upworthy
Add Upworthy to your Google News feed.
Google News Button
Celebrity

The time Martha Stewart invited Robin Williams on her show and could barely hold it together

""No matter what I said, he had a retort and he was so quick."

robin williams, martha stewart, cooking, comedy, celebrities
via Martha Stewart/YouTube

Robin Williams making Martha Stewart crack up.

If you feel like Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Patch Adams just came out yesterday, you might find it hard to believe it’s been over 10 years since the great Robin Williams left our world. The man left a fantastic legacy of laughs, that much is for sure.

Williams was also an incredible dramatic actor, giving memorable performances in films such as Dead Poets Society and Good Morning, Vietnam.

But the Comic Relief star always shined brightest when he improvised on stage, whether on talk shows or in stand-up comedy. One appearance on Martha Stewart Living from 2004 has been making the rounds recently because of how quickly he improvised jokes while cooking with Stewart. It’s also great because Stewart plays the perfect straight woman to Williams, although she has a tough time holding it together.

Whenever Stewart mentions an ingredient, whether cumin or brown sugar, Williams turns it into a comedic riff. He also jokes in Spanish and does a few accents that feel off-color over 20 years later, but they’re delivered with the best intentions. Williams also walks a bit of a tightrope during the segment while he tries to keep his humor appropriate for daytime TV while reacting to Stewart, who is “rubbing the meat.”

- YouTube youtu.be

"I feel incredibly honored to have grown up in an era where we had this wonderful man," the most popular commenter on the YouTube video wrote. "His ability to change characters on the fly is remarkable," another added. "His spontaneous humor is unmatched! He was an incredibly smart, kind and funny man. He is sorely missed!" another commenter said.

Who were Martha Stewart’s favorite guests on her show?

Years later, Stewart would admit that Williams was one of her favorite guests on the show. "We had so much fun because he was the fastest wit and the fastest mind and his mind was like a computer," Stewart told AOL in 2022. "No matter what I said, he had a retort and he was so quick. I was marinating meat and he loved that—can you imagine what he did with 'marinating meat' and 'rubbing the meat' and 'ooh la la?' Watch the segment; it's really good."

What’s The Many Lives of Martha Stewart film about?

Although Martha Stewart has rarely been out of the spotlight over the past five decades, she’s been in the news recently after releasing the new Netflix documentary about her life, The Many Lives of Martha Stewart.

The film follows Stewart’s journey from teen model to Wall Street stockbroker to the queen of entertaining and good taste. Eventually, she would become America’s first self-made female billionaire. The documentary also discusses the insider trading scandal that sent her to prison in 2004.

The film also reveals Stewart’s guiding philosophy. “I have two mottos. One is: Learn something new every day. And the second one is: When you’re through changing, you’re through,” Stewart says in the film. “Change that garden if you don’t like it. Rip it out and you start all over again.”

If you want to relive the hilarious moments between Stewart and Williams in your kitchen, here’s a recipe for the Chili Espresso Steak Rub.

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

From Your Site Articles
robin williams
CelebrityPop Culture
Science

Her groundbreaking theory on the origin of life was rejected 15 times. Then biology proved her right.

Lynn Margulis had the audacity to challenge Darwin. And we're lucky she did.

lynn margulis, lynn margulis symbiosis, biology, scientific breakthroughs, darwin, darwinism, women in science
Facts That Will Blow Your Mind/Facebook

A photo of Lynn Margulis.

Throughout her prolific and distinguished career, biologist Lynn Margulis made several groundbreaking contributions to science that we take for granted as common knowledge today. For example, she championed James E. Lovelock’s “Gaia concept,” which posited that the Earth self-regulates to maintain conditions for life.

But by far, her most notable theory was symbiogenesis. While it was first written off as “strange” and “aesthetically pleasing” but “not compelling,” it would ultimately prevail, and completely rewrite how we viewed the origin of life itself.

In the late 1960s, Margulis wrote a paper titled "On the Origin of Mitosing Cells," that was quite avant-garde. In it, she proposed a theory: that life evolved through organisms merging together to become inseparable.

