An animated film you likely haven’t heard of features a brand new kind of superhero.
A stunning animated movie set to hit U.S. theaters on Feb. 2 stars a new kind of “superhero” — the kind every kid (and adult) could use right now. “Bilal: A New Breed of Hero,” directed by Ayman Jamal and Khurram H. Alavi, celebrates the totally true, incredible story of an Ethiopian slave, born in…
A stunning animated movie set to hit U.S. theaters on Feb. 2 stars a new kind of “superhero” — the kind every kid (and adult) could use right now.
“Bilal: A New Breed of Hero,” directed by Ayman Jamal and Khurram H. Alavi, celebrates the totally true, incredible story of an Ethiopian slave, born in Mecca around 580 AD to a former Abyssinian princess. And if the film lives up to the promise of its lavishly animated new trailer, it’ll be a treat for the eyes — and self-confidence — to a whole generation of kids.
The film features British-Nigerian “Suicide Squad” and “Lost” actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in the leading role, bringing to life an adapted version of Bilal’s inspiring journey from young boy to fierce fighter for justice: “A boy with a dream of becoming a great warrior is abducted with his sister and taken to a land far away from home. Thrown into a world where greed and injustice rule all, Bilal finds the courage to raise his voice and make a change,” according to the film’s website.
Now more than ever, young moviegoers need exposure to a range of stories, cultures, and identities on the silver screen. (Plus, as Disney’s “Moana” and Pixar’s “Coco” have proven time and again, these stories have the potential to shake up the box office.)
But the story of a young black Muslim standing against the forces of corruption, oppression, and evil is one that young kids rarely get to see.
According to an investigation by BuzzFeed News, there have been more than 50 reported incidents of students across the U.S. using Donald Trump’s name or message to bully and harass their classmates.
The statistics are even more alarming for today’s Muslim schoolchildren. A 2017 study from the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding reported that 42% of Muslim families said their children experienced Islamophobic bullying at their schools. The study also reported that one in four of those incidents were perpetrated from teachers and school officials.
As you may have guessed from the name, “Bilal: A New Breed of Hero” is literally kicking off a whole new genre of superheroes.
And that’s exactly what the film’s director Ayman Jamal intended. In an interview with Shadow and Act, Jamal said superheroes like Superman inspired him to make the film. Though he found motivation in major movie hits like “Braveheart” and “Malcolm X” during his adult years, he couldn’t find movies about real historical heroes from his culture when he was a child.
Jamal knew something needed be done when his five-year-old son said he wanted to be superman when he grew up. “I love Superman, but I wish he’d said something possible, and I wanted to create this,” he stated in the interview. “To inspire kids with a real human superhero that they can aspire to. Superman is the reason I did this. I had to save my kid.”
The real-life Bilal’s story is the stuff of a legend — he’s been deemed “the voice of Islam.” One of the earliest converts to Islam, he became one of Prophet Muhammad’s most trusted companions. According to Islamic tradition, Prophet Muhammad also chose Bilal to be the first “muezzin” — the appointed person at a mosque who makes the call to prayer, or adhan, five times a day. — of the Abrahamic faith.
To give the story the dazzling treatment he thought kids like his deserved, it took eight years and more than 5,000 hours of research, the work of actual scientists, and more than 250 animators.
All so Jamal’s son — and other young children like him — could find inspiration in a new kind of superhero.
“We hired two forensic scientists to model the characters based on these descriptions and what we know about the tribes of the time,” Jamal added. “It took six months to design each character and we’re really proud of it. We’re showing the characters exactly as described in historical texts, not just using our imagination. We’ve spent 5,000 hours of research to develop clothes and props too.”
It took a lot of resources, money, time, and hard work to produce the film, but it was worth it, because representation matters.
In a small village in Pwani, a district on Tanzania’s coast, a massive dance party is coming to a close. For the past two hours, locals have paraded through the village streets, singing and beating ngombe drums; now, in a large clearing, a woman named Sheilla motions for everyone to sit facing a large projector screen. A film premiere is about to begin.
