Wondering what to watch this weekend? This week we suggest the secrets to aging gracefully, life after boxing, a serious criminal drama and classic John Steinbeck.
Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones - Netflix
Picked by Senior Editor Dina Ross
To live a long and healthy life is a worthy goal and pockets of people throughout the world seem to have found the secret. So-called blue zones are regions where people tend to live longer than the average human. Explorer and best-selling author Dan Buettner, who has long studied these populations, now hosts a beautiful new docuseries that tries to show viewers how living life differently can change their lives for the better.
For someone who has never watched a boxing or MMA fight, it's definitely weird that this is my second documentary pick on a fighter. However, after watching this series, you will see why.
As you can imagine, with my limited background in the sport, I’m embarrassed to say that I didn't know who Tyson Fury was. However, I found myself interested when I realized the show also featured his half-brother Tommy and sister-in-law Molly-Mae Hague, contestants from Love Island U.K. The dynamics in this show are unreal. First, you have Tyson navigating his mental health challenges after retiring from boxing. Then, the journey of Molly-Mae’s pregnancy. And to top it all off, a glimpse into Irish Traveller culture. Needless to say, I'm absolutely sold.
I found this little gem of a show on Hulu and pretty much binged the entire first season. Each episode opens with a courtroom scene focused on a character standing trial for committing an egregious crime. These ordinary, everyday people find themselves in the most improbable predicaments and fighting for their freedom. Morally, many of them are in the right but we all know the law doesn't operate on moral values. No one episode is connected to another so feel free to skip around
The Grapes of Wrath - Rentable on YouTube, Apple TV, Prime Video, Vudu
Picked by Newsletter Writer Graison Dangor
This feels like a timely watch ahead of Labor Day and the start of a new school year, when untold numbers of kids will get the novel as assigned reading. (Maybe watching this could be extra credit?
Amazon is betting that ammonia could be the fuel of the future, participating in a Series A round for the Brooklyn-based company Amogy in December. Amogy aims to de-carbonize transportation with a clean energy system that uses ammonia as a renewable fuel. Amogy is partnering with Amazon on its first commercial product - an ammonia-powered cargo-shipping vessel. Amogy CEO Seonghoon Woo joins Cheddar Climate to discuss.
One of the world's largest transport companies is kicking off Black History Month with a new initiative aimed at the next generation of business leaders. Today, FedEx announced the launch of its Student Ambassador Program. Participants selected from eight historically black colleges and universities will receive career guidance from FedEx executives. The program is part of FedEx's ongoing commitment to HBCUs and will also help the company expand its pipeline for diverse talent. Cheddar News welcomes senior vice president at FedEx, Jenny Robertson, and Jerryl Briggs, President of Mississippi Valley State University, to discuss.
"Sing 2" has overthrown "Spider-Man: No Way Home" as the number one film at the UK box office. The animated sequel brought in $8.1 million, in just its two first weekends. However, "No Way Home" is still on track to beat "Avatar" as the number one grossing movie of all time.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has been a driving force for youth mentorship since 1904. The nonprofit organization is launching its annual Big Draft campaign this month in partnership with the NFL, and Artis Stevens, the first Black CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, joined Cheddar to discuss the push for adding more "Bigs" as mentors on his one-year anniversary leading the non-profit organization. "While the NFL is recruiting and drafting more players, they're also helping us to draft more mentors and, particularly, men all the way from across February to all the way to April of this year," Stevens explained.
The Supreme Court will reconsider race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The court will examine admissions policies at Harvard University and The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, which count the race of applicants as a factor in admissions. The court has upheld affirmative action policies in the past, saying it helps to create more diverse student bodies. However, the conservative Supreme Court could be skeptical and even possibly hostile to such policies. Nick Anderson, Higher Education Writer, Washington Post joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
The value of most cryptocurrencies have plummeted in recent months since reaching all-time highs in November, wiping out more than $1 trillion in value globally. The steep crash has some talking about the possibility of a crypto winter, a term referring to a prolonged bearish period where asset prices persistently fall over many months. This all comes as the Fed is expected to raise interest rates, and the Biden administration is working on an executive order to regulate Bitcoin and other assets. Josh Goodbody, COO of Qredo, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the crypto crash, and how the industry might recover from it.
Recent data reveals that streaming giants are struggling to retain subscribers in the months following a major release.
According to data from Antenna, subscriber trends show that users will subscribe to a given streaming service just to watch a particular show, and then cancel those subscriptions shortly after. This comes as the streaming space continues to heat up as new entrants crowd the space. Jon Christian, Founding Partner + Digital Supply Chain Leader at OnPrem joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
The EU relaxed its Covid travel restrictions for vaccinated individuals among the union's 27 member states, doing away with testing or quarantine requirements for travelers. This comes soon after the World Health Organization said the omicron variant could help make the pandemic more manageable. The new rules take effect February 1st. Bryce Conway, Founder, 10xTravel joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
If you're in China you may have noticed that the 1999 film "Fight Club" which features Brad Pitt has somehow got itself a new ending. In the new ending on the streaming service Tencent, the narrator is killed and the explosions are replaced with a black screen saying "the police arrested criminals".It's unclear as to exactly why the changes were made. However, it is the latest example of China playing by its own rules when it comes to entertainment and attempting to control everything its citizens watch. Media Reporter at Axios, Sarah Fisher, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
