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Artist Interview: Jonathan Ryan

Gerda Krivaite
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Artist Interview: Jonathan Ryan

Jonathan Ryan (b. 1989, Buffalo, NY; lives in Los Angeles, CA) received his BFA from Louisiana State University and MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. Ryan has exhibited across the US and Europe, including solo shows at Megan Mulrooney (Los Angeles, CA), the Landing (Los Angeles, CA) and Hesse Flatow (New York, NY). He has also been in group exhibitions at Monti8 (Latina, Italy), Andrea Festa Fine Art (Rome, Italy), Gerhard Hofland (Amsterdam), Hesse Flatow East (Amagansett, NY), la BEAST gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Ekru Project (Kansas City, MO), Good Mother (Los Angeles, CA), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Los Angeles, CA), The Brand Library (Glendale, CA), Field Projects (New York, NY), and the Woodmere Art Museum (Philadelphia, PA). His work was recently included in “Altered States in the Acid West” at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. Ryan has received fellowships and awards from Woodmere Museum of Art, Tyler School of Art, Vermont Studio Center, and LSU School of Art.

Jonathan Ryan: The Hour of the Pearl will be on view from September 12 – October 24, 2026 at Megan Mulrooney Gallery, Los Angeles.

Could you start by telling us a little about your background and how you first found your way into painting?

I’ve been drawing and painting since middle school, starting out by copying cartoon characters and artworks from books. I grew up in a low-income household in rural Louisiana, without access to museums or anyone who could introduce me to contemporary art. But my parents and teachers noticed and supported my interest, and I went on to study painting in college. I was always drawn to art, but it wasn’t until my senior year of undergrad that I truly identified as a painter and committed to it as a career — before that, I was weighing art-adjacent paths like museum studies or animation. I continued on to graduate school for painting, but the real turning point came after graduating in 2014, when I moved to Los Angeles and rented my first real studio. I’d identified as a painter in grad school, but this was the moment I felt truly independent — no institution behind me, just me figuring out how to build a life and career as an artist.

Jonathan Ryan Beacon, 2026 Oil, sand, and decomposed granite on canvas 78 x 50 in 198.1 x 127 cm Courtesy of the artist and Megan Mulrooney Gallery, Los Angeles.

How has living in LA affected the way you think about landscape?

I arrived in Los Angeles on a motorcycle, after a road trip from Philadelphia through the southwest and beyond. The landscapes and coastal light had a deep impact on me, and I immediately began making drawings and paintings of my surroundings. But LA is also full of great artists who’ve had some version of that same experience, and that made me feel like a very small fish. It was a tough realization — after about a year in, I had to admit I wasn’t excited by the work I was making, even with all that inspiration around me. So I reset my practice and started making major shifts in how I worked, which pushed me in new and exciting directions that eventually led me to where my work is today.

Jonathan Ryan Citadel, 2026 Oil, sand, and decomposed granite on canvas 80 x 90 in 203.2 x 228.6 cm Courtesy of the artist and Megan Mulrooney Gallery, Los Angeles.

You incorporate sand and pulverised granite directly into your paintings. How did you first arrive at this process and what does it allow you to achieve that conventional painting doesn’t?

During that “reset,” I started experimenting with all kinds of new materials on the surface of my paintings. Nothing quite worked until I poured some sand from my garden onto a piece I was struggling with. I liked the texture and quality to the surface it added without overtaking the image. That was about ten years ago, and now every painting I make starts with layers of sand and small rock adhered to the surface. This surface dramatically slows me down, forcing a more methodical approach — I have to paint slowly in thin layers, each one influencing the next. Over the past decade, I’ve developed my own language for working with these materials, which has been an important step in finding my voice and confidence as an artist.

Jonathan Ryan Gilded Spires, 2026 Oil, sand, and decomposed granite on canvas 60 x 48 in 152.4 x 121.9 cm Courtesy of the artist and Megan Mulrooney Gallery, Los Angeles.

Early Atari games seem to have influenced the visual language of your landscapes. What initially attracted you to those digital environments, and what do you think they share with painting?

Not quite Atari — those graphics are a bit too basic — but a few years back, I made a body of work looking at landscape imagery from early-90s arcade and video games, among other source material. I was drawn to how the designers built these functional, explorable worlds, and I had fun bringing some of that into my own landscapes for a time.

Your recent work also draws on German Romanticism, which seems worlds apart from 90s video games. How do those two influences meet in your practice?

One of the things I love about painting is how relevant historical examples can feel to a contemporary artist and audience. I often begin drawing studies by sitting down with a stack of artist monographs and history books — lately I’ve found myself returning most to Giorgio de Chirico and Monet. I wouldn’t say German Romanticism is a defining reference for this work, though there’s certainly some compositional influence from Caspar David Friedrich in some of these paintings. As for the video game imagery, that’s not something I’m looking at for the paintings I’m making now, but I’ll absorb any image into my practice if it connects with me, whether it comes from a museum, film, photograph, or anywhere else.