In essence, cooperation is the driver of life, not competition and domination. This directly went against Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” principle that was considered gospel in scientific circles. Margulis’ paper was rejected by fifteen journals before getting accepted into the Journal of Theoretical Biology.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Time would be on Margulis’ side, however. By the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, research proved that the two major building blocks of plants and animals, chloroplasts and mitochondria were at one time independent bacteria. This solidified the fact that on a biological level, connection trumps autonomy for longevity. And now that fact is written in textbooks, with no real story of the adversity it overcame to get there.

While it is customary for most new scientific theories to be met with criticism, especially those that completely shift the current narrative, many have noted that sexism played a key part in Margulis’ initial lack of acceptance. On more than one occasion, she herself had hinted that women were seen as mothers and wives first, and scientists second. She recalled that while married to fellow scientist Carl Sagan that “Carl would finish his sentence, unperturbed” while she was expected to “handle all the duties of a 1950s housewife, from washing dishes to paying the household bills.”

And yet, Margulis would have other ideas that were controversial that had nothing to do with her gender. Most famously, she did not believe that AIDS was caused by HIV, and instead believed it was cause by a syphilis-causing type of bacteria, despite there already being decades of research proving otherwise. That view was seen as an endorsement of AIDS denialism, which undermined prevention and treatment effort. Then later in life, Margulis became a vocal proponent of 9/11 conspiracy theories suggesting government involvement the in Twin Towers attacks.

And yet, perhaps this is one of those “you gotta take the good with the bad” situations. Margulis’ inherent contrarian nature gave us both these unfounded, even harmful stances, in addition to entirely new paradigms that altered our understanding of life itself.

And if nothing else, it illuminated the need for science to include multiple points of view in order to unlock the truth. It seems life is, after all, about coming together.

From Your Site Articles
history
ScienceNature
Joy

'Remarkable' UPS driver runs into burning home to save 101-year-old woman

"I just did what I thought was right."

ups driver, ups, hero, house fire, elderly woman, orange county, california, local news, good news, ktla
Photo credit: Canva

A delivery driver with a determined expression; a house on fire.

Fate often tests our courage at the most unexpected times. For UPS driver Willy Esquivel, that moment came on January 15 while he was completing a delivery in Orange County, California.

According to KTLA, Esquivel was on his routine route in Santa Ana when he noticed neighbors attempting to smother a blaze coming from the condo of Ann Edwards, a 101-year-old woman who lives alone.

Esquivel wasted no time entering the smoke-filled building to rescue Edwards, who seemed "very disoriented" and reluctant to leave. Nevertheless, Esquivel "picked her up and carried her safely outside," according to KTLA and a statement from the Orange County Fire Authority (OFCA).

A video posted on the OFCA's X account showed just how thick the smoke was pouring from Edwards' condo as firefighters arrived. The OFCA also acknowledged the resourceful neighbors who aided in the rescue.

"At the same time, the neighbors used fire extinguishers to knock down the kitchen fire," the OCFA wrote on X. "One of them, a roofer by trade, grabbed his ladder, climbed to the roof, and used a garden hose to spray water into the kitchen vent."

Thankfully, while Edwards was taken to the hospital, she was expected to make a full recovery. Her son, Rick, told KTLA that he was grateful to Esquivel for "sticking with her and getting her out of there."

As for Esquivel, rather than seeing himself as a hero, he told KTLA that he was "just a UPS driver who was in the right place at the right time."

"I just did what I thought was right," he added. "At the end of the day, she's someone's mother, someone's grandmother, great-grandmother."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Moments like this rarely announce themselves ahead of time. They unfold in the middle of ordinary days, on familiar streets, while people are simply doing their jobs or moving through their routines. Delivery drivers like Esquivel travel through neighborhoods every day, often unnoticed, yet uniquely positioned to sense when something is wrong. On this day, being present and paying attention made all the difference.

Just as striking as Esquivel's bravery was the way neighbors instinctively sprang into action. Without hesitation, they grabbed fire extinguishers, ladders, and garden hoses, each contributing whatever they had in the moment. Together, their quick thinking and collaboration helped prevent an even greater tragedy.

