for profitability because it doesn’t make up the bulk of its business. But where these companies differ is how their streaming ambitions have been embraced by audiences. By and large, Prime Video’s big swings have failed to match their hefty price tags; conversely, Apple TV+ has stealthily emerged as one of the most reliable destinations for prestige television outside of HBO. More importantly, Apple TV+ has firmly established itself as the go-to streamer for big-budget sci-fi.

    In 2023, Apple TV+ released new seasons of For All Mankind, an alt-history drama in which the Soviet Union landed the first man on the moon, and Foundation, an ambitious adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s seminal book series. What unites these shows is how they’re driven by big-picture ideas: each season of For All Mankind jumps ahead a decade to show humanity’s progress in the Space Race; Foundation is intended to span a millennium. At the same time, For All Mankind and Foundation wouldn’t be nearly as gripping without individuals making profound personal sacrifices for the greater good, be it jumping forward centuries in a hibernation pod or leaving Earth behind to colonize Mars. That For All Mankind and Foundation manage to excel as feats of immersive world-building without coming at the expense of the interiority of its characters’ lives has become something of a calling card for Apple’s sci-fi projects.

    Elsewhere, this year saw Apple TV+ debut Silo, a mystery-box thriller set in a dystopian future in which mankind lives underground, and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, a small-screen extension of the Godzilla-led MonsterVerse. Once again, the blockbuster scale of these shows is what draws you in, but it’s the emotional investment in the fates of the characters—something that’s been a persistent issue for the MonsterVerse on the big screen—that keeps viewers around for the long haul. If Syfy is a haven for sci-fi fans on basic cable, Apple TV+ has become more than a viable streaming alternative: the platform is buoyed by diverse projects within the genre that all share impressive production values. As a result, Apple hasn’t just found a niche in the Streaming Wars: the company has emphatically cornered the market on imaginative, thought-provoking sci-fi. (Look out for Constellation, a psychological thriller led by Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks, in February 2024.)

    The current sci-fi boom might be most pronounced on Apple, but other streamers got in on the act this year. Among the best of the rest was the Max animated series Scavengers Reign, which followed the scattered survivors of a cargo ship marooned on the planet Vesta Minor. With an animation style best described as “Studio Ghibli by way of body horror,” Scavengers Reign was a refreshingly unique addition to the genre, which puts the series in stark contrast with the broader direction of Warner Bros. Discovery: a company so anti-art under CEO David Zaslav that it’s tried killing off well-received projects for a tax write-off. (When even Batman titles are being shipped off to competitors, you know things are dire.) It’s little wonder that Scavengers Reign may hold the title for the most underrated show of 2023: Max barely bothered to promote it, leaving its future in jeopardy. Hopefully, more Max users discover the transportive wonders of Scavengers Reign before, god forbid, the series goes the way of Westworld.

    Other shows tapped into modern anxieties around the emergence of artificial intelligence with a touch of levity: Peacock’s wonderfully wacky limited series Mrs. Davis pitted an advanced algorithm with a profound influence on the world against a literal nun; the funniest episode of Black Mirror’s sixth season imagined a future in which Netflix turned our lives into content. (Mrs. Davis cocreator Damon Lindelof and Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker also tinkered with real AI in relation to their shows; both were left unimpressed.) Meanwhile, Disney continued rolling out new entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars, which remained a mixed bag. Loki’s second season wasn’t as sharp as its debut, but it’s still one of the rare success stories of the MCU post-Endgame; Ahsoka wasn’t the strongest endorsement for Dave Filoni’s new role as Lucasfilm’s chief creative officer. (At least we have another season of Andor on the way—at this rate, Tony Gilroy is the franchise’s only hope.)

    I don’t mean to pile on Disney for delivering a comparatively underwhelming slate of sci-fi this year. For all its triumphs in the genre, Apple TV+ isn’t immune to duds like Hello Tomorrow! and Invasion. But on the whole, science fiction continues to head in a promising direction. The very best of these shows don’t just have the look and feel of a tentpole, but the level of emotional depth that only a serialized project can offer. When it comes to the sheer output of quality series, it feels like there’s never been a better time to be a sci-fi fan—and the best may be yet to come. In March 2024, Netflix is set to release 3 Body Problem, the highly anticipated adaptation of Liu Cixin’s acclaimed Three-Body trilogy, led by Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

    As the first series from Benioff and Weiss since Thrones, 3 Body Problem comes with plenty of fanfare—and, for anyone still reeling from Thrones’ lackluster ending, perhaps a bit of trepidation. In an earlier era of television, sci-fi obsessives would’ve had to pin all their hopes on a big swing like 3 Body Problem living up to the hype. But that’s what makes the current state of science fiction on television so thrilling: There are so many rich, immersive universes worth exploring.

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    Miles Surrey

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  • Maine bars Trump from presidential primary ballot, citing insurrection clause

    Maine bars Trump from presidential primary ballot, citing insurrection clause

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    PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s Democratic secretary of state on Thursday removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, becoming the first election official to take action unilaterally as the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide whether Trump remains eligible to return to the White House.

    The decision by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows follows a ruling earlier this month by the Colorado Supreme Court that booted Trump from the ballot there under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. That decision has been stayed until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether Trump is barred by the Civil War-era provision, which prohibits those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.

    The Trump campaign said it would appeal Bellows’ decision to Maine’s state courts, and Bellows suspended her ruling until that court system rules on the case. In the end, it is likely that the nation’s highest court will have the final say on whether Trump appears on the ballot in Maine and in the other states.

    Bellows found that Trump could no longer run for his prior job because his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol violated Section 3, which bans from office those who “engaged in insurrection.” Bellows made the ruling after some state residents, including a bipartisan group of former lawmakers, challenged Trump’s position on the ballot.

    “I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” Bellows wrote in her 34-page decision. “I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”

    The Trump campaign immediately slammed the ruling. “We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.

    Legal experts said that Thursday’s ruling demonstrates the need for the nation’s highest court, which has never ruled on Section 3, to clarify what states can do.

    “It is clear that these decisions are going to keep popping up, and inconsistent decisions reached (like the many states keeping Trump on the ballot over challenges) until there is final and decisive guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court,” Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California-Los Angeles, wrote in response to the Maine decision. “It seems a certainty that SCOTUS will have to address the merits sooner or later.”

    While Maine has just four electoral votes, it’s one of two states to split them. Trump won one of Maine’s electors in 2020, so having him off the ballot there, should he emerge as the Republican general election candidate, could have outsized implications in a race that is expected to be narrowly decided.

    That’s in contrast to Colorado, which Trump lost by 13 percentage points in 2020 and where he wasn’t expected to compete in November if he wins the Republican presidential nomination.

    In her decision, Bellows acknowledged that the U.S. Supreme Court will probably have the final word but said it was important she did her official duty.

    That won her praise from the former state lawmakers who filed one of the petitions forcing her to consider the case.

    “Secretary Bellows showed great courage in her ruling, and we look forward to helping her defend her judicious and correct decision in court. No elected official is above the law or our constitution, and today’s ruling reaffirms this most important of American principles,” Republican Kimberly Rosen, independent Thomas Saviello and Democrat Ethan Strimling said in a statement.

    But other Republicans in the state were outraged.

    “This is a sham decision that mimics Third World dictatorships,” Maine’s House Republican leader, Billy Bob Faulkingham, said in a statement. “It will not stand legal scrutiny. People have a right to choose their leaders devoid of mindless decisions by partisan hacks.”

    The Trump campaign on Tuesday requested that Bellows disqualify herself from the case because she’d previously tweeted that Jan. 6 was an “insurrection” and bemoaned that Trump was acquitted in his impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate after the capitol attack. She refused to step aside.

