Your digestive system is a hugely important part of your body, and keeping it healthly is hugely important. Without good gut health, you might be in pain, or suffer embarrassing symptoms, or worse. But it does not follow that you need to load up on foods or products that promise to improve your gut health.

Gut health, it turns out, is not a well-defined concept. That means it’s not always possible to tell whether it’s improving or whether you even have a problem with it in the first place. Two researchers from the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University wrote in a Lancet journal article and on the Conversation about the fact that gut health has become more of a marketing buzzword than a scientific or medical phenomenon.

What do we even mean when we talk about gut health? Often it’s either the absence of unpleasant symptoms like diarrhea, or the absence of medical conditions like Crohn’s disease. These conditions and symptoms are each different, so there’s not a single state of “gut health” that you can achieve to prevent all of them. Scientists are still trying to understand the details, and research is ongoing.

The microbiome is also important—but again, scientists have not managed to come up with a way to reliably tell the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy microbiome. The exact population of microbes in two healthy people’s guts may differ, for example. And despite ongoing research, we still can’t test your gut microbes and tell you what’s wrong with you (outside of a few specific cases, like Clostridium difficile infection).

On the other hand, sometimes the idea of “gut health” is just code for “being skinny.” If you convince your TikTok followers that they can have a flat belly if only they get their gut health in order, you can sell them affiliate-marketed probiotics.

“Gut health” talk is often just marketing

Whatever the angle, the idea that gut health is important to overall health has provided a marketing boost for a plethora of products, foods, and practices that are supposed to be good for you. Probiotics, for example, are suggested to treat or prevent gastrointestinal troubles. But many fermented foods like yogurt and kombucha don’t affect the makeup of the gut microbiome, and even when they do, it’s not always clear if they’re affecting it for the better.

Basically, if someone says a certain food or diet is supposed to be good for your gut health, they’re usually making assumptions they can’t back up. As scientists Amy Loughman and Heidi Staudacher write:

There is no solid human evidence yet that intake of processed foods or refined sugar leads to negative effects on the entirety of the aforementioned gut health parameters. Neither are lists of top ten gut health foods particularly helpful or insightful; instead they simplify the complexity of diet to a handful of foods high in fibre without appreciation of important nuances.

They also point out that there are many types of fiber and that they probably aren’t all equally good for us; there is evidence that some fibers could be harmful if we eat too much of them.

A generally varied diet that includes whole grains, fruits, and vegetables will probably be good for your gut health. So will other healthy habits like exercising and avoiding smoking. As they further discuss in the Conversation article, gut health isn’t a thing you achieve by drinking kombucha or eschewing sugar; rather, “it’s dietary patterns and overall habits, not individual foods, that shift the dial.”

Mother’s Day is supposed to be wholesome and sort of boring: some flowers, a Hallmark card, maybe doing some chores around the house for once. But the American version of Mother’s Day wasn’t born in a garden. It was forged in the smoke and death of the Civil War, shaped by radical women, and became a battleground between profit and principle—a holiday so contentious its own creator devoted her life trying to destroy it. Mother’s Day’s history is dramatic as hell.

The ancient ancestors of Mother’s Day

Moms have been around for a long time, and so have celebrations to honor them. These kinds of celebrations have been around at least since the ancient Greeks and Romans threw festivals in honor of mother goddesses like Cybele and Rhea. During the Medieval period, the church put a Christian spin on the idea with Mothering Sunday, a day honoring the Mother Church. Versions of Mother’s Day are celebrated on different days and different ways around the world. In Peru, you visit cemeteries on Mother’s Day. In Albania, you celebrate your mom on March 8. But these other “Mother’s Days” aren’t the direct inspiration for Mother’s Day as we celebrate it in the United States.

A holiday born in blood

Mother’s Day officially began in the United States in 1914, but the roots of the holiday day go back to before the Civil War, back to social activist and community organizer, Ann Reeves Jarvis. “Mother Jarvis” (as she was called) was a founder and champion of Mothers’ Day Work Clubs, grassroots public health organizations dedicated to lowering infant mortality rates by teaching women how to properly care for their children, improve sanitary conditions, and fight disease. This was a personal crusade for “Mother Jarvis”: She birthed between 11 and 13 children, and only four survived to adulthood.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Mothers’ Day Work Clubs shifted their focus to caring for wounded soldiers on both sides of the conflict. By 1868, with the Civil War over, Jarvis promoted a peace-focused movement for “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” dedicated to bringing bringing former Union and Confederate soldiers together to reconcile.

“Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?” Jarvis wrote. (Yeah, why don’t they? Get on it, Mom.)

Jarvis wasn’t alone. Across the country, other women were also organizing proto-Mother’s Days. Abolitionist and suffragette Julia Ward Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation” in 1870, which called on all mothers to unite and promote world peace. Howe later campaigned for a holiday called “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated every June 2. Juliet Calhoun Blakely, a temperance activist from Michigan, inspired a local Mother’s Day to be celebrated there in the 1870s. The cultural winds were blowing toward Mother’s Day, but it took Jarvis’ death to make it official.

Ann Reeves Jarvis died in 1905 (sadly without having ended war) but her daughter, Anna Jarvis, picked up the activist mantle. On the first anniversary of her mom’s death, Anna announced plans for a memorial service remembering her mother to be held the following year. She envisioned a national holiday to honor the sacrifices mothers make for their children. In 1908, Jarvis, with financial backing from fat cats John Wanamaker and H.J. Heinz, hosted an official Mother’s Day celebration at a church in West Virginia—and at Wanamaker’s department store. They both went well, inspiring Jarvis to push for a national holiday. But it also gave Wanamaker and other go-getters a look at the profit potential of Mother’s Day, and thus began the battle for the soul of Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day goes commercial

By 1912, Jarvis had quit her job and started the Mother’s Day International Association, which formed partnerships with local businesses and ran letter-writing campaigns to government officials. Towns and churches in several states adopted Mother’s Day as an annual holiday, and by 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made it an official holiday in 1914. There were a few haters, like Senator Henry Moore Teller (D-CO) who called the resolution “puerile” and “absolutely absurd,” but most people loved the idea.

So Jarvis got what she wanted and everything turned out great. Wait. That didn’t happen at all. Jarvis saw Mother’s Day as a “day of sentiment, not profit,” but capitalists like Wanamaker and Heinz did not care what she thought. They quickly capitalized on the widespread interest in the holiday, and the celebration almost immediately went from a meaningful day to honor the sacrifices mother’s make and promote peace to a chance to buy a lot of things for your mom. Jarvis hated this.

Ann Jarvis’ quixotic campaign against Mother’s Day

By 1920, Jarvis had denounced her former financial backers, called on everyone to not buy their moms anything on Mother’s Day, and categorized anyone who makes money off the holiday as “charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers, and termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest, and truest movements and celebrations.”

Jarvis showed her disapproval for restaurants offering specials on Mother’s Day by throwing a “Mother’s Day Salad” on the floor of a Philadelphia eatery. She didn’t approve of greeting cards either, writing, “A maudlin, insincere printed card or ready-made telegram means nothing except that you’re too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone else in the world.” And don’t give your mom candy on Mother’s Day either: “Candy!” Jarvis wrote, “You take a box to Mother—and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment.”

But the worst Mother’s Day offenders of all, the biggest racketeers and pirates, were the damn florists. Jarvis freakin’ hated the flower industry. At her own expense, she sent thousands of buttons featuring a picture of a white carnation (the official flower of Mother’s Day) to women’s groups all over the country in a bid to have them not buy any flowers. She threatened a trademark lawsuit against Florist Telegraph Delivery (FTD) for combining carnations with the words “Mother’s Day.” She protested the U.S. government’s Mother’s Day stamp because it used the painting Whistler’s Mother, and she interpreted the carnations in it as an advertisement for Big Flower. Jarvis was even arrested for disturbing the peace when she tried to physically stop the sale of carnations.

The sad, lonely death of the mother of Mother’s Day

Say what you will about her, Ann Jarvis was committed (literally). Calling the backers of your holiday “kidnappers” and “termites” comes with a price, and Jarvis paid it in full. By mid-century, she was penniless, living in her sister’s house in Philadelphia without any trace of the influence that once swayed the President of the United States. In 1943, while trying to collect signatures on a petition to abolish Mother’s Day completely, Jarvis was forced into the Marshall Square Sanitarium in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where representatives of the Flower and Greeting Card industry paid the bill. Whether this was a corporate public relations move to provide (no doubt much needed) psychiatric care to a difficult but important figure in the industry, or a final twist of the knife depends on your point of view. Jarvis died on November 24, 1948, never having children of her own, but she took her principles to her carnation-scented grave.