It’s an unusual way to kick off a film about gender bias, inequality, early marriage, and other barriers that prevent girls from accessing education in Tanzania. But in Pwani and beyond, local organizations supported by Malala Fund and funded by Pura are finding creative, culturally relevant ways like this one to capture people’s interest.
The film ends and Sheilla, the Communications and Partnership Lead for Media for Development and Advocacy (MEDEA), stands in front of the crowd once again, asking the audience to reflect: What did you think about the film? How did it relate to your own experience? What can we learn?
Sheilla explains that, once the community sees the film, “It brings out conversations within themselves, reflective conversations.” The resonance and immediate action create a ripple effect of change.
MEDEA Screening Audience in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
Across Tanzania, gender-based violence often forces adolescent girls out of the classroom. This and other barriers — including child marriage, poverty, conflict, and discrimination — prevent girls from completing their education around the world.
Sheilla and her team are using film and radio programs to address the challenges girls face in their communities. MEDEA’s ultimate goal is to affirm education as a fundamental right for everyone, and to ensure that every member of a community understands how girls’ education contributes to a stronger whole and how to be an ally for their sisters, daughters, granddaughters, friends, nieces, and girlfriends.
Sheilla’s story is one of many that inspired Heart on Fire, a new fragrance from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection that blends the warm, earthy spices of Tanzania with a playful, joyful twist. Here’s how Pura is using scent as a tool to connect the world and inspire action.
A partnership focused on local impact, on a global mission
Pura, a fragrance company that recognizes education as both freedom and a human right, has partnered with Malala Fund since 2022. In order to defend every girl’s right to access and complete 12 years of education, Malala Fund partners with local organizations in countries where the educational barriers are the greatest. They invest in locally-led solutions because they know that those who are closest to the problems are best equipped to solve and build durable solutions, like MEDEA, which works with communities to challenge discrimination against girls and change beliefs about their education.
But local initiatives can thrive and scale more powerfully with global support, which is why Pura is using their own superpower, the power of scent, to connect people around the world with the women and girls in these local communities.
The Pura x Malala Fund Collection incorporates ingredients naturally found in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil: countries where Malala Fund operates to address systemic education barriers. Eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection will be donated to Malala Fund directly, but beyond financial support, the Collection is also a love letter to each unique community, blending notes like lemon, jasmine, cedarwood, and clove to transport people, ignite their senses, and help them draw inspiration and hope from the global movement for girls’ education. Through scent, people can connect to the courage, joy, and tenacity of girls and local leaders, all while uniting in a shared commitment to education: the belief that supporting girls’ rights in one community benefits all of us, everywhere.
You’ve already met Sheilla. Now see how Naiara and Mama Habiba are building unique solutions to ensure every girl can learn freely and dare to dream.
Naiara Leite is reimagining what’s possible in Brazil
Julia with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura
In Brazil, where pear trees and coconut plantations cover the Northeastern Coast, girls like ten-year-old Julia experience a different kind of educational barrier than girls in Tanzania. Too often, racial discrimination contributes to high dropout rates among Black, quilombola and Indigenous girls in the country.
“In the logic of Brazilian society, Black people don’t need to study,” says Naiara Leite, Executive Coordinator of Odara, a women-led organization and Malala Fund partner. Bahia, the state where Odara is based, was once one of the largest slave-receiving territories in the Americas, and because of that history, deeply-ingrained, anti-Black prejudice is still widespread. “Our role and the image constructed around us is one of manual labor,” Naiara says.
But education can change that. In 2020, with assistance from a Malala Fund grant, Odara launched its first initiative for improving school completion rates among Black, quilombola, and Indigenous girls: “Ayomidê Odara”. The young girls mentored under the program, including Julia, are known as the Ayomidês. And like the Pura x Malala Fund Collection’s Brazil: Breath of Courage scent, the Ayomidês are fierce, determined, and bursting with energy.