    “My decision was based exclusively on the record presented to me at the hearing and was in no way influenced by my political affiliation or personal views about the events of Jan. 6, 2021,” Bellows told the Associated Press Thursday night.

    Bellows is a former head of the Maine chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. All seven of the justices of the Colorado Supreme Court, which split 4-3 on whether to become the first court in history to declare a presidential candidate ineligible under Section 3, were appointed by Democrats. Two Washington, D.C.-based liberal groups have launched the most serious prior challenges to Trump, in Colorado and a handful of other states.

    That’s led Trump to contend the dozens of lawsuits nationwide seeking to remove him from the ballot under Section 3 are a Democratic plot to end his campaign. But some of the most prominent advocates have been conservative legal theorists who argue that the text of the Constitution makes the former president ineligible to run again, just as if he failed to clear the document’s age threshold — 35 years old — for the office.

    Likewise, until Bellows’ decision, every top state election official, whether Democrat or Republican, had rejected requests to bar Trump from the ballot, saying they didn’t have the power to remove him unless ordered to do so by a court.

    The timing on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision is unclear, but both sides want it fast. Colorado’s Republican Party appealed the Colorado high court decision on Wednesday, urging an expedited schedule, and Trump is also expected to file an appeal within the week. The petitioners in the Colorado case on Thursday urged the nation’s highest court to adopt an even faster schedule so it could rule before March 5, known as Super Tuesday, when 16 states, including Colorado and Maine, are scheduled to vote in the Republican presidential nominating process.

    The high court needs to formally accept the case first, but legal experts consider that a certainty. The Section 3 cases seem tailor-made for the Supreme Court, addressing an area of U.S. governance where there’s scant judicial guidance.

    The clause was added in 1868 to keep defeated Confederates from returning to their former positions of power in local and federal government. It prohibits anyone who broke an oath to “support” the Constitution from holding office. The provision was used to bar a wide range of ex-Confederates from positions ranging from local sheriff to Congress, but fell into disuse after an 1872 congressional amnesty for most former Confederates.

    Legal historians believe the only time the provision was used in the 20th Century was in 1919, when it was cited to deny a House seat to a socialist who had opposed U.S. involvement in World War I. But since the Jan. 6 attack, it has been revived.

    Last year, it was cited by a court to remove a rural New Mexico County Commissioner who had entered the Capitol on Jan. 6. One liberal group tried to remove Republican Reps. Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene from the 2022 ballot under the provision, but Cawthorn lost his primary so his case was thrown out, and a judge ruled for Greene.

    Some critics of the movement to bar Trump warn that the provision could be weaponized in unexpected ways.

    They note that conservatives could argue, for example, that Vice President Kamala Harris is likewise barred from office because she raised bail funds for people arrested during the unrest following George Floyd’s 2020 murder at the hands of Minneapolis police.

    The plaintiffs in Colorado presented historical evidence that even the donation of small sums to money to those seeking to join the Confederacy was grounds for being barred by Section 3. Why, critics have asked, wouldn’t that apply to Democrats like Harris today?

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  • 10-year Treasury yield drops toward 3.8% after market absorbs sale of 5-year notes

    10-year Treasury yield drops toward 3.8% after market absorbs sale of 5-year notes

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    U.S. bond yields fell on Wednesday as investors continued to bet inflation will ease and the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in 2024, with rates extending their drop in the afternoon after the Treasury Department sold a slug of 5-year Treasury notes.

    What’s happening

    • The yield on the 2-year Treasury
      BX:TMUBMUSD02Y
      fell more than 11 basis points to 4.238%. Yields and debt prices move opposite each other.

    • The yield on the 10-year Treasury
      BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
      dropped 9.9 basis points to 3.803%.

    • The yield on the 30-year Treasury
      BX:TMUBMUSD30Y
      declined 8.5 basis points to 3.96%.

    What’s driving markets

    Benchmark U.S. bond yields extended a drop after market participants absorbed a sale of $58 billion in 5-year Treasury notes
    BX:TMUBMUSD05Y.

    Yields had declined as investors continued to bet that the easing of inflation — down to 3.1% in November — means the Federal Reserve will lower borrowing costs next year.

    The auction produced a high yield of 3.801%, down from 4.42% at the last sale of 5-year supply in October. The bid-to-cover ratio — a measure of bids versus the amount on sale — was 2.50, up from 2.46 in the October auction.

    Markets, meanwhile, are pricing in an 85.5% probability that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged at a range of 5.25% to 5.50% after its next meeting on Jan. 30-31, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

    “A moderation in headline and core inflation has created a pathway for central banks to ease off on restrictive policies,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.

    “As inflation subsides, the Federal Reserve sees higher real rates becoming increasingly economically unfavorable, possibly reducing the necessity for policy rates to remain in prohibitive territory,” Innes added.

    But the chances of at least a 25 basis point rate cut at the subsequent meeting in March is priced at 84.6%. Indeed, traders reckon that by December 2024, the Fed’s main rate will be at least down to a range of 3.75% to 4.0%.

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  • Dow lands second-highest close ever as stocks build on eight-week winning streak

    Dow lands second-highest close ever as stocks build on eight-week winning streak

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    U.S. stocks closed higher Tuesday, building on a streak of eight straight weekly gains as the final, holiday-shortened week of 2023 got under way.

    What happened

    On Friday, stocks finished a choppy pre-holiday trading session mostly higher, with the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq each scoring an eighth straight weekly gain. The S&P 500 finished 0.9% away from its record close of 4,796.56, set on Jan. 3, 2022.

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  • Netflix teen shows are trying to let ace characters come out and explain themselves

    Netflix teen shows are trying to let ace characters come out and explain themselves

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    Until my early 20s, I believed I was a “normal” sex-haver. I assumed any guilt or repulsion I felt after intimacy was a universal experience. It wasn’t until a year ago that, after hearing me mention that I had repeatedly dissociated after kissing various Tinder dates, my friend said: “You know what asexuality is, right?” I stuttered, offended; of course I knew what it meant, but only in that “jock calling the nerd asexual because he won’t ever get laid” way. She called my bluff and showed me a video from an asexual YouTuber who echoed many of my secret opinions about dating and intimacy. This set me on the path to find as many video essays about asexuality as possible, which explained that I wasn’t broken or in need of the “right person”; my love would just come from somewhere besides sex. Any blueprints for where I might find it or what that love might be instead were a mystery, as I quickly found that asexual representation in media is an absolute travesty.

    There’s no easy way to show an identity based around the lack of something rather than its presence, but when you start throwing out SpongeBob as my LGBTQIA+ rep, I know it’s not a serious conversation. Good asexual (aka ace) characters do exist — Bojack Horseman’s resident goofball Todd Chavez is beloved by many for his swagless slacker schemes — but most rely on negative stereotypes that perpetuate the myth of inhumanity among those who don’t build their love lives around sex.

    Asexual people in media are represented as dispassionate outcasts who avoid close relationships; they are cold and calculating celibates (like Sherlock Holmes), or they force sex upon themselves to fix their perceived inadequacies (like Olivia from whatever the hell The Olivia Experiment was trying to be). Asexual representation isn’t nearly as prevalent in media as gay, lesbian, or bisexual rep, but three of Netflix’s biggest teenage shows of 2023 — Sex Education, Heartstopper, and Everything Now — featured aces as core characters with storylines dedicated to understanding their identities. Much like their queer antecedents who introduced the general public to non-cis, non-hetero ways of life, these ace characters have to come out and explain themselves. Despite good intentions, it’s hard for each character to not read as a first attempt.