Chrome on Android can be a bit much. It’s undeniably a heavy browser, with not that many features to boot. There’s no built-in reading mode, no ad-blocker, no tab management, no VPN, nothing. Chrome isn’t even that customizable.

If you want more from your Android browser, you’re not wrong. If you’re willing to switch to a third-party browser, you can get a browser that’s faster than Chrome, uses less resources, provides all those features I just talked about, and more.

There are many options to choose from, but here are my top 5 picks for Chrome alternatives, depending on what kind of user you are.

Vivaldi: Best for large screen devices

Vivaldi is a fast and stable browser with desktop-style tabs that are perfect for those with large phones. With this app, you get a scrolling tab bar featuring full titles, right in the tab bar. No need to tap a button to switch to different tabs or manage them.

Instead, you’ll find a horizontally scrolling list of tabs. Though, you can turn it off as well, if you wish. And like most Android browsers, you can choose to keep the tab bar at the top, or the bottom of the screen. Vivaldi also supports this tab layout on larger screens, so if you’re using an Android tablet, or a foldable, this might be the right browser for you.

Vivaldi’s Android browser syncs with the desktop counterpart, and like the desktop app, it offers ad-blocking and tracker-blocking options by default. You also get speed dial, search engine shortcuts, reading list and themes.

Other than that Vivaldi is quite light, and the interface is also easy to use. There is no AI agent here, no free VPN, no news feed that you need to disable.

Firefox: Best for adding functionality

Firefox is the only browser on this list that supports extensions. This instantly makes Firefox the best pick with it comes to customization.

The Firefox app for Android is quite capable by itself. It’s fast, simple, and the easy to use. Using Firefox Sync you can access all your Firefox tabs (or any other Firefox-based browser) on your Android smartphone. The same goes for passwords too.

Firefox also features Collections, which is their own feature for manually grouping tabs in the tab switcher. The tab bar supports a nice gesture, where you can swipe left or right to switch between the recently used tabs (like how you swipe between apps using the Home bar).

But, as I mentioned, the main feature, are the Extensions. The Dark Reader extension will enable dark mode for any website, uBlock Origin will bring a fast and efficient ad blocker to Firefox, Bitwarden’s extension brings in autofill passwords, and more. There are extensions for tracking prices online, downloading videos from YouTube, and more.

Though, you don’t need to worry with most of them. Just adding a couple of extensions like uBlock Origin and Dark Reader will improve your browsing experience by a noticeable margin.

Brave: Best for privacy

Brave is known for its privacy and security, and the Android browser is no different. Brave is faster compared to Chrome, and blocks ads and trackers by default, there’s no need to enable a setting for it, or to set things up. By default, Brave uses its own Brave search engine, which is also private by default, and uses its own custom search engine instead of using third-party data.

Brave offers a lot of extra features, but they are all disabled by default. You can enable a private news feed if you want. And while Brave as its own AI bot Leo and its own paid VPN, but are tucked away in the menu, easy to ignore.

There’s an experimental Night mode that will automatically invert the colors on all website, giving them a dark background, and light text. Brave also features group tabs for easier tab management.

Via: Best for older devices

Via is a minimalist and light browser, designed to run well on any Android device. The browser weighs just 1.5 MB, making it idea of devices with limited storage. It also works well on devices with limited amount of RAM.

Via is a barebones browser. It opens to a minimal start page, and there are no news feeds or shortcuts. It does have a really simple tab management feature, and the tab bar can be found at the bottom of the screen.

The app has built-in ad blocking, and there’s an option to edit and customize the ad blocking filters as well. There is a reader mode, and even a night mode that inverts the colors on all websites.

Overall, if you’re tired of the bloatware from Chrome, or if you have an older device where Chrome just drags on way too much, Via is the browser you should be looking into.

Opera: Best for managing tab overload

Opera browser for Android is all about features. There’s a built-in reader mode, an ad-blocker that’s enabled by default, a free VPN service, a customizable address bar that you can dock to the bottom of the screen.

