Voxcali

After years of going to the gym and weightlifting, I officially have added reformer Pilates to my workout routine and now I can understand exactly why it has become one of the biggest fitness trends right now.

Kelli (00:00)

If you've been on TikTok or Instagram at any point in the last few years, you've probably seen the Pilates take over. Suddenly, grip socks are being bought everywhere, there's matching workout sets, and everyone is going to grab a matcha after class. Somehow Pilates has gone from something that's been around forever to becoming the It Girl workout again.

I've been weight training and going to the gym for the past four or five years now,

And I was never the type of person to like taking classes. But recently I added reformer Pilates into my regular workout routine, not to replace the gym. I still go to the gym about three times a week, primarily to do weight training. But I've been doing Pilates twice a week and I have absolutely been loving it.

I've just been very surprised at how much I've been enjoying the classes and how different it really makes me feel from lifting weights.

So today I want to talk about why I started Pilates, what reformer Pilates is actually like if you've never done it, and just my overall experience with adding it into my wellness routine.

Like I've said before, I've already had a pretty consistent relationship with the gym.

I used to play volleyball in high school and once a week we would do weight training, which is how I started going to the gym consistently.

I got into a routine where I was going to the gym five times a week, and when I was there, I'm lifting weights.

Three of my days would be leg days and the other two would be my abs and back.

Doing this, I felt strong and I liked feeling strong. I was progressively improving, I was lifting so much more weight than when I first started, and I really liked the results that I have gotten from weight training. But after kind of doing the same workouts over and over again, I wanted to try something different. A lot of my girlfriends were doing Pilates already.

And so the idea of doing Pilates was in the back of my mind. I didn't want to replace lifting. I just wanted something that would complement it.

Obviously social media might have pressured me a little bit because Pilates is everywhere right now.

And eventually I found out about class pass.

So if you've never used ClassPass before, the best way to explain it is that instead of buying a membership to one specific gym or studio, you have a membership that gives you access to a whole bunch.

When you sign up for ClassPass, you receive a certain amount of credits. And then you can use those credits to book different fitness and wellness experiences through the app. There's things from facials to manicures, pedicures, Pilates, yoga, sauna, and steam room bookings. You can book absolutely anything through this app. You can book absolutely anything that has to do with health, fitness, and wellness through ClassPass.

So one day you could do Pilates, you could do yoga the next day, and on the weekends you could do cycling or strength training. With ClassPass, you can also get the chance to book a gym time

if you don't want to commit to paying a membership at the gym monthly.

The number of credits a reservation requires depends on the studio, the time, the location, and how in demand that specific instructor is.

For me, I was mostly attracted to that flexibility. I didn't want to sign a contract with a Pilates studio because I didn't even know if I liked Pilates yet. But ClassPass kind of gives you the option to try a whole bunch of different things, different instructors and figure out what you really like doing.

So it kind of made working out a little bit more fun for me because I didn't feel locked in to doing the same thing every single week. I could switch it up with every single class that I took.

So, the type of Pilates that I've been really enjoying is Reformer Pilates.

If you've never worked out before, the Pilates reformer can look intimidating. But because I was doing so much weight training and I felt that I was very strong already, I would see the videos on TikTok and Instagram and think, that's so easy. I could totally do that.

I didn't really think it would be too much of a challenge.

So when one of my friends asked me if I wanted to go to a Pilates class with her, I agreed. And that's when she introduced me to ClassPass. I signed up with her for a reformer Pilates class. And I was kind of excited.

And I didn't really know what to expect because I hadn't taken a class with an instructor in a very long time.

With reformer Pilates, the instructor tells you exactly where your feet go, where your hands go, which straps to use, which equipment you'll need.

At first I was trying not to embarrass myself because I will admit that first class was very hard.

but once you kind of start to pick up the basic movements, it becomes really fun. Most of the classes on ClassPass are around 45 to 50 minutes, which I love because that is the perfect amount of time for me to feel like I got a real legit workout. And it's not this huge commitment where I have to spend over an hour and a half in the gym.

There's a lot of Pilates studios around where I live, so I can just drive there, do the class and then continue with my day, stop and get groceries after.

Because I'm not as tired as I would be after a full leg day workout in the gym.

So it's been about three months since I have added Pilates to my routine and I have been doing it twice a week along with going to the gym and doing weight training three times a week.

Now, Pilates can look kind of easy, just like I thought, but when you're actually in the class, your legs are shaking uncontrollably, and then your instructor will literally say 10 more, and you have to push through those 10 more, even though it burns like crazy. Pilates has been working out completely different muscles for me, and I really like the feeling.

of being able to say that I'm strong when it comes to weight training and also saying that I'm strong when it comes to endurance. Because you need lots of endurance to get through that Pilates class, especially when your instructor tells you to to to do ten more.

Now, the biggest change I've noticed since adding Pilates to my routine has been my core. I've always struggled with my core strength. When I first started working out, I could barely hold a plank for 30 seconds.

Whwn you're working out in the gym, you're kind of thinking about training abs as its own category, because you're doing your crunches, your leg raises, whatever your ab routine is. But Pilates has made me realize how much more engaging I can be with my core through an entire movement.