Jonathan Ryan Enigma of a Night, 2026 Oil, sand, and decomposed granite on canvas 60 x 44 in 152.4 x 111.8 cm Courtesy of the artist and Megan Mulrooney Gallery, Los Angeles

Your exhibition takes its title from John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row and its description of the “hour of the pearl”. What resonated with you about that particular passage?

This passage describes a time in the early morning, before the sun has risen. Light has begun to illuminate the landscape, but the atmosphere is hazy, still, and quiet. It’s a time of reflection but also quick and fleeting. I connected with the tension in that passage and the visual depiction it conjures. The Hour of the Pearl is a haunting, beautiful phrase that resonated with me the moment I first read it in the studio, and the closer I looked at the whole passage, the more it felt like a perfect fit for the work I made for this show.

Jonathan Ryan Hour of the Pearl, 2026 Oil, sand, and decomposed granite on canvas 80 x 60 in 203.2 x 152.4 cm Courtesy of the artist and Megan Mulrooney Gallery, Los Angeles.

Are there any artists or artworks that have felt particularly inspiring to you lately?

The artists I’ve felt a close connection to lately are Giorgio de Chirico, Ken Price (his drawings of Southern California landscapes in particular), Monet (especially the Rouen Cathedral series), and Caspar David Friedrich.

Peter Dinklage Net Worth, Salary & Highest Grossing Movies

Alexandra Pleșa
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Peter Dinklage Net Worth, Salary & Highest Grossing Movies

Early in his career, Peter Dinklage made a point of avoiding the stereotypical roles often offered to actors with dwarfism. The move proved wise. While Dinklage struggled a bit to break through, he now has a diverse filmography and a solid reputation as a dramatic performer.

Additionally, thanks to the massive success of Game of Thrones, he is a household name. His net worth should be considerable, right? Here’s what we know about the actor’s earnings.

Peter Dinklage Net Worth

In 2026, Peter Dinklage’s net worth is estimated to be $25 million.

Most of it is thanks to his acting career. Dinklage fell in love with the craft at a young age. His screen debut came in 1995 in independent comedy Living in Oblivion. It was followed by roles in films like Bullet, Safe Men, Human Nature, and 13 Moons. The actor caught a break in 2003, after being cast in The Station Agent. That same year, he showed his comedic side as a children’s author in Elf.

During the 2000s, Dinklage moved between independent dramas, comedy, and fantasy. You might have seen him in Find Me Guilty, Death at a Funeral, Underdog, Penelope, or The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. He also appeared in several TV episodes.

His career changed dramatically in 2011, when he started playing Tyrion Lannister in HBO’s Game of Thrones. The character became a fan favourite, and Dinklage won four Emmys for the role.

Thanks to Game of Thrones becoming a global phenomenon, Dinklage’s star also began to rise, and he became a Hollywood fixture. He voiced characters in Ice Age: Continental Drift and The Angry Birds Movie, had roles in X-Men: Days of Future Past and Pixels. He also earned acclaim for more serious work, like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

In 2018, Dinklage joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Eitri, the giant dwarf blacksmith in Avengers: Infinity War. That same year, he starred in HBO’s My Dinner with Hervé, a project he also helped develop and produce.

More recently, the actor continued to mix mainstream films with character-driven work. His credits include I Think We’re Alone Now, I Care a Lot, Cyrano, She Came to Me, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, The Toxic Avenger, The Thicket, Brothers, Wicked, and Roofman.

Additionally, Dinklage appeared in plays and in TV series Dexter: Resurrection. Besides acting, the actor co-founded a production company, Estuary Films.

Peter Dinklage Salary

Actor salaries are typically kept under wraps. That said, five Game of Thrones actors, including Dinklage, made headlines when they negotiated a fee of around $1.2 million per episode for the final season of the series.

While independent movies offer smaller paychecks, Dinklage also appeared in massive franchises. It’s safe to assume that hiring him doesn’t come cheap.

Peter Dinklage Highest Grossing Movies

Unsurprisingly, Peter Dinklage’s highest-grossing film is Avengers: Infinity War, which made $2.052 billion at the box office. Ice Age: Continental Drift was also a big earner with $877 million.

This year, fans can catch Dinklage in comedy Idiots, currently in cinemas. He will also appear in upcoming fantasy rom-com Wicker. Next up, he’ll play The Fool in Lear Rex, a drama adapting William Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Lioness Season 4: Cast, Rumours & Release Date

Alexandra Pleșa
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Lioness Season 4: Cast, Rumours & Release Date

Taylor Sheridan is a household name at this point. After the massive success of Yellowstone, he created hit after hit, focusing on high-stakes stories and morally complex characters. Lioness, available on Paramount+, is no exception.

Currently in its third season, the series opened with 7.1 million viewers in seven days, outperforming the previous installment. Does that mean more episodes are on the way? Here’s what we know so far.

Lioness Season 4 Release Date

At the time of writing, no official news is available about Lioness season 4. That said, we’re cautiously optimistic.

