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A few minutes of conversation with Herbert Jones reveals his introspective nature. His answers to questions include greeted pauses and drawn-out words, as if he wants to avoid being hasty and leave out crucial details as he curates a response on the fly.

Curiosities about his development as a shooter, defender, and assimilation to NBA life are met with patient, lengthy insights. Jones aims to welcome people into his basketball world, perhaps because the basketball world has so graciously welcomed him.

Midway through his rookie season with the New Orleans Pelicans, Jones is one of the brightest first-year players across a landscape flooded by them. Rising stars like Evan Mobley and Cade Cunningham dominate the headlines, but Jones’ play suggests they might be his contemporaries on the All-Rookie First Team come springtime. Unlike them, Jones had to wait quite a while to hear his name called during last summer’s draft. Thirty-four players were selected before him, but only a handful have been better thus far.

At 6’8 with a 7-foot wingspan, Jones is an omnipresent defender whose assignments this season feature a who’s who of modern NBA stars: Kevin Durant, Luka Doncic, Trae Young, and more. There is no shortage of trial by fire opportunities for the 23-year-old.

“It’s never a night off, and I love that about the NBA,” says Jones, who received the nickname “Straightjacket” from fellow Pelicans rookie Trey Murphy III. “My teammates, my coaches, they trust enough in my defensive abilities to go out and make it tough on these high-level scorers.”

Players like Durant, Doncic, and Young are all starkly different in how they ink their signature of stardom. Understanding their tendencies — the proper level of aggression to inflict, how many dribbles they prefer before shooting, whether they’re better driving left or right, etc. — are all part of the consistent learning curve.

“In college, you could send guys to their off-hand and they’ll probably struggle,” Jones says. “But in the NBA, sometimes, it’s better to send them to their stronger hand because they’re less efficient driving to their stronger hand because it’s harder for them to shoot pull ups. Most guys, like right-handed guys drive left, it’s easier for them to pull-up with their right hand.”

Rookies are not often tabbed for those matchups by default. Even though Pelicans have dealt with injuries much of the season, Jones earned these battles. He functions with the fluidity of a jittery guard defender, winds around screens like they’re weathered traffic cones, and is constantly sticking his mitts where opposing defenders don’t want them. His exceptional lateral quickness stems from footwork drills, he says. Jones aims to land softly before immediately exploding into another movement, ensuring he’s always light on his feet.

His block and steal rates both rank above the 90th percentile, according to Cleaning The Glass, and he’s fourth league-wide in total deflections. He’s already a borderline All-Defensive Team-caliber stopper. Hone in on Jones defensively for a few minutes and track how many times he’ll influence a play with his hands. The number probably hits double-digits before too long.

But he didn’t always operate this way. When Jones was a junior at Alabama, the school hired a new head coach in Nate Oats, who preached the importance of “high hands up on passes.” During practice, they performed drills that focused on “pass challenges.” Jones started to recognize the value of high hands, both in live action and film sessions.

“It was definitely a process because I wasn’t too cognizant of it before coach Oats got there,” Jones says. “Once I saw some results of how it affected the passer, and not necessarily me getting steals, but making it easier for the defense to recover — like, they had to make a skip pass — it was easier for me to make that transition to try to challenge every pass.”

Jones’ father, Walter, imparted the general gravity of defense many years ago. Growing up, Jones and his brother were told, “the shots might not fall some days, but your defense, it’ll follow you anywhere.” That mantra resonated, and Jones has validated it ever since.

His defense popping is not a surprise — popping to this magnitude so abruptly can be considered unexpected, in fairness — but Jones’ offense is the real kicker. After shooting 28.8 percent beyond the arc in college (35.1 percent as a senior), he’s opened his inaugural NBA campaign at 38.2 percent from deep on volume never achieved at Alabama. Over his past 14 games, tangible signs of development are bubbling. He’s averaging 13.6 points on 63.6 percent true shooting, including a 40.9 percent mark from three. Across his previous 30 games, he averaged just 7.2 points and drilled 34.4 percent of his threes.