Pilates makes you pay attention to stabilizing your body and where you're positioning your pelvis and how well you're controlling a movement instead of just trying to get it done.

And since I've been doing Pilates, I've been noticing that when I'm in the gym, I feel much more aware of my body. I'm paying more I'm paying better attention to my form. And I'm thinking about my core as well when I'm doing other exercises.

And that's kind of why I really like doing the Pilates and weightlifting thing together. It totally complements each other because I still wanna lift and I still wanna build strength, but Pilates challenges me in a completely different way.

I feel like my current routine with three days of weightlifting and two days of Pilates gives myself some recovery time depending depending on how my body feels.

When I'm in the gym, my workouts pretty much focus on how heavy I'm lifting and my strength. And Pilates, I'm more focused on controlled movement, my core stability and mobility.

Mentally it also prevents me from just getting bored because really I was getting kind of tired of going to the gym five days a week. It just started to get repetitive. But now with those two days of Pilates, I feel like I'm ready to go weight train even harder than I would before.

And honestly, another thing about Pilates is that it really is just so much fun. Going to the gym and working out can be effective, but sometimes you really don't want to go and you kind of are hating every second of it once you're there. But with Pilates, I actually look forward to it and I realized there is something fun about taking a class.

I do like being around the other people. There's music. You have an instructor telling you exactly what to do. So you don't have to walk into the gym and kind of decide which workout you're gonna do today.

You get to just show up to the class and for forty five minutes somebody else has a whole routine already planned for you.

And I really just think there's something so motivating about everyone around you doing the exact same thing.

One thing I feel like people are very afraid about doing Pilates is not being able to do the full movements or not being able to keep up or do the exact same amount of reps as the other people in the class.

But really everyone kind of goes at their same pace. No one's competing with each other. And if you need to take a break, no one is going to judge you at all.

Everyone's legs are shaking, everyone is suffering together, and it really just feels like a wholesome community.

The funny thing is too, is that Pilates is not even a new thing.

Pilates became super popular back in the 2000s, but recently Pilates has been going viral all over TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

According to ClassPass, Pilates was actually the most book workout globally for the third consecutive year back in 2025.

That same year, fifteen million Pilates reservations were made through ClassPass.

And Pilates was searched more than twenty-seven million times on the app.

one of the reasons why I think Pilates has become so big is because there's an entire aesthetic to it now. And social media really glorifies that.

Girls are wearing their matching sets, giving that clean girl aesthetic with a slick back bun. You're bringing your cute water bottle. You're going to get matcha or to the farmer's market with your girlfriends after. It's an entire personality. And I think that's why it has become so relevant. Because people don't want to just work out. They want the whole experience. They want to wear that matching set. They want to grab.

They want to go buy those grip socks that they need for their reformer class. Going to a boutique Pilates studio feels different than going to just a Pilates class in a normal gym.

There's just a whole social component about Pilates classes. There's an atmosphere. And it's easy to make that look aesthetically pleasing online.

Pilates is so big right now that people are building their birthdays around Pilates. So instead of doing a birthday dinner, everyone is wearing a matching set and going to take a private Pilates class, then getting smoothies and brunch afterwards.

Gen Z is definitely shifting more towards that fitness lifestyle with run clubs, these Pilates birthdays, cold plunges, and other wellness gatherings. And I honestly can get on board.

I think there's something really positive about taking care of your health and enjoying doing that with other people. Having fun and going out doesn't always have to mean going to the club and drinking until two in the morning.

You can literally meet up with your friends on a Saturday morning and take a Pilates class and go get some food afterwards.

At end of the day, one of the biggest things Pilates has taught me is that being strong can mean completely different things. I was lifting weights, so I thought I knew what strength felt like, but then when I did that Pilates class for the first time.

I was questioning absolutely everything. There are muscles that I haven't engaged with at all before. And there are movements where the challenge isn't how much weight you can move. It's whether you can control your body and maintain your form even when you are so tired and about to collapse.

So would I recommend Pilates? Absolutely, yes. If you're someone who goes to the gym and you're kind of getting bored of your workout routine, try adding a Pilates class in once a week and see how you like it.

Taking a couple Pilates classes does not mean you have to be a Pilates person and stop lifting. It's totally fine to like both and

I also think with ClassPass it has made experimenting with different things like this so much easier because you can try a whole bunch of different studios rather than just sticking with one place.

So as of right now, my ideal workout routine has been three days of weightlifting and two days of Pilates. I really enjoy that balance right now. I've noticed that my core feels stronger and I'm really engaging more muscles when I'm exercising.

I feel like I'm getting different types of workouts when I'm switching from weightlifting and Pilates. And at the same time, I'm having fun doing both. I really didn't expect to look forward to Pilates classes every week, but

I totally understand why people keep coming back.

Pilates is super trendy right now, but I'm telling you, it's super challenging, it's very different, and it made working out feel kind of new to me again.

So I think it's safe to say that I have become a Pilates lover and I'm totally okay with that.

Thank you guys so much for listening and we'll see you in the next episode.

Quarterbacks Bachmeier and Maiava look like Sammy Baugh Trophy finalists, while on the diamond a Japanese trio reaches historic home run mark.

