TIME USA - December 9 2024 Freemagazines Top

ELECTRIC VEHICLES
DEC. 9, 2024
BECOME
RICHEST MAN
BUY
TWITTER
LAUNCH
ROCKET
BRING ROCKET
BACK
IMPLANT HUMAN
BRAIN CHIP
GET TRUMP
ELECTED
WORK FROM
MAR-A-LAGO
SLASH
$2 TRILLION
FLY TO
MARS
CITIZEN
MUSKWHAT’S NEXT ON
HIS TO-DO LIST?
BY SIMON SHUSTER
time.com
Mitsubishi Corporation
The Power of Three
Mitsubishi Corporation is built on a core philosophy
known as San Ko Ryo, or “The Three Corporate
Principles.” Mitsubishi means “three diamonds.” Our
corporate philosophy is built on those three shining pillars.
“Shoki Hoko”
Corporate Responsibility to Society
Strive to enrich society, both materially and spiritually,
while contributing towards the preservation of
the global environment.
“Shoji Komei”
Integrity and Fairness
Maintain principles of transparency and openness,
As one of Japan’s leading companies, Mitsubishi Corporation conducting business with integrity and fairness.
manages businesses across value chains and industries that meet
the needs of a changing world. “Ritsugyo Boeki”
Global Understanding Through Business
Successful investors know that diversity is the cornerstone of resilience, and Expand business, based on an all-encompassinJ
balanced portfolios can withstand market challenges and enjoy sustainable global perspective.
growth. That is true for businesses as well as individuals, and few companies
exemplify this strategy better than Mitsubishi Corporation. (The modern day interpretation of the Three Corporate Principles,
as agreed on at the Mitsubishi Kinyokai meeting of the companies
At our founding 70 years ago, Mitsubishi Corporation was an import/export that constitute the so-called Mitsubishi group in January 2001.)
business. What has distinguished us from other firms is our unique evolution.
When the economic landscape shifted, we at Mitsubishi Corporation adjusted our Distribution of Net Income FY2023
business model and transcended our roots as a trading company to become an
investor in attractive businesses and industries. As times continued to change, we
transformed our business model once again, and actively managed our
investments for growth and value creation. Power Solution,
Urban Development Natural Gas
This singular path has made Mitsubishi Corporation Japan's preeminent sogo & many more...
shosha, distinguishing ourselves by investing in prime assets and businesses
across multiple industries. We have captured value by building a strong portfolio
of businesses that includes energy, mineral resources, automotive and mobility,
food, and other essential industries.
Food
We are boldly embracing the future. As a sogo shosha, Mitsubishi Corporation is Industry
well positioned to thrive in this challenging environment of emerging
technologies, sweeping transformations and unforeseen disruptions. With
businesses on six continents, our capabilities are global. We are determined to
help build a more stable and sustainable world. In this dynamic new world,
society, and for the future. & Mobility
12 1200
ˇtn ˇbn
Market capitalization (based on fiscal year average)
10 trillion JPY
Right (66.2 billion USD)
10 1000
(6,384 million USD)
USD1 = JPY151
8 800
Covid-19
Global financial crisis pandemic
6 600
Rapid growth in
emerging markets and price shock
economic downturn
4 400
Recession
caused by
the strong Yen Asian financial crisis
2 200
0 0
1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s

VOL . 204, NOS. 19–20 | 2024
54
Photos of
the Year
TIME’s photo editors
highlight the illuminating,
moving—and sometimes
surprising—images that
defined 2024
CONTENTS
7 36 44 50 71
The Brief What Elon Shopping A Friend in Time Off
Musk Wants Around Need
27 His consequential How LTK co-founder Amid a shortage of △
alliance with Amber Benz Vox expert mental-health Las Vegas’ Sphere
The View President-elect transformed online care, many are turning arena—programmed
Donald Trump has shopping by giving to their peers for help, with a feline exterior
brought the self- fashion influencers in hopes that personal display—is visible
proclaimed First a platform to call experience can make through a Monorail
Buddy a new level their own up the difference window on Feb. 4
of influence By Eliana Dockterman By Jamie Ducharme Photograph by Sinna
By Simon Shuster Nasseri—The New York
Times/Redux
TIME (ISSN 0040-781X) is published twice a month (except monthly in January and July) by TIME USA, LLC. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 3 Bryant Park, New York, NY 10036. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and
additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS (See DMM 507.1.5.2); Non-Postal and Military Facilities: Send address corrections to TIME Magazine, PO Box 37508, Boone, IA 50037-0508. Canada Post
Publications Mail Agreement # 40069223. BN# 704925882RT0001. © 2024 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: For 24/7 service, please use our website:
www.time.com/myaccount. You can also call 1-800-843-8463 or write TIME Magazine, PO Box 37508, Boone, IA 50037-0508. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. Your bank may
provide updates to the card information we have on file. You may opt out of this service at any time.
1
Morgan Freeman
Imported by Laurent-Perrier US - www.laurent-perrier.com

It takes time to become an icon
P L E A S E E N J O Y C H A M PA G N E R E S P O N S I B LY
CONVERSATION
On the cover
Photo-illustration
by TIME
Looking for a cover?

Order your favorite
covers at
timecoverstore.com
To order specific copies

and special issues, scan
this QR code or visit
time.com/mag-shop
Talking climate
TIME hosted two events in
Baku, Azerbaijan, during the
U.N. COP29 climate summit.
Above, a Nov. 13 TIME100
Impact Dinner on leadership—
presented by Fortescue and
MOL—featured, from left,
Eileen O’Connor, Hafsat Abiola,
Jacqueline Novogratz, Karen
Fang, TIME’s chief climate
officer Shyla Raghav, Hindou
Oumarou Ibrahim, and Aimée
Christensen. At right, TIME SETTING THE
C O V E R S O U R C E I M A G E : N U R P H O T O/G E T T Y I M A G E S; D I S N E Y S O N G S : E V E R E T T C O L L E C T I O N (4)
senior correspondent Justin RECORD STRAIGHT
Worland moderated a talk on In “The Age of Scams”
the intersection of business (Sept. 30), we misstated
and climate sponsored by how Kitboga said he gets
Mastercard, featuring Anila payback against scammers;
Gopal, Aadith Moorthy, Abiola, he did not say he accesses
and Ellen Jackowski. their computers.
TA L K T O U S
▽ ▽
LISTEN UP send an email: follow us:
With the movie musical letters@time.com facebook.com/time
Moana 2 hitting theaters on Please do not send attachments @time (X and Instagram)
Nov. 27, visit TIME.com for
our ranking of the 50 best Letters should include the writer’s full name, address and home
original Disney songs ever. telephone, and may be edited for purposes of clarity and space
The list includes hits from
Disney classics, like Dumbo’s Back Issues Contact us at customerservice@time.com, or
“Baby Mine” (1941), and call 800-843-8463. Reprints and Permissions Information
more contemporary films, like is available at time.com/reprints. To request custom reprints,
visit timereprints.com. Advertising For advertising rates and Please recycle
Frozen’s “Let It Go”(2013). our editorial calendar, visit timemediakit.com. Syndication this magazine, and
See the full list at time.com/ For international licensing and syndication requests, contact remove inserts or
disney-songs syndication@time.com samples beforehand
4 Time December 9, 2024

Vintages in Champagne are synonymous with excellence despite
significant variations in style, expression, and quality from one
to another.
Grand Siècle seeks a perfection beyond single vintages, with

the ambition of recreating “the perfect year”, one nature on
its own cannot provide. This approach makes us different from
our peers.
Because of our difference, it has taken us more time, effort,

perseverance, and a strong belief in our vision to become
recognized for what we do.
It takes time to become an icon
P L E A S E E N J O Y C H A M PA G N E R E S P O N S I B LY
The Brief
THE
CLIMATE
VACUUM
BY JUSTIN WORLAND/BAKU
A U.S. retreat won’t stop

global climate efforts,
but even the leaders
who met at COP29 don’t
know what’s coming next
S
WHY THERE’S STILL NO NEED TO PANIC UFO HEARINGS MAKE THE CASE FOR SITTING DOWN WITH BANGLADESH’S
ABOUT THE SPREAD OF BIRD FLU PUTTING THE TRUTH OUT THERE NOBEL-WINNING INTERIM LEADER
PHOTOGR APH BY PETER DEJONG 7

THE BRIEF OPENER
T
he annual u.n. climate-change summits roads. This time around, the old-school cars were largely
are always a little crazy: tens of thousands of absent. Instead, I noticed the prevalence of Chinese elec-
delegates descending on a far-flung city for two tric vehicles. Baku’s EVs offered a small reminder that the
weeks of discussion on the future of climate pol- energy transition is already changing the world—and not
icy. This time around, the conference—known this year just in major economies. In 2016, when Trump was first
as COP29—was nothing short of surreal. In Baku, Azer- elected, delegates at that year’s U.N. climate conference
baijan, you could take a five-minute walk from the luxuri- wondered if the Paris Agreement—and the decarboniza-
ous Russian pavilion, where delegates sipped tea on sofas tion push it was meant to catalyze—could survive. That’s
amid human-size Russian dolls, to the Ukrainian pavilion, not a question in 2024.
decorated with a solar panel destroyed by Russian arma- To some degree, the confidence comes in part from ev-
ments. At most COPs, attendees look for heads of state or idence from Trump’s first term. Many businesses actually
celebrities; in Baku, delegates watched for the Taliban— accelerated their commitment to climate action in spite
Afghanistan’s delegation. In the first week, the Argen- of Trump. And cities and states said they would step up
tinian delegation returned home at the direction of the their climate push. Washington Governor Jay Inslee, cit-
country’s right-wing President; the French Environment ing state actions, put it to me bluntly: “Donald Trump is
Minister did not attend because of a diplomatic dispute going to be a speed bump on the march to a clean-energy
with the host country. And the en- economy.”
tire event began with Azerbaijan’s But perhaps more important
President describing fossil fuels as is the massive investment that
“a gift from God.”
But nothing made COP29 more ‘Trump is has begun over the course of
the past eight years. Across the
surreal than its timing. With the
summit’s opening coming days
after the U.S. election, President-
going to be a globe, many of the world’s larg-
est companies have spent bil-
lions to facilitate the build-out of
elect Donald Trump served as con-
text for every conversation. The speed bump clean-technology infrastructure.
“No one country can stop prog-
U.S. has for decades played a piv-
otal role in shaping the talks, bro-
kering key agreements and, most
on the march ress,” says Catherine McKenna,
a former Canadian Environment
Minister. “I said that last time
recently, helping to show that the
global economy is decarbonizing.
to a clean- [Trump was elected], but it’s
even more true because now
From the conference outset, John
Podesta, President Joe Biden’s
climate envoy, offered a blunt as-
energy it’s in the real economy.”
But the bigger question for
delegates remains how the on-
sessment. “It’s clear that the next
Administration will try to take a
economy.’ going transition will play out
globally. Which countries will
U-turn,” he said. “I’m keenly aware —JAY INSLEE, win and lose? How will the most
GOVERNOR OF
of the disappointment that the WASHINGTON
vulnerable fare? And will the
United States has at times caused.” transition happen fast enough to
In a way, this climate moment avoid the worst effects? Indeed,
is very dangerous. The talks were these issues led to arguments
contentious, with the topic of how to finance the climate at COP29. With tensions high in Baku, some of the most
transition dividing negotiators. In a moment when we prominent voices in the climate world—including former
can feel the effects of climate-linked extreme weather, a U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres and climate scien-
stagnation in multilateral efforts clearly doesn’t help. But tist Johan Rockstrom—dropped an open letter calling for
there are also reasons for reassurance in Baku. Decarbon- reforms. Host countries should face tougher selection cri-
ization has moved from a theoretical question, delineated teria, they argued, and the process should be streamlined.
in bold but toothless commitments, to a phenomenon The postelection timing was unstated in the letter, but
occurring in the world’s economy—from the small en- it wasn’t coincidental. Regardless of whether Trump pulls
terprises adapting to sustainability rules to multibillion- the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement for a second time, the
dollar investments from the world’s biggest firms. Indeed, climate world will be left with a vacuum. Many negotia-
the questions emerging from Baku are less about whether tors have said that the U.S. international climate posture
the international climate push will go on but about how. never amounted to real climate leadership. Even under
supportive Presidents like Biden and former President
One Of the first things that struck me upon arriv- Barack Obama, the U.S. shaped agreements with Ameri-
ing in Baku was how much the vehicles on the street can politics in mind, even if it weakened the deals, and
have changed since I was last there seven years ago. At struggled to deliver climate aid. Even so, for many, the
the time, white Soviet-era Ladas seemed to dominate the U.S. will be missed when it’s gone. □
The Brief includes reporting by Chantelle Lee and Olivia B. Waxman
MISSION TO EARTH PHASE
Only available in selected Swatch Stores

THE BRIEF NEWS
Northeast on fire
The Jennings Creek wildfire burns in Greenwood Lake, N.Y., on Nov. 10. The Northeast has faced unusually dry weather con-
ditions this fall; New York City didn’t record any significant rainfall in all of October. Drought conditions have fueled hundreds
of wildfires across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut—states that have rarely in the past seen these types of blazes.
THE BULLETIN
Trump’s deportation plans promise the return of workplace raids

