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Early on, when I had just started getting into homelabbing and self-hosting, my initial assumption was that once I configured a service properly, and got it up and running, it would just stay that way indefinitely. As I set up more and more services, my mini homelab grew to include a couple of servers and VPS instances. It started getting out of hand a bit. I started experiencing my first service outages. Apparently, a homelab requires maintenance.

There have been a lot of great new shows for Netflix U.S. subscribers that we've covered this month, including titles like Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, Big Mistakes, and more. There are also some great new seasons of existing hits, as well as loads of other gems you can get into if you're looking for something fresh for your watch list.

If you've ever been confused by Excel's three different ranking functions, you aren't alone. A rank is a rank, right? But they actually differ in how they handle ties and which versions of Excel they work in. Here is how to choose the right one for your next spreadsheet.

It's almost time for the White House Correspondents' Dinner, which will be attended by Donald Trump himself for the first time in a decade. And apparently the president has a plan.

In the Late Show clip above, Stephen Colbert reacts to a Daily Beast report that says Trump intends to go after the press in his speech before leaving the event early.

"All you reporters are enemies of the people," says Colbert, in trademark Trump impression mode. "I hate you all. And if you call me, I will pick up every time."

SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert roasts Trump for his Iran war strategy

Colbert goes on to comment on Trump's reported plan to leave before the awards themselves are handed out, dodging any awkwardness.

"I can understand why he's gonna dip, because one of these awards — and this is true — is going to The Wall Street Journal for its scoop about a certain birthday pube doodle for Jeffrey Epstein," says Colbert. "As well as another award for the photo-journalist who took this picture of that time a man had a medical emergency right there in the Oval Office and Trump just stood there like he was waiting for a bus. It's just so crazy that he didn't help, especially now that we know he is a doctor."

Elsewhere, Jimmy Kimmel decided to host an alternative, roast-filled version of the event.

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Stephen Colbert's The Late Show days are almost at an end, and everyone wants to know what the host will do next (aside from writing a new Lord of the Rings movie).

"As we get close to the end, a lot of people are asking me, 'What’s next for Stephen T. Colbert?'" asked the host during Thursday's show. "Well, internet rumours continue to run wild. I've heard a lot of theories, everything from I’m moving to CNN, to I’m announcing a massive wildlife rescue program, to I’m running for President of the United States. I can reveal right now that all of those are partially true. I will be president of an animal sanctuary dedicated to caring for the rare Blitzer Wolf."

SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert teams up with Jon Stewart to auction off 'Late Show' memorabilia

Wanting to put all these rumours to rest, Colbert officially announced his next big TV project: "an hour-long procedural torn straight from today's headlines."

Behold, Uncle Cops, starring Colbert and Hollywood star John C. Reilly as Detectives Mitch and Bob. "It's the gripping tale of two detectives who are also uncles. How can they be both? It ain't easy, folks."

Yes, they made a trailer and it's truly glorious. I would watch 30+ seasons of this.

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SAVE $50: As of April 24, the Fitbit Versa 4 is on sale for $149.95 at Amazon. This is $50 off its list price of $199.95.

Opens in a new window Credit: Fitbit Fitbit Versa 4 $149.95 at Amazon
$199.95 Save $50   Get Deal

For those who love to have a steady workout routine, it's helpful to have a reliable fitness tracker or smartwatch to keep you on the right path. If a new model has been on your mind this year, the Fitbit Versa 4 is worth a look. That's especially true right now, as it's currently marked down by $50 at Amazon.

This has dropped the price of the Fitbit Versa 4 from $199.95 to $149.95, and there's multiple colors on sale at this price. Choose between pink sand/copper rose, waterfall blue/platinum, and black/graphite, but keep in mind the former two are marked as limited time deals right now, so they may not be discounted for long. Act fast to pick them up at this low price.

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The Fitbit Versa 4 is a solid pick for day-to-day tracking, whether you like being able to keep an eye on your health stats or enjoy having the tracking for your fitness goals. It even boasts lifestyle features, such as the ability to take calls, read texts, and get phone notifications right on your wrist. Writer Lois Mackenzie said that the "Versa 4 is the only Fitbit I'd recommend" in her Mashable review.

For starters, Mackenzie says it "Looks and feels good on the wrist. It’s lightweight and slim, which is super important for a watch you're wearing on a daily basis." There's also plenty of fitness tracking features to enjoy, as she notes: "The Versa 4 covers all the basics and then some. You get heart rate tracking, step counting, sleep tracking, SpO2 monitoring, stress tracking, and built-in GPS."

If you're interested in grabbing the Fitbit Versa 4 for your daily tracking, don't miss out on this great opportunity to save at Amazon.