Viewership numbers are solid, and all signs point to a renewal. “We’re going to get a season 4. We will, we will. When people see what [Sheridan] wrote for the finale, we are getting a season 4. Or I will pay you $100,” actress and producer Jill Wagner said in an interview.

It looks like season 3 will end on a cliffhanger. As long as the actors continue to be available, the show won’t end anytime soon. New episodes could arrive in 2027 or 2028.

Lioness Cast

  • Zoe Saldaña as Joe McNamara
  • Laysla De Oliveira as Cruz Manuelos
  • Dave Annable as Dr. Neal McNamara
  • Jill Wagner as “Bobby”
  • LaMonica Garrett as “Tucker”
  • James Jordan as “Two Cups”
  • Austin Hébert as “Randy”
  • Jonah Wharton as “Tex”
  • Hannah Love Lanier as Kate McNamara
  • Genesis Rodriguez as Josephina Carrillo
  • Nicole Kidman as Kaitlyn Meade
  • Morgan Freeman as Edwin Mullins

What Is Lioness About?

Originally titled Special Ops: Lioness, the espionage thriller follows CIA agent Joe McNamara. She runs an elite program that uses female operatives to infiltrate terrorist organisations and other dangerous targets. In short, Joe and her superiors recruit women able to get close to powerful figures.

Each season revolves around a Lioness mission while continuing Joe’s story. The first follows a Marine who targets the family of a terrorist financier. The second introduces an Army helicopter pilot recruited for an operation involving a Mexican cartel.

Season 3 ups the ante and turns Joe herself into the target. Split into two timelines, it kicks off with Joe being kidnapped and only becomes tenser from then on.

While it’s a bit early to speculate about Lioness season 4, there are still a few more season 3 episodes to look forward to. The finale is scheduled for September 20. Depending on what the cliffhanger is, we hope we get to find out how Joe’s story continues.

Are There Other Shows Like Lioness?

Enjoying Lioness? Shows with similar vibes include The Agency, Reacher, Slow Horses, The Night Agent, The Little Drummer Girl, and The Day of the Jackal.

Behind The Scenes: How Sound Engineer Minjia Du Shapes Audio For Films

Abbie Wilson
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Behind The Scenes: How Sound Engineer Minjia Du Shapes Audio For Films

In cinema, visual imagery usually grabs the immediate spotlight, but it is sound that quietly dictates the emotional truth of a scene. 

This audio craft is the heart of the work of Minjia Du, a Los Angeles-based sound engineer whose technical skill and story instincts have earned her work recognition in the film industry. Working across location recording, sound design, dialogue editing and re-recording mixing for films and vertical drama TV series, Du belongs to a group of audio professionals who manage the complete acoustic pipeline from set to final mix.

Her work has earned official selections at key film festivals, including the 30th LA Shorts International Film Festival and the Glendale International Film Festival. Du served as the Supervising Sound Editor on The Last Coin—selected by both LA Shorts and Glendale—and as the Production Sound Mixer on Fortune House, an official LA Shorts selection. 

Alongside her festival work, her audio design supports major commercial hits, from viral serialized dramas on DramaBox and DramaWave that have drawn over 211 million views to ad campaigns for international brands like EcoFlow.

For Du, sound engineering goes well beyond basic technical setup; it acts as a direct extension of a film’s perspective. “I often think of sonic texture as production design for the ear,” Du says. “Just as a production designer chooses materials, colors, and objects to reveal the history of a space, sound can tell us what a place is made of, how it has been used, and how it feels to the person entering it.”

Her approach treats physical sets like living parts of the story. Rather than filling scenes with generic background noise, she picks specific physical details, the distant hum of an elevator, air pulling through an old vent, or footsteps changing across different floor materials. 

When characters go through intense moments, Du shifts the spatial perspective to match their internal state. “Two characters may occupy the same room but experience it very differently,” she notes. “If one character is anxious, the surrounding ambience might gradually recede while a small repetitive sound becomes unusually prominent. The physical location has not changed, but the audience has moved into that character’s attention.”

Protecting the actors’ performances remains her top priority during production and editing. In dialogue-heavy or noisy environments, Du makes sure technical convenience never gets in the way of a genuine delivery. 

“My first principle is that an actor should not have to sacrifice a truthful performance simply to solve a technical sound problem,” she explains. 

On set, she records isolated tracks and room tones so intimate, whispered moments stay natural without having to rely on automated dialogue replacement (ADR) later. “During dialogue editing, I begin with the take that contains the most truthful performance, not automatically the cleanest one,” adds Du. “Excessive noise reduction can remove breath and vocal texture, making an emotionally vulnerable performance feel artificial.”

Having two films selected for LA Shorts points to how easily her workflow spans both on-set production and post-production studios. “These selections are meaningful because they recognize two different sides of my work,” Du says. “One began with protecting the performances on set; the other continued through the construction of the film’s final sonic world. Seeing both recognized reinforces my belief that production sound and post-production should be treated as one continuous storytelling process.”

