MacKenzie Scott has been one of the biggest names in philanthropy in 2025. The billionaire novelist, philanthropist, and ex-wife to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has donated hundreds of millions of dollars just in the past few months—but since 2020, she’s donated an eye-popping $19.25 billion.
Scott came to much of her fortune through her connection to Bezos. (They divorced in 2019.) During her marriage, she played a key role in Amazon’s founding and early operations, including helping with business plans and contracts. Upon their divorce, she received roughly a 4% stake in Amazon, which amounted to roughly 139 million shares at the time.
Since then, she’s reduced her stake by about 42%, selling or donating about 58 million shares, worth around $12.6 billion as of late 2025. She’s still worth more than $35 billion today, despite having donated $19.25 billion through her philanthropic platform Yield Giving, which she founded in 2022. The organization has donated to thousands of organizations, focused on issues including DEI, education, disaster recovery, and more.
Although Scott continues offloading Amazon shares, her wealth continues to grow. Year-to-date, she’s added $923 million to her net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Since November 2020, Amazon share prices have jumped more than 45%.
In 2020, Bezos made the largest charitable donation of the year, a $10 billion gift to launch the Bezos Earth Fund, aimed at addressing climate change. He’s also donated about $790 million to various environmental groups through the fund, $110 million through Day 1 Families Fund to support homeless families and $120 million to his tuition-free preschool network, Bezos Academy. Also, in 2024, he completed a $200 million pledge to Smithsonian for renovations and a new learning center.
But his lifetime giving amounts to just $4.1 billion, according to Forbes’ America’s Most Generous Philanthropists 2025 list published in April. Considering the man is worth $264 billion, that’s just 1.6% of his net worth, whereas Scott has given 36% of her net worth, according to Forbes.
To be sure, Forbes counts “lifetime giving” as money that has already been donated, and not funds that are just parked in a foundation for now. The list showed Scott is the fifth-most generous philanthropist, behind Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, George Soros, and Michael Bloomberg.
MacKenzie Scott’s major gifts this year
In a matter of months, Scott donated hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations focused on DEI, education, and disaster recovery. Just a sample of her largest recent gifts include:
MacKenzie Scott’s giving style
Scott’s philanthropic style is considered unique because she makes gifts unrestricted, meaning the organizations can choose how to use the donations.
“Unlike traditional funding processes that often involve lengthy applications, specific restrictions, and reporting requirements, her style empowers organizations like ours to determine how best to direct funds quickly and innovatively to address pressing issues,” Noni Ramos, CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley, toldFortune in late 2024, when her organization received a $30 million gift from Scott.
Scott has also been particularly focused on DEI, education, and disaster relief recently, three areas where the Trump administration has made major cuts. This could suggest Scott’s philanthropy is trying to fill the void from the White House.
She stands behind the idea Americans should “recognize and celebrate our role as active participants in the co-creation of our communities,” Scott wrote in an Oct. 15 post on her Yield Giving site.
“The potential of peaceful, non-transactional contribution has long been underestimated, often on the basis that it is not financially self-sustaining, or that some of its benefits are hard to track,” she wrote. But what if these imagined liabilities are actually assets? What if these so-called weaknesses foster the strengths upon which the thriving (or even survival) of our civilization depends?”
Becoming a guest judge on Top Chef is harder than you might have thought. Actress Brittany Snow was just on Watch What Happens Live, and she revealed that she was “begging” for the gig for ages. Thankfully, someone finally made her wish come true, but they really made her work for it!
Brittany Snow appeared on WWHL with Andy Cohen alongside Dakota Fanning
The November 6 episode of WWHL didn’t have any Bravolebrities, but they definitely had Bravo super fans. Brittany and Dakota Fanning were the guests, and they both understood the assignment.
“I’ve seen every single episode,” she told Andy. “I’ve been begging to get on the show for, like, 20 years, and they said no for a long time, and then they finally let me on.”
The dream finally came true during Season 21 Episode 7, “Sausage Race.” Brittany ventured to Wisconsin and got to sample a bunch of sausagey dishes. Sounds easy enough, and obviously has plenty of experience in front of the camera. However, said she almost froze up on the Top Chef set.
“The first time they came to me, and it was my time to shine and I actually had to say something, I got so nervous that I blacked out and I said, ‘I like that the meal is in sections,’” Brittany recalled. “And they said in my ear, ‘Brittany, do you want to take that again?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely!’”
