JUNE 9, 2025

The 100 Most

Influential Leaders
In Philanthropy

DAVID
BECKHAM
‘I want to see wins’
+ 99 more people shaping
the future of giving

time.com
 VOL . 205, NOS. 19–20 | 2025

CONTENTS

7 24 32 38 69
The Brief Democrats China TIME100 Time Off
Adrift Rising Philanthropy
17 Rejected by The country’s The inaugural list
voters, sidelined by dominance of the of the world’s most
The View progressives, and global electric-vehicle influential innovators,
burdened by an aging market says a lot titans, leaders, and
leadership, the party about why it brims trailblazers who are
searches for a with confidence in shaping the future
way back other fields of giving
By Charlotte Alter By Charlie Campbell
△
Democratic
58 62
lawmakers at a
Super Pumped Broadway’s Best news conference
The Enhanced Games aim to Audra McDonald could set yet on April 30
be a lot like the Olympics, only another record at the Tony Awards, Photograph by
without drug testing this time as Mama Rose in Gypsy Stefani Reynolds—
By Sean Gregory By Charlotte Alter Bloomberg/Getty
Images

TIME (ISSN 0040-781X) is published twice a month (except monthly in January and August) by TIME USA, LLC. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 3 Bryant Park, New York, NY 10036. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and
additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS (See DMM 507.1.5.2); Non-Postal and Military Facilities: Send address corrections to TIME Magazine, PO Box 37508, Boone, IA 50037-0508. Canada Post
Publications Mail Agreement # 40069223. BN# 704925882RT0001. © 2025 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: For 24/7 service, please use our website:
www.time.com/myaccount. You can also call 1-800-843-8463 or write TIME Magazine, PO Box 37508, Boone, IA 50037-0508. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. Your bank may
provide updates to the card information we have on file. You may opt out of this service at any time.

2 TIME June 9, 2025

FROM THE EDITOR

the organization further into humanitarian

Stepping up work despite a $20 million hit to funding due
to USAID cuts. “Cash can be uniquely powerful
IN MAY, PARTNERS OF THE GATES FOUNDATION when all the other supply chains are super dis-
gathered in Manhattan to announce that the or- rupted,” Allardice told TIME.
ganization would spend $200 billion over the
next 20 years and then close its doors in 2045. A NEW GENERATION of donors is doing things
Supporters, including Michael Bloomberg, were their own way. Katherine Lorenz, president
on hand to mark the occasion. The scene, staged of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Founda-
at Carnegie Hall, a venue built by one of Amer- tion, was instrumental in creating the Giving
ica’s great 19th century philanthropists, paid Pledge Next Generation for descendants of
tribute to a long tradition of American giving, Giving Pledge signatories to help shape their
New leaders while pointing to new ways of thinking that are family giving, while Austrian heiress Marlene
shaping the 21st century. Engelhorn invited a council of fellow citizens
are eager to For those reasons, we include Bloomberg, the to decide how to give away the bulk of her in-
see impact— U.S.’s single largest recorded donor in 2024, and heritance. Through their foundation Good
and see it now Mark Suzman, set to lead the next chapter of Ventures and grantmaker Open Philanthropy,
the Gates Foundation, in Dustin Moskovitz and
our inaugural TIME100 Cari Tuna take a data-
Philanthropy list. We focused approach to
launched the annual direct funds to causes
TIME100 21 years ago where they can do the
with the belief that indi- most good. Meanwhile,
viduals have the power in January, Stack Over-
to change the world, and flow co-founder Jeff
in recent years we’ve ex- Atwood announced his
panded the franchise into mission to give away
areas poised to signifi- half his wealth within
cantly shape our future— five years. He next plans
AI, Climate, Health, and to make direct cash pay-
now Philanthropy. In ments to residents of
many places, as global △ poor counties in West
institutions are chas- GiveDirectly’s Nick Allardice with local Virginia, North Caro-
official Jones Chitete, right, in Malawi
tened and world govern- lina, and Arizona. “It’s
ments reverse ambitions, not a handout,” he says.
philanthropy is stepping into the void. “It’s an investment in our fellow Americans.”
This project, representing individuals from Collective giving is on the rise too. The grass-
28 countries and assembled by TIME’s report- roots movement allows individuals to pool re-
ers, editors, and contributors around the world, sources for greater impact. According to the
was led by Ayesha Javed. “At this pivotal mo- Johnson Center for Philanthropy, “giving cir-
ment, this list tells the stories of how generous cles” have contributed more than $3.1 billion to
donors and leaders of foundations and non- social causes since 2017. Hali Lee, founder of the
profits are directing funding into the communi- Asian Women Giving Circle and co-founder of
ties that need it most,” Javed says. the Donors of Color Network, argues the future
In the U.S. in particular, foundations are of philanthropy belongs to community action.
under increased pressure as the new Administra- The new leaders in philanthropy, many of
tion aims to remove the government from spaces whom are accustomed to great success in their
where it previously played a substantial role. own fields, are eager to see impact and see it
TIME100 Philanthropy honorees like Elizabeth now. As David Beckham, a longtime UNICEF
Alexander and Nick Allardice are responding. ambassador, says, “The competitive part of it is,
As president of the Andrew W. Mellon Founda- I want to see wins.”
tion, the largest funder of the arts and humani-
ties in the U.S., Alexander says she focused on
C O U R T E S Y G I V E D I R E C T LY

supporting “multivocal, multiexperiential de-

mocracy” in America. And Allardice, who leads
GiveDirectly—one of the world’s largest provid-
ers of unconditional cash transfers to people
living in extreme poverty—says he is leaning EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
4 TIME June 9, 2025
 TIME100 Health

Road to Justice

timecoverstore.com

SETTING THE
RECORD STRAIGHT

TA L K T O U S
▽ ▽
Become a Kid Reporter

5
Be part of the solution at
AgreeToAgree.org

Source: Gun Violence in the U.S. 2022, Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.
The Brief
TRUMP’S
LEARNING
CURVE
BY SIMON SHUSTER

Faced with the war’s

complexities, Trump
backs away from
Ukraine peacemaking

THE QUESTION OF FEMA THE STATE OF JOE BIDEN’S SIGNS A FAULTY MEMORY
AND STATE CAPABILITIES HEALTH, THEN AND NOW MIGHT BE A PROBLEM

PHOTOGR APH BY BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI 7

THE BRIEF OPENER

C
oming out of his two-hour call with “It was a really bad experience to have this long debate
Vladimir Putin on May 19, Donald Trump made with Putin,” Scholz recalled in an interview with TIME
an unusual concession: only Russia and Ukraine that spring. “And I was really arguing with him, saying,
should be involved in talks to end the war be- Please understand, if politicians start to look at history
tween them, he wrote on social media, “because they books, at where their borders had been before, then we
know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be will have only wars for hundreds of years.”
aware of.” The admission of ignorance seemed out of char- But Putin has long relied on nationalist and imperialist
acter for a President who often claims to know more than narratives to justify his actions, often citing the old histor-
anyone else about a great variety of subjects, and it may ical tomes he is known to study obsessively. When asked
have set the peace process on a new and uncertain course. last year to explain his decision to invade Ukraine, “Putin
For Putin, the gaps in Trump’s knowledge about the went on for a very long time, probably half an hour, about
war have always offered an advantage. One of the Russian the history of Russia going back to the 8th century,” his
leader’s favorite negotiating tactics is to overwhelm his interviewer Tucker Carlson later recalled. “And honestly,
interlocutors with a torrent of historical theories. Ukrai- we thought this was a filibustering technique and found it
nian officials and their European allies have tried to pre- annoying and interrupted him several times.”
pare Trump for such conversations with Putin by offering Countering this technique requires a grasp of the facts
their own views on the complexity that few in the White House can
of the war and its history, but they muster. During his first term,
have often run up against a wall Trump rarely read the briefing
of ignorance about Ukraine inside books prepared by the intelli-
the Trump Administration.
“They’re not read-in on a lot
For Putin, gence community. Since his re-
turn to the Oval Office, he has sat
of the background,” says a West-
ern official who has discussed
Ukraine at length during visits to
the gaps in for only about a dozen presen-
tations of the President’s Daily
Brief, far fewer than normal, ac-
the White House. On the Ukrai-
nian side, a diplomat put the same
Trump’s cording to an analysis published
by Politico.
frustration in starker terms. “It’s
this messianic attitude,” the dip- knowledge In trying to expand Trump’s
understanding of Ukraine,
lomat says of the U.S. approach to
Ukraine under Trump. “Like they
know everything and don’t want
about the war President Zelensky has encour-
aged him and his senior aides to
visit the front lines. None have
to hear anything.”
The Trump team’s faulty com-
have always agreed. Vice President J.D. Vance
declined one such offer by telling
mand of the facts has at times
been painfully obvious. In a call
on May 19, the President report-
offered an Zelensky he did not want to take
a “propaganda tour.”
The lack of interest has frus-
edly told a group of European
leaders that Ukraine and Russia
advantage trated career diplomats tasked
with informing Trump’s deci-
could begin cease-fire talks “im- sions, according to two U.S. of-
mediately.” Ukrainian President ficials familiar with the rela-
Volodymyr Zelensky then re- tionship. His main source of
minded him that negotiations had begun a few days ear- on-the-ground insight would normally be the U.S. em-
lier, on May 16, in Istanbul. Trump’s apparent lapse in bassy in Kyiv. But Ambassador Bridget Brink struggled to
memory led to a moment of “puzzled silence” on the line, gain influence within the White House, and in April she
according to Axios, which reported the exchange. stepped down. “Unfortunately, the policy since the begin-
Trump’s lead envoy to Ukraine and Russia, Steve ning of the Trump Administration has been to put pres-
Witkoff, has had similar moments of confusion. In an in- sure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor,
terview in March, he struggled to name the regions over Russia,” Brink wrote of her decision to resign.
which the war is being fought. A real estate tycoon with After Trump’s call with Putin, it seems the White House
no formal diplomatic background, Witkoff has met with may no longer be interested in pressuring either side to
Putin several times this year, and the contrast in their end the war. Trump did not threaten sanctions against
level of knowledge about Ukraine has been striking. The Russia for refusing to accept a cease-fire, nor did he prom-
Russian leader has a habit of lecturing his guests for hours ise any further U.S. engagement in the peace process.
about what he sees as the historical roots of the war. A few “It’s not our people, it’s not our soldiers,” he said on
days before launching the invasion in 2022, Putin offered May 21 in the Oval Office. “It’s Ukraine and it’s Russia.”
one such disquisition to Olaf Scholz, then the Chancellor Without the easy peace Trump promised in Ukraine,
of Germany, who found it difficult to follow. the war has come to look too complicated for him. □
The Brief includes reporting by Chantelle Lee and Olivia B. Waxman
 After the crash
Emergency vessels surround the Cuauhtémoc, a Mexican navy tall ship that drifted into the Brooklyn Bridge the evening
of May 17, snapping its masts and killing two crew members; at least 19 of the 277 people on board were injured.
The ship was on a global tour at the time of the accident, which is under investigation. The bridge was not damaged.

WORLD

The search for food in Gaza

FAMINE, WHICH HAS LOOMED OEER school housing the displaced. “Some-
the Gaza Strip for much of Israel’s times we are forced to purchase small
19-month war with Hamas, is now amounts just to feed our children.” RICE $3
O P E N I N G PA G E : A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S; S H I P : D AV E S A N D E R S — T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S/ R E D U X

imminent, say international aid The cost of baby formula has quadru- 1 KG $10
groups. They cite a complex formula pled, and the price of a can of peas is
SUGAR $1.50
known as the Integrated Food Se- up 1,000%. Cooking gas is up 2,400%, 1 KG $22
curity Phase Classification, released and only a fraction of community
May 12, which found that the whole kitchens still operate, leaving huge BUTTER $3
of Gaza qualified as an “Emergency,” gaps in emergency food provision. 0.5 KG $25
or at critical risk of famine, and COOKING $2
470,000 people (22% of the popula- BLOCKADE Israel shut off all aid enter- OIL
1L $27
tion of 2 million) had reached “Catas- ing Gaza on March 2 in advance of a
trophe,” defined as “starvation, death, new offensive, but a trickle resumed BABY
FORMULA
$7
destitution and extremely critical on May 19. Prime Minister Benjamin 1 KG $28
acute malnutrition levels.” Netanyahu said U.S. Senators had
EGGS $3 $43
warned, “There is one thing we can- DOZEN
SOARING PRICES Food prices tell not endure: pictures of mass famine.”
the same story of scarcity. “No one Netanyahu later added, “To allow our FLOUR $10 $558
can afford to buy,” says Reham closest friends to keep supporting us, 25 KG

Alkahlout, 33, a psychological coun- we need to prevent a humanitarian

selor and mother of four working at a crisis.” — JUWAYRIAH WRIGHT
9
THE BRIEF NEWS

GOOD QUESTION than just give out money: FEMA de-

Can states do what FEMA ploys experts in disaster response and
recovery and maintains stockpiles of
was set up to do? emergency equipment. Outsourcing
BY SIMMONE SHAH this to states would prove to be more
expensive, according to research from
the Atlantic Council—and could lead
PresidenT TrufP firsT Posed The idea of overhaul- to states bidding for emergency sup-
ing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) plies and expertise in the event of a
while visiting North Carolina in January in the aftermath of natural disaster.
Hurricane Helene. “I’d like to see the states take care of di- In the absence of FEMA, states
sasters, let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hur- would have to hire their own disaster-
ricanes and all of the other things that happen,” he said. response experts to be on standby.
“I think you’re going to find it a lot less expensive.” “It means that every state has to have
One of his first Executive Orders was establishing a such a large body of people who could
council to assess the effectiveness of the disaster-response respond to a disaster, but for exceed-
agency. At the end of April, Trump appointed 13 people— ▽ ingly rare events,” says Reilly, noting
including Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Secretary of The aftermath that the uptick in climate-driven di-
Homeland Security Kristi Noem—to review FEMA. The of Hurricane sasters is still spread among 50 juris-
group is expected to submit a report to the President Helene in dictions. “You’re going to need a lot of
within 180 days of its first meeting, according to the Ex- Florida last year people on staff with nothing to do for
ecutive Order. The agency has a long period of time
also faced a string of layoffs— until disaster happens.
including the dismissal of acting Or you’re going to
director Cameron Hamilton in have states who are
May—and is expected to run out just completely ill
of money by July. prepared, which is
But experts who have al- probably more likely
ready studied the matter warn to happen.”
that leaving disaster response Larger states—like
to states would be “devastat- California or Texas—
ing,” says Allison Reilly, associ- might have the fund-
ate professor of civil and envi- ing to pick up the
ronmental engineering at the slack, but smaller
University of Maryland. “FEMA states simply would
exists because there are times not have the capacity
when the state can simply not to respond.

F E M A : D A R YA S I N — A P ; W E N D T: N B C U P H O T O B A N K /G E T T Y I M A G E S; C O N N O L LY: J A C Q U E LY N M A R T I N — A P
respond.” And climate change is Experts say FEMA
only making it more complicated. Extreme weather events has very real issues that need to be ad-
are becoming more common—and more costly. In 2024, dressed: the agency’s staff is stretched
the U.S. saw 27 weather and climate disasters with at least thin across an increasing number of
$1 billion in damages each—second only to 2023, which disasters, and it often leaves behind
had 28 billion-dollar events. And researchers see an above- low-income survivors in disaster re-
average hurricane season on the horizon. sponse. “The need for emergency-
management reform is something
FEMA wAsn’t dEsignEd to meet our changing climate. that’s actually been called on by
“FEMA and the structure of disaster response and its in- people of all walks of life. If we can
ception was really designed to handle maybe one or two Leaving rebrand and create something for
major disaster recoveries at a time. And currently there’s 21st century challenges, we should,”
over 100,” says Jeff Schlegelmilch, director of the National
disaster says Schlegelmilch.
Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Columbia Climate response But getting rid of the system with-
School. “The mechanisms of disaster-response recovery to states out a meaningful replacement will
have vastly outgrown [FEMA’s capabilities].” That said, only cause harm, says Schlegelmilch.
he adds, “There’s a tremendous opportunity for national would be “That shock [for] municipalities from
emergency-management capability to invest in ... the im- ‘devastating.’ that sudden change of one system to
pacts of climate change, and how can we better prepare.” —ALLISON REILLY,
suddenly nothing being there [would]
Traditionally, FEMA has worked alongside state UNIVERSITY be very measurable in terms of lost
officials—not independent of them. The agency does more OF MARYLAND lives and livelihoods.” □
10 Tife June 9, 2025
MILESTONES

DIED DIED

ESCAPED OUTLAWED ACCEPTED SPLIT DIED

11
THE BRIEF NEWS

◁
President Joe Biden at
a briefing on Hurricane
Milton on Oct. 9, 2024

None of them confronted the princi-

pal. That’s telling about the culture
that was created in which question-
ing or stress-testing created suspi-
cions of disloyalty. Who created that
culture? It’s a combination of Joe and
Jill, and then I’d say the two enforc-
ers around them, which was Anthony
Bernal on the Jill Biden side and Annie
Tomasini on the Joe Biden side. These
are people who are obscure and you
have never heard of. But they are seen
not just in White Houses but at royal
courts throughout world history. The
POLITICS ultimate loyalists who believe that at
the end of the day, they are the only
Obscuring the ones who have the principal’s true
interests at heart. Questioning them
decline of a President means you have a target on your back.
BY PHILIP ELLIOTT
Which runs exactly counter to Joe
Biden’s experience as Vice Presi-
When Joe Biden revealed his prosTaTe-cancer dent, where a team of rivals in Doris
diagnosis on May 18, the news entered a conversation Kearns Goodwin’s framework was
Washington was already having. Original Sin: President encouraged during his first eight
Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice years in the White House. In fact,
to Run Again, by journalists Alex Thompson of Axios Joe Biden, by Obama and his telling,
and Jake Tapper of CNN, reported that Biden forgot top was instructed to dissent in meetings
White House aides’ names, occasionally resorting to short- in order to stir the pot so that people
hand descriptions of roles like “Press” for his longtime would come off their risk-averse po-
communications chief; that there were discussions of his sitions and really engage, because in
possibly needing a wheelchair in a second term; that he these high-level meetings on policy
sometimes ate dinner as early as 4:30 p.m. The book says and on politics, people are always
Biden seemed completely unfazed by a jarring debate per- looking over their shoulder for some-
formance that sent the Democrats into a spiral and put do- one to try to use a position to knife
nations on ice. At a Hollywood fundraiser for his crumbling them or to hurt their standing with the
re-election campaign, he blanked when face to face with President. Over time, anyone who re-
George Clooney. ally questioned the theology of Biden
TIME sat down with Thompson, before the diagnosis was eventually kicked out, and the
was made public. only people remaining in that inner
‘The only circle are the truest of true believers.
What was Biden’s team thinking? I think in every politi-
cal organization, regardless of party, there’s a tension of
people Did Joe Biden think he was up to an-
loyalty to your principal and loyalty to the bigger mission. remaining other term? Yes. That’s why I think
In Biden’s camp, the tug-of-war clearly went to the side
that cared more about him and themselves than they cared
in the people want to point the finger at Jill
and the other aides. At the end of the
about the larger mission, the White House, and the coun- circle are day, this was Joe Biden’s decision. Joe
try. And I think that’s how they rationalized, not just hav- the truest Biden believed he could have done it.
ing him run for re-election, but rationalizing that this guy There’s always been a caricature—
could do the job for four more years. Many believed that it
of true a true one—of Joe Biden as a guy
eventually would’ve precipitated into a constitutional crisis believers.’ with a chip on his shoulder, but by
because he would’ve not been up to the job. And the people —ALEX THOMPSON, 2022, 2023, that chip had grown to
around him were not willing to admit it. C0-AUTHOR the size of a boulder.
12 Time June 9, 2025
 What was the relationship with the
Vice President? So Kamala Harris
HEALTH
always wanted to say she was always
in the room. That was not always true.

Why not? Biden is a guy who likes

people he’s known for a long time. BY ALICE PARK
He hasn’t known her for a long time.
That being said, she voluntarily made
herself one of the biggest validators
of Biden’s health.

Biden referred to her as a work in

progress. Why did he pick her if he
didn’t think she was up for the job?
It’s a great question because even
some of his top aides when we were
reporting this book said that the
actual original sin is not him running
again. It’s picking her. And there
are a lot of people within Biden
world that feel that the decision
was made for political expediency.
The truth is that his heart was with
[Michigan Governor] Gretchen
Whitmer because, of those two, ‘Prostate
Gretchen Whitmer is more of cancer can
a Biden Democrat. sit dormant
-
Some of the details in this book for years.’
are frankly damning. For instance,
Biden’s taking a whole day to nap
at Camp David during debate prep.
What happened? Beyond their own
self-interest and Biden’s ego? If you
believe that Donald Trump is an
existential threat to democracy, to
the Republic, it’s very easy to
rationalize anything. A lot of people
around Joe Biden believe an 86-year-
old Joe Biden is still better than
Donald Trump. And I think a lot of
Democrats agree with them.

Is that healthy for democracy? No.

We have a longtime Biden aide who
said very explicitly all that mattered
was that he win and then he could
disappear and only have an occasional
B R E N D A N S M I A L O W S K I — A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S

moment of a sign of life. And that

when you vote for someone, you’re
voting for their advisers too. But these
are unelected people.

What’s the first line of Joe Biden’s

obituary? At the moment? The 46th
President—between the two terms
of Donald Trump. □
13
LIGHTBOX
 Aftermath
Residents pick through a home in
London, Ky., destroyed by a severe storm
on May 17, when tornadoes, heavy rain,
and thunderstorms struck from the
Midwest to the Southeast. At least 28
people died in three states, with
Kentucky the hardest hit. Experts say the
estimated total of 886 tornadoes in the
U.S. through mid-May was unusually high.

Photograph by Carolyn Caster—AP

▶ For more of our best photography,
visit time.com/lightbox
T H E B R I E F H E A LT H

5 signs memory
issues may
not be routine
BY ANGELA HAUPT

IF THE NEUROLOGIST DR. DENIEL

Lesley sees 10 patients a day, at least
half ask him the same question: Are
the brain lapses they’re experiencing
a normal part of aging? Or should they
be worried? “People have an abso-
lute terror of losing their memory and
thinking they’re losing themselves,”
says Lesley, who works at Remo
Health, a virtual dementia-care com-
pany. “They don’t know what’s nor-
mal, what’s potentially a sign of some-
thing bad, and what’s reversible.”
Just like every other organ in than those older and their attention spans are more robust,
the body, the brain changes as you
age. Occasional, subtle memory
problems—like not remembering
where you parked—are usually no big
deal. “Part of normal aging is paying
less attention to details, and more at- 2. You miss your usual commitments
tention to patterns and dynamics,”
Lesley says. “It may also become more
difficult to access things quickly,” like
names and certain words.
When sporadic trouble becomes a
regular occurrence, however, it’s time
for an evaluation. If you’re not sure,
ask a spouse, friend, or adult child, 3. Your personality or mood changes
suggests Dr. Zaldy S. Tan, director of
the memory and healthy-aging pro-
gram at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
“Have a conversation: ‘Have you no-
ticed me repeating anything or asking
the same questions? Have you noticed
me misplacing things more often?’
Because we’re not necessarily the best 4. You repeat certain questions
judge of our memory,” he says.
If you decide to make an appoint-
ment, it helps to be prepared. Don’t
just tell your doctor you’re getting for-
getful, Tan advises; everyone has the
occasional senior moment, no matter 5. Your parents developed Alzheimer’s at the same age
their age. Log your memory problems
I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y P E T E R YA N F O R T I M E

in a journal that you take to the visit.

