I’d be happy if by the time I retire, we have [artificial intelligence] systems that are as smart as a cat,” Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, Turing Award winner and one of the founding fathers of deep learning, tells Newsweek as part of an ongoing series of conversations about the future of AI, “and that retirement is coming fast, by the way, so I don’t have much time.”

LeCun sees the extraordinary promise of AI on the horizon. But so far we haven’t seen this degree of success. While venture capital and corporate investment pours billions of dollars into AI dream factories promising revolutionary transformations—whether it’s curing cancer or finally taming the email inbox— a stark reality persists: Most artificial intelligence initiatives collapse under their own ambitions.

The gulf between technological marvel and practical utility resembles a paradise island ringed by shipwrecks—the quest for supreme omniscience has left the tech landscape littered with sophisticated failures. In the pursuit of self-driving cars, Apple spent over $10 billion developing its autonomous car before abandoning the project entirely. GM burned close to $10 billion on its Cruise robotaxi unit before shutting it down in December 2024. Five years ago, Elon Musk said: “We’re headed toward a situation where AI is vastly smarter than humans and I think that time frame is less than five years from now.” But so far, we’re holding our own.

Against this backdrop of inflated expectations and deflating results, a more nuanced understanding has emerged from those like LeCun, who’ve spent decades wrestling with the actual mechanics of intelligent systems. To cut through the industry’s hype and identify what’s reliable,

Newsweek has gathered a remarkable constellation of experts through its AI Impact interview series.

The urgency driving these conversations extends beyond the tech titans racing to build machine consciousness. Executives across all industries currently confront a complex calculus. What AI can actually accomplish today remains murky —pattern recognition and language processing reveal stunning breakthroughs, yet in practice, the limitations are glaring. More uncertain is if today’s astounding capabilities will continue to advance at such a mind-boggling pace. How much better will it get? And most uncertain of all: When will the AI revolution that changes everything actually arrive—is it coming in the 2030s, which OpenAI’s Sam Altman predicts will be “wildly different from any time that’s come before”? Or is it already here? How do you invest wisely in a technology evolving faster than anyone can track, where the wrong bet means competitive extinction, yet the right approach remains maddeningly unclear?

AI promises to revolutionize how businesses operate—from automating back-office functions to optimizing supply chains and analyzing vast troves of data for strategic insights. Companies that master AI integration could gain insurmountable competitive advantages, while those that don’t risk obsolescence. However, the RAND Corporation found that more than 80 percent of AI projects fail—twice the rate of failure for information technology projects without AI. The comfortable option of caution has vanished; in a fast-changing landscape, the future demands decisions today.

From these wide-ranging dialogues, six essential lessons emerge from prognosticators and practitioners who have spent decades building, studying and deploying complex systems in the real world.

Lesson 1: Humans Must Be in Control

Of all the dreams about artificial intelligence, none seduces Silicon Valley luminaries more completely than the vision of a human-less future where machines operate without oversight. Altman believes the technology he’s building will very soon do “95 percent of what marketers use agencies, strategists and creative professionals for today—easily, nearly instantly and at almost no cost be handled by the AI.... Images, videos, campaign ideas? No problem.” In a private meeting with lawmakers, Altman warns that “upwards of 70 percent of jobs could be eliminated by AI.”

These aren’t idle speculations. Enormous sums of money have been marshaled in this quest for human-free automation, yet results often fall short of promises. Robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks, former head of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab and a founder of iRobot, knows from decades of building real-world applications from frontier technologies, that to be widely adopted, even the most clever tools must leave room for humans. “People only accept new technologies when they don’t lose their sense of control,” he says in Newsweek’s AI Impact interview series.

Brooks illustrates this principle by pointing to hospital delivery robots designed to transport dirty dishes and linens. He says he often sees these potentially labor-saving machines “turned off and pushed to the side” because medical staff, rushing through corridors doing life-saving work, encounter the robots blocking their path with no way to tell them to get out of the way. So after a while, the machines end up disabled and shunted aside.

The irony is that even while touting an automated future, the limits of AI often mean that humans are very much in the loop. When Elon Musk showed off his humanoid robot Optimus at a press event in 2024, the robots were remote controlled by humans. Before Cruise suspended operations, its “driverless” vehicles required remote human assistance every four to five miles.

“A 17-year-old can learn to drive a car in about 20 hours, even less, sometimes, largely without causing any accident,” LeCun tells Newsweek. “We have millions of hours of training data of people driving cars around, and we still don’t have self-driving cars,” he says. “So that means, in terms of understanding the world, we’re missing something really, really big.”