The opening week of the NFL season delivered explosive offense and major surprises.  Kalif Raymond made a stellar debut for the Chicago Bears, securing a team-high 84 yards on 8 catches to propel his squad to a dominant 59-37 victory over the Carolina Panthers.  On the opposite sideline, reigning rookie of the year Tetairoa McMillan put up a strong performance with 5 receptions for 75 yards.  Cardinals’ Simi Fehoko translated his preseason momentum onto the regular-season stage, blocking a punt to help fuel a massive upset over the Chargers, who were favored by 9.5 points.

In the college game, BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier continued his stellar play with 4 touchdowns in a high-profile Big 12 showdown against Arizona.  The Wildcats’ Noah Fifita countered with two scores – one passing and one rushing – though he was intercepted by Cade Uluave to help seal the Cougars’ 28-17 win.  USC star QB Jayden Maiava powered his early Heisman campaign with 5 passing touchdowns against Louisiana, bringing his season total to a nation-leading 10 passing scores alongside a dominant 91 QBR.

Major League Baseball action heated up as Cleveland’s Steven Kwan collected three hits including a home run to keep the Guardians narrowly ahead of the Blue Jays for the final American League playoff spot.  Toronto’s Brett Bateman fought back by launching his first two career home runs over the past week and has maintained an elite .328 batting average.  The Dodgers are finding themselves in a war of attrition.  Shohei Ohtani landed on the 15-day injured list with knee, neck, and bicep issues, though he reached the 30-home-run milestone for the sixth consecutive season.  He was joined in the 30-homer club this past week by fellow rookies Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto, creating history as the first Japanese trio to reach the mark in the same year.

After carving out an All-Pro career as a deep threat and return specialist in Detroit, veteran wide receiver Kalif Raymond brings his explosive playmaking to a high-flying Chicago Bears offense.

As the reigning NFC North champion Chicago Bears look to defend their crown, Chinese American wide receiver and return specialist Kalif Raymond joins the team this season as a new, flashy weapon for quarterback Caleb Williams.  

Now on his fifth team in 10 seasons, the 32-year-old has served as an explosive vertical threat and a dynamic kick and punt returner throughout his NFL career.

Raymond spent the past five seasons as a member of the Detroit Lions where he created a name for himself hitting elite career milestones.  In 2024 he led the league in punt return yards, earning Second-Team All-Pro honors, a feat he also accomplished in 2022.  In both of those standout years, as well as last season, he returned a punt for a touchdown, including a career-long 90-yard score.  As a receiver Raymond has accumulated over 2,500 yards and 9 receiving touchdowns.

The 5-foot-9 speedster began his professional journey unconventionally after going undrafted out of college.  Raymond caught his first break in 2016 by signing with the Denver Broncos. The following years saw him bounce across several organizations, spending time with the New York Jets, New York Giants, and Tennessee Titans before finding a multi-year home with the Detroit Lions in 2021.

Before reaching the pros, Raymond was a standout in college – both in track and football – for the Holy Cross Crusaders.  The Lawrenceville, Georgia-native earned All-Patriot League honors as both a receiver and a return specialist.

This past offseason Raymond signed with the Chicago Bears on a one-year $5.1M contract, in what looks to be an expanded role – both by design and circumstance.  He currently is listed to take on the punt returning responsibilities and is listed third on the depth chart for wide receiver, behind Rome Odunze and Luther Burden III.  Burden, however, sustained a groin injury in training camp and may be limited to start the season – giving Raymond more opportunity to shine for the Bears’ offense.

With the new season underway, Raymond is once again locked in as he looks to help the Bears surge forward and reach a Super Bowl for the first time since 2007.

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you will likely be starting with one to two pages per day and slowly ramping that up over time, training your focus like a muscle. And similarly with my running, I was not an athletic person when I started running. I basically spent years as a sedentary person. And all of a sudden when I ramped up this training volume, I was paying the price for it. Luckily being young, I was able to recover. And luckily running not being a contact sport meant I wasn't accumulating damage.

Victor (03:31)

Finally by the third year, I think I got injured near the end of the season. So that was progress.

Victor (04:08)

Besides the obvious diminishing returns, it can come back to bite you in the ass, especially if you are not properly conditioned.

Victor (04:41)

You need to start off with a well-made steel or ore. And if you do not have a lot of ore to work with, then you don't really have something you can fashion a tool from.

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purchased strength and conditioning programming from, he recommended that I start incorporating some easy zone two or 120 beats per minute running. And at first I dipped my toes into this by just showing up to my jiu-jitsu gym early and just running around the mat for

Roughly thirty minutes or so before class, just keeping that nice steady heartbeat. And then once that started to get a little tedious, I decided to just join a random run club on a win. I was dealing with some injuries in jujitsu and it seemed like a good chance to develop my other athletic capacities.

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for one day of training, one week of training, or even one month of training. It matters if you can sustain a volume of training over a long period of time without getting injured.

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the body thrives on having a large number of problems to solve.

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Whereas with strength training, whether you are beginning or advanced, three 90-minute sessions per week is enough to build a much more resilient body. And secondly, having a large base of strength just prepares you for a wider variety of activities and sports.

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Filipina creator, Nava Rose has taken her family’s “make do with what you have” mentality and transformed it into a fashion career followed by millions. 