That way, he says, “you can be spe-
cific about what you’re forgetting, how
often it happens, and how consequen-
tial these things are.”
We asked brain-health experts to
share the signs that it’s time to take
memory problems seriously.
16 TIME June 9, 2025
TECHNOLOGY

HOW TO MAKE
AI SAFE
BY YOSHUA BENGIO

INSIDE

GERMANY READIES NEW RULES FOR WHEN GRIEF

A RETURN TO ARMS COVID-19 VACCINES AGES WITH YOU

17
THE VIEW OPENER

Cheating, manipulating others,

lying, deceiving, especially toward
self-preservation: these behaviors
show how AI might pose signifi-
cant threats that we are currently
ill equipped to respond to.
The examples we have so far are
from experiments in controlled set-
tings and fortunately do not have
major consequences, but this could
quickly change as capabilities and the
degree of agency increase. Far more
serious outcomes await if AI systems
are granted greater autonomy, achieve
human-level or greater competence
in sensitive domains, and gain access
to critical resources like the internet,
medical laboratories, or robotic labor.
The commercial drive to release
powerful agents is immense, and we
don’t have the scientific and societal
guardrails to make sure the way for-
ward is safe. We’re all in the same car
on a foggy mountain road. While some
of us are keenly aware of the dangers
ahead, others—fixated on the eco-

L E F T: P H O T O - I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y T I M E (S O U R C E I M A G E S : T H A N A S I S/G E T T Y I M A G E S , S I M O N M C G I L L— G E T T Y I M A G E S); R I G H T: PA U L I U S P E L E C K I S — G E T T Y I M A G E S
nomic rewards awaiting some at the is an important ingredient to make Second, whereas current frontier
destination—are urging us to ignore the AI more trustworthy, honest, and AIs can fabricate answers because
the risks and slam down the gas pedal. transparent. In technical terms, it they are trained to please humans, Sci-
We need to get down to the hard work could be built as an extension of cur- entist AI would ideally generate hon-
of building guardrails around the dan- rent state-of-the-art methodologies est and justified explanatory hypoth-
gerous stretches that lie ahead. based on internal deliberation with eses. It could serve as a more reliable
Two years ago, when I realized the chains of thought, turned into struc- and rational research tool to accelerate
devastating impact our metaphori- tured arguments. human progress, whether it’s seek-
cal car crash would have on my loved Crucially, because completely mini- ing a cure for a chronic disease, syn-
ones, I felt I had no other choice than mizing the training objective would thesizing a novel, or finding a room-
to completely dedicate the rest of my deliver the uniquely correct and con- temperature superconductor (should
career to mitigating these risks. Un- sistent conditional probabilities, such a thing exist). Scientist AI would
checked AI agency is exactly what the more computing power you give allow research into biology, material
poses the greatest threat to public Scientist AI, the safer and more accu- sciences, chemistry, and other do-
safety. So my team and I are forging a rate it becomes. mains to progress without running the
new direction called Scientist AI. major risks that go along with decep-
Scientist AI would be built on a In other words, rather than trying tive agentic AIs.
model that aims to more holistically to please humans, Scientist AI could Finally, as a trustworthy research
understand the world. This model be designed to prioritize honesty. and programming tool, Scientist AI
might comprise, for instance, the laws We think Scientist AI could be used could help us design a safe human-
of physics or what we know about in three main ways: First, it would level intelligence—and even a safe ar-
human psychology. It could then gen- serve as a guardrail against AIs that tificial super intelligence (ASI). This
erate a set of conceivable hypotheses show evidence of developing the ca- may be the best way to guarantee that
that may explain observed data and pacity for self-preservation, goals a rogue ASI is never unleashed in the
justify predictions or decisions. Its misaligned with our own, cheating, outside world. Think of Scientist AI as
outputs would not be programmed to or deceiving. By double-checking the headlights and guardrails on the wind-
imitate or please humans, but rather actions of highly capable agentic AIs ing road ahead.
reflect an interpretable causal under- before they can perform them in the
standing of the situation at hand. real world, Scientist AI would protect Bengio, a professor of computer science
Basing Scientist AI on a model us from catastrophic results, blocking at Université de Montreal, is the most
that is not trying to imitate what a actions if they passed a predetermined cited scientist in the field and in 2018
human would do in a given context risk threshold. received the A.M. Turing Award
THE RISK REPORT BY IAN BREMMER

19
THE VIEW INBOX

By Justin Worland

Health Matters
By Alice Park
SENIOR HEALTH CORRESPONDENT

ON MAY 20, THE FEDERAL GOV- new guidance says that companies
ernment announced a major shift in must conduct six-month trials to show
how it plans to review and recom- their vaccines lower rates of COVID-
mend COVID-19 vaccines for Amer- 19 symptoms, hospitalizations, and
icans. Among the biggest changes: deaths in the general population com-
when manufacturers want to update pared with people receiving placebo.
the vaccine each year to target the Because some people develop no
latest variants, they will be required symptoms or mild ones, it could take a
to conduct additional studies. very large study to collect enough data
Since 2023, federal health of- for meaningful results. That could
ficials have recommended a yearly potentially add to the cost of the vac-
COVID-19 shot for most people, and cines for manufacturers, which may
vaccine makers have not needed to then get passed to consumers.
conduct additional tests on each As of April 2025, only about
year’s updated formula. (The flu 23% of U.S. adults got the latest
shot is similarly tweaked each year COVID-19 shot—which Prasad cited
to target circulating strains, with- as evidence that the public is not
out new studies to reaffirm its safety convinced that the shot protects
and effectiveness.) enough against disease. In addi-
Such studies would not be re- tion, many Americans have now had
quired for vaccines given to anyone multiple COVID-19 infections, which
at high risk for COVID-19, such as provides some immunity, so it’s not
seniors, immunocompromised peo- clear how effective the vaccines are for
ple, and anyone with a broad set of these people, he said.
C H R I S T I N A H O U S E — L O S A N G E L E S T I M E S/G E T T Y I M A G E S

risk factors ranging from physical Public-health experts say that while
inactivity to diabetes. “This effec- specific studies on these populations
tively means 100 million to 200 mil- have not been conducted, declining
lion Americans, those with the most hospitalization and death rates overall
favorable benefit-to-harm balance, suggest that immunity to the virus—
will be covered by these approv- provided in part by vaccinations—is
als,” said Dr. Vinay Prasad, head of likely playing a role.
the U.S. Food and Drug Administra-
tion’s Center for Biologics Evalua- For more health news, delivered to
tion and Research, at a briefing. your inbox, sign up at time.com/
health-newsletter
For people not at high risk, the
20 TIME June 9, 2025
 CRUISE THE MIGHT Y
MISSISSIPPI RIVER

Your All-Inclusive Lower Mississippi

River Cruise Includes:
 9-day/8-night exploration
 7 ports of call with guided
excursion options at each
 All onboard meals and our
signature evening cocktail hour
 Full enrichment package with
TENNESSEE
guest speakers and nightly
entertainment ARKANSAS

 Newest fleet of ships with just

90 to 180 guests
 All tips and gratuities MISSISSIPPI

LOUISIANA
r
ive
Mississippi R

America’s #1
River Cruise Line

Call today
800-913-2493
to request a
free Cruise Guide
THE VIEW ESSAY

SOCIETY

Living with
grief that’s old
enough to vote
BY REBECCA SOFFER

The KnicKs were clawing Their way pasT The celT-

ics in Game 1 of an NBA Playofs match so intense, my two
young sons morphed into courtside commentators oper-
ating at decibel levels usually reserved for jet engines and
Skittles-fueled birthday parties. We were shrieking with
glee and high-fiving—me half tracking the score, half rum-
maging for my noise-canceling AirPods before their joy
blew out my inner ear. Then, just after Jalen Brunson drove
to the basket, a commercial cut in.
It was an AT&T ad portraying people suddenly inspired
to dial up the ones they love from lush backyards, a boat on
the Delta, and ... a tightrope bridging a deep canyon. My
stomach knotted up as it correctly sensed where this was
going. At the end, three little words appeared, deceptively
gentle, expertly lethal in their timing: Call your mom.
I’d love to. But she won’t answer. Eighteen years ago, my
mom Shelby was killed in an accident on the New Jersey
Turnpike.
My grief is now the age of a legal adult. It can vote. It can
enlist. It may not yet be able to rent a car, but it certainly
has been driving one for a while, quietly gripping the wheel
during moments in which I naively thought I was steering.
Like many 18-year-olds, my grief is composed and self-
sufficient one moment, then reckless, loud, and needy the
next. It is nuanced. It has opinions. It talks back.
I know full well that the passage of time doesn’t erase
grief, but rather, stretches it. The sharp edges don’t vanish;
they just space themselves out, lying in wait. That’s not a
failure of healing. It’s just what love and loss look like when It’s no wonder, then, that years—even
pulled across time. decades—later, a scent, a commercial,
My grief no longer flattens me on a daily basis. It’s less or the shape of a stranger’s hand can
like a storm and more like humidity—part of the atmo- deliver the blow all over again. Ab-
sphere I move through, afecting everything, even when sence, as it turns out, is still a kind of
I’m not fully aware. It’s embedded now, woven into my presence. And the brain, like the heart,
weltanschauung (a German word for “worldview”); how I doesn’t always know the diference.
watch basketball with my sons; how I read a line in a com- Grief isn’t linear—yet, at the very
mercial and suddenly forget where I am. My grief is quieter, moment sustained support is most
yes. But make no mistake: it’s still capable of ambush, long needed, the few resources that do
after society has decided that I should have “moved on.” exist are vanishing. In Texas, for in-
stance, the 988 suicide and crisis hot-
This is normal. Neuroscientist Mary-Frances O’Connor, line is grappling with a $7 million
who studies the grieving brain, has found that long after funding deficit, leading to thousands
someone dies, our neural pathways continue to “search” of abandoned calls each month as cen-
for them, as if expecting someone to walk back through the ters struggle to meet demand.
door, or call, or text. This isn’t just a metaphor—it’s biology. Nationally, the outlook is just as
Brain scans show grief activates the same regions involved grim: the Trump Administration’s
in attachment and reward. We’re wired to seek out those decision to abruptly cancel nearly
we’ve lost, even when we consciously know they’re gone. $1 billion in Department of Education
22 Time June 9, 2025
 (VA) is planning to cut approximately 83,000 jobs, rep-
resenting over 17% of its workforce. These reductions are
expected to significantly impact mental-health services,
leading to longer wait times for therapy and counseling
appointments—up to four months in some cases. I think
about what it would have meant to sit in that raw, bewilder-
ing pain and trauma for more than a season without help—
and how easily I might have gone under.

Mental-health provIders and organizations are doing

important work. But even apart from recent budget cuts,
there is a notable absence of national policies that reflect
what loss actually looks like: expanded bereavement leave,
sustained mental-health funding, and public acknowledg-
ment of collective trauma. Grassroots initiatives like the
National COVID Memorial, for instance, have emerged to
honor the more than 1.2 million Americans who died of
COVID-19. Yet, there is no federally recognized national
memorial, either as a day or a physical place. And while the
nonprofit Evermore is leading a two-year program to un-
derstand people’s lived experience with bereavement in
order to help guide future research, the U.S. still does not
have a universal national bereavement-leave policy that
mandates paid time off for grieving employees.
This lack of acknowledgment underscores a broader
societal discomfort with sustained mourning. Ironically,
when individuals who have experienced profound loss con-
nect, there’s an immediate, unspoken understanding—a
shared language.
If we fully embraced that truth, we’d have a gentler
time moving through hard things. I know this from per-
sonal experience. Over the past eight years, I’ve matched
nearly 3,000 grievers across multiple countries in gift ex-
changes timed to Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Sibling’s Day,
and the winter holidays—an effort to help people reclaim
a sense of agency during some of the most tender dates
on the calendar. We need more spaces for these connec-
tions, and to grant permission to honor and express our
grants has jeopardized school-based grief without the pressure to rush through it. Grief is not
mental-health programs across the a problem to be solved, but a journey to be supported,
country, leaving many students with- individually and collectively.
out essential support. I’ve grown up alongside my grief. I’ve filled a toolbox’s
worth of coping mechanisms. Most days, I describe my-
In rural states where mental- Absence, self as “living with loss” rather than “grieving.” But there
health care is already scarce, schools are still moments—sudden, surgical—when it resurfaces
that depended on these grants now it turns with uncanny precision, cracking open what I was sure
face serious setbacks: in Nebraska, out, is had been carefully, finally sealed. And when I’m pulled out
that means reduced access to trauma- of the reveries by my two kids yelling for me to catch the
informed care for Native American still a final seconds of a nail-biting game, I’m still learning to live
students; in parts of Texas with high kind of with the version of grief on the sofa beside us—part child,
youth-suicide rates, it means fewer presence part adult, unpredictable and unfinished, just like any teen-
lifelines for kids in crisis. The list ager finding their way.
goes on—despite an August 2024
American Psychiatric Association poll Soffer is author of The Modern Loss Handbook: An
showing that 84% of Americans be- Interactive Guide to Moving Through Grief and Building Your
lieve school staff are essential in spot- Resilience and writes the Modern Loss Substack. She speaks
ting early warning signs of suicide risk. globally on building compassionate communities through life’s
The Department of Veterans Affairs most difficult moments
P H O T O - I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y T I M E ; S O U R C E I M A G E S : D AV E K AT S B U R G , B I L G E PA K S OY L U — 5 0 0 P X /G E T T Y I M A G E S;
R O C C A N A L S , M I K E H I L L— G E T T Y I M A G E S; W E S T E N D 61 /G E T T Y I M A G E S ; D A PA I M A G E S V I A C A N VA 23
POLITICS

DOWN

Senator Bernie
Sanders addresses
a crowd in Denver
on March 21

PHOTOGR APH BY CHET STR ANGE

 AND OUT

After the 2024 fiasco,

the Democrats are
rethinking everything
BY CHARLOTTE ALTER
POLITICS

L
Like a LoT of DemocraTs These
days, Chris Murphy has been doing
some soul searching. For years, the
Connecticut Senator, who took office
shortly after the mass shooting at Sandy
Hook Elementary in Newtown, was one
of the nation’s most outspoken advo-
cates for tighter gun laws. Gun safety
was so important, he argued, that sup-
porting an assault-weapons ban should
be mandatory for Democratic leaders.
Recently, Murphy has come to be-
lieve he was wrong. Not about tougher
gun laws, but about trying to force △
all Democrats to adopt his position. Gallego, at the Capitol on Jan. 9, is 2020 and the post-Dobbs midterms
“I bear some responsibility for where urging fellow Democrats to be less in 2022 lulled top party officials into a
we are today,” he told me in a phone cautious and more authentic dangerous complacency. They thought
interview in April. “I spent a long Americans hated Trump enough to ac-
time trying to make the issue of guns cept an unsatisfying alternative. They
a litmus test for the Democratic Party. National Committee has offered few thought wrong.
I think that all of the interest groups answers as it prepares to release a “post- Over the past two months, I’ve spo-
that ended up trying to apply a litmus election review” sometime this summer. ken to dozens of prominent Democrats,
test for their issue ended up making “I don’t like to call it an ‘autopsy’ because from Senators to strategists, frontline
our coalition a lot smaller.” our party’s not dead—we’re still alive and House members to upstart progressives,
Murphy’s shift in thinking is part kicking,” explains Ken Martin, the new and activists to top DNC officials, in an
of the reckoning that has gripped the party chair. “Maybe barely, but we are.” effort to figure out how the party can
party since President Donald Trump’s You already know most of the rea- chart its way back. I asked them all ver-
victory in November. Democrats could sons for the 2024 fiasco. Joe Biden was sions of the same questions. How did
dismiss Trump’s first win as a fluke. His too old to be President, and just about they dig this hole, and how can they
second, they know, was the product of everybody but Joe Biden knew it. His get out of it? What ideas do Democrats
catastrophic failure—a nationwide re- sheer oldness undermined all efforts stand for, beyond opposing an un-
jection of Democratic policies, Demo- to sell his policies effectively. Demo- popular President? How can they re-
cratic messaging, and the Democrats crats lost touch with the working class, connect with the voters they’ve lost?
themselves. The party got skunked in with men, with voters of color, with the Who should be leading them, and what
every battleground state and lost the young. Voters saw Democrats as hen- should they be saying? In other words:
popular vote for the first time in 20 pecked by college-campus progressives, What’s the plan?
years. They lost the House and the Sen- overly focused on “woke” issues like di- Many of these conversations made
ate. Their support sagged with almost versity and trans rights. They tried to my head hurt. Democrats kept present-
every demographic cohort except Black convince people that the economy was ing clichés as insights and old ideas as
women and college-educated voters. good when it didn’t feel good; they tried new ideas. Everybody said the same
Only 35% of Democrats are optimistic to convince people that inflation and il- things; nobody seemed to be really say-
about the future of the party, according legal immigration were imaginary prob- ing anything at all. But in between fee-
to a May 14 AP poll, down from nearly lems. In an era when voters around the ble platitudes about “showing up and
6 in 10 last July. Democrats have no globe were in an anti-incumbent mood, listening” and “fighting for the working
mojo, no power, and no unifying leader Democrats were stuck defending the class” and “meeting people where they
to look to for a fresh start. status quo. The pandemic election of are,” a few common threads emerged.
Everyone knows how bad things Democrats know they have a brand-
are. “As weak as I’ve ever seen it,” says ing problem that transcends policy,
Representative Jared Golden of Maine,
who represents a district Trump won.
‘WE ARE BEREFT messaging, or leadership questions.
They largely agree they need to re-
Trump’s second term is “worse than OF BIG IDEAS.’ center economic issues in their mes-
everyone imagined,” says Nevada Sen- —REPRESENTATIVE JAKE AUCHINCLOSS saging and develop what some are call-
ator Jacky Rosen. The Democratic OF MASSACHUSETTS ing a “patriotic populism” to counter
26 Time June 9, 2025
 who are behind in school because of
COVID-19, subsidize community-
health clinics, and hold social media
corporations accountable for what he
calls the “attention fracking” of Amer-
ica’s youth. But a decade of fighting
MAGA, he says, has “depleted some
intellectual dynamism” from his party.
“In 2028, we’d better be ready to have
dynamic candidates on the stage of-
fering whole new ideas,” he warns, “or
we’ll lose again.”
In our conversations, Democrats
often made that argument. It’s not
enough to say what we’re against, they’d
say, we have to say what we’re for. But
when I asked these same party insid-
ers what that should be, most regurgi-
△ tated ideas Democrats have run on for
Trump. They need to build a bigger Murphy has reconsidered his decades. Protect Social Security and
tent. Many moderate Democrats want approach to litmus tests and Medicare! Protect abortion rights! Pro-
to sideline the activist groups that pres- leaned in to economic populism tect labor! OK, I’d say. What about new
sured elected officials to take unpopular ideas? They mentioned their own pet
positions. Even many progressives are projects: a bill blocking a supermarket
retreating from the purity politics that Most in the party recognize this is a merger; a bill addressing specific veter-
reigned in the Trump era. They know crisis moment. But every crisis is also an ans’ issues; a bill ensuring the right to
they need fresh ideas and new leaders, opportunity—a chance to rethink pol- fix your own car. Somehow, I had a hard
even though they can’t always agree on icies, reframe messaging, and recruit time imagining “Permitting reform!” as
how to find them. new leaders who can meet the moment. a rallying cry capable of mobilizing mil-
The intraparty squabbles between The last time Democrats were this deep lions of low-information voters.
moderates and progressives that have in the wilderness was in 2005, when few “I’ve heard some folks say, ‘It’s not
dominated the past decade have given outside the DNC had heard of Barack our policies, we just have to communi-
way to different fault lines. “If you’re Obama. Republicans’ own search for an- cate better,’” says Representative Angie
talking about ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal,’ swers in the wake of Mitt Romney’s 2012 Craig, who is running for an open Sen-
or ‘progressive’ or ‘moderate,’ you’re defeat gave rise to Trump. When you hit ate seat in Minnesota. “It actually is our
O P E N I N G PA G E S : G E T T Y I M A G E S; T H E S E PA G E S , F R O M L E F T: R A N C I S C H U N G — P O L I T I C O/A P ; J O S E L U I S M A G A N A — A P

missing the whole f-cking point,” says rock bottom, anything is possible—and policies that swing-state voters aren’t
Representative Pat Ryan, who outran every transformative political figure of with us on. For those colleagues who
Kamala Harris by double digits in his the modern age has emerged from a mo- were calling to defund the police: our
purple district in New York’s Hudson ment like this one. voters are not with you on that.”
Valley. “It’s not progressive or moder- Most Democrats now acknowledge
ate. It’s status quo or change. It’s for the It’s a sunny tuesday in early spring, that the progressive movement encour-
people or for the elites.” and Jake Auchincloss is sitting on a aged a kind of purity politics that ham-
After a brutal winter, Democrats are bench outside the Rayburn House Of- pered the party’s ability to win majori-
beginning to show signs of life. The fice Building. Auchincloss, a 37-year-old ties. “We swung the pendulum too far
party won a crucial supreme court race third-term Congressman from Massa- to the left,” says Representative Ritchie
in Wisconsin and picked up two seats chusetts, seems nervous, almost jittery, Torres, who represents a Bronx dis-
in the Pennsylvania statehouse. In early as he explains why he thinks everybody trict where Trump made inroads with
April, roughly 4 million people attended is getting the Democrats’ problems working-class people of color, as he did
more than 1,300 rallies across the U.S., wrong. “I hear a lot: ‘Get a leader, let’s in cities around the country. “We have
demanding their leaders fight harder rally behind somebody.’ And I strongly become more responsive to interest
against Trump. The Fighting Oligar- disagree with that,” Auchincloss told groups than to people on the ground.”
chy Tour, headlined by Senator Bernie me. “The forest of ambition is large. Many Democratic officials believe
Sanders and Representative Alexandria There’s no shortage of presidential tim- the party moved too far left on social
Ocasio-Cortez, has drawn hundreds of ber. I’m worried about the ideas.” This issues in particular. “There are some
thousands of people across red states. is what keeps Auchincloss up at night: sports where trans girls shouldn’t be
The grassroots is sending a clear mes- “It’s that we are bereft of big ideas.” playing against biological girls,” says
sage to sitting Democrats: Do better, or Auchincloss has a few. He wants to one lawmaker, adding that most of his
we’ll replace you with people who will. offer free one-on-one tutoring to kids fellow Democrats agree but are “afraid
27
POLITICS