Despite having invented much of the underlying technology behind today’s large language models, LeCun argues they are fundamentally insufficient for achieving the autonomous capabilities that drive much of Silicon Valley’s AI hype. “If the path that my colleagues and I are on at [Facebook AI Research] and NYU...if we can make this work within three to five years, we’ll have a much better paradigm for systems that are controllable in the sense that you can give them goals, and they will, you know, by construction, the only thing they can do is accomplish those goals.”

Lesson 2: Augment, Don’t Automate

“Right now,” Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman tells Newsweek of the most successful AI deployments, “it’s all about co-piloting.” For individuals, he explains, “we can synergize with it and speed things up enormously.” This partnership model consistently outperforms automation attempts across multiple industries. Even among AI’s biggest proponents, augmentation appears to be winning the day. Despite AI writing 30 percent of the company’s code, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella continues hiring engineers to focus on distinctly human qualities like “bringing clarity” to ambiguous situations. Google CEO Sundar Pichai treats AI as “an accelerator” that can eliminate tedious tasks rather than replacing human workers entirely.

LLMs excel at generating options but cannot determine which one’s better—a determination that requires a world model including human values, contextual understanding and experiential wisdom—a capability that no model currently possesses. The technology can produce impressive outputs, but it lacks grounding to assess their appropriateness, quality or real-world implications. The solution, Eagleman suggests, lies in designing “AI systems to check on other AI systems” and creating “translators to dumb things down for us so that we can understand what is going on.”

The economic evidence decisively supports this collaborative approach. A 2023 study by Stanford economist Erik Brynjolfsson has shown why augmentation works: AI assistance delivered 14 percent productivity increases to customer service workers and 34 percent improvement for novice workers when used as a support tool rather than replacement technology.

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski learned this after receiving widespread attention for declaring “AI can already do all of the jobs that we, as humans, do” while replacing 700 customer service contractors with AI systems in February of last year. But soon after, he discovered that Klarna customers were being handed off in one-third of cases to human agents when the AI couldn’t resolve complex issues. Within months, Siemiatkowski acknowledged the AI resulted in “lower quality” customer experiences, prompting a switch to an augmented approach. The company has hired humans again and now uses AI to handle routine queries while the human agents tackle the most complex customer cases.

In May, Siemiatkowski said that cutting labor costs had “been a too predominant evaluation factor” because “what you end up having is lower quality.” He added that “investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us.”

Daron Acemoglu, an MIT economist who won the Nobel Prize in 2024, has spent decades studying technology’s impact on workers and economic growth. He now warns that Silicon Valley has been following “the wrong direction for AI. We’re using it too much for automation and not enough for providing expertise and information to workers.”

Lesson 3: Pick Tasks AI Is Good At

Large language models can write poetry, summarize research papers and generate code with startling fluency. What took trillions of tokens, billions of parameters, petabytes of data and acres of GPU servers to discover was that the written word contains far more predictable patterns than anyone expected. “It’s astonishing how well that generates language,” admits Brooks. “I don’t think most people 10 years ago could have believed that would work so well.” The fundamental surprise: “What LLMs have shown us is we can emulate language with that thoughtless part.”

That’s a reference to Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow, which divides cognition into automatic System 1 responses and effortful System 2 deliberation. LLMs function like System 1 processors, excelling at language tasks like writing, editing and translation—but are likely to fail at things that require System 2 deliberation, like abstract reasoning, creative problem-solving, and adapting to novel situations. The key question becomes: What types of problems can be solved with System 1-like processing alone?

For decades, Kahneman and Gary Klein, a psychologist who researches naturalistic decision-making, had a running disagreement about whether human intuition could be trusted. Klein championed expert fast decision-makers like firefighters and nurses. Kahneman emphasized systematic biases making intuition unreliable. In 2009, their dispute produced surprising agreement in a joint paper they wrote, “Conditions for Intuitive Expertise.” Klein was partially vindicated: Practiced experts do develop reliable intuition skills, but only when two conditions are met: “an environment that is sufficiently regular as to be predictable” and “an opportunity to learn the regularities by prolonged practice and feedback.”