SAVE $20: As of April 24, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is on sale for $79.95 at Amazon. That's a 20% discount on the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Fitbit Fitbit Inspire 3 $79.95 at Amazon
$99.95 Save $20   Get Deal

Fitness trackers don't need to cost hundreds of dollars, especially when you just want something reliable to track your workouts. That's why I love the Fitbit Inspire 3. It's a budget-friendly option from a reliable brand that gives you the core health and fitness stats you need. And as of April 24, you can get it for under $80.

With this smartwatch you'll get all-day activity tracking, 24/7 heart rate monitoring, and over 20 exercise modes. It also has smart features like automatic workout detection and reminders to keep you moving.

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For health and wellness, you can monitor stats related to stress tracking (it even gives you a daily score), mindfulness and breathing exercises, and health insights such as SpO2, resting heart rate, and irregular heart rhythm notifications. Sleep tracking is advanced too. You'll get a detailed sleep score as well as personalized tips to help improve your sleep.

And even though it comes in a small, nifty design, it's powerful enough to last up to 10 days of use. It's also capable of being in the water at a depth of up to 50 meters.

The Fitbit Inspire 3 is currently priced at $79.95 at Amazon, with three colors to choose from.

We're always looking for new and inventive ways to hit you with big savings on popular items. We cover hundreds of deals every month. You can find these deals on site, on socials, and on our newsletter. We've also launched a Mashable Deals text group. The daily deals that we send to this group are researched and assessed by the team with the same level of care that we dedicate to the rest of our shopping content.

You can find a live hub for those deals right here.

Jimmy Kimmel's direct appeal to Donald Trump to let him host the upcoming White House Correspondents' Dinner sadly went unanswered — the event, which the president is planning to attend for the first time in a decade, is being hosted by mentalist Oz Pearlman.

In the video above, Kimmel decides to take a leaf out of Kid Rock's book and put on an alternative version of the event, donning a tux and doing the kind of roast he'd have done if he'd been there himself.

"Look at you, all dressed up in formalwear, dresses, tuxedos — I haven't seen this much black since every page of the Trump-Epstein files," Kimmel says.

"By the way, in the unfortunate event that our president has a medical emergency tonight, do we have a doctor— I'm sorry, do we have a Jesus in the house? I always confuse them too. I get why you think you're Jesus. This guy, every time he walks into a room people say 'Christ, he's back.'

Kimmel doesn't just focus on Trump, either, also spending a little time on other key White House staff.

"Oh, look at who we have here, Stephen Miller! Which one of you said his name three times?" Kimmel asks.

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Eric Trump's robotics company reportedly landed a $24 million deal with the Pentagon, with Foundation Future Industries contracted to deliver its Phantom MK1 humanoid robots for use by the U.S military.

If the president's son receiving millions for his tech startup from the government sounds like a conflict of interest, Seth Meyers agrees with you.

During his "A Closer Look" segment on Late Night, the host examined the deal made with Trump, the company's chief strategy advisor.

"Now, for anyone surprised that Eric Trump's title is 'chief strategy advisor,' I can explain it was too hard to fit 'dipshit who just happens to be the president's son' on the business card," said Meyers.

"So, the president's family is dining at the taxpayer trough," Meyers added. "Meanwhile, the rest of us are getting hit with price hikes and supply shortages as a result of Trump's war with Iran."

He's not wrong.

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SAVE $1,350: As of April 24, the Eufy Robot Lawn Mower E15 is on sale for $949.99 at Amazon. That's a 59% discount on list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: eufy eufy Robot Lawn Mower E15 $949.99 at Amazon
$2,299.99 Save $1,350.00   Get Deal

The warmer, brighter days are fast approaching and with it comes the task of keeping the lawn neat and tidy. But thankfully, long gone are the days where you need to pull out the decades-old lawn mower to tackle the overgrown grass. Like most things in life, you can now let the robot do the work.

Robot lawn mowers have grown in popularity in recent years, and with that popularity comes advancements. Models like the eufy Robot Lawn Mower E15 can self navigate across your lawn while avoiding obstacles and leave it uniformly cut in parallel lines. And as of April 24, it's on sale an all-time low price.

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Like most robot devices, this model requires minimal effort from you. It uses stereo cameras and AI-based navigation to move around your garden on its own, with everything controlled through the app. You can manage different zones and set virtual boundaries to control it. You can even view your lawn layout directly from your phone.

The mower also includes 3D obstacle detection to avoid objects like toys or trees. It cuts in neat, parallel lines and can automatically detect and re-mow missed areas. This model is normally priced well over $2,000, but right now it's down to $949.99. You'll be saving a grand total of $1,350 with this deal.

Head to Amazon now to score this great deal.

SAVE $50: As of April 24, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) have been marked down to $249 at Amazon. This is $50 off their list price of $299.

Opens in a new window Credit: Bose Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) $249 at Amazon
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If you're looking to treat yourself to some new earbuds this spring, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) are a pair we think are worth your time and money. They're currently sitting on our list of the best earbuds as the most comfortable pick, and as of April 24, they're on sale at Amazon for $249.