When working on films that blend reality with stylized sequences, Du alters reverberation, shifts Foley timing, or bends environmental sounds to signal psychological changes before the camera cut even happens. 

“I do not treat reverb as a button labeled ‘dream,’” says Du. “It represents space, memory, isolation, or time, depending on how it is shaped.”

With an international career in film making her mark in a field where women have long been underrepresented. Du stays focused on how the industry is changing. Alongside her own projects, she speaks openly about the need for clearer paths and mentorship for women entering audio departments. 

“Improving the situation requires more than celebrating a few successful women; it means providing early access to equipment, paid entry-level opportunities, meaningful mentorship, safer working environments, transparent hiring practices, and a genuine path toward leadership,” Du notes. “I do not want to be hired only because I am a woman, but I also do not want competence to be assumed male by default. My hope is that being visible in this field makes the next woman entering a sound department feel less like an exception.”

Looking ahead to future director collaborations, Du is drawn to complex, cross-cultural, and psychological stories where sound carries what characters leave unsaid. “The directors I most want to collaborate with are those who invite sound into the conversation early,” Du says. “Ultimately, I am looking for collaborators who are curious—people who do not ask only whether a scene sounds clean, but what sound can reveal that the image cannot.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 5: Cast, Rumours & Release Date

Alexandra Pleșa
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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 5: Cast, Rumours & Release Date

What happened in the years before Star Trek: The Original Series? Star Trek: Strange New Worlds provides some answers.

The show, which premiered in 2022, starts roughly a decade before the original. It follows Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the starship Enterprise as they make their way through the galaxy.

The series has gotten positive reviews so far, with veteran fans also excited about the storylines and overall tone. Season 4 is currently streaming on Paramount+, with episodes arriving weekly. Are there more installments on the way? Here’s what we know about the show’s future.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 5 Release Date

The good news is that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 5 is on the way. The bad news is that it will be the show’s last, and will only consist of six episodes.

That said, the advance notice likely allowed the behind-the-scenes team to craft a satisfying ending. If all goes well, the final episodes will arrive in 2027.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Cast

  • Anson Mount as Christopher Pike
  • Ethan Peck as Spock
  • Jess Bush as Christine Chapel
  • Christina Chong as La’An Noonien-Singh
  • Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura
  • Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas
  • Babs Olusanmokun as Joseph M’Benga
  • Bruce Horak as Hemmer
  • Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley / Number One
  • Martin Quinn as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott

What Could Happen in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 5?

The action follows Captain Christopher Pike and his crew in the years before James T. Kirk takes command. Alongside Pike are future Star Trek legends like Spock, Number One, Uhura, and Dr. M’Benga. Newer characters such as La’an Noonien-Singh and Erica Ortegas are also part of the mix.

As for format, the show largely adheres to Star Trek’s classic episodic take. In other words, you tune in as the crew encounters strange planets and alien civilisations, facing moral dilemmas aplenty along the way. One of the best things about the series is that it’s not afraid to get strange and try on different genres.

In season 4, episodes touch on horror, light comedy, and noir. The crew is even turned into puppets at one point. As we’ve said, strange. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 5 will probably continue in the same vein, while also bringing the story right up to Kirk’s first day in command of the Enterprise.

“I would say they’re a suite. They’re a set of episodes. I think they are tonally more singular than is typical for us. I think they’re driving towards the obligation that we felt from the beginning of the show, which is how do we deliver the characters that have been with us to their known future, and how do we deliver those characters that we know less or don’t know at all to their futures?” co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman said when asked about the final six chapters in the story.

Until then, season 4 is still ongoing, with episodes arriving weekly on Paramount+. The finale will drop on September 24.

Are There Other Shows Like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds?

If you enjoy Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, check out the other series in the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy came out earlier this year.

Alternatively, shows with similar vibes include The Expanse, The Orville, Fringe, Lost in Space, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, and Fallout.

Robert De Niro Net Worth, Salary & Highest Grossing Movies

Alexandra Pleșa
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Robert De Niro Net Worth, Salary & Highest Grossing Movies

Robert De Niro needs little introduction. The veteran actor has been gracing the screen for six decades and is widely regarded as one of the greatest performers of his generation. With two Academy Awards under his belt, he continues to appear in movies, showing no sign of slowing down.

As a result, his net worth should be substantial by now, right? Here’s what we know about the actor’s earnings.

Robert De Niro Net Worth

In 2026, Robert De Niro’s net worth is estimated to be $500 million.

Part of it comes from his film career. De Niro got started with minor roles. His breakthrough was in the late 1960s with Greetings, but he gained further attention in Bang the Drum Slowly in 1973, where he plays a baseball player dying of Hodgkin’s disease. That same year, he began his landmark creative partnership with Martin Scorsese in Mean Streets, portraying the volatile Johnny Boy.

Before long, De Niro became a bona fide international star. He was in The Godfather Part II as young Vito Corleone, a performance that won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He followed it with Taxi Driver, probably the defining movie of his career. Then, he won his second Oscar for his transformation into boxer Jake LaMotta in Scorsese’s Raging Bull.