of the blowback that comes from a very describes his very simple message: twice in a red district in Washington
small community.” Even abortion is up “I’m here to bring you more security: State. “The fatal mistake in politics
for a rethink. Some Democrats want a economic security, and your personal is condescension.” She’s not the only
retreat from the enthusiastic embrace of family security.” It meant talking con- Democrat who thinks the party erred by
abortion rights, and a return to talking stantly about the cost of living, and tak- targeting its messaging to the most mar-
about abortion as “safe, legal, and rare,” ing a more hard-line stance on immigra- ginalized, rather than the vast, strug-
as Bill Clinton put it. “Refusing to say tion than most of his Democratic peers. gling middle class. Nearly 70% of voters
that even in the third trimester there’s When we arrived at his hideaway— in battleground districts think Demo-
no limits on it, it’s not where the aver- Gallego was so new to the Senate that crats are “too focused on being politi-
age American is,” says another Demo- he had forgotten his key—the fresh- cally correct,” according to brutal inter-
cratic lawmaker. “The really embar- man Senator told me he didn’t neces- nal polling shared with top party leaders
rassing truth is Donald Trump is closer sarily think other Democrats needed in March, while a majority think Dem-
to the median voting on abortion than to adopt his security message. He just ocrats are not looking out for working
Democrats were.” Yet the fact these law- wants them to speak like normal people. people and are “more focused on help-
makers would share these thoughts only The party’s problem is bigger than bad ing other people than people like me.”
without their names attached shows messaging, he believes. The problem is The focus on protecting the most
how much Democrats still fear antago- caution. “Democrats in general are al- vulnerable, in other words, has left
nizing their liberal base. ways fearful of messing up,” he said. many Americans feeling ignored.
Others insisted that the problem “The Democratic mindset has been to “I constantly get draft mailers in my
is one of emphasis. When Democrats run very tight, not open campaigns.” office that say things like ‘Democrats
spent so much time talking about other I knew what he was talking about. are fighting so you could put food on
things—Student debt! LGBTQ rights! Aides on the Biden and Harris cam- the table.’ That is not aspirational,” says
Police reform! Climate change!—voters paigns were so cautious, they’d often Mallory McMorrow, a Michigan state
decided they’d taken their eye off the go off the record just to provide canned senator now running for U.S. Senate.
ball. “You’ve got to be principally seen talking points. That approach, Gallego To McMorrow, the Democratic message
worrying about jobs and people’s pay says, is self-defeating in the age of social should be simple, universal, and opti-
and health care—economic issues,” says media, where crafting the perfect sound mistic: “Democrats fight for the Ameri-
Representative Chris Deluzio, who rep- bite can mean missing the moment alto- can Dream,” she says.
resents a working-class district in west- gether. “I told my team during the cam- Others believe the party has to em-
ern Pennsylvania. “And I think folks see paign: This is a vibe election,” says Gal- phasize a more populist pitch to counter
too many Democrats as not caring prin- lego. “If we can match the policy with Trump’s. “The Democratic Party needs
cipally about the economy.” creating this vibe, this culture, that’s to make as our central message that our
This theory might make more sense gonna break through across all modes goal is to break the unholy alliance be-
if Harris had run a 2024 campaign that and mediums.” His point was that the tween corporate greed and corrupt gov-
was all about trans kids, abortion, and art of messaging has changed. It’s less ernment,” Casar told me. “If somebody
gun safety. Harris didn’t run that cam- about developing the perfect slogan, is more conservative than me on this
paign. She offered tax credits to boost and more about authenticity, simplicity, social issue, or we may disagree on this
small businesses, proposals to lower virality. The more consult-ified some- foreign policy issue, at the end of the
the cost of groceries and childcare, and thing sounds, the less memorable it is. day people say: the Democratic Party
the most comprehensive affordable- Like Gallego, many moderate Dem- puts me first and the billionaires last.
housing plan ever put forth by a presi- ocrats have particular critiques of the And that’s what wins.”
dential candidate. And she lost. “Kamala party’s economic message. “I think One of the things that surprised me
Harris was talking about it,” says Repre- Democrats have made this mistake over the course of these conversations
sentative Greg Casar of Texas, the chair of saying, ‘I’m here to help the little was the way a Sanders-style economic
of the Congressional Progressive Cau- guy.’ Nobody wants to be called the populism had gained traction with pol-
cus. “But nobody was hearing it.” little guy,” says Representative Marie iticians not normally associated with
Gluesenkamp Perez, 36, who has won the Sanders wing of the party. “Our
Senator ruben GalleGo met me economy is rigged because our govern-
outside the Senate gym, still slightly ment is rigged,” Chris Murphy told me.
damp. Gallego, who was raised by an
immigrant single mother and served
‘ALL THE PEOPLE Democrats, he added, “have to wake up
every morning thinking about how to
in the Marine Corps, was a rare bright IN LEADERSHIP unrig our government so that the corpo-
spot for his party last year. He outper- rations and the billionaires don’t always
formed Harris by 8 points in Arizona, ROLES ARE get what they want.” This was a man who
handily won Latino men, and was one LADDER CLIMBERS, stumped so hard for Hillary Clinton in
of only two new Democrats to win Sen- 2016 that he was on a short list to be
ate battleground races. As we walked NOT LEADERS.’ her VP. “I think it was a huge mistake
through the Capitol, Gallego, 45, —REPRESENTATIVE PAT RYAN OF NEW YORK for our party to view Bernie as some
28 Time June 9, 2025
 △
fringe threat to the party,” he says now. Trump opponents gather in Los been widened by the deaths of two
“Bernie’s message all along has been the Angeles on April 5 in one of more members of his own caucus. Of the 30
crossover message, the message that ap- than 1,300 protests nationwide House Democrats who are 75 or older,
peals both to Democrats but also to a big more than half told Axios they planned
element of Trump’s base.” to run for re-election next year.
campaign announcement video asked Many Democrats are not eager only
Five mnnths agn, Kat Abughazaleh a simple question: “What if we didn’t for generational change. They want
was an online journalist and researcher suck?” She raised more money in the change at the top of the party as well.
who made viral takedowns of far-right campaign’s first week than Schakowsky Some see Jeffries and Senate minority
figures. But when she saw Democrats did the entire first quarter. Within six leader Chuck Schumer as too deferen-
clapping politely during Trump’s sec- weeks, Schakowsky announced she tial to established norms or too reluc-
ond Inauguration, something snapped. would not seek re-election. tant to use procedural powers to slow
“It was just so pathetic,” she told me, Even if the Democrats generate new down Trump’s agenda. Both are under-
speaking on the phone from her home policy ideas and adopt a sharper pitch, water in public-opinion polls. Only 27%
office in the Chicago suburbs. “I was they’ll still bump up against the core of Americans approve of congressional
like, ‘Well, maybe they’ll actually do issue that tanked Biden, Harris, and Democrats overall—the lowest num-
something.’ And then they didn’t.” much of the rest of the party last year: ber since CNN started asking in 2008.
Shortly afterward, Abughazaleh, 26, age. Many Democrats are finally realiz- “I think the party is hyperfocused on
announced a primary challenge to Rep- ing that too many of their leaders are too message and forgetting about the mes-
E T I E N N E L A U R E N T — A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S

resentative Jan Schakowsky, an 80-year- established, too out-of-touch, or simply senger,” says Amanda Litman, the co-
old party stalwart who has served in too old to connect with voters. founder of Run for Something, which
Congress since the year Abughaza- Four House Democrats died in of- recruits new Democrats to run for office
leh was born. Schakowsky wasn’t the fice over the past year. House Demo- and supports them with training, men-
worst member of Congress, Abughaza- cratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has ac- torship, and campaign tools. “They’ve
leh thought. They agreed on a lot of is- knowledged that Republicans could missed the way people consume infor-
sues. But Abughazaleh thought Scha- not have passed a budget resolution mation. You look for a person, not an
kowsky wasn’t up to the moment. Her in April had their narrow majority not institution.”
29
POLITICS

A sclerotic party establishment has she told me, she encountered an “en- reaching. Group chats of Democratic
created a culture of waiting your turn. trenched” cohort of “collegial” lawmak- lawmakers are full of delicate negoti-
“All the people that are in formal lead- ers who refused to update their strategic ations on how best to respond to the
ership roles,” says Pat Ryan, “are ladder playbook because they kept waiting for Trump presidency. “We recognize that
climbers, not leaders.” politics to go back to the chummy inside the most important thing we can do is
At the DNC, Martin has locked horns game it had been pre-2016. “Do I think make this guy unpopular,” says one law-
with the party’s new vice chair, David we need a new generation of leaders? maker. They’re sharing talking points
Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 Parkland Yes,” she told me. “But guess what: and legal strategies, while weighing var-
school shooting who rose to national I think we’re about to get it.” ious acts of defiance against the poten-
prominence as a gun-safety activist. tial for distraction. Internal discussions,
Hogg’s political organization, Leaders When GreG Casar arrived at the says this lawmaker, are laser-focused on
We Deserve, plans to invest $20 million Tucson rally for Sanders’ and Ocasio- “figuring out what’s tactically smarter.”
to support young candidates challeng- Cortez’s Fighting Oligarchy Tour, the Most Democrats expect a public out-
ing “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats line of spectators stretched so long cry against Trump’s policies will help
in safe seats. Hogg tells me the party’s that Casar’s Uber driver thought he them retake the House in 2026. Win-
post-Biden “realignment” isn’t primar- was going to a concert. Organizers had ning back the Senate will be tougher,
ily about ideology. “It’s: Do you want expected 2,000 people at a high school with more Democrats on defense in
to fight or do you want to roll over and gymnasium; he said more than 10 times battleground states. In the meantime, a
die?” Martin has publicly rebuked that many showed up. “People are even shadow presidential primary is already
Hogg, insisting the DNC maintain its more opposed to what Donald Trump taking shape, with hopefuls drawing dif-
long-standing position of neutrality. On is doing than eight years ago,” Casar ferent lessons from Trump’s win and its
May 12, the DNC’s credentials commit- told me, fiddling with his AirPods as aftermath. California Governor Gavin
tee voted to void the elections of Hogg he sat outside a committee markup in Newsom has started a podcast, featur-
and another party official for procedural late April. “But they want a new kind of ing Trump allies like Steve Bannon and
reasons they said predated the contro- leadership from the Democratic Party.” Charlie Kirk as guests, and pivoted to
versy, setting up the prospect of Hogg’s As party leaders in Washington de- the center in his day job, cracking down
losing his position. bate how to move forward, their grass- on homeless encampments and push-
In the meantime, a new breed of roots base is sick of waiting for them to ing to reduce health care benefits for un-
Democrat is stepping up. They’re figure it out. Frustrated liberals have documented immigrants. Barnstorming
younger, more digitally fluent, more founded roughly 1,400 local Indivis- against oligarchy helped Ocasio-Cortez
working class. They speak American ible groups since the election, includ- raise $9.6 million in the first quarter of
without a D.C. accent. “People who ing more than 600 in GOP congressio- the year, rekindling speculation about
haven’t been politicians for 30 years nal districts. More than 46,000 young her viability as a candidate for higher
can go into a nonpolitical space and be people have signed up to run for office office. Cory Booker’s marathon Senate
a real person,” Amanda Litman told me through Run for Something since No- speech protesting Elon Musk’s cuts to
as she walked to pick her children up vember. To those who participated in the federal government was liked more
from day care. These new candidates the “Resistance” movement of the first than 350 million times on TikTok. And
can talk persuasively about the costs of Trump term, the grassroots rage feels Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker railed
housing and childcare, issues that prob- different this time. It’s not just targeted against “do-nothing Democrats” in a
ably haven’t affected your life much if at Trump; it’s also focused on the feeble speech in New Hampshire. As Pritzker
you’ve been in Congress since 1995. “It’s Democrats and spineless institutions put it, “The reckoning is finally here.”
not the magic words,” says Litman. “It’s that have failed to effectively resist him. Democrats are coming around to a
that many of these people can’t be cred- Some Democratic officials have re- new mantra: winning the argument is
ible messengers.” sponded by copying Trump’s own play- less important than winning elections.
Some new ones may emerge from book. They’re favoring nonpolitical If the path to victory means embrac-
the younger generation of Democrats podcasts over cable studios, burnishing ing economic populism, they’ll do it. If
who were elected in the 2018 wave after their social media game, showing up at they have to make room for new faces,
Trump’s first victory, and are now run- football games and Coachella. They’re then sayonara, old friends. If they need
ning statewide. Mallory McMorrow, 38, trying to worry less about who they’re to tack to the center on some social is-
and Haley Stevens, 41, are vying for offending and more about who they’re sues, so be it. If winning requires doing
Michigan’s open Senate seat. Angie more podcasts, or embracing Insta-
Craig, 53, is running for Senate in Min- gram influencers, or campaigning on
nesota. Abigail Spanberger, 45, is run- permitting reform, they’ll give it a try.
ning for governor of Virginia. Repre-
‘THE FIGHT IS Because now that Democrats have seen
sentative Mikie Sherrill, 53, is running GENERATIONAL.’ what a second Trump presidency looks
for governor of New Jersey. “The fight —REPRESENTATIVE MIKIE SHERRILL like, they’re relearning the lesson they
is generational,” Sherrill says. As soon OF NEW JERSEY, WHO IS RUNNING should have known all along: only win-
as she arrived in Congress in 2019, FOR GOVERNOR ning is winning. □
30 Time June 9, 2025
WORLD

32 TIME June 9, 2025

Once an auto
underdog,
China’s electric-
vehicle boom
now powers
its tech rise
BY CHARLIE CAMPBELL /
SHANGHAI AND HEFEI

PHOTOGRAPH BY
KEVIN FRAYER

NIO EMPLOYEES
WORK ON AN
AUTOMATED
ELECTRIC-VEHICLE
PRODUCTION
LINE ON JAN. 17
IN HEFEI, CHINA

33
WORLD

AT NiO’s desigN wOrksh N shANghAi, eNgiNeers

spread billets of clay onto me of a basic car. A robotic
arm with a mechanized dr series of grooves into the
clay corresponding to a he rough surface is then
painstakingly smoothed before aluminum foil is
pasted on top. Finally, lic model is rolled into
a sunlit courtyard whe er is scrutinized.
“The artistry reall putting color on, tak-
ing it off; putting mo , g Colin Phipps, senior
director of NIO Sha esign, who pre worked 12 years for
Cadillac. “This is a bor-intensive pr
It’s also an inco g uously artisanal first step o a design method-
ology that is otherwise steeped in pushing technological boundaries.
Since its founding in 2014, NIO has notched 9,800 global patents, most
impressively popularizing battery-swapping technology that allows
customers to change their drained battery for a fully charged one in just
three minutes at over 3,000 swap stations across China and Europe.
NIO also produces the world’s longest-range electric-vehicle (EV)
battery, capable of over 650 miles (1,000 km) on a single charge (Tesla’s
record is 402 miles). It has the world’s only dual-display windshield—
projecting data at two separate perspectives directly in the driver’s line
of sight—and the first homologated drive-by-wire system, which guides
the wheels without a physical steering shaft. NIO’s EP9 sports car was
upon launch in 2016 the world’s fastest EV, breaching 194 m.p.h. and
breaking records at Germany’s famous Nürburgring Nordschleife
racing circuit. “Innovation creates value,” NIO CEO William Li tells
TIME. “And innovation helps us survive amid fierce competition, be it
in China or worldwide.”
NIO is just one of an alphabet soup of Chinese brands—from AION, BYD EVS STACKED AT CHINA’S TAICANG PORT
ON APRIL 8 AWAIT EXPORT TO SOUTH AMERICA
BYD, and Clever, to Maxus, Neta, and Onvo, to Xpeng, Yangwang, and
Zeekr—dominating the global EV market today.
It’s been a meteoric rise. In 2001, China had fewer than 10 million Investment Bank. “There is a certain pity that
passenger vehicles for its 1.2 billion population. That’s just one vehicle because of tariff protectionism, and geopolitics,
for every 128 people, or a market penetration equivalent to America’s the world is not as green and not as prosperous.”
in 1911, three years after Henry Ford produced his first Model T. But Still, some very real concerns lie behind im-
by 2009, China was the largest car market in the world. From being port barriers. The U.S. and allies accuse China’s
a net car importer as recently as 2020, China today sends more vehi- industrial policies of massive subsidies that cause
cles overseas than any other nation; its passenger-car exports jumped overcapacity and crowd out competitors. Chinese
nearly 20% in 2024 to 4.9 million. Meanwhile, imports of cars to China government support to its EV industry cumula-
dropped from a peak of 1.24 million in 2017 to just 705,000 last year. tively totaled $230.9 billion from 2009 to 2023,
Chinese automakers are expected to account for a third of the global according to the Center for Strategic and Inter-
market by 2030, according to AlixPartners. When it comes to EVs, national Studies (CSIS), a bipartisan D.C. think P R E V I O U S PA G E S : G E T T Y I M A G E S; T H E S E PA G E S : S T R I N G E R /A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S

China already accounts for nearly two-thirds of global sales (62%). tank. Last July, the E.U. also imposed a provisional
NIOs are currently sold in six European nations as well as Israel and antisubsidy tariff of up to 37.6% on Chinese EVs,
the UAE. BYD, meanwhile, is now undisputedly the world’s top EV prompting Beijing to hike tariffs on European
firm, present in over 70 countries and outselling Tesla globally for a pork and brandy in retaliation. In August, Canada
second straight quarter. While Tesla delivered 336,681 vehicles world- hiked its import tariff on Chinese EVs to 100%.
wide for the January–March period, down 13% year-on-year, BYD de- However, to simply blame state subsidies for
livered 416,388, up 38%. China’s mastery of EVs is reductive. Time and
Americans remain largely unaware of all this. Under President Biden, again, whether it’s smartphones, solar panels, or
a tariff of 100% was slapped on Chinese EVs, and President Trump has 5G, China is combining state support with econ-
added an additional 25% on all foreign cars. This has negative consequences omies of scale and a fiercely competitive domes-
for EV adoption in the self-styled spiritual home of the automobile— tic market to command transformative technol-
where half of Americans are interested in going electric, according to ogy. Strong supply chains leverage high-quality,
recent polls. It also impacts the global fight against climate change. low-cost components to commercialize technol-
“Consumers in the U.S. could drive better cars, consume less gaso- ogy for market. And China’s ascendency in EVs
line, spend less on maintenance, and that would also be good for cli- provides a window into future tussles between
mate change,” says Paul Gong, head of China autos research at UBS the world’s top two economies over innovations
34 Time June 9, 2025
 giant and growing market for American industry.
Until China began to pull ahead. Though it
welcomed McDonald’s and Starbucks and en-
couraged its brightest to hone their minds at
Western universities, Beijing maintained a
strict hold over the economy, while cannily
acquiring foreign expertise. Today China ac-
counts for 27.5% of all global auto sales, more
than the next three countries—the U.S., India,
and Japan—combined.
China’s government facilitated this rise by
allowing foreign auto firms to enter the Chinese
market only with a domestic partner, as well as
what might be called resourceful harvesting of
intellectual property. It was good old-fashioned
protectionism—and for China, it worked. Chi-
nese companies are poaching engineers and exec-
utives from storied European and American man-
ufacturers while buying up foreign competitors
wholesale. Ford sold Swedish firm Volvo to Chi-
na’s Geely for $1.8 billion in 2010. In 2017, Geely
also bought storied British sports-car firm Lotus.
“Ten or 15 years ago, products in China weren’t
competitive globally, to put it mildly,” says Dan
Balmer, Lotus president and CEO for Europe,
Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. “But you
could see the energy, the enthusiasm, the invest-
ment into the industry. So they’ve learned very
set to power the Fourth Industrial Revolution. well, and they’re now leading in many fields.” Lotus now retains a de-
The risk for the U.S. is that these advantages sign and production facility in the U.K., but all its Eletre and Emeya EVs
will soon also allow China to dominate industries are made in Wuhan, best known as the epicenter of COVID-19, where a
such as generative AI, quantum computing, and $1.1 billion plant opened in 2022 can turn out 150,000 vehicles a year.
humanoid robotics. And EVs are front and cen- “Before, people were coming to China just to have better access to
ter to those goals. the Chinese market,” says Frank Bournois, dean of the China Europe
“These are much more than just battery- International Business School in Shanghai. “Now you come to China
powered vehicles,” says Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior to improve your processes. And AI is really pushing that forward.”
fellow focused on China business and economics U.S. policymakers have a hard time squaring this new paradigm,
at CSIS. “The technological shift involves a lot as evidenced by Vice President J.D. Vance’s complaints to Fox News
of data processing, more AI integrated into the in early April that “we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy
system, and synergies that provide pathways to the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.” But whereas the first
advance in other technologies.” generation of Chinese entrepreneurs grew up poor and were happy
to wring a livelihood from cheap imitations, today’s tech graduates
China’s rise didn’t initially make the West were spared the privations of their parents and yearn for something
uncomfortable. Far from it. China’s peerless more meaningful. “Before, Chinese were happy to copy others just
manufacturing efficiency reaped billions of dol- so they wouldn’t go hungry,” says Grace Shao, a former Alibaba man-
lars for U.S. firms. The fact that an ostensibly ager turned IT consultant who publishes the AI Proem newsletter.
communist nation was trying its hand at capital- “Now they seek a sense of mission.”
ism was thought endearing, even quaint—not to While Washington attributes China’s recent successes to subsi-
mention proof that liberal economic theory had dies, that is only part of the story. When the Beijing central govern-
won the day. The country, after all, represented a ment pinpoints an industry to prioritize, city and provincial govern-
ments immediately offer incentives in the desperate race to seed a local
champion. This flood of liquidity generates a bubble that artificially in-
‘These are much flates values and encourages other big players to enter the market. But
in 2020, the leading government-supported EV maker in China was
more than just battery- Tesla, whose consumers received $325 million in tax rebates as well
powered vehicles.’ as $82 million in grants to construct its Shanghai Gigafactory. Mean-
while, at its peak in January 2021, NIO’s market cap was $96.57 billion,
—ILARIA MAZZOCCO, CSIS SENIOR FELLOW or double that of General Motors.
35
WORLD from launching a robotaxi; CEO Elon Musk most
recently said his Cybercab would be ready by 2027.
More notable are the players that have exited
the space. Uber sold off its self-driving business
in 2020 after a fatal collision. Ford abandoned
its stake in its robotaxi developer Argo.AI two
Competition between regions and manufacturers, however, is years later. In 2023, GM paused all its Cruise
remorseless. In 2023, some 52,000 EV-related companies shut down driverless operations, despite already plowing
in China. As the EV bubble burst, NIO’s worth has plunged to just in $10 billion, following collisions that led to the
$7.53 billion, despite shipping a record 221,970 cars last year. But those suspension of California licenses. (While a re-
firms that emerged unscathed are lean and technologically agile, and cent spate of self-driving crashes in China hasn’t
infused with the necessary moxie to thrive. BYD, for one, employs more diminished ofcial support, the government on
engineers than Tesla has total staff. In March, it unveiled an EV battery April 17 did ban the word autonomous from car
that can charge in just five minutes. “You cannot imagine such compe- ads.) By comparison, Pony.AI faces a crowded
tition intensity in any other major market,” says Gong. field. China also has Apollo Go, DiDi, AutoX,
NIO’s factory in Anhui province is a case in point. It has an an- and WeRide—the latter already operates in 30
nual capacity of 300,000 units and can deliver entirely bespoke cars of cities across nine countries—all clamoring for
3.5 million specification combinations within 10 days. Ford may have pi- market share with express government backing.
oneered the assembly line, but NIO has an assem-
bly matrix six floors high and five wide, where in-
dividual chassis can be plucked in any direction.
Once they’re grounded, AI-powered automated
guided vehicles ferry each shell among 940
welding and riveting robots. Most impressively,
ground was broken at the factory in April 2021
and mass production started just 17 months
later—a timeline virtually unheard of in the U.S.
Crucially, traditional auto manufacturers and
China’s new energy companies approach the pro-
duction process in reverse. Instead of focusing on
the panels, axles, and bearings of a car, NIO first
looks at the high-voltage architecture—batteries,
power train, and so on—followed by the low-
voltage, like digital compute. “Then we bolt
the mechanical pieces around it,” says Jonathan
Rayner, NIO’s vehicle-experience manager for its
ET9, who joined the firm after 14 years at Jaguar
Land Rover. “With today’s modern software and
capabilities, what used to be the hard thing for
the old companies is relatively easy.”
Putting software at the beating heart of pro-
duction means modern EVs are unlike their gasoline-powered fore- AN UNMANNED EVTOL TEST FLIGHT
ON MARCH 14 IN SHENZHEN, CHINA
bears. Even if you purchased a NIO, BYD, or Lotus a few years ago, the
car’s brain is being regularly updated, much like your smartphone. This
also means that the constantly honed AI-powered core technologies As of August 2024, Chinese public-security au-
can be applied to many adjacent fields. “AI is a very important enabler thorities had issued 16,000 test licenses for au-
for our vehicle products,” says Li, NIO’s CEO. “These technologies tonomous vehicles and 20,000 miles of roads na-
help us improve the product experience and overall competitiveness.” tionwide had been opened for testing.
For Peng, the difference is that while licenses
Waitiug outside au office buildiug in Shanghai’s Pudong in China are harder to obtain at the outset, once
district, a white robotaxi produced by Pony.AI, a Guangzhou-based permission is granted, the government will be
autonomous-vehicle firm, circles slowly around the entrance foyer be- fully supportive. “In the U.S., it’s easy to get a li-
fore coming to a stop at my feet. Once I’m aboard, the self-driving sys- cense,” he says. “But if you’re ever in an accident
tem embarks on a 20-minute tour of the rain-soaked neighborhood, and it’s your fault, they will heavily penalize you.”
dodging delivery bikes, overtaking parked vans, and bravely fighting Rather than fostering its own domestic
through oncoming trafc at stoplights. “Strategically, we definitely champions, the U.S. national strategy aims
have the ambition to go global,” says James Peng, CEO of Pony.AI.
“Because mobility needs are everywhere. Using technology to have a
positive societal impact should be our ambition.” ‘Using technology to have
Of course, the U.S. also has robotaxis. Alphabet-owned Waymo com-
pleted 4 million paid driverless ride-hailing trips in 2024 in Phoenix, San a positive societal impact
Francisco, and Los Angeles. But competition is scant. Amazon-backed should be our ambition.’
Zoox secured the necessary permits to carry the public in Foster City,
Calif., only last year. Tesla has claimed since 2016 to be about a year away —JAMES PENG, PONY.AI CEO

36 Time June 9, 2025

 to slow down its key rival via stricter export TIME 2030 is a decade-long project marking our progress toward a
sustainable and equitable world. To read more, visit time.com/time2030
controls. However, China is catching up. In
semiconductors—a crucial industry in which the
U.S. currently leads—Huawei’s Ascend 910C AI
chip reportedly achieves up to 60% of perfor-
mance in inference tasks compared with Nvidia’s
latest H100. Whereas NIO’s earlier models con- supportive policies for humanoid robots to mirror those EVs enjoyed, argu-
tained four Nvidia chips, its latest ET9 instead ing the industry has similar growth potential over the next five to 20 years.
has two designed in-house. “It’s precisely the China is also gaining ground in the so-called low-altitude economy—
shortage of semiconductors that is leading China autonomous air taxis, drone delivery, and so on. Last March, China’s
to develop their own faster,” says Bournois. MIIT and civil-aviation and transport regulators released a six-year
The rush is also on to translate EV suprem- plan for the sector, exploring regulations for aerial tolls, pilot licenses,
acy to other industries. Humanoid robots pro- and establishing trial areas where early-stage eVTOL (electric vertical
duced by Hangzhou-based Unitree caused a stir takeoff and landing vehicles) can fly around actual city environments.
in households across China when they appeared, The 2025 NPC’s Government Work Report named the future industry
twirling decorative fans and dancing with among the state’s priorities. Once again, China’s EV industry provides
other performers, at state broadcaster CCTV’s the backbone. Early eVTOL pioneers include Ehang, Autoflight, XPeng,
prestigious Lunar New Year Gala in January. and AeroFugia, a subsidiary of Geely. “We have the basic infrastructure
already ready for the low-altitude industry,” says
Burt Gao, Aerofugia’s CEO and chief scientist.
“Also, our supply chain is the same as for EVs.”