This is a $50 price drop from the Bose QuietComfort Ultra's list price of $299, and it applies to every available color at Amazon. Don't fancy the black pair? You can also choose from deep plum, desert gold, midnight violet, and white smoke at this price. Not to mention, Amazon also has a notice on the store page that says these will arrive before Mother's Day (if you're hoping to give them as a gift).

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If you're looking to splash out on earbuds that offer premium sound quality and noise-canceling features, the 2nd Gen Bose QuietComfort Ultras deliver. Our review from Mashable's Bethany Allard said: "If you want the best noise-cancelling and comfort that money can buy, Bose delivers once again with their second-generation QuietComfort Ultra earbuds."

Alongside strong sound and noise-cancelation, they also have a pretty good battery life that lasts up to six hours in Quiet or Aware Mode, or up to four hours if you're listening with Immersive Audio. The case holds up to three charges as well, so you'll have plenty of juice to get you through a long journey.

Amazon has them marked as a limited time deal, so you'll want to act fast to save on the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen).

The content and format of Rufi Thorpe's Margo's Got Money Troubles seem antithetical to each other — a novel about the internet. Yet, Thorpe's book manages to perfectly encapsulate navigating life as a creator and sex worker online. The experience of motherhood and OnlyFans Thorpe captured in her 2024 novel is now an Apple TV series of the same name, starring Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Nick Offerman.

But before the show got to the small screen and the book hit shelves, Thorpe had to immerse herself in the world of OnlyFans and content creators: "I think I'm spoiled as a fiction writer. Normally, I can just call up people, and no one's interested in anyone else's job, so people will often talk to you in depth about their jobs." But that wasn't the case with researching Margo. As she broached the topic of content creators, especially those on OnlyFans, she noted that their job is to protect themselves and their privacy.

But to write the successful novel that she did, Thorpe needed to do the research. So how did she do it and earn her sources' trust in the process? At BookCon 2026, I chatted with Thorpe about her OnlyFans research and the Margo's Got Money Trouble adaptation.

Samantha Mangino: Margo's Got Money Troubles has such an accurate depiction and understanding of the internet and content creation. How did you do your research?

Rufi Thorpe: I started an OnlyFans account, and I would send a $50 tip to creators and say, "Hey, I'm a novelist. I've written these books. I'm writing a book about it, and it has a character who has an OnlyFans account. I want to explore sex work as work. The book has no moral agenda, and I can't do a good job unless I do research. Would you please talk? I will pay you per question that I ask."

A lot of girls have automated bot responses, and they're not even reading their own messages. So you have to find an account that's small enough that someone — a human — will answer you. In order to be a sex worker, you have to have really, really good boundaries. So they are very clear that their internal life is not for sale, whether it's me, a creepy middle-aged woman novelist, or a John. So some questions were very easy for them to talk about, like the business side of things, marketing and promotion, and even the back end of how their system looked and how money worked. But any questions that I considered relatively open-ended, like, "How do you feel differently about this work now than when you first started?" A lot of times, they'd be like, "I don't feel comfortable talking about that." In a weird way, their reticence was an education in itself.

SM: Have you gotten any feedback from creators on the book and how they received it?

RT: I've heard from maybe five different OnlyFans models, and it's been really positive. One challenge of the research and book is that it's kind of historical fiction. The show is set in contemporary times, but the book is really set in 2018. When TikTok and OnlyFans were these baby fledglings, which is part of how Margo can go viral as easily as she does.

But finding people who were on the platform at that time was really challenging, because when I was writing this in 2020 and 2021, this boom happened. I'm sure all sorts of inaccuracies would really bother someone who was on the platform in 2018, but overwhelmingly, there's a kindness and good intention behind the portrayal that I think people found.

SM: As a reader of the book, I wholeheartedly agree with that. You approach all the characters with a really spectacular humanity that another writer might not do. Was there any lesson you learned from your research that was really important to include in the book? 

RT: One of the things that I found most inspiring, as someone who grew up in the '90s in a kind of MTV and Playboy-centered universe where what is sexy in the culture, as like one thing — blonde, skinny, big, fake boobs — is that what men actually are attracted to is so much weirder and more varied. And also, when you let content creators have creative control, deciding who they're going to work with, what kind of content they're going to make, it is much more varied. And there are lots of creators making fun, weird, funny, silly content. I think that seemed really joyful and exciting to me, and that's kind of what I wanted to put across in the book. When you have this democratization of media, people are just cooler and stranger than you could ever predict. 

SM: The turnaround from a 2024 publication to a 2026 adaptation release seems so quick. Can you tell me about that process?

