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An MLB star's scary experience with his newborn helped fuel an unexpected cause: diapers.

I went to this weird little warehouse in Chicago to interview a former baseball player. We talked about diapers.

There are a lot of questions I'd like to ask former Chicago Cubs catcher David Ross: What was it like hitting a home run in the decisive Game 7 of the 2016 World Series? Can you tell me about the times you got called on to pitch during the 2015 season? Or what's harder: spring training or "Dancing With the Stars"?

None of that came up when I was given the opportunity to interview him at Cradles to Crayons in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. Instead, we talked about a problem that Ross, like many Americans, didn't know about until recently: diaper need.

Ross at the Cradles to Crayons event in Chicago on April 5, 2018. Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Huggies.

1 in 3 families with newborns struggle to afford diapers, and it takes a toll on their mental and physical health.

Millions of low-income families simply don't have the money to pay for the diapers they need to keep their babies happy, healthy, and clean. Unfortunately, there aren't any government assistance programs to help them out either because food stamps can't be used to pay for diapers. That can make babies and parents sick.

"In research that we did with Yale, what was fascinating was that diaper need was more highly correlated with maternal stress than any material deficit," National Diaper Bank Network CEO Joanne Goldblum tells me at the event. "Not being able to meet your child's basic needs is incredibly stressful."

Joanne Goldblum of the National Diaper Bank Network at Cradles to Crayons in Chicago on April 5, 2018. Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Huggies.

At its core, the diaper need problem is about poverty, and while there are about 250 diaper banks in the U.S., they need help.

At Cradles to Crayons, Ross appeared alongside representatives from Walgreens and Huggies to donate 250,000 diapers and $10,000 to the National Diaper Bank Network. Walgreens and Huggies will donate up to 1.5 million diapers to the National Diaper Bank Network — one day's worth for every package of Huggies purchased in-store through April 29.

"It actually gave me a little bit of a sick feeling in my stomach, and I felt like I had to jump on the opportunity to be able to help out," Ross says, explaining his shock when approached by Huggies and Walgreens for the promotion.

Ross meeting with families at Cradles to Crayons in Chicago on April 5, 2018. Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Huggies.

In 2015, Ross found himself in a vulnerable state when his wife was rushed to the hospital for an emergency C-section.

For Ross, there is a personal component to the issue as well. In 2015, his wife, Hyla, gave birth to their daughter, Harper, two months premature. While both Hyla, a pediatric nurse by trade, and Harper are now perfectly healthy, the experience left Ross with a profound new appreciation for family as well as the kindness of others.

During those first few weeks, his Cubs teammates chipped in to send Ross and his family food and made check-in calls to the catcher. They helped take care of the little things that often go overlooked or can become mounting issues if ignored. It was a family-first approach to kindness, and Ross is paying it forward in this and his other charitable work. The families facing diaper needs are in a fragile place — something he knows a lot about.

Ross hitting a home run for the Cubs during the sixth inning of Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images.

"My life was really good, and then all of a sudden, all that mattered to me was helping my child," he said, thinking back on that experience. "Perspective comes along really fast, so you give back when you can. And I was fortunate enough to be able to afford anything that would happen. That's not the case for 90% of people."

Luckily, you don't need to be a pro athlete to help fight diaper need. There's actually a lot you can do.

"A lot of people don't know this is an issue, and honestly that's part of the reason that I started doing this work," Goldblum says. "Because when we think about societal problems, we think about big things. We don't think about what it takes to get out of the house in the morning: diapers, deodorant, soap, shampoo. Nobody thinks about that stuff."

While reusable cloth diapers are a solution for some families, they're not an option for everyone, especially low-income families without access to a washing machine at home.

Volunteers from Walgreens and Huggies at Cradles to Crayons in Chicago. Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Huggies.

One of the most important things people can do is be vocal about this issue. Many people who are experiencing diaper needs may feel ashamed to speak out, making it that much more important for the rest of us to lend our voices to the cause. Social media is a great way to get the word out. Aside from that, people can host diaper drives, volunteer at their local diaper bank, or donate directly to the National Diaper Bank Network.

Together, we can help solve one of the bigger problems affecting our littlest people.

Community

Young creators are finding their voice and platform on Facebook

Photos from Tay Nakamoto

Facebook is no longer just your mom’s favorite place to share embarassing photos.

The social media platform has grown in popularity for young users and creators who enjoy forming connections with like-minded individuals through groups and events.

Many of these users even take things offline, meeting up in person for activities like book clubs, brunch squads, and Facebook IRL events, like the recent one held in New York City, and sharing how they use Facebook for more than just social networking.

“Got to connect with so many people IRL at an incredible Facebook pop up event this past weekend!” creator @Sistersnacking said of the event. So many cool activities like airbrushing, poster making + vision boarding, a Marketplace photo studio, and more.”

Tay Nakamoto, a designer known for her whimsical, colorful creations, attended the event and brought her stunning designs to the public. On Facebook, she typically shares renter-friendly hacks, backyard DIY projects, and more with her audience of 556K. For the IRL event, she created many of the designs on display, including a photobooth area, using only finds from Facebook Marketplace.

