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Donald Trump will officially become the 47th President of the United States on Monday, January 20, but there are far better ways to spend your time than watching the convicted felon’s second inauguration. Set to officially start at noon, we have some suggestions, for the sake of your anxiety and stress levels, that will make for a far more enjoyable day than watching the Grifter in Chief reassume power,
For example, it is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal holiday, which means plenty of people fortunate enough to be employed might have the day off. That means folk will be home, turning on their TV’s and perhaps noting that all the major networks will be broadcasting the inauguration. While there are those curious, and pro-MAGA, readily tuning in to see who continues to kiss the ring and hear newscasters ultimately sane wash convicted felon Trump, millions of folk ain’t trying to hear or see all that.
Here’s a list of activities to keep you busy while next wave of lies, gaslighting and corruption kicks off for another four years. Just saying.
1. Get more more familiar with the late, great Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. represents the best of what humanity has to offer, and the Civil Rights leader was instrumental in getting the the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But in 2025, many on the far right would dismiss him as “woke,” which is now often a replacement for the n-word on the lips of those who seek a thinly veiled alternative to the slur. Today would be a good time to study up on the full spectrum of Dr. King’s vision, and how close we or have not come to achieving it. Start at the King Center, and go down the rabbit hole.
2. Watch NBA on MLK Day Games
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Speaking of, the NBA on MLK Day schedule of games, with an emphasis on honoring Dr. King’s legacy, has become a proper event over the years. 2025’s lineup features eight games of NBA action including the Wolves vs. Grizzlies at 2:30 pm ET and the Celtics vs. Warriors at 5 pm ET, both on TNT. Kicking off at noon, same as the inauguration (hint, hint) are the Mavs vs. Hornets, if you have NBA TV.
3. Let’s Organize
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Spring cleaning does not have to wait until the Spring. It has been exhaustively reported that decluttering and organizing your home or office space all kinds of mental health benefits to aid any anxiety, stress and generally boost your mood. And you don’t even need to take any drugs to [loses signal.
4. Watch ‘The Twilight Zone’ on streamers
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Watching The Twilight Zone marathon is a staple of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. It just hits different at the top of the year considering the series is readily available on Prime Video (Seasons 1 – 5), Pluto and other streaming services. And if the black and white OG version is a little too vanilla—Jordan Peele’s update, which was only a short-lived two seasons, it well worth a binge watch (also on Prime).
5. Log Off
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Contrary to popular believe, the world will not end if you don’t check in your various social media timelines (Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, Spill…you’re off Xitter, right, soon?). Of course, this does not mean, for example, to go AWOL from the job that pays, to fail to feed your children or other such examples of handling your business and responsibilities. But it’s safe bet the world will go on if you simply log off for a spell, trust.
6. Listen to Black women.
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Hey, if Michelle Obama can skip the inauguration, so can you.
Lily Allen just gave fans another update on her mental health, shutting down rumors that she’s been using drugs.
On the latest episode of her Miss Me? podcast posted Thursday (Jan. 9), the 39-year-old singer told co-host Miquita Oliver that she’s “really not in a good place” lately. “I know I’ve been talking about it for months, but I’ve been spiraling and spiraling and spiraling and it’s got out of control,” she continued.
Noting that she’s having trouble feeling “interested in anything,” Allen detailed how panic attacks have forced her to leave events and hangouts with friends early. “I just can’t concentrate on anything except the pain that I’m going through,” she added.
That said, the “Smile” singer revealed that she’ll be taking an extended break from the podcast — but not for any other reason that might be gleaned from the “vicious rumors” Allen said she’s seen about herself in recent weeks. “I do want to reassure people, because there will be speculation … I’ve not relapsed,” she told listeners.
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Allen has been open in the past about her struggles with addiction. She got sober in 2019 and, the following year, married her husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour.
And despite what might be circulating online, Allen affirmed that she still hasn’t looked back since. “I know there’s been some horrible blind items on the internet about me being found by my husband in a crack den being surrounded by men,” Allen said on Miss Me? as Oliver laughed in disbelief. “I don’t know who’s spreading these vicious rumors, but that’s not true.”
Allen’s latest update comes a few weeks after she said on a December episode of the podcast that she’d been “going through a tough time over the last few months” as her eating had “become a real issue.” The English singer-songwriter has also previously opened up about being diagnosed with ADHD in 2023 and struggling with PTSD after delivering a stillborn son named George in 2010.