Nava Rose can turn anything old and outdated into a stunning outfit that makes heads turn. This creativity has helped the Filipina influencer grow from making DIY videos at home to one of the internet’s top fashion creators.

She was born and raised in Orange County, California in a Filipino household. Her mother worked as an interior designer and her grandmother sparked Rose’s interest in sewing at a young age. Rose has been open about her family’s financial situation growing up and explained to her viewers that repairing and reusing old clothing was completely normal at home. Eventually, her “make do with what you have” mentality became the foundation to her content and dedication to sustainable fashion.

Rose started her YouTube channel in 2013, documenting her recycled fashion projects and thrift finds. She caught the attention of viewers with her impressive upcycling skills. Most of the clothes that she found at thrift shops would not fit her properly, leading her to transform them into pieces she would actually wear.

In 2019 Rose’s career reached a completely new level after joining TikTok. She was 29 years old and at first, she was worried that she would be too old for an app for lip-syncing teenagers. However, she flooded her page with outfit transitions, sewing projects, and styling videos which helped her reach 1.9 million followers in her first year on the platform.

As her audience grew, Rose started to be more vocal about fashion waste, partnering with a resale platform in 2023 that encourages young fashionistas to thrift their clothing rather than constantly purchasing brand new. She has also used her platform to spotlight her Filipino identity, attending a White House celebration for AAPI Heritage Month in 2024. Rose designed a Filipina-inspired suit dress that she created herself with second hand and recycled materials.

With over 5.5 million TikTok followers and 1.2 million YouTube subscribers, Nava Rose’s talent earned her a spot on TIME’s inaugural TIME100 Creators list in 2025. Her journey from homemade fashion videos to international recognition shows how the creativity and resourcefulness passed down through her Filipino family led her to success.

We meet Peyton Lachapelle, the First Lady's father and an associate of Jack Tang, and begin to see the mechanism behind the mayhem while Chip Garrison meets Special Agent Kate Sakurai.

Tom Kagy (00:01.08)

Hello, this is Tom Kagy with Unconventional Wisdom.

While the president and most of the world speculate on the forces behind the First Lady's kidnapping and Jack Tang's butchering, at least one man appears to be in the know.

Meet Peyton La Chapelle, the First Lady's father, and a man who has worked with Jack Tang to bring about mutually favorable changes in the world.

And they appear to have been engaged in dealings with powerful men on both sides of the Pacific.

Meanwhile, special aide chip Garrison finds himself in a hospital guarded by a very special special agent named Kate Sakurai, whose boss is determined to unravel the mystery ahead of his arch rival at the CIA.

And thus we begin to see the machinery behind the mayhem in Chapter eight of Midnight In Karakorum.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about the extra half million!” growled Peyton Lachapelle, “just make damned sure you snip off the loose ends, every last one of them.  And I don’t care whose aide he is.” 

Lachapelle grunted as his big beefy hand slammed the receiver.  Just like those stinking sewer rats to use the opportunity to take a few more bites out of his wallet!  That was the hell of operating in an imperfect system.  And as far as he was concerned, any system that wasn’t under the direct control of Peyton Lachapelle was an imperfect one.  But hell—real soon he would have no more cause to bitch and moan.  Now that he had delivered the last installment of his contribution, it was up to men on the other side of the world to move the plan forward to its conclusion.  He hoped like hell it would be as rewarding as it would be spectacular.

The inspiring night view of Houston highrises wasn’t what Lachapelle was seeing as he gazed out through the full-height picture window of his penthouse den.  He was exercising the kind of vision optic nerves couldn’t provide.  For other residents of the city the workday ended several hours ago, but for Lachapelle it was in full swing.  Much of his waking life was spent doing what he was doing now, using his versatile, well-informed imagination to get a fix on the likely motivations of other imaginative men in cities around the globe.  More than any other faculty, more even than his awe-inspiring physical presence, it was his highly-developed imagination that had made him a lord of the earth at the age of 69 when peers who had once fancied themselves on the fast track were out putting divots in innocent golf courses after lives of turning hamster wheels for unseen masters. 

One corner of Lachapelle’s mind lingered regretfully on the plight of his only daughter, but the main thrust of his thoughts had moved on to another powerful man in a city halfway around the world.  For that man, known to most as Master Bang—what wonderful names these chinks had, Lachapelle mused with a grin—it was mid-morning.  About now Bang too would be putting his impressive brain through its paces, perhaps with the help of a couple of young beauties working on his aging body.  A main stop for Bang’s imagination express would be Lachapelle himself.  The question on Bang’s mind would be whether Peyton Lachapelle had the power and acumen to deliver his end of the bargain, just as, for his own part, Lachapelle was mulling whether Bang had the guts, the balls, to stand up to the crushing pressure that would land on him soon after Lachapelle delivered.  Could even he, Peyton Lachapelle, stand up to that pressure if he were in Bang’s Bally loafers?  Lachapelle quickly dismissed the thought.  It was as meaningless as asking whether Bang could handle Lachapelle’s end if he were dropped into his alligator boots.  Bang hadn’t spent a lifetime learning how to feed and train American public servants with inflated self-images any more than Lachapelle had spent a lifetime learning how to keep three hundred million treacherous, hot-tempered northern chinks under his thumb.  

