Olivia: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS; Alanis: y Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc
They both started out as child actors, and became famous by releasing angry, brutally honest and super-successful albums at a young age. So it’s no wonder that Rolling Stone tappedAlanis Morissette and Olivia Rodrigo for its latest Musicians on Musicians conversation.
“I love how you’re so honest and talk about stuff that normally isn’t talked about in songwriting,” Olivia tells Alanis early in the conversation — to which Alanis replies, “Well, you’re doing the same.” Olivia also reveals that hearing Alanis’ iconic album Jagged Little Pill at age 13 was mind-blowing for her.
Olivia and Alanis then compare notes on their similar experiences.
“How did you handle it when your album came out? Did you have any hard times dealing with criticism or the spotlight?” asks Olivia.
“There was a lot of bullying and a lot of jealousy and a lot of people whom I’d adored my whole life being mean girls,” says Alanis, to which Olivia replies, “Same!”
Olivia also asks Alanis, “Did you have a hard time with your relationship being pulled apart and poked and prodded and wanting details of your personal life that you don’t feel comfortable giving?”
Alanis replies, “Yeah. When I write songs, I’m not writing them to ruin someone’s life. If I were doing that, I’d probably give names and addresses. None of these songs are written to eviscerate someone or seek overt revenge, although I think revenge fantasy is awesome.”
The conversation ends with Olivia asking Alanis for advice.
“If I could have done anything differently, I would have had a few more friends around me, period,” the Canadian star responds. “Just a little bit more emotional support…a few really deeply loving, unconditionally caring people around me to just check in with me…Let’s make sure you have that.”
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released sweeping new guidance for the food industry to voluntarily reduce sodium in processed, packaged and prepared foods in an attempt to reduce Americans’ consumption.
“The FDA is issuing a final guidance, ‘Voluntary Sodium Reduction Goals: Target Mean and Upper Bound Concentrations for Sodium in Commercially Processed, Packaged, and Prepared Foods,’ which provides voluntary short-term sodium reduction targets for food manufacturers, chain restaurants and foodservice operators for 163 categories of processed, packaged and prepared foods,” the agency announced.
Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock lauded the new sodium reduction guidance in a press conference Wednesday morning. She said it is a “critical step” in improving Americans’ nutrition, reducing the burden of diet-related chronic diseases and advancing health equity, predicting the effort would “become one of the most significant public health nutrition interventions in a generation.”
The guidance is intended to provide measurable voluntary short-term goals over the next two and a half years to reduce excess sodium intake, while recognizing and supporting the important roles sodium plays in food technology and food safety.
ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said the news from Woodcock and Susan T. Mayne, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, is “really targeting the food industry.”
The current salt intake recommendation of 3,000 milligrams per day is now set to a goal of 2,300 milligrams a day over the next two and a half years.
“Right now, it is clear that diet is a major contributing factor to not only our obesity, but high blood pressure, which, of course, then increases the risk for heart attack [and] strokes,” Ashton said.
Woodcock voiced hope that this voluntary guidance that targets the food industry itself — rather than leaving the onus on individuals — will help level the playing field for Americans who may not be well-equipped to police their nutrition alone, especially with sparse healthy food options in food deserts and due to some healthier food options being cost-prohibitive for lower-income families.
“The problem is so cumulative — it’s the tomato sauce, the cheese, the bread, the salad dressing, and pretty soon your whole meal has hidden salt in it. And it’s really hard right now for people to manage that on their own,” Woodcock said. “Most of the salt in the diet, the sodium in the diet, it comes from processed or packaged or prepared foods — not from the saltshaker.”
“Sodium is widely present in the American diet (most commonly, but not exclusively, as a result of eating or drinking foods to which sodium chloride, commonly referred to as “salt,” has been added),” according to the FDA. “More than 70% of total sodium intake is from sodium added during food manufacturing and commercial food preparation.”
During the same press conference, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra underscored Woodcock’s point that neglecting to address sodium consumption would carry high human and economic costs. He added that the COVID pandemic has shown the importance of taking better care of one’s health.
“The pandemic has graphically illustrated why today’s announcement is so important and why it’s so important that we take care of our health,” Becerra said, adding the consequences of Americans’ sky-high sodium intake could be “catastrophic personally and for the country.”
Mayne said that this issue impacts all age groups with “more than 95% of children age two to 13 who exceed recommended sodium limits for their age groups — even baby food — which carries long-term ramifications for children’s health and development,” she said.
But being that this is voluntary, truly capping sodium intake effectively will require a groundswell of both industry cooperation and consumer demand to help drive the initiative.
When asked whether there would need to be more teeth behind such policy, Woodcock said the government would monitor the impact of this current guidance over time, pointing to the importance of public support.