    Sex is everywhere in our society, especially during high school, when hormones rage, emotions deepen, and the world cracks open like a spoiled fruit. Putting those primal feelings into words is hard, but that hasn’t stopped Sex Education from highlighting as many sexual identities as possible, including a brief storyline in season 2 in which theater kid Florence (Mirren Mack) recognizes her own asexuality. In a conversation with sex therapist Jean (Gillian Anderson), Florence voices her discontent with social pressures to date and hook up, poignantly stating that she’s “surrounded by a feast” but isn’t hungry. As soon as Florence accepts her ace identity, the series moves on from her; Florence’s sexlessness was a problem to be voiced but not an orientation to be explored.

    Photo: Samuel Taylor/Netflix

    It wasn’t until the final season this year that the show’s creators went all in on asexuality with Sarah “O” Owen (Thaddea Graham), a woman of color and sex therapist at Cavendish. O acts as a rival and antagonist to series protagonist Otis (Asa Butterfield); so much of the season revolves around Otis’ attempts to reclaim his place as the sole sex therapist on campus. During their bizarre election where students vote for who they most trust to therapize their sexual dilemmas, Otis tries to prove that O is untrustworthy and unreliable by revealing that she ghosted several former partners. To save her reputation, O comes out as asexual and says she ghosted partners because she didn’t know how to talk about it yet — although given all the scheming and scratching she had pulled over the course of the season, you’d be forgiven for thinking her coming out might be a ploy for sympathy. I did.

    This misunderstanding became a prevalent enough internet discourse that Yasmin Benoit — an ace activist and woman of color who served as a script consultant for the season — took to X (formerly Twitter) to reveal multiple scenes and lines were changed or cut that addressed both the racial bias and acephobia that O faces throughout the season. Without this additional context, I found it difficult to be as offended as I should have been when Otis accused her of using asexuality as a way to tarnish his image. The show instead portrays O spending most of the season trying to maintain her pristine image, all the way down to her slick influencer branding. This emphasis on her insincerity sometimes obscures how terrible it is that Otis attempts to claim her space and ruin her life.

    It isn’t until episode 7 that her backstory dump — which delves into how her schoolmates singled her out for her race and Northern Irish accent, how she felt abnormal because she didn’t have crushes or intimate fantasies, how she felt safe in her sex clinic but felt if she ever told the truth no one would trust her because “who wants to have sex advice from someone who doesn’t have sex?” — finally brings her closer to the character Benoit seemingly set out to create. For me, the damage was already done: O remains a messy, calculating, and isolated asexual, rather than being the thoughtful representation the ace community deserves.

    The final season of Sex Education is a mixed bag, but it tries to create a three-dimensional ace character; Heartstopper felt content to stop at character. The show’s second season does a lot to darken its light and fluffy image: It tackles biphobia, abusive parents, and disordered eating. But it never quite knows what to do with Isaac (Tobie Donovan). The laconic bookworm finds himself courted by James (Bradley Riches), and their awkward flirtations are drawn out for most of the season until they finally kiss in a Parisian hotel’s hallway. Isaac seems repelled by the intimacy and is sent into a spiral — though we don’t see it. Isaac’s explanation to James in the following episode is familiar to asexuals: He has never had a crush on someone and hoped that maybe James would be different. But he wasn’t.

    Charlie (Joe Locke) riding on Isaac’s (Tobie Donovan) shoulders as they both smile

    Photo: Samuel Dore/Netflix

    When his friends cajole him for details about the kiss, Isaac snaps, yelling that he knows they don’t find his life interesting with its lack of romantic drama. It’s a sentiment shared by series creator Alice Oseman herself, who identifies as aromantic and asexual (aroace) and in an interview with The Guardian stated, “The world is obsessed with sex and romance. And if you don’t have that, you feel like you haven’t achieved something that’s really important.” In her novel Loveless, she tries to explore narratives where romance and sex aren’t the main focus with aroace protagonist Georgia. But where Georgia has 400-plus pages to grow and change, Isaac’s character can only come out in bits and spurts around the central romance between Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke). We never get to know his personality or desires, so Isaac’s frustration with his friends seemingly comes from nowhere.

    Literally two minutes after his outburst, Isaac meets an artist exhibiting a piece about their aroace identity, and everything they say resonates with him: the loneliness of existing in a world that prizes romance and sex when you don’t feel those attractions, the confusion that comes with feeling different without the words to describe it, the freedom of letting go of those external expectations and existing as yourself. Isaac immediately accepts himself as aroace. It’s a beautiful sentiment hamstrung by the fact that Isaac was just given the answers to his identity problems, no introspection necessary.

    Will (Noah Thomas) sits and smiles in close over

    Image: Netflix

    By contrast, Everything Now is a show without easy answers; its depiction of disordered eating, substance abuse, sexual intimacy, and mental health struggles are important if not always easy to watch. While much of the series focuses on recovering anorexic Mia’s (Sophie Wilde) return to high school after a brief hospitalization, it was her friend Will (Noah Thomas) who captured my heart. Will is boisterous, confident, and fashionable, traits that he claims won the lusty affection of the cheesemonger at his workplace. Except the cheesemonger doesn’t know his name, and when “Cheese Guy” eventually does try to hook up with him, Will runs away. Will is embarrassed about his virginity and chooses to lean into the stereotype of the promiscuous gay man, as if cultivating the image of a sex-haver will absolve him from engaging in something that repulses him.

    After a drunk Mia reveals his lie to a party full of their classmates, Will hides in the bathroom. He’s uncharacteristically quiet and embarrassed, compressing himself as tightly as possible into the bathtub. His sulking is interrupted by Theo (Robert Akodoto), a nice and popular schoolmate. Despite Will’s protestations, Theo stays and comforts him. Will echoes O and Isaac here: He feels broken for not wanting sex, and that something must be wrong with him. Theo suggests that maybe Will needs a connection to engage in romantic or sexual intimacy, and the next day the two kiss passionately and start dating. Although it’s never stated outright, Will’s requirement for emotional connection to precede intimacy is a sign that he’s demisexual, an even smaller sliver of the asexual pie that often goes unrepresented. Being in a relationship isn’t an easy adjustment for Will; he worries that Theo will eventually want sex or something more that he isn’t willing to give. The anxiety overwhelms Will and, despite Theo’s willingness to take things slow, he refuses to discuss his fear of intimacy and ultimately ends the relationship.

    These Asexuality 101-esque narratives feel reminiscent of the early aughts, when queer characters were defined by their otherness in an effort to educate rather than represent. They’re the type of stories that I needed to hear growing up, stories that gently told me that I wasn’t broken while placing me on a path toward self-acceptance. After a year of research and introspection, however, their lack of nuance feels half-baked, especially in comparison to the three-dimensional queer characters who surround them. Asexuality is a complicated identity where multiple conflicting truths can coexist. Aces might feel little to no sexual attraction, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t date, fall in love, or even have sex if we so desire; seeking fulfillment through solely platonic relationships is equally valid, and, too often, narratively unexplored. O, Isaac, and Will hint at a future where we might see asexuality with all its complexity on our screens. Maybe by then, the universal feeling won’t be that we are broken. Maybe it will be that we are just a little different.

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    Mik Deitz

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  • Money Heist’s Berlin spinoff, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor, and more new TV this week

    Money Heist’s Berlin spinoff, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor, and more new TV this week

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    It’s finally time: the last new TV of 2023. Whether you’re at work or not, this week tends to be a pretty sleepy one, ideally with plenty of time to catch up on new TV.