Lachapelle had met Bang a little over three years ago in the presidential suite of Tokyo’s Akasaka Prince Hotel, along with five other men, six if you counted that American chink Jack Tang.  The meeting had been arranged by Tang, probably the slickest damned chink Lachapelle had ever clinked glasses with.  Or was he a gook?  Both, Lachapelle decided.   And a good thing too.  It was reassuring to have a partner with a gut feel for at least three sides of an equation that had to balance six, maybe seven sides.  Tang had engineered the scheme—so breathtakingly daring, yet so fundamentally sound—though Lachapelle liked to think that he himself could have come up with it sooner or later.  Maybe not—the kid was a crackerjack strategist, with the devil’s own grasp of geopolitical pressure points.  It was a damned good thing a sharp son-of-a-bitch like that wasn’t in the White House.  That was too scary to contemplate. 

Once things were underway, Bang’s ability to hang tough would be the key to success, Lachapelle had decided.  Could Bang do it?  He flashed on the Manchurian’s face—high-cheekboned, square-jawed, quick-eyed.  Lachapelle had only met him face to face that once, but he could picture Bang’s face as though he stood in front of him.  Tang had made one of his impudent cracks and Bang had laughed a laugh that could only have come from deep in his belly.  The man was absolutely secure about his place in the universe, not someone who lived in fear of losing what he had but one who could gamble everything for a chance at more.  Yes, Lachapelle decided, Bang was a man like himself.  A man who would sooner die in a nuclear holocaust than buckle under pressure.  And during the next two days Bang would be awaiting final word. 

This old world had become a place where decent, hardworking men lived at the mercy of godless incompetents who cared only about glorifying and enriching themselves.  That would soon change.  If all went well, in a matter of days the world would see a complete realignment of the global power structure.  Once they learned the role that he, Petyon Lachapelle, played in bringing about the changes—perhaps in a few years—Americans would applaud his courage.  He didn’t need their thanks, however.  A suitable reward had been devised—control of what was likely the world’s biggest oil and natural gas reserves to serve the world’s fastest-growing economy. 

No longer would Peyton Lachapelle be jacked around by those arrogant southern chinks with their layer upon layer of corrupt bureaucracy and their maddening on-again, off-again decrees on oil-exploration joint ventures.  They had wasted years of his life and tied up billions of dollars of drilling rigs that were costing Lachapelle Petroleum almost a million dollars a day.  After all that they had cheated him out of the better part of his hard-won drilling rights and given them to the majors.  Even more galling, all this had happened with the weak-kneed acquiescence of his own son-in-law.  The craven bastard had caved to the big boys’ threats to make a stink about his having favored his father-in-law.

The plan would soon redeem all that had been lost, and more.  Lachapelle’s only regret was that his daughter Megan had to get mixed up in it, however harmlessly.  It would all turn out for the best.  She would be much happier once she had put the First Bozo behind her.

Lachapelle sat back down and gazed out at the lights for another hour of deep thought, then his eyes happened to catch a rerun of his son-in-law’s press conference from earlier that day.            

“We must never forget,” the President was saying, gazing deeply into the very soul of the TV camera, “that freedom is not free.  As long as I am President of the United States, and as long as there are those who would test our resolve to defend our freedom, the United States will pay the price, whatever it may prove to be.”

“You damn betcha,” muttered Lachapelle.  For a moment he let himself forget that he was the man who had engineered this little crisis and became a citizen hearing his president’s call for support.  The Taylor boy had the balls of a ground squirrel, Lachapelle thought, but he looked magnificent milking a little crisis for votes.

Soon after graduating from FBI’s Academy in Quantico, Virginia, Director Samuel Hanson had begun cultivating the habit of being the first person in every morning.  Seven-thirty was plenty early to get the jump on the laggards who staffed most of the eight offices he had worked during his thirty years as a special agent.  This Saturday morning, however, Hanson had come in at six and puttered around for what seemed like an eternity waiting for Kate Sakurai, SAC—Special Agent in Charge—of the San Francisco office to drag her bony ass in by her laggard west coast clock.  Hanson rarely worked Saturdays any more, simply because his new duties couldn’t justify putting in the kind of hours that had made him a legendary special agent.  Today, however, he was a man with a real case to work.  The kidnapping of a First Lady was excuse enough for the Director himself to roll up his sleeves. 

What churned Hanson’s stomach was the hunch that the First Lady might be spirited out of the country.  Once that happened, Martin Underwood—who as Director of Central Intelligence was also the statutory overlord of the US Intelligence Community, making him nominally Hanson’s superior—would lose no time elbowing the FBI out of the investigation.  Sam Hanson would rather spend eternity in hell than lose the biggest case of his career to Martin Underwood and his James Bond wannabes.  Hanson was personally taking charge of the case and Kate Sakurai could like it or lump it.  He glanced at the clock.  It was nearly 9:30, 6:30 even out there in California.  Damn it, where was that woman?

The phone rang.

“Still getting in late, Sakurai?” harumphed Hanson.

“Kiss my badge,” Sakurai muttered.  “I’m supposed to go to a wedding today.”

“Then you may thank me for sparing you the boredom.”