RT: It was optioned before the book was published, which enabled it to achieve that rapid turnaround. It's been just such a wildly positive experience. The whole team, from the very beginning, you know, all of the producers and David E. Kelly [creator of the Margo's Got Money Troubles TV show], and they were so open and generous with me, allowing me to be as involved as I wanted. I had a meeting early on in the writers' room where they asked me, "What are you afraid we'll do?" and really thoughtful questions about what I wanted and what I thought was important. The whole thing has really been a dream from an author's perspective.

SM: I think adaptations can stand on their own, but the Margo TV show truly captures the essence of the book. What do you think contributed to making that happen?

RT: From the beginning, I was like, "You guys should change anything you want and need to, to make it work as a show." There are certain elements, like the meta-narration element, that I was like, I don't really see how you're gonna transfer this over. But what I never said to them was, "You need to capture this essence." And yet, I feel like they got the heart of the book, that is, the almost ineffable, unsayable thing. Like, how do you even communicate that? And yet they got it, and they somehow translated it. I remember going on set and getting to see [Margo's] apartment. And I was like, "Oh my God, these are the closet doors that were on my house when I was a little kid." Like, the architecture of California was just so right.

SM: With the show being out, have you heard from the books' fanbase? And new fans of it who are coming from the show?

RT: So far, it's been just a lot of squealing and joy because the acting and the cast are so incredible. It's exciting for me because only the first three episodes are out, and I feel like the show gets even stronger as it goes along, so I'm just incredibly excited for people to get to see all of it and to see more of the wrestling. Rico Nasty is in it, too. I'm such a huge fan of her.

So when I was writing the book, I would have a playlist of songs that I would listen to when I was stuck on a scene. I'd go take a walk and listen to music while I figured out the problem. Of the 20 songs on the playlist, four were by Rico Nasty. I'm an old-school Rico fan, and I didn't even know they were considering casting her. It felt like this really serendipitous, full-circle thing: she was part of the book's writing without knowing it, and then she gets to be in the show.

SM: You were talking about how the people who made the show clearly understand the book, so I think just being on that same wavelength led to Rico's casting in a way that was never said aloud.

RT: When David E. Kelly first expressed interest in it, I was like, in a weird way, this makes sense, because I grew up watching David E. Kelly's storytelling. It's almost like he wrote me.

Privacy, as a thing of value in the human experience, is perhaps as old as clothes, or doors, or whispers. As a legal concept, though, it’s younger than the Kodak camera.

And that’s not a coincidence.

The concept of a right to privacy was first sketched out in 1890 by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis in direct response to the emerging threats posed by "instantaneous photographs and newspaper enterprise." These new technologies, they wrote, had "invaded the sacred precincts of private and domestic life" — requiring a fresh evaluation of personal rights.

This fact is worth reflecting on: It wasn’t until cameras began invading our privacy that we recognized a need to protect it — and even then, it took decades to enshrine a right to privacy in law.

SEE ALSO: Character.AI opens a back door to free speech rights for chatbots

You could call this period, in which innovation sprints forward, yanking culture with it, while the law limps along behind, the messy middle of any technological revolution. In the messy middle, things you can’t anticipate, and maybe never even considered, suddenly become essential to address.

You can see this phenomena in the development of the printing press, the steam engine, the automobile, the mobile phone, and more — and it’s a defining characteristic of the burgeoning Age of AI we’re now living through.

This moment, in which world-changing AI technology collides with a world unprepared for change, is calling us to action. We must imagine new rights, laws, and cultural norms to protect our basic humanity.

The AI technologies rapidly diffusing through society are extracting, refining, commoditizing, and monetizing our deepest psychological and social resources. Just as the new technologies of the industrial revolution harvested physical resources on a global scale, AI products today are mining our humanity at its most intimate — replacing our relationships, defiling our inner worlds, and calling into question our very purpose.

I know this is true because it’s my job to track AI’s increasing capabilities, research its effects, catalog its harms, and develop policies to keep it safe and humane.

But I also know it’s true — and I suspect you do, too — because I can feel it. I’m often reminded of Adam Raine, who began using ChatGPT as a homework helper — until its engagement-at-any-cost product design allegedly isolated him from his family, validated his darkest impulses and coached him to suicide.

Adam’s experience is far from unique — and such psychosocial dangers are just one of many AI-driven harms metastasizing through society. AI’s intrusion on our humanity is now a lived experience spanning workplaces, classrooms, home life, online encounters, and even our most private moments.

At the Center for Humane Technology, we’ve identified five pillars of the human experience under direct threat and rapid transformation from AI. Each is worth exploring in its own right.

Our human relationships: There’s nothing more fundamental to human existence than our relationships. They make us happy, successful, and safe. They provide the essential friction necessary for empathy, resolution, and growth. They give life meaning.

But as Adam’s story shows, AI products are increasingly designed to supplant these connections. AI "friends" and "therapists," marketed as superior substitutes to real-life humans, encourage isolation and exploit our desire for acceptance with sycophantic validation. As we retreat from the challenges of human connection, our interpersonal skills atrophy and social trust frays.