The podcaster is also Mom to daughters Ethel and Marnie, whom she shares with ex-husband Sam Cooper. On the latest episode, she also touched on how she’s been leaning on her family unit during her difficult period, telling Oliver, “We are a support network for each other and encourage each other to talk about our feelings, but I think the main thing is telling them we’re going to get through it and be fine.”
If you or anyone you know is struggling with mental health or substance abuse disorders, reach out to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration‘s national helpline 24/7 at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) for confidential treatment referrals and information. If you or someone you know is struggling with disordered eating or an eating disorder, you can contact the ANAD helpline at 1 (888) 375-7767 or the National Alliance for Eating Disorders at 1 (866) 662-1235.
Listen below.
Lily Allen has long been an open book about her mental and physical health, but in a new chat on her and Miquita Oliver’s Miss Me? podcast, the “LDN” singer said that she’s currently going through a rough patch that she was initially reluctant to discuss with her therapist.
“I don’t think that I lie in therapy, but I do often not talk about things I should be talking about,” the singer said in this week’s episode. “It’s not intentional. I’ve been going through a tough time over the last few months and my eating has become a real issue.” Allen said her eating issues have been going on for almost three years, but she only recently opened up about them to her therapist.
“She was like, ‘Why haven’t you mentioned it before?’” said Allen, who tagged her creative pursuits as a form of “performative therapy,” because she finds it easier to sing about those things than to have “honest, vulnerable” conversations with people she cares about. “It’s not because I have been lying about it. It’s just because it hasn’t seemed at the top of the list of important things that I needed to talk about. But obviously it is.”
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Acknowledging that she sometimes struggles to paint the “big picture” when looking at her mental health — which, she noted, might have to do with her ADHD diagnosis — Allen said, “My body and my brain are two very separate things to me. I know a lot of people feel those two things are very connected to each other, but for me, it’s very different. I spend a lot of time in my head, and not a lot of time thinking about my body.”
Allen then got very candid about her current state of mind and the ways that has manifested physically. “I’m really not in a great place mentally at the moment, and I’m not eating. But I’m not hungry,” she said. ” I obviously am hungry, but my body and brain are so disconnected from each other that my body… the messages of hunger are not going from my body to my brain. I’m not avoiding food, I’m just not thinking about it because I’m so in my head. My body’s like, a few steps behind me.”
Allen, 39, married Stranger Things actor David Harbour in 2020 and has two daughters, ages 13 and 10, with her ex-husband Sam Cooper.
Oliver reminded her pod partner and lifelong friend Allen — who said that she did family therapy when she was young when her mom went tor rehab and then returned to therapy as an adult to deal with the initial rush of fame –that her awareness of what’s going on in her body is one step toward healing, a message the singer appreciated. In 2021, Allen opened up about her long battle with addiction, which she said started in school whens she turned to drugs and alcohol to deal with the resentment she felt from her classmates when she dropped out to pursue music.
Allen revealed her ADHD diagnosis in 2023, saying it “sort of runs in my family,” after sharing that she was suffering from PTSD after a stillbirth in 2010.
In July, Allen revealed that she had begun selling pictures and videos of her feet on OnlyFans, later saying that just a few months in she was earning more with her toes than her music streams. “imagine being and artist and having nearly 8 million monthly listeners on spotify but earning more money from having 1000 people subscribe to pictures of your feet,” she wrote in October.
Listen to the episode below (food discussion begins at 9:55 mark).
If you or someone you know are struggling with disordered eating or an eating disorder you can contact the ANAD helpline at 1 (888) 375-7767 or the National Alliance for Eating Disorders at 1 (866) 662-1235.
One of the most refreshing things about Jelly Roll and wife Bunnie XO‘s relationship is how open the country couple have been about their struggles and strife. Whether it’s the singer’s battles with addiction and obesity, Bunnie’s scary misdiagnosed aneurysm earlier this year or her battles with anxiety and depression after getting sober, both have been an open book with their fans.
Now, on the latest episode of her Dumb Blonde podcast, Bunnie discussed her longtime battle with OCD. “You guys have heard me talk about it on the podcast numerous time, but let’s discuss obsessive compulsive disorder,” Bunnie, 44, said on the NSFW episode. “I know some people joke about being a little OCD, but as someone who’s actually living with OCD, I’ll be the first to tell you it’s not a laughing matter.”
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She added, “It isn’t just being tidy or organized. OCD is actually having disturbing, unwanted thoughts that cause you overwhelming anxiety because they just feel so wrong, and you really don’t wanna be thinking about them.” The Mayo Clinic defines OCD as a “pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears known as obsessions. These obsession lead yo to do repetitive behaviors, also called compulsions.” Those compulsions can become so pervasive that they interfere with daily activities and can cause distress.