She continued, “What you see in the show is not me saying, I like that it’s in sections, because that’s insane.”
Ultimately, the experience was a dream come true for Brittany, sections or not. She said getting to guest judge on Top Chef was “everything,” and surely, the sausage was good, too.
The Solutions Project has come out with a new video called ‘Building Home Future’ narrated by the actress America Ferrera, portraying the climate migration as an opportunity rather than a crisis for the sharing of resilience and innovation. The video says that climate change migrants carry the necessary know-how and solutions to the new communities which thus motivate the people to come together and act rather than be fearful and isolated due to environmental displacement. This is a very timely message as climate change migration is on its way to being a global phenomenon that no one can avoid.
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The video starts with a very simple, yet at the same time deep question: Where is home? It suggests that home is not just a location on a map but it is also a feeling of safety, love, and heritage. The video is narrated by Ferrera whose voice is full of warmth and reassurance and acknowledges the terrible living conditions that are leading people to move—extreme heat, fires, and the increase in the cost of living—however, at no point does the video give up on the narrative of hope. The video makes a bold statement: ‘Fear is the easy option, and it is a fear of what is beyond our control.’ ‘But to go there does not equal to the loss of us,’ states the video.
Brave is what the video actually portrays; it is a calling for bravery that is at the same time wise through the past and the victory over hardships. It builds a picture of mutual assistance in which the new neighbors are viewed as the main players in the resistance to climate change. The video gives examples of the with the talents and knowledge and skills that the migrants can bring: urban farming, solar energy jobs training, better city planning, and community buildings that encourage resilience. The main point of the discussion is that different life experiences are the ones that create a society that is stronger and more adaptable. ‘The knowledge regarding the possibilities in a future with a changing climate is greater with us, collectively,’ says Ferrera while narrating.
The text mission of the organization supports this claim and says, ‘It is easy to give in to fear and isolation in the middle of disaster, doubt, and climate crisis. But we cannot stop here. The fact is, we are absolutely dependent on each other.’
But, the comment section showed a very different, much more fragmented digital picture than the one suggested by the video. To the extent that while many users felt comfortable showing their support for the united actions, a big part of the conversation was directed to other international crises thereby bringing up the issue of how difficult it is to keep one’s focus on just one topic.
One user rather bluntly confronted the organization on its focus in Africa, saying, ‘We are still waiting for you to cover Nigeria or Sudan, right?’ This statement is an example of the situation where there is a demand for advocacy groups to be involved in all worst-off countries and at the same time the coalition’s challenges of working on all fronts are overlapping.
Another response was just aggressive and it said: ‘Why not go and ask the 50 plus Muslim countries that you support, what are they doing about climate change??? Oh wait, nothing!’ The response clearly shows that the climate debate is often interwoven with larger political and cultural conflicts which makes the search for agreement very difficult.
In the meantime, users who were sympathetic and shared their heartbreaking stories formed a different kind of thread of dialogue. One person even submitted a very touching and detailed request for help, saying that, because of their dire situation, they were about to be evicted and needed food for their family. ‘I swear by the one who raised the sky and spread the earth that there is not even a single day’s food inside our house… We are being threatened with eviction,’ were the words of this very unfiltered and private appeal for assistance just below the permission denial of a professionally produced advocacy video. This raw and direct reminder of human suffering—through which policy discussions, which are often abstract, try to engage with—was very powerfully illustrated by the video’s message of hope.
Among all this noise, a comment from Sweden brought the discussion back to the very point with a specific solution-oriented argument. The user mentioned, ‘Today the Swedish government took a decision allowing uranium mining. Undoubtedly, this will have a bad impact on the environment and climate… We are taking so many backward steps it is scary.’ The user not only pointed to a part of the world that is viewed as progressive but also highlighted that the struggle between protecting the environment and economic growth continues even in such regions.
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The video featuring America Ferrera could be interpreted as a hopeful and confident call for unity and shared responsibility. The claim that the combined strength of all of us is in the invitation of new people and new ideas is not only sufficiently made but also very convincingly so; at the same time, however, the chaotic and sometimes painful online responses the video received were also very powerful testimonies of its own. The paving
November has traditionally been one of the best months in which to buy S&P 500 stocks. Following a recent stock market pullback, today investors have a large number of attractive potential dip buys to consider.
Bank of America data shows that, since 1927, the S&P 500 has risen 59% of the time in November and by an average of 1%. According to LLP Financial, this monthly outperformance dates all the way back to 1950, with rises in 10 of the last 11 years.