It’s easy to extend these requirements to AI: regular patterns plus large datasets. For example, in January 2025, the Mayo Clinic reported that a model it had built to analyze pathology slides to diagnose cancer was not performing as well as human doctors. Despite 1.2 million tissue samples from 490,000 cases, the model did not have enough examples of each of the thousands of possible disorders that pathologists identify. For rare conditions, “you’ll find 20 samples over 10 years,” one of the researchers told MIT Technology Review—insufficient for pattern recognition.

“Even defining what regular is is not trivial,” notes Dana-Farber Cancer Institute CEO Ben Ebert to Newsweek. He points to the 2017 release of an algorithm that its developers claimed could detect pneumonia “at a level exceeding practicing radiologists.” But there was a problem, Ebert explains, “if you took a chest X-ray from a different hospital [than where it as developed], it completely didn’t work.” The problem is that it had learned patterns specific to that hospital, not general disease patterns. “The thing with AI is that because of how it was trained, it doesn’t realize that there’s a systematic bias.”

While there’s no precise way to measure regularity or to ever say how much data is enough, the Kahneman-Klein framework provides some clear directional guidelines. For instance, the head of a law firm would be able to recognize that AI would be better applied on drafting contracts— standardized formats with plenty of training examples—but struggle coming up with novel legal arguments. AI succeeds where human expertise can develop and struggles where even experienced professionals must rely on intuition alone.

Lesson 4: Use AI to Generate Possibilities, Not Answers

Asked for his assessment of LLMs’ reliability, Brooks is blunt: “They’re bullsh****** until we can ground them in reality.” His colorful language captures a truth: LLMs excel at persuasive speech “without regard to the truth,” fitting American philosopher Harry Frankfurt’s definition of bullsh**.

When LLMs hallucinate, the consequences can be spectacular. In 2023, investors spotted an incorrect claim in a Google Bard promotional video about the James Webb Space Telescope, wiping $100 billion from the company’s market value in a single trading session. That same year, attorney Steven Schwartz discovered the danger of relying on ChatGPT when a federal judge spotted six fake court cases Schwartz cited which the AI had invented, earning the lawyer national notoriety and $5,000 in court fines.

This imprecision stems from fundamental LLM architecture rather than fixable bugs. Researchers at Apple published a study in June, “The Illusion of Thinking,” which found that advanced reasoning models “face complete accuracy collapse beyond certain complexities,” even when provided with explicit problem-solving instructions. Yet this weakness becomes a strength when marketing teams need to generate dozens of concepts instantly or strategic planners want to discover unconsidered possibilities—and even in precision-critical fields like medicine.

When Eli Van Allen, the chief of the populations division at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, was a medical student, he and classmates watched House episodes over lunch, competing to beat Hugh Laurie at identifying conditions. The trick wasn’t coming up with obvious diagnoses, but rather recalling faint possibilities.

Van Allen sees similar value in AI’s diagnostic brainstorming, which surfaces possibilities human doctors might miss. Where physicians remember “diagnosis 965” but overlook “diagnosis 9652,” AI can “pull down all 10,000 possibilities instantly” and help clinicians ensure “that tree to be the right tree and not prune too many limbs early on.”

Teaching machines to stop hallucinating is fighting against the grain —the real trick is to teach humans how to harness AI’s creativity, transforming its most dangerous flaw into a valuable feature.

Lesson 5: Solve Human Problems

Venture capitalists have poured billions into AI companies convinced that extraordinary technology will inevitably find extraordinary uses. Their build-first mentality has created a graveyard of startups that died searching for problems to solve, dazzling users with technical sophistication while leaving them wondering what they’re supposed to do with it.

Apple’s Genmoji lets users create custom emojis from prompts like “a taco riding a skateboard.” But user reactions that started as “incredibly fun, creative and a great way to add more expression” soon became “the magic wore off quickly.” Suno AI can produce blues tracks that sound like they came straight from a Delta juke joint —but why? Google’s NotebookLM generates podcasts from any text filled with realistic human-like vocal quirks—authentic pauses, laughter, casual banter—that impress. Yet Cornell law professor Michael C. Dorf discovered after feeding it his writing that the results “sounded like a conversation among people who read my columns, lacked legal training, were reasonably smart and got about half of what I was saying but didn’t really follow a number of key points.” Does anyone need their meeting presentations turned into podcasts?