Opera puts its Arai AI front and center, reserving a slot in the toolbar. But you can edit it out easily.

Just like Vivaldi, there’s an option to enable desktop style tabs, that you can swipe through. And tabs is what Opera really specializes in. There’s support for tab islands, where Opera automatically groups and color codes multiple web pages from the same site. When you go into the tab switcher, you’ll find three different layout options: Carousel, Grid, and List. The Carousel option lets you quickly scroll between open tab groups and tabs. You are free to drag and drop tabs between the groups to rearrange them.

If you use Opera on the desktop, the tabs from your computer can show up on Android, and you can use the Flow feature to share links, files and notes between all your devices.

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There are plenty of places worth investing your money for long-term growth. But what about short-term savings? Shouldn’t you be able to earn a little something extra on that, too?

A high-yield savings account functions like a traditional savings account but offers significantly higher interest rates. More specifically, the average interest rate on savings accounts is currently 0.41% per the FDIC. Compared to those meager returns on a traditional savings account, high-yield alternatives can deliver more than 4.50% APY—turning a potential $50 annual return on $10,000 into $450 or more.

These accounts are typically offered by online banks and financial institutions with lower overhead costs, allowing them to pass those savings to customers through better rates. So: With all the high-yield savings accounts out there, how do you choose? 

What to look for in a high-yield savings account

While maximizing returns is going to be your top priority, here are other features to consider when choosing your high-yield savings account.

Annual percentage yield (APY)

The APY represents your actual return after compounding interest. This aspect is no doubt your top priority. Even small differences in APY can significantly impact your earnings over time. Currently, the most competitive high-yield accounts offer between 4.50% and 5.25% APY.

Fee structure

While many accounts don’t have a minimum deposit to open an account (remember, they want you to sign up), some charge a monthly fee if your balance is below a certain threshold. For example, Citi Accelerate Savings charges $4.50 per month if you don’t keep a minimum of $500 in your account. Look for accounts with:

• No monthly maintenance fees

• No minimum balance requirements

• Free transfers between linked accounts

• Reasonable excessive withdrawal fees (if any)

Access to your money

Since you’re probably housing short-term savings in one of these accounts, you’ll want to be sure you can access your money when you want to withdraw it to pay for your next family vacation or the new brakes the car will need this year. Consider how you’ll need to use these funds:

• Do you need ATM access?

• Is mobile check deposit available?

• How many monthly transactions are allowed without penalty?

• How quickly can you transfer funds to your primary checking account?

Insurance protection

Ensure your deposits are federally insured. FDIC insurance for banks goes up to $250,000 per depositor; NCUA insurance for credit unions has the same coverage limits. Most financial institutions are up front about this, noting their FDIC status on the homepage or account features list. A lot of banks put “Member FDIC” right next to their name.

User experience

Read some reviews and ratings for the account’s mobile app, customer service, and account opening process.

Minimum deposit requirements

While many accounts don’t have a minimum deposit to open an account (remember, they want you to sign up), some charge a monthly fee if your balance is below a certain threshold. And still, some accounts do require substantial opening deposits or minimum balances to earn the advertised APY. Choose an account that aligns with your financial situation.

Some of the top high-yield savings accounts right now

Let’s take a look at how you might decide between some of the most competitive accounts on the market right now. I broke down some of the most popular options by their APY, as well as the factors that help minimize fees and ensure easy access.

Note: Rates are subject to change based on market conditions and Federal Reserve policy.

SoFi Checking and Savings

• APY: 3.80% (with direct deposit)

• Minimum balance: $0

• Monthly/overdraft fees: None

• What else to consider: Combination checking and savings account; no branch access, fees for cash deposits

Capital One 360 Performance Savings

• APY: 3.60%

• Minimum balance: $0

• Monthly/overdraft fees: None

• What else to consider: Highly rated user experience, no minimum opening deposits; no cash deposits at many partner ATMs

CIT Bank Platinum Savings

• APY: 4.10% (on balances of $5,000 or more)

• Minimum balance: $0

• Monthly/overdraft fees: None

• What else to consider: No free ATM network, but ATM fee rebates; high minimum opening deposit

EverBank Performance Savings

• APY: 4.30%

• Minimum balance: $0

• Monthly/overdraft fees: None

• What else to consider: No minimum opening deposits; limited branch access.