Past performance isn’t always a reliable guide to future returns. And the US stock market hasn’t exactly got off to a flyer so far this November. However, strong earnings momentum in the tech sector, allied with optimism over thawing US-Chinese trade relations, suggest US share prices could spring higher again.
There are plenty of top S&P 500 shares that deserve close attention. Here’s why I’m considering semiconductor maker Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) for my own portfolio.
Shooting higher
Nvidia’s share price is up 36% so far in 2025, beating the broader S&P 500’s 14% rise. This takes gains over the last five years to a spectacular 1,192%.
Given its ability to continue smashing City sales forecasts, its market-beating performance is hardly a surprise — revenues leapt 56% in the second quarter, according to latest financials. Sales of its high-power graphics chips are sizzling as the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution boosts data centre demand.
That’s not all, though. Nvidia has also made exciting strategic progress to meet the enormous opportunity AI provides over the long term. Partnerships with blue-chip companies like Accenture, Microsoft, and Siemens to expand its Omniverse operating system mean its moving further from just selling graphic processing units (GPUs) towards enabling real-world operations like manufacturing, logistics, and industrial design.
In addition, production of the company’s next-generation chips is scaling rapidly. Chief executive Jason Huang has said production of Blackwell Ultra — which unlocks real-time reasoning and expands into agentic AI — “is ramping at full speed, and demand is extraordinary“.
Nvidia stock: a premium pick
While it’s still firing on all cylinders, there are some potential threats investors need to think about.
As I say, dialogue between the US and China on trade has improved in recent weeks. But things can change quickly, as we’ve seen, and a fresh deterioration could impact Nvidia’s shipments into China. Trade wars might create fresh supply chain issues that impact its chipmaking capabilities, too.
Fears over an ‘AI bubble’ also continue to circulate. And Nvidia’s high valuation is doing it no favours — the chipmaker trades on a huge forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 41.7 times.
But I believe Nvidia stock is worth a premium valuation like this. Despite the risk of a pullback, I think it’s a top US share to consider.
We were invited to Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s jazz night by our mutual friends, Rich and Nicole. I, the self-appointed queen of snacks, brought a plethora of goodies and drinks from my Sherman Oaks apartment. This was one of my very first forays back into the world post-COVID-19 vaccine, and I was mostly ready to mix and mingle again with the masses.
Nicole waved me over to the chairs up front, coveted seats that Alex had saved by getting there an hour early on the bus. I said “Hi” and extended my apologies for being late.
“Tho thsorry,” I sighed with a slight lisp from my new Invisaligns. (I would later learn Alex thought my orthodontia-induced speech impediment was pretty cute.) “I parked so far away I might as well be in the Valley.”
Alex chuckled.
I would soon learn that this die-hard Westsider had not owned a car since his 2001 Cadillac DeVille’s transmission blew up on the 5 Freeway four years ago. I passed out thimbles of sake I brought to share and noticed a woman sitting next to Alex. She was smiling at the group. I asked her if she’d like some too.
I thought Alex was pretty cute in his light maroon jacket — the kind that’s perfect for those May gray evenings — and one that highlighted his wispy blond hair. But I figured the smiling sake lady and he were together.
The next two hours were filled with chitchat in between sets: Nicole’s end-of-school-year frenzy, Rich’s musician thoughts about those sweet drum riffs and where we should all go to grab a bite after. The Grove or Canter’s? Alex and I were seated at opposite ends in our row. I passed down snacks and at some point noticed the woman who was sitting next to him was no longer there.
Maybe, that wasn’t his girlfriend. Could it be that he was unattached?
After the concert, we strolled on Fairfax Avenue. I learned that Alex was originally from Long Island, N.Y., and asked him to break out an accent like “The Sopranos.” He gave me a dutiful “fuhgeddaboudit.” As a Midwestern transplant, I found this hilarious. We stopped for ice cream at Wanderlust.
Conversation was easy. After all, we had each known Rich and Nicole for years. Somehow, though, Alex and I had never met at the Friendsgivings or birthday get-togethers. We would later recount the almosts and the maybes in our nearly 20 years in Los Angeles. At one point, he was staying at a motel just a five-minute walk from my first apartment near Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue.
Could we have run into each other at the nearby Ralphs? Maybe it was just not the right time — till now.
The next month, the four of us met up for another jazz club and wandered again to Wanderlust. A few weeks later, I got a text from Alex asking if we should keep jazz club going while Rich and Nicole were on their honeymoon.