“My only niece’s wedding.”

“All the more reason for avoiding it,” Hanson snapped.  “Now then, let’s hear what you got.”

“Yesterday we put every available agent—that’s three hundred agent hours—to checking out every guest and waiter at the AATA fundraiser.  We figured at least two of the perps must have been in the ballroom before the lights went out.  They only had four, maybe five seconds to snatch up the First Lady and carry her out before the Secret Service agents got on their night vision goggles and gave chase through the kitchen and down the utility stairs.”

“Good, good,” snapped Hanson, more to hurry Sakurai along than by way of praise.  The woman had the longest damned rampups he’d ever heard!  “So what?”

“I’m getting to it!  You’re the antsiest son of a gun I ever saw.”  Sakurai expressed her annoyance with a silence that seemed to last forever.  Somehow Hanson kept himself from snapping again.  “Anyway,” said Sakurai at long last, “some of the wait staff recalled seeing an Asian male waiter no one recognized, a well-built fellow.  As for the guests, we ID’d every one of the six hundred thirty except one, another Asian male.  This one sounds even bigger and beefier than the waiter.  Apparently, he was sitting at one of the tables bought by Tang’s company.  It was right up front, beside the podium.  None of the others at the table knew the man.  They all figured he was a friend of Tang’s or had just slipped into an empty seat near the front.”

“At a $5,000 a plate fundraiser?  With the First Lady on the marquee?  I wouldn’t think there was an empty seat in the house!”

“Right,” Sakurai said, annoyed.  “Every seat was spoken for.”

“The perps were too sharp to leave that to chance.  They wouldn’t have someone floating around the ballroom without a seat, not with the secret service all over the place.  They must have known the seat would be empty.  Did you check with the organizer for the official guest list on that table to see who didn’t show?”

“The only one was Jack Tang who, as it turns out, was indisposed.”

“Did anyone know in advance if and when he was expected?”

“One of the guests at that table was his secretary, a woman named Alice Chen.  She wasn’t expecting her boss until shortly before the First Lady was scheduled to arrive because Tang was being interviewed by that magazine editor Rosefall while the fundraiser was going on.  Then Tang called her cell phone a little before the First Lady got there to say he was running late and to have another Silicon Valley muckety-muck named Logan Chu introduce the First Lady.”

“Did she know the mystery guest?”

“Like I said, she figured he was a friend of Tang’s or someone from another table who wanted a better look at the First Lady.”

“So only Tang knew the seat would be conveniently empty,” Hanson muttered, almost to himself.  “And Tang is dead.”

“That’s an understatement.”

“Gruesome, wasn’t it?  How’d they ID him?”

“No fingerprints in what the meatgrinder put out.  Maybe just the secretary’s visual.  I’ll check with the coroner.  He hadn’t done the autopsy yesterday afternoon and I doubt if he’s working on a Saturday.”

“I want details on the positive ID.  Also send someone out right away to grill Tang’s key people, like that Alice Chen.  You may be that someone, Sakurai.”

“What a sweetheart.  You’re another leading candidate for the meatgrinder one of these days, Hanson.”

“Hmmm.  Is that how you’d do me, Sakurai, I mean when the time comes, seeing as how you hate my guts?”

“Me?  I’m not good with grinders and electric carving knives.  Maybe I’ll get my husband to work the appliances.”

“Seriously, is that how you Chinamen might express, shall we say, personal animosity?”

Sakurai was silent, catching Hanson’s drift.  “To me, a Japanese American—not a ‘Chinaman’, as you so offensively put it—it seems more like something I’d do to scare someone else.”

“This Swede thinks so too,” Hanson murmured thoughtfully.  “Now who in god’s name could this Rosefall possibly want to scare the bejeezus out of?”

“Thought you didn’t think Rosefall did it.”

“I don’t.  But whoever killed Tang spun the bottle so it would point to Rosefall.  If you wanted to frame Rosefall, would you take the time to grind off the victim’s arms and legs unless you were sure that was something Rosefall would do?”

“I see what you’re getting at.”

“Can’t imagine that Rosefall could possibly want to scare anyone badly enough to go through that much trouble.”

“Maybe another extortion victim?”

“You mean some other oriental tycoon?”

“From what I recall of his magazine—well edited, by the way—about half the pages are profiles of Asian—not ‘oriental’, Hanson—bigshots and the other half are economic and political analyses of the Pacific Rim, usually pretty egghead stuff.”

“Just to cover our behind, have a couple of your agents contact every Asian worth writing up and see if any of them received a direct or indirect threat.  I don’t think we’ll find any.”

“You’re saying whoever set up Rosefall did a half-ass job?”

“I can’t quite figure the meatgrinder, but it smells like they picked Rosefall because he was the only candidate.”

“Because they knew Tang was under 24-hour surveillance.”

“Could be, could be.  Otherwise, why frame a weak-ass suspect like Rosefall?  Hell, if all they wanted was to snuff Tang, they would have been better off making it look like a bungled burglary.  Smells to me like they knew about the surveillance.”

“You’re a genius, Hanson.  You’ve just narrowed it down to every professional hitman in the world.”

“And they knew about Tang’s plans not to make it to the fundraiser on time.”

“But even Tang didn’t know he’d be late,” Sakurai protested. 

