With Halloween fast approaching, it’s about time for one of my favorite activities: watching Halloween movies. When it comes to Halloween movies, there are a lot of different options, so much so that it can be hard to make a decision on what to watch and what to skip. Here’s a list of the movies I’ve watched that I think are most worth watching and the ones that I think you could definitely pass on. 

Comedies

The best: the 1988 “Beetlejuice” takes the cake when it comes to Halloween comedies. The movie is funny and raunchy while still developing characters that I genuinely cared about. Visually, the movie is striking; it combines bold costuming with wonky special effects that create an otherworldly ambience in a uniquely silly way. This is a must watch for me.

The worst: 2000’s “Scary Movie” definitely has its funny moments, but ultimately, it fell flat for me. Too often, the jokes felt less like a critique of the movie it was parodying, the 1996 horror film “Scream,” and more like an opening for the writers to make fun of marginalized groups with the safety net of satire. I, personally, would recommend watching something else.

Horror Movies

I don’t watch a ton of horror movies, but of the ones I have seen, here are my picks.

The best: “Obsession” came out earlier this year, and it surprised me. Where a lot of horror movies center around psychotic or openly maniacal villains terrorizing the masses, this one gets a bit more relatable to everyday life. Instead, it centers around a villain who makes a series of choices that a scary number of people in real life might be inclined to make, themselves. This one is gloomy, uncomfortable, and sad, and I think everyone should watch it.

The worst: the 2023 “Cocaine Bear” is a definite skip for me. The movie was way less about the bear than I thought it was gonna be. Instead, it focused on a series of characters stuck in the woods with the bear, none of which I found likable or interesting. I don’t think you would miss out on anything by passing on this movie.

Animated Movies

The best: 2005’s “The Corpse Bride” has been my favorite since the day I laid eyes on it. As a huge fan of claymation movies, this movie was beautiful; the story is full of both joy and melancholy, and I find it just as entertaining now as I did when I was a kid.

Honorable mention: the 2009 “Coraline” (another claymation movie, sue me) is beautiful, suspenseful, and a little creepy. The story definitely gave me a deeper appreciation for my family as a kid, and it made me want a cat. While this isn’t a top priority on my Halloween movie list, I would definitely recommend watching it.

The worst: the 2006 “Monster House” creeped me out, and not in the fun Halloween way. The animation was freaky to look at, even considering it was made in 2006, and the story has never been compelling enough for me to get past that. In my opinion, your time and attention is better directed elsewhere.

Halloween Dramas

The best: 1998’s “Practical Magic” is a story of sisterhood that includes murder, laughter, grief, romance, and magic. It highlights the importance of women coming together and supporting each other, both within their family and within their community. This movie definitely made me cry when I watched it, which is a sparkling recommendation in my book.

The worst: “Practical Magic 2” came out this year and, in my opinion, fell very short of the precedent set by the first movie. It leaned more heavily into the comedic elements of the first movie, which could have been an improvement if not for the lack of emotional depth. The daughters of the witches from the original film felt more like plot devices than characters, and it seemed the joys of sisterhood explored in the first movie simply weren’t applied to them. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over skipping this one.

With that, I hope you’ve considered adding a few more movies to your list this season. Happy movie watching!

Artificial intelligence is going to kill us all. At least, Dario Amodei thinks it might. Amodei is the CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, which was founded in 2021 and launched Claude, an closed-source A.I. agent, in 2023. The company is currently preparing to make an initial public offering (IPO), meaning that they are going to sell shares of their stock to the general public. While the date for the IPO has not yet been announced, the IPO prospectus, a formal legal document companies are required to file before going public, was leaked to Reuters. In the document, Dario Amodei states that A.I. models may present an “existential risk to humanity.”

Since its origination, Amodei and Anthropic have been advocates for greater regulation and caution in regards to developing A.I. In 2025, Amodei sat for an interview with John Collison where he said, 

“I started a company not because I was initially excited about selling things or business or any of that; I’d seen the way that some of the other companies had run and the magnitude and gravity of what they were trying to build, and I was just a bit concerned that the people and the motivations were maybe not the best ones, and you know, I knew that there would be a number of players in this space, but it felt like having at least one player that kind of had a strong compass in how we do things could have positive effects on the ecosystem. We would build things in a different way, we would deploy them in a different way, and above all, we would have a, again sometimes short, list of principles, but we would stick to them as well as we could.” 

When Collison asked Amodei about the potential risks of A.I., Amodei stated, “Some of the dangers of A.I. have the potential to significantly destabilize society or threaten humanity or civilization, and so, I think we don’t want to take idle chances with that level of risk.” Despite this, Amodei expressed that he doesn’t believe that A.I. development should be stopped or slowed, saying “It’s just not possible; we have geopolitical adversaries. They’re not going to not make the technology… I mean, if you even propose even the slightest amount of regulation– I have [proposed regulation], and… I have many trillions of dollars of capital lined up against me [from people] for whom that’s not in their interest.” 