It Is not all posItIve for China, of course.

The nation faces myriad economic challenges,
including deflation, local governments drowning
in debt, poor consumer spending, plummeting
real estate values, record youth unemployment,
and a demographic time bomb. China’s regula-
tory framework and especially its draconian rules
regarding data transfers are anathema to foreign
partners. In September, the European Chamber
of Commerce in China released a position paper
that made over 1,000 recommendations for how
to improve the business environment. Then
there’s the as-yet-unknown effect of a trade war
with the U.S., where China last year sent 14.7%
of exports, worth $438.9 billion.
But as America walls itself off, China also has
a golden opportunity to reset trade relations with
the rest of the world. In mid-April, after Trump’s
global tariff onslaught, President Xi Jinping em-
A UNITREE G1 HUMANOID SHAKES HANDS barked on a charm offensive in Southeast Asia, declaring that a trade
WITH KIDS ON MARCH 24 IN YANTAI, CHINA
war has “no winners” and that protectionism “leads nowhere.” Just
as export controls have spurred domestic innovation, a U.S.-waged
It was a stunning display of China’s boom- trade war only puts Chinese firms in a more favorable light. “The
ing robotics industry. Over 190,000 robotics- bar is low in terms of looking like a more reliable and constructive
related companies were registered in China last partner than the United States these days,” says Mazzocco of CSIS.
year, with 44,000 more registered since the start We have been here before. The U.K. became the world’s biggest
of 2025, according to data company Qichacha. economic superpower in the 18th and 19th centuries through its first-
As with EVs and AI, Beijing has prioritized hu- mover advantage in industrialization. But the U.S. adopted these tech-
manoid robots as “disruptive products.” In nologies and, via its larger market and manufacturing capabilities, soon
2023, China’s Ministry of Industry and Infor- became the global leader in both innovations and their commercial-
mation Technology (MIIT) issued industrial- ization. The question is whether the U.S. can survive a trade war that
development guidance that outlined its goal of threatens to drastically diminish its markets, while simultaneously un-
V C G /G E T T Y I M A G E S; TA N G K E — V C G /G E T T Y I M A G E S

mass-producing humanoid robots by 2025 to dermining the development of core technologies by defunding uni-
build a globally competitive industrial ecosystem versities and research institutions. China already produces twice as
expected to reach $43 billion by 2035. many highly cited AI-research publications as the U.S. According to
EVs are key. Roughly 70% of their components a recent report from the D.C.-based Information Technology and In-
are interchangeable, which is why Chinese auto- dustry Foundation, China is near the lead of innovation or better in
makers including BYD, Xiaomi, Chery, GAC Motor, 6 out of 10 industries of the future. If EVs are any augury, America’s
Huawei, SAIC, and Xpeng Motors are all entering days at technology’s vanguard might be numbered.
the robotics market. At March’s National People’s “We believe the Chinese market has the best talent,” says Li. “Every
Congress, China’s annual rubber-stamp parlia- year there are several million new science and technology graduates.”
ment, XPeng chairman He Xiaopeng proposed And they, like their government, are determined to seize the day. □
37
 BECKHAM
PHOTOGRAPHED
IN MIAMI
IN APRIL

THESE
ARE THE
10 0 MO S T
IN F LU E N TIAL P E OP LE
SHAPING THE
FU TURE OF
GIVING

David Beckham, co-owner of Inter Miami, sits still in

David Beckham his box, his face frozen in disbelief. He looks too ticked
to move. Finally, he rises to shake a few hands and slap
some shoulders. “That was a frustrating game,” he says.
“I feel more exhausted watching the team as an
CHAMPION OF CHANGE owner,” says Beckham, whose wife Victoria noted how
BY SEAN GREGORY /FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. sweaty he was when he got home and asked what in the
world he had been doing. “I’m so invested in the game
that I feel that I’ve played the game.”
It has been a dozen years since Beckham retired from
On The firsT sundey nighT in epril, drums ere professional soccer following a career in which he won
beating and horns are blaring in a boisterous Chase six Premier League titles with Manchester United, a
Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as Lionel Messi and La Liga championship with Real Madrid, two Major
his Inter Miami teammates make a humdrum regular- League Soccer (MLS) Cups with the L.A. Galaxy, and
season American soccer game a happening. Inter Miami a Ligue 1 championship with Paris Saint- Germain.
and Toronto FC are tied 1-1 in the waning seconds of And having just reached a major milestone—his 50th
the contest when Messi drives a ball into the goal box, birthday, on May 2—Beckham admits that he’d love
giving his team a golden chance to pull out the win. His to get back out there. “There’s a lot of players that say,
pass lands on the foot of Inter Miami’s Fafà Picault, who ‘Oh, well, I miss the locker room. I miss the banter,’” he
pops what should be a surefire game winner over the net. says. “I don’t miss any of that, because I have that with
A few seconds later, the referee blows the final whistle. my family and with my friends. I miss training every day.
38 Time June 9, 2025 PHOTOGRAPH BY PAOLA KUDACKI FOR TIME
I miss playing every weekend. Every day, I wake up, and
I feel like something’s missing. Even at 50 years old, in
my head, I can still play.”
It’s not as if he’s let himself go. Beckham, who keeps
to a strict fitness regimen, lost his shirt for photos in
April’s Men’s Health, and when he and Victoria are in the
same place, they work out together almost every morn-
ing. “I let Victoria believe that she’s working harder,”
says Beckham. “But I think I’m the one that’s working
harder. Don’t tell her that.” (“David does an hour in the
gym, and I do an hour and 45 minutes,” Victoria says.
“So, Sean, I will let you make that decision.”) Still, he
concedes that although he feels like a 25-year-old in his
head, his body cannot do what it did when he was the
World Cup captain for England in the aughts.
But don’t expect any midlife crises. For one thing, the
man does not have time. Beyond co-owning Inter Miami,
Beckham has a range of business interests to keep him
busy—supplement and eyewear lines, a production com-
pany that oversaw the 2023 Emmy-winning Netflix doc-
umentary, Beckham, and partnerships with brands like
Stella Artois and Hugo Boss. And he remains commit-
ted to his longtime philanthropic work, particularly with
UNICEF, where he is one of the organization’s longest-
serving goodwill ambassadors.
“The competitive part of it is, I want to see wins,” says
Beckham. “I want to see these kids walking around with While it may not get the same attention as, for in-
clothing and not be subject to violence in their homes or stance, his Netflix doc, the making of which, he says,

C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T: O D D A N D E R S E N — A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S; M A R Y A LTA F F E R — A P ; P R E S S A S S O C I AT I O N /A P ; D AV I D T U R N L E Y— G E T T Y I M A G E S
in their schools or in their communities. Keeping these was “like therapy,” his relationship with the organiza-
young kids in education. Keeping them out of early child tion is almost as long as his marriage to Victoria. It began
marriage. When you go into these projects and you see on a trip to Thailand with Manchester United in 2001
that happening, that’s a win.” when he visited a UNICEF-supported protection center,
He’s talking about his charitable efforts, but it’s really for women and girls as young as 5 who’d experienced
the connective tissue of this all. He may have left the violence and abuse. He knew instantly this was some-
pitch as a player, but his drive to prove himself, to take thing he wanted to be a part of. He started partnering
big swings and see them pay off, persists across his en- with UNICEF, and in 2005 received a call from then U.N.
deavors. As he moves into the next half-century of his Secretary-General Kofi Annan, asking if he’d become an
life, Beckham is happy to reflect upon his journey but ambassador. “There’s certain phone calls that you get
eager to look forward as well. He is well aware that he that make you quite emotional,” says Beckham. “That
is one of the 21st century’s most famous faces and has made me very emotional.”
a global platform enjoyed by only a select few, many He has since gone on humanitarian trips to places like
of whom—Messi, Tom Brady, and Tom Cruise, among Sierra Leone, India, and Indonesia to shed light on chal-
them—were guests at his lavish birthday parties in Lon- lenges facing children and families in those countries.
don and Miami. And so even as he is content, he refuses He recalls one in particular, in 2014, a few months after
to be satisfied. “I truly think,” Victoria says, “that he’s Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the Philippines, killing more
just scratching the surface of his full potential.” than 6,000 people. Beckham met with a family impacted
by the storm. “The mum was completely glassy-eyed,” he
IN CONJUNCSION WISH HIS BIRSHDAY, Beckham says. “It felt like there was no life within her. The father
launched a fundraising appeal with UNICEF. “If you, explained what happened: he was on the roof of their
like me, believe that every child should have the chance home holding both his young daughters when a wave hit
to achieve their full potential, please click the link in my and knocked him unconscious. He woke up hours later
bio to donate,” he wrote in an April post on Instagram, holding on to just one of his daughters.”
where he has 88 million followers, more than any active In 2015, to mark his 10-year anniversary with
English Premier League player. He turned over his so- UNICEF, Beckham launched his “7” fund—named for
cial media accounts to a trio of teenage girls from Bra- his number on his England and Manchester United
zil, Madagascar, and Sudan, who each shared stories of jerseys—which has since raised more than $20 million.
perseverance through roadblocks like war, disease, and Among the beneficiaries have been 160,000 adoles-
lack of educational resources for girls. cents in Nepal who receive education and mental-health
40 TIME June 9, 2025
 when he attended a British Fashion Council event in
2023, his hobby was less well-known and he held a jar
of honey behind his back to present to the King. “I was
worried about his secret security wondering, ‘What is
that?’” he says. The gesture sparked a pleasant conver-
sation, as King Charles III is also a beekeeper, and the
King later invited him to his home at Highgrove Gardens,
where Beckham observed “most amazing beehive I have
ever seen.” In 2024, Beckham became an ambassador for
the King’s Foundation, which offers U.K. students train-
ing in areas such as textiles, STEM, and horticulture.
In January, the World Economic Forum gave Beck-
ham a Crystal Award at its annual meeting in Davos,
Switzerland, for his “long-term humanitarian work
and unwavering commitment to improving the lives of
children” around the globe. “He doesn’t have to do any-
thing,” says UNICEF executive director Catherine Rus-
sell. “He’s a very famous, wealthy person who could just
dillydally around. And he doesn’t do that. Does really se-
rious work to help people in the world who most need it.
To me, it doesn’t get much better than that.”

To be fair, it’s hard to imagine Beckham dillydallying

around anything. Throughout his career, he’s been clear
on his course and confident that everyone would see the
wisdom of his moves eventually. When he was consid-
support, some 400,000 children in Djibouti who got the ering joining the Galaxy from soccer superpower Real
polio vaccine, and 40,000 boys and girls in El Salvador Madrid before the 2007 season, he heard ad nauseam
who take part in sports and recreational activity. that he was making a huge mistake. After all, MLS was
“The reason why sport is so powerful is typically that an afterthought in the soccer world, not at all established
is how men communicate,” says Victoria. “But quite as a topflight league. “When you do get questioned, I like
often in my experience, and I know in David’s experi- to come out fighting,” says Beckham. “I always knew that
ence on the ground, you have women and young girls I could help raise this sport in this country, and hopefully
holding entire communities together. They’re somewhat I’ve done that.”
unheard. He sees the power in women and girls.” In 2014, he exercised his option to purchase an MLS
While his efforts have taken him around the world, expansion team for $25 million, a stipulation in his Gal-
he remains involved with organizations in his native axy contract. He set his sights on Miami, a city he had
never visited before it became his preferred destination
for a franchise, only to have politicians reject multiple
‘I TRULY THINK HE’S JUST SCRATCHING stadium proposals. He was told by several advisers that
THE SURFACE OF HIS FULL POTENTIAL.’ he should sell the team back to MLS and earn a small
—VICTORIA BECKHAM
profit for his trouble. But Beckham stuck with his vision,
partnering with Jorge and Jose Mas, who run a Miami-
based construction and engineering firm and used their
Britain. He is on the leadership council for the nonprofit political connections to help push through the $1 billion
Malaria No More UK, and a self-described royalist, he Miami Freedom Park plan. Jorge is now managing owner
joined Prince William last year in helping to raise north of the team, Jose is co-owner, and the mixed-use sta-
of $20 million for the London Air Ambulance Service, dium, which includes Inter Miami’s new 25,000-seat
which used the funds to purchase two lifesaving emer- home, hotels, offices, a public park, and retail spaces,
gency helicopters. is expected to open next season. Inter Miami is worth
He’s also formed a bond with the monarch himself. more than $1 billion.
During the pandemic, Beckham took up beekeeping at In the early seasons of Inter Miami’s existence, Beck-
his Oxfordshire country home. This is not news to any- ham would stay up well past midnight in London to
one who saw Beckham, which opens with a scene of him watch his team, more often than not, lose. “It got to the
in his beekeeping outfit. (“All of a sudden, people laugh,” point where Victoria went, ‘Maybe you’re the problem.
Beckham says, recalling his experience at the premiere Why don’t you try to not sit up and watch one night and
in London. “I’m like, ‘This is not funny.’ I even turned just see if you win?’” says Beckham. “I tried it once, and
around. I was like, ‘Why are you all laughing?’”) But it didn’t work. So I was like, ‘You’re wrong.’” He set out
41
to change their fortunes, using his own experience mov- though to be clear, despite putting down roots in the
ing to the U.S. as a sales pitch to Messi. It was another U.S., he’s still cheering for his home team. “I’m sorry,”
reminder that it never hurts to aim high. “I could never he says. “I’m going to have to go with England.” And his
have dreamed to have Lionel here,” says Beckham. “As tracking of what’s happening across the pond is not en-
an owner, you always say that you want the best play- tirely confined to fandom. While he is highly invested,
ers. Does it really happen? No. And he is the best player financially and emotionally, in Inter Miami, he allows
to have ever played the game.” Messi, even at 37, has that he’s not uninterested in expanding his portfolio. In
exceeded expectations. After his arrival, Inter Miami March, thousands of Manchester United fans marched
won the 2023 Leagues Cup—the annual competition in protests against the Glazer family, who’ve owned the
between teams from MLS and Liga MX, the top league team over the past two decades. “I’d love to say that
in Mexico—and the 2024 Supporters’ Shield, awarded I own Manchester United one day,” says Beckham. “It’s al-
annually to the team ways been my team, it will
with MLS’ best regular- always be my team, and
season record. Pictures I care deeply about Man-
of the team celebrating chester United.” But the
these accomplishments team is valued at around
hang in Beckham’s Inter $6.55 billion, according to
Miami office. Forbes, making it the sec-
Though Messi’s con- ond most valuable soccer
tract expires after this franchise on the planet,
season, Beckham is confi- trailing just Real Madrid.
dent that he’ll be back in “Slightly out of my price
Miami in 2026, and that range,” Beckham says.
he will play in next year’s In the meantime, he
World Cup. “I think his does see potential for the
heart is in Miami now,” Americans at the global
says Beckham. “Players level. “The U.S. will win a
these days, they look after World Cup at some point,”
themselves more. They’re says Beckham of a coun-
playing longer. His No. 1 try whose best result on
passion is obviously his family. His other passion is foot- PLAYING SOCCER WITH the men’s side since 1934
CHILD SURVIVORS OF
ball. As long as he’s happy, he will continue to play as TYPHOON HAIYAN IN THE
was a quarterfinal appear-
long as he wants. It would be nice if he played another PHILIPPINES IN 2014 ance in 2002. “This coun-
10 years. I can’t see it. But you never know.” try is too powerful, is too
big, has the best facilities, has the best coaches. The
BECKHAM, WHOSE CAREER has had him crisscross- foundations have now been set.” Left unsaid is that he
ing the world, understands that it’s impossible to know can claim some credit for this.
what lies ahead. But that doesn’t stop him from mak- Of course, there are some things that are completely
ing both plans and predictions. He intends, over the out of Beckham’s hands. Despite his affinity for and
next six months, to have low-key catch-up dinners with connection to the royals, knighthood—to the surprise
of many—has thus far eluded him even as his fellow
sportsmen Lewis Hamilton and Mo Farah have received
‘HE’S A VERY FAMOUS, WEALTHY the honor. “I’ve heard people in the media talk about
PERSON WHO COULD JUST DILLYDALLY it’s something that I really, really want, and of course, it
AROUND. AND HE DOESN’T DO THAT.’ would be an unbelievable honor,” says Beckham, who
waited in line for 12 hours to pay his respects to the
—CATHERINE RUSSELL, UNICEF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Queen at her 2022 funeral. “If it happens at some point,
amazing. If it doesn’t, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
longtime friends in both the U.S. and U.K. He hopes to Beckham got his first gig when he was 12: he was a pot-
take a UNICEF trip to Brazil or India sometime this year. boy, clearing drinks off the tables at a dog track. On Sat-
“Those are the moments that I love more than anything, urdays, he’d accompany his dad to his job fixing stoves in
going on the ground and meeting these young children,” London hotels and restaurants, acting as his little helper.
Beckham says. And laugh if you will about the bees, but He’s always dug working and has no plans to slow down
sometime in the next few months Beckham has plans now. “The last 50 years have been pretty enjoyable and
to launch Bee Up, a brand of honey-based snacks like pretty hectic and packed with things that I never thought
gummies, sticks, and bars marketed to the U.S. travel- and dreamt that I’d ever be part of,” he says. “I want that
soccer-kid set. to continue. If that stops, that’s when I won’t want to go
He’s also looking forward to the 2026 World Cup, to work. And that’s never going to happen.”
42 TIME June 9, 2025
 Melinda
French Gates

UPLIFTING WOMEN
AND FAMILIES

In June 2024,
Melinda French
Gates left the iconic
foundation she
started with her for-
mer husband Bill,
and embarked on
her solo philan-
thropic journey with
a bang, giving away
about $502 mil- initiatives to keep kids in school and Vanderbilt University Medical Cen-
lion in just a year.
Dolly Parton make sure they can read. Its signa- ter in an effort that led to the devel-
(While it’s not a ture program, Imagination Library, opment of the Moderna vaccine, and
competition, it was LONGTIME GIVER has sent more than 270 million free, has also funded pediatric infectious-
nearly three times age-appropriate books to children disease research at Vanderbilt. Parton
as much as her ex under 5 across the U.S., as well as received the Carnegie Medal of Phi-
donated that year.) Country-music icon Dolly Parton has in Canada, the U.K., Ireland, and lanthropy in 2022 in recognition of her
French Gates’ been giving almost as long as she Australia. generosity, and she shows no signs
Pivotal Ventures has been singing. The musician cre- Parton’s philanthropy, often of changing course: in October 2024,
B E C K H A M : T E D A L J I B E — A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S; F R E N C H G AT E S : C H R I S T I A N L I E W I G — C O R B I S/G E T T Y I M A G E S; PA R T O N : A R T S T R E I B E R — A U G U S T

blends invest- ated the Dollywood Foundation in focused in her home state, is as she partnered with the Mountain Ways
ments, philanthropy, 1988 to decrease the dropout rate in eclectic as her music. She was Foundation to give $1 million to flood
and advocacy, her childhood home of Sevier County, a major donor to COVID-19 vac- victims affected by Hurricane Helene
mostly targeted to Tennessee. The foundation supports cine research, giving $1 million to in East Tennessee. —Alana Semuels
women, girls, and
families, both in the
U.S. and interna-
tionally. “I believe
in using every tool
in my toolbox,” she
told TIME shortly
after she left the
Gates Foundation.
“Whether that’s phil-
anthropic money, GLOBAL DONOR
whether that’s pri- FOCUS ON EMPOWERING MAKING MED GIVING BIG IN
vate money I use for EDUCATION MILLIONS SCHOOL FREE LATIN AMERICA
investing in social
good or whether
it’s money to do
political giving.”
She announced
plans to distribute
$1 billion over two
years via Pivotal,
including grants
to such women
as Ava DuVernay,
Allyson Felix, and
Jacinda Ardern,
so they can in turn
fund causes they
deem worthwhile.
—Belinda Luscombe

43
 Aliko Dangote

GIVING BACK TO AFRICA

Business magnate Aliko Dangote

built a net worth of $23.9 billion
through cement, agriculture, and oil-
refining operations in Nigeria. His
K. Lisa Yang foundation, which he endowed with
$1.25 billion in 2014, aims to give
back to the continent that facilitated
SUPPORTING his success, spending an average
SCIENTIFIC of $35 million a year on programs
RESEARCH across Africa. “Health, education,
economic empowerment, disaster
Students at top U.S. relief, and food—these are the five
universities may be main things that any African nation
familiar with the needs,” he says.
name K. Lisa Yang, The foundation is in the middle of
which adorns sev- focusing on biomedical research. a $100 million program to treat chil-
eral science cen-
Phil Knight They have also given more than dren with severe malnutrition. This
ters. The retired & Penny Knight $575 million to Stanford University, year, it’s also repeating an initiative
investment banker, where Phil got his M.B.A. launched in 2024 to distribute more
who donated a total Elsewhere, the Knights in 2023 than 1 million bags of rice throughout
INVESTING IN COMMUNITIES
of $74.5 million last pledged $400 million to the 1803 Nigeria. A prior vaccine initiative, in
year, has become Fund, to strengthen the histori- partnership with the Bill and Melinda
a major funder of Nike co-founder Phil Knight and cally Black community in North and Gates Foundation and others,
academic research his wife Penny are among the Northeast Portland. The nonprofit’s resulted in the World Health Organi-
aimed at preserv- most generous donors in the U.S., initial project centers on Albina, a zation announcing in 2015 that polio
ing the planet’s eco- with estimated lifetime giving of formerly vibrant business and res- is no longer endemic in the country.
systems and help- $3.6 billion—including $370 million idential community noted for its Education is a priority too. The
ing people who are in 2024—often focused on educa- music scene that was partially razed foundation is broadening local
physically or cogni- tion and community initiatives. to make way for a highway and bas- efforts this year, including providing
tively disabled. Their donations to academia ketball arena. “I’m pretty proud of vocational training and construct-
In February, she often have a personal connection. what it’s done so far,” Phil, 87, says ing school complexes in Nigeria.
gifted Harvard Uni- The Knights have donated $1 billion of the foundation. “And I’m optimis- “We need to create the next gener-
versity $30 million to the University of Oregon, Phil’s tic about what it will contribute in the ation of African leaders,” he says.
to set up a sister alma mater, for an innovation hub future.” —Sean Gregory —Penelope Wang
Brain-Body Center
to one she estab-
lished at MIT in
2022. In 2024, she
donated $35 million
to endow a wildlife
health center at Cor-
nell and $28 million
to launch a
research center
at MIT—part of a YA N G : C O U R T E S Y C A I T L I N C U N N I N G H A M ; K N I G H T: M I C H A E L H I C K E Y— G E T T Y I M A G E S;
S M I T H : R I C H A R D D R E W — A P : W A LT O N : C O U R T E S Y A L I C E L . W A LT O N F O U N D AT I O N