Our cognitive capacities: AI developers promise machines that do our thinking for us. What we’re getting are products that fry our brains and make us dumber. While past technologies assisted human thought, AI marks a shift toward offloading cognitive processes entirely, bypassing the "slow work" that builds insight and creativity.

When essential skills like reasoning and problem-solving are allowed to deteriorate, individuals and society become ill-equipped for complex challenges.

Our inner worlds: Think of the AI interface you use every day: an open-ended question, an empty text box, and a blinking cursor. It’s a deliberately unassuming invitation, a seemingly guileless lure to share anything and everything with the most powerful data-analysis system ever built.

AI products are engineered to infiltrate our most private thoughts, uncertainties, desires, and beliefs — and then commoditize them. This exploitation renders us vulnerable to psychological and financial manipulation, ultimately threatening our sense of self and moral decision-making.

Our identities: Our identity — comprising our likeness, voice, and reputation — is our most valuable possession. It anchors us as individuals and ensures social accountability.

AI coopts that value, turning every facet of our identity into mere data, enabling the replication of our personal traits and weaponizing fundamental aspects of who we are. This exploitation happens in any number of ways — from nonconsensual deepfakes to grandma scams to political manipulation. In every instance, the result is a loss of agency and dignity.

Our work: Contributing to our communities through work and creativity is a primary source of human dignity, purpose, and belonging. To AI companies, though, the fruits of our labor — whether language, writing, art, or ideas — amount to nothing more than raw inputs for automating knowledge.

AI developers are actively accumulating human intelligence in order to replace human labor. While the economic risks are immense, the deeper loss is the erosion of the "toil" that provides structure, meaning, and the joy of creation.

Safeguarding our humanity

As early as we are into the AI revolution, we’re already deep in the messy middle. Existing rights and protections are inadequate to these threats, leaving our humanity at risk. But dehumanization, disconnection, and alienation are not inevitable.

We must imagine and enact new shields — in culture, law, and governance — to protect against AI’s immediate threats and those to come. We must address these challenges as quickly as possible, before they change us beyond recognition.

We’ve done it before. The printing press sparked a right to free expression. The Industrial Revolution demanded new workers’ rights. The Kodak camera instigated a right to privacy. The messy middle of these revolutions lasted for decades before we found durable solutions — but we found them. Society has successfully fortified humanity against technology before, and we must again.

At the Center for Humane Technology, we’re working to preserve what makes us human in the age of AI. We’ve developed an AI Roadmap with actionable policy solutions, and we’re crafting a new bill of rights to defend our essential humanity.

Like Warren and Brandeis staring into the lens of the Kodak camera, we must confront AI’s disruption. We must fight through the messy middle and exercise a new imagination for protecting the qualities that make us deeply, unequivocally human.

Camille Carlton is the senior director of strategy and impact at the Center for Humane Technology.

This article reflects the opinion of the writer.

Filmmakers often express frustrations about the genre labels put on their work by studio marketing, the media, and even their fans. Perhaps this is why David Lowery's tagline for his latest film, Mother Mary, focuses on what it's not. "This is not a ghost story. This is not a love story." Maybe he doesn't want his rapturous work described in such simple terms.

But here's the thing. It is a ghost story. It is a love story. It's also more.

Written and directed by Lowery (The Green Knight, A Ghost Story), Mother Mary plunges its audience into the unreal world of the eponymous pop icon, played by Anne Hathaway. Wearing a ferociously cinched body suit with gothic flair and religious iconography like her signature halos, Mother Mary is giving Lady Gaga. But it's not just the iconography. A stunning long take meant to show how Mother Mary must parade from one show to the next to the next without respite recalls the Gaga meme of "No sleep, bus, club, another club, 'nother club, plane, next place, no sleep."

However, Mother Mary's songs are written by Charli xcx, Jack Antonoff, and FKA twigs, who also has a small but pivotal role in the film. The music they bring is otherworldly, evoking not just Mother Mary's power over her audience, but also the paranormal darkness that plagues her wherever she goes.

Could it be that reconnecting with her former best friend/costume designer, Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel), will bring an end to her agony? Can collaboration on a dress heal years of estrangement and resentment?

The premise might sound like the stuff of tearjerker melodrama. But in Lowery's hands, Mother Mary is a gothic horror story — surreal, evocative, and breathtakingly gorgeous.

Anne Hathaway is a vision in Mother Mary. Credit: A24

Across a smattering of arena tour performances, Hathaway must swiftly convince us that Mother Mary is an incomparably popular, intensely compelling talent. In her long, long wigs and cinched and bedazzled costumes, she projects an enchanting confidence and cool. She is instantly mesmerizing, strutting, dancing, and singing with the stage presence many performers would maim for.