The 1980s saw De Niro move between intense dramas, crime films, and unconventional characters. You might have seen him in The King of Comedy, Once Upon a Time in America, Brazil, The Untouchables, or Midnight Run. He continued to gravitate towards morally complex characters during the ‘90s. His collaborations with Scorsese included Goodfellas, Cape Fear, and Casino, while he also appeared in memorable films like Heat, Sleepers, and Jackie Brown. De Niro tried his hand at directing with A Bronx Tale and later The Good Shepherd.

During the aughts, the actor’s career took a more commercial turn. Notable roles during the last couple of decades include Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, Shark Tale, Analyze That, Silver Linings Playbook, Dirty Grandpa, and The Intern.

In more recent years, De Niro has alternated between prestige projects and mainstream entertainment. He reunited with Scorsese for The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon. He also appeared in Todd Phillips’ Joker and in The Alto Knights, in which he played both Mafia bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. Last year, he starred in the Netflix series Zero Day.

On top of his acting career, De Niro is a successful businessman. He co-founded TriBeCa Productions and the Tribeca Film Festival, as well as the Nobu chain of restaurants and hotels.

Robert De Niro Salary

While actor salaries are not often public, hiring Robert De Niro doesn’t come cheap. According to a 2017 Variety report, the actor demanded $775,000 per episode for television series.

De Niro accepted a big pay cut to star in Taxi Driver for $35,000 as a favour to Scorsese, despite commanding around $500,000 per movie at that point in his career. Soon, that number skyrocketed to millions.

Robert De Niro Highest Grossing Movies

While crime dramas and character pieces made De Niro a legend, mainstream comedies/franchises became some of his biggest commercial hits.

His highest-grossing film is Joker, which made $1.079 billion worldwide. Meet the Fockers was also a big earner with $522 million.

This year, fans can catch De Niro in The Whisper Man, now streaming on Netflix. He will also appear in sequel Focker-in-Law, coming in November.

Digital Flexing, Explained: A Field Guide to CS2 Skins

Our Culture Mag & Partners
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Digital Flexing, Explained: A Field Guide to CS2 Skins

Somewhere between the sneaker resale boom and the NFT circus, a quieter and far more durable digital status economy took root, and almost nobody outside of gaming noticed. It lives in Counter-Strike 2, it moves billions of dollars a year, and it runs on cosmetic weapon finishes called skins. If you have been meaning to understand it and never found a straight answer, here is one, in plain questions.

So what exactly is a skin?

It is a decorative wrap on a virtual gun. It changes nothing about how the weapon works. It only changes how it looks, and, by extension, what it says about the person holding it. Think of it as the difference between a plain white tee and the same shirt from a label people recognize. The function is identical. The signal is not.

Why would anyone pay real money for that?

For the same reasons anyone pays for anything with no practical use: scarcity, beauty, and belonging. Certain finishes came from crates that no longer drop, so their supply is frozen. Each copy also has a hidden wear value, which means two identical-sounding items can look and price completely differently. Layer on the people who want a specific look, and you get a market where a common finish costs a coffee and a rare one costs a vacation. None of that is irrational. It is just taste plus scarcity, which is the recipe behind every collectible ever made.

Is this like the NFT thing?

Not really, and the difference matters. NFTs mostly sold the promise of scarcity with very little use behind it. Skins are embedded in a game that tens of millions of people actually play every day, which gives them a real, ongoing reason to exist and a real audience that wants them. The value did not have to be manufactured with a whitepaper. It grew out of a living community that was already there.

Can you turn a collection into actual cash?

Yes, but there is a trick to it. The official in-game marketplace lets you sell, yet it only pays in store credit that never leaves the platform, and it skims fifteen percent along the way. To get real money, people use independent third-party platforms, and this is where beginners lose value without realizing it. The same item sells for meaningfully different amounts depending on where you list it, so checking a ranked comparison of the top cs2 marketplace options before you sell is the single easiest way to stop leaving money behind.

How do experienced traders avoid getting ripped off?

They never trust a single price. The people who consistently do well treat every listing with suspicion until they have compared it against the wider market, and most of them lean on the same tool to do it: a browser overlay called Steam Inventory Helper that shows live prices from across dozens of platforms right on top of the game. With it, a fair offer and a gouge are obvious at a glance. Without it, you are negotiating blind, and the house always wins against people negotiating blind.

Do you have to trade to enjoy it?

Absolutely not, and this is the part outsiders miss. Plenty of players never sell a thing. They collect finishes they think are beautiful, assemble a look they are proud of, and treat the appreciating value as a happy accident rather than a goal. The trading scene is loud, but it is a minority pursuit sitting on top of a much larger group that is simply into the aesthetics. In that sense it behaves like any art world: a small, intense market wrapped around a big, casual fandom.

What is the one thing to take away?