$200 million, six- GREAT SERVICE BOOSTING REWRITING LGBTQ+

center research col- GENEROSITY THE RULES CHAMPIONS
lective she started
there in 2017 FUNDING
with the Center for EDUCATION
Autism Research
(co-founded with
her ex-husband
Hock E. Tan). “The
things that we’re
most passionate
about are the things
that touch our own
lives,” says Yang,
who has two chil-
dren on the autism
spectrum.
—Kerri Anne
Renzulli

44 TIME June 9, 2025

 Through his Fund
II Foundation, he
created InternXL,
an online platform
to connect 30,000
STEM students,
mostly of color, with
partner companies.
Other programs
include the Student
Robert Freedom Initiative,
F. Smith which offers low-
cost loans and other
UPLIFTING financial assistance
to students at his-
YOUNG PEOPLE
torically Black col-
leges and univer-
Finance billionaire sities, and grants
Robert F. Smith’s to reduce dispari-
best-known act of ties in health care
philanthropy came outcomes for
in 2019 when he Black people.
made a $34 million Smith, the first
promise during his Black person to sign
Morehouse College the Giving Pledge, founding the Crystal art galleries and event
commencement has no plans to
Alice L. Walton Bridges Museum in Ben- spaces as well as well-
address to pay off change the focus of tonville, Ark., as well as the ness services, designed
the student debt his giving despite FUNDING ART AND Art Bridges foundation, to facilitate connections
of that year’s 396 the antidiversity HOLISTIC HEALTH which helps regional gal- between art, nature, and
graduates. The push in Washington, leries get access to major health. And from July, the
CEO has contin- believing the coun- American works. Alice L. Walton School of
ued to center his try is better off when With an estimated net More recently Walton Medicine, also in Benton-
giving—$265 mil- everyone is health- worth of $101 billion, has turned her energy and ville, will give its first five
lion over the past ier, better educated, Walmart heir Alice L. money toward health care. cohorts of students tuition
decade—on edu- and more capable of Walton, 75, is the rich- In May, a new 85,000-sq.-ft. without fees. Also coming
cation, housing, economic success. est woman in the home for the Walton- in 2026: a major expan-
and health care He says, “That world. She has histori- funded Heartland Whole sion of the Crystal Bridges
initiatives to lift isn’t a race thing, cally directed a lot of Health Institute opened Museum, which will
up communities that’s a fact thing.” her giving—$1.5 billion on the Crystal Bridges increase its capacity by
of color. —Steve Friess so far—to the arts, campus, complete with 50%. —Belinda Luscombe

Ken Griffin

MAKING AN IMPACT

Investor Ken Griffin’s approach to philan- GIANT IMPROVING RESHAPING

thropy has a lot in common with his strat- GRANTMAKER WILDFIRE EDUCATION PHILANTHROPY
egy at his hedge fund Citadel: both are RELIEF
focused on evidence-based initiatives with
the potential to deliver high-impact, scal-
able results. “I want to be seen first and
foremost as a person who supports prob-
lem solvers,” he says.
Griffin, whose lifetime giving exceeds
$2 billion, donated $400 million in 2023, in
combination with the David Geffen Founda-
tion, to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Can-
cer Center, to drive state-of-the-art cancer
care, and $50 million last year to advance
neurological care at Baptist Health South
Florida. Other recent donations include
$20 million to Miami Dade College for
scholarships and $15 million to the
National Constitution Center. —Ellen Chang

45
 LORENZ CO-FOUNDED
THE GIVING PLEDGE
NEXT GEN IN 2014

To help, the Next Gen group of-

fers in-person training sessions,
WhatsApp chats, and access to con-
sultants who can offer advice about
ways to divide donation pools that
allow disagreeing heirs to fund dif-
ferent charities. Last year, for the
first time, the Next Gen group also
attended the Giving Pledgers’ an-
nual meeting. Such big multigener-
ational gatherings are helpful, says
Lorenz, who previously served as a
senior adviser for the National Cen-
ter for Family Philanthropy and dep-
uty director of the Institute for Phi-
lanthropy. “When you hear from
other families what’s worked for
them or what hasn’t worked, you get
ideas,” she says.
Lorenz knows firsthand how challenging—and
Katherine Lorenz rewarding—inheriting the responsibility for fulfilling a
pledge can be. She was steeped in her grandfather’s con-
cerns about improving sustainability—Mitchell made his
LEADING NEXT-GEN HEIRS fortune by pioneering the shale-gas extraction method
commonly known as fracking—and leaving a legacy for the
BEING AN BEIR TO A BILLION-DOLLAR FORTUNE CER- greater good. He was also deeply concerned about energy
tainly has its benefits. It can also come with big chal- and environmental conservation. She recalls, “Every time
lenges, from the intricacies of figuring out how best to you saw him, he’d say, ‘If you can’t make the world work
carry out a loved one’s legacy to the infighting that can with 4 billion people, how are you going to make it work
sometimes boil over in families when great wealth is with 10 billion people? What are you going to do about it?’”
passed down. Katherine Lorenz, granddaughter of Texas Yet she also believes the Next Gen has to figure out how
oilman George P. Mitchell, knows the terrain—and she’s to forge their own giving path. Newbie philanthropists
dedicated to helping her fellow heirs navigate it.
Lorenz is the leader of the Giving Pledge Next Gen-
eration group, the heirs of the ultra-wealthy philanthro- ‘GIVING AWAY MONEY IS EASY.
pists who formally promised to donate the majority of MAKING AN IMPACT IS HARD.’
their wealth to charitable causes in their lifetimes or —KATHERINE LORENZ, PRESIDENT,
their wills. Lorenz co-founded the group in 2014 with 24 CYNTHIA AND GEORGE MITCHELL FOUNDATION
members. It now has 300, ranging in age from 21 to 75, as
the press of the challenges they’re likely to face becomes
more urgent. Dozens of the nearly 250 billionaires who often start out by writing checks to their alma mater,
signed the Giving Pledge have died before wrapping up Lorenz says. But as they begin to zero in on what causes
their giving plans. And about 50 of the remaining Pledg- they really care about and where their dollars will do the
ers are over age 80. most good, donations often shift to organizations that
Her goal is to provide heirs with resources to help have a more direct effect on a community, such as food
them establish decisionmaking processes, reduce fam- banks, land trusts, or arts groups. “Giving away money
ily arguments, and deal with emotionally fraught ques- is easy,” says Lorenz. “Making an impact is hard.”
tions like how strictly they need to adhere to their loved In addition to helping families increase the size and
one’s giving strategies vs. their own ideas about how and impact of their donations, Lorenz says her goal is to help
where they can do the most good. Lorenz, who is presi- heirs turn a legacy from a potentially stressful burden to
dent of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, a joyous activity that brings relatives together—an out-
the nonprofit that her grandparents established in 1978, come with benefits beyond the family. She says, “When
says, “Carrying out someone else’s legacy is not easy.” you enjoy it more, you give more.” —KIM CLARK
46 TIME June 9, 2025
 Lin-Manuel
Miranda

BREAKING
DOWN BARRIERS

While Latinos make

up 19% of the U.S.
population and 24%
of movie-ticket buy-
ers, they have fewer
than 5% of film-
industry roles. Ham-
ilton creator Lin-
Manuel Miranda and
his family are out to
change that. Colec-
tivo, a new initiative
from their Miranda
Christy Turlington Burns* Family Fund, in part-
nership with Tribeca
Studios and the His-
IMPROVING MATERNAL HEALTH CARE
panic Federation,
will provide three
For the past 15 years, Christy Turlington Burns has been on a emerging Latino and mentoring involved, along
mission to make sure women have access to the kind of medi- filmmakers with to people from with their chil-
cal care that saved her life when she experienced postpartum funding and mentor- underrepresented dren and the sib-
complications. ship; the resulting communities work- lings’ spouses.
Her nonprofit Every Mother Counts (EMC) has provided support short films will pre- ing in theater, TV, Says Miranda: “All
to nearly 2 million women, families, and health care workers and miere at the Tribeca and film. of our philanthropy
invested $48 million in community-led programs, advocacy, and Festival in June. For the Miran- is rooted in giving
awareness. EMC is fundraising for its Endurance Fund, which will Each film team will das, philanthropy underrepresented
provide ongoing support to community-based organizations, pro- also include par- is a family affair, groups a chance to
vide emergency grants to areas affected by crisis, and finance con- ticipants from the with mom, psychol- make art and get
tinued care for women in marginalized communities. “Our invest- Miranda Family ogist Luz Towns- in the door without
ments are small on the scale of what’s needed, but they point to Fellows program, Miranda, and dad, the barriers that so
what works,” she says. “There are very few global challenges that which offers schol- community activist often leave us out.”
aren’t intractable, but this one is solvable.” —Sandra Block arships, training, Luis A. Miranda Jr., —Diane Harris

Richard Curtis History campaign in 2004.

That gamble has paid off.
& Lenny Henry Comic Relief has raised over
$2 billion for charity projects
HARNESSING LAUGHTER tackling poverty and injus-
tice, supporting more than
PA O L A K U D A C K I — T R U N K A R C H I V E ; M I R A N D A : C O R E Y N I C K O L S — G E T T Y I M A G E S

MOBILIZING REBUILDING 100 million people globally.

L O R E N Z : B E N J A M I N N O R M A N — T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S/ R E D U X ; T U R L I N G T O N :

MOON SHOTS SERVING POST-DISASTER After witnessing firsthand To date, the nonprofit’s state-
STUDENTS the devastation of famine in side arm, Comic Relief U.S., has
Ethiopia in the 1980s, Brit- raised more than $436 million.
ish screenwriter and producer Earlier this year, Comic
Richard Curtis returned home Relief’s 40th, Curtis and Henry
with an idea to use comedy to were honored with a Carnegie
raise funds to help those in Medal of Philanthropy Catalyst
-
need. Fronted by beloved Brit- Award.
ish comedian Lenny Henry Henry credits the success
and other famous faces, it of Comic Relief to its ability to
-
became Comic Relief, known appeal to the public’s will to
for its Red Nose Day fund- do “the right thing.” He says,
raiser and annual telethons. “I think it is really important
-
“We took a big gamble in believ- in terms of citizenship, that
ing that people can take trag- we know when it’s our turn to
-
edy and comedy on the same do something, and we have
night,” says Curtis, who also the energy and the wherewithal
co-founded the Make Poverty to do it.” —Ayesha Javed

*DISCLOSURE: TIME’S OWNERS MARC AND LYNNE BENIOFF HAVE SUPPORTED EVERY MOTHER COUNTS 47
 in 2021 he was
Billie Jean King a founding donor
of the nonprofit
CHAMPIONING Arc Institute,
WOMEN IN SPORTS launched with an
initial endowment
of $650 million. It
How much impact can you aims to expedite
have with a $5,000 dona- scientific research
tion? If you’re tennis legend Patrick into complex dis-
Billie Jean King, quite a lot. eases by providing
That’s how much King Collison multiyear funding.
gifted in seed money In January, Arc
in 1974 to launch the BOOSTING announced a part-
Women’s Sports Foun- nership with Nvidia
RESEARCH
dation (WSF), which has to fast-track sci-
since channeled over entific research
$100 million into creating “May the wind by developing and
opportunities for women be always at your publicly sharing
in sports through research back” is the Irish powerful compu-
and grants to individual blessing for a tational tools that
athletes and nonprofits. swift journey. It evi- advance biomedi-
That initial gift reflected dently worked for cal discovery—
King’s trademark fusion billionaire Stripe including its
of activism and savvy co-founder Pat- recently launched
institution-building, honed rick Collison, who open-source model,
during a pivotal year in started out as a EVO 2, which com-
1973 when she co-founded schoolboy entrepre- bines AI and biol-
the Women’s Tennis Associ- neur in 2007 at 18. ogy to help uncover
ation, successfully lobbied Speed is also the potentially lifesaving
the U.S. Open to become byword for Collison’s targeted therapies.
the first major tournament to philanthropy that sup- Celebrating WSF’s approach to philan- The goal: “to accel-
to offer equal prize money, ports the power of sports 50th anniversary in Octo- thropy. In 2020 he erate scientific prog-
and beat Bobby Riggs in to transform lives and fos- ber, King said, “We must co-launched Fast ress, understand
the historic “Battle of the ter social change. Her Billie all remain committed Grants, a rapid- the root causes of
Sexes” match. Jean King Foundation pro- to protecting the prog- funding system for disease, and narrow
In the ensuing five vides grants to the WSF, ress made, while working scientists research- the gap between
decades, she’s remained where she is honorary chair, toward a future where the ing solutions to discoveries and
dedicated to advocacy as well as awards for young playing field is truly level.” the COVID-19 impact on patients.”
for equality in sports and sports leaders. —Harry Booth pandemic, and —Jackie Hunter

Strive & Tsitsi Masiyiwa

HELPING AFRICANS THRIVE

SAVING THE GIVING WITH COLLEGE FOR Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa and his wife
AMAZON URGENCY RURAL KIDS PATHS FROM Tsitsi, a social entrepreneur, have devoted
POVERTY much of their estimated $1.2 billion for-
tune to empowering Africa’s people.
Their HigherLife Foundation was created
to give educational support to orphans
from their native Zimbabwe. It now focuses
on education, health, disaster relief, and
rural entrepreneurship to help commu-
nities across Africa thrive. It’s provided
over 250,000 scholarships and trainings
and invested $100 million in job creation
and $60 million in health care and crisis
response.
In May, Tsitsi announced their nonprofit
Delta Philanthropies was a founding donor
in a $600 million fund to improve newborn
and maternal health on the continent.
—Tharin Pillay

48 TIME June 9, 2025

 Eric Church

AIDING HURRICANE
HELENE RECOVERY

Country star Eric Church

spends about half of his year in
Avery County, North Carolina, Tiffany
a rural, mountainous, and low-
income area of his home state.
Benjamin
But last September, Hurricane
Helene devastated the area. FOCUSING GIVING
To support his community,
Church mobilized his influence
and fan base, organizing Con- Last fall, the
cert for Carolina with fellow Humana Foun-
country star Luke Combs, which dation donated
raised over $24.5 million. $15.2 million to
Church also expedited the nonprofits work-
release of his single “Darkest ing to improve the
representative of Austria’s pop-
Hour,” donating all royalties to Marlene Engelhorn ulation, from all walks of life, to
emotional health
those impacted by Helene. and nutrition of
decide on her behalf how to give
Half of the show’s proceeds seniors and chil-
GIVING WEALTH AWAY away €25 million ($27 million),
went to Church’s nonprofit, dren. The grants
which represents the bulk of her
Chief Cares. Church and his were part of CEO
inheritance and at least 90% of
team decided to buy $850,000 Tiffany Benjamin’s
What do you do when you inherit her total wealth. After consulting larger vision to
worth of land in Avery County, millions but don’t believe you with experts, the Good Council
to build around 45 homes in eliminate barriers
deserve the money? Austrian for Redistribution agreed to split in health care—an
an effort to provide affordable heiress Marlene Engelhorn tore the money among 77 organiza-
housing for families, who are approach that gar-
up the ultra-rich playbook and tions, which tackle issues such nered her the 2024
expected to move in by late let a group of strangers decide. as tax policy, climate protection, Council on Foun-
summer. After three years, Engelhorn received millions and human rights. dations award for
they will be given the oppor- after her grandmother’s death Engelhorn entrusted the outstanding lead-
tunity to buy their homes with in 2022 in Austria, where there group, she says, because “if ership in corporate
financial support from Church’s is no inheritance tax, reinforcing you want democracy, you have philanthropy.
nonprofit. her view that unearned wealth to abolish monarchy and any Since taking
While it’s not uncommon undermines democracy. structure that resembles it”— over in 2022, Ben-
to relocate after a disaster, Last year, she invited a group including inherited wealth. —H.B. jamin has reined
Church believes local peo-
K I N G : C E L E S T E S L O M A N — T R U N K A R C H I V E ; C O L L I S O N : P H I L L I P F A R A O N E — W I R E S/G E T T Y I M A G E S; C H U R C H : A M Y H A R R I S —

in the foundation’s
ple, “who are going to con-
once scattered giv-
tinue the values and have pride
I N V I S I O N /A P ; E N G E L H O R N : G E N E G L O V E R — A G E N T U R F O C U S/ R E D U X ; B E N J A M I N : C O U R T E S Y H U M A N A F O U N D AT I O N

ing strategy to con-

in that community,” are the centrate on men-
strongest asset for recovery. tal health, food
“We’re giving people a chance scarcity, and novel
to have a permanent home health interven-
that they can live in for the rest tions for chronic
of their lives, and keep them conditions. Disaster
in the community,” he says. relief is also a prior-
—Andrew R. Chow ity: in the past year,
DIVERSITY UPLIFTING SHARING the foundation sent
IN THE ARTS WOMEN HIS WEALTH $1.5 million in aid
for recovery efforts
after Hurricanes
Milton and Helene,
plus an additional
$250,000 to help
flooding victims in
Kentucky. She says,
“My favorite thing
is when we invest in
an organization at a
tricky time and they
tell us: Because of
your investment,
we were able to do
this amazing, big
thing.” —Kerri Anne
Renzulli

49
 WALKER LEADS THE
$16 BILLION FORD
FOUNDATION, FOUNDED
BY HENRY FORD IN 1936

Under his direction, the $16 billion foundation, among

the nation’s wealthiest, turned its attention sharply to
issues of social justice and inequality, including boost-
ing educational opportunities and civil rights for people
of color and those with disabilities—he established the
first disability-rights program by a major foundation.
In 2014, he chaired the committee to lead Detroit out
of bankruptcy, corralling automakers, unions, and other
stakeholders to strike an $816 million “Grand Bargain”—
Ford contributed $125 million—to pay off the city’s debt
without jeopardizing the pensions of local-government
workers or selling off the city’s art-museum collection.
This can-do instinct comes, he says, from his own rise
from poverty in rural Texas to work first as a lawyer,
then an international investor, and for the past quarter-
century in nonprofits. In 2006, he became vice president
of the Rockefeller Foundation. Seven years later, he took
over Ford, becoming the first out gay Black man to lead a
multibillion-dollar U.S. philanthropy. Walker is often the
one others turn to for advice and perspective; he believes
that’s partly because he’s one of the few who know what
it’s like to be poor or marginalized. “My experience and
my background are unusual,” he says. “I tend to see the
world through a lens of abundance and not limitations.”
While he’s often lauded for his groundbreaking yet
collaborative approach—winning the Council on Foun-
dations Award for Distinguished Service in 2024—
Walker regards his own record as “mixed” largely be-
Darren Walker cause, in focusing so heavily on poverty and diversity, he
worries he failed to notice an important national shift.
“These last few years, we’ve seen inequality impacting
DRIVING TRANSFORMATION working-class white Americans who were not a demo-
graphic that was a priority for philanthropy because for
most of the 20th century, they were doing better,” he
IN THE EARLY MONTHS OF THE PANDEMIC, FORD says. “Now we’re seeing white households with indica-
Foundation president Darren Walker came up with a tors of poor well-being, downward mobility, and lower
radical idea. With interest rates near zero and stocks life expectancy. We need to pay attention to that.”
tanking, he posited major philanthropies should issue It’s one of the reasons he decided to step down—so
50-year bonds to raise money for COVID-19 relief. It a new leader can look at the Ford Foundation’s mission
would save them from having to sell assets at the low val- with new eyes. But Walker, whose longtime partner died
ues of the time. “It was an arbitrage play, really,” he says. in 2019, also wants to look at his own life anew.
Ford’s “social bond,” the first in U.S. nonprofit history, His parting advice to fellow heads of philanthro-
raised $1 billion to buck up hundreds of nonprofit grant- pies? “It’s easy to convince yourself that you’re a suc-
ees during the unprecedented crisis. He lobbied 14 other cess when you’re a foundation president because peo-
large groups to also issue bonds, but only four joined in. ple tell you you’re doing a good job all the time,” Walker
“Too many operate from a culture of no as opposed to says. “Don’t believe that. We need to assess ourselves
asking, How do I get to yes?” Walker says. “I believe phi- with some humility.” —STEVE FRIESS
lanthropy should be doing the bold, risk-taking work that
the government or private sector isn’t willing to or cannot
do.” After seeing how successful the social bonds were, ‘PHILANTHROPY SHOULD BE DOING
some leaders who had initially refused issued them too.
Walker, who will step down from Ford at the end of THE BOLD, RISK-TAKING WORK.’
2025 after 12 years, has been a transformative figure. —DARREN WALKER, FORD FOUNDATION PRESIDENT

50 TIME June 9, 2025

 to Press Forward, a
national coalition to
bolster local news,
to $300 million
over five years. In
July, the founda-
tion gave a timely
$6.9 million infusion
to strengthen non-
Maribel partisan election
coverage in pivotal
Pérez states—reflecting
Wadsworth Wadsworth’s belief
that philanthropy
SUPPORTING must “move at the
speed of news.”
LOCAL NEWS
In February, Knight
added $25 million
Local newsrooms to an initial grant of
are vanishing at a $20 million for the
rate of more than American Journal-
two a week, leaving ism Project, which
around 55 million supports nonprofit
September, he has sup- staff. All told, since the Americans in news local news.
Christos ported medical teams pro- conflict began on Oct. 7, deserts with limited Many of the chal-
Christou viding aid amid wars in 2023, MSF has provided access to essen- lenges we face
Ukraine, Sudan, and Gaza, nearly 700,000 outpatient tial information. The come down to a
and also in Myanmar, and 188,000 emergency- Knight Foundation is “lack of connection
HUMANITARIAN CARE
where a 7.7-magnitude room consultations in out to reverse that and engagement”
earthquake in March killed Gaza, and performed trend through its sup- with our fellow citi-
Even for an organiza- thousands. nearly 20,000 surgeries. port of journalism. zens, Wadsworth
tion that works in places The situation in Gaza He’s most proud of Leading the says. “Local jour-
others are fleeing, has been particularly standing with communi- charge is its pres- nalism in particular
Dr. Christos Christou’s fraught. Eleven MSF work- ties that lost everything. ident and CEO, is a grounding ele-
time as international pres- ers have been killed since “We didn’t leave them Maribel Pérez ment. It is an anchor
ident of Médecins Sans the war began, says the alone,” he says. “We gave Wadsworth. Under that helps communi-
Frontières (MSF) has been former field surgeon, who people hope, which they her direction, the ties to be strong and
tumultuous. During his visited the West Bank in needed more than any- foundation last year connected.”
tenure, which will end in November 2023 to meet thing.” —Jackie Hunter doubled its pledge —Harry Booth
F R O N T I È R E S I N T E R N AT I O N A L ; W A D S W O R T H : C O U R T E S Y J O H N S . A N D J A M E S L . K N I G H T F O U N D AT I O N
WALK ER: JAK E CHESSUM —TRUNK ARCHIVE; CHRISTOU: COURTESY SAR AH NUHU — MÉDECINS SANS

LIFTING LEADERS FILLING THE

FAMILY GIVING SUPPORTING FUNDING GAP FUNDING
MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION
BOLD CLIMATE
INITIATIVES

51
Elizabeth
Alexander

PROMOTING THE
ARTS, AND DIVERSITY

Few people have cham- La June Montgomery Tabron

pioned diversity, or cul-
ture, on as significant a
FINDING NEW WAYS TO SERVE
scale as Elizabeth Alex-
ander, president of the
$7.9 billion Andrew W. In 2023, almost a decade into her tenure as pres-
Mellon Foundation— ident and CEO of the $9.4 billion W.K. Kellogg
the largest funder of the Foundation, La June Montgomery Tabron commis-
arts and humanities in sioned a yearlong listening tour with its more than
the U.S. So how does 2,000 grantees. Not content to keep doing what
she feel about the wide- she’d been doing, she wanted ideas about how
spread rollback of the the philanthropy could have a greater long-term
kind of diversity initia- impact on children by imagining what the world
tives she’s been champi- would be like in 2035.
oning? “Absolutely laser- The report, published in April 2024, is heavy on
focused,” she says. suggestions to address systemic racism, climate
In April, after the change, housing affordability, and gender-based
Trump Administra- violence, and Montgomery Tabron’s enthusiasm
tion deemed much for many of them reflects her ongoing pursuit of
of the funding for the new ways to be of service. Her dedication to these
National Endowment for issues is also reflected in two books she pub-
the Humanities waste- lished this year—a memoir, How We Heal, and a
ful, Mellon stepped children’s book, Our Differences Make Us Stronger.
in. “We had grantees More than half of Kellogg grants now go to
calling us, panicked,” can carry forward.” The she says, is the goal. groups led by people of color, and her larger goal,
says Alexander. “We move has already spurred “As much as this is a she says, is to level the playing field for all chil-
made a $15 million at least one philanthro- challenging time, it’s actu- dren as early as possible. “We didn’t start out
grant to the Federa- pist to make a matching ally a very powerful time in with a quota,” she said on a podcast in Janu-
tion of State Humani- grant of $250,000 to the philanthropy, because peo- ary. “We started out in earnest saying, ‘Who do
ties Councils ... so that Alabama State Humani- ple are coming together.” we need to lift up to sustain the changes that we
these projects for now ties Council—and that, —Belinda Luscombe want to achieve?’” —Steve Friess