More tips to maximize your savings

As you choose the right account for you, there are extra strategies you can start practicing to really hack your savings.

Rate chasing vs. convenience

While chasing the highest rates can maximize returns, consider the hassle of frequently opening new accounts. Sometimes accepting a slightly lower rate (within 0.25%) from a more convenient or full-featured institution makes sense.

Laddering your savings

Consider splitting your funds between high-yield savings accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs) to create a “ladder” that balances liquidity and higher returns. You can play around with this CD ladder calculator to see if it’s worthwhile for you.

Special promotions

Many banks offer promotional rates or cash bonuses for new customers. These can sometimes provide better short-term value than a slightly higher standard APY.

The bottom line

Once you feel settled on a high-yield savings account option, don’t bop around chasing rates. It’s not worth switching savings accounts to go from a 4.1% APY to a 4.3% APY. The whole idea of having a savings account is to let your money work for you, not to have to bust a move to keep up with interest rates. And since rates fluctuate, you may find that your interest rate increases without you having to do a thing.

By prioritizing the factors most important to your financial goals—whether that’s maximizing returns, minimizing fees, or ensuring easy access—you can select an account that puts your money to work for you. Remember that while rates can change with market conditions, the habit of keeping your extra cash in a high-yield account rather than a traditional low-interest option is a savvy move all around.

Our hearts beat faster when we exercise, which is why heart rate training can be so useful. But when we aren’t doing anything, our heart rate can still be useful to know. If you have a wearable that measures your resting heart rate (RHR), here’s how to understand what it’s telling you. 

What is a normal resting heart rate? 

Medical professionals usually consider anything between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm) to be a “normal” resting heart rate. But they are usually measuring resting heart rate in people who are in a healthcare setting, sitting quietly. Notably, they are awake, and some may be a bit nervous about being in a doctor’s office. 

Your smartwatch or other wearable device may be able to capture lower numbers, especially if you wear it while you’re sleeping. Oura, maker of smart rings, reports that its members tend to have a resting heart rate between 50 and 60 bpm. Whoop says that its users average 59 bpm for women, 55 for men. 

Users of Oura, Whoop, and similar devices probably have lower than average heart rates, because these platforms are popular among athletes and the health-conscious. The more typical 60 to 100 figure is meant to apply to the entire population a healthcare professional might encounter. So it’s OK if you’re not hitting those lower numbers. 

A lower resting heart rate is usually better

Athletes and people in good cardiovascular health tend to have lower resting heart rates. People who improve their cardio fitness tend to see their resting heart rate decrease over time, and that’s often considered a good sign that what you’re doing is working. 

In the short term, a heart rate a few beats higher than your usual may mean: 

• You are stressed, either mentally or physically (for example, fatigued from hard workouts)

• You’re in your follicular phase, if you’re a person with a menstrual cycle

• You’re getting sick

• You’re taking medication that affects your resting heart rate (including some stimulants and decongestants)

• Something disrupted your sleep, if your RHR is measured during sleep—for example, drinking and staying up late can both result in a higher RHR reading. 

I find resting heart rate (along with HRV, which is different) to be a useful number to track for understanding how stressed or recovered my body is. If it goes up, that’s fine, so long as it comes back down within a few days. A resting heart rate that stays elevated for weeks may indicate illness or other issues that may call for medical attention.

Why you shouldn’t compare your resting heart rate to others’

As tempting as it is to want a “good” resting heart rate, it’s not useful to treat RHR as a competition. People are built differently, and just as your friend might be taller or shorter than you, they may have a naturally higher or lower heart rate, even before you take fitness or health factors into account. 

In general, smaller people tend to have slightly higher resting heart rates, which is why the average RHR for women is a few beats higher than the average man’s. Resting heart rates can also change with age, increasing slightly in early adulthood and then leveling off. (Note that your resting heart rate doesn’t necessarily say anything about your maximum heart rate or exercise heart rate, which I discuss in more detail here.)

If you’re using a watch or wearable to tell you your resting heart rate, there’s also a difference from device to device. When I wore five different devices to track my RHR and HRV for several nights in a row, the Fitbit gave a resting heart rate number that was often 10 beats higher than the reading from Oura. The other devices—a Garmin, a Whoop, and an Apple Watch—were in between. 