JusT over a year inTo DonalD 347,000 in the 2019 budget year. To worthwhile: “It also sends a message
Trump’s first term as President, im- get even higher numbers, the second to people who might want to come
migration agents raided a meat- Trump Administration may decide to that there’s not going to be the oppor-
processing plant in Bean Station, address the backlog of some 3 million tunity to work in the United States be-
Tenn., arresting 104 workers. It was cases in the immigration courts, or it cause they don’t have authorization.”
O P E N I N G PA G E : A P ; F I R E : D A K O TA S A N T I A G O — T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S/ R E D U X
the largest worksite raid in a decade. could hire more agents to locate hun-
In his second term, Trump—who dreds of thousands of people still in ... AND WHAT THEY DON’T After that
promised on the campaign trail to the U.S. who have been ordered re- 2018 raid in Tennessee, workers sued
launch the largest deportation effort moved. Compared with those tactics, for civil rights violations and were
in U.S. history—plans to bring back worksite raids are expensive, resource- awarded a $1 million settlement. Some
the raids, after President Biden largely intensive operations that are likely to were also granted legal status as part
ended such tactics. “Worksite opera- be less effective. They could also cause of the settlement terms. The meat-
tions have to happen,” Tom Homan, a clash with pro-business forces within processing plant is still operating.
Trump’s incoming “border czar,” said the Republican Party. Michelle Lapointe, legal director for
recently. But while raids generate the American Immigration Council,
headlines, experts say their actual im- WHAT RAIDS ACHIEVE ... But, argues says her group is preparing to defend
pact can be smaller than it may seem. Eric Ruark of NumbersUSA, a group workers if raids ramp up. “They prom-
that advocates for reducing immi- ised to carry these out again,” she says,
WHAT THE GOP WANTS During Trump’s gration overall, the publicity that ac- “and we take them at their word, un-
first term, deportations peaked at crues to workplace raids makes them fortunately.” —Brian BenneTT
10 Tife December 09, 2024
GOOD QUESTION isn’t good at infecting humans? After
Is it time for Americans major exposure—a farmworker in
close contact with sick animals, say—
to worry about bird flu? the virus can get into human cells,
BY JAMIE DUCHARME Sutton says. But the virus doesn’t
seem to have evolved in a way that
makes it easy to transmit. That’s in
H5N1 aviaN iNflueNza, more commoNly kNowN as part because the bird-flu virus—unlike
bird flu, has infected more than 100 million birds in the the seasonal flu—doesn’t grow well in
U.S. and almost 500 dairy-cattle herds across 15 states. The the upper airways, which might make
virus has popped up in mammals including elephant seals, it less transmissible among humans
goats, foxes, and house cats. But despite its prolific spread through typical routes like coughing
among animals, federal health authorities maintain that the and sneezing, Sutton says.
▽
risk to the U.S. public remains low. There have been only 46 A worker collects
That’s not to say respiratory spread
confirmed human cases in the U.S. during the current out- a blood sample is impossible. Two recent studies—
break. All but one of those people had a known exposure to from a calf at the one by CDC researchers and one led
affected poultry or cattle, according to the U.S. Centers for National Animal by a researcher from the University of
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and all of their ill- Disease Center Wisconsin-Madison—raised that pos-
nesses were mild. The CDC says there is no proof that the in Ames, Iowa, sibility. The researchers isolated bird-
virus is spreading from person to person at this time. on July 31 flu virus from the first person sickened
Recent news, however, has in the current outbreak
some people feeling uneasy. On and found that it could
Nov. 12, Canadian health offi- spread among ferrets
cials announced that an other- via droplets. But there
wise healthy teenager there are important caveats.
who caught bird flu from an un- Ferrets—while com-
known source is in critical con- monly used in influenza
dition, underscoring the illness’s research—are not a per-
possible severity—and its some- fect parallel for humans.
times mysterious spread. And the studied strain
In October, the U.S. Depart- is similar but not iden-
ment of Agriculture also raised tical to the one spread-
alarms when it announced that ing widely among cows.
a pig in Oregon tested posi- Overall, the CDC con-
tive. That’s worrying, because cluded, “the virus still is
pigs can be infected with swine, not capable of spreading
human, and bird-flu viruses, efficiently among peo-
making them prime “mixing vessels,” says Meghan Davis, an ple via respiratory droplets compared
associate professor of environmental health and engineering to seasonal influenza viruses.”
at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Still, health authorities are getting
If a pig were infected with multiple types of influenza at the ready. In October, the U.S. Adminis-
same time, the viruses could potentially combine to form tration for Strategic Preparedness and
a new strain capable of spreading widely among humans, Response gave $72 million to drug
Davis explains. That happened during the 2009 “swine flu” companies that make H5 influenza
pandemic. “There are a lot of things I worry about,” Davis vaccines, directing them to use the
says. “This is one.” funds to get shots prepped “should
Another cause for concern: as seasonal influenza virus they be needed now or in the future.”
goes around, “humans, ourselves, could be a mixing vessel,” Getting a regular seasonal flu shot
Davis says. If a person were simultaneously infected with does not protect against bird flu, but
There is no
U S D A A G R I C U LT U R A L R E S E A R C H S E R V I C E /A P
bird flu and seasonal flu, the two viruses could theoretically it’s a good idea to get one anyway—
combine to create a more transmissible strain. proof that especially for people who work or reg-
the virus is ularly come into contact with animals.
The good news is that, as of now, there’s no evidence There’s not much else for the general
that the avian virus has undergone changes significant spreading public to do at this point. Just refrain
enough to easily infect and spread among humans, says from from drinking raw milk (since the
Troy Sutton, an assistant professor of veterinary and bio- virus can persist without pasteuriza-
medical sciences at Penn State University. person to tion) and avoid touching dead or sick
Why have some people gotten sick at all, if the virus person animals, health officials say. □
11
THE LEADERSHIP BRIEF
A newsletter featuring conversations with the
world’s top CEOs, managers, and founders.
JOIN TODAY
TIME.COM/LEADERSHIP
T E E N S : M A G G I E S H A N N O N ; F R E S H W AT E R : A N D R E W M E D I C H I N I — A P ; N O T R E D A M E : R I C C A R D O M I L A N I — H A N S L U C A S/ R E U T E R S
RELEASED
REOPENING
MILESTONES
ISSUED
WITHDRAWN
FILED
VANISHED
15
THE BRIEF NEWS
SPACE an email with the video attached—an

Inside Capitol Hill’s email that vanished from their inboxes
“without explanation” the next day.
latest UFO hearings The anomalous object, he said, exhib-
BY JEFFREY KLUGER ited “flight and structural character-
istics unlike anything in our arsenal.”
For Gallaudet, the content of the video,
AmericAns hAd A pAndemic on Their minds in 2020 not to mention its disappearance—
when then President Donald Trump signed a $2.3 trillion presumably by the same government
COVID-19 relief bill. Tucked inside the legislation was an- officials who sent it in the first place—
other bit of business entirely—a provision requiring the served as “confirmation that UAPs are
Pentagon to investigate more than 120 sightings by military interacting with humanity.”
pilots of what used to be known as UFOs, and now go by Some of the most sensational claims
the more decorous-sounding “unidentified anomalous phe- of the two-hour session came from
nomena” (UAP). Lawmakers wrote the requirement into the journalist Michael Shellenberger,
must-pass law in the hope that it might help explain cockpit founder of the news site Public on the
footage that the Navy had declassified earlier that year. ▽ Substack platform, who submitted 214
The Department of Defense released the mandated report A UAP seen pages of testimony into evidence. In
in 2021, analyzing both the video evidence and eyewitness through the October, he published an article alleg-
accounts of flying objects moving in all manner of ways windscreen of a ing that the government was running
that defy conventional aeronautics—loop-the-looping U.S. Navy fighter what he described in his testimony as
and changing directions with a nimbleness no existing jet in 2015 “an active and highly secretive” pro-
technology could manage. The military’s gram called Immaculate
verdict? A shrug. The objects weren’t Constellation, which in-
domestic, but whether they belonged to cludes “hundreds, maybe
a hostile foreign power—terrestrial or thousands” of images and
otherwise—was impossible to say. videos of UAPs.
Inauguration Day for Trump’s second Michael Gold, a former
term is more than two months away, but NASA associate adminis-
when the once-and-future President re- trator and a member of the
turns to Washington, he’ll find the mys- space agency’s UAP indepen-
tery of UAPs again there waiting for him. dent study team, weighed in
too. “Science requires data
On nOv. 13, two subcommittees of which should be collected
the House Oversight Committee held without bias or prejudice,”
a joint hearing provocatively titled he testified, “yet when the
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: topic of UAP arises, those
Exposing the Truth, during which they who wish to explore the phe-
heard from four witnesses making the nomena are met by resis-
case that American skies are indeed tance and ridicule.”
being plied by un-American—and quite That’s not only a dis-
possibly unearthly—machines. service to public knowledge,
“Let me be clear,” testified Luis Elizondo, a former mili- but a risk to public safety as well.
tary intelligence official who once ran a Pentagon program “There is a national-security need for
investigating the unexplained sightings, “UAP are real. more UAP transparency,” Gallaudet
Advanced technologies not made by our government or any said. “In 2025, the U.S. will spend over
other government are monitoring sensitive military instal- $900 billion on national defense, yet
lations around the globe. Furthermore, the U.S. is in posses- we still have an incomplete under-
sion of UAP technologies, as are some of our adversaries. standing of what is in our airspace.”
I believe we are in the midst of a multidecade, secretive Whatever the unexplained technol-
arms race, one funded by misallocated taxpayer dollars, ogy is, the witnesses stressed, it is the
and hidden from our elected representatives.”
‘Let me be government’s responsibility not just to
clear. UAP
D E PA R T M E N T O F D E F E N S E /A P
Elizondo was not the only witness to charge that officials figure out its origin, but also to share
are playing cute with what they know about the origin of are real.’ what it learns with the taxpaying public.
UAPs. Retired rear admiral Tim Gallaudet was on deploy- “The intelligence community is treating
—LUIS ELIZONDO,
ment in January 2015 when one of the cockpit videos that FORMER
us like children,” Shellenberger testified.
were declassified in 2020 was first captured. According to his INTELLIGENCE “It’s time for us to know the truth about
testimony, he and a handful of other naval officers received OFFICIAL this. I think that we can handle it.” □
H E A LT H
BY ANGELA HAUPT
Natural light—which you can replicate with full-spectrum light bulbs—

improves emotional well-being and lowers levels of the stress hormone
cortisol, Totten says. Try adding more of it to spaces where you spend a
lot of time, like your living room or kitchen. If you want to promote focus,
you can opt for cool light, like blue or white tones, while warmer light,
which ranges from yellow to orange, will help you relax.
Vermont therapist Rachel Totten challenges anyone dreading the sleepy winter
months to make a bucket list full of fun goals: going snowshoeing, creating an
8-ft.-tall snowman, picking up an indoor hobby like crocheting, baking cookies
for the whole block. “Ask yourself, What would you want to do in this slowness?”
she says. “It’s a fun way to bring a sense of excitement to the colder months.”
Totten recommends surrounding yourself with scents that trigger positive

memories, like a fresh balsam candle that smells like the Christmas-tree farm
you looked forward to visiting as a kid. Every year around this time, she starts
burning a candle that reminds her of the scent that filled her grandparents’
home: eucalyptus and mint. “It brings this sense of peace and calm and con-
nectedness,” she says.
Make a vow to spend 15 minutes more than you usually would outside
each day during the winter, Leibowitz suggests—perhaps enjoying your
morning coffee on the front porch or taking an after-dinner walk. “Move-
ment, fresh air, and connection with nature are all natural antidepressants,”
she says. “If you can spend extra time outdoors, that’s going to counteract
the feeling of the winter blues.”
No matter where they are in the world, people make small talk about the
I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y S O L C O T T I F O R T I M E
weather. And usually, they’re complaining. “That reaches new heights in the
winter, and it really draws our attention to the negative aspects of the season,”
Leibowitz says. That’s why she recommends challenging yourself to spend a
week making winter-positive small talk with at least one person a day. “It trains
you to notice different kinds of things, which makes a big difference,” she says.
ADVERTISEMENT
Smashing Glass Ceilings –

and Leaving A Ladder Behind
For 55 years, the TIME Dealer of the Year program
has honored one outstanding automotive dealer
who goes above and beyond for their customers,
their businesses and – most of all – their communi-
ties. Finalists are selected from across the entire in-
dustry by the National Automobile Dealers Associa-
tion, as leaders who have truly changed the world
around them through philanthropic efforts.
“Every year I watch the TIME Dealer of the Year pre-

sentation and know that any of the nominees on
the stage could easily be the national winner,” Gary
shared. “They are all leaders at home, whether
that’s serving on their school boards, funding their
hospitals, or supporting veterans. Our industry has
a strong tradition of giving back – and that is evi-
dent in both the quality of the philanthropists and
the quantity.”
“Our industry has a strong tradition of giving

back - and that is evident in both the quality
of the philanthropists and the quantity.”
Rita Case TIME Dealer of the Year, 2024
With so many outstanding and service-oriented

dealers worth celebrating – it's a reﬂ ection of the
industry's culture. “Dealers play a signiﬁ cant role
in their respective
esp communities. Their engage-
g g
ment [includes] economic support, sponsorship of
community groups and events, charitable giving,
relationships with customers and employees, and
job creation.”
The winner receives grant money from Ally Finan-

cial to commit to any 501c3 charitable organiza-
tion of their choosing. After more than 10 years as
the corporate sponsor of this program, Ally has
ultimately poured nearly a million dollars into
dealers’ communities.
“No other recognition comes close,” Rita notes. “To

be named the most accomplished car dealer for
my customer satisfaction, my community service,
my professionalism, my results, my longevity in the
business, my commitment to the business… there is
nothing bigger. I feel like I’ve got the brass ring.”
To learn more about the TIME Dealer of the Year

nominees and their philanthropic
contributions and achievements, visit
TIMEdealeroftheyear.com.
© 2024 Ally Financial Inc.
Erick Anderson Wanda Howell Cathy Stender

Shawn Ball Bradford Jacobs Joe Street
Sean P. Baxter Gary Kaminsky Farrar Vaughan
Michael Brown Michael LaFontaine Andrew Walser
Brandon Campbell Eric Lane Perry Max Webb II
Kirk Carroll Lori Lum Jon Weese
Jim Casey Colin MacLean Dave Wilson
W. Kevin Collins A. Foster McKissick III Karl J. Zimmermann Jr.
Rick Curia Trudy Moody
Daniel Dagesse Neill Nelson
John Deery Jr. Con Paulos
Shaun Del Grande Mark Pellegrino
Brady Dolan Dave Perno
Ivette Dominguez Drawe Elyse Puklich
Matt Einspahr Michael Rouen
Raymond L. Farabaugh Roger Scholfield
Mark Fox Roger Smart Jr.
Randy Fusz
Alan Gamblin
Kevin Grover
Andy Guelcher
George Haddad
Robert Hager
Julie Herrera
exception
Let’s have a round of applause for 2025’s TIME Dealer of the Year
nominees! Their outstanding commitment to their dealerships
and greater communities inspires us all to be a better ally.
allydealerheroes.com
THE BRIEF NEWS
WORLD
The race to reform a

country at a crossroads
BY CHARLIE CAMPBELL/DHAKA
Dhaka looks reborc afTer a fresh lick of paicT,

but this is not your typical municipal spruce-up. The
sprawling Bangladeshi capital has been festooned with gar-
ish political murals celebrating August’s student-led ouster
of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed. Mile upon mile of
concrete balustrades are daubed with expletives and car-
icatures of the deposed autocrat with fangs and devil horns.
Some of the language doesn’t sit easily with 84-year-old
Muhammad Yunus, though he can forgive the students’ ex-
uberance. “These young minds are full of ideas and ambi-
tions and aspirations,” he tells TIME with a chuckle. “They
depicted their future in those murals, and it’s something
much greater than Bangladesh has ever seen.”
The task of turning those aspirations into reality now
falls to Yunus, who was tapped to serve as “chief adviser”
to the interim government—for all intents and purposes,
Bangladesh’s new leader. His job is to shepherd South
Asia’s second biggest economy, a nation of over 170 million △
people, toward fresh elections. Meanwhile, a six-pronged Yunus in Poor as well as the 2006 Nobel Peace
reform process is under way, focusing on the election sys- Dhaka on Prize, the U.S. Presidential Medal of
tem, police administration, judiciary, anticorruption com- Nov. 17 Freedom in 2009, and the Congressio-
mission, public administration, and national constitution. nal Gold Medal a year later. But Don-
Around 1,500 people were killed in clashes between ald Trump’s impending return to the
protesters and security forces in July and August, amid un- White House has engendered a sense
rest that began with peaceful demonstrations against em- of deep anxiety, given the President-
ployment quotas for regime loyalists. The government’s elect has railed on X about supposed
heavy-handed response ignited a powder keg of rage “barbaric violence” during the revo-
against inequality and political repression that brought lution that left Bangladesh in a “total
tens of thousands of mothers and daughters, bankers and state of chaos.” Prominent Bangla-
beggars, united onto the street. deshis with ties to Hasina are under-
The last the world saw of Hasina was as she was being stood to be lobbying him to impose
bundled into a helicopter with protesters closing in. As sanctions. Yunus, who counts Hillary
intruders ransacked her official residence, carrying away Clinton as a close friend, is confident
keepsakes, she floated through the smoggy skies to India, he can find common ground with the
from whence she rails against her ouster. Yunus revealed President-elect despite their divergent
that he would be seeking her extradition after prosecutors worldviews. “Trump is a business-
issued a warrant for her part in the violence, though few man; we are in business,” he says.
believe Indian PM Narendra Modi would comply. “We are not asking for free money;
“Not only is she being hosted by India, the worst part we want a business partner.”
is that she’s talking, which causes a lot of problems for us,” It’s a race to enact meaningful re-
he says. “It makes people very unhappy to hear that voice.” forms before the clamor for fresh
elections reaches fever pitch. Yunus
Yunus grew to global renown in the 1970s for pio- knows that improving livelihoods is
neering poverty-reducing microcredit. What began with ‘We call it the only sure way to buy the neces-
a single $5 loan to a woman weaving bamboo stools in his Bangladesh sary time to rebuild state institutions,
home city of Chittagong has since spread to over 100 coun- so autocracy can never return—in a
2.0.’
SARKER PROTICK FOR TIME
tries and even the U.S. Over four decades, Yunus’ Grameen new Bangladesh that prospers long
Bank has disbursed some $37 billion in collateral-free loans —MUHAMMAD after those murals have peeled. “Re-
YUNUS, CHIEF
to over 10 million of the world’s poorest people; more than ADVISER TO
form is the core of the whole revolu-
94% of the loans worldwide have gone to women. THE INTERIM tion,” says Yunus. “That’s why we call
It’s work that won Yunus the sobriquet Banker to the GOVERNMENT it Bangladesh 2.0.” □
On The Trail Of
LEWIS & CLARK
COLUMBIA AND SNAKE RIVERS
Follow Lewis and Clark’s epic 19th-century expedition along
the Columbia and Snake Rivers aboard the newest riverboat in
the region. Enjoy unique shore excursions, scenic landscapes,
and talented onboard experts who bring history to life.
Experience the
Cruise Close To Home® Grandeur of
Multnomah Falls
Spokane
WASHINGTON
Snak e Riv e r
IDAHO Call
Astoria
Pacific
Ocean
Mount St. Helens
Richland
Clarkston 800-913-2493
Stevenson Lewiston
Fort
Kalama
Hood River
Colu
mbia River
Hells
to request a
Clatsop Washougal
Portland The Dalles