“Decorating out of 100% Facebook Marketplace finds was a new challenge but I had so much fun and got it doneeee. This was all for the Facebook IRL event in NYC and I got to meet such amazing people!!” Nakamoto shared on her page.

Also at the event was Katie Burke, the creator of Facebook Group “Not Wasting My Twenties.” Like many other recent grads at the start of the pandemic, she found herself unemployed and feeling lost. So she started the group as a way to connect with her peers, provide support for one anopther, and document the small, everyday joys of life.

The group hosts career panels, created a sister group for book club, and has meetups in cities around the US.

Another young creator making the most of Facebook is Josh Rincon, whose mission is to teach financial literacy to help break generational poverty. He grew his audience from 0 to over 1 million followers in six months, proving a growing desire for educational content from a younger generation on the platform.

He’s passionate about making finance accessible and engaging for everyone, and uses social media to teach concepts that are entertaining yet educational.

No matter your interests, age, or location, Facebook can be a great place to find your people, share your ideas, and even make new friends IRL.

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Pop Culture

What is 'Generation Jones'? The unique qualities of the not-quite-Gen-X-baby-boomers.

This "microgeneration" had a different upbringing than their fellow boomers.

Photo Credits: Michelle Obama, US Department of Education, Lawrence Jackson

Generation Jones includes Michelle Obama, George Clooney, Kamala Harris, Keanu Reeves and more.

We hear a lot about the major generation categories—boomers, Gen X, millennials, Gen Z and the up-and-coming Gen Alpha. But there are folks who don't quite fit into those boxes. These in-betweeners, sometimes called "cuspers," are members of microgenerations that straddle two of the biggies.

"Xennial" is the nickname for those who fall on the cusp of Gen X and millennial, but there's also a lesser-known microgeneration that straddles Gen X and baby boomers. The folks born from 1954 to 1965 are known as Generation Jones, and they've been thrust into the spotlight as people try to figure out what generation to consider 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris.

Like President Obama before her, Harris is a Gen Joneser—not exactly a classic baby boomer but not quite Gen X. Born in October 1964, Harris falls just a few months shy of official Gen X territory. But what exactly differentiates Gen Jones from the boomers and Gen Xers that flank it?

"Generation Jones" was coined by writer, television producer and social commentator Jonathan Pontell to describe the decade of Americans who grew up in the '60s and '70s. As Pontell wrote of Gen Jonesers in Politico:

"We fill the space between Woodstock and Lollapalooza, between the Paris student riots and the anti-globalisation protests, and between Dylan going electric and Nirvana going unplugged. Jonesers have a unique identity separate from Boomers and GenXers. An avalanche of attitudinal and behavioural data corroborates this distinction."

Pontell describes Jonesers as "practical idealists" who were "forged in the fires of social upheaval while too young to play a part." They are the younger siblings of the boomer civil rights and anti-war activists who grew up witnessing and being moved by the passion of those movements but were met with a fatigued culture by the time they themselves came of age. Sometimes, they're described as the cool older siblings of Gen X. Unlike their older boomer counterparts, most Jonesers were not raised by WWII veteran fathers and were too young to be drafted into Vietnam, leaving them in between on military experience.

Gen Jones gets its name from the competitive "keeping up with the Joneses" spirit that spawned during their populous birth years, but also from the term "jonesin'," meaning an intense craving, that they coined—a drug reference but also a reflection of the yearning to make a difference that their "unrequited idealism" left them with. According to Pontell, their competitiveness and identity as a "generation aching to act" may make Jonesers particularly effective leaders:

"What makes us Jonesers also makes us uniquely positioned to bring about a new era in international affairs. Our practical idealism was created by witnessing the often unrealistic idealism of the 1960s. And we weren’t engaged in that era’s ideological battles; we were children playing with toys while boomers argued over issues. Our non-ideological pragmatism allows us to resolve intra-boomer skirmishes and to bridge that volatile Boomer-GenXer divide. We can lead."

Time will tell whether the United States will end up with another Generation Jones leader, but with President Biden withdrawing his candidacy, it has now become a distinct possibility.

Of note in discussions over Kamala Harris's generational status is the fact that generations aren't just calculated by birth year but by a person's cultural reality. Some have made the argument that Harris is culturally more Gen X than boomer, though there doesn't seem to be any record of her claiming any particular generation as her own. However, a swath of Gen Z has staked their own claim on her as "brat"—a term singer Charli XCX thrust into the political arena with a post on X that read "kamala IS brat." That may be nonsensical to most older folks, but for Gen Z, it's a glowing endorsement from one of the top Gen Z musicians of the moment.

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$10.19 Big Mac? Fast food myth-busters explain why McDonald's is so expensive now.

Is cheap fast food over?

via Yum9Me/Flickr

A Big Mac value meal with a fudge sundae.

For nearly 70 years, McDonald’s has been the place for an affordable, quick, and predictable meal. However, since 2019, McDonald’s prices have risen drastically, and in many places, it now charges fast-casual prices for fast food, even though the quality is the same. What gives?