This was my self-proclaimed, post-isolation year of yes, and I made a promise to myself to be more open by saying more yeses to things. I texted him back: Yes!
I was unsure if this was a date, but I packed my summer picnic bag full of yummy snacks and once again headed over the hill to Mid-Wilshire. When I got there, Alex had saved two seats, and I realized it would just be the two of us for two hours of jazz. I offered him a Trader Joe’s drink and reminded myself that I was in my 40s now and that it was OK to just be myself. With the background of those sweet drum riffs and a little liquid courage, Alex and I shared how we both ended up in L.A. Turns out we were both in search of a new life path — one that wasn’t already figured out for us back home.
After the concert, we headed toward our routine haunt but then opted to make a new memory at the Original Farmers Market, where we ordered a couple of coffees and doughnuts before Bob’s Coffee & Doughnuts closed.
As I swiveled on my diner stool, the butterflies started to grow.
We strolled back to my car, and I offered him a ride. He declined, but I couldn’t quite fathom how he was going to get home so late at night. (Two years later, I would opt in to Alex’s car-free lifestyle too.)
In my teacher-voice, I insisted.
He hopped in the car and extended the seat, his 6-foot-2 frame expanded like an accordion. I unabashedly asked him to hand me my night-driving glasses. He calmly said, “I don’t know where those are.”
I was so comfortable with him already that I forgot we didn’t really know each other yet. As I opened the glove compartment, our hands slightly brushed each other’s, and there was a moment of excitement. Per his request, I dropped him near La Cienega and Santa Monica boulevards. He would catch the No. 4 bus home, which runs all night on Santa Monica Boulevard, and I would take the Canyon over the hill back to my place.
We said our goodbyes as we watched a sedan make a left and get stuck in the middle of the median. Never a dull moment out west.
Our second date at the Getty summer concert yielded a third date at SoFi Stadium, where the Red Hot Chili Peppers sang our song: “Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a partner / sometimes I feel like my only friend is the city I live in, the City of Angels / Lonely as a I am, together we cry.”
As we kissed, I knew that this would be something special, a gift that only L.A. could offer.
The author lives with her boyfriend, Alex, on the Westside. They are car-free and still take the No. 4 bus to jazz club at the LACMA every summer.
L.A. Affairs chronicles the search for romantic love in all its glorious expressions in the L.A. area, and we want to hear your true story. We pay $400 for a published essay. Email LAAffairs@latimes.com. You can find submission guidelines here. You can find past columns here.
If you love classic bread pudding, you’ve got to try banana bread pudding. Sweet banana flavor, a soft custardy center, and golden edges that taste like heaven. It’s easy to throw together and is perfect for brunch or even dessert!
What Makes This Recipe a Keeper
Yummy Comfort: Each bite tastes like warm banana comfort. It’s a sweet, creamy, and flavorful new take on classic bread pudding!
Simple Ingredients! Made with basic pantry staples and ripe bananas, it’s an easy, budget-friendly dessert.
Versatile Treat: Delicious for brunch, dessert, or even an afternoon pick-me-up. Serve banana bread pudding warm, drizzled with caramel, or a scoop of ice cream!
Ingredients for Banana Bread Pudding
Bananas: The riper, the better. Let them get good and spotty for maximum sweetness, or speed it up by sealing them in a paper bag for a day or two.
Bread: French bread works best, but any white bread is fine. Great for using up rolls, loaves, or even stale buns. Sourdough adds extra flavor.
Topping: Optional, but a drizzle of caramel, lightly sweetened whipped cream, or creme anglaise takes it over the top.
How to Make Banana Bread Pudding
Okay, it’s time to bake up something sweet and comforting! Prep it ahead, pop it in the oven, and it’s the perfect addition to your holiday breakfast. Make my slow cooker breakfast casserole, and delicious bacon to go with it!
Toss Bread and Butter: Preheat the oven to 350ºF and spray a 2-quart baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. Add the diced bread to a large bowl and toss with the melted butter.
Mix Eggs and Sugar: Add the eggs and sugar to a medium bowl and beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for about 1 minute until it lightens in color.
Finish the Custard: Add the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and mashed bananas and mix until combined.
Toss Banana Slices with Bread: Add the sliced bananas to the bowl with the bread and toss to combine.
Cover the Bread with Custard: Pour the egg mixture over the bread, then use your hands to gently mix it until all the bread is soaked in the egg mixture.