"A remarkable outcome made possible by quick action, teamwork, and people looking out for one another in a moment of need," the OCFA wrote on X.

It's easy to assume someone else will step in. That it's not your fight. That it's not your responsibility. Heroism requires the opposite mindset. And at a time when the world can feel increasingly short on that quality, this story is a refreshing reminder that yes, there are still good people out there willing to help, even when it means helping complete strangers while on the job.

From Your Site Articles
everyday heroes
JoyHeroes
Pop Culture

15 years ago, a Russian gymnast was interrupted by her 2-year-old daughter. It became a historic performance.

"This is beyond beautiful. 🥲"

dance, motherhood, mommy daughter dance, mother daughter relationship, parenting, wholesome
Umi4ika/Youtube

Svetlana Putintseva with her daughter Masha.

In 2005 at only 18 years old, Russian rhythmic gymnast Svetlana Putintseva became a world champion, after which she retired and eventually became a mom. Then, in 2011, Putintseva came out of retirement for one special Gala performance.

Little did anyone know that her then two-year-old daughter named Masha would be the key to making that performance so special.

As the story goes, the young child refused to leave her side that night. But rather than stopping the performance, Putintseva did what so many incredible moms do: she masterfully held space for two different identities.

As we see in the video below, Putintseva simply brought Masha onto the dance floor and incorporated her into the routine—holding and comforting her at times, performing impressive moves while she ran around at others…letting it all become a lively, endearing interaction rather than a rote routine. It became something really touching:

Watch:

Now, a bit of fact-checking as this video has once again started going viral. Despite what many captions say, Putintseva‘s daughter was likely always a planned part of the performance (the tiny leotard is a bit of a giveaway). But that doesn’t really take away from the message behind it: motherhood weaves another soul into one's identity, forever. And one of the biggest lessons it teaches is how to hold someone else steady, all while becoming ourselves.

Every day, moms are engaging in a similar type of “dance”: navigating through the world while guiding and nurturing their little ones. It probably doesn't always feel quite as graceful as what Putintseva put out, and, yet, it is just as beautiful.

dance, motherhood, mommy daughter dance, mother daughter relationship, parenting, wholesome A mother hugging her daughter.Photo credit: Canva

Maybe so many thought it was an improvised moment because improvising is a very real parent superpower. That’s certainly the takeaway we get from some of these lovely comments:

“You cannot control life but you can learn to dance with it. 🤍”

"This is beyond beautiful. 🥲"

“If this isn't a metaphor for motherhood. We improvise so much.”

“A mother’s unconditional love 🥹❤️ She just made my whole month.”

“I do this sometimes while deejaying. My daughter comes up so I hit the slicer and let her chop it up. A few chops and she is happy and goes about her business. 🥰”

“I can see my daughter doing this to me soon whenever I get up on stage on perform. She already stares long and hard at me whenever I am onnstage singing. She doesn't take her eyes off me. Sure she would be running up to stand with me when she starts walking 😂😂 i look forward to it tho”

“Sobbing 😭😭😭😭 As a dancer who hasn’t performed since having a kid, this inspires me in so many ways 🥹🥹 So beautiful and it’s clear that she admires her mom so much 🥰”

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Though not much is written on Putintseva following this performance, one blog post says that Masha has followed in her footsteps by getting into rhythmic gymnastics. Maybe it all started with this one performance. ❤️

From Your Site Articles
wholesome
Pop CultureInternet
Health

4 ways to stop overthinking your social interactions, according to a clinical psychologist

How to stop "post-event rumination."

overthinking, anxious, rumination, ruminating, post-event rumination, social anxiety disorder, overthinking social interactions
Photo credit: Canva

"Post-event rumination" is a factor in Social Anxiety Disorder.

If you find yourself overthinking social situations after they happen, you're not alone. Also known as "post-event rumination," this pattern is extremely common. One European study from 2020 found that between 86 and 96 percent of people reported experiencing post-event rumination after an embarrassing social situation.