A L E X A N D E R : M I C H A E L K O VA C — L A C M A /G E T T Y I M A G E S; M O N T G O M E R Y TA B R O N : R I C K S C U T E R I — A P ; S U Z M A N : H O L L I E
A D A M S — B L O O M B E R G /G E T T Y I M A G E S ; S T E V E N S : S E T H W E N I G — A P ; A N D R É S : C O U R T E S Y W O R L D C E N T R A L K I T C H E N
STEERING
A SURGE IN GIVING MAKING BIG APPLE A BEHEMOTH ONE OF ISRAEL’S
CONNECTIONS BOOSTER TEAM PLAYERS BIGGEST DONORS

52 TIME June 9, 2025

 Artis Stevens

YOUTH MENTORING

When Artis Stevens became

president and CEO of Big
Brothers Big Sisters of Amer-
ica (BBBSA) in 2020, his
Mark top goal was to reduce the
Suzman 120-year-old mentoring organi-
zation’s 30,000-long wait list
A BOLD PLEDGE of kids looking for a “big.”
Through smart partnerships
with organizations like the
In May, the Gates NFL, investment in improved
Foundation, led by tech, and better outreach to its
CEO Mark Suzman, 20 million alumni, he has cut
unveiled its auda- the wait list by a third, reversed
cious endgame: 10 years of declining member-
spend its whole ship, and helped the nonprofit struck a convoy in Gaza, killing
$200 billion endow- double its funding.
José Andrés* seven WCK workers. While the IDF
ment over the next Stevens is now expanding took responsibility, a March report
20 years, then close to enroll an additional 30,000 HUMANITARIAN CHEF by news service Devex called WCK’s
its doors for good. teens and young adults in safety measures into question. “We
This empty-the- its workplace mentoring pro- have systems, and we have proto-
tank strategy, says gram, where they’ll get career Fifteen years ago, chef José Andrés cols,” says Andrés. “We’re not going
Suzman, offers a training, connect with industry founded World Central Kitchen to change the world without tak-
real shot at a leg- leaders, and find internships. (WCK), a nonprofit that has since ing some risk. Many years ago, I
acy that would long “We work with 300-plus com- served more than 450 million decided I’m not going to watch peo-
outlive the orga- panies across the country and meals in disaster areas and war ple suffering from the comfort of
nization: eradicat- are the largest youth work- zones. In 2023, he added the Longer my own home. What happened that
ing a handful of the place mentorship program in Tables Fund to his philanthropic day is something that will follow me
world’s deadliest the U.S.,” he says. portfolio; its initiatives include an the rest of my life.” He remains com-
diseases. “We hope BBBSA also embeds paid institute that studies solutions to fix mitted to responding to the human-
there are some mentors in middle schools the world’s food supply. itarian crisis in Gaza, where WCK is
things we will have to help teachers address But Andrés is still reeling from delivering thousands of gallons of
literally solved,” absenteeism and behavioral the events of April 1, 2024, when water a day to distribution points.
he says. issues. It plans to expand the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) —Sean Gregory
The foundation, the program to high schools
with its partners, and the juvenile-justice and
has already helped foster-care systems, after a
push polio to the study it conducted with Har-
brink of annihila- vard and the Treasury Depart-
tion, reducing cases ment showed that mentees
by 99.9%. Future are 20% more likely to attend
successes, Suzman college and earn 15% more
says, will depend in their early professional
on new innovations, years. “Mentorship has long-
from vaccines to term impacts, not just for ALLEVIATING DEBT FULFILLING WORK
AI—and wealthy young people, but our society COMMUNITY
nations continuing and economy,” Stevens says. CONNECTION
to support lifesaving —Kerri Anne Renzulli
programs abroad.
“We cannot pos-
sibly make up the
slack of the govern-
ment cuts,” Suzman
says. He hopes the
big pledge and bold
vision will help draw
governments back
into the fold. “Suc-
cess is not only pos-
sible. It has hap-
pened in the past,
and it can hap-
pen in the future.”
—Harry Booth

*DISCLOSURE: T I M E ’S O W N E R S A N D C O - C H A I R S M A R C A N D LY N N E B E N I O F F H AV E S U P P O R T E D W O R L D C E N T R A L K I T C H E N 53
 INNOVATOR S

LEE FOUNDED
THE ASIAN WOMEN
GIVING CIRCLE
20 YEARS AGO

pooling resources are organized and

run by women. Women were often
traditionally excluded from the more
formal ways of banking. These cul-
tural forms of generosity, while not
philanthropic in origin, lend them-
selves naturally to being turned into
philanthropic forms.

Is there a political aspect to the

giving-circle movement? Where
I land is civic engagement. Giving
circles are a great vehicle for people
to practice being civically engaged.
And if there was ever a time when we
really need to do that in this country,
and maybe even globally, it’s now.
Civic engagement just means being
curious and interested in what’s hap-
pening in my community and then caring enough to get
Hali Lee educated, then taking one more step with a group of
friends, neighbors, or colleagues to take action together.
COLLECTIVE-GIVING LEADER What are the most common problems in running a
giving circle? The really common problem is constipa-
TO HALI LEE, THE FUTURE OF PHILANTHROPY LIES IN tion. A group will start to try to replicate Big Phil. They
collective giving. That’s what the philanthropy consul- think they need to be very formal, have a 501(c)(3) and
tant contends in her new book, The Big We: How Giving all this apparatus that they actually don’t really need. All
Circles Unlock Generosity, Strengthen Community, and of that tends to constipate the flow of dollars. I often just
Make Change. Social change, she says, can start with peo- tell people, don’t build apparatus unless you need it, try
ple, often women, gathered around kitchen tables, pool- to keep it simple, just get the money or volunteer time
ing their resources to donate whatever they can afford flowing. You will 100% make mistakes along the way, so
to local organizations like soup kitchens and libraries. build in learning and humility.
“Everybody’s got a kitchen table,” she says.
The movement seems to be taking off. From 2017 to
2023, one study found, nearly 4,000 collective-giving ‘YOU WILL 100% MAKE MISTAKES
circles in the U.S. donated $3.1 billion to charity. ALONG THE WAY, SO BUILD IN LEARNING.’
Lee has been doing her part. She started the Asian —HALI LEE
Women Giving Circle 20 years ago, which has made more
than $1 million in small grants to support cultural proj-
ects by people of Asian American and Native Hawaiian How can all the members of a giving circle stay on
or Pacific Island ancestry. She also helped launch Phi- the same page about which causes to support? Have
lanthropy Together, a group scaling collective giving. a couple of conversations about what are your individ-
Bigger change can follow from small-dollar donors ual values, what are the group’s values. If you can agree
coming together, Lee believes. While “Big Phil” certainly on something in your neighborhood or town that keeps
does good, she says, “billionaires don’t have any incen- you up at night, maybe that’s the thing you agree to raise
tive to change the systems that made them rich.” money for or volunteer for.
Some circles decide to pick a different thing every
Why is the giving-circle movement so heavily female? year. Each member might get a turn. That’s a good way
I’m Korean American, and in my culture there is some- to learn about a lot of different issues that impact a
thing called a geh, a shared-giving circle. You might have community. The important thing is just to dive in and
heard of tandas [in Mexico], or sou sous [in West Africa]. get started. You can adjust along the way.
Indonesians call it arisans. A lot of these cultural forms of —PETER CARBONARA
54 TIME June 9, 2025
 Peter Singer

A PHILOSOPHER
OF GIVING

Through clear-eyed argu- backlog of untested

ments and ceaseless
Mariska rape kits in the U.S.—
advocacy, Australian phi- Hargitay crucial DNA evidence
losopher Peter Singer that is often left unpro-
has revolutionized mod- ADVOCATE FOR cessed. The founda-
ern philanthropy—twice. tion has identified
SURVIVORS
His 1972 essay “Fam- tens of thousands of
ine, Affluence, and untested kits, funded
Morality,” which argued For millions of view- training to clear the
that people ought to ers, Mariska Hargitay backlog, and driven
prevent suffering from is Olivia Benson, the policy changes. Its
death and poverty when tough but compas- six pillars of reform—
they can do so with- sionate NYPD cap- which include man-
out sacrificing anything tain tackling crimes dating statewide kit
of comparable moral on Law & Order: SVU. tracking and testing
importance, has long Away from the cam- timelines—have been
influenced giving strate- eras, she channels adopted by 21 states.
gies for wealthy donors that same fierce ded- In 2024, Hargitay
and laid the foundation ication into her real- shared a more per-
for the effective-altruism world role as an advo- sonal connection to
movement. Meanwhile, cate for survivors of this work, revealing
his 1975 book Animal sexual assault. in an essay that she
Liberation helped launch organizations it recom- “I’m happy that I’m still Hargitay’s Joyful had been raped in her
the modern animal- mends, a decade after around, having some influ- Heart Foundation 30s—which took her
welfare movement. its founding. In 2021, ence, and I hope to have focuses on changing decades to come to
Last year, his charity, Singer, a professor emeri- some years to expand that how society responds terms with. “I couldn’t
The Life You Can Save, tus of bioethics at Prince- influence,” says Singer, to survivors of sex- process it,” she wrote.
which researches non- ton, won the Berggruen who is 78. “That seems to ual assault, domes- “I was building Joyful
profits fighting extreme Prize for Philosophy and me to be the best thing I tic violence, and Heart on the outside
poverty, passed the Culture, and donated the can do with the remaining child abuse. Since so I could do the work
$100 million mark $1 million he received to time that I have.” 2010, it has priori- on the inside.”
in donations to the high-impact nonprofits. —Tharin Pillay tized tackling the vast —Harry Booth
L E E : C O U R T E S Y K AT E R U S S E L L ; S I N G E R : C O U R T E S Y P E T R I N A H I C K S ; H A R G I TAY: V I C T O R I A S T E V E N S — A U G U S T

STRATEGIC FAST-TRACK
PHILANTHROPY EMPOWERING FUNDING A “SELFISH
*
WOMEN PHILANTHROPIST” NETWORK
BUILDERS
MODERNIZING
-
ROYAL GIVING

*DISCLOSURE: TIME’S OWNERS AND CO - CHAIRS MARC AND LYNNE BENIOFF HAVE SUPPORTED THE ROYAL FOUNDATION. 55
 INNOVATOR S

John Green Tony Hawk

SPOTLIGHTING SKATEBOARDING
PUBLIC HEALTH FOR ALL

Tuberculosis is The skate park in

the world’s deadli- Tony Hawk’s home-
est infectious dis- town didn’t just
Nicole Taylor* ease despite being make him the world’s
curable—an injus- most famous skate-
tice author John boarder. It also gave
COMMUNITY GIVING Green details in a sense of belong-
his recent, best- Michael Sheen ing, he says. “It was
Community foundations gather selling book Every- never lost on me how
the funds of many, directing thing Is Tubercu- NOT-FOR-PROFIT ACTOR lucky I was to have
them toward coordinated action. losis. Last year, that community.”
“It’s being that bridge” between Green announced In 2002 he
donors and everyday people, that he and his fam- When funding for the Homeless World Cup launched the Skate-
says Nicole Taylor, president and ily would donate soccer tournament in his home country park Project to fund
CEO of Silicon Valley Commu- $1 million annually Wales fell through in 2019, Michael Sheen safe places to skate
nity Foundation, the largest such to help fight the dis- decided to sell two of his houses to help in all 50 states,
institution in the U.S. SVCF gave ease in the Philip- cover the shortfall. Realizing the impact including 15 new
away $1.5 billion in 2024, and pines, which has the his earnings could have, he declared him- parks in 2024, and
its network of over 1,000 donors fourth highest bur- self a “not-for-profit actor” in 2021. provide equipment.
includes Silicon Valley heavy- den of TB globally. Sheen has kept using the money he It has also helped
weights like Mark Zuckerberg The move builds makes from acting to fund social projects, fund skate parks in
and Reed Hastings, as well as on a long history focusing in particular on helping the people Afghanistan, Cam-
many smaller contributors. of giving for Green, of Wales. In March, he revealed the results bodia, and South
Taylor’s driving mission is whose foundation— of a two-year project that involved creating Africa, in partnership
“putting the community back co-founded with a debt-acquisition company with £100,000 with the nonprofit
in the community foundation.” his brother Hank— ($133,000) of his own money to buy up Skateistan.
That has meant refocusing on has awarded a borrowers’ cut-rate loans and writing off Hawk also wants
the Valley’s deep-rooted inequal- total of more than around £1 million ($1.3 million) worth of to add more skate
ities, including a $100 million $10 million in debt for some 900 people across south parks in Native Amer-
initiative to invest in grassroots grants to dozens of Wales. Sheen previously also pledged ican communities
Black-led organizations, now set charities, including £50,000 ($66,000) over five years to fund and underserved
to spin off as an independent Partners in Health. a bursary to help Welsh students attend areas.
group. —Harry Booth —Megan McCluskey the University of Oxford. —Ayesha Javed —Sandra Block

FIGHTING S H E E N : F E L I C I T Y M C C A B E — G U A R D I A N / E Y E V I N E / R E D U X ; TAY L O R : N I C C O U R Y— A P

COLLECTIVE GIVING STEREOTYPES ELITE CHALLENGER WELLNESS AN ECLECTIC

HIGH-IMPACT FOR WOMEN GIVER
GIVING

56 TIME June 9, 2025 *DISCLOSURE: T I M E ’S O W N E R S A N D C O - C H A I R S M A R C A N D LY N N E B E N I O F F H AV E S U P P O R T E D S I L I C O N VA L L E Y C O M M U N I T Y F O U N D AT I O N

 ADVERTISEMENT

Meet the Young Visionary

Transforming Victim
Services Through Advocacy
The Allstate Foundation recently recognized 23-year-old
Abrianna Morales for her extraordinary work at the intersection
of youth service and victim advocacy.

Multiplying Impact by Empowering Youth

Expanding Morales’ Vision

SPORTS
aspirations if they’re going to use drugs.

POWER Enhanced Games officials argue that

while the Olympics focus on fairness
(testing everyone to make sure no one
has an advantage from PEDs), they’re

PLAY
THE ENHANCED GAMES AIM TO BE THE ALTERNATIVE
more concerned with safety (monitor-
ing the medical profiles of athletes to
ensure they’re healthy enough to com-
pete). They also note that most Olym-
pians don’t earn much money, whereas
Enhanced Games athletes will receive
OLYMPICS—A MULTISPORT COMPETITION WITHOUT
better pay and benefits. And, they say,
THE DRUG TESTING BY SEAN GREGORY despite the testing protocols, there re-
mains speculation about whether Olym-
pic athletes are clean, so the Enhanced
Games make that a nonissue. Rather
than have male and female categories,
When Kristian GKolomeev WoKe up So Gkolomeev put on a full-body poly- Enhanced Games athletes will com-
one morning in February, the last thing urethane swimsuit, similar to the type pete in XY or XX divisions, though it’s
he expected to do was break a world re- worn by Cielo in 2009. (Such suits have unclear how the company will conduct
cord in the pool. The Greek swimmer been banned in competition since 2010, chromosome testing, which has been
and four-time Olympian, who finished because of all the records that fell while deemed invasive and potentially inac-
fifth in the 50-m freestyle in Paris and swimmers wore them.) He hit the water, curate by many scientific experts and
Tokyo, had gone to Greensboro, N.C., and tapped the wall in 20.89 seconds, banned from the Olympics since 1999.
to take part in a preview of something breaking the official world record and Health and medical experts are al-
called the Enhanced Games, a new start- winning that $1 million prize. ready ringing alarms. “This kind of re-
up that plans to stage an Olympic-style You won’t find Gkolomeev’s swim minds me of the Roman circus,” says
competition permitting the use of most in any official record book, because it Charles Yesalis, professor emeritus of
performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) wasn’t a sanctioned race, and because he health policy at Penn State University
currently banned in global sports. was taking PEDs (Gkolomeev declined and an expert on PEDs in sports. The In-
It was another athlete, however, who to detail his cocktail; the Enhanced ternational Olympic Committee (IOC)
had come to make a splash that day. Re- Games say they advocate for transpar- says, “If you want to destroy any concept
tired Australian swimming star James ency while also respecting privacy). But of fair play and fair competition in sport,
Magnussen—a former world champion he found another kind of value in his ac- this would be a good way to do it,” while
who won three Olympic medals—had complishment. “I feel,” he says, “kind of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
said publicly in early 2024 that he’d like a superhuman.” calls the Enhanced Games a “dangerous
“juice to the gills” and break the 50-m The Enhanced Games, which on and irresponsible concept.” Olympic of-
freestyle world record if the Enhanced May 21 announced that they’d hold ficials, however, might have to walk a
Games would put up a $1 million prize. their debut event Memorial Day week- diplomatic tightrope: in February, the
Enhanced Games officials took him up end 2026 in Las Vegas, are, at their Enhanced Games announced that 1789
on the offer. core, selling fast times. Founded by Capital, where Donald Trump Jr. is a
Magnussen, a few months into his entrepreneurs and investors Aron partner, was leading a multimillion-
PED regimen, was supposed to swim D’Souza (who encouraged Silicon Val- dollar investment in the company. The
under 20.91 seconds, the mark César ley billionaire Peter Thiel to bankroll Olympics are coming to L.A. in 2028,
Cielo of Brazil set in 2009, in a timed Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker, while President Donald Trump is still
solo effort to prove that the Enhanced which ultimately bankrupted the out- in office, and the President is featured
Games concept—even before its first let) and Christian Angermayer (a psy- front and center in a promotional video
formal event launched—would result in chedelic evangelist), they are betting touting 1789’s Enhanced Games play.
performances the world has never be- that consumers just want to see ath- Beyond the athletic competition,
fore witnessed. But Magnussen, whose letes swim and run as fast as possi- the Enhanced Games are making the
body ballooned with muscle while tak- ble, without biotechnical restrictions. grand case that safe use of PEDs at their
ing drugs, kept falling short. Gkolo- They will stage events in swimming, events can trickle down to the general
meev, on the other hand, was just three track, and weight lifting and expect to public, allowing people to live happier,
weeks into his own low-dosage use of sign up about 100 athletes, who will healthier, and more productive lives.
PEDs and feeling better than expected. likely have to give up future Olympic Their pitch arrives amid a growing
ILLUSTR ATION BY TAYLOR CALLERY FOR TIME 59
SPORTS

interest in longevity, with scientists A medical commission will be tasked

and biohackers alike looking for ways with overseeing a battery of blood,
to extend and improve our years on this heart, brain, and bone tests to ensure
planet. When the Enhanced Games con- athletes are not subjecting themselves
vened the Second Conference on Human to undue risk in competition. A scien-
Enhancement in December, Bryan John- tific body will communicate key find-
son, the subject of the Netflix doc Don’t ings to the public. “We’re not in the
Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, business of sports, we’re in the busi-
was a keynote speaker. This effort also ness of science and cultural change,”
comes at a time when many Americans says D’Souza. “And the cultural change
are fired up about defending personal that will be the most profound will be
freedoms—whether it’s their right to opt a view that medicine is not just about
out of vaccines or to put performance- making sick people less sick. Medi-
enhancing substances in their bodies. cine is also an important tool to elevate
Still, how this new addition fits into human performance.”
the sports landscape remains to be seen. To execute this vision, the Enhanced
Controversy over risk, fairness, and ath- Games will need a significant audience
letic legitimacy feels almost guaranteed. against which to sell media rights: of-
And of course there’s the question of de- ficials say TV and streaming outlets △
mand. The Olympics, even with all their have expressed interest in distribut- KRISTIAN GKOLOMEEV BEGINS HIS
50-M FREESTYLE SWIM IN WHICH HE
flaws, broke all sorts of viewership re- ing the first event. A planned direct- BROKE THE OFFICIAL WORLD RECORD
cords last summer. Is an audience really to-consumer line of supplements and ON FEB. 25; ENHANCED GAMES
thirsting for a doped-up version? And FDA-approved performance enhancers CO-FOUNDERS ARON D’SOUZA AND
CHRISTIAN ANGERMAYER
is it all that impressive to push the lim- could provide another revenue stream.
its of the human body when you’ve got “I don’t see anything intrinsically wrong
Lord knows what in your system? with the Olympics,” says D’Souza. But clinical-stage psychedelic biopharma
he doesn’t like that they’re the only company with, as of May 21, some
As D’souzA tells it, he was at the option for a multisport international $400 million in market cap. He sees a
gym one day in 2022 when he noticed event testing “Citius, altius, fortius,” or connection between mainstream ac-
just how many people around him “Faster, higher, stronger.” “Competition ceptance of psychedelics and the po-
did not come by their looks naturally. is very healthy,” he says. “The fact that tential of the Enhanced Games. So-
He started working on the Enhanced the IOC has a monopoly in sports gov- ciety has come around on a variety of
Games concept, confident there were ernance today is problematic.” things that were once broadly consid-
plenty of athletes being denied oppor- D’Souza, who is Australian, brought ered taboo: Angermayer points to gay
tunities because they took drugs that the Enhanced Games idea to Anger- rights, but attitudes have also changed
were perfectly legal in their countries mayer, a billionaire investor from Ger- on marijuana and sports gambling, with
but banned from competition. But it many whom Thiel had first connected consumers leaning more libertarian on
was on a walk around Biscayne Bay in him with more than a decade ago. such subjects. It’s your choice to bet on
South Florida over Christmas that year And Angermayer, the founder of the basketball or take psychedelics. Anger-
that he got a crucial vote of confidence. multibillion-dollar fund Aperion Invest- mayer sees the expected debut of the
He shared the idea with his father, a ment Group, with holdings in crypto, bio- Enhanced Games, which he thought
78-year-old medical professor special- tech, and other sectors, agreed to partner would take a few more years to get off
izing in cardiology, who not only did not in the venture, with backing from Thiel. the ground, as further proof of shifting
balk but saw real promise. “The first Angermayer is also co-founder winds. “The zeitgeist has changed on all
thing he said was, ‘The data that will and chairman of Atai Life Sciences, a sorts of crazy ideas,” says Angermayer.
come out of this will change the world,’” He just hopes it hasn’t shifted to the
says D’Souza. Though participants don’t point where all Enhanced Games smoke
have to reveal publicly what they’re tak- subsides. “I hope there are demonstra-
ing, organizers hope they’ll enroll in an tors on the street saying, ‘This is bad!’” he
independently approved clinical trial says, with a laugh. “Because doing that,
assessing the impact of PEDs on elite and the controversies, drives attention.”
athletes. The results could have implica- ‘WE CAN
tions for everyday living. “We can liter- LITERALLY While AngermAyer might not get
ally invent humans 2.0,” says D’Souza. his protest marches, the Enhanced
INVENT
COURTESY ENHANCED

“The compounds that allow athletes to Games will have no shortage of oppo-
run faster and jump higher are the same HUMANS 2.0.’ nents. “They’re potentially danger-
compounds that will allow my dad to —ENHANCED GAMES PRESIDENT ous in several ways,” says Dr. Michael
walk up a flight of stairs.” ARON D’SOUZA Joyner, a human-performance expert at
60 Time June 9, 2025
 ENHANCED
GAMES
ATHLETES