Bunnie described her OCD in similar terms. “It’s also repetitive physical or mental behaviors you do to try to make the anxiety from those thoughts go away,” she said. “But that just doesn’t work in the long run, and they just keep coming back. The idea that OCD is only about handwashing and organization is a complete misconception. OCD can latch on to anything, but it often focuses on the things we care about most, our relationships, religious beliefs, our hobbies and passions in an attempt to make the distress from their unwanted thoughts go away.”
The podcaster said she calls her OCD traits her “rituals,” which can be “incredibly time-consuming and exhausting.”
It’s not the first time Bunny has discussed her OCD diagnosis. Back in August 2023, she wrote in an Instagram post, “When I started this tour I was soooo scared, because as you all kno, I battle severe anxiety. Sobriety opened up a whole Pandora’s box of anxiety, OCD & depression j never knew j had until I had to stop covering up all the pain w/ pills & alcohol. I didn’t kno how I would feel on the bus, in the crowds or even just traveling everyday again because I hadn’t done a full tour w/ the hubby since 2019.”
Chappell Roan is over-the-top. The “Hot To Go” singer who has established a reputation for elaborate costumes and aesthetics inspired by drag queens can often seem like a character from a camp movie. And, as it turns out, there’s a good reason for that.
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During a conversation at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles moderated by Brandi Carlile on Thursday night (Nov. 7), Roan talked about making her breakthrough album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, and how the woman born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz transformed into megawatt pop star Chappell Roan.
“Chappell is a character,” Roan, 26, told Carlile, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I just can’t be here all the time. It’s just too much.”
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Roan explained that it took “a lot of years” to convince people that her debut album was worth releasing. Recorded with producer Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo), the LP which has logged 32 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart was released in 2023 after five years of work. “I had no money. I had no numbers backing me up,” she said. “I had an EP [2017’s School Nights] that did not do well by the music standards. I had toured, but no headlines. There was nothing backing me up.”
The star said that one of the early songs she worked on with Nigro, signature banger “Pink Pony Club” — which she performed during her Saturday Night Live musical debut last weekend — was released at the “worst time” for a club anthem, April 2020, during the early peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was, however, the track that helped her pull off a “complete 180” from how she dressed and performed at the time, which consisted of wearing “only black on stage. It was very serious.” But, she noted, as soon as she stopped taking herself so seriously “things started working.”
Roan has been open about how her rocket ride to fame has been disorienting. In addition to recently being being diagnosed with severe depression amid her Midwest Princess tour, she was previously diagnosed with bipolar II disorder. The singer canceled two shows on her tour in September just days before they were set to take place after saying she needed a break after feeling overwhelmed.
Asked by Carlile to describe her mental health routine, Roan said it is evolving in the wake of her sudden success this year. “My life is completely different now. Everything is out of whack right now,” she said. “This type of year does something to people. Every big thing that happens in someone’s career happened in five months for me. It’s so crazy that things I never thought would happen happened times 10. I think that that just really rocked my system. I don’t know what a good mental health routine looks like for me right now.”
Roan debuted a new song, the country pop tune “The Giver,” on SNL, just weeks after appearing to tease her next music era in an Instagram post in which she shared selfies and hinted at the follow-up to her debut breakthrough LP. “Album kinda popped off imo but it is time to welcome a hot new bombshell into the villa,” she captioned the pics, in a reference to the Love Island catchphrase welcoming new contestants, which led fans to speculate that she’s working on her second LP. In addition, Nigro has teased that Roan’s next album will be a “new version” of her.
Flavor Flav has no problem uplifting those around him. He’s basically been on a tour giving fellow celebrities he adores their flowers, and now it’s Selena Gomez’s turn. Flav took to X on Monday (Nov. 4), where he applauded Gomez’s strength and how candid she’s been with her mental health publicly. “I don’t know her […]
Ten-time ASCAP songwriter of the year Ashley Gorley is donating royalties from the Billboard Country Airplay chart-topping hit “I Am Not Okay,” written by Gorley with co-writers Taylor Phillips and Casey Brown, and recorded by Jelly Roll, to help aid mental health initiatives for those in the songwriting community.
Gorley, who is also known for writing No. 1 hits including the Morgan Wallen/Post Malone 16-week Hot 100 chart-topping “I Had Some Help” and other hits recorded by Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton, Kelsea Ballerini and more, is commemorating the success of “I Am Not Okay” by supporting the launch of a program by The Onsite Foundation, aimed at helping the creative community. The Creatives Support Network will provide free mentorship, education, resources and mental wellness support specifically created to help members of the songwriting community.
