“Recent studies” are quick and easy click bait popular with a lot of online media outlets these days. They’re often used to connect random items to health concerns (like “fidget spinners cause sleep apnea!”) and are given “legitimacy” by being connected to a college or doctor. But closer inspection often reveals questionable scientific methods or motives. One such recent study found that experiencing live music improves mental well-being twice as much as yoga or dog-walking, and can add up to nine years to your life. Though conducted by an “expert in behavioral science,” the study was commissioned by the U.K.’s O2, which is described as “the world’s most popular music and entertainment venue” and owns more than a dozen other large venues. How lucky for them that the study didn’t find that live music causes impotence!
WARM: Jesse’s Twirl
Personally attacking teenagers for getting involved in activism after their friends were killed in a mass school shooting isn’t a wise business decision (ask Laura Ingraham). Perhaps that’s why Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes had a change of heart after posting a vitriolic tirade calling the kids behind the pro-gun-control March for Our Lives movement “disgusting vile abusers of the dead.” The singer offered a weird, Jedi-mind-trick apology a few days later, saying “I did not mean to do what it seems like it was I was doing” and calling the students’ actions a “beautiful thing.”
COLD: Aiming for Controversy
Killer Mike of the Hip Hop duo Run the Jewels also raised some eyebrows when an interview about his pro-gun stance with NRATV was released just as the March for Our Lives was starting. The rapper’s main argument for gun rights is different than Hughes’ and the NRA’s — he believes African-Americans should have the right to own guns for protection, including from things like police brutality — and he also responded more eloquently to the ensuing controversy. Mike quickly apologized for the timing, saying, “I’m sorry adults chose to do this,” referring to NRATV’s video release and those on all sides who used his interview as “a lightning rod.” Watch his full interview here.