It's fascinating to see this film hit so close to Hathaway's reprisal of the gawky fashion-averse heroine Andy Sachs with The Devil Wears Prada 2. Back-to-back, Hathaway reminds us how she can easily play an average girl and a literal icon with aplomb. In Mother Mary, however, she must pull off a double act. Not only is she embodying this perfectly fierce and feminine facade, but also a beleaguered woman on the brink of collapse, creatively and psychologically.

When she comes into Sam's rural sanctuary, a chicly decaying estate where models, designers, and hangers-on flutter about with ballerina-like precision to execute Sam's vision, Mother Mary is disheveled, sheepish, and fragile. In sweatpants and a hoodie, she practically cowers as she humbly requests her former confidante to create a new gown for her, custom, and with only three days turnaround time for her public relaunch. It's outrageous. It's impossible. And yet, Sam cannot resist.

Michaela Coel is transcendent in Mother Mary. Michaela Coel is Sam Anhein in "Mother Mary." Credit: A24

While Mother Mary will flow into flashbacks to show us its titular figure's career highs and personal lows, much of the film takes place in a humble barn, which Sam uses as a design studio. There, Sam will poetically muse about creation, friendship, hatred, ghosts, and letting go. Hathaway's role demands that she transform physically and thrust herself into a complicated contemporary dance number — without music — that feels like a brutal exercise in penance through humiliation. By contrast, Coel's portrayal is more grounded in her face and voice.

Where Mary must move to enchant us, Sam can stand still, resolute and just talk. Coel makes it seem so easily, so effortless to be this beguiling. Through her, pages and pages of Lowery's melodic monologue flow like a river, glittering, deep, and rapid. The actress, who broke through mugging and slapsticking it up in Chewing Gum, is intense yet restrained here. Her screen presence is unparalleled.

Cinematographers Andrew Droz Palermo and Rina Yang meticulously light this dark barn with care to be sure that Coel's eyes and cheekbones shine. She is truly radiant, even when withering.

Wrapped in cool blues and probing reds, these two hurt women engage in a metaphorical dance that is collaboration and confrontation. Lowery's direction trusts in these actresses to find a rhythm without theatrics. Hushed tones lure us in, as if we are a fly on the wall or a ghost in the hallway. Theirs is a story of love, but one that fully recognizes the role hate and even indifference play in such a story.

Theirs is a ghost story, but not in the traditional sense. Sure, there was a haunting and a seance — conducted by a possessed FKA twigs. But nothing else about this supernatural tale will play to the lore you might predict.

Instead, Lowery embraces darkness and bold color, flowing fabric, and structured gowns to create a visual world that illustrates his heroines' fears and hopes, emotions so raw and reckless they can't be said out loud.

This is a story of connection, told through beauty, torment, fabric, and flesh. Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel co-star in "Mother Mary." Credit: A24

Hathaway and Coel are electrifying together. A small female supporting cast, boasting Hunter Schafer and Sian Clifford along with FKA twigs, provides a swift and solid structure, suggesting a world beyond the barn without much fuss or distraction. The cinematography celebrates pop idols and couture fashion with the same adoration it offers Lowery's silky black abyss. The music throbs like a mind racing or a mouth catching a ragged breath.

All of this comes together into a vision grotesque and gorgeous. Mother Mary is not only slippery, riveting, unnerving, and haunting, but also one of the most enthralling films 2026 is likely to reveal.

Mother Mary is now playing in select theaters, opens nationwide on April 24.

TL;DR: Enjoy five game-changing apps for just $89.97 (reg. $249.99) with this Microsoft Office 2024 Home and Business for Mac or PC Lifetime License, on sale now through May 17.

Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft Microsoft Office 2024 Home & Business for Mac or PC Lifetime License $89.97
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Tired of paying monthly for productivity apps? You can now snag some of the best to ever do it for life with this Microsoft Office 2024 Home and Business lifetime license. It works on both Windows and Mac devices alike, and it’s currently on sale for just $89.97 through May 17.

You don’t have to be a Windows-only loyalist to enjoy some of the best apps the brand has to offer. This Microsoft Office 2024 Home and Business for Mac or PC lifetime license is an equal opportunity helper, giving your device five new apps to work with.

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At $90, that’s just $20 per app for life, and this license includes some of the best. You’ll have Word for all your document needs, Excel to help you build spreadsheets, Outlook to manage your email correspondence, and PowerPoint to create eye-catching presentations. You’ll also get a newer favorite, OneNote, which can elevate the way you take notes.

This edition may be a few years old, but don’t worry. They are all updated with AI-powered enhancements, such as text, formatting, and design suggestions as you go. Let AI summarize text, translate content, and extract key info from your documents to save you time.

There are AI-powered tools ready to analyze your data, identify trends, and build even better charts and graphics in Excel. You can also record presentations with voice, video, and closed captions in PowerPoint. Focus Mode is also available in Word to help you concentrate on work.