Ayomidês with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura
Ayomidês take part in weekly educational sessions where they explore subjects like education and ethnic-racial relations. The girls are encouraged to find their own voices by producing Instagram lives, social media videos, and by participating in public panels. Already, the Ayomidês are rewriting the narrative on what’s possible for Afro-Brazilian girls to achieve. One of the earliest Ayomidês, a young woman named Debora, is now a communications intern. Another former Ayomidê, Francine, works at UNICEF, helping train the next generation of adolescent leaders. And Julia has already set her sights on becoming a math teacher or a model.
“These are generations of Black women who did not have access to a school,” Naiara says. “These are generations of Black women robbed daily of their dreams. And we’re telling them that they could be the generation in their family to write a new story.”
Mama Habiba is reframing the conversation in Nigeria
Centre for Girls' Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura
In Mama Habiba’s home country of Nigeria, the scents of starfruit, ylang ylang and pineapple, all incorporated into the Pura x Malala Collection’s “Nigeria: Hope for Tomorrow,” can be found throughout the vibrant markets. Like these native scents, Mama Habiba says that the Nigerian girls are also bright and passionate, but too often they are forced to leave school long before their potential fully blooms.
“Some of these schools are very far, and there is an issue of quality, too,” Mama Habiba says. “Most parents find out when their children are in school, the girls are not learning. So why allow them to continue?”
When girls drop out of secondary school, marriage is often the alternative. In Nigeria, one in three girls is married before the age of 18. When this happens, girls are unable to fulfill their potential, and their families and communities lose out on the social, health and economic benefits.
Completing secondary school delays marriage, and according to UNESCO, educated girls become women who raise healthier children, lift their families out of poverty and contribute to more peaceful, resilient communities.
Centre for Girls’ Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura
To encourage young girls to stay in school, the Centre for Girls’ Education, a nonprofit in Nigeria founded by Mama Habiba and supported by Malala Fund and Pura, has pioneered an initiative that’s similar to the Ayomidê workshops in Brazil: safe spaces. Here, girls meet regularly to learn literacy, numeracy, and other issues like reproductive health. These safe spaces also provide an opportunity for the girls to role-play and learn to advocate for themselves, develop their self-image, and practice conversations with others about their values, education being one of them. In safe spaces, Mama Habiba says, girls start to understand “who she is, and that she is a girl who has value. She has the right to negotiate with her parents on what she really feels or wants.”
“When girls are educated, they can unlock so many opportunities,” Mama Habiba says. “It will help the economy of the country. It will boost so many opportunities for the country. If they are given the opportunity, I think the sky is not the limit. It is the starting point for every girl.”
From parades, film screenings to safe spaces and educational programs, girls and local leaders are working hard to strengthen the quality, safety and accessibility of education and overcome systemic challenges. They are encouraging courageous behavior and reminding us all that education is freedom.
Experience the Pura x Malala Fund Collection here, and connect with the stories of real girls leading change across the globe.
When it comes to actors doing accents across the pond, some Americans are known for their great British accents, such as Natalie Portman (“The Other Boleyn Girl”), Robert Downey, Jr. (“Sherlock Holmes”), and Meryl Streep (“The Iron Lady”). Some have taken a lot of heat for their cartoonish or just plain weird-sounding British accents, Dick Van Dyke (“Mary Poppins”), Kevin Costner (“Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”) and Keanu Reeves (“Bram Stoker’s Dracula”).
Some actors, such as Tom Hardy (“The Drop”) and Hugh Laurie (“House”), have American accents so good that people have no idea they are British. Benedict Townsend, a London-based comedian and host of the “Scroll Deep” podcast, says there is one word that American actors playing characters with a British accent never get right.