Bake: Let this mixture sit for about 5 minutes before transferring it to the prepared baking dish. Rearrange the bread pieces as needed to evenly fill the dish. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the bread is golden brown and the edges of the pudding pull away slightly from the pan. Remove the banana bread pudding from the oven and let it cool for at least 10 minutes before serving with whipped cream, creme anglaise, or caramel sauce.
Alyssa’s Recipe Tip
Using Fresh Bread: If your bread is fresh, dry it out first. You can either leave it uncovered for a day or two, or bake the cubes at 300ºF for 15–20 minutes, stirring halfway through.
1loafdried bread, cut into 1 ½-inch piecesabout 1 loaf of French bread (11-12 cups)
3tablespoonsmelted unsalted butter
4largeeggs
1cupgranulated sugar
1 ½cupsmilk
2teaspoonsvanilla extract
1teaspoonground cinnamon
½teaspoonground nutmeg
¼teaspoonsalt
½cupmashed bananasabout 1 large banana
1 ½cupssliced bananasabout 2 ½ large bananas
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and spray a 2-quart baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
Add 1 loaf dried bread, cut into 1 ½-inch pieces to a large bowl and toss with 3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter.
Add 4 large eggs and 1 cup granulated sugar to a medium bowl and beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for about 1 minute until it lightens in color.
Add 1 ½ cups milk, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ½ cup mashed bananas and mix until combined.
Add 1 ½ cups sliced bananas to the bowl with the bread and toss to combine.
Pour the egg mixture over the bread and use your hands to gently mix it until all of the bread has been soaked in the eggs.
Let this mixture sit for about 5 minutes before transferring it to the prepared baking dish. Rearrange the pieces of bread as needed to evenly fill the dish.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the bread is golden brown and the edges of the pudding pull away slightly from the pan.
Remove the bread pudding from the oven and let it cool for at least 10 minutes before serving with whipped cream, creme anglaise, or caramel sauce.
Notes
Make Ahead, Storage, & Reheating Instructions
Make Ahead: Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 1 day before baking. Add 10–15 minutes to the bake time since it’ll be chilled.
Store: Keep leftovers covered or in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Freeze: Wrap tightly in plastic and foil, then freeze up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge for 1–2 days before baking.
Reheat: Warm single servings in the microwave in 30-second bursts, or heat the whole dish at 350ºF for 10–15 minutes until hot in the center.
As the new year approaches, the Recording Academy is preparing for music’s biggest night. Taking place on February 1, 2026, from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, the Grammy Awards will honor the industry’s best in pop, rap, rock and more! And fans can look forward to some of their favorite stars being recognized, from Sabrina Carpenter to Chappell Roan, and new artists such as sombr, Addison Rae and Katseye. The Academy unveiled its list of nominees on November 7, 2025, and Hollywood Life is updating you live with the complete rollout below.
Best New Artist
Olivia Dean Katseye The Marias Addison Rae sombr Leon Thomas Alex Warren Lola Young
Song of the Year
“Abracadabra” – Lady Gaga “Anxiety” – Doechii “APT.” – Rosé and Bruno Mars “DtMF” – Bad Bunny “Golden” – “KPop Demon Hunters” “luther” – Kendrick Lamar and SZA “Manchild” – Sabrina Carpenter “Wildflower” – Billie Eilish
Record of the Year
“DtMF” – Bad Bunny “Manchild” – Sabrina Carpenter “Anxiety” – Doechii “Wildflower” – Billie Eilish “Abracadabra” – Lady Gaga “luther” – Kendrick Lamar and SZA “The Subway” – Chappell Roan “APT.” – Rosé and Bruno Mars
Pop Vocal Album
“SWAG” – Justin Bieber “Man’s Best Friend” – Sabrina Carpenter “Something Beautiful” – Miley Cyrus “Mayhem” – Lady Gaga “I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2)” – Teddy Swims
Pop Solo Performance
Justin Bieber – “Daisies” Sabrina Carpenter – “Manchild” Lady Gaga – “Disease” Chappell Roan – “The Subway” Lola Young – “Messy”
British tourists travelling across Europe have been stranded by flight cancellations and delays due to adverse weather conditions. Vueling Airlines, Spain’s largest carrier, has cancelled 17 flights today and has been hit by 53 delays.
