This week Symone and Eugene cover the Obama Presidential Center, UFC 250, the fact that tomatoes are up 32%, and, most importantly, Juneteenth. “Rights on paper are not the same as rights in practice,” says Symone, “and we are literally living that right now. Freedom requires government action. Freedom requires enforcement. Freedom requires people willing to defend the promise.” And when Symone and Eugene look at pop stars and Black athletes they find out who's willing, and unwilling, to defend their values. Ariana Grande, Jane Fonda, Tessa Thompson and Ayo Edebiri beg the question: Is your fave speaking up? Because silence is an answer.

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Graham Platner’s redemption arc starts now, after he wins the Democratic senatorial nomination for Maine. And while the rest of the United States is celebrating Pride, a handful of southern (plus Utah) Republican lawmakers have made it a point to rebrand June to disassociate with the LGBTQ+ community. The NBA Finals continue to heat up, in the same week 2026 World Cup kicks off. This should be a time for soccer fans across the globe to bow down at the altar of soccer, but politics – as it so often does – has gotten in the way. The African referee of 2025 was not allowed to enter the U.S. despite being handpicked by FIFA to officiate games, Iraq’s star player was detained and questioned for hours by Border Patrol agents, and the Iranian soccer team is not being allowed to sleep in the country despite being scheduled to play three matches in Los Angeles and Seattle. It’s times like these -- when the world is full of chaos -- that we look to the stars, which is why we asked Neil deGrasse Tyson to join the groupchat. He blew our minds with facts about UFOs, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Earth’s real shape, reminding us that "the universe is under no obligation to make sense.”

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This week we were keeping tabs on a very long primary day with races all over the country, Jill Biden's book tour, the "Summer House" reunion taking over our feeds, and a battle for the soul of “60 Minutes.” Symone and Eugene cover all of it, and then kick off Pride Month by welcoming internet and TV sensation Kalen Allen to the groupchat. The trio get into Hollywood’s beliefs about the market for queer stories – we may never get a Black “Heated Rivalry,” for example – and Kalen’s beliefs about the responsibilities of public figures. "I look at my life, I look at Eugene, I'm like – we are our ancestors' wildest dreams. We are the dreams that died with them,” says Kalen. “It is heavy, however I take every bit of the weight.”

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