“That’s Alice Chen’s opinion,” Hanson snapped.  “I don’t share it.”

“Are you saying Tang had a hand in planning the kidnapping?”

“About time that rusty old gearbox of yours kicked in, Sakurai,” Hanson declared merrily.  “Without Tang’s wholehearted participation, they couldn’t have timed everything down to the wire.”

“Then Tang puts the finishing touches by grinding off his limbs, then chopping off his own head?” Sakurai murmured.  “Brilliant.”

“That part Tang may not have planned.”

“Since Tang couldn’t have chopped off his own head, especially after grinding off his arms, and Rosefall was the only other person in the house, it must have been Rosefall.”

“Not in a million years.  The man had a couple of petty assault charges, which proves nothing except that he’s got a nasty temper.  He has a wife and kids, had a nice law practice for about ten years, then poured what he saved into the magazine.  It isn’t a cash cow, but according to the returns, about three years ago it started throwing off enough for him to live a few notches better than your average FBI senior agent.  I don’t see him being hard up enough to risk everything to go into the extortion racket, much less snuff an old friend.”

“So how’d the killer get in and out without being spotted by the Pentagon security detail?”

“Tuesday evening Tang pulled a car switch with his CFO,” Hanson said.  “The security idiots spent four hours watching a BMW while Tang was gallivanting around god knows where in a Chevy Blazer.  He could have slipped someone into the house then.”

“Why would he sneak in someone who then kills him?”

“When you figure that out, Sakurai,” Hanson snapped, “we may have a clue to the First Lady’s kidnapping.  Now don’t even think about calling me again until you have some real answers.”

“Chatting with you again, Hanson, ain’t much of an incentive,” Sakurai retorted and slammed down the phone before Hanson could reply. 

Hanson sat back and chuckled, rubbing his hands in anticipation.  He’d riled Sakurai.  If he knew Kate, she’d get her skinny little ass in gear as soon as she was off the phone and start making life miserable for her kids until she figured out who had done what to whom for what profit.  It wouldn’t be too long now before that slimy little Martin Underwood would be peeling off several big ones, with the utmost reluctance, for a case of Wild Turkey, the old mellow stuff, to settle their little wager, friendly or not.

Olympic champions Haruka Kitaguchi and Arshad Nadeem head a star-studded lineup of track and field elites preparing for the high-stakes Budapest season finale beginning on September 11th.

The global track and field community is turning its attention toward Budapest as the National Athletics Centre prepares to host the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship from September 11th to 13th.  This high-stakes, compact season finale brings together only the elite champions of the sport to compete for a record-breaking $10M prize purse, where individual winners will earn $150,000.

One major athlete completely locked in for the women’s javelin field is Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan, who secured her direct invitation as both a reigning world-class titleholder and the gold medalist from the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.  Kitaguchi continues to elevate global throwing with her remarkable composure and consistency under pressure, boasting a personal best of 67.38 meters.  Her technical precision and dominant competitive record make her a clear favorite to watch as she steps onto the runway in Budapest.

On the men’s side of javelin Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem is the reigning Olympic champion.  Nadeem continues to elevate global throwing with his explosive power and unmatched consistency, backed by a personal best of 92.97 meters.  His technical precision and dominant competitive record make the 6’4” standout one to watch this competition.

Another exceptional athlete to follow is EJ Obiena of the Philippines, who brings immense talent to the men’s pole-vaulting competition.  Known for his fierce competitiveness among an elite field, Obiena enters the championship as a premier medal threat.  At the 2024 Olympics he advanced to the finals and was just one spot shy of medaling.

As the entire sporting world gathers in Hungary, these dedicated athletes perfectly embody elite excellence at the absolute pinnacle of global athletics, fiercely competing for the sport's largest and most prestigious prizes.

Lea Salonga began her career in Manila at the age of seven and has spent decades making history voicing two iconic Disney princess anthems and earning herself a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Filipina singer and actress Lea Salonga is the only person ever to provide the singing voices for two different official Disney princesses. But before she brought Mulan’s “Reflection” to life, her career began in Manila, where she would perform professionally at just seven years old in a production of The King and I. She went on to play the lead in Annie as well as several other stage productions, spending years perfecting her talent.

It wasn’t until 1989 when the creators of stage musical, Miss Saigon, began searching worldwide for an actress to play Kim, a young Vietnamese lead. Solonga became their star at the age of 18, earning the Laurence Olivier Award, before bringing it to Broadway and winning the 1991 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. This win made Solonga the first Asian woman to win the award in that category.

Salonga continued her career on Broadway when she became the first Asian actress to play Éponine in Les Misérables, and later as Fantine, proving her versatility early on. Then came Disney. Salonga gave the world Princess Jasmine’s singing voice in the 1992 animated classic Aladdin which included the Oscar-winning song “A Whole New World”.

Six years later, Salonga became the singing voice of Mulan, executing the iconic, “Reflection”. She also returned for Mulan II and was inducted as a Disney Legend in 2011 for her contributions to the company and stealing the hearts of millions of Disney fans. Solanga just recently performed the two classics at Disney Princess: The Ultimate Concert Celebration during World Princess Week in August 2026.