    That’s not to say there’s a ton of new stuff during this period, but there’s certainly something to get excited about. There’s a new Doctor, with the Christmas day Doctor Who special introducing us to the Fifteenth Doctor. And the world of Money Heist is back — at least, partially, with the Berlin spinoff taking us back in time on Berlin himself.

    Here’s the best TV premieres and finales this week:

    New shows on Netflix

    Berlin season 1

    Genre: Money Heist spinoff
    Release date: Dec. 29, with all episodes
    Showrunner/creator: Álex Pina
    Cast: Pedro Alonso, Michelle Jenner, Tristán Ulloa, Begoña Vargas, Julio Peña, Joel Sánchez, and more

    Money Heist fan favorite Berlin (Pedro Alonso) is back, with a look at the big heist from before his Money Heist days: disappearing $44 million in jewels. Touched upon in flashbacks during the later seasons of the show, Berlin will give us a better glimpse at the Professor’s second-in-command (and his savvy cohort).

    Letterkenny season 12

    Genre: Dirtbag comedy
    Release date: Dec. 26, with all episodes
    Showrunner/creator: Jacob Tierney
    Cast: Jared Keeso, Michelle Mylett, Nathan Dales, Jacob Tierney, Tyler Johnston, Dylan Playfair, and more

    The six-episode farewell run of Letterkenny is going out on a high note — possibly literally, with a country music hit being one of the many things teased by Hulu’s news release, which also notes that the small town “contends” with a comedy night at Modean’s, the Degens’ bad influence, a new nightclub, and an encore at the Ag Hall.

    New shows on Disney Plus

    Doctor Who Holiday Special: The Church on Ruby Road

    Image: BBC/Disney Plus

    Genre: Timey-wimey sci-fi
    Release date: Dec. 25
    Showrunner/creator: Russell T. Davies
    Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, and more

    After three specials that indulged some nostalgia and brought back an old (well, new) Doctor, we’re finally getting a new new Doctor, with Ncuti Gatwa, whose long-awaited arrival is finally here — it’s gonna feel like it’s Christmas Day! (I know it is on Christmas Day.)

    New shows on Apple TV Plus

    Slow Horses season 3 finale

    Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb looking sad

    Image: Apple TV Plus

    Genre: Spy thriller comedy
    Release date: Dec. 27
    Based on books by: Mick Herron
    Cast: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, and more

    It’s all coming to a head in the fantastic third season of Slow Horses. The team has been trying to rescue Standish (Saskia Reeves) while also uncovering the large-scale conspiracy her captors are involved in. Who will make it out alive? Will anyone in the British government face actual consequences for their actions? Will we make it until season 4 without just playing Mick Jagger’s theme song on repeat? The answers to these questions, and more, in the finale.

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    Zosha Millman

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  • In roguelite city builder Against the Storm, failure is part of the process

    In roguelite city builder Against the Storm, failure is part of the process

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    I love city-building sims during every step of play — from laying down the foundations to planning a city grid, upgrading the complexity of buildings, and handling the bureaucratic elements of the late game. I’ve spent late nights playing Frostpunk and Timberborn, sucked into the fine balance of evading total town collapse. That said, if you had told me a week ago, “You’re going to spend about an hour making a settlement — and then you’re going to start over, again and again,” I’d have balked. But Against the Storm, the roguelite city builder that just came out of early access on Dec. 8, proves this formula is not only sensible, it’s fantastic.

    To be clear, there are other games with this unconventional genre pairing. In Cult of the Lamb, there’s a home base that functions like a sim game where cultists work, worship, and obviously make live sacrifices. You can leave this base in order to partake in roguelike dungeon crawls. But Against the Storm doesn’t have that separation of mechanics. They’re perfectly married in a way that keeps things fresh while also empowering you to add complexity in each subsequent run. Fifteen hours in, I can hardly peel myself away.

    In Against the Storm, you’re the queen’s viceroy in a land with cataclysmic weather events — you’ve been tasked with building settlements out from the capital, Smoldering City, toward a series of mysterious seals. You begin each “run” by selecting a tile on the game’s broody overworld map. You then pick your starting population out of a delightful fantasy lineup of lizards, beavers, humans, harpies, and more. Finally, you gather some basic supplies — stone, some edible mushrooms perhaps — before heading into the settlement site. Then it’s off to the races: At the site, you build shelters and basic structures, like a woodcutter to cut down trees, or sometimes even giant orchids. There’s a dark fantasy flavor to it all. Each site is full of hidden glades; reveal them and you might just find a poisonous flower that makes your food rot, or a cemetery that strikes fear in the hearts of your villagers.

    Image: Eremite Games/Hooded Horse

    From there the game turns into a resource puzzle. Each scenario gives you different choices for a series of “orders” to fulfill. You might need to deliver bags of crops, or enter a certain number of “dangerous glades” in a set amount of time. Completing these awards you with Reputation points. You typically need 14 points to win a scenario. All the while, you’re battling a capricious queen. The “Queen’s Impatience” meter only fills over time, and if it maxes out before reputation does, then you’ve lost the settlement.

    This is the challenge and joy of the game: Creating a successful strategy as you go, before knowing what tools you’ll even have. Think of it like Hades, where Zagreus is presented with various boons from the gods — while all the options are fun, some can create awesome and unexpected synergies when fighting enemies. But in Against the Storm, you get options for building types, global perks, glades to discover, and orders to fulfill. You constantly have to finesse resource allocation: Your wood will be used for keeping the hearth warm, building new key buildings, and fulfilling a barrel order. And oh, by the way, don’t forget to make some food for your villagers. It’s so easy to screw yourself over at any step in Against the Storm.

    Suffice it to say this is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s worker “resolve” and “hostility” — each citizen excels at different work and simply must have certain luxuries. These are delightfully silly: Lizards love to eat jerky and work in cookhouses (they’re coldblooded and love warmth); beavers enjoy biscuits and are very good at cutting wood. There’s also a weather cycle that dictates the timing of the harvest and how angry all the workers get. It’s called Against the Storm, so I’ll let you guess how much these dudes like rain. (Spoiler: They hate it.)

    A giant cauldron with legs stands in a clearing in a forested area, in Against the Storm.

    Image: Eremite Games/Hooded Horse

    It sounds complicated, but it’s actually very digestible. The game effectively drip feeds its complexities, which helps curb the overwhelming feeling that can come with these sorts of management sims that have a dozen menus and mechanics at play. There’s a perk tree you can unlock over the course of the game, which introduces new gameplay mechanics — win or lose, you’ll be able to buy some of these upgrades. You don’t really need to worry about trading early on, for example, but as you unlock more perks, it becomes a major force.

    Against the Storm always has a new trick up its sleeve, and like any great roguelite, it’s encouraged me to make unusual, gutsy plays that I would never try in a more typical city builder. Knowing each run has a finite end means I can always start over if things don’t work out. And when they do — it’s even sweeter.

    Against the Storm was released on Dec. 8 on Windows PC. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.

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    Nicole Clark

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  • We Made a Narrative Podcast All About Scandoval?!

    We Made a Narrative Podcast All About Scandoval?!

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    In this special episode of Morally Corrupt, Rachel Lindsay talks to Jodi Walker all about her upcoming narrative podcast series An American Scandoval, which drops on the Ringer Reality TV feed December 26. Jodi dishes on what pushed her to create a narrative podcast about the exploits of Tom, Ariana and Raquel, what surprised her most during her reporting process, and what exactly made Scandoval such a huge moment in 2023 pop culture.