Kristian
Gkolomeev

Andrii Govorov

James
Magnussen

the Mayo Clinic. For one, says Joyner, unfortunate that it’s a distraction from Olympics, whether it was U.S. track
the long-term effect of PEDs is not well the greatest-ever performers we have stars being busted for doping early this
known: a whole population could be out there,” says Joyner, citing Olympic century, the state-sponsored Russian
putting themselves at risk for damage. champions like U.S. swimmer Katie sample-swapping antics in Sochi, or Chi-
Second are the acute risks of substances Ledecky and shot putter Ryan Crouser, nese swimmers heading to Tokyo despite
like stimulants, which can lead to de- who also hold world records. “You’re testing positive for banned substances
hydration, high blood pressure, heart looking for some edge, when these (China claimed samples were contami-
palpitations, and more. While the best people are pushing limits so effectively nated in a hotel kitchen). “The system
medical monitoring can give athletes a within the rules.” is not providing fairness,” says Govorov.
clean bill of health going into a race, if “They are just trying to catch the mouse,
they were to, say, load up on stimulants ONDRII GOVOROV, a Ukrainian swim- and they never do it in the correct way.”
moments before the start—knowing mer who set the nonenhanced 50-m Asked by Joe Rogan last year why
they won’t be drug-tested afterward— butterfly world record in 2018, says he’s an athlete would choose the Olympics
the results could prove disastrous. never taken a PED. As a new Enhanced given the incentives offered by En-
Plus, it’s no secret that young peo- Games athlete, he compares the antici- hanced Games, Angermayer answered:
ple look up to elite athletes. As a result pation of taking these drugs to some- “Not our problem.” The IOC is finally
of the Enhanced Games, increasing lev- one with a fear of heights about to jump adding Govorov’s specialty, the 50-m
els of PED use could reach high school off a cliff. “Of course I’m nervous,” says butterfly, to the 2028 program. But he’s
sports, an unintended consequence of Govorov. “I don’t know what to expect.” still leaving his gold-medal dreams be-
the endeavor. “These Games are send- Govorov is taking the plunge, how- hind. “I’ll never come back, no mat-
ing an inappropriate message to our ever, for a host of reasons. For one, his ter what,” he says. “This is a one-way
children,” says Yesalis. future as an Olympic swimmer seemed ticket for me.” Chasing his own world
Furthermore, says John William uncertain. He competed in London in record—and the $500,000 bonus he can
Devine, a lecturer in sports ethics and 2012 and Rio in 2016, but just missed get from the Enhanced Games if he sets
integrity at Swansea University in qualifying for Paris. After Russia’s the new 50-m butterfly mark—doesn’t
Wales, “lifting the ban on performance- 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he couldn’t feel like settling. “I could potentially be
enhancing drugs would undermine the train consistently in his home country. one of the first superhuman athletes on
purpose of the sports themselves.” If it’s He bounced from Hawaii to Germany planet earth,” he says.
impossible to separate the quality of a to Spain to Portugal in the run-up to There’s that word again. The En-
pharmacological cocktail from the will Paris, and the unpredictability affected hanced Games are hard-selling super-
and skills of the athlete, an achievement his times. “I was just a guest,” he says. humanity. Doping rules, to the start-
can quickly lose its luster. “The fact that “I could never choose my preparation. up’s proponents, serve as innovation
you have run faster or lifted more or You cannot break any record with that caps that don’t exist in other fields.
jumped longer or jumped higher doesn’t approach. You’re a survivor.” “We are going to go to Mars,” says Gov-
necessarily mean that your performance The Enhanced Games will give Gov- orov. “We are going to conquer the
is more excellent,” says Devine. orov access to training, support, and a universe. Why do we need to stop with
Still, experts worry the Enhanced personalized drug plan. It seemed like that? It’s just part of the evolution. We
Games could steal some shine from the a better deal, especially since drug con- are part of the sports evolution. That’s
official record holders. “It’s a little bit troversies have consistently dogged the completely clear.” □
61
C U LT U R E

LIVING
LEGEND
Gypsy star Audra McDonald
is now the performer with the most
Tony wins and nominations in history
BY CHARLOTTE ALTER

APHS BY ERIK CARTER FOR TIME

C U LT U R E

IF YOU HAPPEN TO TAKE YOUR EYES highest-grossing week in January—

it’s still the TV and movie stars who
OFF THE STAGE DURING THE FIRST FEW are bringing the big money to Broad-
way. Othello, starring Denzel Wash-
MINUTES OF GYPSY ON BROADWAY, AND ington and Jake Gyllenhaal, raked in
$2,818,297 during a week in previews,
TURN INSTEAD TO THE AISLE, YOU’LL SEE making it the top-grossing play in
Broadway history, only to be topped by
A WOMAN STANDING ALONE IN THE DARK. George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good
Luck, which in May became the first
She’s in a velvet coat, holding a small Depression-era America, resulting in Broadway show to exceed $4 million
dog, her face contorted into a grimace her losing one, June, altogether and in a week. Glengarry Glen Ross, fea-
of ambition so fierce it looks some- pushing the other, Louise, to become turing Kieran Culkin and Bob Oden-
thing like rage, her eyes focused on the the burlesque dancer Gypsy Rose Lee. kirk, also crossed the $2 million mark.
children dancing onstage as her hands It’s a show about the American Dream, All of this makes McDonald’s domi-
twitch to the beat of the music. At first, or, more precisely, it’s a show about a nance even more remarkable; at a time
nobody notices her, even though she is mother’s American Dream, one that for when theater seems like it’s being con-
Audra McDonald, arguably the great- most of history could be expressed only sumed by celebrity, her career rep-
est living stage actor, even though through her children. The show, with resents a commitment to the old-
she is already in character as Mama its famed music by Jule Styne and lyr- fashioned principles of artistry. “She
Rose, the most famous and reviled ics by Stephen Sondheim, is frequently has some ability to access the rawest and
stage mother in musical theater. Then, referred to as the King Lear of Broad- most visceral emotional life and con-
she calls out her first line (“Sing out, way, and Mama Rose is one of the meati- tinue to sing,” says Diane Paulus, who
Louise!”) and every head turns in uni- est roles available to a performer. “This directed her in The Gershwins’ Porgy
son. She is the person they have come is the Shakespeare of a musical theater and Bess. “That’s what’s mind-blowing.”
to see, and she had been standing there woman’s career,” says Norm Lewis, who McDonald can walk down the
next to them all along. co-starred with McDonald in The Gersh- street without being recognized, and
“Rose snuck in,” she tells me, lean- wins’ Porgy and Bess, for which she won she’s mostly able to live her life with-
ing back on a cushioned chair in her her fifth Tony. “This is the pinnacle.” out being accosted by fans. When au-
dressing room, four hours before cur- She’s been played by luminaries like diences arrive at the Majestic Theatre,
tain. Her hair, prepped for her wig, is Ethel Merman, Tyne Daly, Bernadette they’re not coming to see her because
tucked under a baseball cap, and she Peters, Angela Lansbury, and Patti she’s famous, they’re not there to take
is wearing comfy clothes before get- LuPone in the past, but until now, a photo or breathe the same air as a
ting into costume. “When all the rest Mama Rose had never been played on movie star; they’re there to witness her
of the mothers have been kicked out, Broadway by a Black actor. If anybody raw talent. “It’s not, Oh, let’s look at
she snuck in, went in front, checked out was going to do it, it was going to be this perfect object,” says Gypsy direc-
what was going on. She’s already miles McDonald. She is like the Meryl Streep tor George C. Wolfe, who also directed
ahead when the show starts.” of theater, except McDonald has more McDonald in Shuffle Along as well as the
The same could be said, in some Tonys than Streep has Oscars. McDon- movie Rustin. Her talent “makes an au-
sense, of McDonald. After rumors of ald holds the record for most Tonys ever dience feel compelled to become vul-
her casting spread last year—“You won by a performer, and is the only per- nerable in the presence of her charac-
know, people talk, people talk,” she son to have a Tony in all four acting cat- ter’s vulnerability.”
said—the announcement was met egories. And when her 11th nomination Sitting in her dressing room sur-
with excitement and anticipation. was announced on May 1, she officially rounded by four different bouquets, in-
And since the show opened in Decem- became the most Tony-nominated per- cluding roses from Sunset Boulevard’s
ber, she’s been garnering widespread former in history, at just 54 years old. Nicole Scherzinger, widely assumed to
praise, with at least one critic having a And yet McDonald’s record-breaking be her main competition at the Tonys
“spiritual epiphany.” performance comes at a unique mo- on June 8, I ask McDonald: What is tal-
“When you talk about Greta Garbo, ment for American theater. More and ent? Is it inspiration? Is it 10,000 hours
you think of that face. When you think more audiences seem to be coming to of practice? Is it, as entrepreneurs like
about Ethel Merman, you hear that Broadway to see shows and actors they to say, just hard work? She pauses for a
voice,” says Christine Baranski, who recognize from their screens. The big- second, thinking. “I think it’s an open
worked with McDonald on The Good gest shows are still the old standbys— channel connection to the divine, what-
Fight and The Gilded Age. “With Audra, Wicked, The Lion King—and some of the ever the divine means to you,” she says
it’s that lustrous presence.” buzziest productions boast Hollywood quietly, preserving her voice. “Some-
Gypsy is a musical fable that fol- names. Even as McDonald’s Mama thing coming through, that energy,
lows Mama Rose’s relentless pursuit Rose puts theatergoers in seats—Gypsy that source, God, whatever you call it.
of fame for her daughters throughout took in a respectable $1,891,769 in its It’s an open channel connection to that.
64 TimefJune 9, 2025
 Just a turnpike, no roads in the way.”
Which is why this show has been
marketed by only two words, telling you
everything you need to know: “Audra/
Gypsy.” Musical theater’s greatest per-
former taking on musical theater’s
greatest role.

MCDONALD HAS BEEN singing and

dancing onstage since she was 9. She
was born in West Germany, where her
father was serving in the military, but
raised in Fresno, Calif., in the 1970s. Her
father had been a high school band di-
rector before becoming associate super-
intendent of the Fresno school district,
and her mother, an administrator at
California State University, sang in the
church choir. Her childhood home had
both a piano and a jazz organ. “Being
musical and having musicality was just
what everybody did in my family,” she
says. McDonald didn’t realize she was
special until her father noticed that she
sang louder than the other kids in the
junior choir.
F R O M T O P, L E F T T O R I G H T: S A R A K R U LW I C H — T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S/ R E D U X (1 , 4 , 5 ,7 ); J O A N M A R C U S; E V E R E T T C O L L E C T I O N ; J E M A L C O U N T E S S — G E T T Y I M A G E S

“One day after church, my mom and

my dad had me matching pitches,” she
recalls. “They were whispering to each
other. I remember thinking, What is
this all about?” McDonald had been di-
agnosed as a hyperactive kid, she says,
“and they were looking for ways to
channel my energy.” Her parents had
just seen a show at the Fresno Dinner
Theater, which had a junior company
that performed before the main show.
Once she made the cut, she did Rod-
gers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin,
even Gypsy, playing one of the children
in the little skit that opens the show (Mc-
Donald did not actually see the entire
show when she was first in it as a child;
the kids got to go home early). But when
she was offered a role playing a servant
girl, her parents forced her to decline.
At the time, she was devastated;
looking back, however, she thinks their
insistence was a gift. They worried that
playing that part would have taught her,
“Well, I can only play servants and I can
only play enslaved people.” Instead, re-
fusing that role set her up for a lifetime
of auditioning for interesting parts,
“even though I didn’t necessarily look
the way people think I should look.” If
she wasn’t cast, it wouldn’t be because
she didn’t try out. “That was instilled
65
C U LT U R E

in me at a very early age, to not be the so quixotic that it would have to be the quiet. She asks that nobody speak to her
one to cut myself off from these roles.” story’s central tragedy.” After seeing her unless it’s an emergency. “It’s almost
McDonald trained in classical music performance, McWhorter wrote a whole like there’s a bomb ... those things that
at Juilliard, which she recalls as an im- new piece: “I’ve Changed My Mind. implode before they explode? That’s
perfect fit; in retrospect, she says, she Audra McDonald Was Right.” me,” she says. “I’m clearing the way for
should have studied drama. For a period me to go on her journey.” (In the middle
after she graduated, McDonald strug- LET ME TELL YOU about the time I of all this, she also has to rub a pepper-
gled to get roles. She was told to make acted with Audra McDonald. Well, first oni stick all over her hands, which helps
herself look as light as possible when she let me clarify. I was a student intern on keep the little dog in check onstage.)
auditioned to play Julie in Show Boat, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess in the Then, five minutes before curtain,
so “I had all this white makeup on me, summer of 2011, and McDonald was the “I’m a little bit like a restless horse,” she
to try to lighten my face up.” She audi- star. One of the other actors twisted her says, banging on her knee in a galloping
tioned for the ensemble of Beauty and ankle during blocking, so for a week of beat, like, “Let’s go.”
the Beast and didn’t get the part. rehearsals, I stood onstage and did the And indeed McDonald’s career has
Her first big role was Carrie in the injured cast member’s physical move- been nonstop, if not always a straight
1994 revival of Carousel. She was 23. It ments while she sat in the wings, icing line. Two years after Carousel she won
was one of the first times that a Black her ankle, saying her lines, and singing another Tony, for her performance in
actor was cast in a classic musical- her songs. At one point, my character Master Class. A few years later she won
theater role that had traditionally was supposed to give a drink of water to her third, for Ragtime. By that point,
been seen as white. “It was just this McDonald’s Bess. We didn’t have props she was one of only a handful of actors
huge thing, just mind-blowing for a yet, so I pretended to hand McDonald in history to win three Tonys in five
lot of people,” she says. “Some peo- a glass the way a toddler might pres- years; she was 27. Five years later, she
ple thought it was wrong and histori- ent an imaginary cup at a tea party. She won again, for A Raisin in the Sun, and
cally incorrect. And everybody’s always took it, and drank. She drank the water earned an Emmy nomination for her
going to have an opinion, especially as if it were a full gulp of cold water on role in the 2008 TV adaptation.
when it’s classics.” She won her first a hot day, as if she could see the droplets Still, she says, her onstage acclaim
Tony for that role. spilling down the side of the non-glass did not necessarily translate to roles
In the years since, colorblind casting that I sloppily handed her, the glass that beyond Broadway. “People only see our
has become far more normalized. “Now she invented. Then she wiped her chin, successes,” she says. She was trying to
I just don’t think it’s thought of as such a where the imaginary water had spilled. break into television, but “I was bang-
big deal,” she says. Even though this pro- To show up and work like this every ing my head up against the wall.” There
duction of Gypsy stars not only a Black rehearsal, every performance, every day, were “years and years where I couldn’t
Mama Rose but also Black daughters— McDonald has become an emotional book a thing,” she says. “I couldn’t book
making this a show about a Black family athlete. “She’s a marathon runner.” says a commercial.”
seeking vaudeville fame in the 1930s— Baranski. “She’s a Navy SEAL.” Finally, in 2007, as she was in the
McDonald frequently points out that McDonald arrives at least three middle of a divorce from her first hus-
not a single line has been changed from hours before every show. She gets into band, she was cast as fertility special-
the original show. Wolfe thinks that the her wig and makeup, stretches, and does ist Naomi Bennett in Private Practice,
“boundary-breaking” nature of McDon- her vocal warm-ups. Then, a half hour Shonda Rhimes’ spin-off of Grey’s Anat-
ald’s performance is the least interest- before the show begins, she needs total omy. She commuted to L.A. for years,
ing thing about Gypsy. “It shrinks the not wanting to uproot her young daugh-
conversation,” he says. “Because the ter Zoe from her home in New York. But
wonder is the talent, the wonder is the eventually it became too much; she
gift, the wonder is how hard she works. asked Rhimes to write her gracefully
To discuss her exclusively within a pa- out of the show, so she could be back
rameter of race, or how she’s breaking east for Zoe’s teenage years.
through Broadway, that has more to say ‘SHE HAS SOME It was soon after McDonald re-
about Broadway than it has to say about turned from L.A. that she took on the
Audra McDonald.” ABILITY TO ACCESS part of Bess. That role demonstrated
But 30 years after Carousel, the con- THE RAWEST AND the lengths she would go to to bring a
versation has not entirely moved on. MOST VISCERAL character to life. She would repeatedly
“A talent as rare as Audra McDonald go back to the original texts, insisting
shouldn’t play a Black Rose. She should
EMOTIONAL LIFE her character have a scar on her face be-
just play Rose,” wrote columnist John AND CONTINUE cause that’s how she was described in
McWhorter in the New York Times, TO SING.’ the novel that inspired the play that in-
adding that a Black woman seeking —DIANE PAULUS, TONY-WINNING spired the opera. She interviewed sex
Shirley Temple–style stardom for her DIRECTOR OF THE GERSHWINS’ workers and drug addicts in order to
Black daughters would be “a delusion PORGY AND BESS inform her emotional understanding of
66 TIME June 9, 2025
the role. Even months after the critics for an Emmy for her performance in the pregnancy, full of swelling and water
had come and gone, she was still doing TV broadcast. (She has one Emmy for in the knees at a moment when she had
more research to deepen her connection hosting a PBS special as well as two to do a lot of high-energy dancing. One
to Bess. One day, well after the show had Grammys, so she needs only an Oscar night, while she was singing her big
opened, Paulus visited her backstage. to complete her EGOT.) number, she started to hemorrhage on-
“She was like, ‘I just watched this doc- When she took a role in Shuffle Along stage. “I felt it happen. I felt that gush,”
umentary,’” Paulus recalls. “We’d done in 2016, however, McDonald’s phys- she told me when I interviewed her in
a run at American Repertory Theater, ically taxing career crashed against 2023. “And I thought, ‘I just lost my
we’d done a run on Broadway, and she’s her family life. By then McDonald was baby, and I’m still singing.’”
still searching, she’s still learning.” married again, to Broadway actor Will It turned out McDonald did not lose
Two years later, she played Billie Swenson, but she was surprised to learn her pregnancy that night; her younger
Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar during rehearsals that she was preg- daughter Sally is now 8. But after
& Grill (Tony No. 6) and was nominated nant again at 45. It was a complicated experiencing a second medical event
67
C U LT U R E

onstage and leaving midperformance to ‘SHE’S A MARATHON toward a future she never got a chance
go to the hospital, she did have to back to grasp: “When is it my turn?” And
out of Shuffle Along. When the show RUNNER. SHE’S A you can see it, in this sweating, crying,
closed shortly afterward, her pregnancy NAVY SEAL.’ grasping moment: the clear turnpike,
was blamed. That experience, she says, —CHRISTINE BARANSKI, the open channel to the divine.
taught her about the pressures women MCDONALD’S CO-STAR IN THE GOOD Normally, McDonald doesn’t like to
face while trying to balance motherhood FIGHT AND THE GILDED AGE know who is in the audience. But on
with a career in the theater. “It was very the night former Vice President Kamala
interesting to have people in the busi- Harris came to see the show in Febru-
ness come up to me afterwards and say ary, somebody let it slip. That night,
things like, ‘Oh, wow, your baby literally when she sang those words—“When
stopped that show,’” she recalls. “That is it my turn?”—it was about so much
was really difficult and unnecessary.” PERFORMANCES OF GYPSY began more than one stage mother’s vaudeville
“It’s so hard to have the kind of ca- less than three weeks after the 2024 ambitions.
reer Audra had and to have a marriage election, which not only dashed the McDonald has based her Rose on
and a family,” says Baranski. “She’s the dreams of those who hoped to elect her aunts, grandmothers, and great-
total human being and the total per- the first Black woman President but grandmothers, and whenever she sings
former. Often one thing suffers be- also marked a culmination of a cultural this final song, “I always feel them com-
cause of the other, but she brings it all backlash against diversity, equity, and ing up.” But the night Harris was in the
together.” inclusion. Since then, President Trump audience was different. “I felt like I had
In many ways, McDonald has lived has taken over as chair of the Kennedy roots shooting all the way down to the
Mama Rose’s dream. Rose is a woman Center, where McDonald has performed center of the earth, and then just shoot-
who swallowed her own aspirations and on multiple occasions, and his Admin- ing all the way up through my head,” as
put them into her girls, trying to save istration has slashed millions of dollars if she were channeling “every Black
her daughters from a life where they of arts funding, with National Endow- woman that’s ever lived,” she says.
“cook and clean and sit and die,” as Rose ment for the Arts grants being summar- “That’s what it felt like to me that night
puts it. “People were always referring to ily canceled. that she was there.”
Rose as some monster,” McDonald says. I ask McDonald how she’s staying Given all of her accomplishments,
“I think she’s not a monster.” sane through all of this. “I don’t know it’s reasonable to wonder where she goes
McDonald doesn’t need her audi- that I am,” she says. She flexes her fin- from here. How does one push past the
ences to like Rose, but she needs them to gers as if she’s making and unmaking a pinnacle? For McDonald, though, it’s
understand her. “I think she’s a woman fist. It’s clear she has thoughts—a lot of hard to look beyond Gypsy. She will re-
with very few options, big ambitions, them—but she’s weighing what to share. turn on the third season of The Gilded
big dreams, big trauma that she’s try- After a long silence, she says there’s only Age in late June, and is thinking of start-
ing to run from,” she says. “She is try- one way through the madness: “Let art ing a concert tour soon, but the Broad-
ing, and she’s not succeeding.” bring people back to their humanity.” way run was recently extended through
I ask McDonald if the show had made McDonald has been deliberate about October, and she has no plans to leave.
her think differently about her own using her stature to create more oppor- And if she breaks her own record at
girls. “So interesting having one that’s tunities for other Black performers; she the Tonys? McDonald would be hon-
8 and one that’s 24,” she says. “And co-founded Black Theatre United after ored, she says, but the awards are not
when I started this show, it was before George Floyd’s murder to combat sys- the point. “They don’t change your life
the election, and where are we now?” temic racism in commercial theater. But per se,” she says. “They change people’s
She does what can only be described as now, she’s using her politics to fuel her perception of you, people’s expecta-
a full-body shudder. Sally wants to be a performance. “Night after night, the tions of you.” When I ask her what she
veterinarian or an astronaut or a tennis show has to feel fresh. So sometimes means, her face starts to transform into
star, depending on the day. Zoe works you have to find new veins to open,” a Greek chorus of envy and concern.
at a theater and is playing bass for a new she says. “Post-election, I didn’t have to “‘Well, you’ve got a Tony, you must be
musical. “I want happiness and fulfill- search as hard for the veins. They were something!’ Or: ‘You’ve got a Tony, and
ment and health for them. I want them raw and coming right up.” you didn’t get nominated this time, so
to be able to be free, to be who they are, There’s a moment at the end of the now you’re a loser!’ Or: ‘Are you OK?
to express that without fear of persecu- show when Rose, rejected by her chil- Oh, God, you didn’t win, oh God!’”
tion,” she says. “Then the other dream is dren, finally comes to terms with her Her face returns to normal. “That’s all
to recognize and respect all people and thwarted ambitions for herself. She is being thrown on you: it’s perception and
all different cultures and ways of being the stage mother, and not the star, be- expectation,” she says. “It’s an incred-
and ways of expressing and ways of liv- cause she “was born too soon and started ible honor, but it’s almost like you have
ing and ways of existing, and they do.” too late.” She sings in a frenzy, her face nothing to do with you actually winning
Then she exhales a long breath. “It’s a streaked with tears, as her lips quiver a Tony. You can do your work, and that’s
weird time.” and her hands reach up spread-fingered it. All I can do is do my work.” □
68 TIME June 9, 2025
TWO NEW COMEDIES A SUDSY SUMMER TOM CRUISE’S MISSION
ABOUT ADULTING NETFLIX BINGE TO SAVE THE MOVIES

PHOTOGR APH BY PAUL NATKIN 69

TIME OFF OPENER

N JULY 31, 2023, MATT WOLF RECEIVED NEWS

O that no documentarian wants to hear: the sub-

ject of his uncompleted film was dead. This was
no mere talking head. It was a man who left an
indelible mark on pop culture, whose manic persona, gray
suit, and bow tie helped define the 1980s. On a personal
note, says Wolf, it was someone who “changed who I was
through his art.” The subject was Paul Reubens, the actor
best known as Pee-wee Herman, who had been diagnosed
with cancer six years prior.
“Paul was very preoccupied with the film being finished
before he died,” says Wolf, whose two-part HBO documen-
tary, Pee-wee as Himself, premiered at Sundance to raptur-
ous praise and is now streaming on Max. Though Reubens
never said his death was imminent, or even told Wolf of
his cancer diagnosis, his legacy was clearly on his mind.
“Every day I woke up saying, ‘You must rise to the occa-
sion. Do not drop the ball,’” says Wolf, whose previous doc-
umentary subjects include the musician Arthur Russell and
the Biosphere 2.
Reubens was, according to Wolf, intense, complex, and
“the funniest and one of the smartest people I’ve ever met.”
He was also a “resistant subject.” That resistance plays △
out onscreen and distinguishes Pee-wee as Himself from Archival Zoom interactions that would number
other celebrity bio-docs. This one tells, but it also shows. Polaroids of in the hundreds of hours. “With Paul,
The telling comes via recollections from Wolf’s talking Reubens as a there was no 15-minute conversation,”
heads—drawn from 40 hours of interviews with Reubens, young artist, Wolf says. Reubens, unsure whether
plus friends, family, and colleagues—as well as Reubens’ left and right; Wolf was the right guy for the job, pro-
Reubens in the
career archive, including 1,000 hours of video footage and documentary,
ceeded begrudgingly. And then one
tens of thousands of images. These take us from Reubens’ center day, the resistance just abated. “He
early life as a precociously creative child growing up not said, ‘I’m in. Sometimes you gotta take
far from the Ringling Bros. Circus headquarters in Florida, a leap of faith,’” remembers Wolf.
through his work in the improv group the Groundlings, to Though the line between director
his career successes: creating and starring in the hit 1985 and subject was fixed, Wolf nonethe-
film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and practically rewriting the less considered Reubens a collabora-
book on children’s programming during the five-season run tor. But the question of just how much
of his Saturday morning CBS show Pee-wee’s Playhouse. Reubens was to contribute added to
Where the doc shows rather than simply tells, however, the strain. Before Wolf had completed
comes when Reubens breaks the fourth wall about the pro- his interviews, Reubens went incom-
cess of making it, including wanting to be more hands-on municado. “We were at an impasse as
with the production and his suspicious regard of Wolf. The to what postproduction would look
tension is palpable. At one point, Reubens tells Wolf that like, and I was holding my ground that
he made “one documentary that I liked out of, what—six?” I would be doing that independently,
“There were times I was angry at Paul,” recalls Wolf. “I ac- and that he would have opportunities
cepted this was great material for the film, and he knew it.” to see the cut,” says Wolf. “And that
Reubens, who admired people “living conceptually” didn’t feel like enough to him.”
during his college days at California Institute of the Arts, “Paul was very particular,” says
had devised Pee-wee as a character meant to exist in the Cassandra Peterson (better known
real world as well as showbiz. He was often billed as Pee- as Elvira), who befriended Reubens
wee Herman during interviews and in movies, rarely letting in the 1970s when both were in the
his real self show in service of his full-time performance- Groundlings and who appears in the
art piece. For Wolf, the trick was to pull back the curtain on doc. “He wanted to control things,
the performance to reveal the man himself. and have things exactly the way he
wanted, to a really extreme degree. So
REUBENS WAS WOLF’S “DREAM SUBJECT.” They con- I kind of felt sorry for the filmmakers.
nected in 2020, during the height of pandemic lockdown, I knew it would be a tough road.”
after Wolf caught wind that Reubens was interested in mak- Wolf was initially reluctant to in-
ing a film about his life. So began a series of FaceTime and clude his own presence in the movie,
70 TIME June 9, 2025
 were back rolling, Wolf asked Reubens
point blank, “Are you gay?” Reubens
joked and then “snapped in,” discuss-
ing his sexuality freely. “It was extra-
ordinary, and I felt very proud of him,”
Wolf says.