That the impulse is old even though the objects are new. Human beings have always paid to signal taste and belonging, and they have always built markets around scarcity. Skins just do it in a screen, in public, at speed. If you want to feel it click, find one finish you genuinely like, look up what it actually sells for, and notice how fast the strangeness dissolves into ordinary market logic. The knife is virtual. The status game is as real as it has ever been.

How Vertical Drama and ‘ReelShort’ Storytelling Borrowed Its Betting Loop from Online Casinos

Sebastian Bickley
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How Vertical Drama and ‘ReelShort’ Storytelling Borrowed Its Betting Loop from Online Casinos

I watched eleven episodes of a ReelShort drama about a fake marriage plot before I noticed what had actually happened to me. Eleven. Each one under two minutes. And somewhere around episode seven, the app stopped giving them to me for free.

That’s not an accident. It’s not even really about storytelling anymore, not in the way the feature on Lin Jin’s work building ReelShort’s story worlds framed it. It’s a monetization engine wearing a soap opera as a costume. And the closer you look at how it’s built, the more it resembles something you’d find behind a login screen on a betting app rather than inside a streaming library.

Here’s the mechanic. You get the first few episodes free. Then the app asks for coins, real coins bought with real money, to unlock the next chapter. You can also wait, sometimes hours, for a free unlock to regenerate. Or you can just pay. Most people just pay. TechCrunch reported that microdrama apps like ReelShort and DramaBox are on pace to generate billions in revenue this year, and the mechanism driving that number isn’t subscription fatigue. It’s the drip.

Anyone who’s spent time exploring New York online casinos on a licensed app will recognize this instantly. Same drip, different skin. A slot session ends on a near-miss, two matching symbols and one that almost lined up, and the app nudges you toward one more spin. A vertical drama ends mid-scene, the fake husband’s phone buzzing with a call from his ex, and the app nudges you toward one more unlock. The variable reward is the same lever. Only the wrapper changed.

The coin economy is a chip stack with better lighting

Casinos don’t sell you chips because chips are more fun to hold than cash. They sell you chips because a chip doesn’t feel like money the same way a $20 bill does, and that gap in feeling is where the spend happens. Coins in a drama app do the identical job. You buy a bundle of 300 coins for $4.99, and now you’re not thinking in dollars per episode, you’re thinking in coins per unlock. The currency conversion softens the transaction.

Naavik’s breakdown of the microdrama boom lays this out plainly: free episodes function as the hook, coin unlocks function as the paywall, and ad-gated waits exist purely to make the paid option look faster and more attractive by comparison. Naavik’s analysis calls this a funnel, and it is, but it’s a funnel borrowed wholesale from free-to-play gaming, which itself borrowed it from the casino floor. Nothing here is new. It’s just been repackaged for a nine-minute lunch break.

A researcher I’d trust on this, Trends.vc, went further and called short drama apps “TV’s slot machine” outright, pointing to free pulls, paid spins, and a small percentage of high-spending users, whales, carrying most of the revenue. Their piece matches almost line for line what regulators have said for years about slot volatility design: most players lose small amounts steadily, a tiny cohort spends enormously, and the app’s entire business model depends on that second group staying engaged.

Cliffhangers are just a narrative RTP

Slot machines are tuned around return-to-player percentages, a number that determines how often the machine pays back relative to what’s wagered, engineered to feel generous in the short term while guaranteeing the house wins over volume. Vertical dramas run the same tuning exercise on plot instead of payout.

Writers for these platforms aren’t handed a three-act structure. They’re handed a retention curve. Episode six needs a cliffhanger sharp enough that a meaningful percentage of viewers convert to paid unlock rather than close the app. If that number underperforms, the writers’ room rewrites the ending. I’ve spoken with people adjacent to this industry who describe it exactly like A/B testing a bonus round. Not like art. Like a spreadsheet with dialogue in it.

That’s not a criticism of the writers, most of whom are talented and working within a system they didn’t design. It’s a fact about the system. The cliffhanger isn’t there to serve the story. It’s there to serve the conversion rate, the same way a near-miss in a slot game isn’t there to entertain you, it’s there to make you spin again.

Where the two loops actually diverge

I don’t want to oversell the parallel, because there’s one place it breaks down hard: regulation.

A casino operating legally in the US carries licensing obligations, deposit limits, self-exclusion tools, and audited game fairness. A drama app has none of that. There’s no cooling-off period on a coin purchase. No cap on how much a single account can spend in a session. No mandated disclosure of the odds that a free unlock will regenerate before you get impatient and pay. The loop is structurally identical to a gambling product, but the guardrails that exist around gambling specifically because of that psychology simply don’t apply here.

That’s the part that should bother people more than it does. A 14-year-old can’t open a real-money slots account in any regulated US state. That same 14-year-old can absolutely open ReelShort and start feeding it coin bundles, because it’s classified as entertainment media, not a wagering product, even though the underlying behavioral engineering is drawing from the identical playbook.

What this means if you’ve ever wondered why you kept unlocking

If you’ve caught yourself buying a second coin bundle at 11pm for a drama you’d have called “pretty bad” out loud to a friend, you weren’t weak-willed. You were responding exactly the way the product was built for you to respond. That’s not an excuse, it’s an explanation, and there’s a difference.

