Gerran Howell has seen better days. When I Zoom with the 34-year-old Welsh actor in advance of The Pitt season 2, he looks like he walked right out of the emergency room and into our interview... because he did. Howell, who plays the Nebraska-born Dr. Whitaker on the HBO series, is in the home stretch of filming season 2—which means that there's not even enough time to change out of Whitaker's blue scrubs before our chat. Even worse: Howell is giving up his lunch break to talk to me, which somehow feels like a very Whitaker thing to do. Such is life for a TV doctor. "We all naturally get very tired, which we're all very grateful for," Howell explains. "It works for our characters on screen because they're all very tired at this point in the story. They tend to put less makeup on me the longer we go, because it's like, 'No, you're looking tired. This is perfect!'" The young doctor, who was perpetually scared shitless (and covered in all matter of bodily fluids) as a medical student in season 1, is now a first-year resident—and he's acting like it.The influence of the impenetrable Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) is remarkably clear on Whitaker, who is looking more and more like his mentor by the hour. "He's massively influenced by Robby," Howell adds. "That first shift was a nightmare for everyone. Robby would never admit it, but I think they see each other. Whitaker is just enamored by Robby and is just following in his footsteps a little bit." |
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For a guy that only wears dirt-cheap Wranglers, I do spend a lot of time thinking about jeans. I've written big long stories about it over at Esquire Premium. I've bored my wife to tears digging through vintage stores and specialty retailers. I'm not obsessed with selvedge and really heavy jeans. I'm just obsessed with the form, the history, and how people from John Wayne to Serge Gainsbourg to Lenny Kravitz to Zoë Kravitz have worn jeans. And today, they've got me talking about my favorite pairs of the moment. Some are classics, like the Wranglers I've written about and the Levi's every guy tries to tell me are better. Some are very of the moment, like what Abercrombie is pushing out and the high-end collab from Louis Vuitton I just saw. All of them are worth buying. I will, however, skip the whole small batch denim thing, because that's just too much to get into right now. These are all easy to shop online as long as you know your size. |
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Call it the truest and most literal definition of morbid curiosity. Last evening, hours after a masked ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good, I did what I often do when unequivocally bad things happen in America: I checked to see how it was playing on Fox News. It was the top of the hour, and the shooting was the top story on Jesse Watters Primetime. A chyron screamed, WOMAN RAMS ICE AGENT, GETS SHOT, beneath video from the scene showing Good's SUV ramming nobody. That quote from 1984 rang in my head, the one about the party telling you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears, about how it was their final, most essential command. But this is Fox News in the second Trump administration, so forcing you to believe the opposite of what is clear and obvious was actually its second-to-last, almost-most-essential command. Its final, most essential command was to get you to sneer at a murder victim. |
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At my age, people expect you to mellow out, to trade sex for crossword puzzles and nostalgia. But my sex drive never got the memo. It's as stubborn as I am. The people who turn me on aren't the people who want me. My wife is also in her 70s, and when I met her, she was gorgeous: thick hair, sharp wit, a body that could make me forget my own name. She's softer now, slower, still my best friend, but not my fantasy anymore. Sex, when it happens, feels like theater. I take a pill, we start slow, and I close my eyes to picture us 30 years ago. I feel guilty admitting that, because we're told to "love the wrinkles," that age is beautiful. Maybe it is. But I can't get hard for philosophy. |
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If you really think about how much actually goes into cartridge razors, you'll agree it's time for a change. Look, they're cheap at first, but razor refills are crazy expensive. And they're made out of cheap plastic that, ultimately, will sit in a landfill for the next 1,000 years. Wet shaving, done the old-school way with safety razors or straight razors, drastically cuts down on the amount of plastic in your grooming routine. And for guys with thick, coarse beard hair, like myself, multiblade razors are bound to give you ingrown hairs. Sure, you can get an electric foil shaver, but I've never enjoyed shaving with those. If you want to keep a perma-stubble, I'd suggest a beard trimmer, but those are annoying when you have to bring the charger on the road. I've found that wet shaving—like how your barber cleans you up—to be the best solution. Adding a bit of the old-school into your routine seems dumb and superfluous at first, but it does lead to a change in your mindset about shaving. Instead of an upkeep chore you dread, it becomes a ritual. Something you cherish so much that you might go over to Reddit and post your setup for other dudes to see. If you're new to single-blade shaving, fear not. We've done the work to bring you the best single-blade razors any rookie or lifelong wet shaver should buy. Check them out here. |
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I'm stuck in Puerto Rico. I was supposed to leave on January 4, but my Delta flight was canceled after the U.S. raid on Venezuela. I arrived more than two weeks ago—Sunday, December 21—to spend the holidays with my family in Guaynabo, just outside San Juan. I was born and raised on the island. My family's still here. A lot of my friends are still here. And there's nothing like Puerto Rican Christmastime. There's no need for a white Christmas when the island is pulsating with so much joy and life; it's colorful and dynamic and festive. Last Friday, I went out with friends until 4:45 a.m. on Saturday morning. It was … a really fun night. When I got back to my parents' house, both my mom and dad were awake, and the television was on in their room. They didn't ask me why I got home so late. "Oh my God, sit down. This is just happening," they said with urgency, and in Spanish, of course. The U.S. had captured President Maduro of Venezuela. We were shocked. For those 15 minutes, there was silence in the room apart from the occasional loud commentary from my dad. He's a brilliant guy, and only big events like these surprise him. |
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