These days, he’s quicker to launch triples, more successful snaking his way through traffic as a slasher, and is seeing a few more touches to create with the ball in his hands. Jones is aware of this stretch and the factors driving it.

He doesn’t merely brush everything aside with broad truisms of “trusting the work” or growing more comfortable and confident in his role. They’re justifiably mentioned — he says the confidence his teammates and head coach Willie Green bestow him is vital — but he’s again introspective and pulls back the curtain on those concepts.

During his second year at Alabama, Jones endured what he calls a “sophomore slump.” After an encouraging freshman season, the progress he, and perhaps others, anticipated didn’t quite manifest. “I had a bad year,” he says of a year that saw his numbers largely plateau or decline across the board.

Yet the words of an assistant coach, John Pelphery, helped him navigate the slump. They’ve stuck in the ensuing years and solidified his belief that becoming a good shooter was always a matter of when, not if.

“He gave me an example of a road to success, and a lot of people think it was a straight line. And then, there’s this other line that went all around the world,” Jones says. “He said, it might not happen in six months, it might not happen in two years. But if I kept working, it’ll eventually happen. And I just believed in that.

“A lot of the times before, when I was struggling from three, I’d get to a game and wouldn’t trust the technique that I had been working on in the gym by myself,” he continues. “I feel like now that I’ve been putting in a good amount of work, I just go out and trust my work.”

Jones acknowledges he’s playing heavy minutes for a rookie. Only three rookies have played more thus far. That doesn’t, however, mean his adjustment period is any shorter. Learning how to play alongside the Pelicans’ offensive pillars, Jonas Valanciunas and Brandon Ingram, requires time.

In 129 collegiate games, he only attempted 118 threes. In 44 NBA games, he’s already attempted 76, 44 of which have come over the past four weeks (14 games). Once a drive-first, shoot-second player, Jones maximizing NBA life demands a reshaping of his priorities.

He knows optimizing interior-inclined scorers like Valanciunas and Ingram means launching those threes more often. Sure, an attack off the catch might suffice and he’s capable of them, but what best suits the offense is taking advantage of the open looks from deep. Balancing all of that is a process.

“I’m just trying to figure out what other guys’ favorite spots are on the court, so I’m gonna complement those guys,” Jones says. “I feel like I’m getting more comfortable in that role. When I figure that out, I think it’ll be even easier for me to figure out how to chip in on the offensive end.”

He doesn’t solely “complement those guys” as a floor-spacer. He’s also a savvy off-ball screener and cutter. Playing under Walter as an underclassman at Sunshine High, Jones learned the value of moving, cutting, and screening.

“Whenever my man turns his head, I just try to find a gap in a defense to make someone either commit to me and somebody else is open. Or, they leave me open and I can score the ball,” he says. “I never wanted to be a guy that, when I passed the ball, liked to just stand there.”

Further illuminating the impact he could craft without the ball was a wrist injury he suffered his junior year at Alabama. In late January 2020, he fractured the wrist on his dominant left hand, which briefly sidelined him. Two weeks later, he returned to the lineup donning a bulky cast that interfered with his shooting and dribbling capacities.

Before the injury, he averaged 9.9 points and 7.3 shots per game. After the injury, he averaged 3.3 points and 1.9 shots, including three games where he didn’t even attempt a field goal. Jones still started seven of his eight post-injury games. The Crimson Tide relied on his services and he wanted to provide them.

As a result, he established other avenues to contribute, separate from the ball being placed in his hands. He mastered the delicate art and timing of pin-in screens to spring free corner shooters. During that period, high-level feel and instincts were reinforced as fundamental to his offensive mark. “I feel like it had more of an impact mentally than it did anything with basketball,” he says.