Nearly 50 flights to Barcelona were cancelled after a torrential downpour and flooding seized the Spanish city yesterday, The Local reported. A further 45 were delayed due to bad weather. Beyond Barcelona, other key cities were also affected, like Paris, Lyon, Valencia, Florence, Nice and Malaga. Terminals are overcrowded as passengers have been made to wait, Travel and Tour World reported.
It is expected that the last 24 hours of disruption will cause a ripple effect across the air travel network, impacting tens of thousands of travellers in Europe.
Rain continues to lash down across southern Europe with thunderstorms crashing over southern Italy and Sicily as well as steady rainfall over Spain and southern France.
Veuling’s cancellations come as their parent company International Airline Group (IAG) announced a 2% increase in earnings during their third quarter, making £1.8 billion, up from £1.77 billion a year ago, the Standard reports.
Despite recent disruption, IAG chief executive Luis Gallego says the European market for his company “is improving lately.”
IAG also owns British Airways, Aer Lingus and Iberia. Aer Lingus had two cancellations on flights to Dublin Airport yesterday. One British Airways flight from Barcelona to London Heathrow was cancelled yesterday, according to Flight Patrol.
Aer Lingus crew have announced more strike dates, a blow to travellers using Manchester Airport this month. Nearly 130 Unite members working for the airline will stage walkouts on November 9-11, November 14 and November 16-18.
British employees of the airline have called the action amid a dispute over pay and a smaller flight allowance than their Dublin based colleagues. Meanwhile, Aer Lingus recorded an operating profit of €205 million for 2024.
Before the premiere of Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus on Apple TV, viewers had only vague details about the show’s premise. Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) seems to be the only woman immune to a virus that has infected the world and made everyone oddly happy. We were told there would be a big twist in the first episode, while a series of creepy, often dialogue-free teasers leading up to the premiere left us scratching our heads.
Now that the first two episodes of the show — created by the man behind Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, who also wrote for The X-Files — have finally arrived, we have some clarity about what’s really going on. It’s exactly what we expected, nothing like what we expected, and so much more.
The Origins of the Weird, Apocalyptic-Like Situation in ‘Pluribus’
Apple TV
First, the big question on everyone’s minds for one of the most anticipated shows of 2025 is how this all started. Buckle up, because Gilligan’s experience in sci-fi really shines through here with an explanation that might leave you a little lost. It begins with astronomers who detect something mysterious drifting in space, repeating the same sequence every 78 seconds. Is it something bouncing off the moon? No, it can’t be that. It looks more like Morse code. It’s a pulse wave modulation, and it’s coming from 600 light-years away.
As they gather more experts to dive in, one discovers that while the pulses are of equal duration, they are split across four different frequencies. It’s not binary code, it’s quaternary. Could this be an alien lifeform trying to communicate? That would require megawatts, even gigawatts of data, and an antenna the size of Africa.
A light bulb goes off with one of the astronomers when he realizes what it is. Whatever it is, people are now working furiously in a lab to replicate it, and two scientists are working around the clock to make a groundbreaking discovery. One tells the security guard, before a shift in the wee hours of the morning, that they believe they have found a sequence that encodes a lysogenic virus. This is a type of virus that replicates the host’s DNA whenever the cell divides. They’ve been experimenting on all kinds of animals, but none have shown any clinical signs. So far, the study has been a failure.
But when the pair head to the lab in protective suits, ready to resume the research, they discover that one of the rats appears to be dead. The female scientist removes it from its cage and tries to feel for a heartbeat, but she can’t tell through her thick gloves. She removes the outer pair and is taken aback when she senses not just a heartbeat but a strong one from the rodent. The rat then bites her and breaks her skin. From there, despite her desperate attempts to wash it away, she’s infected.
Showing how quickly a virus — or a viral-type infection — can spread, it doesn’t take long for her colleague, the security guard, and even the cleaning staff to become infected, each through a simple kiss. They join others in the building, and in eerie synchronicity, pairs take turns — one swabs a cheek while the other adds the sample to a petri dish, then seals and stacks it in a fridge. The most jarring scene, revealed in an early teaser, shows the first scientist licking every donut in the lobby one by one and putting them back in the box for visitors to “help yourself,” as the sign below encourages them to do. Clearly, the objective is to spread this condition as far as possible, as quickly as possible.
What Is Actually Going on in ‘Pluribus’?
Apple TV
It isn’t until after Carol arrives home, grieving the sudden death of her manager and partner Helen (Miriam Shor) and shocked by the oddly convulsing, hive-minded people she encountered, that she learns more about what’s going on. The only active TV channel shows a presidential-looking man in a suit behind a podium, with a ticker that addresses Carol directly and provides a phone number to call for more information.