Umatilla
Canyon
FREE
Multnomah
Falls Mt. Hood Pendleton Cruise Guide
OREGON
AmericanCruiseLines.com
LIGHTBOX
Deep trouble
A person wades through floodwater on Nov. 12 after
Typhoon Toraji brought heavy rainfall to the northern
Philippine city of Ilagan. The Philippines has been
reeling from six major back-to-back storms that have hit
the country in a matter of weeks. Toraji downed trees,
caused power outages, and triggered small landslides.
Photograph by Noel Celis—AP

▶ For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox
COVER STORE
E N J OY T I M E AT H O M E
S HOP S OME OF T I ME’ S M O ST ICO N IC CO V E R A R T
T I M E C OV E R S T O R E . C O M
NATION
MAKE ROOM
AT YOUR TABLE
BY CLAIRE BABINEAUX-FONTENOT
INSIDE
STUDY SHOWS ABBREVIATIONS THE RIGHT WAY TO BE TURKEY’S ERDOGAN TAKES

TURN OFF TEXTERS (RLY) VULNERABLE ON A DATE AIM AT TERM LIMITS
27
THE VIEW OPENER
Many intelligent, well-meaning

people have succumbed to the idea
that “you’re either with us or against
us.” It has become possible to forget
how much we have in common. But
no ideology has a monopoly on val-
ues. This year, when our politics have
served to divide us intensely, we must
fnd a way to unite with a common
purpose: to care for one another.
In October 2018, I had the great
privilege to join a network of hun-
dreds of food banks and tens of thou-
sands of food pantries and meal pro-
grams as the CEO of Feeding America.
Over nearly fve years, I’ve met thou-
sands of people: staf, volunteers,
and people facing hunger, each with
a powerful story. Not a single person
asked about my political affiliations.
Hunger transcends party lines.
With 47 million people facing hunger
in the U.S., it exists in plain sight in Volunteers capture the spirit of the season by serving up a Thanksgiving meal
every community, whether we choose at the Long Beach Rescue Mission in Long Beach, Calif., last November
to see it or not. While food insecurity
has become increasingly common, the
experiences of those living with it are ending hunger, we can—and we a universal value lived out, however
deeply personal. Seniors are navigat- will—succeed. I can imagine that day. imperfectly, by people at home and
ing budgets that simply cannot cover Can you? at work, in places of worship and in
their basic needs. Parents are insist- schools, at hospitals and civic centers.
ing they aren’t hungry at night as they If you’ve ever wItnessed commu- I have seen it time and again with my
fll their children’s plates with the last nities in action after a natural disaster, own eyes, and it is beautiful.
of the week’s groceries. Recent veter- you understand the power I’m describ- How can we unleash our love for
ans feel isolated and misunderstood as ing. The response to Hurricanes Mil- our neighbors and start treating hun-
they work to reassimilate. ton and Helene demonstrated the im- ger like the national disaster that it is?
Along with people facing hunger, mediate, widespread eforts to ensure Of the 47 million people who are af-
and often among them, I have also met people had what they needed in the fected, nearly 14 million are children.
thousands of people and heard from aftermath of devastating storms. As a We must show them the way forward,
tens of thousands more who want to native of Louisiana, I am no stranger together, in a shared conviction that
help. One of them is Najma, a mother to storms. Several years ago, I was vis- every person deserves nutritious food,
B R I T TA N Y M U R R AY— M E D I A N E W S G R O U P/ L O N G B E A C H P R E S S -T E L EG R A M /G E T T Y I M A G E S
of six. Her husband works full time, iting Houma, La., in the wake of one, that every person deserves love.
and the family does not qualify for driving in silent solemnity through the What if we each left an open seat at
benefts, so they sometimes visit food devastation. I arrived at a fre station our table for a neighbor this Thanks-
pantries to ensure they have the food where local relief eforts were coordi- giving? Let it serve as a reminder that
they need. Like so many in her posi- nated and joined a team of folks pre- we need not agree on everything to
tion, Najma always fnds ways to give paring and serving jambalaya, a hearty share a meal, that we need not set
back to her community through vol- dish that was uniquely comforting to aside our own beliefs to care for those
unteering, organizing, and advocating. my fellow Louisianans. So many of the who do not share them, and that we
You see, I haven’t met anyone who people who were gathered had lost so need not wait for the aftermath of a
has nothing to give. The people in much, yet laughter, hugs, and a feeling storm to show up for our community.
this country are remarkably gener- of optimism permeated the crowd. It We can show up today. And tomorrow.
ous and caring. I love the stories of felt hopeful despite the circumstances, And the day after that. Hunger is all
grandmothers who fed their neigh- because we were all there together. around us, but so is love. That second
borhoods and teachers who always Whatever diferences might have ex- part—the love part—that’s what I am
seemed to have extra sandwiches in isted among us, they were swiftly set grateful for this year.
their lunch boxes. Their impact is aside for one, much higher purpose: to
life-changing. When we unite our love our neighbors as we love our own. Babineaux-Fontenot is the CEO of
eforts, and we choose to prioritize The Golden Rule is alive and well, Feeding America
ESSAY
DATING to disclose everything on the first

Let’s embrace date. If someone asks you a question
you’re uncomfortable with, you can
vulnerability in dating tactfully deflect. For example, let’s
BY LOGAN URY say you are estranged from your fam-
ily. If your date tells you all about
their mom’s famous lasagna recipe,
ts t dtting cotch tnd the director of relttion- and asks about your parents, you
ship science at Hinge, I often hear from people who feel can smile and say, “My family life
like there’s something big they need to disclose on early is messy. We can get into it another
dates—chronic illness, mental-health struggles, college time.” You can also say your family
debt, family estrangement, lack of romantic experience, or doesn’t have similar traditions and
trauma. They worry these parts of their lives make them leave it at that.
undatable. They don’t know how to share this information,
and worry they’ll be rejected. They tense up on dates, wait- Explain how this experience made
ing for the inevitable moment when the awkward topic will you grow. You are not asking the
arise. Or they avoid dates altogether. other person to feel bad for you.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Be- Instead, you’re telling
cause your vulnerability, when shared them how going through
intentionally and authentically, can this has helped you be-
make you feel powerful, not powerless. come who you are. When
Research shows that we’re attracted you share your narrative
to vulnerability because of what psy- from a place of confi-
chologists call the “beautiful mess dence, people will re-
effect”—a phenomenon in which we spect you, not reject you.
tend to judge our own displays of vul- For example, you can
nerability more negatively than others say things like “While I
do. What feels to us like exposing our wish I were closer with
weakness through vulnerability, oth- my family, I’ve worked
ers tend to see as an act of bravery and hard to create a chosen
authenticity. family of friends, and I’m
If you still need convincing, let’s look excited to build my own
at the numbers. In a survey we con- family one day.”
ducted at Hinge with over 4,000 dat-
ers on the app, we found that 93% of Remember that their
singles are looking for someone who’s comfortable being What reaction is about them, not you.
vulnerable. And they’re 66% more likely to go on a second Some people will be able to handle
date with someone who shows emotional vulnerability on makes you your vulnerability, others won’t. If
the first date. In fact, a majority say emotional vulnerabil- human they seem uncomfortable or judgmen-
ity is the biggest thing they’re looking for on a first date— tal, that says more about who they are
ranking it higher than attractiveness, income, or height.
is exactly and where they are in life than it does
Despite this, only a third of people say they show emo- what about your datability. This is your
tional vulnerability on a first date because they’re afraid it makes you story and your experience. You are
will be a turnoff. Men, in particular, feel this pressure: 75% sharing, not asking for their permis-
say they rarely or never show vulnerability on first dates lovable sion, forgiveness, or acceptance.
because they worry it will make them seem weak or unde- Feeling “undatable” is a story we
sirable. But here’s the thing: The people who reject you for tell ourselves, but it’s not the truth.
being vulnerable are not your people. Someone who judges What makes you human—your
you for your past, your struggles, or your truth isn’t the right messy, beautiful story—is exactly
I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y H A N N A B A R C Z Y K F O R T I M E
partner for you. The sooner you find that out, the better. what makes you lovable. And when
Of course, there’s a right way and a wrong way to be vul- you share your authentic self, you’re
nerable on an early date. It’s a date; not a therapy session. giving someone else permission to do
It’s about sharing intentionally, with boundaries, from a the same.
place of growth and self-awareness. Here’s how to tell your
story in a way that feels empowering, not overwhelming: Ury is the author of the best-selling book
How to Not Die Alone and the dating
Don’t rush. Intimacy needs to be earned. While you may coach for the new Netflix show The Later
want to get something off your chest, you don’t have Daters, premiering on Nov. 29
29
THE VIEW INBOX
By Angela Haupt
McConnell, here at a news conference at the Capitol on Nov. 6, still has swagger
The D.C. Brief

By Philip Elliott
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
INSIDE DONALD TRUMP’S ORBIT, Enterprise Institute event about the

it’s become a given that the former potential Trump 2.0 Cabinet. The
and future President can bypass longest-serving party leader in his-
Congress to magically fill his Cabinet tory minced no words: “Each of
with the loyalists of his choosing. these nominees needs to come be-
That might have been so, if only fore the Senate and go through the
he didn’t want Matt Gaetz and Pete process and be vetted.”
Hegseth as Attorney General and To someone unversed in Mc-
Secretary of Defense, or Tulsi Gab- Connell-ese, that answer might not
bard overseeing the nation’s spy mean much, but it’s a doozy for any-
agencies—not to mention RFK Jr. one who knows how the Kentucky
getting anywhere near the CDC. If Republican has wielded his influ-
Trump can’t get the support he needs ence for almost two decades. It was
from a Republican-controlled Sen- a quiet flex, but also a spike at the
ate to confirm his polarizing picks, Capitol, where McConnell sustains
that leaves only the prospect of re- major swagger even without a lead-
cess appointments, which would re- ership title.
quire the chamber to go on a break Two days later, incoming Sen-
long enough for Trump to install ate majority leader John Thune, too,
them in the meantime. But as long suggested Trump’s nominees were
as Trump treats staffing as an ex- far from a slam dunk: “None of this
ercise in trolling, the Senate’s pre- is gonna be easy,” he told Fox News.
rogative over his Cabinet picks re- When asked about the possible
mains on sturdy ground. use of recess appointments, Thune
If you want to understand how seemed happy to let McConnell
Trump’s novel nominees are being play the heavy. “It’s an option,” he
received, listen carefully to what said. The purposefully vague answer
A L L I S O N R O B B E R T — A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S
outgoing Senate Republican leader made clear that playing understudy

Mitch McConnell is telling allies. to McConnell for the past six very
“Institutions worth preserving instructive years, Thune learned
have to be defended. And this is the plenty about his new role.
work which, by necessity, has oc-
cupied my focus during my time in For more insights from Washington,
Washington,” McConnell said on sign up for TIME’s politics newsletter
at time.com/theDCbrief
Nov. 12, when asked at an American
30 TIME December 9, 2024
ESSAY
TECHNOLOGY ways exists online and where technol-

Why maiden names matter ogy plays an ever increasing role in
how we are represented.
in the age of AI and identity
BY SHELLEY ZALIS WE MUST CHALLENGE the societal
norms that underpin these traditions.
Titles like Mr. and Mrs. connected to
IN THE DIGITAL AGE, A NAME IS MORE THAN JUST A one partner’s surname can perpetuate
label. It’s tied to our professional history and social media the idea of female subordination. Pub-
presence. It’s also how we are recognized by AI algorithms. lic campaigns and education can help
Many traditions dictate that a woman change her surname shift these outdated attitudes.
upon marriage—but when she does so, she often loses data At the same time, AI developers
continuity across systems that rely heavily on name recog- must step up to create smarter sys-
nition. Platforms like job applications, academic records, tems that recognize and connect iden-
and social media accounts often fail to connect the dots be- tity changes—whether they involve
tween the old and new names. For instance, a woman who name changes or personal rebranding.
has built a successful career under her maiden name might Platforms like LinkedIn have already
find that AI systems struggle to link her past achievements introduced tools allowing users to ac-
with her new surname. Years of count for name
hard work and success may sud- changes, a criti-
denly become invisible in the eyes cal step in im-
of a machine. proving data ac-
The Female Quotient partnered curacy and job
with the Knot and SmithGeiger recommenda-
on a revealing research report. It tions. Yet much
found that while 77% of married more needs to
American women still take their be done so that
partner’s last name, only 64% of AI systems don’t
unmarried women plan to follow punish women
this tradition when they marry. for their per-
This shift signals a growing aware- sonal choices.
ness of the impact that names have Names are
on personal identity and profes- not just labels—
sional recognition. It also gives us a they are integral
glimpse into the aftereffects of how to our identity
artificial intelligence systems han- and professional
dle the data of women who do de- legacy. The
I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y T I M E ; S O U R C E I M A G E S : A M T I T U S , S I M P L E H A P P YA R T, M A R Y N A S T R Y H U N — G E T T Y I M A G E S
cide to give up their maiden names. decision to

There is a clear shift when it keep or change
comes to keeping maiden names a maiden name
among younger generations. The FQ report found that 32% after marriage carries profound
of unmarried Gen Z women are more concerned with pre- In the implications—for AI systems,
serving their personal brands than adhering to traditional digital age, professional visibility, and societal
practices, compared with just 3% of millennials. Interest- a name is norms alike. Addressing these issues
ingly, 29% of unmarried women who plan to take their through advocacy, smarter AI, and
partner’s last name will not use it professionally, highlight- more than cultural shifts will ensure that all
ing a growing trend of women separating their personal just a label individuals receive fair representation
and professional identities. and recognition.
The implications of these choices extend far beyond After all, names hold power, and
personal identity. Public figures like Simone Biles Owens, that power should open doors, not
Vice President Kamala Harris, and Beyoncé Knowles- close them. It’s time to ensure that
Carter have all kept maiden names (or a combination of it every person, regardless of their
with their partner’s surname), signaling independence and chosen name, can reach their full
career longevity. This trend is mirrored by Selena Gomez, potential.
who recently stated, “I’m not changing my name no mat-
ter what. I am Selena Gomez. That’s it.” These decisions Zalis is a pioneer of online research and
underscore the importance of name retention in maintain- gender equity. She is the CEO of the
ing independence and continuity in a world that in many Female Quotient
31
SUBSCRIBER BENEFITS:
1. TIME PRINT EDITION, HOME DELIVERY
2. INSTANT ACCESS TO DIGITAL MAGAZINES
3. DISCOUNT AT THE TIME COVER STORE & MORE
GREAT
THINGS
TAKE TIME
DON’T MISS A MOMENT TIME.COM/SUBSCRIBE
THE VIEW
THE RISK REPORT BY IAN BREMMER

VL ASOV SUL A J — AP
35
POLITICS
The
Kingmaker
Elon Musk’s partnership By Simon Shuster
with the President-elect
ILLUSTRATION BY MARK HARRIS FOR TIME 37