“If we don’t see success, then we’re going to have to evaluate what else we should do,” Woodcock said, without ruling out the idea of further, more stringent future measures.
“We have a plan to monitor and then to ratchet it further down, and what we learn over the next several years will tell us what magnitude of steps we can take,” Woodcock said. She acknowledged that “this change won’t happen overnight” and will require “an iterative approach that supports gradual reduction in sodium levels, broadly across the food supply, over time.”
Moments after William Shatner touched down to Earth after becoming the oldest human being to ever travel to space, he was overwhelmed.
Shatner recounted his feelings to Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos about what he’d seen, and what he was feeling, particularly the “fragility” of our planet’s blue sky.
“You shoot through it all of a sudden, as if you whip…a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness,” the Star Trek star recalled, clearly overcome.
Continuing to try to explain the experience, he said, “You look down and there’s the blue down there and the black up there…[Down] there is Mother Earth and comfort, and [up] there is death? I don’t know, is that death? Is that the way death is? Whup! and it’s gone? Jesus.”
Shatner wiped away tears while he kept on speaking with Bezos, as crew members scurried around the New Shepard capsule that the actor had just exited.
“What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine. It’s so filled with emotion about what just happened. I just it’s extraordinary, extraordinary,” Shatner said to Bezos.
“I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it,” Shatner added, before the two men embraced.
Bezos called Shatner’s words “beautiful.”
The Star Trek actor, famous for playing Starship Enterprise Captain James T. Kirk, blasted off into space at 10:50 a.m. Eastern time, along with microbiologist Glen de Vries, Planet Labs founder Chris Boshuizen and Blue Origin’s Audrey Powers.
Minutes after their launch, their capsule landed flawlessly on the Texas desert.
(NEW YORK) — Actor William Shatner was overcome with emotion after his “unbelievable” 10-minute trip to space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard.
“Everybody in the world needs to do this,” Shatner told Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos after he touched down in Texas Wednesday.
“To see the blue color rip by — now you’re staring into blackness,” Shatner said, who, at the age of 90, is now the oldest person ever to go to space. “It was so moving. This experience has been something unbelievable.”
“What you have given me is the most profound experience,” the “Star Trek” star said to Bezos.
“I am so filled with emotion. It was extraordinary,” he said. “I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it. It’s so — so much larger than me and life.”
Shatner also told Bezos, “It would be so important for everybody to have that experience through one means or another. I mean maybe you can put it on 3D and wear the goggles.”
Shatner joined Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations and a former NASA flight controller and engineer; Chris Boshuizen, the co-founder of satellite company Planet Labs and a former space mission architect for NASA; and Glen de Vries, the co-founder of Medidata Solutions, a life science company.
This was Blue Origin’s second crewed mission to space.
(FORT HOOD, Texas) — A Fort Hood soldier assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division was found dead Saturday behind his barracks over the weekend, according to military officials.
Officials have not released the victim’s ID or the cause of death.
“More details will be released once all next of kin have been notified. The incident is under investigation,” Fort Hood officials said in a press release.
Fort Hood officials did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
There have been multiple incidents at the Texas base this year.
Last week, there were concerns for Pfc. Jennifer Sewell, who was believed to be missing after she failed to report for duty on Oct. 7. Fort Hood officials said in an update Sunday that “Sewell’s family confirmed she is safe and with extended family.” She returned to the base Monday.
Fort Hood is the same Army base where Vanessa Guillen was murdered in April 2020, in a case that engrossed the nation.
Guillen, 20, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in an arms room on April 22, 2020, authorities said. She was missing for months until some of her remains were found buried along the Leon River in June 2020.
Her suspected killer was fellow soldier Spc. Aaron Robinson, who took his own life when confronted by police after her remains were discovered, authorities said at the time.
Her death cast a harsh spotlight on the base and its culture, particularly for its handling of sexual assault and harassment, as she told her family that she had been harassed at the base. A long-awaited U.S. Army investigation released in April determined she had been sexually harassed by a supervisor, but the incidents of harassment were not related to her murder.
In December 2020, the Army announced 14 senior leaders and enlisted personnel at Fort Hood were fired or suspended following an independent panel’s review of the command climate and culture at the base.
Last week, the base unveiled the People First Center, a training center for support and resources for victims of sexual assault or those experiencing suicidal thoughts.
Before The Amazing Race was sidelined because of the COVID-19 pandemic,Phil Keoghan logged some 200,000 miles a year as the host of the show.
But with William Shatner‘s historic blast-off this morning, ABC Audio asked the multiple Emmy winner if he’d follow in Shatner’s footsteps for a new kind of travel.