And no, it’s not the word “Schedule,” which British people pronounce the entire first 3 letters, and Americans boil down to 2. And it’s not “aluminum,” which British and American people seem to pronounce every stinking letter differently.
What word do American actors always get wrong when they do British accents?
“There is one word that is a dead giveaway that an English character in a movie or a TV show is being played by an American. One word that always trips them up. And once you notice it, you can’t stop noticing it,” Townsend says. “You would see this lot in ‘Game of Thrones’ and the word that would always trip them up was ‘daughter.’”
Townsend adds that when British people say “daughter,” they pronounce it like the word “door” or “door-tah.” Meanwhile, Americans, even when they are putting on a British accent, say it like “dah-ter.”
“So, top tip if you are an actor trying to do an English accent, daughter like a door. Like you’re opening a door,” Townsend says.
Townsend later confirmed in a follow-up video that he and his wife identified the American actor in Netflix’s “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” within moments of hearing her speak. He also noted in an interview that “America” itself may be one of the hardest words for non-Americans to pull off convincingly in an American accent — which adds a pleasing layer of irony to the whole thing.
Some American commenters returned the favor by sharing the word that British actors never get right when using American accents: “Anything.”
“I can always tell a Brit playing an American by the word anything. An American would say en-ee-thing. Brits say it ena-thing,” Dreaming_of_Gaea wrote.
“The dead giveaway for English people playing Americans: ‘Anything.’ Brits always say ‘EH-nuh-thin,’” marliemagill added. “I can always tell an actor is English playing an American when they say ‘anything.’ English people always say it like ‘enny-thin,’” mkmason wrote.
What is the cot-caught merger?
One commenter noted that the problem goes back to the cot-caught merger, when Americans in the western US and Canadians began to merge different sounds into one. People on the East Coast and in Britain pronounce them as different sounds.
“Depending on where you live, you might be thinking one of two things right now: Of course, ‘cot’ and ‘caught’ sound exactly the same! or “There’s no way that ‘cot’ and ‘caught’ sound the same!” Laura McGrath writes at DoYouReadMe. “As a result, although the different spellings remain, the vowel sounds in the words cot/caught, nod/gnawed, stock/stalk are identical for some English speakers and not for others.” For example, a person from New Jersey would pronounce cot and catch it as “caht” and “cawt,” while someone from Los Angeles may pronounce them as “caht” and “caht.”
To get a better idea of the big difference in how “caught” and “cot” are pronounced in the U.S., you can take a look at the educational video below, produced for a college course on linguistics.
American actors owe Townsend a debt of gratitude for pointing out the one thing that even the best can’t seem to get right. For some actors, it could mean the difference between a great performance and one that has people scratching their heads. He should also give the commenters a tip of the cap for sharing the big word that British people have trouble with when doing an American accent. Now, if we could just get through to Ewan McGregor and tell him that even though he is fantastic in so many films, his American accent still needs a lot of work.
The popular game show “Jeopardy!” originated in 1964, and for six decades it has stumped contestants and viewers with tough trivia questions and answers (or answers and questions, to be more accurate). Competing on “Jeopardy!” is practically synonymous with being a smartypants, and champions win lifelong bragging rights along with whatever monetary winnings they take home.
To win “Jeopardy!,” you place a wager in the Final Jeopardy round with whatever money you’ve collected through the first two rounds. All three contestants write down their wagers based solely on the category given, then they have 30 seconds to write down the question for the same answer after it’s revealed. Very rarely do all three contestants get the Final Jeopardy wrong.
But in 1984, on Alex Trebek’s second day hosting the show, a deceptively simple Final Jeopardy answer resulted in all three contestants making the same wrong guess and ending the round with $0 each.
The category was “The Calendar,” and after the contestants placed their bets, the answer was revealed: “Calendar date with which the 20th century began.”
The 20th century was the 1900s, as most of us are aware, and all three contestants wrote down identical responses: “What is January 1, 1900?” But they were all incorrect. And unfortunately, all three had wagered their entire amount, leaving them with nothing across the board.