The honest move, whether you’re watching microdramas or actually gambling, is to notice the mechanic before you’re three unlocks deep. Set a spend limit before you open the app, not after. Ask what the free-wait timer is actually training you to avoid. And if you do find yourself drawn to the real-money version of this loop rather than the fictional one, treat it with the same skepticism: know the terms, know the caps, and know that the drip is the product, not a side effect of it.

FAQ

Is ReelShort actually designed like a gambling app? Not legally, no, it’s classified as entertainment. But the coin-unlock structure, free-wait timers, and cliffhanger-driven conversion points mirror variable-reward mechanics used in slot design. The psychology overlaps heavily even though the regulatory category doesn’t.

Why do microdrama apps use coins instead of direct dollar pricing? Coins create distance between the purchase and the spend, softening the perceived cost. It’s the same reasoning behind casino chips: a coin doesn’t register the same way a $4.99 charge does, which makes repeat purchases feel smaller than they are.

How much money do apps like ReelShort actually make? Industry estimates put the microdrama category on pace for billions in revenue in 2026, driven largely by a small percentage of high-spending users rather than broad average spend. That whale-driven pattern closely resembles slot and social casino revenue distribution.

Are there age restrictions on drama-app coin purchases? Generally no, since these apps are categorized as media rather than gambling products. That’s a meaningful gap compared to regulated online casinos, which require identity verification and enforce minimum age requirements before any real-money deposit.

Does watching for free ever actually work? Sometimes, if you’re willing to wait out the regeneration timer between episodes. Most users don’t, which is exactly the outcome the timer is tuned to produce. The wait exists to make paying feel like the faster, more reasonable choice.

Gambling involves risk. Please play responsibly and only wager what you can afford to lose. If you feel gambling is becoming a problem, visit BeGambleAware.org or call 1-800-GAMBLER.

The next time a show ends on a phone buzzing in someone’s hand and a paywall pops up right after, watch what happens in your own chest. That flicker of “just one more” isn’t a flaw in you. It’s the whole business model, built by people who study this stuff for a living, and it works on smart people just as well as anyone else.

Why Southern Food Has Become a Powerful Symbol of American Identity

Our Culture Mag & Partners
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Why Southern Food Has Become a Powerful Symbol of American Identity

Southern food has a 32% stake in the modern food service market, but it’s much more than a commercial endeavor or a regional menu; it’s a central part of the American narrative. Dishes like fried chicken, collard greens, cornbread, and pecan pie carry historical weight that stretches far beyond the kitchen table.

This food represents resilience, migration, and the centuries-long blending of diverse cultural traditions. When people across the country gather around these comfort foods, they participate in a living history that shapes national identity.

Culinary Roots and Historical Crosscurrents

The foundational elements of Southern cooking emerged from severe resource scarcity and the blending of European, Native American, and West African foodways. Enslaved cooks transformed inexpensive ingredients and discarded cuts of meat into rich, deeply flavorful dishes that sustained generations. West African agricultural expertise directly shaped Southern staple crops and cooking techniques, establishing flavor profiles that are now recognized globally.

This cuisine quickly moved past the farm and plantation to become the backbone of regional identity. As families moved during the mid-twentieth century, the Great Migration carried Southern foodways into northern urban centers, where memory became edible.

Today, this culinary tradition remains remarkably consistent in both home kitchens and long-standing dining establishments. You can still experience these historical flavors in traditional settings, so feel free to check out today’s menu of Magnolia Room Cafeteria in Tucker, Georgia, to see how classics like golden fried chicken, slow-cooked greens, and baked mac and cheese are served in a classic line-style cafeteria format. Whether it inspires an in-person visit or encourages your own at-home recipe experimentation, it’s a good starting point.

Representation in Pop Culture and American Storytelling

Southern food acts as a visual and narrative shorthand in film, literature, and art. Directors and authors frequently use communal meals to signal warmth, family conflict, or historical nostalgia. Dozens of iconic meal scenes in American cinema each year use a simple plate of cornbread or sweet tea to instantly establish a character’s roots and values.

Beyond film, food serves as a primary vehicle for cultural memory and reconciliation. In Southern art and literature, sharing a meal often represents a rare space for cross-cultural interaction. Scholars note how Southern cultural representation in film and literature uses these domestic settings to confront broader questions about American heritage.

The widespread appeal of Southern comfort food lies in its ability to evoke belonging, even for those who did not grow up in the region.

  • Slow simmering techniques that extract maximum flavor from humble vegetables and aromatics
  • Baking methods centered on stone-ground cornmeal and lard to create distinct textures
  • Preservation practices like pickling and smoking that define the regional palate

Global Roots in Local Hospitality

Southern foodways also draw strength from modern immigration patterns that continue to expand the regional canon. Vietnamese-Cajun seafood boils in Houston, and Korean-influenced barbecue joints in Atlanta prove that Southern identity is dynamic rather than static.