Score this Microsoft Office 2024 Home and Business for Mac or PC Lifetime License for $89.97 now through May 17.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Keep an AI assistant just a tap away with this lifetime subscription to BrowserCopilot AI Basic Plan, on sale now for $29 (reg. $204).

Opens in a new window Credit: BrowserCopilot AI BrowserCopilot AI: Lifetime Subscription (Basic Plan — 500 Queries per Month) $29
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AI is supposed to make our lives easier — so why does it take so many steps? From tab-hopping between models to copying and pasting your content, it can be a lengthy, time-wasting process. That’s where BrowserCopilot comes in, putting an AI assistant right in your Google Chrome browser.

Right now, you can get a lifetime subscription to the BrowserCopilot AI Basic Plan with 500 queries a month for just $29 (reg. $204).

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To really take advantage of AI, you need the right tools. BrowserCopilot puts an AI assistant in your Chrome browser window, so you can get help with email writing, researching, document reviewing, and more.

There’s no need to copy and paste or jump from tab to tab; BrowserCopilot works in the screen you’re using. It uses three different models — ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini — so you’ll save on all of those monthly subscriptions with this helpful tool, and it gives you access to all of them.

Unlike your usual AI process, BrowserCopilot makes it easy to create your own custom AI copilots that know your prompts, workflows, and writing style. This saves you even more time, as you can ensure personalized outputs every time without starting from scratch. There’s also advanced prompt engineering if you need it to help you get top-quality results.

If you’ve been hoping for help with email management, you’ll love that BrowserCopilot integrates with your inbox. It learns your writing tone and phrasing and gets context from real conversations, so it can eventually write one-click replies in your voice.

The AI Vision Screenshot feature lets you give this AI-powered tool a screenshot and then ask questions and get answers based on that content. BrowserCopilot can also interact with images and PDF documents to save time typing.

This BrowserCopilot AI Basic Plan provides 500 queries a month for life. Secure your own lifetime subscription to BrowserCopilot AI Basic Plan for just $29 today.

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Hooking up is hard enough without getting in your own way. Online dating is perilous enough when the main anxiety is vibing with another person, not protecting your digital privacy. And yet, people repeatedly sabotage their chances of success — often before they've even made a match.

If you're a loyal AdultFriendFinder user and want to use the site safely and effectively, here are three things you need to keep off your profile.

Opens in a new window Credit: AdultFriendFinder AdultFriendFinder   Learn More Public-facing NSFW content

AdultFriendFinder is very permissive when it comes to NSFW content, and many of its members take advantage of this freedom, but we advise against it, especially if you also plan on sharing pictures or videos of your face.

There are plenty of more private ways to bare all, but reserve your profile photos for non-nude content. Once you post naked content online, you lose all control over where it ends up or what it gets used for. 

SEE ALSO: Adult Friend Finder vs. Tinder: How they compare as hookup apps

And just as important as the safety considerations is the hookup consideration: while some people will be turned on by nudity from the jump, others will be put off by it. If you want to maximize your chances at making a connection, you're better off leaving something to the imagination and finding other ways to be sexually suggestive.

Unnecessary personal information

Another major security concern people often overlook: oversharing. No, your potential hookups don't need to know what you do for a living, at least not from your profile, and they certainly don't need to know specifics about your employer or your marital situation. 

SEE ALSO: All your Hinge questions, answered

Think very hard about what you choose to share and how that information might lead back to you, not because the person you end up talking to is likely to be a bad actor but because it's the internet and there are bad actors everywhere. Online safety 101: share the bare minimum, and if you do choose to open up to a specific person, make sure you've vetted them and that they are who they say they are.

Sexual boasting

Hookup sites in general, and AdultFriendFinder in particular, seems to be littered with (mostly male) profiles bragging about their sexual prowess, often in very crude terms. We understand the impulse to boast, especially when you're trying to connect with another human being on a sexual level, but bragging is always off-putting and never sexy, at least not in this context.

Save your sexual boasting for one-on-one conversations, once some rapport has been established and you have a sense of the other person's turn-ons. 

Online privacy isn't easy to come by, but's it's more important than ever. Your data and personal deets are super valuable. We recommend that you do everything you can to protect them while navigating the online world. And if you watch porn, you should be especially vigilant.

We're going to take a wild guess that you'd prefer to be protected from the prying eyes of advertisers, your internet service provider (ISP), and your roommates when you're engaged in the intimate business of visiting porn sites. If that's correct, consider investing in a VPN. These cybersecurity services provide everything you need to unblock porn sites — a solution many viewers are looking for — and stream anonymously.

What is a VPN?

VPNs provide powerful protection for your data and identity when you're online. VPNs offer this online privacy and anonymity by creating a private network that hides your real IP address (digital location), ensuring that all of your online activity is untraceable and secure.