“Oh, I don’t believe it!” exclaimed one of the contestants as they all laughed at the absurdity. “I’m at a loss for words,” said Trebek.
A member of the audience asked what the correct answer–or question— was, and Trebek shared that the correct response would have been “What is January 1, 1901?”
If that seems confusing, it’s probably because we all made a huge deal about the year 2000, marking it as the end of the 20th century as well as the turn of the millennium. But basically, we were wrong. Some people did point it out at the time, but the excitement and momentum of celebrating Y2K had us all in a frenzy and no one was going to wait until January 1, 2001 to celebrate the new millennium.
Why should we have? It all comes down to the fact that in the Gregorian calendar, the first year wasn’t 0 A.D., it was 1 A.D. The first century spanned from 1 to 100 A.D., the second century from 101 to 200 A.D. and so on, leading up to the 20th century officially being from 1901 to 2000. So January 1, 1901 is actually the date that the 20th century began, despite how unintuitive it feels.
To be fair, you’d think a “Jeopardy!” contestant might recognize that the question seemed awfully simple for a Final Jeopardy round, but only having 30 seconds to think under pressure is tough. And it’s not like these people lived in the internet era where random trivia questions like this regularly go viral, making us more aware of them. And this episode aired over a decade before the “Seinfeld” episode where Jerry explains the “no year zero” thing to Newman, who had planned a millennium party.
As one person pointed out, the calendar answer is technically correct, but it’s not the way the average person thinks of centuries, just as a tomato is technically fruit but the average person thinks of it (and uses it) as a vegetable. Even though there were some sticklers about the year 2000, most of us just went along with seeing it as the turn of the millennium because it felt like that’s how it should be. It’s kind of wild how most of us can think of something incorrectly but we just sort of collectively accept our wrongness about it.
The 1984 episode, making a viral comeback, also prompted people to share how much they missed Alex Trebek. The beloved, long-time “Jeopardy!” host died in 2020 at age 80 after an 18-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He worked up until the point where he couldn’t anymore, even while undergoing chemotherapy. His final episode included a touching tribute honoring his 37 seasons with the game show, the end of an illustrious and iconic era.
Ken Jennings, former “Jeopardy!” champion with the record for the longest winning streak, has been the sole host of the show since late 2023, after previously sharing hosting duties with Mayim Bialik.
A woman named Michelle Verdayo had come to the Providence Municipal Court to answer for four red light violations. She brought her 12-year-old son Arion, who is on the autism spectrum and has ADHD. Arion introduced himself the moment they arrived.
“I am Arion. A-R-I-O-N. I am 12 years old, I’m in the seventh grade.”
Caprio, already won over, asked what Arion wanted to do after school. The boy said he was still deciding, but that he definitely wanted to be successful. “It’s hard to decide,” he told the judge. “When you’re at that age, you don’t know what you wanna do. At some points you wanna do what you wanna do but you don’t want to disappoint your family in any way.” Caprio looked at him for a moment. “You are speaking with the maturity of an adult,” he said.
Then they pulled up the footage.
As Caprio walked through each violation, Arion watched alongside his mom, offering live commentary. Some of the red lights, he allowed, seemed fairly minor. Then came the clip of his mom nearly hitting another car. Arion gasped. “How dare you!?” The courtroom broke.
“You think you know your mom,” he said, shaking his head, “and she goes out and blatantly does that.”
Caprio turned to Michelle with a grin. “You are being chastised right now, and rightfully so. You’ve got a great kid.”
When Caprio asked about Arion’s autism, Michelle was candid. It had been hard, she said, especially with his father out of the picture. As she spoke, Arion stepped in, not to deflect but to reframe it entirely. He told Caprio that despite being teased, he had never seen his diagnosis as a problem.
“I’m proud to have my autism because it makes me who I am now.”
Caprio paused. “I am so impressed.”
