Author: Shekari Philemon

There is a conversation happening inside your head right now. It has been going on your entire life. And according to decades of psychological research, it may be one of the most powerful forces shaping your emotional wellbeing, your performance at work and your ability to recover when things go wrong. Self-talk, the internal dialogue that runs constantly beneath the surface of your daily experience, is not a quirk or an eccentricity. It is a psychological tool, and like any tool, its impact depends entirely on how it is used. The five types below represent the range of what that…

Few moments in recent memory rattled the entertainment world quite like the wave of legal accusations that swept through it in 2024. For Jay-Z, one of those moments landed with particular force. The rapper and business mogul, born Shawn Carter, is now speaking openly about the emotional aftermath of a rape lawsuit filed against him last year, describing a level of anger he had not felt in years. In a recent interview with GQ magazine, Jay-Z reflected on how the allegations affected him personally. He described feeling heartbroken from the moment the claims became public, and said the experience was…

Earl Sweatshirt and MIKE are taking their creative partnership on the road, announcing a run of Australian and New Zealand headline shows in May that will arrive just weeks after the release of their highly anticipated collaborative album. The tour marks one of the more compelling live propositions in underground hip hop this year, pairing two artists whose chemistry has been building quietly for over a decade. The run opens in Auckland at Studio The Venue on May 22, before moving to Melbourne’s The Timber Yard on May 23 and Brisbane’s The Tivoli on May 27. A headlining set at…

Not long ago, Daniel Chenjerai who performs under the name DC3 was an unknown teenager from Northampton writing rap verses in relative obscurity. Now, at 18, he finds himself nominated for two MOBO Awards, rubbing shoulders with some of the most talked about names in British music, and still trying to process how quickly everything has changed. Chenjerai, earned nominations for Best Newcomer and Best Gospel Act at the awards, which celebrate excellence in black British music. The ceremony is set to take place in Manchester, where he will share the spotlight with established acts including Olivia Dean, PinkPantheress and…

For decades, gym culture operated on a widely accepted rule: the body can only utilize somewhere between 30 and 40 grams of protein in a single meal. Anything beyond that threshold, the thinking went, was simply burned off as fuel or otherwise wasted. The practical implication was that protein intake should be spread evenly across four to six meals per day to maximize muscle building, a structure that worked well for people with flexible schedules but left little room for anyone eating differently. The problem, it turns out, is that this rule was never really tested in a rigorous way.…

A series of videos making the rounds on social media have put Solange Knowles’ son Daniel Smith Jr., widely known as Julez, squarely in the spotlight after footage showed him spending time with reality television personality Tommie Lee during what appeared to be a lively night out. The clips, which circulated widely on Instagram, captured several candid moments between the two, including one in which Julez carried Lee on his back as the pair laughed and bantered with an ease that social media users were quick to interpret as more than casual. Lee, 41, was seen holding onto his arm…

There are performances that entertain, and then there are performances that change the room entirely. Keyla Richardson delivered the latter on a recent episode of American Idol, turning in a rendition of the Beatles classic With a Little Help From My Friends that left the judges visibly shaken and the audience on its feet before the final note had even landed. Richardson, a 29-year-old single mother and music teacher from Pensacola, Florida, dedicated the moment to the people she credited with helping shape her journey. What followed was a vocal performance so commanding it seemed to transcend the competition format…

Parenting does not come with an expiration date, but it does come with an evolution. Once a child reaches adulthood, the rules of engagement shift in ways that many parents are simply not prepared for. The boundaries change. The dynamic changes. And one of the areas where that transition tends to get most complicated is when an adult child brings a partner into the picture. Unlike the casual high school relationships parents once navigated with relative ease, a serious adult partnership carries real weight. What a parent says about that person, even in passing, can echo far longer than intended.…

Depression is not a condition reserved for adults. It affects children too, sometimes as young as preschool age, and it does so more frequently than most parents expect. While sadness and moodiness are a natural part of growing up, there is an important distinction between passing emotional phases and something deeper and more persistent. Understanding that difference could be one of the most important things a parent ever learns. Childhood depression affects a meaningful portion of young people across age groups, with rates rising noticeably during adolescence. Left unaddressed, it does not simply resolve on its own. It can shape…

Emotional maturity gets discussed frequently alongside emotional intelligence, but the two are not quite the same thing. Where emotional intelligence describes the ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, emotional maturity is more about what you do with that awareness when things get hard. It is the capacity to stay present during difficulty, to notice what you are feeling and to choose a response rather than simply reacting to whatever the moment triggers. Crucially, emotional maturity does not mean never getting upset. It means developing enough internal stability to pause before the reaction, to hold discomfort without…