Author: Megan Burrows

There is a straightforward response to the frequently asked question, “How old is Mel Schilling’s daughter?” As of 2026, Maddie Brisbane, the Married at First Sight relationship expert’s only child, is ten years old. After a journey to motherhood that Mel herself has frequently described as emotional, erratic, and ultimately transformative, she was born on November 3, 2015. However, the story behind it is not fully conveyed by the number alone. Mel Schilling did not become a mother at a young age. She is well-known to millions of television viewers as the composed and considerate relationship expert who counsels couples…

A Chipotle restaurant hums with a predictable rhythm on a typical Friday afternoon: the low murmur of patrons discussing whether to add guacamole, the soft thud of metal scoops hitting rice trays, and the hiss of fajita vegetables on a grill. However, the scene seems different on Friday, March 13, 2026. Long before 3 p.m., people are already forming lines outside a number of locations. Some are pulling out markers to quickly draw tattoos on their arms, while others are rolling up their sleeves. It’s all for just one hour. A peculiar cultural custom associated with Friday the 13th is…

A strange pattern starts to emerge on Wall Street late in the afternoon, as trading screens flicker between green and red. Every day, the same few companies—Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet—seem to dominate the discourse. Over the past two years, their stock charts have risen sharply, dipped occasionally, and then risen again as if gravity were pulling them upward in reverse, giving them an almost theatrical appearance. It’s difficult to avoid having a slight déjà vu feeling when watching the market these days. It’s a loaded term that evokes the dot-com era of the late 1990s, when internet startups with…

Along Interstate 85, the long silver buildings of SK Battery America reflect sunlight like enormous mirrors on most mornings in Commerce, Georgia. The building represented something greater than a factory for many years. It was a part of a national wager on electric cars, where executives spoke boldly about the future of transportation, and politicians cut ribbons. Early in March, that mood suddenly changed. A small town accustomed to hearing about expansion plans was shocked by the news that nearly 1,000 workers—958, to be exact—were losing their jobs. By the end of the week, production lines that once buzzed with…

On what would have otherwise been a typical Washington afternoon, the announcement was made in a low-key, almost casual manner. Two-term California congressman Kevin Kiley announced he was registering as an independent and leaving the Republican Party. The news spread like a tiny shockwave across Capitol Hill in a matter of minutes. Reporters updated their feeds, party strategists started doing math, and employees leaned over desks. Even a single decision can have far-reaching effects in a chamber where majorities frequently hang by a thread. That’s precisely what Kevin Kiley’s move accomplished. Even though his departure was mainly symbolic, it added…

NFL free agency’s opening hours are always a little chaotic, akin to the opening of a trading floor following a long weekend. Phones are ringing. Hotel lobby hallways are paced by agents. Executives in the front office are looking at spreadsheets that are constantly changing. Although there is a feeling that teams are spending even less hesitantly than usual, this year’s round of NFL free agent signings arrived with the same familiar urgency. Deals started to appear almost immediately after the league’s legal negotiation window opened on March 9. Some of them appeared to have been meticulously planned, the outcome…

When the news began to circulate among reporters and attorneys, the lower Manhattan courthouse hallway was remarkably silent. The U.S. Department of Justice and Live Nation had settled the antitrust lawsuit that threatened to change the live music industry after months of preparation and just a few days into a highly anticipated trial. For a brief moment, it seemed like the pinnacle of a protracted drama. However, after hearing the responses, it became evident that the story might not be coming to an end. Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, consented to establish a $280 million settlement fund and make a…

The night sky acts like a restless painter on some early spring evenings. First, faint green lines that are hardly perceptible to the unaided eye emerge. Then, occasionally, the hues intensify, with greens turning into purple and red and drifting above the horizon like slow smoke. These occurrences are rarely unexpected, and recently, scientists have issued what is known as an Aurora Borealis NOAA watch as a warning. The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado, the source of the alert, is surprisingly quiet for the celestial events it keeps an eye on. Analysts monitor magnetic fields and solar…

If you think of an IndyCar schedule as a refrigerator calendar, it appears straightforward: race, date, city, time, repeat. However, that’s not the true nature of it. It is a map of the series’ goals and fears, printed in tidy rows. It is evident in the way the season begins on bright St. Petersburg streets and concludes on the parched, dramatic hills of Laguna Seca. The purpose of that arc is to make the sport seem like something you would schedule vacations around, rather than just something you watch on TV with the volume up. However, the workload in 2026…

St. Petersburg’s Grand Prix weekend always starts with a little civic magic trick: a downtown designed for joggers, dog walkers, and museum visitors who silently agree to turn it into a racetrack. Barriers made of concrete seem to be carried by the tide. Along sidewalks that were just regular routes to coffee a week ago, chain-link fencing rises. It’s difficult to ignore how the city’s beauty—palms, glistening water, and the clear blue Florida sky—makes everything seem a little surreal, as if someone had put an Indianapolis Car Race on a postcard and thought no one would notice. The fantasy then…