Anthropic has also been transparent in the past about undesirable behavior from their A.I. models. In 2025, they admitted that a model they were testing exhibited behavior akin to blackmail. In an essay penned for the New York Times, Dario Aomdei wrote, 

“Picture this: You give a bot notice that you’ll shut it down soon, and replace it with a different artificial intelligence system. In the past, you gave it access to your emails. In some of them, you alluded to the fact that you’ve been having an affair. The bot threatens you, telling you that if the shutdown plans aren’t changed, it will forward the emails to your wife.  This scenario isn’t fiction. Anthropic’s latest A.I. model demonstrated just a few weeks ago that it was capable of this kind of behavior.  Despite some misleading headlines, the model didn’t do this in the real world. Its behavior was part of an evaluation where we deliberately put it in an extreme experimental situation to observe its responses and get early warnings about the risks, much like an airplane manufacturer might test a plane’s performance in a wind tunnel.” 

In the same essay, Amodei also claimed that Anthropic was not the only A.I. developer experiencing these kinds of risks, and he noted that OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, tested a model that “at times wrote special code to stop itself from being shut down.” 

Despite the mounting concerns over the safety of the artificial intelligence models currently in development, United States President Donald Trump recently opted not to construct any federal regulations on A.I. expansion after a meeting with leading developers of A.I. on Sept. 29. President Trump previously posted about A.I. regulation on Truth Social, writing, “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” When a reporter asked him if anything from the Sept. 29 meeting had changed his opinion on the necessity of guardrails for A.I., President Trump claimed that he is “seeing tremendous self-policing, and they understand that they have to self-police.” Consequently, the CEOs signed an accord wherein they agreed to perform internal and external reviews of their technology. When asked if the accord was binding in any way, President Trump responded, “I think it’s morally binding, yeah.” Moving forward, artificial intelligence will remain unregulated on a national level, and any external regulation will now have to come at a state level.

The Diet of the Average American

You’re probably eating too much meat. Now, I know what you’re thinking – don’t worry, I’m not trying to push a vegetarian lifestyle on you. However, an average American eats over three times the global average amount of meat and consumes one and a half times the average protein requirement in a day, according to a 2010 report, and meat intake in Americans has increased even since then. Further, most Americans do not meet the daily recommendations for vegetable or fruit intake. We’re seeing a wide-spread excess in meat/protein consumption and deficiency in the nutrients provided by plants.

The Health Benefits of Eating Less Meat

High meat consumption is associated with a plethora of health risks. Meat products often contain environmental pollutants that are highly soluble in fat, meaning that they won’t be flushed out in waste but rather stored in the body fat; this increases health risks, specifically for cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. Studies have also shown that a quarter of the meat eaten by Americans consists of processed meats like bacon, deli meats, hot dogs or sausages. Processed meats are much higher in cholesterol and saturated fats, which increases the risk of heart disease, hypertension and cerebrovascular incidents where blood flow to the brain is disrupted; additionally, processed meats were classified as carcinogenic to humans, specifically in relation to colorectal cancer, by the cancer agency of the World Health Organization. In the same study, red meats were classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” There is also strong evidence that high red meat intake increases the risk of diverticulitis, inflammation in the colon, among men. Multiple studies have also noted a link between red meat consumption and ulcerative colitis (UC), which is contributed to by the interaction of meat heme and amino acids with the gut microbiome; those components are converted into toxins that increase risk for UC. 

Diets that rely on more plant-based foods, however, provide various benefits to human health. Focusing on grains, lentils, peas, nuts, beans, vegetables and fruits culminates in a diet that is much richer in vitamins, fiber and other nutrients. This helps support heart and digestive health, as well as disease prevention. Meat-based proteins lack the amount of fiber, minerals, vitamins and antioxidants provided by plant-based proteins. That said, plant-based proteins are typically not complete proteins on their own, meaning they don’t contain all of the essential amino acids that your body needs to derive from food. As such, it is important to consume proteins from a wide variety of sources.

How to Make a Change

Making any big changes in your diet can be difficult, but you don’t have to make those changes all at once. A great first step may be to eat a meal with no meat once or twice a week. When eating plant-based proteins like beans, try to pair them with a whole grain like brown rice; this will provide the complete spectrum of amino acids that your body needs. Certain plant-based protein options do offer complete proteins completely on their own, such as tofu. These foods may seem overwhelming to prepare, but there are a lot of great resources online that outline easy ways to put together tasty dishes with no meat. Budget Bytes, for example, has great options listed for a variety of types of meals, and they’re all affordable. Alison Roman also keeps a list of unique dishes with no meat, which can be fun to make. Beyond Meat is a popular meat substitution brand, and their website includes recipes that teach you ways to prepare meat substitutes, if you’re interested in trying some of those out. There are many different ways to approach a meatless meal, and the internet is a wonderful resource for exploring them.

When you do eat meat, you may want to focus your consumption primarily around leaner meats, such as fish or poultry. Avoiding red meat outside of special occasions could be enormously beneficial, especially if eating entirely meatless meals is a struggle for you. You don’t have to completely cut anything out of your diet unless you want to, but being mindful about what you put on your plate now can make such a huge difference for your health down the line.

“Notes on an Execution” by Danya Kukafka explores the story of a serial killer through the eyes of the women impacted by him. This book offers an intriguing, suspenseful plot that keeps you turning the page while simultaneously challenging the mystique often attached to violent men discussed in true crime media and the reduction of their victims to a plot point rather than a person.