Ultimately, the best way to use your RHR data is to keep an eye on long- and short-term trends. If your RHR is lowering gradually over time as you exercise a little more, that’s a good sign. And when it varies from day to day, you can use those changes as a nudge to check in on your health, stress, fatigue, and sleep. And of course, if you’re ever concerned about your heart rate being unusually high or low, check with a medical professional.

Letterboxd is the best thing to happen to film nerds since IMDb, which is almost surprising given how straightforward it is. Like the Film Twitter answer to Goodreads, it is a social network/online catalogue where you can rate or review movies, pick a few of your favorites to highlight on your profile, and follow your friends and favorite critics. Yet, Letterboxd is more than just “what if social media, but for movies?” Dig a little deeper and you’ll find some useful tools for managing your cinema obsession.

If you haven’t used Letterboxd before, it’s available for Android, iOS, or on the web. Anyone can access it to browse movies, read reviews, and see user ratings, but in order to make a watchlist or leave your own reviews, you’ll need to create a (free) account. 

And that’s where the fun begins. You can assemble and share your own lists of movies group by any classification you want, from WWII movies in chronological order to movies with the highest kill counts. You can add tags to organize your collections of films you’ve watched or want to watch, get recommendations from the community, and (with a paid subscription) even customize the display page for every movie and get notified when stuff on your to-watch list arrives on streaming.

Here are five ways to get more out of Letterboxd.

Create custom watchlists

A huge part of what makes Letterboxd so appealing is that when you find a movie you want to see, you can add it to your Watchlist to remember for later. (Just press the big + button on the bottom right, then tap Watchlist.) This is also kind of the app’s biggest weakness. It’s nice at first, but as your Watchlist grows, it becomes just as difficult to choose something to watch from it as it is scrolling endlessly through Netflix.

This is where custom lists come in handy. A bit below the Watchlist button, you’ll see “Add to lists,” which lets you create your own public or private lists. Instead of dumping everything into your standard Watchlist, you should create lists for different genres, different actors, different decades, or even solely based on vibes.

I can’t recommend this practice enough. It’s a couple of extra steps, especially as you first start to create lists, but it makes Letterboxd so much more useful. My partner and I use a shared list for movies we want to watch together when we have a movie night. I keep a separate list for horror movies I know they won’t want to see, and another list for my favorite movies I know I can rewatch over and over. This simple feature turns Letterboxd into your own personal Spotify for movies, albeit one where you are in sole control of the “algorithm.”

Get better recommendations with public lists

Your own lists are a great way to organize your collection of movies you’ve watched or want to watch, but you may not even need to bother creating them, since Letterboxd users love to create their own lists and share them. If the almighty algorithm on your favorite streaming service isn’t coming up with a good recommendation, browse Letterboxd’s public lists.

When I say users love making these lists, I mean it. Take, for example, this list of movies “for when you want to feel something” that not only has great recs like Up or Parasite, but is organized by poster color. Or this creative list that pairs classic romantic films with similar modern counterparts to help you find older films you might like.

Since these public lists are created by actual humans, if you find a person whose tastes you like, you can follow them. If someone puts a ton of work into curating one list, there’s a decent chance they have others you might also like. Unlike most algorithm-controlled social media apps, Letterboxd makes it easy to see a real, human connection to another person.

Organize your collections with tags

Separate lists are better than one giant Watchlist, but for my money, tags are a superior organizing system (though they both serve their purposes). You can create your own custom tags when adding or editing a review of a movie—as many as you want—and give as many movies those tags as you deem necessary.

Tags work best for marking genres or traits movies have in common, but that don’t necessarily need their own dedicated list. For example, you might tag some of your movies as “wholesome” or “gut wrenching” depending on what happens to the dog in the end.

You can also get more creative with your tags. For example, one of my favorite tags is  “mental health metaphors,” for films that have interesting allegories for mental illness; or “eat the rich,” a very particular subgenre that is surprisingly robust. I even have the tag “haha what the f” for those movies that are just too incomprehensible to explain.

You can add tags by selecting to “Review or log” a movie, though you can leave the review text blank. As you add more tags, you can browse and sort movies with them. On your profile, you’ll find a tab for your tags, and you can browse all the tags you’ve created and see all the movies that match them.