POLITICS
Hang on a minute. voice for a while. But their agendas do not align
on everything. Both are willful, impulsive, and ac-
customed to being in charge. What will happen if
Whom did we just they start to clash?
In that kind of fight, Musk may not have the
elect? The Republican upper hand. History is strewn with the wreckage
of kingmakers who went to war against the lead-
ticket had two names ers they installed. No matter how much wealth
or influence Musk collects, the tools of state
power will remain with the President, and things
at the top: Donald will get messy if he decides to use them against
the billionaire who helped him return to the
Trump and J.D. Vance. White House.
In the end, the durability of their partnership
But parts of this may depend on Musk’s motives: What drove him
to become a MAGA prophet in the first place? If
delirious November it was money he wanted, then mission accom-
plished. The value of his fortune surged by more
than $50 billion in the week after the election,
created the impression peaking at more than $320 billion, as investors
went berserk for shares of Tesla. But wealth has
that someone else never been Musk’s obsession. The way he has bet
his fortune on moony passion projects, like putting
has taken hold of a greenhouse on Mars, should be proof enough that
he dreams differently than the average Klingon
aboard Starship Trump.
our collective destiny. People close to Musk say his ultimate goal has
not changed since he launched SpaceX, his rocket
company, in 2002. (Among its investors are Marc
and Lynne Benioff, the owners of TIME.) For more
than two decades, Musk’s white whale has been
the red planet. It’s written right there on his fa-
vorite T-shirt: OCCUPY mARS. “Everything goes
We already knew him in various roles—the guy who bought to that mission,” says a member of Musk’s social
Twitter and fired more than half its staff, the inventor who circle who recently talked to him about his plans.
brought the space program back to life, the carmaker whose “He’s just realizing that being in control, directly
new trucks make kids stop and stare on the sidewalk. All of or indirectly, of U.S. government budgets, is going
a sudden, Elon Musk had moved into the realm of politics, to put us on Mars in his lifetime. Doing it privately
headlining rallies, steering government appointments, shap- would be slower.”
ing the agenda for the next President of the United States. That does not mean U.S. taxpayers would foot
For more than three years he’s been one of the world’s the bill for Musk’s dream of interplanetary travel.
richest and most powerful men. Markets soar and tumble But the public does tend to pay a price when ec-
on his tweets. Astronauts fly in his spaceships. Armies ad- centric visionaries take the reins of government.
vance with the signals from his satellites. Conspiracy the- Millions of Americans, from retired factory work-
ories go mainstream through his embrace. But it was only ers to debt-laden graduates and newborn chil-
in the spotlight of these elections that the full extent of his dren, benefit from the social programs that Musk
influence came into view. has promised to slash. Though he fires off multi-
Not since the age of William Randolph Hearst, the newspa- ple tweets a day to his 205 million followers, Musk
per magnate who greased FDR’s ascent nearly a century ago, has declined to answer questions from reporters,
H A I Y U N J I A N G — T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S/ R E D U X
has a private citizen loomed so large over so many facets of including this one, since he became consigliere to
American life at once, pulling the nation’s culture, its media, the President-elect. He has not explained his re-
its economy, and now its politics into the force field of his ported contacts with American adversaries, from
will. Standing beside him, even Trump can seem almost in China and Russia to Iran. Nor has he addressed
awe, less a boss than a companion to the man for whom this the conflicts of interest that arise from playing a
planet and its challenges are not big enough. key role in a government whose regulators inves-
For now they act like partners, bonded through the favors tigate his businesses.
they are trading and their shared desire to disrupt the institu- So far, Trump seems happy to play along. In the
tions of government. They may deliver commands with one middle of his victory speech on Nov. 6, he spent
MUSK ATTENDS A GALA ON NOV. 14 of our time, with a record of delivering on outlandish plans,
AT MAR-A-LAGO, WHERE HE HAS
CAMPED OUT SINCE TRUMP’S WIN
was pledging to slash spending by $2 trillion.
No matter how often the Democrats reminded us that
Trump’s fortune grew out of inherited wealth, multiple bank-
four minutes praising Musk, the “super genius” ruptcies, and decades of corporate shenanigans, they could
who helped run his ground game in Pennsylvania, not deny Musk’s achievements as a businessman. Even Sen-
reportedly paying canvassers to knock on 11 million ator Bernie Sanders, scourge of the billionaire class, hedged
doors and hiring vans to bring Amish people to the his criticism in a recent podcast: “Elon Musk is a very, very
polls. “We have a new star,” Trump crowed from aggressive and capable businessperson, very impressive with
the stage in Florida. “A star is born—Elon!” Only what he’s accomplished. He says, I could do more in a week
later, roughly 19 minutes into his speech, did the than the government can do in, you know, five years, and in
President-elect turn back to his teleprompter and some ways he’s right.”
remember to thank his voters. At a time when faith in government has cratered, that’s all
many voters want to see—a capable outsider, ruthless and in-
what musk meant to the Trump campaign dependent, who knows how to take a gargantuan machine and
went far beyond the $120 million he pumped make it leaner, faster, and more productive. Musk’s promise
in, the field program he established, or the to do that with the American bureaucracy has already created
social media boost he provided. To many of the momentum and cover for cutting costs on a scale that Wash-
young men who flocked to Trump in record ington has not seen in many years. That agenda did not get
numbers, Musk was an ideal avatar. He injected far during Trump’s first presidential term. Millions of peo-
a sense of ingenuity and possibility into a famil- ple depend on government jobs, and on the protections that
iar nostalgia act. If Trump thrills supporters by regulators provide from predatory businesses, like those that
pledging to destroy corrupt institutions, Musk gave us opioid abuse and cigarettes as a cure for asthma. But
represents the promise of building new things small-government Republicans will be eager to follow Musk
and solving hard problems. Trump did not seem into ugly budget battles over federal waste and bloated en-
so old at his rallies with this Diablo-playing edge- titlements. Many Americans will be rooting for them.
lord bouncing around beside him. And it became On the campaign trail, the most convincing argument Musk
harder for Trump’s opponents to paint his team as offered was not on Joe Rogan’s show or onstage at Trump’s
a gaggle of halfwits when the greatest innovator rallies. It was on the launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas, where
39
POLITICS
Musk’s aerospace company dazzled the world by catching a

returning rocket with a pair of robotic arms. If the man who
did this supports Trump with such fervor, couldn’t Trump
accomplish even some of what he promised?
A lot of voters seem to think so, especially the young men
Musk targeted for Trump with his bravado. “The biggest fac-
tor here is that men need to vote,” Musk told Rogan on the
eve of the election. The next day, when 60% of white men
turned out for Trump, Musk tweeted: “The cavalry has ar-
rived.” But his appeal reached well beyond the manosphere.
It also moved a swath of voters who were put off by Trump’s
character but excited by his policies. TV pundits said these
people needed a “permission structure”; Musk provided just
that to suburban women like Betsy Stecz. As she stood in
line for his October rally in Lancaster, Pa., Stecz described a
sense of relief: “You have people finally feeling like, OK, I can
hold my head up and say: I’m not ashamed to vote for Donald
Trump.” The reason, in her view, was Musk.
crashes. In June, regulators in California ordered

‘Being in control ... of U.S. government Tesla to “correct ongoing air quality violations” al-
leged at its Fremont plant. Tesla has said its cars are
budgets is going to put us on Mars.’ safe and its facilities comply with environmental
—A MUSK ALLY standards. SpaceX has also had run-ins with the Fed-
eral Aviation Administration, which Musk threat-
ened to sue for overreach in September. A review
by the New York Times found that his companies
Given his role in the victory, Musk may have expected some are facing at least 20 regulatory battles and investi-
reward. But his perch in Trump’s transition has reportedly un- gations from “all corners of the government.” Musk
nerved some members of their entourage. For much of No- and multiple representatives declined to comment
vember, Musk camped out at Mar-a-Lago, weighing in on or to respond to TIME’s questions for this article,
Cabinet picks and advising Trump on policy priorities. He including about potential conflicts of interest.
went golfing with the President-elect, sat ringside with him He has yet to explain what principles would
at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event and took pic- guide his purge of the bureaucracy. The co-director
tures with the Trump family; one grandkid raved on social of DOGE, Vivek Ramaswamy, ran on a pro-business,
media that Musk had attained “uncle status.” Musk coined a libertarian platform in the last Republican pri-
different term for his position: “First Buddy.” mary. Musk’s politics, by comparison, are harder
Even that was an understatement. The leaders of Turkey to pin down. This summer he referred to himself as
and Ukraine had Musk listening in on their calls with Trump. “historically, a moderate Democrat.” He has called
An envoy from Iran, which stands accused of trying to assas- climate change the defining challenge of our age.
sinate Trump, reportedly met with Musk to talk about defus- When Barack Obama ran for President in 2008,
F R O M L E F T: E R I C G AY— A P ; S A C H A L E C C A — R O L L I N G S T O N E /G E T T Y I M A G E S
ing tensions. (Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denied the meeting.) Musk stood in line for six hours to shake his hand.
When House Republicans invited Trump to a closed-door His relationship with Trump has often been
session on Capitol Hill, Musk tagged along, the window of rocky. Their views on tariffs are far apart, and
his car in Trump’s motorcade labeled GUeST 1. Musk lasted less than six months as an adviser to
By that point, Trump had appointed him to lead a new en- the White House in 2017 before quitting in pro-
tity called the Department of Government Efficiency. Its acro- test over Trump’s climate policies. Five years later,
nym, DOGE, was a nod to the canine-themed cryptocurrency Musk said it was time for Trump to “sail into the
Musk has promoted as a kind of joke. But its mandate was sunset,” eliciting a furious response. “Elon should
serious. Trump claimed it would “dismantle” the federal focus on getting himself out of the Twitter mess,”
bureaucracy and “restructure” its agencies. “This will send Trump said, “because he could owe $44 billion for
shock waves through the system,” Musk said. something that’s perhaps worthless.”
It could also give Musk influence over the many agencies
that regulate his work. A few weeks before Election Day, the Trump had a poinT. Musk’s purchase of Twit-
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced ter made little evident business sense. He paid at
it is investigating Tesla’s self-driving vehicles after reported least double the company’s value in 2022, then
A ROCKET BOOSTER MUSK ADDRESSES at Musk’s promise to eliminate $2 trillion in federal spending.
RETURNS TO THE PAD THE CROWD AT AN
DURING A SPACEX TEST OCT. 27 TRUMP RALLY
It would require taking an ax to Medicare, Social Security,
FLIGHT ON OCT. 13 IN NEW YORK CITY and other parts of the social safety net. Musk warned the na-
tion to prepare for a period of “temporary hardship” as these
cuts take effect. But it’s far from clear that he will even have
spent weeks dynamiting its revenue streams and the power to make them. DOGE will remain outside of gov-
cashiering its talent. The company’s head count, ernment, with no authority to fire federal employees. Many
he has said, fell from 8,000 to around 1,500 under budgetary experts expect it to go the same way as countless
his leadership. Some of his posts on the platform, blue-ribbon panels that tried and failed to pressure politicians
which he rebranded as X, came off as spasms of to cut the programs their constituents love. In identifying
corporate self-harm. One referred to an antisemitic waste, fraud, and abuse, the U.S. Congress needs no help: it
theory as the “actual truth.” (He later apologized.) already has an oversight branch called the Government Ac-
Another shared a conspiracy theory about the countability Office, which assiduously tries to do that job.
hammer attack that put House Speaker Nancy Many early fans of DOGE say they recognize the limits of
Pelosi’s husband in the hospital with a fractured its potential and celebrate it all the same. “Yes, a Department
skull. Dozens of companies, including Microsoft of Government Efficiency is probably a pipe dream and might
and Coca-Cola, pulled their ads from the platform end up as essential as Monty Python’s Department of Silly
in response. “Don’t advertise,” he told them last Walks,” the Wall Street Journal columnist Andy Kessler wrote
fall from the stage of a conference. “If somebody on Nov. 17. “But even if Mr. Musk’s DOGE simply trims some
is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, bloat and saves a few hundred billion, it will be worth it.”
blackmail me with money, go f-ck yourself. Go. On the campaign trail, Musk talked a lot about the need
F-ck. Yourself. Is that clear?” The investment firm for the U.S. to live “honestly” and “within its means.” But if
Fidelity assessed in October that X had lost nearly his social media platform is any guide, his aims may have less
80% of its value in the past two years. to do with efficiency than ideology. His stated goal in acquir-
Musk didn’t seem to care. Even without most of ing Twitter matches one of his favorite reasons for supporting
its workforce, the platform continued to function, Trump: he says he wants to salvage free speech in America.
routinely topping the list of the most-downloaded “Freedom of speech is the bedrock of democracy,” he told
news apps in the Apple app store. Major advertis- Joe Rogan on the eve of the election. “Once you lose free-
ers have returned. For some observers, all this has dom of speech, you lose democracy. Game over. That’s why
been reason enough to applaud Musk’s takeover as I bought Twitter.” Multiple reports and studies concluded
a master class in corporate efficiency. “What Elon that under his stewardship, the platform has become a ref-
did with Twitter is he got inside, cleaned house, uge for hateful and harmful content, in part because he fired
and now it’s working better than before,” says the its content-moderation team.
member of Musk’s social circle. “So the mood is Asked to explain his shift to the right, Musk often brings
that hopefully Musk can do the same thing with up the “woke mind virus,” his term for the leftward shift
the U.S. government.” in American society that, in his view, gave rise to identity
That’s a tall order. Even fiscal hawks have balked politics, cancel culture, and supposedly rampant online
41
POLITICS
censorship. His grudge against these forces is not merely Trump, working together to take over the state.”
political. During the pandemic, one of his children sought The outcome may depend on the way this new
gender-affirming medical care, and Musk has said he was duopoly treats the institutions they will soon con-
tricked into approving it. His transgender daughter, who trol. If the aim is to sharpen them into leaner and
is now 20 years old and estranged from her father, legally more efective tools of governance, the public
changed her name in 2022 to Vivian Jenna Wilson. On could benefit from the remaking of a system that
a podcast in July, Musk said his child “is dead, killed by has long been weighed down with bureaucratic
the woke mind virus. I vowed to destroy the woke mind flab. But Trump has also used those tools the way
virus after that.” Putin has done in Russia—to benefit his friends
Wilson posted her response the next day: “I look pretty and sideline his enemies.
good for a dead bitch.” On Nov. 5, as the results of the election Musk has a lot to gain from that arrangement. As
became clear, Wilson published another message: “Blame long as he sticks to the role of First Buddy, he might
the f-cking politicians and oli-
garchs who caused this to hap-
pen,” she wrote. “Direct your
anger towards them.”
in ancient Greek, the word

oligarkhia meant “rule by the
few.” Its earliest critic was
Aristotle; in the 4th century
B.C.E., the philosopher de-
scribed it as a state of afairs
in which “men of property
have the government in their
hands.” In medieval Venice, the
leader of the oligarchy ruled for
life, and he went by the same
title that Musk gave to his new
department: the Doge.
The purest expression of
this system in modern times
took shape in Russia in the
1990s, when a few business-
men bought up control of
the national economy dur-
ing its chaotic transition
to capitalism. The Russian
term for their oligarchy is THE PRESIDENT-ELECT, expect an easy ride from the regulators Trump ap-
MUSK, AND DONALD TRUMP JR.
semibankirshchina—the reign AT A UFC FIGHT ON NOV. 16
points throughout the government. His clearest
of the seven bankers. path to Mars could thus run straight through the
The most powerful among Oval Office. But apart from watching the specta-
them, Boris Berezovsky, used his media assets to help cle of his success, what benefit will trickle down
Vladimir Putin win his first election in 2000, and he ex- to everyday Americans?
pected the new President to share the spoils of power. In- The institutions that give us health care, keep
stead, the two of them began to feud. Soon the Russian our water clean, and educate our kids are not
state forced Berezovsky into exile and seized his television meant to be run like businesses. They are not
network. Broke and lonely, the oligarch died in 2013 at his built to make a profit, but that does not make
mansion in the English countryside. Authorities ruled it a them any less valuable, especially for the citizens
suicide. To this day, his former media channel carries the who can least aford to pay. If those institutions
Kremlin’s message. get culled amid the Muskian push for efficiency,
K E N A B E TA N C U R — A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S
One of Berezovsky’s close associates, Alex Goldfarb, the hardship will not be temporary for those who
now lives in New Jersey, and he has followed the tandem rely on government support. For them, the pain
of Musk and Trump with a mix of familiarity and dread. could be devastating, and none of Musk’s prom-
“There seems to be an oligarchy forming here as well,” ises of an interplanetary future will help them get
he says. “Under Putin in the early years, we had the oli- through the problems of today. —With reporting
garchs fighting the state with everything they had,” says by eric corTellessa/lancasTer and leslie
Goldfarb. “Here it seems we have two oligarchs, Musk and DicksTein/new York □
Amber Venz Box
at LTKCon in
Dallas on Sept. 16
PHOTOGR APH BY JASMINE ARCHIE FOR TIME