It's also a factor in Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), which affects 7.1 percent of adults in the United States, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The NIMH defines SAD as being "characterized by persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others. The individual fears that he or she will act in a way (or show anxiety symptoms) that will be embarrassing and humiliating."

While falling into patterns of anxious overthinking may feel habitual, there are ways to break the cycle. Clinical psychologist Thomas Smithyman, PhD, outlined four steps for stopping overthinking in social situations.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Step #1: Practice psychological distancing

Smithyman defines psychological distancing as taking time to understand why we overthink social interactions and what purpose that overthinking may serve.

"I step back and identify why. 'Why is this coming up for me?'" explains Smithyman. "And the reason is, we're built for this. We're supposed to have a threat system that protects us from social injury." On a broader level, he notes, that system helps prevent humans from "doing something terribly wrong and getting kicked out of the group and dying."

Smithyman explains that this method of self-protection has been wired into our brains for roughly 35,000 years, and that it may no longer serve us in the way it once did.

"Sometimes it makes us really anxious in advance of social interactions so that we don't do anything wrong," he says. "But sometimes after we have had a social interaction, it kicks in and tries to go over everything we did and figure out: did we screw up? What can we do to repair that? And how do we prevent it in the future?"

The goal is to respond with self-compassion and kindness rather than harsh self-criticism.

"One of the biggest problems I see is people fighting with parts of their own brain," he says. "There's a part of them that they don't think should be there, so they criticize and attack themselves. It causes a lot of conflict."

Step #2: Get rational

"We miss all the things we did well and we hyper-focus on the supposed negative things," Smithyman says. "Instead of helping us in the future it makes us more and more anxious the next time that we interact."

Smithyman returns to the brain's protective system, noting that while it's meant to protect, it isn't always accurate. He cites research on a concept known as the liking gap.

"It's a series of research that shows after we interact with somebody, we are liked more than we assume," he explains. "We will leave thinking we're not that well liked, but the research shows people like us more than we think. Not only that, if we have any social anxiety, we know again from research we're even more likely to criticize our performance and underestimate how much other people liked us."

overthinking, embarrassed, social anxiety, post-even rumination, anxious, self-criticism A man struggles with overthinking a past social situation.Photo credit: Canva

Step #3: Shift the "success" metric

According to Smithyman, this is the most important factor. He explains that many people define social success by whether "people like me and if they approve of me."

However, he argues that those metrics can be misleading because they rely on "private thoughts in someone's head, and we are just really terrible at mind reading." He adds: "We can say the same things to two people: and one person will like me; one person will not like me. So, who's right? How do I decide if I did 'well' or not?"

Therefore, the goal is to shift your success metrics from external approval to internal approval. He explains that instead of looking to others to gauge how you performed, you should ask yourself: "'Did I live up to my ethics and my values? Did I follow through on what matters to me?' Because I know that if I did that, I am proud of myself and I'm okay with myself. ... It means that our success is within our own hands."

Smithyman adds that he can assess himself and his integrity by asking three key questions:

  • Was I warm?
  • Was I curious?
  • Was I authentic to myself?

socializing, social skills, social anxiety, overcoming social anxiety, post-even rumination People socializing and enjoying conversation together.Photo credit: Canva

Step #4: Weaken the idea of approval as success

Finally, Smithyman explains that to overcome overthinking social situations, you need to weaken the protective part of the brain that reinforces those thoughts. He offers a helpful metaphor: if a child wakes up in the middle of the night afraid of a boogeyman under the bed and runs to their parents' room, and the parents respond by agreeing, engaging, and telling the child to go fight the boogeyman, it reinforces the idea that the fear was justified.

"The next night, the kid is going to be just as scared again because the parents are reinforcing it," he says. "Every time your threat system activates, and then you willingly choose to treat those threats as dangerous, you're strengthening it."

To defeat this kind of thinking, Smithyman suggests taking the fuel away: "Whenever we sit and go over the event again and again, we analyze, we look for things, we reassure ourselves, and we're dedicating more and more time to going over these possible risks and screw-ups we had, we're adding fuel to it."

He recommends doing this instead: ask yourself, "What would I do if I were certain there was no risk?"