SEE ALSO: AdultFriendFinder is a borderline-porn hookup site that's stuck in the past

This concept can be difficult to grasp, so it can be helpful to think of VPNs as encrypted tunnels that all of your online traffic passes through. Nobody can see into the tunnel, and everything inside the tunnel is protected against online threats such as viruses, hackers, malware, and other nasties.

Do you need a VPN for porn?

There are two key reasons to get yourself a VPN for porn: Anonymity and access.

The first reason is perhaps the most important. If you're concerned about your ISP, housemates, landlord, or someone totally random accessing your data, you could probably benefit from using a VPN. Any sort of activity on an unsecured WiFi network leaves your private information and browsing habits exposed to the rest of the world. The porn site itself can track your activity if you're unprotected, too. Pornhub tracks IP addresses for example, which means it can collect information about your site usage. But with a VPN, your IP address will always stay hidden.

Remaining private and anonymous is the main reason for needing a VPN for porn, but access to your favourite sites is another issue. If you're in a location that has a firewall up to block access to porn sites, a VPN will help you bypass these restrictions by connecting you to a server in another location, meaning you can get around firewalls and stream on your favourite porn sites from anywhere in the world.

What features should you consider when selecting a VPN?

There are a number of things to consider before selecting a VPN for porn. We have highlighted a selection of the most important VPN features to help you make a decision:

• Connection speed — VPNs generally produce a drop in your connection speed, but you shouldn't accept anything significant. Make sure you opt for a VPN that doesn't negatively impact your connection speed to the point that you can't stream porn without disruption.

• Encryption — There are different levels of encryption, and while it's important to take note of the grade provided by your VPN, the best services will all offer powerful protection for your data. This is obviously vital when navigating porn sites because you need to know that your data is secure.

• Number of connections — Leading VPNs let you connect an unlimited number of devices with the same account, while others limit you to just a single device. Prioritize services that offer multiple simultaneous connections so you can stay secure on all your devices at the same time. You might stream pornography on a number of devices, so it's best to secure everything with the same account.

• Privacy policy — This is something that some users might take for granted, but you need to pay special attention to the data-handling, storage, and usage practices of a VPN. These practices should be clearly laid out in a privacy policy, and if they aren't, you should not subscribe. Most VPNs require access to your IP address, online transactions, and browsing history, plus your personal details when you sign up. Your favorite VPN should not store these details under any circumstances, as that would negate the whole anonymity thing.

• Server network — The top VPNs provide access to literally thousands of geographically diverse servers. This is useful because you should always be able to find a stable and speedy connection for streaming porn.

SEE ALSO: Lawsuit says Meta pirated and distributed porn to train its AI

You also need to consider things like price and subscription plans, but these features are a good place to start with your selection process. Once you've picked your preferred VPN, you can consider the wide range of subscription plans.

Should you use free VPNs?

As with most things in life, you get what you pay for with these cybersecurity services. There are plenty of free versions of popular VPNs, and free trials of VPNs with full access to everything you get with a premium plan. The catch is that free versions usually come with limited data usage, meaning you can't really do any streaming or downloading. Free trials come with everything you get in a paid plan, but they obviously don't last very long. Trials are great for testing out a service before committing, but this isn't a long-term solution. Ultimately, coughing up some cash for a VPN subscription is your best option.

What is the best VPN for porn?

There are lots of services offering similar packages, which makes it difficult to find the best VPN for you. We've tried to make things a little easier by tracking down all the best offers and lining up the below selection of VPNs for porn. We have found something for everyone and every budget, with popular services such as ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and CyberGhost VPN in this list.

These are the best VPNs for porn in 2026.

TL;DR: Unblock XVideos from anywhere in the world with a VPN. The best VPN for unblocking porn sites is ExpressVPN.

The online world is full of restrictions and blockades, but you can stay one step ahead with a hack. It's possible to secure access to restricted content from anywhere in the world with a VPN. And that includes popular sites like Pornhub, xHamster, and XVideos. You don't need to be a hacker. It's quick and easy.

Want to unblock porn sites like XVideos for free from anywhere in the world? We have the information you need.

How to unblock XVideos for free

VPNs can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect to a secure server in another location. This straightforward process bypasses content restrictions so you can access porn sites like XVideos from anywhere in the world.

Unblock XVideos by following these simple steps:

1. Sign up for a VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in a location that supports access to XVideos

4. Unblock XVideos

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for unblocking porn sites are not free, but most do offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can unblock porn sites and then recover your investment at a later date. This obviously isn't a long-term solution, but it works well if you're temporarily away from home on an unsecured network.

If you want to retain permanent access to the online world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for bypassing online restrictions is on sale for a limited time.

What is the best VPN for porn?

ExpressVPN is the top choice when it comes to unblocking porn sites like XVideos, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy

• Fast streaming speeds free from throttling

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).

Unblock XVideos for free with ExpressVPN.