Stabbings. Bludgeonings. Splitting men from groin to throat. Slipping on entrails. Killing a warhorse with a single punch. And corpses so mangled after battle that they’re only identifiable by their shoe size. Such are the rumoured feats of the Westerosi war knights recently announced by Variety as having been cast in House of the Dragon … Read more

Movies and heists are the perfect pairing. Both require a perfect crew, a ton of charisma, and clockwork precision in an environment where everything is ready to go wrong. Though we’ve been trained to understand that the perfect crime is as rare as the treasures that movie thieves endeavor to steal, few things top the … Read more

Warning: contains spoilers for Doctor Who series 15 episode 3 “The Well”. The first time the Doctor survived the malignant entity on Planet Midnight, he wasn’t able to truthfully tell Donna Noble what it was, or whether it was still alive. Hundreds of centuries later, after his second encounter with the alien force in new … Read more

“We are the Thunderbolts!” shouts Alexei Shostakov the Red Guardian in the trailers for the next MCU entry Thunderbolts*. “We can’t call ourselves that,” responds an exasperated Bucky. It’s a weird exchange, one that goes beyond the usual snarky humor that’s marked the Marvel Studios brand since nearly the beginning. Why, exactly, can’t they call … Read more

Warning: contains spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 episode 6 “Surprise”.  Holly was right. Mothers so often are. Earlier this season, June protested her mom’s characterisation of Nick as an untrustworthy Nazi monster, and guess what? Holly called it. Of all the people – Lawrence, Serena – in whom June was forced to place her dubious … Read more

“Rule your mind, or it will rule you.” ~Buddha I used to be trapped in a cycle of overthinking, replaying past mistakes, worrying about the future, and mentally holding onto every thought, just as I physically held onto old clothes, books, and my child’s outgrown toys. The fear of letting go—whether of physical items or … Read more

“Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love, belonging, and connection.” ~Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart This past year, I started the journey of investigating—maybe even befriending—“my” shame. I use quotes around the “my” because most of the shame is not mine; much … Read more

“The real meditation is how you live your life.” ~Jon Kabat-Zinn I never saw myself as someone who would meditate. It wasn’t even on my radar until my wife suggested it while we were both working on our wellness. I chuckled. Like a lot of people, I assumed meditation meant sitting still, trying to clear … Read more

“In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” ~Unknown “Girls are mean!” I nodded knowingly as my boss struggled to explain the difference between raising boys and girls. I couldn’t speak to raising boys, but I remembered all too well what it was like when my daughters were growing up. Girls traveled in … Read more

Tell me, is your jaw clenched as you’re reading this? Are your shoulders hunched? Do you feel tension throughout your body that mirrors the constant buzz of stress within your mind? I suspect we all feel like this far more often than we may even realize because, for many of us, it’s the norm. We … Read more