“Like, in a heartbeat,” Keoghan said. “I was like, ‘Man, I wish I could be there!'”
Keoghan then noted that he “could see a future season of Amazing Race” featuring contestants making a similar journey. Imitating himself as the show’s narrator, he added, laughing, “Teams must now make their way into space…with William Shatner at the helm!”
The host said of the historic trip, “I’m really happy for him. What a full circle, right?… [He] starts off pretending to go to space and then ends, you know, he’s 90 years old, and he really does go to space! Captain Kirk, beam me up!”
Keoghan’s new hit series, Tough as Nails, is now in its third season, and airs tonight on CBS. The show, which highlights the hard work of everyday heroes, is running as the U.S. is facing a supply crisis, due in part to a lack of such people Keoghan calls the “backbone” of the country.
“Yes, you’re absolutely right,” he says of the serendipitous timing of the new season.
The show excels at “opening people’s eyes up…[pulling] back the curtain a wee bit…to see some of the things that maybe we take for granted,” Keoghan explains.
He adds, “And this is the time to acknowledge those people who have helped us get through the pandemic and who make the country function, quite frankly, because without them, things would just stop functioning.”
How’s Tai Verdes doing? “A-O-K,” thank you very much. He’s just hit number one on Billboard‘s Emerging Artists chart.
The Emerging Artists chart measures how artists are doing across all Billboard charts, but you can only be on it if you still haven’t hit the top 25 on either the Billboard Top 200 album chart or the Hot 100 singles chart. So out of all the artists out there who haven’t quite reached those heights, Tai is currently doing the best.
The multi-genre appeal of “A-O-K” is the key to Tai’s chart success: It’s currently #34 on the Hot 100, number five on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, #20 on Alternative Airplay, #12 on Pop Airplay and #27 on Adult Pop Airplay.
Prior to “A-O-K,” which is from Tai’s debut album TV, he’d previously had some success with his viral TikTok hits “Stuck in the Middle” and “Drugs.” He’ll wrap up his first headlining tour next month in New York City.
Boosie Badazz was arrested Monday in Atlanta on multiple charges stemming from an on stage brawl at a concert in the city on October 1.
The “Wipe Me Down” rapper, whose birth name is Terrence Hatch, was charged with second-degree criminal damage to property, inciting a riot, disorderly conduct property and criminal trespass, as reported by Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV.
On the second night of the “Legendz of the Streetz” tour, headlined by Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Jeezy and Gucci Mane,police were called to the State Farm Arena in A-T-L around 12:40 a.m. to investigate a report of vandalism at the facility. Officers were told that a man, identified as Hatch, and several of his associates, ran onto the stage during the show, damaged several items, then destroyed more arena property when they were escorted from the stage.
Hatch was booked into the Fulton County Jail late Monday and was released Tuesday on bail. He was previously arrested in Atlanta in 2019 on drug and gun possession charges.
As previously reported, Badazz was kicked off the tour following the incident in Atlanta.
Longtime behind-the-scenes hitmaker Shy Carter has recently been stepping out into the spotlight as an artist with songs like the R&B-flavored “Good Love” and “Beer with My Friends,” a country banger collab with Cole Swindell and David Lee Murphy.
Now, Shy’s following those releases with a bigger project. This week, he announced his debut EP, The Rest of Us, arriving later this month.
The eight-song collection includes “Good Love” and “Beer With My Friends,” plus six as-yet-unheard new tracks, all of which Shy co-wrote. Each of the tracks has a personal connection to his life, the singer explains.
“The title track in particular is really important to me. It’s about how some people seem to have their lives in order and everything seems to be going well for them, and then there’s the rest of us,” Shy explains. “There’s the people who struggle, who have pain, who have messed up and have made it this far only by the awesome grace of God. I am one of the rest of us, and I’m so grateful for everything I’ve been through — because now it can all be used to make this amazing music.”
Death Cab for Cutie has announced a deluxe reissue of the band’s 2001 release The Photo Album in honor of its 20th anniversary.
The expanded collection is set to be released digitally on October 29. Its 35 tracks include the original album, the 2002 EP The Stability, and various previously unreleased demos, live recordings, acoustic versions and outtakes.
You can listen to the demo version of the song “Coney Island” now via digital outlets.
A vinyl version of the reissue, set to arrive by next spring, is available for pre-order now via Death Cab’s web store.
The Photo Album, Death Cab’s third studio effort, would end up marking the end of the band’s early era before they broke out with 2003’s Transatlanticism and 2005’s Plans. The record notably includes the single “A Movie Script Ending,” which would introduce many listeners to Death Cab thanks to its placement in The O.C. TV series.