BUSINESS
Shopping under
the fl
LTK CO-FOUNDER AMBER VENZ BOX SAW THE FUTURE
OF RETAIL. IT TOOK YEARS FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD
TO CATCH UP BY ELIANA DOCKTERMAN
Two wofen clad in sheer pearl-doTTed in black, whispers, “Damn, let me take off my sun-
bodysuits with giant white roses strapped to their glasses and take a look around.”
heads greet guests entering a Fashion Week party LTK has revolutionized the online shopping
at Hotel Fouquet’s in New York City. A sign outside experience with what Box describes as a win-
the room notes that the capacity is 74 people, but win-win model. The company allows influencers
more than 200 guests have RSVP’d. The noise is to post links to products they’re wearing, carrying,
deafening, though that matters little: the point of and decorating with on the LTK platform, which
this party is to photograph and be photographed. their followers can access via social media or the
One woman wears a leopard-print minidress LTK app. If, for instance, an LTK creator posts a
with a matching coat, another a blazer with no shirt photo in a cute blazer on Instagram, one of her fol-
underneath. Several women fix their makeup in lowers can click over to the creator’s LTK page to
the mirrored cocktail tables scattered around the see where it came from and click from there to the
room. Even the DJ pauses to take a selfie. brand site to buy it. The retailer makes the sale and
Many of the attendees have hundreds of thou- pays a commission to the influencer and a transac-
sands, if not millions, of followers on social media, tion fee to LTK. The platform also offers creators
but the star of the night is Amber Venz Box, the information about their reach, their follower de-
host of the event and president and co-founder mographics, and what types of photos and videos
of LTK, one of the most popular influencer plat- are attracting attention. The company even con-
forms in the world. Box, 36, usually keeps a rela- nects influencers with brands looking for a specific
tively low profile: She lives on a ranch in Texas type of person to promote a product—say, a fur-
with her co-founder, CEO, and husband Baxter niture company seeking someone who appeals to
Box and their four kids in a location she won’t dis- 20-something women decorating their first apart-
close for privacy reasons. But in this room, influ- ments. LTK takes a cut of those deals too.
encers clamor for a picture with the willowy red- Box boasts that more than 8,000 retailers are on
head. Several call her their hero. One of the richest LTK, 40 million people shop through LTK creators
self-made women in the U.S., with Forbes esti- every month, and LTK has helped 419 influencers
mating her net worth at $315 million in 2021, she become millionaires. She estimates that the com-
helped pioneer the modern influencer economy pany, which raised $300 million from SoftBank at
by building a bridge between content creators and a $2 billion valuation in 2021, will generate about
advertising dollars. $5 billion in sales for brands this year, much of which
“We’ve come such a long way,” she says in a wel- will come this holiday season. Last November, ac-
come speech. “Looking at the guest list for today, cording to LTK, more than $200 worth of products
10% of you in the room are LTK millionaires.” Ev- were purchased every second through its creators.
eryone swivels their heads in search of these mys- Influencers are giving traditional advertising
tery super earners. A man next to me, clad entirely a run for its money: Goldman Sachs predicts the
BUSINESS
creator economy will approach half a when she came in, and they would give
trillion dollars by 2027. But Box saw the us a warning. It was a really open space
potential more than a decade ago. Dur- so you’d have to crouch down behind a
ing her speech at the soirée, she thanks wall.” (Panichgul did not respond to re-
everyone for flying in from all over the quests for comment.)
country. She lists some of the brands at When Box returned to Southern
Fashion Week that are on LTK—Proenza Methodist University for her senior
Schouler, Ulla Johnson, Simkhai—and year, she met her now husband Baxter,
emphasizes just how much the market who had started a tech incubator. One
has changed. day, he looked at her spreadsheets and
“Cheers to this community, and I hope realized her jewelry sales dwarfed what
that you guys have a wonderful, amaz- she was making as a sales clerk. “He was
ing Fashion Week,” she says, “because like, ‘Oh my god. Where is this money?’
Lord knows, these brands need you.” And I was like, ‘You’re looking at it,’”
gesturing to her clothes and shoes.
pours before tpe party, Box sits Baxter encouraged her to commit
in her hotel room, fretting over what to the jewelry line full time, and she
to wear. The choice is important not made a deal with his incubator to sup-
only because of who will see her out- port the business. Still living in her fa-
fit that night but also because LTK’s ther’s house, she shipped her wares to
4.4 million Instagram followers will department stores in New York and
be able to look up her ensemble and set up stands at local markets. “My
purchase it through the LTK app. She stuff was, like, really avant-garde. And
ultimately decides on a $2,065 blush- at this market, I was next to glitter
colored Costarellos gown, accessorized makeup bags,” she says. “I was sort of
with a black handbag and pearl and dia- being snooty and a little offended about
mond earrings. my positioning there. But then the first
Growing up in Texas, Box was an in- day, I sold $8,000 of jewelry, and they
troverted kid who came to see fashion as sold $400,000 of the sparkle bags.”
a tool for attention. Her aunt, an artist, She went home to complain to her fa-
would paint her shoes for school. Box ther. “He was like, ‘Amber, sell to the
got kicked out of fifth-grade math class masses.’” She didn’t have time to imple-
for knitting scarves she would sell to her ment the lesson. It was 2008, and when
friends. In high school she started mak- the economy took a turn, the business on a laptop, a camera to photograph
ing wire earrings, knockoffs of the gold began to collapse. her outfits, a website domain, and a de-
ones she’d seen Jessica Simpson wear She worked as a personal stylist and signer to build and maintain the site.
on Newlyweds. It wasn’t long before fel- made a decent living until she launched “Fashion blogging was sort of like a
low teens were dropping off their prom a fashion blog in 2010. The blog was fea- rich-girl sport,” she says. She dreamed
dresses at her home so she could make tured in the Dallas Morning News and of making a commission on the clothes
jewelry to match their look. took off. But then her clients started she recommended on her blog, just
Box launched a jewelry line in high enthusiastically buying the clothes she as she had working with brick-and-
school and later sold it at the local store featured in her posts—without pay- mortar boutiques. And so the first iter-
where she worked in college. “I thought ing her for the advice. Dismayed, she ation of LTK, called RewardStyle, was
that I was going to be the next Rachel went to a conference for fashion blog- born. She had $236 in her bank account
Zoe,” she says, referring to the celebrity gers in New York on a mission to fig- the day it launched.
stylist who had her own reality show. ure out how to monetize the blog. “I re-
B O X A N D P O R T: B R YA N B E D D E R —J A M E S O N /G E T T Y I M A G E S
She spent a summer living in a frat member Leandra [Medine Cohen] from My poMe is a testament to the power
house in L.A. while interning for pho- Man Repeller was onstage, and so I ran of the influencer: I own a ridiculously
tographers and stylists. The next sum- and grabbed her afterwards, and I was efcient pepper grinder touted by sev-
mer she shared a mattress on the floor like, ‘Hey so, how do you make money eral celebrity chefs, a Scandinavian rug
with a friend in an apartment in New doing this?’ She was like, ‘Well, I don’t.’ hawked by a lifestyle blogger, and baby
York City and worked as an intern for So literally no one’s making money.” spoons recommended by a nutrition-
the fashion brand Thakoon. (Medine Cohen declined to comment, ist turned momfluencer. That’s before
“Anna Wintour was always pop- but a source close to her says the Man I even reach my closet. If you are active
ping in,” Box remembers. “It was sort Repeller founder does not believe that on social media, particularly Instagram
of Devil Wears Prada in real life where she would have ever characterized her or TikTok, you can also probably pin-
they made us hide. Like, Anna couldn’t business this way.) point the people online who inspired
see anyone but Thakoon [Panichgul] Box had spent thousands of dollars you to buy certain items.
46 TimefDecember 9, 2024
accounts. “Influencers offer a huge ben-
efit to brands moving into spaces with
customer bases who are unfamiliar with
them,” says Jared Watson, a professor
of marketing at NYU who specializes in
the influencer economy. And then there
are the parasocial or one-way relation-
ships that followers form with influ-
encers they love. “It feels like it’s a re-
◁ quest from a friend or family member
Clockwise from top: Box with to check out this product, and they feel
The Hills alum Whitney like they’re not going to be led astray,”
Port at LTK’s Fashion Week Watson says.
party; Southern Charm In 2013, the Boxes launched Like-
alum Daisy Kent; two of ToKnow.It, a new platform with a focus
LTK’s most successful on driving sales from social media. Con-
creators, Paola Alberdi and sumers bought $10 million worth of
Jen Adams
products promoted by its creators. In
2015, they bought $50 million. In 2016,
initially created was not appropriate,” they bought $150 million.
Box says. “There was friction when he Paradoxically, the success made Box
was getting paid and I wasn’t, and I was nervous. She felt too dependent on the
like, ‘This doesn’t make sense. I’m the fickle practices of social media sites.
one slaving away, and you’re getting the This fear had manifested when Pinter-
check every month.’” est, without warning, turned off out-
Frustrations compounded when they side links one day in 2012. (They turned
both decided to work full time on LTK— LikeToKnow.It’s back on when Barneys
in the same room. “I would get calls and complained that it had an ongoing ad
he would be G-chatting me, like, ‘Why campaign using its links.) So Box’s team
didn’t you say this? You should have began to build the LTK app, launched
said that.’” Box eventually decamped in April 2017, to cultivate a space that
to the bathroom to take her meetings. is less reliant on other social platforms.
But Box spent years trying to con- “Those were awful years,” she says. It saw a massive boom during the pan-
vince Silicon Valley that influencers “We did break up several times. We demic when creators suddenly had end-
were the future of commerce. In 2010, never told anyone at the company, and less time to post everything from Target
Box convinced Shopbop, which had we never behaved differently, because lamps to Chanel earrings—and shoppers
been acquired by Amazon, that influ- we didn’t want any of the company to endless time to stare at their phones.
encers might drive traffic to the online think, ‘Oh no, what’s going to happen? The business grew so much that
retailer. Medine Cohen and other fash- The founders broke up.’” Box began to feel overstretched and, in
ion bloggers came onboard. The Boxes did, eventually, figure out 2023, decided she could no longer re-
“We went to San Francisco, did this how to work together: they operate out side in a big city. “I am a pleaser,” she
whole tour, and everyone was like, ‘I’m of separate buildings on their ranch and says. “There’s guilt with every no. It’s
gonna call my girlfriend and see what meet with each other in the car on the really nice to say, ‘Sorry, I can’t come
she thinks about this.’ The idea of mon- way to pick up their kids. And the rest to your birthday party or charity thing.
etizing fashion blogs, it wasn’t really of the world did, eventually, catch up to I don’t live in Dallas anymore.’” She
clicking for them,” Box says. “And then Box’s vision. was also concerned about how her so-
one of the places that we went into, the Companies slowly realized that po- cial media presence was impacting her
secretary dialed in and was like, ‘Baxter tential customers were more likely family. “In Dallas, especially, we are a
Box is here, and he brought his wife.’” to buy a product from an influencer recognized family, and it is uncomfort-
Looking back, Box says being over- whose taste they already trusted than able to go into restaurants and other
shadowed by a man wasn’t the only from an ad put in front of them by an places, because I know I’m just being
reason it was difficult to launch a com- algorithm. A 2022 Pew Research Cen- watched all the time, and I know my
pany with her romantic partner. Even ter study found that 30% of adult kids are being watched in the same
before they were co-founders, when social media users had purchased way, because they’ve been part of the
his incubator had a deal with her jew- something after seeing an influencer story online,” she says. Which isn’t to
elry company, she felt a sense of ineq- post about it, a number that jumped say she’s stopped posting about them
uity. “I still think the structure that was to 53% for those who follow creators’ entirely. On a recent trip to New York
47
BUSINESS
City to celebrate her daughter Birdie’s overly peppy demeanor, her insistence 41% of adults overall would become an
9th birthday, Box chronicled the fam- on taking photos of every aspect of her influencer if they had the opportunity.
ily’s outfits for their various excursions life. “She’s not for everyone,” Box says, Asked how the company can main-
with links to LTK. laughing. But Box does think Emily tain both its rate of growth and its air
Watson of NYU says LTK has turned could be successful on LTK. “I would of exclusivity, Box says LTK is looking
into the tool of choice for influencers. tell her to keep being positive and to broaden its reach overseas as well as
Individual social media sites like Tik- happy. I tell our creators that. Also, re- expand its smaller verticals, like well-
Tok have ways to shop within the app spond to followers. If they message you ness and cooking, in the U.S. Kit Ulrich,
but cannot offer creators data on en- and say they bought the jeans, they LTK’s general manager of the creator
gagement across other platforms. And want your acknowledgment and valida- shopping platform, points to pickleball
competitors simply do not have as many tion. They should respond, ‘I hope you as an area of particular interest to sports
brand relationships as LTK, which was liked them. What did you wear them brands looking to boost sales.
early to the space. “They effectively with?’ I call being a creator the hospi- Though Box sold another company
make it a really nice one-stop shop for tality business.” she co-founded, a platform that con-
creators,” he says. “And success be- Jen Adams, an interior-design guru nected customers with nail technicians,
gets success. One of the reasons LTK with 3.1 million Instagram followers, to Glamsquad in 2023, she sidesteps
is crushing it is because all influencers personifies this attitude. Walking out of questions of an LTK acquisition, saying
hear about from one another is LTK.” the Fashion Week party, she is stopped only that she is always open to “strategic
every few steps by someone she has opportunities” but is focused on “future-
If you’re IntrIgued by the idea of mentored. She hugs each new person proofing” the business. She knows,
becoming an LTK millionaire, know and bounces with joy as she talks about after all, that others want in. Instagram
that it’s not as simple as posting a few the impact Box has had on her life. “The launched Instagram Shopping so users
mirror selfies. The company now boasts Nordstrom Anniversary Sale has always can buy from brands without leaving
more than 300,000 creators, but it re- been a big event for creators. We call it the app, and TikTok has TikTok Shop,
mains selective. There’s an application Christmas in July,” she says. One year, though in November TikTok began let-
process in which Box’s team analyzes in- LTK reposted one of Adams’ pictures ting its users link to LTK in their posts.
fluencers’ engagement on social media, the night before the sale. “When that LTK introduced full-bleed, scrolla-
their aesthetic, and whether their con- day’s commission came in, I literally fell ble videos, à la TikTok, this year and has
tent is shoppable. Once accepted, cre- out of bed,” she says. One of LTK’s most been incorporating AI learning to con-
ators participate in a boot camp on how successful creators, she now employs nect brands with creators. Meanwhile,
to light their pictures, write captions, 15 people, all of whom, she notes, are the company has not forgotten what
and create an editorial calendar. “You moms, and all of whom are supported happened with Pinterest and continues
also need credibility,” Box says. “For ex- by her LTK affiliate-link business, as is to urge creators to grow their followings
ample, now that I’m living on a ranch, her own family. on its own app. Box says internal met-
my wardrobe has changed entirely. I How much money does she make rics show engagement on Instagram has
have a huge boot collection because on LTK exactly? She won’t say. Several been plummeting since the spring. “In-
there are snakes where I live.” other influencers I speak to are similarly dividual creators have less power and
The company also recruits. It has circumspect. If they are indeed million- control about whether their community
targeted reality stars like Whitney Port aires, though, they are in the minority is going to see them at any given time,”
from The Hills, who attended the Fash- when it comes to the overall creator Ulrich says. “Then you run the risk of
ion Week party, and Daisy Kent from economy. Of the estimated 50 million not being able to earn as much money.”
The Bachelor, who was one of 360 cre- people earning money by promoting Instagram did not respond to multiple
ators at the 12th annual LTKCon sum- content, only about 4% earn more than requests for comment.
mit in Dallas three weeks later. “It kind $100,000 a year, according to a 2023 re- Maybe someday Box will kick up her
of gives me meaning outside of the plat- port from Goldman Sachs. And yet the designer boots and retire to the luxury
form of the reality show or whatever I’m number entering the space is likely to yurt vacation retreat that she and Baxter
doing,” says Olivia Flowers, a Southern keep growing. A Morning Consult poll opened near Big Bend National Park in
Charm alum. “They teach me how I can last year found that 57% of Gen Z and 2020. But if she learned anything from
promote my brand, which is me.” her early days trying to turn her pas-
Box likes to hold up Emily of the sion into a livelihood, it’s to recognize
Netflix show Emily in Paris as a model the challenges ahead but not be cowed
influencer. “Be Emily and then also by them. She recalls going to the store
make what you’re doing in your life she worked at in Dallas and telling them
shoppable,” Box tells her creators. I h bl about the new business she was launch-
point out that many people—even fans ing. “The owner was like, ‘No one’s ever
of the show—find Emily insufferable gonna pay somebody for online sales. So
exactly because of her influencer ten- when it doesn’t work, you can have your
dencies: her wild fashion choices, her job back.’” She’s good. □
• 10 Top Sirloin Steaks CELEBRATE
(6 oz each) DELICIOUSLY
• FREE KC Steak Experience Guide
We craft the most tender, juicy
• FREE Seasoning Packet world-class steaks available
anywhere so you can enjoy a
superior steak experience.
plus 10 FREE Steakburgers Guaranteed.
and FREE SHIPPING
ONLY $ 99.99
H E A LT H
The Power
of the Peer
WITH MENTAL-HEALTH CARE IN SHORT SUPPLY, CAN REGULAR
PEOPLE FILL THE GAP? BY JAMIE DUCHARME
Would you spend $40 on a meal? a Workout Peer support isn’t a complete fix. Lived ex-
class? A new T-shirt? To chat with a stranger about perience can’t replace the years of training that
their life experience for half an hour? mental-health professionals receive, especially
The last is the business model behind Fello, a for particularly sensitive situations or vulnerable
new app that pays people to tell their life stories groups. But some advocates, including policy-
to others going through the same stuff. Just like makers within the Biden Administration, argue it
Uber and Airbnb let people make cash from their helps meet needs. Peers may offer a more attain-
cars and homes, Fello lets you monetize your hard- able and softer-touch form of support for people
won wisdom. who don’t want or require clinical treatment—or
The idea is to provide “a new type of support a complementary approach for people who are in
that you don’t get from going to a generic support treatment but feel something is missing. A peer
group, perusing Reddit or Facebook groups, or offers something unique: the kind of camarade-
meeting with a therapist,” says CEO Alyssa Pollack, rie and practical advice borne from going through
a former executive at Uber Eats. The person on something hard and making it to the other side.
the other side of your screen isn’t a mental-health Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and
professional, but can speak to “the specific ‘lived behavioral sciences at Stanford University, says
experience’ that you’re going through.” this kind of care can be invaluable for patients and
Though the app is new, the idea is not. Fello the system at large. Some people going through a
and other platforms like it are selling something tough time—a career setback, relationship hurdle,
that humans have long gotten for free: peer sup- or life transition—just need a sympathetic ear. If
port. “It’s something that people naturally do,” says they can get that from a peer rather than a spe-
Kelly Davis, vice president of peer and youth advo- cialist, they could free up mental-health services
cacy at the nonprofit Mental Health America. “If for people who truly need them, and perhaps get
you’re having a hard time, you often seek out some- a type of guidance better suited to their situation.
one else who went through something similar.” These days, people who want peer support have
Increasingly, that human tendency is being lots of options. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has
packaged and pitched as an answer to a deepening been using community to help people get and stay
problem: traditional mental-health care is hard to sober for nearly a century, and has inspired spin-
find and hard to afford. Demand far outpaces sup- off groups like Narcotics Anonymous and Work-
ply, and providers often charge hundreds of dollars aholics Anonymous. Peer-counseling centers are
per session. The result is that more than half of U.S. becoming popular at schools and colleges. The
adults with a mental illness did not receive treat- National Alliance on Mental Illness runs a free
ment for their conditions as of 2022, according to peer-to-peer mentorship program for people with
Mental Health America. Overall, 42% of Americans mental-health conditions. Federal and state health
say they’re concerned about their mental health, officials have even drafted rigorous training and
Harris Poll data finds, but only 10% of U.S. adults competency requirements for people who wish
are seeing a therapist. to become professional peer supporters. In most
ILLUSTR ATIONS BY SJOERD VAN LEEU WEN FOR TIME
H E A LT H
states, if individuals meet these standards—which something similar. To become a Fello, all some-
usually involve at least 40 hours of training, someone has to do is clear a background check, submit
times augmented by additional supervision by references who can vouch that they’ve experienced
mental-health professionals—they can bill their what they claim to, complete roughly five hours of
services to Medicaid. training—significantly less than would be required
Fello isn’t the first app to wade into these wa- of state-certified peer supporters—and pass an as-
ters. (It’s not even the first founded by an ex-Uber sessment. The app charges $40 per 30-minute ses-
employee—that would be Basis, which launched sion, and the Fello pockets 70% of the fee.
in 2018.) Platforms including HeyPeers, HearMe, Not all experts are buying it. Dr. John Torous,
TalkLife, and 7 Cups ofer similar services. But vir- director of digital psychiatry at Beth Israel Deacon-
tual peer support isn’t always executed well. Some ess Medical Center in Boston, says he has reserva-
companies have dealt with safety issues, like bad tions about paying to chat with strangers who may
actors who abuse the model to give harmful advice be seen as alternatives to therapists, but who don’t
or prey on vulnerable people. have the training or licensure to back up that per-
Fello is betting that because loneliness is at ep- ception. “Who are these people, really?” he says.
idemic levels and people are clamoring for novel “That’s the part that’s concerning.”
forms of mental-health support, it’s time for some- Apps like Fello operate in a gray area: their peer
thing new. “There’s been a major shift, even in the supporters aren’t professionals, but they’re not
last five years, for people’s propensity to go get sup- quite friends either. That makes Torous uneasy.
port,” Pollack says. Why not get it from a stranger “We don’t want to make having a conversation
on your phone? costly,” Torous says. “That would be a bad trend
The app, which launched in August, already has for society, if you have to pay to talk.”
thousands of users and hundreds of peer support-
ers, called “Fellos,” Pollack says. People seeking at the core of this debate is a straightforward
help with substance use, parenting, or relation- question: can hearing about someone else’s life im-
ships are matched with people with no special prove your own?
qualifications other than having lived through The science on peer support is mixed. For
starters, it might not be great for the person dis- evidence that recovery was real and possible,”
pensing the advice. Although some peer support- Myrick says. “I had to actually see it.”
ers report gaining resilience and insight into their
own conditions, it can be emotionally taxing to re- There’s real power in being around people
live challenging experiences over and over again. who get what you’re dealing with, says Hum-
Many peer supporters do just fine psychologically, phreys, from Stanford. In 2020, he published a re-
or even grow and find community, but the practice search review that found AA is not only effective
introduces the risk of burnout and emotional ex- at maintaining sobriety, but more effective than
haustion, studies suggest. cognitive behavioral therapy. Humphreys thinks
Among people receiving peer support, there’s that’s because participants can tap into shared un-
minimal evidence to suggest the practice leads to derstanding and see sober living in action.
“clinical recovery”—the sort of symptom reduc- In most cases, Humphreys says, there’s no
tion a traditional medical provider would mea- downside to trying peer support as a first resort. “If
sure. A 2019 research review concluded that there somebody says, ‘I felt a little tightness in my chest
is “no high-quality evidence” to say whether the when I was running,’ I wouldn’t say, ‘You immedi-
practice works for people with serious mental ill- ately need to go to a cardiac surgeon.’ I would say,
nesses like schizophrenia. ‘Go to your primary-care doctor,’” he says. “You go
But peer support does seem to boost the chances to the lowest-level thing” first.
of “personal recovery,” or the ability to build a satis- There are limits, though. Peer counselors—
fying and meaningful life even if symptoms persist, particularly those who have not gone through ex-
according to a 2023 study. Other studies suggest tensive training—may not know what to do when
peer support fosters belonging, community, social faced with an emergency, like
connectedness, resilience, belief in oneself, hope, someone at imminent risk of self-
and empowerment—all of which can contribute
to overall well-being, even if those attributes are
harm. A 2023 report by Mental
Health America found that only
‘I remember
harder to measure than clinical symptoms. around half of student peer coun- meeting with
Keris Myrick, vice president of partnerships
and innovation at the mental-health advocacy or-
selors felt their organizations of-
fered enough training on han-
my psychologist
ganization Inseparable and a peer-support expert, dling crises. Davis, who wrote and saying,
says it’s a mistake to expect peer support to achieve that report, adds that peer sup-
the same things as traditional mental-health care— porters, particularly students,
“You wouldn’t
or to replace it—when that was never the goal. may be out of their depth with understand. You
A medical professional may be focused on treat- less-common conditions like
ing someone’s condition. But a peer supporter psychosis and schizophrenia. haven’t been
doesn’t “really care what the person’s diagnosis is,”
Myrick says. They’re “walking alongside” some-
Myrick adds that the model
can go sideways when a peer sup-
through it.”’
one, helping with whatever “the person identifies porter tries to act like a “mini cli-
that they want to work on,” whether that’s a med- nician,” rather than an equal. A key tenet of peer
ical issue or not. Even though the goal isn’t nec- support is that “you’re not diagnosing people” or
essarily to lessen specific symptoms, that some- “telling them to take or not take medicine,” Davis
times happens, Myrick says. Studies have shown agrees. If a relationship veers into that territory, it
that people who receive peer support are less likely can have consequences for treatment.
to have repeat psychiatric hospitalizations. Peer support can be transformative. But the
Myrick, who has schizophrenia and obsessive- danger is that it’s easy to offer either “too much
compulsive disorder, knows the power of a good or too little,” as one 2023 research review put it. A
peer. When she was first diagnosed, she felt some- peer may either overstep the bounds of what their
thing was missing from her “conventional” reg- relationship is supposed to be, or may not have
imen of therapy and medication. “I remember enough training to make a real difference.
meeting with my psychologist and saying, ‘You That’s a particular risk as peer support becomes
wouldn’t understand. You haven’t been through the latest service to get the gig-economy treatment.
it,’” she remembers. As a Black woman, she longed Startups may or may not emulate the rigorous,
for someone who could relate to her. research-backed training that certified peer sup-
Myrick stuck with her traditional care. But porters receive. Without that foundation, Myrick
it was another woman of color living with men- says, businesses are selling little more than the
tal illness who helped her solve problems like chance to talk to a stranger masquerading as a friend.
how to stay in graduate school and showed her And, as Myrick says, “I want to have friends
that it was possible to live a rich, fulfilling life who will be my friend without having to give them
postdiagnosis. She “gave me the hope and the 40 bucks.” □
53
Lava crosses the main road to Grindavik,
Iceland, on Feb. 8. A volcano’s eruption,
for the third time since December 2023,
sent jets of lava into the air and triggered
an evacuation from the Blue Lagoon spa,
one of the country’s most popular tourist
attractions. Until 2021, the region’s volcanic
systems had been dormant for 800 years
PHOTOGRAPH BY
MARCO DI MARCO —AP
PHOTOS
OF
THE
YEAR
From the horror of war to the power of
courage, from the wonder of space to
the thrill of victory—these images captured
the feeling of the year that was
Migrants from China warm
themselves in Campo, Calif., after
crossing the U.S.-Mexico border
in a rainstorm on March 6. The
number of Chinese asylum seekers
arriving via the southern border
has surged since the pandemic
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN MOORE—
GETTY IMAGES
A search-and-rescue team prepares to enter a building following a magnitude-7.4
earthquake in Hualien, Taiwan, on April 3. The quake killed 17 and injured more than
900 others. It was the largest to hit the island in a quarter century, causing at least 28
buildings to collapse and triggering massive landslides in mountainous Hualien County
PHOTOGRAPH BY LAM YIK FEI—THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
An activist cries during a debate among lawmakers on a controversial bill seeking