    Host: Rachel Lindsay
    Guest: Jodi Walker
    Producers: Devon Baroldi
    Theme Song: Devon Renaldo

    Subscribe: Spotify

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    Rachel Lindsay

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  • Logitech’s new platform-agnostic headset offers excellent features if you can afford it

    Logitech’s new platform-agnostic headset offers excellent features if you can afford it

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    At least once per year we’re treated to incremental upgrades in headset designs from manufacturers like Razer, Steelseries, and HyperX. These improvements typically touch on some of the more objective points of their peripherals, like audio quality and battery life. However, the latest headset model from Logitech, the Astro A50X, is offering something a bit more drastic.

    In addition to the same outstanding audio quality we’ve come to expect from Logitech headsets, the docking station for the A50X effectively serves as an HDMI switch, which not only makes the headset universally compatible, but allows you to quickly swap between HDMI inputs with a dedicated button on the headset. But, at an eye-watering $379.99, it’s difficult to recommend this headset to all but the most frequent of users.

    The dock is an integral part of the A50X, but can take a while to get set up properly
    Image: Logitech

    The docking station is fitted with a pair of HDMI and USB-C inputs that can be used with PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo consoles. You’ll also find another USB-C port that provides power and can also connect the dock to your PC. The single HDMI 2.1 output is capable of full 4K 120Hz passthrough to your preferred screen.

    Setting up the entire system and getting its myriad cables organized required significant time investment, but I ultimately felt that was a small price to pay for a single unified headset that also allowed me to swap between the inputs on my TV. This is a pretty neat trick — however, the console will need to be powered on via its respective controller before you make the switch, in order for this to work properly.

    Of course, if you’d prefer to skip the docking station entirely, you can also pair the A50X with your phone, Switch, or PlayStation via Bluetooth instead. You won’t be able to swap inputs, though.

    A stock image of the back of the Astro A50X headset

    A single button on the rear of the A50X lets you swap between inputs
    Image: Logitech

    The sound quality of the Astro A50X is amazing regardless of which platform you’re playing on, with no noticeable latency when operating on 2.4 Ghz wireless. I tested the A50X with a pair of rhythm games that have excellent soundtracks, Hi-Fi Rush and Metal: Hellsinger, on both PC and Xbox. The A50X had no issues matching the gameplay beat for beat, which is something my reliable noise-canceling earbuds just couldn’t match. The default sound profile is a little bass-heavy, but you can fine-tune everything from the Logitech G app on your phone or PC.

    A screenshot of the Logitech G Hub software

    The Logitech G App is available on PC and Mobile platforms to fine-tune your audio profile
    Image: Logitech

    The fit and finish of the Astro A50X will be familiar to anyone who’s used a headset from the Astro A50 or A40 series. The ear cushions and headband feature plush fabric, and the headset can lay flat around your neck when not in use. The surface of the right earcup allows you to adjust the balance between game and chat volume. Around the back of the right earcup, you’ll find a volume wheel, power and input switches, and a Bluetooth pairing button.

    The aesthetics of the A50X aren’t quite as offensive as some more gamer-centric designs, but it still isn’t what I’d call a good-looking headset. A bit less plastic in the overall build, and the ability to remove the boom mic would’ve been welcome. Normally, these are annoyances that I’m willing to overlook, but for $380, I do expect more.

    While Logitech’s designers have clearly gone to great lengths to expand the functionality of this headset, they haven’t done much to improve the fit and finish, which is disappointing given the massive price tag. At $380, small issues like the plastic-heavy design, and how the headset doesn’t always want to seat itself in the dock correctly, feel more glaring.

    I applaud Logitech for producing a headset with features that genuinely improve user experience, but its high price and limited appeal make it extremely difficult to recommend. For a select subset of people who play games and chat regularly across multiple platforms that share the same screen, the A50X represents a sound investment, but for everyone else, a headset that costs a third of the price will do just fine.

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    Alice Newcome-Beill

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  • common grande meaty

    common grande meaty

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    embarrassed, he later went in a draconian campaign of book-burning, but historians kept recording the fact and hiding it in increasingly obscure places. Ironically, it’s unknown how much of his history was lost, but King Taejong of Korea later was mostly known for falling off his horse and trying to censor the event.

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  • Why the 60-40 portfolio is poised to make a comeback in 2024

    Why the 60-40 portfolio is poised to make a comeback in 2024

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    Speculation that the 60-40 portfolio may have outlived its usefulness has been rife on Wall Street after two years of lackluster performance.

    But as the yield on the 10-year Treasury note
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
    hovers around 4%, some strategists say the case for allocating a healthy portion of one’s portfolio to bonds hasn’t been this compelling in a long time.

    And with the Federal Reserve penciling three interest-rate cuts next year, investors who seize the opportunity to buy more bonds at current levels could reap rewards for years to come, as waning inflation helps to normalize the relationship between stocks and bonds, restoring bonds’ status as a helpful portfolio hedge during tumultuous times, market strategists and portfolio managers told MarketWatch.

    Add to this is the notion that equity valuations are looking stretched after a stock-market rebound that took many on Wall Street by surprise, and the case for diversification grows even stronger, according to Michael Lebowitz, a portfolio manager at RIA Advisors, who told MarketWatch he has recently increased his allocation to bonds.

    “The biggest difference between 2024 and years past is you can earn 4% on a Treasury bond, which isn’t that far off from the projected return in U.S. stocks right now,” Lebowitz said. “We’re adding bonds to our portfolio because we think yields are going to continue to come down over the next three to six months.”

    See: Case for traditional 60-40 mix of stocks and bonds strengthens amid higher rates, according to Vanguard’s 2024 outlook

    Does 60-40 still make sense?

    Since modern portfolio theory was first developed in the early 1950s, the 60-40 portfolio has been a staple of financial advisers’ advice to their clients.

    The notion that investors should favor diversified portfolios of stocks and bonds is based on a simple principle: bonds’ steady cash flows and tendency to appreciate when stocks are sliding makes them a useful offset for short-term losses in an equity portfolio, helping to mitigate the risks for investors saving for retirement.

    However, market performance since the financial crisis has slowly undermined this notion. The bond-buying programs launched by the Fed and other central banks following the 2008 financial crisis caused bond prices to appreciate, while driving yields to rock-bottom levels, muting total returns relative to stocks.

    At the same time, the flood of easy money helped drive a decadelong equity bull market that began in 2009 and didn’t end until the advent of COVID-19 in early 2020, FactSet data show.

    More recently, bonds failed to offset losses in stocks in 2022. And in 2023, U.S. equity benchmarks such as the S&P 500
    SPX
    have still outperformed U.S. bond-market benchmarks, despite bonds offering their most attractive yields in years, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

    The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Total Return Index
    AGG
    has returned 4.6% year-to-date, according to Dow Jones data, compared with a more than 25% return for the S&P 500 when dividends are included.

    But this could be about to change, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank. The team found that, going back decades, the relationship between stocks and bonds has tended to normalize once inflation has slowed to an annual rate of 3% based on the CPI Index.

    DEUTSCHE BANK

    The CPI Index for November had core inflation running at 4% year over year, a level it has been stuck at for the past several months. The Fed’s projections have inflation continuing to wane in 2024.

    Staff economists at the central bank expect the core PCE Price Index, which the Fed prefers to the CPI gauge, to slow to 2.4% by the end of next year. If that comes to pass, investors should see the inverse relationship between stocks and bonds return, according to Lebowitz and others.

    A window of opportunity

    The dismal performance of 60-40 portfolios over the past two years has inspired a wave of Wall Street think pieces questioning whether it still makes sense for contemporary investors.

    A team of academics led by Aizhan Anarkulova at Emory University in November presented findings showing that over a lifetime, investors would have reaped higher returns via a portfolio consisting of 100% exposure to stocks, split between foreign and domestic markets.