Ahead of training camp this fall, Jones dialed Pelicans wing Garrett Temple, who he immediately identifies as a veteran who’s been crucial in simplifying his rookie season. Jones heard stories about players who overextended themselves during training camp and were gassed by season’s end. As someone who “always tried to play as hard as [he] could,” Jones wanted to avoid that experience.

Temple gave him advice that helped Jones lay the foundation for his first year in the league: Get in ahead of veterans for pre-practice treatment. Take care of your body. Refine every part of your game, even areas beyond the ones addressed with the team. Establish a dietary routine — in college, treatment and meals were readily available. Jones didn’t have to organize much of it himself. Breakfast and lunch could be eaten at the gym. Snacks were accessible. A dining hall for dinner was nearby.

Now, he has to build his own structure, which was certainly not the case before. Critical habits like these can get buried amid newfound free time.

“My schedule,” Jones says, “is nowhere near as busy as it was in college.”

That schedule now includes nightly duels with NBA royalty. Thanks to his basketball background, they’re duels that Jones is equipped to win.

This article originally appeared on 09.30.15

Before 54-year-old Mario passed away, he had one special goodbye he needed to say … to his favorite giraffe.

Mario had worked as a maintenance man at the Rotterdam zoo in the Netherlands for over 25 years. After his shifts, he loved to visit and help care for the animals, including the giraffes.

As Mario’s fight against terminal brain cancer came to an end, all he wanted to do was visit the zoo one last time. He wanted to say goodbye to his colleagues — and maybe share a final moment with some of his furry friends.

Thanks to one incredible organization, Mario got his wish.

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“To say goodbye to the animals.”

The Ambulance Wish Foundation, a Dutch nonprofit, helps people like Mario experience one final request.

It’s a lot like Make-A-Wish, only it’s not just for kids.

In 2006, Kees Veldboer, who was an ambulance driver at the time, was moving a patient from one hospital to another. The patient was a terminally ill man who had spent three straight months confined to a hospital bed. During the trip from one hospital to the other, the patient told Veldboer that he wanted to see the Vlaardingen canal one last time. He wanted to sit in the sun and wind and smell the water again before going back inside.

“To see the ocean again.”

Veldboer made the patient’s last wish happen, and as tears of joy streamed down the man’s face, Veldboer knew he had tapped into a powerful way to bring peace to people in their final days.

Soon after, the Ambulance Wish Foundation was born.

Based in the Netherlands, Veldboer’s organization scoffs at the logistical hurdles of transporting terminally ill patients who need high levels of care and, often, lots of medical equipment. The Ambulance Wish Foundation employs a fleet of custom-built ambulances and always has highly trained medical staff on hand for emergencies.

“To visit my best friend’s grave.”

Their message? Positive end-of-life experiences are far too important to pass up.

Today, the AWF has over 230 volunteers and has fulfilled nearly 7,000 wishes.

Even more beautiful than the work this organization does, though, are the things its patients are asking for.

“To enjoy a delicious ice cream cone.”

The Make-A-Wish Foundation specializes in granting wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses, many of whom have barely begun to live. The children’s wishes run the gamut, from starring in a music video to a day as a hero soldier in the Army.

But what does Veldboer do for older folks who have already experienced so much? What do their wishes look like?

Mostly, it’s the little things they cherish, like seeing their home one last time or spending a few hours just looking at something beautiful.

Veldboer, in an interview with the BBC, describes one woman who had not been home for six months. When they brought her into her living room on a stretcher, she hoisted herself up and stayed there for hours, doing nothing but looking around — likely replaying an entire lifetime worth of memories — before quietly asking them to take her away.

Another patient simply wanted to see her favorite Rembrandt painting again.

“To see my favorite painting one last time.”

And another just wanted to spend an afternoon watching dolphins play.

“To watch the dolphins play.”

On and on the wishes go — about four of them fulfilled every day. People who just want to see their grandchild for the first time, or stand on the beach again before they can’t anymore.

Turns out that life’s simplest pleasures just might be its most meaningful.