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“A song about struggling to get out of bed in the morning is No. 1 and that really speaks to where we are in the world,” Gorley said in a statement. “It was important for us to take this moment to say ‘you’re not the only one,’ and to support a creative network with programming that is tailored to songwriters at any stage of their journey.”
Songwriter-focused intensives are a key part of the program, including two-day immersive, individual or group coaching and therapy sessions designed for creatives. The program also includes mentorship, social impact initiatives and online curriculum and conversation resources complimentary to the creative community, thanks to Gorley giving 80 grants for 80 individuals, in addition to program infrastructure support.
“This song in particular, along with the Jelly Roll Era, is creating a movement and timely conversation regarding the need to equip creatives with necessary tools to optimize their personal and professional pursuits,” Onsite’s Miles Adcox said in a statement. “I’ve been at the intersection of Music and Mental Wellness for the better part of my career and have experienced firsthand the challenges and opportunities facing today’s creatives. Music is medicine, and the comfort, relief, support, and overall impact it provides globally to humanity is immeasurable. Our storytellers are a national treasure we should pour into and protect at all costs. We’re grateful to Ashley, Jelly Roll, and the Tape Room writers for starting this conversation in the songwriting community and for lending their expertise and resources.”
The Jelly Roll hit “I Am Not Okay” offers an honest portrayal of the struggles many face with mental health issues. The song is from Jelly Roll’s recent Billboard 200-topping album Beautifully Broken.
Among Gorley’s recent accolades are ACM songwriter and song of the year for the Cole Swindell hit “She Had Me at Heads Carolina,” and ASCAP’s country song of the year with Wallen’s “You Proof.” Gorley was also honored as NSAI’s Songwriter of the Decade for 2010-2019.
In 2011, Gorley, a Belmont University graduate, also formed his own publishing company, Tape Room Music, with a roster that includes his “I Am Not Okay” co-writers Brown and Phillips.
Kelsea Ballerini has been in therapy since she was 12 years old, but she wasn’t always so open to the idea of working on her mental health.
The country superstar say down for a wide-ranging cover story for Women’s Health, where she revealed that she first went to therapy as mandated by the court after her parents’ divorce as a pre-teen. “I was young, and I was sad and confused, and I didn’t want to talk to a stranger that someone else was making me talk to,” she revealed of her hesitancy towards therapy, which continued a few years later when she was once again mandated to attend counseling after witnessing a shooting at her Knoxville high school. “Being a Virgo, being very strong-willed, especially when it comes to things that are tender, like mental health, I need to feel like it’s my decision.”
That’s why, when she turned 24, she decided to take her me tal health in her own hands and experience therapy the way she wanted to. “I’d been on the road for four years, and I was exhausted. I was married [Morgan Evans], and I was looking around at all my friends who have 9-to-5 jobs and still live in my hometown, and I was realizing I felt really removed, really different,” she recalled. “I was starting to have questions like, ‘What is driving me? Is missing Mom’s birthday worth it? Am I okay? And am I happy?’ I couldn’t answer these fundamental questions I should have been able to answer, so I got back into therapy, by my choice, and fell in love with it.”
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Ballerini added of a healing, day-long therapy session she experienced, “My therapist asked me to bring in letters, journals, and pictures from my childhood that are significant to me. I went in having no idea what I wanted to talk about. I just wanted to dig deeper. We started in the morning, and it lasted seven hours. [By the end], I was exhausted, but I had a better understanding of a lot of things. I had the time to really untangle them.”
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Now, she’s moving forward in a positive way. “I’m happy, and I’m in control of that happiness,” she says. “I feel grateful to have the people in my life that I do and to be able to put out a record on this level and play the rooms that I’ve always wanted to and also go home to my dogs.”
Ballerini is set to release her upcoming fifth studio album, Patterns, on Oct. 25.
Run-DMC’s Darryl McDaniels is getting vulnerable about his mental health. The rapper appears in the Generation X portion of MSNBC’s four-part documentary, My Generation, where recalls hearing Nirvana for the first time in the early 1990s. “Nirvana was an honest expression of not being ashamed to put your angst on the front page,” he said of […]
DaBaby’s mental health initiative, DaBaby Cares, partnered with Mental Health America of Central Carolinas (MHACC) on Thursday (Oct. 10) to host the first-ever youth town hall at West Charlotte High School. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The year-long partnership will provide a “safe space for young […]