to lift a 2015 ban on female genital mutilation, at the National Assembly in
Banjul, Gambia, on March 18. The National Assembly voted to advance the bill,
but in July, Gambia’s parliament rejected the measure, maintaining the protections
PHOTOGRAPH BY CARMEN YASMINE ABD ALI
59
Israeli munitions hit southern
Lebanon on Sept. 30, as Israeli
ground troops crossed the border to
attack positions of the Hezbollah
militia. Almost a year after the
Hamas attack of Oct. 7 ignited a
devastating war in the Gaza Strip—
during which Israel and Hezbollah
have also traded fire nearly
daily—Israel turned its focus to the
Iranian proxy force, sparking fears of
a widening war
PHOTOGRAPH BY LEO CORREA—AP
Brazil’s Gabriel
Medina appears
to levitate during
the men’s surfing
competition
in the Paris
2024 Olympic
Games, held
in Teahupo’o,
on the French
Polynesian
island of Tahiti,
on July 29. He
earned the
highest single-
wave score in
Olympic history
and went on
to win the
bronze medal
PHOTOGRAPH
BY JEROME
BROUILLET—
AFP/GETTY
IMAGES
Kindergartners
at Myers
Elementary
School in Grand
Blanc, Mich.,
use paper-plate
glasses to safely
watch the solar
eclipse on April 8.
The total solar
eclipse, which
began its path
across the U.S. in
Texas and exited
2,000 miles
later in Maine,
was the last that
will be visible in
the contiguous
United States
until 2044
PHOTOGRAPH BY
JAKE MAY

People take
pictures as a
2-month-old
female pygmy hippo
named Moo Deng
eats with her
mother Jona at
Khao Kheow Open
Zoo in Chonburi
province, Thailand,
on Sept. 16. Born on
July 10 and revealed
to the public later
that month, the
baby hippo (and
her iconic facial
expressions)
quickly became
a viral internet
sensation
PHOTOGRAPH
BY ATHIT
PERAWONGMETHA—
REUTERS
Journalist Evan
Gershkovich
approaches
colleagues
covering his
arrival at
Joint Base
Andrews, Md.,
on Aug. 1. After
being wrongfully
detained by
Russia’s Federal
Security Service
in March 2023,
he was released
in a prisoner
exchange that
involved seven
nations and two
dozen detainees
PHOTOGRAPH
BY AL DRAGO—
BLOOMBERG/
GETTY IMAGES
63
Medical workers
treat a victim
after a Russian
missile attack
heavily damaged
residential
buildings in
Kharkiv, Ukraine,
on Jan. 23
PHOTOGRAPH
BY SOFIIA
GATILOVA—
REUTERS
65
New York
Yankees fans
grab the glove
of Los Angeles
Dodgers right
fielder Mookie
Betts, who had
caught a fly ball
in foul territory
during Game 4 of
the World Series
in the Bronx on
Oct. 29. The fans
were ejected.
The Dodgers
won the series in
five games
PHOTOGRAPH
BY AL BELLO—
GETTY IMAGES
The aftermath
of a container
ship’s collision
with the Francis
Scott Key Bridge
in Baltimore
on March 26.
The Singapore-
flagged vessel
crashed into
a column
supporting the
bridge, causing
part of the span
to collapse
and killing six
construction
workers who
were on it.
State officials
estimated repair
costs at up to
$1.9 billion
PHOTOGRAPH
BY CAROLYN VAN
HOUTEN—THE
WASHINGTON
POST/GETTY
IMAGES

An Israeli family
gathers during
their son’s bar
mitzvah in an
underground
bomb shelter
near Nahariya
in northern
Israel on July 4,
after Hezbollah
fired more than
200 rockets into
Israel in response
to the killing of a
senior Hezbollah
commander in
Lebanon
PHOTOGRAPH BY
AMIT ELKAYAM
Armand
“Mondo”
Duplantis of
Sweden vaults
to a new world
record of 6.25 m
at the Olympics
on Aug. 5. This
was the eighth
time since 2020
that Duplantis,
who took home
gold, broke the
pole-vaulting
world record.
“Go out and
do something
special, do
something that’s
never been done
before,” he told
TIME. “That’s
the goal.”
PHOTOGRAPH
BY ALEKSANDRA
SZMIGIEL—
REUTERS
67
Floodwaters and a destroyed building
block a road in Swannanoa, N.C.,
in the wake of Hurricane Helene on
Sept. 27. The storm brought as much
as 30 in. of rain to areas already
saturated by an earlier front
PHOTOGRAPH BY MIKE BELLEME—
THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
“Elegant and beautiful and the
type of rich elegance that anyone
would be thrilled
C.
to own, with never a
disappointment!”
— E. B., Stone Mountain, GA
Jewelry that says

more than words
ever could B.
A.
“Gift of
the Year”
Client Rating of
4.9 Stars!
When Two Hearts Join