Sometimes it feels like there’s never enough time. Not in a day. Not in a year. Not in a life.

“To attend my granddaughter’s wedding.”

But maybe it’s better to cherish what we have rather than spend so much time thinking about all the things we haven’t done yet.

Maybe the things we remember at the end aren’t the time we went skydiving or the time we hiked across Europe. When our time is up, maybe what we’ll remember most is more mundane — the tacky wallpaper in the house we grew up in, a sunny day spent on the water, or those little everyday moments spent with the people we love the most.

Whatever it is, it’s comforting to know there are people out there who want our last memories of this place to be good ones.

I can’t think of a more wonderful job.

Van Gough never got to enjoy his own historic success as an artist (even though we’ve been able to imagine what that moment might have looked like). But it turns out that those of us who have appreciated his work have been missing out on some critical details for more than 100 years.

I’m not easily impressed, OK?

I know Van Gogh was a genius. If the point of this were “Van Gogh was a mad genius,” I would not be sharing this with you.

But I found this and I thought, “Oh, what a vaguely interesting thing.” And then I got to the part about the Hubble Space Telescope, and, let me tell you: Mind. Blown.

We’ve got the set up here, but you have to watch the video for the full effect. It’s all the way at the bottom.

Get this: Van Gogh was a pretty cool artist (duh), but as it turns out…

…he was also A SCIENTIST!*

*Pretty much.

Here’s the story.

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While Van Gogh was in an asylum in France, after he mutilated his ear during a psychotic episode*…

(*Or, and I’d like to thank the entire Internet for pointing this out, there’s a theory that his friend Paul Gauguin actually cut off his ear, in a drunken sword fight, in the dark. The more you know!)