    But fixed-income strategists at Deutsche and Goldman Sachs Group, as well as others on Wall Street, say investors wouldn’t be well-served by excluding bonds from their portfolio, particularly with yields at current levels.

    Rob Haworth, senior investment strategy director at U.S. Bank’s wealth-management business, says investors now have an opportunity to lock in attractive returns for decades to come, ensuring that the bonds in their portfolios will, at the very least, deliver a steady stream of income that would reduce any losses in stocks or declines in bond prices.

    There is, however, one catch: with the Fed expected to cut interest rates, that window could quickly close.

    “The problem is, for investors in cash, the Fed’s just told you that is not going to last. I think that means it is time to start thinking about your long-term plan,” Haworth said.

    Read: Fed could be the Grinch who ‘stole’ cash earning 5%. What a Powell pivot means for investors.

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  • Dimension 20 documentary sweats the small stuff, focusing on master of miniatures Rick Perry

    Dimension 20 documentary sweats the small stuff, focusing on master of miniatures Rick Perry

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    Back when I was running the game for my local Dungeons & Dragons group, I would always pride myself on bringing something handmade each time we got together around the table. Maybe it was a leather-bound book filled with vintage David Sutherland illustrations of the Tomb of Horrors, or a 3D map of a few rooms from Castle Ravenloft with just the right assortment of miniatures from my collection. As a lifelong fan of D&D, Rick Perry knows that impulse well. But as production designer and creative producer on Dropout’s Dimension 20, he’s operating at a scale that’s on another level entirely.

    Season 21 of Dimension 20, an actual play program on the streaming television service Dropout, will premiere on Jan. 10, 2024. It’s an incredible run that shows no sign of slowing down, and Perry’s work has been integral in its popularity. To celebrate his impact, Dropout has released a feature documentary titled The Legendary Rick Perry and the Art of Dimension 20. In advance of its release, Polygon sat down with the lifelong Texan, now a resident of Washington state, to discuss his work.

    A miniature high school dance inside the gymnasium at Fantasy High.
    Image: Dropout

    While world class Dungeon Masters like Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, Gabe Hicks, and Matthew Mercer lead each game at the start of each Dimension 20 season with a high-level creative direction, it’s up to Perry and his team of skilled artists to bring that vision to life in miniature on the table. That means creating hundreds of inch-tall figures from scratch using clay and sculpting tools; kitbashing dozens of scale models into fantastical landscapes to anchor the viewer in the world; and crafting dynamic, multi-tiered battle maps where skilled improv actors can chew up the set.

    Just like the props you bring to your home games, it’s bait, really, that he willfully uses to draw players — and viewers — closer to the center of whatever complex story he’s trying to tell.

    “Dimension 20 [requires] a massive amount of creative genesis to create a 20-episode series,” Perry said, “[one that] that takes place in a completely new world where we don’t know what color the sky is, or what food the people are eating. So there’s this massive amount of creative activity that has to start at the beginning of it, and that takes a big chunk of time.”

    The documentary details how that creative work begins at his homestead on Lopez Island in San Juan County, Washington at an outdoor sink first cobbled together by his father-in-law in the 1970s. It then moves into a converted three-car garage that once held farming equipment, but is now filled with bins labeled for the miniatures they contain — a box of trolls here, bugbears in the corner. Only after weeks, sometimes months of effort on the farm with a whole team of designers do the larger pieces get crated up and shipped to Los Angeles. Often, Perry said, that’s where the real work begins.

    Rick Perry in a blue ball cap stands next to three of his teammates inside a rough hewn shop with exposed timbers. Bins of miniatures sit on shelves in the background.

    Rick Perry (right) with his team on Lopez Island taking the original Fantasy High Dungeon Master’s screen from storage for the first time in four years.
    Image: Dropout

    The trick, he went on, is to stay nimble — even when you’re building maps for tabletop encounters that won’t happen for weeks.

    “It’s part of the DNA of Dimension 20,” Perry said, “because at the very beginning when we decided we wanted these eight battle maps that are custom, that have this mix of say high school and fantasy, it’s not like something we can just crank out really fast. We need to know ahead of time in order to make skater dwarves, and all this sort of stuff.

    “That means that we have to map all that out down to every detail — as much as we can,” Perry continued. That sort of on-rails gameplay is, unfortunately, anathema to modern role-play, which emphasizes creative freedom for the Dungeon Master as well as the players at the table. It’s always a challenge, Perry said, to keep things on track. But with a miniature set that, often times, costs just as much as a full-scale one, it’s up to everyone involved to keep the trains running on time.

    “That tells the Dungeon Master that these are landmarks,” Perry said. “These [scenes that we are building] are places that you have to pilot the ship through these little hoops. We try to build in as much flexibility, as much opportunity for improvisation as possible, meaning that sometimes where a battle map falls, they could switch places or we could cut one. We try not to cut one because they cost money to make. And it’s a business venture, the show, and we want all that production value to appear on screen.”

    The nearly 45-minute film goes even further in its exploration of Perry and his work, delving deep into his childhood and his time spent in college as a member of a troupe of performance artists. For fans of Dimension 20, it’s a rare behind-the-scenes look at how its particular brand of storytelling comes to life. But for artists, craftspeople, or even just casual hobbyists who paint miniatures on the weekend for fun, it’s the story of a kindred spirit who has found a vital, transformative role in the creative industry.

    The Legendary Rick Perry and the Art of Dimension 20 is now streaming on Dropout.

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    Charlie Hall

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  • U.S. stocks struggle to resume climb as Dow edges higher after notching 5th straight record close

    U.S. stocks struggle to resume climb as Dow edges higher after notching 5th straight record close

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    U.S. stock indexes were higher on Wednesday as Wall Street tried to build on their year-end rally with a fresh record in sight for the S&P 500 index.

    How are stock indexes trading

    • The S&P 500
      SPX
      was inching up 3 points, leaving it nearly flat, at 4,771

    • The Dow Jones Industrial Average
      DJIA
      was rising 15 points, leaving it nearly flat, at 37,570

    • The Nasdaq Composite
      COMP
      was edging up 35 points, or 0.2%, to 15,038

    On Tuesday, the Dow booked a fifth straight record close, while the S&P 500 rose and the Nasdaq extended its winning streak to a ninth day.

    What’s driving markets

    U.S. stocks were edging higher on Wednesday with the S&P 500 less than 1% shy of the all-time closing high of 4796.56 it recorded at the start of January 2022, while the Dow industrials and Nasdaq were struggling to extend their nine consecutive daily gains.

    The Wall Street large-cap benchmark S&P 500 has jumped 24.3% this year, partially powered by hopes that the U.S. economy has not been too badly damaged by the Federal Reserve’s ratcheting up of interest rates to cool inflation.

    The latest leg of the rally reflects hopes that with inflation back down to 3.1%, the central bank will begin quickly trimming borrowing costs next year. Not even an concerted effort by Fed officials to counter the market’s rate-cut optimism has damped trader’s ardor.

    This dismissal of less-dovish Fedspeak has left some observers bemused.

    “Investors are dreaming of aggressive rate cuts in an environment of strong economic growth, and that is not the right recipe for easing inflation and keeping it sufficiently low,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank. “The robust economic data and high earnings expectations are not compatible with a dovish Fed,” she said.

    See: Why the 60-40 portfolio is poised to make a comeback in 2024

    Perhaps the current bullishness is also reflective of seasonal trends, with optimism about a festive bounce underpinning stocks. The “Santa Claus Rally” period stretches from the last five trading days of the year and first two trading days of the new year, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.