Tech giants may have resources to indulge viral novelties like OpenAI’s Studio Ghibli image generators, but few outside Silicon Valley do. “ The gritty people who run the multitrillion-dollar logistics of the world are not going to be spending billions of dollars based on glitziness. They’re going to be based on return on investment,” Brooks says. Lasting value comes from “understanding who your customers are and where their pain points are and how you are uniquely qualified to fix one of those things for them.” Netflix’s recommendation engine helps people find something to watch when they’re faced with an overwhelming number of choices. GitHub’s Copilot reduces the tedium of writing boilerplate functions by autocompleting repetitive code patterns. However remarkable AI’s capabilities may be, successful deployments start with clearly defined human problems—not the reverse.

Lesson 6: Embrace Creative Partnership

When the pandemic isolated legendary production designer Rick Carter from his usual creative collaborators—directors such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and J.J. Abrams—he made a startling discovery while experimenting with AI video tools like Midjourney. “I can prompt it and even make mistakes, and it comes back with things that...I’m just going to call it an adjunct to what I am thinking,’” Carter tells Newsweek in the AI Impact interview series. Carter discovered something crucial: AI works best as a creative conversation partner rather than a creative generator. “It starts to interface with how I’m seeing things, and it stimulates me to move further in that direction.”

His experience echoes decades of collaborating on films like Jurassic Park, Avatar and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. “You’re being prompted, as a production designer, by the director,” he explains. “And then there’s a dialogue. It’s back-and-forth.” Carter says of Spielberg: “Steven makes a point of not knowing what he’s going to do.” He once asked Spielberg why he did it this way and the director replied, “Well, if I know what I’m going to do, then it’s like having a job at Denny’s, and I’m just servicing an order.”

Academic research demonstrates how this back-and-forth creative dialogue amplifies human capabilities. German researchers Jennifer Haase and Sebastian Pokutta found that true “co-creativity” is “a fusion of human creativity with advanced AI capabilities, where both entities contribute significantly to a shared creative product.” In a study published in Nature, DeepMind and Oxford researchers found that AI-mathematician partnerships achieve “surprising results by leveraging the respective strengths” when AI serves as “a test bed for intuition”—quickly verifying which hunches about mathematical connections “may be worth pursuing and, if so, guidance as to how they may be related.” This collaborative approach led to breakthroughs including “one of the first connections between the algebraic and geometric structure of knots” and progress on a 40-year-old unsolved problem in representation theory. As Carter discovered, AI may lack its own creative heart, but it can amplify yours—if you engage it as a partner in dialogue rather than a generator of finished ideas.

Extending Human Judgment

When OpenAI chose the name ChatGPT, the acronym carried deeper significance. While officially “Generative Pre-trained Transformer,” the letters also evoke the concept of a “General Purpose Technology”—an economic term reserved for innovations capable of transforming entire civilizations. Writing, metalworking, electricity: These foundational advances reshaped the very structure of human society. Few doubt AI belongs in this pantheon, yet like those earlier revolutions, its ultimate applications remain tantalizingly unclear.

This uncertainty is not unprecedented. If you somehow managed to transport an electrical generator to the 1850s, few would have any idea what it is or what to do with it, even though at that point scientists had studied electricity for centuries. Electric lighting, motors, telecommunications—those were all still faint visions of a far distant future.

The gap between technological capability and practical deployment has always challenged human imagination, but the patterns emerging from our AI Impact conversations reveal the true promise of AI lies not in replacing human judgment but in extending it. Where automation dreams crash against real-world complexity, augmentation thrives by preserving what humans excel at while amplifying capabilities through machine partnership.

These principles—maintain human control, foster collaboration over replacement, target domains with sufficient regularity for learning, generate possibilities rather than answers, solve genuine human problems and encourage creative dialogue—cut through promotional fog to reveal a pragmatic yet transformative path forward, not toward a human-free utopia, but toward sophisticated new partnerships between mind and machine.

TASK 1

Read the text and answer the following questions:

1. Why do many AI projects fail despite massive investment and hype?

2. What are some examples of high-profile AI failures mentioned in the text?

3. Why do experts like LeCun and Brooks insist that humans must remain in control of AI systems?

4. How has Klarna’s experience changed its approach to using AI in customer service?

5. Based on the Kahneman-Klein framework, in what situations is AI most likely

to perform well, and why?

6. Why is it risky to treat LLMs as reliable sources of truth, and how can they be used more effectively?

7. How did Rick Carter use AI as a creative partner, and what does this suggest about human-AI collaboration?

8. According to the text, what is the most promising role for AI in the future?

TASK 2

Task description: Students will participate in a discussion about AI’s current capabilities and limitations.

Task elements:

1. List 3–5 key facts or statements from the article that surprised you or stuck with you. What did you learn about AI that you didn’t know before?