D iscover the enchanting allure of our
Two Heart Necklace, where love’s
symphony unfolds in timeless elegance.
your perfect match. Embrace the romance and elegance
of a bygone era with our Two Heart Necklace, a treasure
to cherish for a lifetime.
Inspired by that moment, when it all clicks
Falling in love costs nothing but the value is priceless.
and you realize you have found the one….
Showing your love with this two hearts set costs next to
and where two become one, this exquisite
nothing and the feeling you will get when wearing it or
piece captures the essence of two hearts
giving it to your love will certainly be priceless.
entwined in a dance of destiny. Crafted with precision and
passion and encased in 14k gold, it embodies the essence of Two Hearts Collection
your enduring love, echoing the sentiments of Shakespeare’s A. #57505 Bracelet (13 2/5 ctw) $299 $39* + S&P Save $260
sonnets and the romances of Jane Austen. Our client’s B. #57507 Necklace (2 ⅛ ctw) $199 $39* + S&P Save $160
favorite, it is now priced at its lowest ever even as gold C. #56877 Earrings (4 ¼ ctw) $229 $39* + S&P Save $190
reaches a record high, awarding it a stellar 4.9-star rating in #57508 Necklace, Bracelet & Earrings
reviews making it the Gift of the Year. Embrace the magic of $727 $79* + S&P Save $648
shared dreams and whispered promises with the Two Heart *Special price only for customers using the offer code.
Necklace, a treasure to cherish for generations to come.
Let this necklace be your own love story, a testament
to the beauty of companionship and the joy of finding
1-800-333-2045
Your Insider Offer Code: THC184-01
Stauer, 14091 Southcross Drive W., Dept. THC184-01, Burnsville, MN 55337 | www.stauer.com
AFFORD THE EXTRAORDINARY®

Time Off QUEERING
THE STORY
BY RICH JUZWIAK
Luca Guadagnino directs

Daniel Craig in an adaptation
of William S. Burroughs’
1985 novella Queer
BROADCASTING THE ANGELINA JOLIE TAKES CHARLES YU BRINGS CHINATOWN

MUNICH MASSACRE ON MARIA CALLAS TO PAGE AND SCREEN
PHOTOGR APH BY YANNIS DR AKOULIDIS 71

TIME OFF OPENER
he ifage onscreen appears jusT as iT did
T in a 17-year-old Luca Guadagnino’s mind: as an

infatuated man gazes at his object of desire, a
translucent, almost ghostly version of his hand
reaches out to stroke the face of his unwitting beloved. The
words that inspired this image—ectoplasmic fingers and a
phantom thumb—were written by William S. Burroughs
in his 1985 semi-autobiographical novella Queer, which
Guadagnino, now 53, read as a “solitary young man” in
Palermo, Italy. He began work on an adaptation at 21, years
before he’d direct his first feature film in 1999. Making
Burroughs’ description come to life was “simple,” some-
thing out of the “old days” of cinema, the director says. “It’s
superimposed, but it’s very strong,” he adds.
With Queer, opening Nov. 27, Guadagnino has achieved
not quite the impossible but the unlikely: he’s rendered
Burroughs’ freewheeling prose into a coherent film. Set
in early-’50s Mexico City, Queer follows Burroughs’ liter-
ary alter ego William Lee (played by a multivalent Daniel
Craig) as he pursues a younger man, Eugene Allerton
(Drew Starkey), who seems impenetrable until he’s not.
The courtship takes them into the wilds of South America
and finds Lee blazed on alcohol, heroin, and psychedelics.
The book is a sequel to 1953’s Junkie and went unpublished
for decades. Craig’s performance is big, sometimes explo-
sively so, and requires not only affected charm, but also △
deep sadness, the physical turmoil of opiate withdrawal, Guadagnino on Craig’s depiction of Lee, which doesn’t
and some bumbling in the jungle. “We all were exhausted the set of Queer, call for a strict impersonation of Bur-
by the end,” said Craig. “We were all just hanging in rags by at Cinecittà roughs as he was in the ’50s (“Thank
the time we finished.” Studios in Rome Christ!” says the actor), but was partly
Justin Kuritzkes, the writer of Guadagnino’s other 2024 inspired by late-in-life candid foot-
release, Challengers, adapted Burroughs’ novel into Queer’s age of Burroughs “high and giggling
screenplay. “I was trying to be a medium between these and being mischievous.” Queer also
two brilliant queer artists: William Burroughs on the one queers the prototypical love story: Lee
hand and Luca on the other,” he says. That involved heaps is smitten with Allerton, while Aller-
of artistic license—Kuritzkes feshed out the sex scenes, in- ton stays mostly aloof, spurning Lee
serted surreal sequences that allude to the shooting death in public in favor of a young woman
of Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer, for which he was con- and sharing views on gay culture that
victed in absentia; and teased out the third act beyond sow doubt as to his own sexuality. Yet
what Burroughs merely suggested. Dr. Cotter, for exam- Guadagnino and his cast insist this is a
ple, “a small, wiry man in his middle fifties” living in the story not of unrequited love but of un-
Ecuadorean jungle, becomes a woman, played with relish synchronized love.
by a greasy-haired, dirt-speckled Lesley Manville. In a joint Zoom interview in No-
At the same time, much of the film is doggedly faithful vember, both Guadagnino and Craig
to Burroughs’ book, transplanting chunks of dialogue and downplayed the importance of Lee’s
tracing its overall arc. Guadagnino’s Queer is at once a trib- queerness, which came as a surprise
ute and an extension, a queering of the very act of adapta- given the film’s title, for one thing.
tion. “You adhere to the book because it’s important to ad- “For me, this is not about gay or
here to the source material,” explains Craig. “But as artists, homosexuality, it’s more about: Are
it’s our job to interpret and to expand.” we ready for connection? What is pre-
venting these characters from having
Queer describes way more than the sexuality of its a full-blown connection?” says Gua-
protagonist—it’s practically the film’s ethos. In many ways, dagnino. “In a way, the sexuality of
this movie is queer as in askew, or deviating from a recog- the protagonist, it’s down the list of
nizable form. Almost all of it was shot at Cinecittà Studios important things,” adds Craig. “It is
in Rome, which lends an old Hollywood movie-set vibe the emotional journey of these people.
to its gritty content that would never have gotten past the And that’s what we concentrated on
Production Code of the story’s own era. And then there’s while making the film.”
72 Tife December 9, 2024
eyebrows, it’s still worth noting that artistic intentions—to the point of ef-
Guadagnino tapped the actor most fectively interpreting his work for
closely associated with the prototypi- people. One recurring image in Queer
cal heterosexual male character of the is of a centipede. Those who haven’t
last century, James Bond, to star in a read the book might wonder why it’s
movie called Queer. there, and even those who have might
“For a movie like this to come out be confused—in the text, Burroughs
right now with Daniel Craig, who’s makes only a fleeting reference to the
James Bond, and this masculine bug. Well, Guadagnino has an answer,
symbol—I think is so important,” says based in part on his reading of Bur-
Apollo. roughs’ journals. “The centipede is re-
“I’m fascinated by the artifice of pression,” he says. “The centipede is
masculinity,” Craig says regarding the the villain in the movie.” The moment
through line from 007 to Lee. “The when, while staying in a hotel with
way in is to think about the way men two double beds, a dope-sick, shiver-
are perceived and how they can pres- ing Lee asks Allerton if he can get in
ent themselves.” bed with him, and Allerton relents and
Craig, who has been married to places his foot over Lee’s own? “There
actor Rachel Weisz since 2011 and is the moment [when] you realize
has played queer characters in several that this is a love story,” Guadagnino
other pictures before, including 1998’s proclaims.
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of
Francis Bacon and the Knives Out fran- afTer iTs world premiere at the
chise, says the role was not just about Venice Film Festival in September,
Lee’s sexuality, but his flaws. His goal Queer was received with a nearly nine-
was simply “to get it right.” He adds, minute standing ovation. Months
To be clear, the movie’s sex is de- “The complexity of sexuality is way later, the reception in Istanbul was
finitive and copious. Those who were beyond my understanding—it’s more decidedly frostier—it was banned for
frustrated by the camera’s pronounced individual than a thumbprint.” “threat to public peace” because of
panning away in Guadagnino’s pre- Still, queer stories remain far less its “provocative content.” As a result,
vious May-December gay romance common than heterosexual ones, and the streamer and distributor Mubi
Call Me by Your Name should be sa- the queer community has a long tradi- canceled its Mubi Fest Istanbul 2024,
tiated by Queer’s frankness. Both of tion of decrying negative depictions for which Queer was set as the open-
Craig’s onscreen sex partners, Starkey given this scarcity (see, for example, ing film. Guadagnino was unfazed,
and singer-songwriter Omar Apollo, William Friedkin’s 1980 gay serial- suggesting that censoring things only
who makes his film debut in Queer, ap- killer thriller Cruising, as well as Basic makes people want to see them more.
pear fully nude—Starkey says he wore Instinct and The Silence of the Lambs). While screenwriter Kuritzkes believes
a prosthetic, though Apollo would not Guadagnino doesn’t seem to care if that “you can’t make a movie called
confirm or deny the veracity of his presenting a flawed gay character will Queer, set in the ’50s in Mexico, re-
cinematic anatomy. (“They’re young. ruffle feathers. “I don’t want to be lease it in 2024, for it not to be politi-
They’re young and beautiful,” says part of a club that would have me, like cal,” Guadagnino sees its politics more
Craig when asked why he didn’t go full Groucho Marx said,” he observes, add- as a threat to the cinematic status quo.
frontal as well.) Craig credits laughter ing that he’s not interested in appeal- “If it is political, it’s political in the
between takes with easing the ten- ing to a community’s expectations or sense that it showcases that we don’t
sion. Plus, Starkey says movement re- demands. “I don’t care about it. I think need to do movies that come from a
hearsals for a kind of dance sequence it’s crazy. It’s almost like a sort of in- mold, but that we can forge proto-
toward the end of the film broke the breed concept.” types,” he says.
ice. “We got to embarrass ourselves in Guadagnino is uncommonly lucid For Guadagnino, the queerest thing
front of one another—and have little and staunch when he discusses his about his film is its capacity to be at
accomplishments in the choreography once universal and precise. “It’s a
with each other. That imbued its way queer movie because it can afford to
into everything.” be absolutely specific and bombastic
‘This is not about in its own ways, and at the same time,
There was a Time when a straight homosexuality. It’s it encompasses and communicates
YA N N I S D R A K O U L I D I S
actor playing a gay character was con- about: Are we ready feelings that we have all gone through
sidered a career risk. There was a time in our lives,” he says. Craig agrees.
when it was considered controversial. for connection?’ “Anything that gets too binary is not
Now, though it doesn’t raise as many LUCA GUADAGNINO, DIRECTOR really interesting to me.” □
73
TIME OFF MOVIES
FEATURE
Broadcasting a crisis
for the world to see
BY OLIVIA B. WAXMAN
On SepT. 5, 1972, a 32-year-Old prOdecer named

Geoffrey S. Mason was working in a control room for ABC
Sports in Munich while 12 hostages, including several
members of the Israeli Olympic delegation, were being
held in a building nearby. As Mason’s team was in the midst
of covering the breaking news—having pivoted from their
regularly scheduled athletic programming—the doors sud-
denly burst open and Mason found himself staring through
the cigarette haze at German police machine guns pointed
straight at his face. The Germans were upset that one of the
network’s cameras was showing that German sharpshoot-
ers had taken positions on the roof above the hostages,
threatening to thwart a rescue effort.
The camera was quickly turned off, but Mason’s indelible
memory of that confrontation lives on, not only in his mind
but also in the new movie September 5, in limited theaters
Dec. 13. Directed by Tim Fehlbaum, the drama recounts
how journalists broadcast the act of terror live to millions.
It’s the second feature film released this century about the
Munich massacre, following Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-
nominated 2005 historical epic Munich. And the 1999 film △
One Day in September won the Oscar for best documentary John Magaro, and Triumph at the Olympic Games.
feature. But unlike those films, September 5 is, like Spotlight, at center “The Olympics would do just that.”
The Post, and She Said in recent years, a journalism movie at looking up, Meanwhile, in addition to inflicting
heart. And its arrival is timely, given the prominent role of plays producer a devastating loss of life, the hostage
hostages in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. Geoffrey Mason crisis would become a major source
The movie is constructed around the ABC Sports team’s in September 5 of embarrassment for Germany, less
about-face from athletics to terrorism, centering the per- than three decades after the end of the
spective of the broadcasters who sneaked cameras into Holocaust. As Large explains, “One
the Olympic Village to film the frenetic scene. Mason, one of the most pressing concerns for the
of the producers calling the shots that day, played in the Munich organizers was not to look like
movie by Past Lives actor John Magaro, consulted on the the old Germany—of concentration
script co-written by Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder, and Alex camps and watch towers—or the Ber-
David. As he recalls, “I remember thinking, good Lord: lin Games of 1936, which had heavy
We’re supposed to be watching Mark Spitz go for seven security, armed guards. They wanted
gold medals and Olga Korbut—the new face of Russian to look like the new, joyful Germany—
gymnastics—and I’m now watching people crawl across a transparent, democratic, open.”
roof getting ready to stage a military assault on terrorists.” Mason was just one of several jour-
nalists who expected to be covering
The 1972 hosTage crisis took place five years after sports that day in Munich but were
Israel had demonstrated its military superiority in the Six- suddenly called upon to redirect their
Day War, and Palestinian militants relied on hijackings and training toward reporting on an act
terrorist attacks to draw attention to their cause. On that of terrorism. One colleague, Marvin
late-summer day in 1972, the Palestinian militant group Bader (played by Ben Chaplin in the
known as the Black September Organization called for the movie), was a Jewish American jour-
release of 234 prisoners—some of whom had been impris- nalist for whom an assignment in the
oned for years in Israeli and German jails, threatening to country where the Holocaust took
kill one hostage every hour until their demand was met. place brought deep discomfort. Ac-
The goal of the Munich attack “was to put the Pales- cording to Mason, “Marvin was a
tinian situation on the largest possible world stage,” says deeply religious and sensitive person,
David Clay Large, author of Munich 1972: Tragedy, Terror, and so having spent a number of years
△
Members of the
ABC team in
Munich in 1972,
above; Mason in
1972, right
in Germany doing shows like this—like to represent their country and to pursue excellence in front
ski jumping—to go back to Germany of the world, and they were deprived of that opportunity.”
time and time again was not easy.” In the immediate aftermath of the massacre, Israel re-
As the movie depicts, Mason’s col- sponded by launching air attacks and bombings against
league from the news division, Peter Palestine Liberation Organization targets in Lebanon and
Jennings, dressed up like an athlete Syria. According to Large, “There was initially all kinds of
with fake credentials and went under-
cover, sneaking into the Olympic
‘We were sympathy for the Israelis in connection with this terrible
attack, but the reprisal attacks by the Israelis were so se-
Village so he could watch the scene just doing vere and so nondiscriminating that opinion started to turn
unfold from the 11th floor of the Ital- our job, against the Israelis to some degree.” He adds, “There are a
ian delegation, across the street from lot of parallels between then and now.” A year after the ter-
the Israeli team’s compound. During
and we rorist attack, in 1973, the Yom Kippur War took place, with
the course of the day, one hostage es- had to get a coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, attacking
caped through a window and two were [the story] the Sinai Peninsula in retaliation for the Israeli airstrikes.
killed as they tried to seize their cap- After the historic 1972 broadcast, Mason continued
tors’ weapons. The drama ended with right.’ to work as a producer in sports broadcasting, accumulat-
the deaths of the remaining nine in a GEOFFREY MASON, ing a total of nine Olympic Games and half a dozen FIFA
botched rescue attempt that night, at PRODUCER World Cups under his belt. Now based in Florida, he’s the
S E P T E M B E R 5: PA R A M O U N T; A R C H I VA L : G E O F F R E Y M A S O N (2)
an airfield. ABC host Jim McKay told executive producer and CEO of his own production com-
the world, “They’re all gone.” pany. Consulting on September 5 has been surreal, he says:
to experience being in front of the camera—at least, as por-
AFTER HE STAYED UP for an entire trayed by Magaro—instead of behind it. As he puts it, “I’ve
day, Mason remembers going back been behind the scenes all these years in production, so I
to his hotel room after the crisis sub- had to get used to working with someone who is actually
sided, pouring a stiff drink, and having playing me. That took some getting used to.”
“a good cry.” “It was the first time that More than anything, he hopes the dedication that he and
day we had been able to feel what we his colleagues brought to journalism will be the main take-
were involved in,” he says. He remem- home message for viewers. “It was a roller-coaster ride the
bers thinking, “This is all so unfair. entire day,” Mason reflects. “We were just doing our job,
These young people were just trying and we had to get [the story] right.” □
75
TIME OFF REVIEWS
screenplay from an opera li-