…he was able to capture one of science’s most elusive concepts:

~~~TURBULENCE~~~

Although it’s hard to understand with math (like, REALLY HARD), it turns out that art makes it easy to depict how it LOOKS.

So what is turbulence?

Turbulence, or turbulent flow, is a concept of fluid dynamics where fluid movements are “self-similar” when there’s an energy cascade — so basically, big eddies make smaller eddies, and those make even smaller ones … and so on and so forth.

It looks like this:

See? It’s easier to look at pictures to understand it.

Thing is, scientists are pretty much *just* starting to figure this stuff out.

Then you’ve got Van Gogh, 100 years earlier, in his asylum, with a mutilated ear, who totally nailed it!

The folks who noticed Van Gogh’s ability to capture turbulence checked to see whether other artists did the same. Most impressionists achieved ” luminance” with their art (which is the sort-of *pulsing* you see when you look at their paintings that really shows what light looks like).

But did other artists depict turbulence the way Van Gogh did?

NOPE.

Not even “The Scream” could hold a candle to Van Gogh!

Even in his darkest time, Van Gogh was able to capture — eerily accurately — one of nature’s most complex and confusing concepts … 100 years before scientists had the technology to observe actual star turbulence and realize its similarity to fluid turbulence mathematics as well as Van Gogh’s swirling sky. Cool, huh?

Watch the video below to learn even more:

In mildly surprising news — depending on your expectations and where you looked — Andrew Wiggins was named a starter for the Western Conference All-Stars on Thursday evening. The selection marked his first appearance as an All-Star amid a career year for the 36-13 Golden State Warriors, who also feature Stephen Curry as an All-Star starter.

Much of his rise to All-Star starter — which relies 50 percent on fan votes, 25 percent on player votes and 25 percent on media votes — was fueled by the fan vote, where he finished third with more than 2.5 million votes.

On Jan. 7, K-Pop star BamBam tweeted out support of Wiggins’ All-Star candidacy. The post received nearly 37,00 retweets and more than 3,000 quote-tweets, the latter of which were often BamBam’s fans urging others to vote for Wiggins as an All-Star.

According to an article from Alex Shultz of SFGATE, “In terms of engagement, BamBam’s tweet about Wiggins appears to
obliterate every other NBA All-Star vote endorsement except for one … another tweet of BamBam’s from Christmas Day about Steph Curry.”

Shultz also writes that “SFGATE asked a Twitter spokesperson to help quantify the full impact of BamBam’s tweet, but Twitter declined to give us a peek behind the curtain.”

Backing from BamBam’s fans seemingly played a gigantic role in propelling Wiggins to this honor. Despite finishing fifth in player votes and sixth in media votes, he edged out teammate Draymond Green for the final starting spot, thanks to that third-place fan vote finish.

There’s a case to be made that Yellowjackets is the best new television show in a decade (we made it right here), but it wasn’t perfect. You know how the hit series could have been better? With Tori Amos and Nine Inch Nails, that’s how.

Jen Malone is the music supervisor for Yellowjackets (and Euphoria, and Atlanta, and The Umbrella Academy), and in an interview with Vulture, she discussed how she wanted to include Amos in the soundtrack for season one but couldn’t find the right spot.

“We tried it, and it just wasn’t — we want to do Tori proud with the scene that we put her music to and we just couldn’t find the right one,” she said. “She’s so influential, to not only myself. Little Earthquakes, when I was in high school, that record was everything. I remember the first time I heard that record. Thank God we have season two.”

Would “Winter” be too on the nose?

Malone also revealed that Nine Inch Nails, especially something from Pretty Hate Machine, “is going to be [on] the top of the list next season. There’s so much for Yellowjackets that I’m just very excited to dig into in season two. We haven’t even scratched the surface with the songs from that time period. To reintroduce these artists to a whole new audience has been very special for both shows.”

Misty is the Tori Amos-meets-Nine Inch Nails of people. I can’t explain it, but I know it’s true.

(Via Vulture)

Even though The Rock won’t be returning to the franchise thanks to his ongoing feud with Vin Diesel, Fast & Furious 10 will have no shortage of muscle thanks to a new report that Jason Momoa is in talks to play the villain in the next installment. The actor’s career has been white hot thanks to the success of Aquaman, and now, he’s looking to trade in his trident for something with a little more horsepower. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Jason Momoa is in final negotiations to join Vin Diesel and the cast in what is being called Fast & Furious 10 as a working title. And while plot details are being muffled, the Aquaman actor could be poised to act as one of the film’s villains. Universal had no comment.