Over the past five years, the prices of McDonald’s most popular items have risen an average of 141%.

The Food Theorists, a YouTube page with over 5.4 million subscribers that debunks fast food myths and tells the stories behind your favorite food brands and mascots, explains the hefty price hikes in a 9-minute video.

The primary takeaway is that McDonald’s locations are all franchises, so the individual owners have the right to charge what they wish for a product. That’s why a McDonald’s in Darien, Connecticut, charged $17.59 for a Big Mac value meal. There was no nearby competition and consumers driving by on the interstate had fewer food options.

Food Theory: Why Did McDonald's Get SO Expensive?youtu.be

Conversely, in San Jose, California, one of the most expensive places to live and do business, a Big Mac is still relatively affordable ($5.79) because competition in the area keeps prices down.

Therefore, in an inflationary environment where prices are going up on everything, McDonald’s franchises can raise their prices to whatever consumers bear without facing any business consequences.

“If owners see one place is still thriving with higher prices, they'll increase theirs to get more money, especially when there's a need for what they're selling,” Food Theorists say in the video. “Basically, they can drive up prices to match competition because customers won't stop wanting McDonald's.”

The question is, when does the cycle stop? If businesses continue to one-up each other by raising prices with little consequences, at what point does all fast food become super expensive? When companies with lower prices begin to thrive, the expensive businesses, like McDonald's, are forced to return to Earth.

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Pop Culture

Here’s a paycheck for a McDonald’s worker. And here's my jaw dropping to the floor.

So we've all heard the numbers, but what does that mean in reality? Here's one year's wages — yes, *full-time* wages. Woo.

Making a little over 10,000 for a yearly salary.


I've written tons of things about minimum wage, backed up by fact-checkers and economists and scholarly studies. All of them point to raising the minimum wage as a solution to lifting people out of poverty and getting folks off of public assistance. It's slowly happening, and there's much more to be done.

But when it comes right down to it, where the rubber meets the road is what it means for everyday workers who have to live with those wages. I honestly don't know how they do it.

Ask yourself: Could I live on this small of a full-time paycheck? I know what my answer is.

(And note that the minimum wage in many parts of the county is STILL $7.25, so it would be even less than this).

paychecks, McDonalds, corporate power, broken system

One year of work at McDonalds grossed this worker $13,811.18.

assets.rebelmouse.io

This story was written by Brandon Weber and was originally appeared on 02.26.15

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Family

Mom’s blistering rant on how men are responsible for all unwanted pregnancies is on the nose

“ALL unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. Period. Don't believe me? Let me walk you through it."

Gabrielle Blair/Twitter

Mom has something to say... strongly say.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, are a conservative group who aren't known for being vocal about sex.

But best selling author, blogger, and mother of six, Gabrielle Blair, has kicked that stereotype to the curb with a pointed thread on reducing unwanted pregnancies. And her sights are set directly at men.

She wrote a Cliff's Notes version of her thread on her blog:

If you want to stop abortion, you need to prevent unwanted pregnancies. And men are 100% responsible for unwanted pregnancies. No for real, they are. Perhaps you are thinking: IT TAKES TWO! And yes, it does take two for _intentional_ pregnancies.

But ALL unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. Period. Don't believe me? Let me walk you through it. Let's start with this: women can only get pregnant about 2 days each month. And that's for a limited number of years.

Here's the whole thread. It's long, but totally worth the read.

Blair's controversial tweet storm have been liked hundreds of thousands of time, with the original tweet earning nearly 200,000 likes since it was posted on Thursday, September, 13.

The reactions have earned her both praise and scorn.

Most of the scorn was from men.

But Blair wouldn't budge.

For other men, the tweet thread was a real eye-opener.

Women everywhere applauded Blair's bold thread.

This article originally appeared on 02.22.19

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Identity

When a man asks people to translate a hate message he's received, their response is unforgettable

Reading the words would be one thing. Having to think about what they mean is almost too intense.

All images via Lietuvos žmogaus teisių centras/YouTube


As part of an experiment, a man asks for help translating a Facebook message he has received.

There's a man in Lithuania who speaks only English. The message is in Lithuanian. He can't read it, so he asks some locals to translate it for him.

As he asks one person after another to translate the message for him, two things become obvious.

1. He's received a message full of hate speech.

2. Translating it for him is breaking people's hearts.

It's nearly more than these people can bear.

There's a sudden, powerful connection between the translators and the man they're translating for. They want to protect him, telling him not to bother with the message.

They apologize for the message.

They look like they want to cry.

Words hurt.

Most of us would never think of saying such horrible things. This video shows people realizing in their gut what it must feel like when those words are pointed at them — it's all right on their faces. And so is their compassion.

The Facebook message is horrible, but their empathy is beautiful. The video's emotional power is what makes it unique, and so worth watching and passing around.

Here it is.

The video's in English, subtitled in Lithuanian. Just watch the faces.

This article originally appeared on 04.10.15

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