bretto he’d adapted from Boris
Razon’s novel Écoute. The plot
turns may feel zany, but they
come to make perfect emo-
tional sense. When Rita first
meets Emilia, four years after
she and Manitas have parted
ways, she doesn’t recognize
her. The menacing thug—who
was, even so, devoted to his
two kids and their mother, Jessi
(Selena Gomez)—is now an el-
egant vixen. Rita had already
helped Manitas’ family settle
in Switzerland; they believe
him to be dead. But now Emilia
needs Rita again. Emilia wants
to make amends for the suffer-
ing she caused in her old life;
she also longs to reconnect with
her family. And she yearns for
companionship too. She meets
a woman whose scrappy spirit
MOVIES △ matches her own, Epifanía (a
Saldaña as Rita radiant Adriana Paz), though
An exuberant ode to and Gascón that relationship also comes
human possibility as Emilia, two
women seeking
with its own complications.
BY STEPHANIE ZACHAREK fulfillment in AudiArd orchestrAtes
their own ways this craziness with the assur-
Very rarely dees The righT meVie arriVe aT ance of an ace conductor. The
precisely the right time, at a moment when com- musical numbers are exuber-
passion is in short supply and the collective human ant without being overly pol-
imagination has come to feel shrunken and desic- ished. This isn’t a movie about
cated. Jacques Audiard’s operatic musical Emilia showing off how much money
Pérez is the story of a disillusioned lawyer working a studio spent but about how
in Mexico, Zoe Saldaña’s Rita, who gets a mysteri- willing an artist is to go for
ous phone call and is whisked, blindfolded, to a se- broke. And it’s fantastic to see
cret location. There, the gruff leader of a drug car- Saldaña sing and dance in a
tel, Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, outlines a delicate vehicle worthy of her. Rita is
but lucrative mission. Manitas wants to transition complex: she has principles,
to living as a woman and wants Rita to arrange the but she’s motivated by money.
surgery and subsequent disappearance. Rita pulls Saldaña makes those dimen-
it off: In a few years, Manitas re-emerges as the per- sions feel believable and real.
son she always knew she needed to be. She is now It’s kismet that she found
Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofía Gascón plays both roles), her way into a Jacques Audiard
free to live as she chooses. Rita thinks her mission is movie. There’s no easy way to
over, though it’s just beginning. categorize his career, but many
In fiction, as in real life, it’s easy to view a dream of his films, from melodrama
fulfilled as a happy ending. But after Emilia gets Rust and Bone to gritty ro-
what she wants, she asks, Now what? Emilia Pérez Emilia Pérez is mance The Beat That My Heart
is a story not about personal fulfillment but about Skipped and certainly Emilia
personal responsibility, and what happens after a radical act of Pérez, are about people who
you become the person you were destined to be. the imagination dream of becoming something
If you set a Douglas Sirk movie in modern Mexico, else. In Gascón, he’s discov-
and added singing and dancing, you might come up with kindness ered a great star to bring his
with something like Emilia Pérez. Audiard drew the in its heart ideas to life. The Spanish actor,
now 52, transitioned at 46, and MOVIES
spent the bulk of her career in
Mexican telenovelas. In Emilia
Maria strives, and fails, to
Pérez, she’s incandescent. Her capture the spirit of a diva
performance is bold, assertive,
but also blazingly tender. She You don’t have to love opera to that qualifies as real feeling. That’s
has a knack for putting us in love Maria Callas. Her voice reflected not to say Larraín doesn’t feel for his
touch with big emotions, no all the colors of paradise, before Adam subjects; it’s just that he can’t trans-
matter how much we want to and Eve were kicked out. Her beauty late those feelings into anything but
push them away. was halfway between mythical and tasteful, mannered kitsch. His alleg-
As it turns out, roughly mischievous, as if she’d been drawn edly sympathetic psychoportraits are
half the country is now work- by the gods’ caricaturist-in-chief. No the movie equivalent of Madame Al-
ing through some big emo- wonder Pablo Larraín wanted to add exander dolls lined up on a dresser:
tions they’d rather not feel. her to his gallery of troubled ladies, extremely pretty, but not made for
In the 1990s, in the more lib- which includes Jacqueline Kennedy touching. Yes, these are intentionally
eral corners of the U.S., you Onassis (2016’s Jackie) and Princess stylized exercises, but their fussiness
couldn’t pass three Honda Ac- Diana (2021’s Spencer). is exhausting. There’s much to admire
cords without seeing a “Prac- In Maria, Angelina Jolie plays La in Maria, if admiration is what floats
tice Random Acts of Kind- Diva Callas in her final days, in 1977 your boat. Jolie trained, with great
ness” bumper sticker. Even Paris. Like a gothic ghost, she glides dedication, so she could do her own
those who cherished liberal through her gilt-and-brocade apart- singing. The film is gorgeous; Cal-
ideals would roll their eyes. ment in fairy-tale dressing gowns, eat- las had killer clothes and wore them
Like many bromides, it could ing nothing but popping sedatives. beautifully—Maria gets that right.
mean different things: a white- Jolie’s Maria mourns the presence she Larraín does his movie no favors by
supremacist granny who bakes used to be. Every gesture Jolie makes using footage of the real Callas in the
for a bereaved neighbor might is tragic and quivering, rendering the closing credits: to see her laughing as
think she’s in compliance. great artist’s final days with a self- she sang, with her whole being, is to
But boy, has the world conscious sheen that has nothing to get a jolt of all the vitality Maria has
changed since Emilia Pérez do with the inherent grandness, or failed to capture. Callas, only 53 when
premiered at the Cannes Film sadness, of Callas’ life. It’s not Jolie’s she died, was bigger than life. Maria
Festival in May. After I saw fault: Maria is made with great re- may burnish her legend. But it also
it there, while most people I spect, almost adulation, but very little snuffs out her spark. —S.Z.
knew derived at least some
pleasure from it, I spoke to
two who despised it, claiming
it didn’t represent the expe-
riences of trans individuals.
Though it’s impossible for a
movie to reflect a nonmono-
lithic group, lived experience
certainly counts for something
when we talk about art. No
one has to like anything. But
the very existence of Emilia
Pérez means something dif-
ferent now than it did in May.
E M I L I A P É R E Z : N E T F L I X ; M A R I A : PA B L O L A R R A Í N — N E T F L I X
Now that trans rights are even

more imperiled, a movie that
instead of pleading for accep-
tance treats it as a given, feels
more fierce and glorious, a rad-
ical act of the imagination with
kindness in its heart. Audiard’s
film is a challenge to find the
beginning after the end. It’s
not about trans possibility, but
human possibility. Because
they’re one and the same. □ Jolie looks the part of Callas, but the soprano’s spark is absent
77
TIME OFF REVIEWS
TELEVISION
A timely thriller for

a mad, mad world
BY JUDY BERMAN
muncie Daniels is jusT Trying To make his

voice heard over the cacophony that passes for public
discourse. An ambitious CNN commentator, the pro-
tagonist of the conspiracy thriller series The Madness
(now streaming on Netflix) has been neglecting his
personal life and losing sight of his progressive val-
ues. But his careerism can’t prevent Muncie, played
by the versatile Emmy winner Colman Domingo,
from getting dragged into a war between the far right
and the radical left, edgelord billionaires and misfits
living communally at society’s fringes. In fact, that
war threatens to annihilate everything he’s achieved.
It’s a timely premise, following an election that
empowered one extreme, alienated the other, and
left us with an even more chaotic public square than
we had before. Creator Stephen Belber (Tommy)
and his co-showrunner, VJ Boyd (Justified), channel
our collective exhaustion with the discourse into a △
’70s-style paranoid thriller grounded in the parti- Muncie estranged widow (Tamsin Topolski),
san polarization of today. The Madness can traffic in (Domingo) an FBI agent with an agenda of his own
false equivalences—a pitfall of political fiction that is caught in (John Ortiz)—he can actually trust.
values moderation as an end in itself. And the show the media It’s at once a terrifying situation and a
sometimes gets goofy in depicting the factions’ per- maelstrom he chance to finally develop an apprecia-
sonalities and peccadilloes. Still, it mostly succeeds, once controlled tion for his loyal friends and family.
on the strength of Domingo’s performance, Mun- Conveyed by Domingo with subtlety
cie’s complexity, and, above all, the visceral sense of and intelligence, this level of detail
contemporary chaos and futility it channels. makes Muncie the rare richly drawn
Muncie is hoping to get away from it all when he hero in a genre that tends to privilege
rents a cabin in the Poconos to work on his novel. plot over character.
What he’s escaping includes an ex (Marsha Stepha-
A ’70s-style Less convincing, at times, are the
nie Blake) he still loves, the couple’s resentful teen- paranoid details of the world-gone-mad he
age son (Thaddeus J. Mixson), an adult daughter thriller inhabits. In its quest to frame both
(Gabrielle Graham) he has neglected, a colleague ends of the political spectrum as un-
who all but calls him a sellout on national TV, and, grounded in hinged, the show occasionally verges
deeper in his consciousness, unresolved angst sur- the partisan on cartoonish. Is it not enough to have
rounding his father, who let otherwise laudable polarization Muncie visit a militant antifa “gun
ideals lead him into violence. Instead of penning commune”—does the guy he’s look-
a best seller, Muncie finds he’s being framed for a of today ing for there have to frequent swinger
local white supremacist’s murder, which he hap- bars too? Yet The Madness resonates,
pens to have been the only person to witness. thanks largely to its atmosphere of
panic, fueled by anxiety that Muncie
A pundit who trAded strong convictions for a is a pawn of nefarious individuals with
mainstream platform and his family’s stability for the wealth to bend society to their will
personal success, Muncie suddenly becomes a fugi- and underscored by inventive action
tive shouldering the weight of everything he worked sequences. Now that so many politi-
A M A N D A M AT L O V I C H — N E T F L I X
to transcend, from systemic racism to the sins of his cal thrillers, from Citadel to Hijack,
father, while facing dark forces far more powerful go out of their way to avoid political
than a few neo-Nazis. Once a ringmaster of the media fault lines for fear of offending any
circus, he’s now the caged lion. And he has to discern potential viewer, it’s a relief to have a
which of the few allies who believe he’s innocent— show that at least acknowledges how
a fringe media personality (Bri Neal), the victim’s very frantic the vibes have become. □
Purina trademarks are owned by Société des Produits Nestlé S.A.
Cat adored.
Chef inspired.
LOVE IS IN THE DETAILS
®
FancyFeast.com
8 QUESTIONS
Charles Yu The author of Interior Chinatown on

adapting the novel for a Hulu series, the rise of AI,
and the importance of empathy
Interior Chinatown was published soften and scuff it up. He’s looking
in early 2020. How did everything for both visual and emotional nu-
that’s happened since impact how What was ance: less polished but more human.
you wrote the TV adaptation? We the biggest
started a writers room over Zoom in In 2020, you wrote an essay for
2022, and it was really on our minds challenge in TIME about the lack of Asian
how the world in which we’d all see
each other again would be so differ-
adapting your American representation on TV.
Has anything changed? There has
ent: on the heels of George Floyd, novel to screen? been noticeable progress, at least
Jan. 6, the wave of anti-Asian sen- from a Hollywood perspective, in
timent. On one level, the novel is the variety and specificity of stories
about how Asians are invisible in the being told. The question is, what do
American public imagination, which we do with doors that are now open,
felt more relevant than ever. But that weren’t for a long time?
I also felt like it could be about so
much more, and that it needed to be. Amid Donald Trump’s re-election,
what do you make of the growing
The show follows Willis, a waiter backlash against diversity and in-
who longs to become the main clusion efforts? It is important to
character of his own story. What hear a diversity of voices. But I feel
advice do you have for anyone on a like what I don’t hear in the conver-
similar journey? Don’t be afraid of sation is empathy, and I include that
looking dumb. I’m 48, and it wasn’t from my side. Nobody likes to be
until I became a dad and very cringey told that something is important for
that I realized that is something I its own sake. Now, it’s not some com-
wish I had been willing to do when plicated conversation. You can grow
I was 28. I was terrified at work: of up not reading anything about Na-
getting up and talking in front of tive Americans, Black Americans, or
even five people. So it sounds like Asian Americans—and that’s a huge
such a platitude, but if you’re gonna problem because it’s not reality. The
break out of your role, it starts with point of asking people to read mar-
you believing you can. ginalized narratives is so they’ll see
the human stories of the people tell-
How did writing on HBO’s West- ing them. But that has to go both
world shape Interior Chinatown? It ways. It’s important for all of us to
inspired the idea of seeing the edge not devalue the perspective of peo-
of the set: The story and then the ple who have different value systems.
people behind the story. In the West-
world theme park, there are all these Having dealt with AI on West-
robots, and you may never encounter world, what do you make of its re-
most of them. Their existence kind cent real-world advancements?
of spun me out. What if you’re just It’s weird to have worked on some-
a robot who’s off in some dusty side thing less than 10 years ago and see
A R AYA D O H E N Y— VA R I E T Y/G E T T Y I M A G E S
quest, and nobody does your side that it’s not so sci-fi. I totally believe
quest? What is your life like? an AI could write a better rom-com
or buddy comedy than I could. But
What did you learn from Taika there’s people who have something
Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), who it’ll be harder to capture, and there’s
served as an EP and directed the something magical about that. I don’t
pilot? He can take a script and loosen think there’s an AI Taika Waititi, for
up the connective tissue, to both instance. —ANDREW R. CHOW
80 TIME December 9, 2024

TIME USA - December 9 2024 Freemagazines Top

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

TIME USA - December 9 2024 Freemagazines Top

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

TIME USA - December 9 2024 Freemagazines Top

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

society, and for the future. & Mobility

1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s

Imported by Laurent-Perrier US - www.laurent-perrier.com

Looking for a cover?

To order specific copies

4 Time December 9, 2024

Grand Siècle seeks a perfection beyond single vintages, with

Because of our difference, it has taken us more time, effort,

It takes time to become an icon

A U.S. retreat won’t stop

PHOTOGR APH BY PETER DEJONG 7

Only available in selected Swatch Stores

Trump’s deportation plans promise the return of workplace raids

SPACE an email with the video attached—an

Natural light—which you can replicate with full-spectrum light bulbs—

Totten recommends surrounding yourself with scents that trigger positive

Smashing Glass Ceilings –

“Every year I watch the TIME Dealer of the Year pre-

“Our industry has a strong tradition of giving

With so many outstanding and service-oriented

The winner receives grant money from Ally Finan-

“No other recognition comes close,” Rita notes. “To

To learn more about the TIME Dealer of the Year

Erick Anderson Wanda Howell Cathy Stender

The race to reform a

Dhaka looks reborc afTer a fresh lick of paicT,

Portland The Dalles

Photograph by Noel Celis—AP

STUDY SHOWS ABBREVIATIONS THE RIGHT WAY TO BE TURKEY’S ERDOGAN TAKES

Many intelligent, well-meaning

DATING to disclose everything on the first

The D.C. Brief

INSIDE DONALD TRUMP’S ORBIT, Enterprise Institute event about the

outgoing Senate Republican leader made clear that playing understudy

TECHNOLOGY ways exists online and where technol-

cide to give up their maiden names. decision to

2. INSTANT ACCESS TO DIGITAL MAGAZINES

3. DISCOUNT AT THE TIME COVER STORE & MORE

THE RISK REPORT BY IAN BREMMER

ILLUSTRATION BY MARK HARRIS FOR TIME 37

Musk’s aerospace company dazzled the world by catching a

crashes. In June, regulators in California ordered

in ancient Greek, the word

PHOTOGR APH BY JASMINE ARCHIE FOR TIME

An activist cries during a debate among lawmakers on a controversial bill seeking

62 Time December 9, 2024

66 Time December 9, 2024

Jewelry that says

When Two Hearts Join

AFFORD THE EXTRAORDINARY®

Luca Guadagnino directs

BROADCASTING THE ANGELINA JOLIE TAKES CHARLES YU BRINGS CHINATOWN

PHOTOGR APH BY YANNIS DR AKOULIDIS 71

he ifage onscreen appears jusT as iT did

T in a 17-year-old Luca Guadagnino’s mind: as an

On SepT. 5, 1972, a 32-year-Old prOdecer named

screenplay from an opera li-

Now that trans rights are even

A timely thriller for