He invited Arion up to the bench, shook his hand, and asked for his verdict. The boy picked up the gavel, brought it down, and announced: “Case dismissed.”
(L) 12-year-old Arion Verdayo speaks to the judge. (R) Judge Frank Caprio speaks during hearing. Photo course: Facebook | Caught In Providence
“You won your case,” Caprio told Michelle. “Your boy presented you well.” He closed by echoing something Arion had said earlier: “Just because you’re different doesn’t mean that you should be treated differently, because we’re all human beings.”
Judge Frank Caprio presided over the Providence Municipal Court for nearly four decades and built a YouTube following of close to three million subscribers through Caught in Providence. He died on August 20, 2025, at 88, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was remembered widely as the nicest judge in the world. It is not hard to see why.
Every parent has seen that magical moment when a toddler, barely able to stand, starts bouncing perfectly in time to a catchy beat. It turns out that those rhythmic wobbles are not just cute accidents. According to a report from Neuroscience News, humans are actually born with a “music blueprint” that is hardwired into our biology.
The evidence suggests that our musicality is an ancient capacity that might even predate the development of human language. As Brighter Side reported, music cognition professor Henkjan Honing has spent two decades researching how our brains process sound. His findings indicate that we do not just learn to like music through culture or upbringing. Instead, we are born with a dedicated capacity for it.
Professor Honing explained that these abilities emerge spontaneously in infants. Babies respond to melody and rhythm without any formal instruction, which suggests that we come into the world with a biological predisposition for musical structures.
To test how deep this goes, researchers even looked at other species. In one experiment, macaque monkeys were able to synchronize with complex rhythms, suggesting that the building blocks of music are shared across different branches of the evolutionary tree.
While we often think of music as a hobby, for many it is a lifeline. According to data from Edison Research, the average member of Gen Z spends over four hours a day listening to music. About 86 percent of those young listeners told researchers that music is a primary tool for boosting their mood, and 61 percent said it helps support their mental health.
This deep connection makes sense if music is a fundamental part of our species. Professor Honing noted that musicality is a combination of many traits, including our understanding of pitch, timing, and intervals. While songbirds and marine animals show some of these traits, humans have a unique and integrated system for it.
The next time a certain song touches your heart or makes you want to dance, you can thank your own biology. It is not just a vibe. It is a part of what makes us human. As Professor Honing concluded, we are simply musical beings by nature.
This article originally appeared earlier this year.
Wayman, who was 74 when he died on February 21, had no known living relatives. After no family members came forward to claim his remains, officials at the Middle Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery listed him as an “unclaimed” veteran, a designation that applies to roughly 2,300 veterans per year across the country, according to Department of Veterans Affairs data. The Tennessee Department of Veterans Services put out a public Facebook invitation asking community members and veterans to attend Wayman’s 9 a.m. service and “ensure he receives the farewell he deserves.” Country singer John Rich amplified the post to his followers. Local news station WZTV covered the call the day before.
By the time the service began, the chapel was full. People stood along the walls. Others filled the hallway. More were still arriving outside as the ceremony started.
A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Veterans Services described the turnout as “absolutely amazing,” and said they had never seen anything like it. The Gallatin Police Department, 30 miles northeast of Nashville, sent representatives. Veterans groups, community members, and military personnel stood in rows as prayers were offered and full military honors were rendered.
Update from Middle Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery: :20 min after Sailor Lonnie D. Wayman’s celebration of life service.
We were told Lonnie didn’t have any immediate family, but middle Tennessee did right by him, this morning.
The VA representative who spoke at the service addressed the word that had appeared on Wayman’s paperwork. “When the paperwork for Lonnie Wayman came across my desk, it was marked as an unclaimed veteran,” he said. “But I say that’s incorrect. I say that’s a misnomer. Thanks to the support of the United States military, the good folks at Gupton Mortuary, and all the support I see here today, we are able to claim our honorable veterans and provide them the dignity and honor that they have earned.”