Aside from Disney, Salonga has continued to celebrate Filipino talent, joining the first all-Filipino Broadway company Here Lies Love in 2023. Her influence has since been recognized far beyond theater as TIME honored her with a TIME100 Impact Award in 2022 and on September 4, 2026, she became the first Filipina to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Not only did Lea Salonga sing two of the most iconic Disney songs, she became a real-life role model for Asian performers, and now more than four decades after her first stage appearance, Salonga is still collecting career firsts.

From Dodgers plushies to Rams bobbleheads, Hello Kitty has become one of the cutest and smartest strategies in sports.

Hello Kitty might seem like an unusual guest at a major sporting event, but for some reason, the Japanese character has been appearing on everything from Dodgers jerseys to a Los Angeles Rams bobblehead.

In recent years, Hello Kitty Nights have become some of the most popular promotions in American sports. Fans arrive dressed in their favorite merchandise, line up for limited-edition collectibles, and sometimes purchase special plushies or jackets featuring Hello Kitty in their team’s uniform.

But what does the adorable character have to do with sports? A Hello Kitty collaboration has the ability to turn an ordinary game into a pop-culture event, bringing in families, collectors and younger or more female audiences who may not normally keep up with sports. At the same time, it also gives existing fans an exciting way to combine team loyalty with their own personal style.

Major League Baseball was one of the first sports organizations to capitalize on the opportunity. Hello Kitty merchandise connected to the Angels, Dodgers and Padres was found to be successful throughout the 2013 season, so Sanrio expanded its MLB partnership the year after to include merchandise for all 30 teams. The Dodgers hopped on the Hello Kitty promo train quickly, giving the first 40,000 fans an exclusive plush at a 2015 game.

In 2022, the Houston Astros gave us a perfect example of the power that came with this cute Japanese character. The team introduced a Hello Kitty Night with a ticket add-on that sold out within one hour, leading them to also develop two annual Hello Kitty Nights in 2023. 2026’s Hello Kitty Night featured a $66 tumbler add-on and a $126 VIP package that included face painting, photo ops, and a meet-and-greet with Hello Kitty herself.

The Seattle Mariners have seen similar demand as their September 2026 Hello Kitty ticket package, which included a Mariners-themed jacket, completely sold out, showing how an exclusive collectible can give people another reason to attend a particular game.

Beyond baseball, LAFC became the first Major League Soccer club to partner with Sanrio in 2019 and in December 2025, the Los Angeles Rams announced the first Hello Kitty collaboration with an NFL team, releasing apparel, a bobblehead, and special programming inside SoFi Stadium. Also in 2025, Hello Kitty partnered with F1 to develop a 36-piece merchandise collection along with interactive activities at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Hello Kitty is bringing nostalgia and collectible value into a space historically marketed through toughness and masculinity. She’s not making sports less serious. She’s only expanding the idea of who belongs in the audience and what a sports fan can look like.

The millennia give way to the glittering moment as night settles into a great museum.

Marble holds its breath all day

Under glass the centuries lay

Latin tags and dust in beams

The dead lie quiet in their dreams

Then the doors give up a sigh

Heels come ringing, voices high

Three thousand years look up to see

The living in their finery

[Chorus]

Museum nightlife, the halls are waking up

Sequins by the sarcophagus, champagne in a plastic cup

Museum nightlife, the past can only stare

While the future films itself and hangs it in the air

We're all relics come the morning, so hold the pose, hold the pose

Museum nightlife, the marble never knows

[Verse 2]

Pharaoh's got a velvet rope, the Venus got a sponsor's name

Every arm's a tripod now, every face is in a frame

Canapés on silver trays beside a Bronze Age bowl

Everybody's curating something they call their soul

Stiff collars and bare shoulders drift from room to room

Bright loud laughter landing on a Roman tomb

[Chorus]

Museum nightlife, the halls are waking up

Sequins by the sarcophagus, champagne in a plastic cup

Museum nightlife, the past can only stare

While the future films itself and hangs it in the air

We're all relics come the morning, so hold the pose, hold the pose

Museum nightlife, the marble never knows

[Verse 3]

A rhythm and a beat and some lyrics half-remembered

Calling to a summer that slipped away one September

Nobody knows the verses, everybody knows the hook

Every mouth is moving, every eye is on the look

The suits jerk on their hinges, the gowns swing on the beat

Like mannequins remembering they used to have feet

And the statues watch it all with their eyes rubbed blank

Wondering which of us goes in the next glass tank

[Bridge]

And at every corner, feathered girls are posed

Bare legs, painted faces, holding still like they're composed

Reminders, if you needed one, the night is make-believe

The showgirls never blink and the showgirls never leave

So dance, little relic, while the lights are still on

Something's got to be alive by the time the night is gone

[Final Chorus]

Museum nightlife, the halls are waking up

Sequins by the sarcophagus, champagne in a plastic cup

Museum nightlife, the past can only stare

While the future films itself and hangs it in the air

We're all relics come the morning, so hold the pose, hold the pose

Museum nightlife, the marble never knows

[Outro]

Lights up, coats on, the guards throw the locks

Ten thousand tiny galleries keep scrolling on the clock

Marble takes its breath again, the halls go cold and still

The digital museums never close

And they never will