Wednesday, April 15, 2026
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Remember that MTV show Celebrity Deathmatch? Well, based on the news this week, it wouldn’t seem too far-fetched to reboot it with JD Vance and Pope Leo XIV starring in the first episode. The vice president has made it pretty clear how he feels about the leader of the Catholic church, going so far as to say that the pope has to “... be careful when he talks about matters of theology.” Isn’t Leo, you know, kind of the world expert on theology? Esquire political columnist Charles P. Pierce has some advice for the veep: “Try to learn your job before you teach the pope his.” Read more of Pierce’s thoughts on the showdown below.
—Chris Hatler, deputy editor
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Hey, Mr. Vice President, try to learn your job before you presume to teach the pope his.
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To borrow a phrase from a man who was twice elected president of the United States, I think that the Holy Mother Church should stop taking in converts from the American political class until we figure out what the hell is going on.
The stunning arrogance present in these words is perfectly consonant with the worldview of the techno-bro elite that produced the sophisticated malware that is J Divan Vance’s political career. Inexpertise is valued as “common sense” in our democracy these days. That’s a huge problem. Its mirror image is the idea that expertise in one field means expertise in all of them. George W. Bush was an example of the former. Peter Thiel—and Vance—are examples of the other.
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Ridley Scott remembers when it seemed like there might not be a tomorrow. All he could do is hope for the best. And sing a song.
The future Gladiator and Alien filmmaker was around four years old when the German Luftwaffe bombarded England during The Blitz of World War II, and he remembers that frightening time vividly. “I was a war baby. So in a funny kind of way, that leaves a mark on your DNA,” he says. “When I was sitting under the stairs, while we were bombed at night by the Nazis, we were singing ‘Old McDonald Had a Farm’ and hoping we never got a direct hit.”
That long-ago memory surfaced as he talked about adapting author Peter Heller’s 2012 post-apocalyptic novel The Dog Stars, starring Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, and Josh Brolin in a story set in the aftermath of global destruction. In this case, it’s not war but a lethal pandemic that has swept most of humanity off the globe. A few stragglers survive, including Elordi’s Hig, a pilot who has a single-engine Cessna he calls The Beast, a loyal blue heeler mutt named Jasper … and not much else. The dog and the plane are Hig’s version of singing “Old McDonald”—small comforts to keep him going when all seems lost.
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Deep down, I’ve always been a Keen guy, always been from a Keen family; I just needed some reminding. My first hiking boots? Keen. The work boots my brother, an electrician, wears? Keen. The shoes I slip on to run to the grocery store? Keen Uneek. While these days I’m typically in cowboy boots, Chelsea boots, or cheap sneakers to work out in. I wasn’t dying for a Keen sneaker release. But that changed when I slipped on one of its latest pairs.
A pair made its way to my desk, as style products do in this job. I took them for a stroll around the office, felt good. I wore them to the gym in our office building a few times. They’re much better than my beat up Chuck Taylors on the treadmill, but they’re fashion sneakers, really. Once I brought them home, they became my go-to errand-running shoe, then my neighborhood shoe. And now? They’re my do-everything shoe. Turns out, the KM2 Joggers got me. They got me hook, line, and sinker.
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