Hundreds of strangers have shown up for the funeral of a Tennessee veteran who died with no known relatives.
VA Chaplain Conard Donarski, who had met Wayman at the hospice before his death, presided over part of the service. A priest offered prayers. A naval honor guard folded an American flag and presented it over the casket. The service ended with a dove release at the cemetery’s flagpoles.
Journalist Cabot Phillips posted video from outside as the crowd continued to grow, writing: “Hundreds of strangers have shown up for the funeral of a Tennessee veteran who died with no known relatives. This is America.”
Wayman was laid to rest in section P of the Middle Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery. The site is open to visitors.
This article originally appeared earlier this year.
On her first day back at work after maternity leave, Rebecca Tafaro Boyer wasn’t ready to be apart from her 3-month-old. She asked her husband David to send her hourly updates on how baby William was doing without her.
David was a good sport about it. He texted throughout the day, including a photo of William buckled into his Britax car seat as they headed out to Walgreens. Rebecca looked at the photo and immediately texted back. The straps were too loose. The chest clip was too low. “And because I know my husband,” she later wrote on Facebook, “I’m sure that he laughed at me and rolled his eyes before tightening the car seat and fixing the chest clip.”
Fifteen minutes later, her phone rang.
“Honey, we had a car wreck. We are fine, but the car is going to be totaled.”
Less than three miles from their Memphis home, another driver had pulled into traffic to turn left and David hadn’t had time to stop. He hit the front passenger side door at nearly 50 miles per hour. David ended up on crutches with three shattered bones in his foot and three dislocated toes. The car was a total loss.
William didn’t even wake up.
“My precious little bundle of joy was so well restrained in his car seat THAT HE DIDN’T EVEN WAKE UP,” Boyer wrote. “Even with the impact of the two cars, William only received a minor jolt — so insignificant that he was able to continue on with his nap, and then spend the next two hours flirting with nurses in the Le Bonheur ED.”
Boyer posted the story on Facebook at a friend’s request, expecting it to stay within her circle. She was stunned when it was shared more than 45,000 times. She told TODAY that her goal was simple: car seats save lives, and the difference between a properly secured infant and a loosely buckled one can be the difference between a nap and a tragedy.
“I truly believe that the reason my family is at home sitting on the couch with a pair of crutches instead of down at the hospital is because of my annoying nagging mom voice,” she wrote.
When readers identified the Britax BSafe 35 as the seat that protected William, the company reached out to offer a free replacement — once a car seat has been in a crash, it can’t be used again. Boyer and David had already replaced it through insurance, so she asked Britax to donate a seat to the Forrest Spence Fund, a Memphis nonprofit that helps families of critically ill children with everyday needs. Their original seat went to the NICU at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital to be used in car seat safety education for new parents.
As for David: “My husband says, ‘I’m never going to live this down, am I?’” Boyer said, laughing.
For roughly a decade, a reel-to-reel tape labeled “Beatles Early Demos” sat behind the cash register at Neptoon Records, a beloved independent record shop in Vancouver that Rob Frith has owned since 1981, Antique Reader reported. He assumed it was a bootleg. He never played it.
In March 2025, Frith brought the tape to the studio of his friend Larry Hennessey, who had the equipment to play it. When the tape started rolling, they both stopped what they were doing. The sound was clean, present, and immediate, not the murky quality of a copied bootleg but something far closer to the source. What they were hearing was a master-generation recording of the Beatles’ failed audition for Decca Records, taped on January 1, 1962, eight months before Ringo Starr even joined the band. “It was like the Beatles were in the room with us,” Frith said.
Decca had famously passed on signing the group that day, with executives reportedly telling their manager that guitar bands were on their way out. The 15-song tape (including early Lennon-McCartney originals like “Like Dreamers Do” and “Love Of The Loved”) had been considered lost in master form for decades. Bootleg copies had circulated since the late 1970s, but nothing with this clarity.