Of course, this can only mean awesome things to come for Fast & Furious 11. The films have made a habit of taking the villain from this previous film and adding him to the crew (See: Jason Statham‘s Deckard Shaw and John Cena‘s Jakob Toretto.) Granted, Fast & Furious 10 could break that tradition, but adding Momoa to the already stacked crew lead by Diesel seems like a no-brainer to ensure the franchise moves on with a bang. Or we should say a vroom?

Either way, Jason Momoa in a Fast & Furious movie, where do we sign up? Also, just assume we made a whole bunch of jokes about the cars driving underwater this time. That’s gotta be where this is going.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Fayetteville, Georgia producer OG Parker has been steadily growing in impact and esteem in the hip-hop world thanks to his hard-hitting beats for everyone from Migos to fast-rising newcomer DDG. His combination of trap and R&B has resulted in hits for the likes of Megan Thee Stallion, Ski Mask The Slump God, and more. On his latest single he reunites with PartyNextDoor, whose 2019 hit “Loyal” he produced, for “No Fuss,” a slow-burning, apologetic ballad addressing their wrongdoings toward a miffed lover.

“You caught me in a lie, I won’t deny it,” Party croons, admitting that “maybe the blame is on me / Might be moving too shady.” Nonetheless, though, they warn, “All the wrongs I’ve done, I feel empathy / But it’s wrong to hold on to this energy.” If anyone was worried that the Torontonian singer had moved on from his toxic ways on 2020’s Partymobile, it looks like they can rest assured that he’s still up to no good.

Party has been laying low since the release of his third album, although he did re-release his fan-favorite 2014 EP Colours to streaming in 2021. Will his new collab with OG Parker signal the beginning of a new project rollout? We’ll see. Meanwhile, OG Parker continues to roll out his own freestanding singles, which could mean a new project from his this year as well.

Listen to OG Parker and PartyNextDoor’s “No Fuss” above.

After a breakup, most people do something silly like get bangs or take up a new hobby, like knitting. Not Aquaman, who was recently spotted living in an elaborate camper van.

Jason Momoa has been reportedly living in a (very expensive) RV earlier this week. Page Six reports the black camper van cost $750,000, which sits outside a friend’s house, near the home where Momoa and Lisa Bonet were living with their two kids.

The couple shocked fans after announcing their split earlier this year, after nearly 17 years together. They wed at an exclusive ceremony in 2017. The duo have two teenagers, plus Momoa’s stepdaughter Zoe Kravitz, from Bonet’s marriage with Lenny Kravtiz. The pair’s top priority is still to raise their kids as best they can, despite the split.

It’s nice to see that Momoa is still remaining close to his kids. In a trailer, no less. But, you think he could afford, say, another house? But if you are going to live in a trailer, a $750k one is probably a pretty swanky place to live.

But this leads us to the most important question…where does self-proclaimed bath-lover Momoa bathe when living in an RV?? And how will he continue to eat his elaborate breakfasts? Some things we may never know.

Claire Sattler lived every young Jeopardy! fan’s dream by winning the 2018 Teen Tournament, taking home the $100,000 grand prize. But her dream turned into a bit of nightmare after facing online bullying. “I was more nervous about the internet’s reaction,” she told the Naples Daily News in 2018. “Twitter very much decided I was the villain of the finals for some reason other than the fact that I talk a lot.”

Sattler, who now attends Yale University, shared examples of the harassment she faced in a recent TikTok. “What was it like being on teen jeopardy?” the opening text reads. What follows is “stalkers,” “nationwide bullying,” and “being accused of having $3x with a 79 year old man [host Alex Trebek] (as a 16 year old) for the answers (because you weren’t smart enough to win on your own apparently).”

The video (set to a remix of Bastille’s “Pompeii” where the lyrics are replaced by the words “emotional damage”) ends on a lighter note, with Sattler making fun of herself for dabbing on the show. But’s that’s a lot for anyone to face, let alone a teenager.

You can watch the TikTok below.

In 2020, Sattler gave some advice for aspiring Jeopardy! contestants. “I would say, get your plastic toilet paper holder out and learn how to buzz. And I would say study up on, situationally, what you should do for betting,” she told the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science. “There’s only a few betting strategies you should employ, but if you don’t know the strategy of the game before, it’s hard to come up with those ideas on the spot.” Also, stay off social media. This is good advice for anyone, honestly.