These culinary crossovers show how easily new communities find common ground through shared smoking, frying, and braising techniques. As international flavors blend into classic kitchens, the South demonstrates its unique ability to incorporate global traditions while keeping its core identity intact.

Culinary Preservation in the Digital Age

The digital era has transformed how regional cooking practices are documented, shared, and preserved across generations. Online video channels, food blogs, and social media platforms have created virtual archives for traditional Southern recipes that were once passed down strictly through family oral histories.

Food historians and home cooks now archive precise smoking techniques, heirloom seed cultivation, and cast-iron maintenance for a global audience. This widespread digital documentation keeps traditional methods accessible, preventing regional recipes from fading into obscurity while allowing diverse audiences to study the complex heritage behind every dish.

The Endurance of Comfort Food Culture

Southern foodways continue to evolve while preserving their core techniques. Modern chefs regularly update traditional recipes, yet the appetite for unpretentious, classic preparations remains unchanged across generations.

This endurance highlights why the cuisine continues to capture the national imagination. It offers a tangible connection to the past while remaining fully accessible today.

Whether served at a family gathering or a local cafeteria line, these meals carry a story of survival, creativity, and community. Exploring our other posts on food and culture will further expand your understanding of how these two interlock in the American identity.

Vegas Turns Its Whole Strip Into a Stage This September

Sebastian Bickley
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Vegas Turns Its Whole Strip Into a Stage This September

Fewer people made the trip to Las Vegas last year. The city logged 38.5 million visitors in 2025, down 7.5% from the year before and the lowest total since the pandemic-recovery bounce of 2021, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. You wouldn’t guess it from the September calendar. Somewhere between Labor Day and the fall equinox, the Strip has scheduled enough marquee names to fill a music festival poster three times over, and the city is betting the entertainment lineup does what a slow tourism year alone can’t.

A Month Stacked With Stadium Shows and Residencies

Usher and Chris Brown’s joint R&B tour lands at Allegiant Stadium on Sept. 5, 6 and 18, with surprise guests popping up throughout the run (Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent have both crashed the stage on previous stops). Neither artist is new to the city; Usher wrapped a Park MGM residency in 2023 before headlining the Super Bowl halftime show the following year. Sammy Hagar brings his Best of All Worlds residency back to Dolby Live at Park MGM for five nights, playing a room that holds just over 5,000 people to a set list a similarly sized arena tour would need three times the space for.

The Festival That Turns a Weekend Into a Genre Tour

None of that is even the biggest ticket in town. The iHeartRadio Music Festival takes over T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 18 and 19, hosted by Ryan Seacrest, and the two-night bill reads like someone tried to book every chart at once. Friday brings BTS, Cardi B, Weezer, Kenny Chesney, Goo Goo Dolls and Zara Larsson. Saturday hands the stage to Snoop Dogg, Muse, Lainey Wilson, Benson Boone, Ciara, LE SSERAFIM and the Smashing Pumpkins, with sets kept tight so a pop fan, a K-pop fan and a country fan can all get their moment without sitting through anyone else’s full set. It’s less a concert than a channel-surf through 2026’s biggest artists, compressed into two nights inside one building. That kind of density is exactly why September has become the city’s real second high season, tucked in after the summer crowds thin out and before the holiday rush arrives.

Where the Money Actually Follows the Crowd

The gaming side of the business hasn’t waited for tourism to fully recover to keep growing regardless. U.S. commercial gaming revenue hit a record $78.62 billion in 2025, up 9.1% year over year and the sixth consecutive year the industry has set a new mark, with internet gaming the fastest-growing slice by far. Speaking to Casinos.com, an analyst who tracks real money online casinos put it simply: a slot machine on a phone can’t recreate walking onto a casino floor with a stadium show still ringing in your ears, but that was never really the point. It’s there for the Tuesday night in November when the Vegas trip is still six months away.

The States Cashing In Between Trips

That gap between the trip and the wait is exactly what’s fueling the online side. Michigan and New Jersey now sit alongside Pennsylvania as the market’s biggest states, and Pennsylvania alone crossed $3.46 billion for the year, nearly 28% higher than 2025. It’s a market built almost entirely by people filling the months between trips rather than replacing them, and the growth curve shows no sign of leveling off as more states weigh legalizing the format.

One Last Stadium Night to Close the Month

On Sept. 26, the Foo Fighters return to town on their Take Cover Tour with Queens of the Stone Age, a stadium show that dwarfs the last time the band played Las Vegas. Fans who caught our earlier look at the Take Cover Tour announcement already know the band doesn’t play small rooms anymore, and this one will prove it in a stadium built for 65,000, a scale the group hadn’t attempted the last time it rolled through town.

Whichever version of Vegas you’re chasing this fall, stadium seat or a phone screen on a Tuesday, the timing lines up. The rest of the month is just as loud in its own way, one arena, one residency and one festival at a time, and by the time October rolls around the city will have earned a rest it probably won’t take.

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