The Beatles wave to fans after arriving at Kennedy Airport February 7, 1964. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
When Frith posted a clip online, the reaction was immediate and international. A representative for Paul McCartney reached out. On September 18, Frith traveled to Los Angeles with his wife Vicki and their two sons, including Ben, who helps manage the store. McCartney invited them to lunch and to a rehearsal with his band. He greeted Frith’s wife by name. “I thought I saw her soul exit her body right about then,” Ben said.
Frith handed over the tape. McCartney signed albums and photographs in return, including black-and-white prints from the Beatles’ early years. For context on what Frith walked away from: a single reel of the same Decca audition tape, from the estate of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, sold at Sotheby’s in 2019 for £62,500 (roughly $81,000). Frith had been offered the chance to auction his. He declined.
“I told Paul, ‘You changed my life as far as music,’” Frith said. “‘Basically, that’s why I have a record store, because of the influence from you guys.’”
His son Ben had put it plainly before the meeting happened: “That tape would have sat in some millionaire or billionaire’s basement never to be looked at again.”
Frith came home with signed memorabilia, photographs from the visit, and what he described as “certainly the best 24 hours I can remember.” He also came home without the tape, which is exactly what he wanted.
“I got paid because I got to meet Paul McCartney,” he said. “So that was good enough for me.”
This article originally appeared earlier this year.
He spent 24 years driving past the apartment building where he found him, wondering. The answer turned out to be at his old police department the whole time.
He got the baby to the hospital. Then he went out and bought a teddy bear and brought it back, placing it in the crib. “Just a symbol to let everyone that walked past know that he was cared about,” he told TODAY. The official paperwork called the infant “Baby Boy Doe.” Eyster had his own name for him. “He was born a couple of days before Christmas and placed in a box — and in my mind, that box was a manger. So he became Baby Jesus.”
The boy was adopted, the records were sealed, and that was the last Eyster heard of him. He retired in 2019 after 47 years on the force, and the questions never went away. Every time he drove past that apartment complex, he thought about the baby. “I wondered, ‘What did he turn out to be?’ And God forbid, have I ever arrested him? Was he still alive?”
In March 2024, his phone rang. It was Officer Josh Morgan, a colleague from the department. Morgan had just responded to a domestic call at Park Jefferson Apartments with his rookie — and the rookie had mentioned something. “I was like, ‘I was abandoned as a baby here,’” Matthew Hegedus-Stewart later recalled. Morgan pulled the report. Eyster’s name was on it.
“I’m sitting here 23 years later and the phone rings,” Eyster said. “He goes, ‘You’re not going to believe this, but Baby Jesus is sitting next to me right now. He’s my rookie.’”
On March 22, 2024, the two men met for the first time since Hegedus-Stewart was two days old. They sat together and went through the old case file, including photographs of the infant in the hospital that Matthew and his family had never seen. Eyster looked at the young man across from him and said, “You’re a little bit bigger now.”
The coincidences stacked up in a way that made Eyster’s voice go quiet when he listed them. Matthew had been assigned to patrol the same beat as the apartment complex where he was found. His daughter Aspen, now a toddler, was born on the same day he was legally adopted. And Matthew had become a police officer — working for the same department that found him on the worst night of his life.
“Full circle moment,” Hegedus-Stewart said. “That hit home.”
For Eyster, the timing carried a weight Matthew couldn’t have known. Just months before the phone call, Eyster’s only son Nick had died unexpectedly at 36 after accidentally overdosing on pain medication. “The timing couldn’t have been any better,” Eyster said. “It helped to fill a void that I’ve had to deal with.”
He had done one small thing — a teddy bear in a hospital crib, 24 years ago. “I see some mannerisms in Matt that remind me of my son,” he said. “He’s got the same grin, the same laugh, the same dark hair and stature.”
This article originally appeared earlier this year.
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