2. Explain why augmentation is currently more successful than automation in AI development. What are the reasons given in the article that support a co-pilot model rather than a fully automated one?

3. Imagine your future profession (e.g., engineer, marketer, doctor, lawyer, teacher). How could AI be used as an effective support tool in that field—without replacing humans?

The 8:15 a.m. scene in front of the school that sits on a dusty, sun-soaked residential street in Brownsville, Texas, just across the border with Mexico, looks much like any other elementary or middle school in that chaotic period before the morning bell. Groups of tousled boys and girls trickle, saunter and dawdle into a nondescript building where they will spend the next few hours, in theory, learning. These kids, though, seem more jubilant than might be expected for a Tuesday morning in April.

The days of dodging class or suffering from a lack of motivation appear to be a thing of the past at Alpha School, a private pre-K through eighth grade institution that utilizes personalized artificial intelligence to teach an entire day of core academic lessons in just two hours.

The tech-savvy students then spend their afternoons working on non-academic critical life skills like public speaking, financial literacy or even how to ride a bike. Staff — known here as “guides” rather than teachers — say they strive to facilitate a sense of independence into each child while overseeing a supportive, nurturing environment like any attentive teacher in any solid school district in America.

The innovative approach at the South Texas campus, which opened in 2022, primarily aims to instill a love for learning into each young mind, cofounder MacKenzie Price told Newsweek in mid-April ahead of Alpha’s expansion this fall.

A 2-Hour School Day?

Once inside, it becomes clearer that whatever is happening at this school, it’s unique. In kindergarten, the students show a palpable level of excitement as 6-year-old Sarah Schipper collaborates with a dozen other classmates to solve a simple logic game. In the lesson, students deduce the correct path by jumping on colored dots to find their way across six multi-hued rows. Wide smiles, upbeat pop music and gentle suggestions of where to hop next dominate the lively room.

“There’s a little code and we aren’t able to see it,” the bubbly kindergartener said. “And we have to guess it — and people can cheer for us and give us ideas of how to win.”

Sarah and her classmates encouraged each other to make bold choices at each pass but had a sense of compassion for any wrong move. One girl suggested the cohort would “grow from losing” while another boy kindly proposed a more collaborative approach — along with less shouting.

The cooperative activity serves as a springboard into Alpha’s AI-powered 2 Hour Learning platform, where students use laptops for 30-minute sessions in core academic subjects, including math, English, science and social studies. The personalized approach utilizes proprietary and third-party apps and allows students to master topics up to five times faster than traditional methods, Alpha claims.

Sarah, who prefers Alpha’s life skills workshops that come later in the day, said she wants to be a scientist and study “microscopic things,” insisting the tech-laden model will help her attain that goal while honing an unabashedly self-sufficient

educational perspective.

“That we all work on computers,” she said when asked what separated Alpha from most other public and private schools. “Not all schools work on computers, and this is a very special school. Maybe all the other schools everywhere can work on computers?”

Trump Weighs In

The precocious digital native said she believes Alpha’s AI-centric formula will set her apart from her peers — and she’s not alone. Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to integrate AI into K-12 classrooms nationwide, aiming to cultivate tech-related expertise in future generations. The directive also establishes the White House Task Force on AI Education and requires Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon to prioritize the use of AI in discretionary grant programs for teacher training.

“[AI] is rapidly transforming the modern world, driving innovation across industries, enhancing productivity, and reshaping the way we live and work,” the executive order reads. “To ensure the United States remains a global leader in this technological revolution, we must provide our nation’s youth with opportunities to cultivate the skills and understanding necessary to use and create the next generation of AI technology.”

Trump’s order also creates a “Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge,” a competition for students and teachers to showcase their AI skills — a modern take on LBJ’s Presidential Physical Fitness Challenge — and stresses the need for educators to fully embrace technology.

“To achieve this vision, we must also invest in our educators and equip them with the tools and knowledge to not only train students about AI, but also to utilize AI in their classrooms to improve educational outcomes,” the directive continues. “Professional development programs focused on AI education will empower educators to confidently guide students through this complex and evolving field.”

The order calls for the education and agriculture departments to allocate discretionary grant money and repurpose other training initiatives for the AI expansion. Educators who spoke to GovTech said they were skeptical schools would be given the resources, particularly since the administration is in the process of gutting the Department of Education that would ostensibly be charged with allocating those resources.