    Since 1950, the S&P 500 has averaged a gain of 1.32% and closed higher 78.1% of the time over that period, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

    SOURCE: DOW JONES MARKET DATA

    In U.S. economic data, existing-home sales rose 0.8% in November to 3.82 million, the National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday. Sales of previously owned homes unexpectedly inched up last month, snapping a five-month slump as easing mortgage rates encouraged some U.S. homebuyers.

    Meanwhile, U.S. consumer confidence index rose to 110 in December, up from a downwardly revised 101 in the previous month, the Conference Board said Wednesday.

    “The consumer is feeling pretty well as rates move lower, employers add to their payroll, and income expectations improve,” said Jeffrey J. Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial. “So far, investors have a green light as they merge into the new year.”

    That said, investors will continue seeking guidance from more economic data due later this week that may provide more clarity on the Fed’s interest-rate path in 2024. A revision of third-quarter GDP print is expected on Thursday morning, followed by Friday’s personal consumption expenditure (PCE) inflation report — the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge.

    Companies in focus

    • Shares of Alphabet Inc.
      GOOGL,
      +2.82%
      were jumping 3.3% on Wednesday following a report that said its Google unit plans to reorganize a large part of its advertising sales unit.

    • Shares of FedEx Corp.
      FDX,
      -10.56%
      were slumping 11% after the package-delivery giant trimmed its full-year sales forecast, amid continued concerns about subdued shipping demand through the peak holiday season.

    • Shares of General Mills Inc. 
      GIS,
      -2.26%
       were off 2.8% after the consumer-foods company reported fiscal second-quarter profit that beat expectations, while revenue missed and the full-year outlook as consumers continue “stronger-than-expected value-seeking behaviors.” 

    • Toro Corp.’s stock 
      TORO,
      -2.15%
      was down 2.2% despite the lawn mower company’s fourth-quarter profit and revenue beat analyst estimates. 

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  • Colorado Supreme Court bars Trump from the state’s primary ballot

    Colorado Supreme Court bars Trump from the state’s primary ballot

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    DENVER — A divided Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday declared former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, setting up a likely showdown in the nation’s highest court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race.

    The decision from a court whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.

    “A majority of the court holds that Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” the court wrote in its 4-3 decision.

    Colorado’s highest court overturned a ruling from a district court judge who found that Trump incited an insurrection for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but said he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the provision was intended to cover the presidency.

    The court stayed its decision until Jan. 4, or until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case.

    “We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” wrote the court’s majority. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”

    Trump’s attorneys had promised to appeal any disqualification immediately to the nation’s highest court, which has the final say about constitutional matters.

    “The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely flawed decision tonight and we will swiftly file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court and a concurrent request for a stay of this deeply undemocratic decision,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement Tuesday night.

    Trump lost Colorado by 13 percentage points in 2020 and doesn’t need the state to win next year’s presidential election. But the danger for the former president is that more courts and election officials will follow Colorado’s lead and exclude Trump from must-win states.

    Colorado officials say the issue must be settled by Jan. 5, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.

    Dozens of lawsuits have been filed nationally to disqualify Trump under Section 3, which was designed to keep former Confederates from returning to government after the Civil War. It bars from office anyone who swore an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it, and has been used only a handful of times since the decade after the Civil War.

    The Colorado case is the first where the plaintiffs succeeded. After a weeklong hearing in November, District Judge Sarah B. Wallace found that Trump indeed had “engaged in insurrection” by inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and her ruling that kept him on the ballot was a fairly technical one.

    Trump’s attorneys convinced Wallace that, because the language in Section 3 refers to “officers of the United States” who take an oath to “support” the Constitution, it must not apply to the president, who is not included as an “officer of the United States” elsewhere in the document and whose oath is to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution.

    The provision also says offices covered include senator, representative, electors of the president and vice president, and all others “under the United States,” but doesn’t name the presidency.

    The state’s highest court didn’t agree, siding with attorneys for six Colorado Republican and unaffiliated voters who argued that it was nonsensical to imagine the framers of the amendment, fearful of former Confederates returning to power, would bar them from low-level offices but not the highest one in the land.

    “You’d be saying a rebel who took up arms against the government couldn’t be a county sheriff, but could be the president,” attorney Jason Murray said in arguments before the court in early December.

    Trump’s attorneys argued unsuccessfully that the writers of the amendment expected the Electoral College to prevent former insurrectionists from becoming president.

    They also had urged the Colorado high court to reverse Wallace’s ruling that Trump incited the Jan. 6 attack. His lawyers argued the then-president had simply been using his free speech rights and hadn’t called for violence. Trump attorney Scott Gessler also argued the attack was more of a “riot” than an insurrection.

    That met skepticism from several of the justices.

    “Why isn’t it enough that a violent mob breached the Capitol when Congress was performing a core constitutional function?” Justice William W. Hood III said during the Dec. 6 arguments. “In some ways, that seems like a poster child for insurrection.”

    In the ruling issued Tuesday, the court’s majority dismissed the arguments that Trump wasn’t responsible for his supporters’ violent attack, which was intended to halt Congress’ certification of the presidential vote: “President Trump then gave a speech in which he literally exhorted his supporters to fight at the Capitol,” they wrote.

    Colorado Supreme Court Justices Richard L. Gabriel, Melissa Hart, William W. Hood III and Monica Márquez ruled for the petitioners. Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright dissented, arguing the constitutional questions were too complex to be solved in a state hearing. Justices Maria E. Berkenkotter and Carlos Samour also dissented.

    “Our government cannot deprive someone of the right to hold public office without due process of law,” Samour wrote in his dissent. “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past — dare I say, engaged in insurrection — there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office.”

    The Colorado ruling stands in contrast with the Minnesota Supreme Court, which last month decided that the state party can put anyone it wants on its primary ballot. It dismissed a Section 3 lawsuit but said the plaintiffs could try again during the general election.

    In another 14th Amendment case, a Michigan judge ruled that Congress, not the judiciary, should decide whether Trump can stay on the ballot. That ruling is being appealed.

    The liberal group behind those cases, Free Speech For People, also filed another lawsuit in Oregon seeking to bounce Trump from the ballot there. The Colorado case was filed by another liberal group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

    Both groups are financed by liberal donors who also support President Joe Biden. Trump has blamed the president for the lawsuits against him, even though Biden has no role in them, saying his rival is “defacing the constitution” to try to end his campaign.

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  • S&P 500 eyes record high as interest rate cut hopes underpin sentiment

    S&P 500 eyes record high as interest rate cut hopes underpin sentiment

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    U.S. stock index futures were hovering around their highs of the year and just shy of record levels as investors continued to revel in an expected loosening of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve in 2024 amid a ‘soft landing’ for the U.S. economy.

    How are stock-index futures trading

    • S&P 500 futures
      ES00,
      +0.05%
      rose 3 points, or less than 0.1% to 4796

    • Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
      YM00,
      +0.01%
      added 10 points, or less than 0.1% to 37688

    • Nasdaq 100 futures
      NQ00,
      +0.02%
      were unchanged at 16940

    On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA
    rose 1 points, or 0%, to 37306, the S&P 500
    SPX
    increased 21 points, or 0.45%, to 4741, and the Nasdaq Composite
    COMP
    gained 91 points, or 0.62%, to 14905.

    What’s driving markets

    The S&P 500 was set to open Tuesday’s session only about 1% below its record close as traders remained energized by the prospect of the Federal Reserve starting to cut interest rates by the spring of next year.

    Some Fed officials in recent days pushed back against the market’s hopes for lower borrowing costs as early as March, but equity investors seem to have shrugged off those comments, for now.

    Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan on Tuesday reminded traders that an important spigot of cheap money still remains open. The BOJ left its main interest rate at minus 0.1%, and in the accompanying news conference, Governor Kazuo Ueda provided little evidence he was minded to exit the central bank’s ultra-loose monetary policy anytime soon, despite inflation running above its 2% target for 19 consecutive months.