(Via Decider)

The Afterparty delivers gifts on gifts on gifts of comic goodness thanks to its amazing ensemble and Clue: The Next Generation vibes, but none may be more enduring than the experience of seeing Sam Richardson and Ben Schwartz and team up as reunited friends at a high school reunion gone way way wrong. Playing off each other throughout the murder mystery series from Apple TV+ (which premieres with 3 episodes on Friday before going weekly), the two demonstrate a supernatural kind of shorthand that we desperately hope will see the light of day again in future seasons and/or in other projects.

This is the birth of a new comedy super duo. I say this as someone who binged the first half of the series and as someone who had the unique pleasure of talking with the pair ahead of the premiere. Dear reader, it was the good chaos as we riffed on their love of the murder mystery genre, the craft behind their on-screen rap duet, karaoke go-tos and big mistakes, why you shouldn’t fuck with them when it comes to Disney songs, and the Old Testament. We took a little journey. Dive in.

You guys have off-the-charts chemistry. Is that just pure talent, do you have a long relationship?

Ben Schwartz: We had never met before. I had tried to do a show with Sam, but he was busy, but I’ve always thought Sam was a genius and smart, because I think he’s genuine and his acting is hilarious and really, really warm. And we had never met when… We didn’t even get to the table read together. So the first time I think we probably met each other in person was the first day of shooting, but it was ajn immediate friendship, immediate connection, and I felt I had been friends with him since high school. And because we have improv backgrounds and we spent so much time doing sketch and improv, our shorthand was already there and bits that would take people weeks to do, we were doing after two seconds and just making each other crack up.

Sam Richardson: Destined to be friends. And we are now.

I got vibes of Clue. I got vibes of Only Murders In The Building. I got so many good vibes off this. What’s your level of love and affection for the murder mystery genre?

Richardson: I mean, I absolutely love a murder mystery. I love riddles, I love puzzles, I love sort of anything that I have to figure out like a cat and a cat toy where you have to like get the treats out of it, I’m the same. I’m rewarded by answering these things right. So it was incredible to be a part of one like this, and one that’s so unique and just a new take on that genre. I’m over the moon.

Schwartz: Same with me. I love Sherlock stuff. I also loved Colombo when I was a kid. So like all that stuff. I love trying to figure it out before they tell me. I love trying to figure it out before I’m told. I thought Knives Out was so good too. If we’re talking about new references, but Clue is, I mean, Clue in terms of classic films is one of the best. So the fact that we’re playing with the genre and kind of twisting it on its head a little bit by playing with different genres within the genre of who done it… heaven. And there’s nobody better in the universe than Lord and Miller to do that. They’re geniuses.

Richardson: Yeah, truly.

Any experience with your own high school reunions? Can famous people do that, or is it just unfair?

Schwartz: Is it unfair? [Laughs]

Yeah, it’s unfair. You roll in fresh from the set, no big deal.

Richardson: [Laughs] And you just automatically win? I don’t know. I haven’t [been], but I’ve always wanted to, ever since I saw the movie Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion. I just never got to do it.

Schwartz: I did one, five years after we graduated, but there was nothing to brag about. I was doing comedy. I didn’t have any money. I was still eating Wendy’s, you know what I mean? Because there’s a meal that you could get for a dollar… also pizza in New York, you could learn how to get a slice, but put all the free stuff on top of it. I would get really good at that stuff. Like a lot of red pepper and parmesan.

That’s protein right there.

Schwartz: That’s exactly correct.

There’s a great yearbook photo scene in the show. Can you guys show me what the yearbook photo pose was for you guys back in the day?

Schwartz: It’s easy. Here it is.

Perfect. Did you guys go with the laser theme or anything?

Richardson: Oh, I wish. No, I didn’t. I don’t think it was even an option for mine.

Schwartz: We didn’t have options either.

This was more musical than I anticipated — specifically in the episode focused on your character, Ben. How did that rap come to be? That Sorkin line killed me.

Schwartz: That Sorkin line is a Sam Richardson beautiful line. Just gorgeous.

Was that pre-planned?

Richardson: Oh, pre-planned.

