Author: Jawdah Hannad Basara

These days, there’s something subtly heartbreaking about seeing Brendan Fraser enter a room. It’s not his appearance, but rather the length of time it took for the room to notice him once more. In the summer of 2022, when A24 unveiled the first picture of Fraser in Darren Aronofsky’s film The Whale, people’s jaws dropped online. Almost instantly, a legitimate question emerged. Was it something else entirely, or did Brendan Fraser really put on weight for The Whale? The truthful response lies in the middle of the two. In real life, Fraser gained about 25 pounds, according to most accounts,…

The picture of a man who makes his living by making other people laugh sitting by himself during a pandemic, eating roast potatoes, and attempting to feel less empty has a subtly depressing quality. When discussing his weight gain in recent years, Matt Lucas has essentially said that, though he has never put it quite like that. For that, he is too self-deprecating. Too humorous. However, the serious story that lies beneath the jokes has been sitting there for years, mostly unexplored. Years before the Bake Off brought new attention to his body, Lucas first discussed the emotional causes of…

Erin Krakow wore pinned skirts and tight corsets on When Calls the Heart for twelve seasons. It was almost a hallmark of her outfit. People started asking questions online when they noticed that Elizabeth Thornton’s silhouette had changed in recent episodes—looser blouses, softer waistlines, and wardrobe choices that seemed a little out of character. Some people were courteous about it. Some were direct. With the casual indifference that the internet usually offers, the question “Did she gain weight?” appeared in Reddit threads and fan forums. As it happened, the response was much happier than the conjecture implied. Erin Krakow was…

Recently, Rachael Ray shared a basic cooking video. She was demonstrating to her fans how to season fish with their palms, the kind of informal, useful advice that helped establish her reputation on television over the course of two decades. The caption was kind, supportive, and almost maternal. However, in a matter of hours, the majority of the remarks were unrelated to the fish. “I didn’t even recognize her.” “Is that Rachael Ray?” “Holy crap, I had to read the name.” The responses arrived quickly and loudly. After years of highly visible living, what began as a cooking reel almost…

The way that discussions about Olivia Cooke have changed in the weeks leading up to the third season of House of the Dragon is unsettling. With great anticipation, the show itself—HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel—returned on June 22nd, promising a full-scale conflict, greater emotional stakes, and the kind of dragon-fueled spectacle that the previous season had allegedly restrained. Nevertheless, something more repulsive has been coexisting with the excitement. For Season 3, Cooke, who portrays Queen Alicent Hightower, hasn’t put on much weight. It’s important to make that clear because fan commentary that wasn’t really about her performance in the first…

For the past few years, Nelly Furtado, the Canadian singer who released “I’m Like a Bird” in the early 2000s and later completely changed her identity with “Promiscuous,” has had to deal with that cruelty in a highly visible manner. The internet hasn’t been subtle about it. However, the narrative that people continue to tell about her body isn’t entirely accurate. Furtado is currently 47 years old, a mother of three, and it’s clear why her body doesn’t look like it did when she first started her career. She has talked candidly about being diagnosed with ADHD after having her…

The way professional tennis conceals its negative effects on players has a certain quality. The rankings, match statistics, and highlight reels don’t convey what goes on behind the scenes when a body begins to indicate that something is amiss. Early in 2026, Emma Navarro discovered this the hard way when her underactive thyroid subtly destroyed months of work and prevented her from participating in a tour that she had just recently mastered. Navarro had gotten up fast. She was ranked eighth in the world by 2024 thanks to a combination of above-average fitness, a workmanlike consistency that felt almost stubborn…

In a busy restaurant, requesting a table for one carries a certain amount of awkwardness. The host occasionally pauses briefly before grabbing a single menu item after looking up and glancing behind you. It’s not long. Most people are likely unaware of it. However, if you’ve ever eaten by yourself in public, you are aware that there is a pause. It’s interesting how many people are passing it in silence. OpenTable reservations for lone dining have increased by 64% since 2019. Millions of people have watched TikTok videos with the hashtag #SoloDate because they appear to be genuinely happy—not acting…

The scene at a Tuesday afternoon bone broth bar in East London has an almost surreal quality. People are standing at a counter, sipping silently from ceramic cups without using their phones or having loud conversations. There was only warmth, and the room was moving slowly and purposefully. Three thousand years ago, it wouldn’t have seemed out of place. Maybe that’s the point. There is a clear change taking place in the US, the UK, and most of Western Europe. Convenience food is becoming less popular—not grudgingly, but consciously. They are selecting their own fermented vegetables. They are eating during more…

I can’t stop thinking about this picture. It comes from a food lab outside of Singapore, where rows of tiny bioreactor tanks are silently producing what will eventually be referred to as a chicken breast. There is no animal involved. Not a farm. Only time, nutrients, and cells. It appears less like a kitchen and more like a pharmacy. However, by the end of this decade, a significant amount of the world’s protein may come from that source. There is actual pressure on the food system at the moment. Researchers, startups, and governments have come to the unusual conclusion that…