    The Japanese yen
    USDJPY,
    +1.32%
    fell 1.2% and the Nikkei 225 stock index
    JP:NIK
    rose 1.4% as 10-year government bond yields
    BX:TMBMKJP-10Y
    fell 3.6 basis points to 0.634%, the lowest in nearly four months.

    “Whenever central banks take positions that the market thinks are unsustainable, it’s always the currencies that play the role of the canary in the coal mine. No surprise then to see the Yen weakening by around 1% against every major currency overnight as investors vote with their feet,” said Steve Clayton, head of equity funds at Hargreaves Lansdown.

    Traders were also warily eyeing the oil market, after benchmark Brent crude
    BRN00,
    +0.06%
    jumped on Monday following BP’s statement it was halting shipments through the Red Sea, and thus the Suez Canal, because of attack’s by the Houthi in Yemen.

    Many of the world’s biggest shipping companies have said they also will steer clear of the region, prompting concerns about rising costs that may build inflationary pressures.

    “An extended period of disruption in global trade ways should not only sustain energy prices, but also put a renewed pressure on global supply chains and shipping prices,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.

    Read: Attacks in the Red Sea add to global shipping woes

    “The latter is a threat to inflation. Remember, the pandemic-related supply chain disruptions were the major reason that sent inflation to almost 10% in the U.S.,” Ozkardeskaya added.

    However, there was little evidence early Tuesday that investors were overly concerned by that narrative, with 10-year U.S. Treasury yields
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
    dipping 2.7 basis points to 3.912%.

    U.S. economic updates set for release on Tuesday include November housing starts and building permits at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

    Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic is due to speak at 12:30 p.m.

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  • Dow nabs 3rd straight record close, S&P has longest weekly win streak in 6 years

    Dow nabs 3rd straight record close, S&P has longest weekly win streak in 6 years

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    U.S. stocks closed mostly higher Friday, with major U.S. equity indexes booking a seventh straight week in the green in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting.

    The S&P 500 saw its longest weekly winning streak since November 2017, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

    How stock indexes traded

    • The Dow Jones Industrial Average
      DJIA
      rose 56.81 points, or 0.2%, to close at a record 37,305.16.

    • The S&P 500
      SPX
      was about flat, slipping less than 0.1%, to finish at 4,719.19

    • The Nasdaq Composite
      COMP
      gained 52.36 points, or 0.4%, to end at 14,813.92.

    What drove markets

    U.S. stocks finished mostly higher Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average logging a third straight record close.

    Equities broadly rallied this week after investors digested a closely watched reading on U.S. inflation as well as the Federal Reserve’s latest policy statement and projections on interest rates. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each logged a seventh straight week of gains.

    The “more optimistic tone of markets over the last several weeks has been justified,” Russell Price, chief economist at Ameriprise Financial, said in a Friday phone call. It’s “reasonable” for the stock market to be pricing in rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in 2024, with the recent drop in 10-year Treasury yields helping to lift equities, he said.  

    Price said he’s expecting the Fed may begin cutting rates in June and the U.S. economy will slow to a “sustainable” pace of growth in 2024. In his view, real gross domestic product may rise 1.8% to 1.9% next year.

    Nearly all of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors finished with gains this week, while small-capitalization stocks saw a stronger rally than large-cap equities.

    The small-cap Russell 2000 index
    RUT
    posted a weekly gain of around 5.6%, FactSet data show. The S&P 500 rose around 2.5% this week.

    At his press conference on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell gave “a nod” that inflation was on the right path and lower rates were on the horizon next year, according to Price. But when it comes to the federal-funds futures, Price said that traders appear to have gotten “too far ahead” in their bets on rate cuts.

    Fed-funds futures pointed to the central bank starting to reduce its benchmark rate as soon as March, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

    Stocks hit a speed bump in Friday’s trading session after New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams pushed back against those rate expectations during an interview with CNBC. “We aren’t really talking about cutting interest rates right now,” Williams said.

    Inflation, as measured by the consumer-price index, slowed to a year-over-year rate of 3.1% in November, down significantly from last year’s peak of 9.1% in June.  But “it’s too early to call ‘mission accomplished’ just yet” for the Fed’s goal of bringing inflation down to its 2% target, said Price.

    Still, Powell was explicit during his press conference about not needing a recession to cut rates, according to Nationwide’s chief of investment research Mark Hackett. “That was code for a soft landing,” Hackett said by phone Friday. 

    See: Williams says the Fed isn’t ‘really talking about cutting interest rates right now’

    On the economic news front Friday, the New York Fed’s Empire State manufacturing survey showed U.S. manufacturing activity continued to struggle as the gauge tumbled to a four-month low. Flash services and manufacturing PMIs from S&P affirmed that manufacturing activity remained weak, while services activity reached a five-month high.

    Read: U.S. economy posts steady but lackluster growth at year’s end, S&P finds

    Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
    fell 31.7 basis points this week to 3.927%, the largest weekly drop since November 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

    The S&P 500 ended Friday about flat, but just 1.6% below its record close, reached Jan. 3, 2022.

    “The momentum in the market is undeniably incredibly strong right now,” said Nationwide’s Hackett, though on Friday investors appeared to be taking “a natural break.”

    Companies in focus

    • Palantir Technologies Inc. shares
      PLTR,
      -0.05%
      slipped about 0.1% on Friday after the company announced an extension to a U.S. Army contract.

    • Steel Dynamics Inc.’s shares
      STLD,
      +4.52%
      jumped 4.5% after the company reported earnings, making it one of the S&P 500’s best performers in Friday’s trading session.

    • Costco Wholesale Corp. shares
      COST,
      +4.45%
      climbed around 4.5% after reporting fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue largely in line with expectations following the market’s close on Thursday, and announced a special dividend of $15 a share.

    • JD.com
      JD,
      +4.46%
      gained 4.5% as fresh stimulus out of China helped boost shares of companies based in the world’s second-largest economy. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s stock
      BABA,
      +2.76%
      rose 2.8%.

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  • Import prices fall for second straight month and as U.S. inflation eases

    Import prices fall for second straight month and as U.S. inflation eases

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    Developing story. Check back for updates.

    The numbers: The cost of imported goods fell 0.4% to mark the second decline in a row, contributing to a slowdown in U.S. inflation more broadly.

    Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had estimated a 0.8% drop.

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  • Coins

    Coins

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    My late Peruvian grandfather was quite the traveling businessman in his day. I found a luggage in his apartment filled with old currency leftover from his travels.

    Coins. My late Peruvian grandfather was quite the traveling businessman in his day. I found a luggage in his apartment filled with old currency leftover from hi

    American, the most likely to have collectors value, or at least their official value.

    Coins. My late Peruvian grandfather was quite the traveling businessman in his day. I found a luggage in his apartment filled with old currency leftover from hi

    Coins. My late Peruvian grandfather was quite the traveling businessman in his day. I found a luggage in his apartment filled with old currency leftover from hi

    Latin American. Almost all have been superceded by a newer currency, or have been massively devalued. I made sure to grab one coin with each national crest.

    Coins. My late Peruvian grandfather was quite the traveling businessman in his day. I found a luggage in his apartment filled with old currency leftover from hi

    Coins. My late Peruvian grandfather was quite the traveling businessman in his day. I found a luggage in his apartment filled with old currency leftover from hi

    European, european possessions, and Japanese.

    Coins. My late Peruvian grandfather was quite the traveling businessman in his day. I found a luggage in his apartment filled with old currency leftover from hi

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