Schwartz: Any time we sang anything, it was recorded in a booth beforehand and an engineer who’s more brilliant than us and a woman named Feora Cutler helped us with our vocals. And then when you see us on stage Cat Burns is doing all the choreography. And we had like this gorgeous team, wonderful, wonderful, talented team behind us. But that rap song was so fun because I love hip-hop and R&B and I love rap. And the idea that we could actually, they shot it like an actual rap video. And when they showed us a playback of what we were doing, I was like, “Oh my God, we’re doing it. We’re in a rap video.” I mean, our version of a rap video. But the words were already locked. It was probably the only thing that was truly locked.

What are your karaoke go-to’s?

Richardson: “I Would Do Anything For Love” and “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing,” by Aerosmith.

Schwartz: Ooh.

Are you giving all your focus to the song or are you acting it out?

Richardson: I mean, “Anything For Love,” you got to get into that one and you got to at least be on your feet for, “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing.”

Schwartz: I do the audiobook of the Bible. That’s my karaoke. [Laughs]

Old Testament or New?

Schwartz: Old Testament. What are you talking about, man? Schwartz! Old Testament, babyyyyy! [Laughs] But I haven’t done karaoke very often. One time I did it, I did “New York State Of Mind,” and I was like, this would be great. Cause I’m from New York. And I know that song, Billy Joel and I started singing and then it was like seven minutes long.

Richardson: [Laughs] It is a long one.

Schwartz: You’re so embarrassed after a while. It’s so long. And I’m like, God, still? We’re still singing this song? [Laughs]

I did “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant” the first time I did karaoke. Same issue.

Schwartz: Oh, that’s a huge mistake. Oof. That’s a rock opera.

Richardson: It sure is. Me and [Adam] Pally do that song in Champaign ILL. And we had to like sing-along to that song like a hundred times and it’s long.

[Richardson and Schwartz break into song for a few seconds]

That’s the second time anyone’s sang during an interview. I interviewed Justin Theroux once and he started singing Disney songs with Tessa Thompson in the room.

Schwartz: You don’t want to fuck with us and Disney songs.

Richardson: We used to play this game in the car where Ben would play songs from his mix, his Disney mix, and see how quickly I could identify them.

Schwartz: How many notes. And it would be songs from movies, from like the original Jungle Book all the way to… It would be how long until Sam could do it. And Sam was so quick. It made me so proud.

Give me the top three. What are the top three Disney songs? What’s the ranking.

Richarson: You can’t.

Schwartz: You can’t! What are you doing? You can’t. That’s three out of hundreds!?

Come on. What do you got? Put your name behind it.

Richardson: I will. I will. Like some of these aren’t hits. Some of these aren’t popular but they’re brilliant. “Every Little Piece” from Pete’s Dragon.

Schwartz: I’m getting in there. Oh, by the way, “Everybody Wants To Be A Cat…” Great song. Great, great song. Take away the un-pc things in that song, there’s a section where cats… take that away. “Bear Necessities.” I mean, that’s got to be top… that’s tops.

Richardson: That’s tops. I’m going to go a little bit more modern. “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You,” which is not very modern. That’s like maybe 20 something years old, but Donny Osmond singing “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You” from Mulan? Terrific.

Schwartz: “Be Our Guest.” Unbelievable. “Under The Sea.” See, this is the problem because when you get into the nineties, we’re not even talking about Disney television shows because then you’re screwed. We have Ducktales, Rescue Rangers, Gummi Bears.

Richardson: Dark Wing Duck. These theme songs alone…

Schwartz: Dark Wing Duck‘s is perfect.

If we hum a bar from Gummi Bears, we’ll all be fucking infected with that for five days.

Richardson: Dashing and daring, courageous and caring, faithful and friendly…

I’m going to go Oliver And Company – “Why Should I Worry.”

Schwartz: Very interesting.

Richardson: “Why Should I Worry!” Going back to Billy Joel.

I saw Billy Joel live a few years ago. I got so pissed he didn’t sing that song.

Schwartz: You saw him at MSG?

I saw him in Philly at like Lincoln whatever the hell it is. I never know these stadium bank names. Crypto whatever. Unless you guys want to do a crypto commercial right now. That seems to be on-trend. Feel free.

Schwartz: Well Sam and I are releasing a set of NFTs where it’s us hugging. You can get them. There are different ones — there’s zombie us hugging, there are cats.

Richardson: There’s us hugging zombies. Yeah. We’re trying to work on a Disney collab for an NFT. They won’t do it, but we wanted to do like Gummi Bear-y hugs. It’s a work in progress. They’re getting back to us.

Schwartz: They’re getting back to us.

Richardson: It’s not a no, but it’s a long yes, I think.

‘The Afterparty’ premieres on Apple TV+ with the first three episodes on 1/28 with weekly drops after that.