The answer? That your time likely wouldn't be spent hyper-focusing, overthinking, or overanalyzing yourself. Instead, it could be spent exercising, socializing with friends, or enjoying hobbies.

From Your Site Articles
how to stop overthinking
HealthMental Health
Pop Culture

Someone asked, 'What did the '80s smell like?' and the scent memories are a time warp

Aqua Net and Marlboros, with top notes of Drakkar Noir.

1980s, '80s scents, mrs. fields cookies, smoking, aqua net, nostalgia
via Phillip Pessar/Flickr, Simon Evans/Flickr, George Kelly/Flickr

A Mrs. Fields cookie shop, a can of Aqua Net, and a teenager smoking.

One of the most distinctive features of the human sense of smell is that it bypasses the brain's sensory filters and goes straight to the limbic system, where memories and emotions reside. That's why a simple smell can bring you right back to a place in time in an emotional way that even a photograph or a song can't do.

Scents have an incredible way of taking us to a specific time and place, and for those of us who lived through the 1980s, certain smells act like a wormhole to the Reagan era, a time defined by big hair, Cold War tensions, and New Wave music.

ThrillaRilla39, an X user who frequently posts about nostalgia, asked their followers, "What did the '80s smell like?" The question received nearly 6,000 responses. The scents people shared are sure to bring readers back to a time when you didn't come home until the streetlights came on and everyone was still wondering who shot J.R. Ewing.

Two answers, in particular, really stood out: cigarettes and Aqua Net hairspray. It makes sense. In 1980, 33.2 percent of American adults smoked cigarettes, compared with just 11.6 percent in 2022. You could smoke just about anywhere back then, in restaurants, at the mall, and even inside the house with the doors closed. It's safe to say we've learned a bit about public health since the Neon Eighties.

Here are the 18 best responses to "What did the '80s smell like?"

Many X users shared the perfumes and colognes that were popular in the '80s.





Nothing defined the '80s quite like the interior of a Pizza Hut, smelling of hot cheese, sweaty kids, and cigarettes.



That chemical smell of plastic bubbles that you could never wash off your fingers.


Or, if you were a kid in the '80s, smelly erasers were all the rage. The only problem was when your little brother thought they were candy and tried to eat one.



Big hair was everywhere, and Aqua Net, the 99-cent hairspray that could double as a flamethrower, was ubiquitous. Don't get it on your forehead, it'll never wash off.



The eggy, orangey smell of Orange Julius seemed to permeate half the mall.



Everything smelled like cigarettes because people smoked everywhere.

It may sound bizarre in 2026, but the first federal ban on smoking on airplanes didn't go into effect until 1990. Other notable bans: Arizona began restricting smoking in certain areas in 1974, and Minnesota started regulating smoking in public spaces in 1975. One of the most significant laws came in 1995, when California banned smoking in workplaces, including restaurants and bars.



Did you do a good job on your social studies assignment? No cavities at the dentist? Memorize all the books of the New Testament? Your reward in 1984 was a scratch-n-sniff sticker. Well done, Kevin.



Back in the '80s, people didn't use much sunscreen. Instead, they used lotions designed to make tanning easier, even though they increased the risk of skin cancer. It wasn't the healthiest choice, but those suntanning lotions did have a pleasant coconut-meets-olive-oil scent.




Nothing smelled better in the '80s than walking into a Kmart or Sears and catching the scent of the popcorn machine running all day.



Or walking into the mall and smelling these bad boys from 100 yards away.


There was something about the plastic in a Trapper Keeper that gave off a scent lasting the entire school year, far longer than the plastic rings inside, which usually broke before Christmas.



The '80s are long gone, but for those who lived through the era, they still live deep in the recesses of our minds. They can come alive at the simple smell of a dirty Chuck E. Cheese token, a whiff of English Leather cologne, or an old La-Z-Boy chair where Grandpa smoked for decades.

The '80s may not have been the healthiest time to be alive, but they are impossible to forget.

From Your Site Articles
1980s nostalgia
Pop CultureInternet
Trending Stories