She reluctantly does, and this man, apparently Davis Taffer (Peter Bergman), Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation (apparently, he was the only man left intact and wearing a suit, so he would do), wants to reassure her that everything will be OK. It’s not an alien invasion, but they are the beneficiaries of extraterrestrial technology. What the astronomers discovered 14 months prior was a radio signal that may have been repeating since the dawn of human existence. There’s no indication of how long. But it has now been discovered.
It consists of four tones that represent guanine, uracil, adenine, and cytosine. Together, these are a recipe for an RNA nucleotide sequence. Once they figured this out, the scientists began to recreate it in a lab. It isn’t a virus, but it sort of behaves like one. It’s like a “psychic glue, capable of binding us together,” Davis tells Carol. And they want her to join them. They want her to be happy, too.
But is Carol literally the only person left on Earth who has agency over her own life and isn’t part of this collective mind of humans? The answer, which is one of the big twists, is actually no.
Carol Is Not Alone in ‘Pluribus’
Apple TV
When Carol asks Davis if she’s the only one who seems immune to this virus-like condition, he reveals that she isn’t. 11 others are in the same situation, just as disoriented as she is. “They” have spoken to all of these outliers, who are located around the world, inconveniently, none in the U.S. Later, Carol learns there’s a 13th person, a man in Paraguay who only speaks Spanish. They didn’t detect him at first.
As Carol grapples with what’s going on, she is sent a potential friend —more like an assistant — who “we” felt she would like. It’s a woman named Zosia (Karolina Wydra) who happens to be the spitting image of the original character from Carol’s best-selling book series. Once Carol realizes that Zosia is effectively at her beck and call, willing to do whatever she asks, she requests a meeting with the other immune people, at least those who can speak English. As it turns out, five of them can, and they are willing to meet. Off she goes on a plane to meet them, but she’s floored to learn they aren’t as angry about the situation as she is. In fact, most of them have adjusted to it.
Kumba (Samba Schutte) is relishing in the spoils of being able to fly on Air Force One with a bevy of pretty women at his beck and call and indulge in expensive food and drink. The others are happy to continue living with their hive-minded family members, believing that joining them might be the right move anyway. They do seem so happy, after all. It’s like there’s literal peace on Earth. But Carol thinks they’re traitors to the human race, brainwashed cult members who are willing to give up their sense of individuality to become these walking, talking shells of human beings.
Carol Has All the Power, for Now
Apple TV
The big question is why these 13 people are immune. No one knows…yet. Zosia tells Carol that they are working around the clock to figure it out and come up with a way to integrate them. It could take weeks, it could take months. She has no idea. But for now, there are a few key things to know about Carol and the others, and how they play into what’s going on.
First, it appears that everyone in the hive mind is affected whenever Carol, and presumably any of the 13 immune individuals, loses their temper and gets angry. They effectively freeze and begin to convulse, as they all did before, many springing back to life with their Stepford Wives-like smiles. Some, however, don’t survive the shock to the system. In fact, Carol learns that her first angry episode, which almost killed Zosia, likely led to the deaths of thousands around the world. In total, since this “virus” has been around, more than 886 million people have died. That’s about 10% of the world’s population. The angrier Carol gets, the more she puts innocent lives at risk.
Second, while Zosia confirms to Carol that they will do anything she asks, can bring her anything she wants, she also reveals that the one thing they can’t do is protect her and the other 12 individuals from one another. This raises interesting questions about what happens when there’s conflict among the only other people in the world who can be angry or upset.
Further, it’s worth noting that no single person is in charge; rather, everyone is. But no one has agency anymore either. Their bodies are simply bodies that house the same mind, so that a doctor, a pilot, a chef, and an athlete all have the same knowledge, skills, memories, and recollections of life experiences. When someone introduces themselves to Carol, they note that “this individual is” and recite the person’s name before the outbreak. How do they know so much about Carol if they can’t read her mind? Apparently, Helen joined right before she died, and thus they have all her thoughts and memories stored within their hive, like a hard drive of her brain.
Naturally, the goal with whatever is controlling this virus-like mutation is to convert these 13 remaining people so the world can start anew, a perfect society that runs efficiently, with no crime, no conflict, and no single leader. But also no individuality, no free thinking. Their lives are not their own.