Get notified when movies hit streaming (with a Pro subscription)

The free version of Letterboxd is pretty great, but a Pro subscription takes it a step further. The Pro tier costs $19 per year, which averages out to about $1.58 per month. (Though there’s no month-to-month option, only an annual plan.).

On the Pro tier, you won’t see any ads on the service, which is already a win—sometimes Letterboxd’s ad placement is so weird that it obscures the site’s key features. (Hot tip: scroll past the ad on your profile to find your reviews and lists!) If you use the app a lot, getting rid of ads is already worth the entry fee.

The star of the Pro show, though, is the streaming service filter: Add the streaming services you use, and any time any movie on your watchlist comes to one of those services, you’ll get a notification in the app. 

Pick your posters and get your name featured (with a Patron subscription)

One level above the Pro tier is the Patron subscription, which costs $49 a year. This is the tier you want to go with if you’re feeling Letterboxd so much you want to throw extra support to the developers. Which is fair—it’s kind of incredible how much of this app’s functionality is completely free.

On the Pro tier, you do get a couple of extra perks. You can customize the poster that is displayed for the movies you’ve logged or added to a list. These alternate posters will be visible to you, as well as any other users who have opted in to seeing different posters in their settings. You can also add backdrops to your profiles, lists, and reviews to make them look a bit flashier.

Speaking of, since this is a social site, you’ll also have a blue “Patron” label next to your username (Pro supporters get an orange “Pro” badge). It’s nothing more than a cosmetic addition, but it is a nice way to feel a part of a community of film nerds all sharing what they love. If you’re obsessed with movies and want to share that passion with everyone else, Letterboxd is for you.

If you’ve had your Apple devices for a while, you probably think you know them pretty well. You have your various routines, habits, and hacks and you do what you need to do. But over the years, Apple has added a lot of features to its flagship products—including plenty of hidden gestures you might not know about. As MacRumors reminded us this week, one of those gestures is actually well-suited for sharing photos and videos across your various Apple devices, and in some cases, is probably faster than AirDrop.

The gesture itself is simple enough: Just open a photo or video, then take three fingers (your thumb, index, and middle finger) and pinch in on the image. If done successfully, you’ll see a “Copy” pop-up appear at the top of the display. (Due to the gesture, you may also dismiss the image as well, but as long as you copied it, you’re good to go.) You can also simply copy text or an image the old-fashioned way, by highlighting the text and copying it, or long-pressing on an image and tapping “Copy.”

From here, you could paste the photo or video wherever you want it to go, by either tapping a text field and choosing “Paste,” or by pinching out with three fingers instead of pinching in. However, the real convenience of this trick is to take advantage of the Apple ecosystem’s Universal Clipboard feature, which lets you copy and paste items across devices. So, you could copy a photo on your iPhone and instantly paste it on your Mac, or copy a video from your iPad and paste it to your iPhone. (This gesture unfortunately doesn’t work on Mac, even those with trackpads.)

In order for this to work, your devices need to be signed into the same Apple Account and be connected to the same wifi network with Bluetooth enabled. In addition, you need to turn on Handoff on all devices. You might already have this setting on, but just in case, go to Settings (System Settings on Mac) > General > Airplay & Continuity > Handoff.

With Handoff enabled on all devices, rinse and repeat: On your iPhone or iPad, go ahead an try a three-finger pinch on any photo or video you have loaded up. Then, paste it to another device you have open.

The next time you have a photo or video on one device you need on another, give this a shot over other methods, like AirDrop or texting yourself. Not only is it quicker to share the file, you’ll already have pasted the media where it needs to be. Win-win.

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Welcome to “Cookbook of the Week.” This is a series where I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While finding a particular recipe online serves a quick purpose, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has a magic all its own. 

My sweet tooth has been nagging me lately. I expect this is because I’ve been trying to eat more vegetables and my dopamine hormones find this to be disrespectful. I like veggies, but I’m only so powerful to resist the call of sweets. In one of my bookstore browsings, I came upon a cookbook with hefty slices of lemony-looking pie with a chocolate crust scattered across the cover and snapped it up. It’s not a new book, but that’s one of my favorite things about cookbooks: they don’t have to be new or trendy to be great. This week’s Cookbook of the Week is Justice of the Pies.