IN JULY 2023, Wolf and Reubens re-

sumed communication and agreed to
proceed with the shoot. But the in-
terview they planned never came to
pass—Reubens died at 70 just two
weeks later. The day before he died,
Reubens recorded a voice note in
which he reflected on his 2002 arrest
and sent it to his publicist, Kelly Bush
Novak, who passed it on to Wolf. To-
ward the end of the film, a frail-voiced
Reubens says, “More than anything,
the reason I wanted to make a docu-
mentary was to let people see who I
really am and how painful and difficult
it was to be labeled something that
but he and Reubens decided together got to ask about these arrests in detail. I wasn’t. The moment I heard some-
to explore their dynamic onscreen. Those parts of the movie are largely body label me as, I’m just going to say
Control was a frequent topic behind told through the recollections of his it, a pedophile, I knew it was going to
the scenes and in front of the camera, friends and family. change everything moving forward
where Reubens openly pondered if Wolf did capture Reubens discuss- and backwards.”
he should be the one making the film. ing his sexuality, which Reubens had Reubens’ death put Wolf in a shaky
Wolf attempted to shoot candid foot- never done publicly. Though he had position. He pushed down feelings of
age of Reubens to augment the talking- relationships with men, he was clos- grief in order to finish his film. The
head material, but it didn’t work. “If eted for the sake of his career. In the stakes couldn’t have been higher. “I’ve
anything that wasn’t planned hap- film, Reubens seems at ease discuss- never felt so trusted to take on such a
pened, he would be unhappy,” Wolf re- ing his life as a gay man, but Wolf says big thing,” Wolf says. Peterson loves
calls. As to Reubens’ need for control, the filming of that interview “was not the resulting film. “I really felt like
Wolf has some theories. “Many excep- a chill, easy day.” Sexuality was both Matt got Paul. He had a handle on
tional artists are incredibly control- a point of connection and tension what he was doing,” she says.
ling,” Wolf says. But also: “He was con- among director and star. Wolf, too, is The documentary is an honest por-
trolling because he lost control of his gay, but came out at 14 and values his trait of a creative technician, his drive,
personal narrative in the media.” sexuality as a key feature of his iden- his process, and the way he negotiated
Wolf is referring to two arrests that tity, a position Reubens didn’t share. life in the public eye. The film rather
resulted in career-upending scandals. When Wolf engaged Reubens about explicitly asks a question that has pre-
The first occurred in 1991, when Reu- his sexuality, he noticed his subject occupied the culture on conscious
bens was picked up in an adult movie was “squirmy and procrastinating a and subconscious levels in the age of
theater in Sarasota, Fla., and charged lot” then spoke only in vague terms. social media and scorn for traditional
with indecent exposure. This resulted Finally Reubens took Wolf aside and media: Who gets to tell people’s sto-
in the effective cancellation of Pee- said, “I don’t know how to do this.” ries? It seems clear that had Reubens
wee’s Playhouse; he pleaded no contest To that, Wolf had a simple directive: been in creative control, we wouldn’t
H B O ; H B O/ P E E - W E E H E R M A N P R O D U C T I O N S I N C . (2)

and maintained publicly that the al- “Just say, ‘I’m gay.’” Once the cameras have seen the glimpses of his human-
legations were false. The second hap- ity that, while not always flattering,
pened in 2002, when Reubens was make Pee-wee as Himself so riveting.
charged with possession of child por- And, while they might not have been
nography. He eventually took a lesser ‘Every day I woke up what Reubens wanted, they are the
plea of obscenity, while maintaining saying, ‘You must rise product of the deep respect and admi-
that nothing in his archive of vintage to the occasion. Do ration Wolf had for his subject. “I was
gay erotica constituted child sex abuse determined to make meaning out of
material. The impasse between Wolf not drop the ball.’ this,” says Wolf. “I said to Paul, ‘I will
and Reubens occurred before Wolf MATT WOLF ON TELLING REUBENS’ STORY do right by you.’ I meant it.” □
71
TIME OFF REVIEWS

TELEVISION

Comedy’s new generation

finds its absurdist voice
BY JUDY BERMAN

THE CREATORS OF FX’S ADULTS MUST HAVE

known comparisons between their show and Girls
were inevitable, because they leaned way into them.
Beyond the similar titles, both comedies follow
20-something friends in New York City. There’s an
explicit callback in Adults’ premiere to Girls’ pilot,
when Lena Dunham’s narcissistic aspiring writer in-
forms her parents she might be “a voice of a genera-
tion.” Adults abbreviates this cliché as “V of our G,”
and applies it to a media-savvy young man who be-
comes the envy of his peers after a workplace sexual-
harassment scandal lands him a six-figure payout.
Equal parts tribute and send-up, the moment
cleverly heralds the arrival of a new generation
anointing its own voices. Adults is the creation of
Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold, a couple and
comedy team whose Yale graduation speech went
viral in 2018. Along with comedian Benito Skinner’s
college-set Prime Video romp Overcompensating,
it’s the second hangout comedy to debut in May
from creators born in the mid-’90s. Neither as
internet-addled nor as pandemic-damaged as you
might expect, these shows update the genre with all
the absurdism and self-awareness of a generation
that distracts itself from a world in crisis by binge- △
ing Girls, Friends, and Sex and the City. Skinner, top center; and Carmen (Wally Baram), whose
While previous zeitgeisty series about young the five Adults late older brother instilled her high
adults in New York were set in aspirational environs, in training tolerance for alcohol and love of video
Adults gestures toward Gen Z’s limited horizons by games, attempt to hook up. When
packing its five characters into one guy’s childhood he can’t go through with it—because
home in an unfashionable part of Queens. Timid Benny is gay—they become best
sweetheart Samir (Malik Elassal) is the man of the friends. That relationship is tested by a
house, fumbling through challenges like a broken social scene where everyone is desper-
water heater. Issa (Amita Rao) is a dramatic, sexu- ate to look like they’re having the most
ally liberated heir to Broad City’s Ilana; her chill, fun, sex, success. Though Skinner situ-
pansexual boyfriend, Paul Baker (Jack Innanen), ates this competition in the physical
is, inexplicably, always addressed by his full name. world, it’s also a reflection of the peer-
Anton (Owen Thiele) makes friends everywhere he pressure panopticon that is growing
goes. Anxious striver Billie (Lucy Freyer) is the only up on social media.
one who thinks much about her future.
The Gen X Friends had the luxury of slacking in a CRITICS TOO OFTEN do a disservice
coffee shop for years before ascending to the kind of to the art of younger generations,
high-powered careers the SATC women had when overstating the similarities between
we met them in their 30s. As much as they flailed works that have little in common be-
in pursuit of them, the millennial Girls had dreams. sides the age of their makers or fail-
But for the Adults, just being able to confidently ing to account for their own cohort’s
claim the titular identity seems a sufficient life goal. aesthetic prejudices. So I want to be
Adulthood is even more elusive for the two fresh- clear: Overcompensating and Adults
men at the center of Overcompensating. Surrounded take divergent approaches to the
by new acquaintances egging them on to prove their Gen Z sitcom. Overcompensating feels
hetero horniness, Skinner’s innocent ex-jock Benny more old-fashioned in its coming-out
72 TIME June 9, 2025
 storyline and earnestness. And if I
was put off by Skinner’s over-the- TELEVISION
top ingenuousness—Benny’s eyes are
so wide, they almost pop out of his
head—that is likely in part because I
wasn’t raised on the exaggerated char-
acter work favored by the social video
creators among whom he got his start.
Still, the shows differ from TV for
Gen Z conceived by 40-somethings
like Mindy Kaling (Never Have I Ever,
The Sex Lives of College Girls) and Sam
Levinson (Euphoria). The young cre-
ators seem less concerned with grand
political statements; in their place
is an “LOL Nothing Matters” sense
of whimsical absurdity. “We are in a
post–de Blasio, pre–Avatar 3 moment.
We have to live!” Adults’ Issa declares.
Benny tells his problems to his Megan
Fox poster, a talisman of straightness—
and the miniature Fox replies.
The shows have a certain irrever-
ence too. Their casts are as effortlessly
diverse as the New York of Friends and
Girls was unfeasibly white. Yet their
humor telegraphs exhaustion with
a decade of millennial social-justice
discourse that performatively polices
language and identity in the face of
global catastrophe. In the Adults pre-
miere, characters make cynical at-
tempts to capitalize on the workplace-
misconduct scandal; Anton crows that
the victim “looks like he was molested.”
Paul Baker recoils, in another episode,
at a gun-shop clerk who uses the R-
word and asks if Paul is “fruity,” only
to find out the man has a beloved sister
with an intellectual disability and is,
himself, gay. Overcompensating has a
gentler tone, but a scene where Benny
calls a girl the C-word would’ve sent
O V E R C O M P E N S AT I N G : P R I M E ; A D U LT S : F X ; S I R E N S : M A C A L L P O L AY— N E T F L I X

Twitter circa 2015 into convulsions.

What keeps these series from com-
ing off as crass is the genuine cama-
raderie that connects and, to some
extent, shelters their characters from
the precariousness of their lives. The
Friends idly bantered and arranged
themselves into couples. The Girls
were so self-centered, it doomed their
friendships. But even when the young
people in Adults and Overcompensat-
ing do betray one another, the love
they share remains pure. The kids Fahy and Alcock
probably aren’t all right, but at least play sisters at odds
they have each other’s backs. □
TIME OFF REVIEWS

MOVIES

A new M:I won’t

save cinema, but
it’s fun to watch
Tom Cruise try
BY STEPHANIE ZACHAREK/
CANNES, FRANCE

Mission: iMpossible—The Final

Reckoning, the eighth film in the fran-
chise and ostensibly its finale, looks,
feels, and sounds like the sort of movie
you need to see on the big screen. The
powers that be at the Cannes Film
Festival clearly thought so too: the
picture premiered here on May 14.
And even if, some 20 years ago, in-
cluding a pop-franchise entry might △
have seemed like a cheap, attention- Cruise performs stunts in sea and sky in the franchise finale
grabbing stunt, it means something
different now. Aside from the fact that
Cannes isn’t necessarily above such a To do so, he must dive deep into Arctic waters to procure a
stunt, it has always been all about the doodad known as the Podkova, which contains its source
big-screen experience, which is now code. Not so fast, though: the Podkova is nothing without a
so endangered that it needs all the at- little plug-in known as the Poison Pill.
tention it can get. You don’t have to
love Cruise to acknowledge that he’s UnfortUnately, that’s in the possession of wily
probably the most widely recognizable villain Gabriel (Esai Morales), who seized it from one of
movie star in the world. Sometimes Ethan’s dearest colleagues, Ving Rhames’ Luther. Many
recognition counts as a kind of love. of Ethan’s other helpers have returned: tech-support
Just as his Mission: Impossible smarty Benji (Simon Pegg), foe turned friend Paris (Pom
character Ethan Hunt gamely takes The Klementieff), and ace pickpocket Grace (Haley Atwell),
on the burden, ad nauseam, of sav- who’s also Ethan’s love interest. Grace doesn’t get to do
ing the world, Cruise genuinely thinks movies much pickpocketing: her chief job is to gaze admiringly at
he can save cinema. His optimism is aren’t just her hero beau and issue solemn declarations. At one point,
touching, if unrealistic. But Mission: one thing, Ethan nearly dies—it wouldn’t be an M:I movie without
Impossible—The Final Reckoning— one or two or three close calls—and in a sequence shot with
directed by franchise veteran Christo- and they the tender, dreamy vagueness of a feminine-hygiene com-
pher McQuarrie—won’t save the mov- can’t be mercial from the ’70s, she brings him back to robust health
ies. It’s big, and at times very beautiful. with her womanly caresses.
The story is the problem: Final Reck- saved by But no matter: cinema is still bigger than all of us, with
oning doesn’t flow; it lurches. If you’ve one man the capacity to be many things. Final Reckoning is just one
seen but forgotten the first half of this kind of thing, a big-screen entertainment that should be bet-
double whammy, 2023’s Dead Reck- ter than it is. It does offer some moments of joy. And no mat-
oning Part One, you needn’t worry. ter how you feel about Cruise, you’ve got to admit he looks
You could queue up Final Reckon- pretty good. If the cartilage in his joints is wearing away,
ing at home, go walk the dog, and get you’d never know it. He’s still got that boys’-adventure-book
caught up in a snap when you return. grin, though he can also be solemn when he remembers that
And how cinematic is that? the fate of the world is in his hands. As Ethan Hunt, Cruise
The plot goes something like this: may just be going through the motions of being Tom Cruise.
Ethan Hunt is in hot water for—quelle But would an audience want him any other way? The mov-
surprise—failing to follow orders. Now ies aren’t just one thing, and they can’t be saved by one man.
he must complete a mission to van- Still, we’ll believe the world can be snatched from AI doom
quish the scary all-seeing, all-knowing if Tom Cruise can just plug the Poison Pill into the Podkova.
AI being known as the Entity. For now, it’s almost enough. □
74 Time June 9, 2025
 MOVIES Bjorn (Michael Cera) accompanies with her take-no-prisoners stare, is
Wes Anderson them, nurturing a crush on Liesl,
whose moonfaced radiance gives
charmingly enigmatic. But although
there are a few good costumes—
returns with a her a kind of hot-cha-cha beauty, Zsa Zsa sports a dashing pair of Rus-
set off by her demure white veil and sian Constructivist–influenced zigzag-
muted Scheme habit. Liesl’s fixation on believing pattern pajamas—the film’s design
in a higher power, especially within overall feels restrained. There’s lots
Wes Anderson, Who speciAlizes a religious framework, is one quirk of 1950s industrial gray-green; even
in designing fancifully invented so- we haven’t really seen from Ander- a Marseilles Art Deco nightclub feels
cieties, probably doesn’t strike any- son before. Still, he offsets it jaun- a little decoratively subdued, and the
one as an angry person. But his es- tily, with a revolving door of actors plot jumps around so much that we
pionage comedy The Phoenician in bit parts including Tom Hanks, don’t spend much time there anyway.
Scheme, which played in competition Riz Ahmed, Bryan Cranston, Bene- Zsa Zsa suffers from troubling
at Cannes before opening in theaters dict Cumberbatch, Hope Davis, and dreams—apparently, he does have
May 30, shows glimmers of something Mathieu Amalric. a conscience—rendered in under-
that might be called anger, or at least stated grayed-out tones, with the
frustration, over the greed and immo- You might need to be a Wes sobering vibe of old Rockwell Kent
rality of people who have too much Anderson purist to love The Phoeni- illustrations—they may be the movie’s
and only want more. The picture is cian Scheme. There’s nothing wrong best feature. The Phoenician Scheme
flat and schematic—even more than with the performances: Cera, with his has none of the lavish, kooky excess
usual for Anderson, who favors static tootling phony Swedish accent, has of, say, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
camerawork and sets that resemble an amusing savoir faire. Threapleton, And the plot, with its fixation on intri-
meticulously decorated dollhouses; cate business deals, is—let’s just come
he also has a penchant for dividing out and say it—boring. But Ander-
his movies into discrete chapters with It hints at son seems to be expressing an indis-
deadpan title cards. All those features exhaustion, not tinct dissatisfaction with the current
figure here, but the movie is more world order in the best way he can: in
muted than usual for Anderson, both of the movies, a parade of color that’s somehow less
in its color tones and story. There’s but of the world colorful than usual. —s.z.
something somber about it; it hints at
exhaustion on Anderson’s part, not of
the movies, but of the world.
Benicio Del Toro plays Anatole
“Zsa Zsa” Korda, the richest man in
M I S S I O N : I M P O S S I B L E : PA R A M O U N T P I C T U R E S/S K Y D A N C E ; T H E P H O E N I C I A N S C H E M E : C O U R T E S Y C A N N E S F I L M F E S T I VA L

Europe, a ruthless 1950s business ty-

coon who has a knack for surviving
plane crashes. The suggestion is that
his immorality is the key to his immor-
tality; he’s just too distastefully wily
to die. After surviving one such smash
landing, he returns to his palazzo to
consider his legacy, having decided
that his eldest child and only daugh-
ter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), will be
his only heir. But Liesl has other plans.
For one thing, she’s a nun in training,
ready to renounce all earthly belong-
ings. And she has little affection for
her father, who she believes might
even have killed her mother. Still,
Zsa Zsa talks her into accompanying
him on a multicountry jaunt, during
which he’ll wheedle and hoodwink his
associates into supplying the money
for a big infrastructure scheme, the
details of which are so boring, they’ll
make your eyes glaze over. A meek △
and geeky insect specialist named As father and daughter, Del Toro and Threapleton worship different gods
75
 6 QUESTIONS

Marina Silva Brazil’s Environment and Climate Minister on

growing up in the Amazon, hosting this year’s U.N. climate
talks, and the global retreat of the Trump Administration

Since taking office, the govern- Trump Administration to leave the

ment of President Luiz Inácio Paris Agreement, to stimulate the
Lula da Silva has managed to dra-
matically reduce Amazon defores-
What can you use of carbon fuels. The challenge
that we have in front of us is to do
tation. How have you done it? In share about a planned and fair transition away
2023, when we took office, we had
deforestation on an ascending curve
growing up in from fossil fuels. We’re already at the
limit. There was a window of oppor-
that was out of control. We had to the Amazon tunity of not shooting over 1.5°, and
rebuild command-and-control orga- now it’s just a sliver.
nizations and increase public fund- and how it
ing. Based on data and evidence, has informed Do you see an opportunity to forge
we began from the very beginning partnerships with other countries
to apply policies that we projected your work? as the U.S. pulls back from climate
would work. And the result is a 46% collaboration? We can’t be deniers,
drop in the last two years compared not with geopolitics, not with cli-
to the baseline of 2022. Now we have mate. The vacuum created by the
greater complexity. You can initially U.S. is the U.S.’s vacuum. They’re the
reduce the highest rates of illegal second largest emitter. They’re the
deforestation. But from now on we largest technological and economic
need to have policies to stem legal power in the world. Global society
deforestation. and U.S. society have to demand a
contribution to face these issues.
Environmentalists have expressed But, as we have responsibilities with
concern about potential oil explo- the future of life on earth, we have to
ration in the Amazon region. What double our efforts to protect life and
is the government planning to do? the balance of the planet. The world
The decision is not a decision that’s needs to continue demanding that
my ministry’s responsibility. It’s also the U.S. act. Carbon-intensive prod-
not an individual decision by the ucts need to begin to be taxed. There
President. It’s one done by the Na- is a price to reduce deforestation, to
tional Council on Energy Policy. We innovate technology. There’s a cost
need to have more debates about to our societies and to our compa-
energy security. Increasingly, coun- nies. Why can some not contribute
tries that produce petroleum will to reducing this burden?
have to bet on new [clean] sources.
What I defend is a fair transition, a What are your hopes for the
planned transition for everybody. It’s upcoming U.N. climate talks—
not magic. You can’t just change the known as COP30—happening in
sources of generation overnight. the Brazilian city of Belém? If we
look at a timeline of all of the COPs,
More broadly, how do you balance my hope is that it will be an his-
the economic demands with the torical COP. Not because it is done
environmental concerns? That’s in Brazil, but because it’s being
a challenge that’s not only ours. It’s held in one of the worst moments
S E R G I O L I M A — A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S

for all of humanity. How to solve se- that humanity has ever faced. We
rious global environmental issues need to leave Belém with a man-
and at the same time maintain the date to create a road map so that
prosperity of our society. With the we can end deforestation, so that
worsening of geopolitical tensions, we can stop using fossil fuels in a
things have become more difficult, manner that is fair for everybody.
especially with the decision of the —JUSTIN WORLAND/BRASÍLIA
76 TIME June 9, 2025
 On May 13, TIME recognized leaders from the 2025 TIME100 Health list,
whose work is creating tangible, credible change for a healthier population.

Experience more time.com/t100impact-health-2025

RO N I TA N ATH , V I CE PR ES I DENT OF R ES EAR C H, THE TR EVOR PROJEC T, DR. VINOD BALACHANDRAN, SURGE ON-SCIE NTIST, ME MORIA L SLOA N KE TTE RING CA NCE R CE NTE R,
DA M A R HA MLI N, NF L PLAYER , ENTR EPR ENEU R , AND PHI LANTHROP IST, SARA SIDNER, A NCHOR A ND SE NIOR NATIONA L CORRE SP ONDE NT, CNN,
BI LL NY E, ADVOC ATE, SCIE NCE E DUCATOR A ND TE LE V ISION HOST

THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS

PREMIER PARTNER

SIGNATURE PARTNER
KIDS CAN MAKE THE WORLD
A BRIGHTER PLACE

T I M E F O R K I D S . C O M / S E RV I C E - S TA R S

MADE POSSIBLE BY