What can Carol possibly do? The other immune folks are uninterested in helping. She can’t lash out for fear of killing innocent people. She’s stuck. All she can do is wait until they figure out how to reverse her immunity and force her to join them. “Once you understand how wonderful this is…” Davis begins to tell Carol on the TV, but she cuts him off before he can say more. Nothing he says will convince her that “this” is “wonderful” in any way.
Sure, it does all seem wonderful on the surface. It’s tough not to ask yourself what you would do in the same situation. Would you ask to be taken to a tropical island to sip Mai Tais, eat Wagyu beef and shrimp cocktails, and enjoy a massage? Would you desperately try to connect with your loved ones who seem stuck in some kind of trance? Or would you push back like Carol?
Chances are, once you snap out of the indulgent haze, it’s easy to see where Carol is coming from. There’s something very, very wrong about it all. She explains it to the other immune people when they ask how she can be so against joining, even though she hasn’t asked any of the others what it feels like. “Because I’m smart enough to know you don’t ask a drug dealer to describe their heroin,” she says. If Carol can discover what makes her immune, she may be able to find a cure for the others before they find a way to get to her. We can’t wait to find out. Stream Pluribus on Apple TV.
Warning: This article includes minor spoilers for Death by Lightning!
Netflix’s Death by Lightning shows that Lucretia Garfield stayed by her husband’s side until the very end, and this is what happened to her after his passing. Four United States Presidents have died by assassination, though only two are usually remembered. The compelling historical drama, Death by Lightning, tells the often-forgotten story of James A. Garfield’s election and subsequent assassination.
Like many shows based on true stories, the presidential assassination show concludes with text explaining what happened to the real-life inspirations of Death by Lightning. Most of the postscript feels beneficial, answering the open-ended questions. We learn what happened to Chester Arthur, James Blaine, Roscoe Conkling, and even Mollie Garfield.
However, a significant character, Lucretia Garfield, receives one unsatisfying sentence: “Lucretia Garfield survived her husband by 37 years.” This doesn’t tell us anything about the First Lady’s life after the show, except that it existed. For those who were left wanting more, here are some of the most interesting details about Lucretia Garfield’s life after her husband’s assassination.
Lucretia Garfield Preserved Her Husband’s Writings & Opened The First Presidential Library
Lucretia Garfield and James A. Garfield hold hands in their living room in Death by Lightning
According to the National First Ladies Library, Lucretia Garfield focused on raising her children and preserving her husband’s memory after his death. She consulted on many memorials to President James A. Garfield, even helping with the design.
Her greatest accomplishment in keeping his memory alive was cataloging all of Garfield’s letters and presidential documents. This began with the intention of writing a memoir. However, she eventually decided they would be placed in the first-ever presidential library, which she added onto her Ohio farmhouse.
Lucretia hired architects Forrest A. Coburn and Frank Seymour Barnum to design and build the James A. Garfield Library. The library houses the Pietra Dura of President Garfield and a fireproof safe containing his writings (via the National Park Service). The farmhouse and the Garfield children’s surrounding homes are now a historical landmark.
Lucretia Garfield Volunteered At The Pasadena Red Cross During World War I
A closeup of Lucretia Garfield in Death by Lightning
Later in life, Lucretia Garfield moved to South Pasadena, California. The First Lady had a special interest in architecture. In 1904, she hired Charles and Henry Greene to design and build her bungalow in the American Arts and Crafts style.
While there, she became highly active in her Pasadena community, giving lectures and joining a book club. She also remained engaged in politics long after the end of Death by Lightning, supporting Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson in their elections.
Then, when World War I broke out in 1914, Lucretia Garfield helped co-found Pasadena’s local branch of the Red Cross (via South Pasadena News). She spent her time volunteering with the organization, helping wrap bandages for soldiers.
Lucretia Garfield Died On March 13, 1918, From Pneumonia
A photograph of the real-life Lucretia Garfield shows her wearing a dress with her hair pinned up
As the end ofDeath by Lightning stated, the First Lady of the United States lived a long life, surviving her husband by 37 years. Lucretia Garfield died in her South Pasadena home on March 13, 1918, from pneumonia.
According to the National Park Service, her daughter was by her side as she passed. The family brought her body back to Cleveland, Ohio, where she was laid to rest next to her late husband.
Lucretia Garfield is remembered for her civic involvement, her charity work, and her dedication to her family. She was survived by five children, 16 grandchildren, and 45 great-grandchildren.
Sources: National First Ladies Library, the National Park Service, and South Pasadena News