A bit about the book

Justice of the Pies is a cookbook as well as a bakery by the same name in Chicago, Illinois, with Maya-Camille Broussard at the wheel. The bakery was created to honor her late father, a criminal defense attorney and a man that brought joy to those around him with his Saturday pies. (As a big fan of puns and desserts, brava on the name.)

This book has over 85 recipes and, as expected, most of them are pies or tarts, and if they’re not, well then they’re at least circular (like whoopie pies or biscuits). Don’t expect your typical panel of pie flavors from Broussard. You thought strawberry-rhubarb was clever? How about roasted Brussels sprouts and cherry? Perhaps a slice of bleu cheese praline pear pie is more your speed? Prepare to explore your creative side with some interesting flavor combinations. 

For those who don’t think much of dessert pies, don’t fret, because not everything in here is sweet. Check out chapters like Savory Pies, Quiches, and Tarts for some savory numbers.

A great cookbook for some freakin’ positivity

There are loads of absolutely mouth-watering recipes in Justice of the Pies, complemented by moody, rich photography. Every recipe is designed to light up your taste buds, fill your belly, and satisfy that pang in your sweet tooth. I made the sweet potato praline pie (more on that in a moment) and from what I can tell in making that recipe and studying others, there is no pretense here for diet food. These are meals and desserts that have been crafted to elicit a smile or a gasp of excitement from your family and friends. (There is also a peaches and herb cobbler in here that might make you feel good in other ways if you choose to make the weed-infused butter.)

Scattered in between the recipes are human spotlight stories. They each tell an uplifting story about a person or group of people who wanted to bring positive change to their communities, whether it’s addressing food insecurity or resolving to throw birthday parties for children who are housing insecure. These stories deliver a dose of positivity and hopefully provide inspiration to support community efforts in our own ways. These stories echo back to Broussard’s own initiatives, like her I Knead Love workshops that provide food education to children right there in the bakery. It’s food with intention. 

The dish I made this week

Like I teased above, I made the sweet potato praline pie this week. I didn’t make it easy on myself, as this recipe has three different parts. It’s a reminder that if I plan on making more pies this summer that it’s not a bad idea to double or triple her all-butter pie dough recipe and just keep a few stored in the freezer for future use. 

The crust is a classic butter recipe with only four ingredients, so you don’t have to worry about reinventing the wheel here. There are some recipes that add an egg or drop in some vodka, and it all gets a little irritating. (I’m guilty of overcomplicating pie crust.) It turns out, pie crust just doesn’t need to be hacked.

The filling is what I was most interested in. I adore sweet potatoes at all times, but they’re especially charming when mashed up with brown sugar and loads of butter and baked into a pie shell. This pie preparation was straightforward and positively laden with those two important ingredients. I appreciated Broussard’s clear instructions and tips; they told me what to look out for without being long winded. For example, after the filling is completely mixed, it looks like a mistake. All of the butter specks separate from the mixture and I could see this breaking someone’s heart if they didn’t know any better. Broussard drops in a quick line that you’ll know it’s done mixing when you see those very specks show up.

As for the flavor, all sweet potato fans will be in tuber heaven. This recipe instructs you to mash the sweet potatoes rather than blend them, which gives the pie a little more structural integrity, rather than a baby food texture I’ve gotten with other recipes. The pie finishes with a slightly puckered look due to the butter specks melting away, and the high sugar content gives it a caramelized top. This pie is rich and sweet; perfect for a cup of coffee. I’m looking forward to that tomorrow morning. 

How to buy it

You can buy the hardcover (which is beautiful) of Justice of the Pies online, and because it’s a couple years old, you can find a good deal. For those with little book shelf space to spare, consider the ebook for five bucks. Or, if you’re a bookstore butterfly like myself (bookstore bee? Still workshopping it), check out your local Barnes & Noble, stop into Warwick’s, or call up your neighborhood independent bookstore to see if they can order it for you.

(Washington, D.C., May 8, 2025) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins will visit the United Kingdom May 12-14. This comes after President Donald J. Trump announced today, on the 80^th anniversary of Victory in Europe, a new trade agreement in principle that will lower tariffs, remove trade barriers, increase market access, and strengthen cooperation on economic security. The President secured major wins for American agriculture. This deal provides significant expansion in U.S.