The Screen Time Question

Back at Alpha, Sarah, praised her guides, who largely act as facilitators rather than traditional instructors. “They don’t tell me the answers,” Sarah said of how her guides interact with her during the two-hour learning sprints. “They just give me resources.”

Sarah also stressed how she’s motivated to keep at it long after her school day concludes, around 3:30 p.m. most days. “And I work on my computer, I can bring it home,” she said. “Sometimes, there’s incentives, but I have to get a lot of masteries, so I work probably until midnight.”

Youthful exaggeration aside, Sarah’s affinity for school appears evident within minutes. “I want to figure what stuff are in the world that I don’t know,” she said. “I did get a science kit for Christmas. I got a real microscope, actually.”

Mo Swain, who serves as campus lead and interim director at Alpha Brownsville, said the vast majority of the school’s roughly 60 students complete requisite lessons during their accelerated learning sessions, negating the need for homework or more screen time in most cases. Pre-K students aren’t even allowed to take their laptops home, she said.

“If kids bring them home, parents know it’s to wrap up some work or maybe they have a passion project they’re working on, like some of the older students,” Swain said. “When they’re older, they have more autonomy but when they’re younger, we really do focus on getting it done at school. Parents don’t want their kids on technology all the time.”

Swain’s comments reflect the tension at the heart of an experiment like Alpha. Schools across the country are banning devices, with New York the latest state to agree on a “bell-to-bell” phone ban as part of its budget. But such measures do not address the school-issued devices increasingly common in classrooms across the country. According to a survey by educational software firm Lightspeed Systems, K-12 students in the U.S. are spending an average of 98 minutes per day on school-issued laptops or tablets.

Usage of those devices peaks in middle school at 2 hours and 24 minutes for sixth graders, then declines in high school as students move to personal devices and become more involved in extracurricular activities or start working, according to Lightspeed data provided to the Wall Street Journal in January.

In that context, Alpha’s two-hour sprint approach seems relatively moderate. Just a “handful” of parents this year have voiced concerns about students spending too much time on their laptops after the school day ends, Swain said.

“But kids, when they really want something or they’re really working hard to achieve that goal, they’ll go home and say, ‘I have to get this done,’” Swain said. “Because they really want to — but our parents know they don’t have to.”

Cultivating that internal motivation is a big part of Alpha’s mission. And based on some early data, it’s working. Price, the cofounder, told Fox News in March that Alpha classes were in the “top 2 percent” of test scores in the country.

Students are universally “surpassing” education benchmarks and take Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress assessments that are aligned with common core standards, Swain added to Newsweek. “They’re learning the same things you could expect to learn in a public school or a different private school,” she said. “They’re just learning it in a different way and at a faster pace.”

Alpha’s Origin Story

Price launched the framework for Alpha in Austin, Texas a decade ago out of personal necessity. The mother of two said her zoned school district couldn’t meet the needs of her daughters, particularly regarding “personalized attention” despite being one of the top districts in Texas.

“The teacher in front of the classroom model is required to teach a certain curriculum kind of, you know, to the middle,” said Price, adding one of her daughters’ particularly suffered in second grade, inspiring her to act.

“She looked at me and said, ‘School is so boring,’” Price recalled. “In two and a half years, they had taken a child who was tailor-made to love school and be curious and interested, and they wiped away that passion. And I realized it wasn’t about the teachers or that school, or moving from a public to a private school. It was the model of a teacher in front of a classroom that wasn’t working.”

Price said she soon realized adaptive apps could be the key to providing a personalized process to each student, combined with regular surveys and interactions with guides. “Over the next 11 years, this has grown into numerous schools all based on the idea that number one, kids should love school,” Price said. “If they’re going to be spending five days a week the majority of the year for 13 years in a place, they should love it. And kids can learn twice as fast in only a couple of hours a day by getting this one-to-one, mastery-based tutoring experience.”

Pandemic Reveals Parent Frustrations

Price, who studied psychology at Stanford University, insists the model is “accessible and scalable,” pointing to Alpha’s expansion plans in markets beyond Texas. Alpha first ventured in Florida last year, launching a campus in Miami, while additional locations in Tampa, Palm Beach and Orlando are expected to open this fall. Job postings for guides at some of those locations list a starting salary of $100,000.

Alpha also intends to grow its footprint in Texas, opening schools in fall 2025 in Houston and Fort Worth, as well as outposts in Phoenix, New York City and Santa Barbara, California. Tuition ranges from $10,000 in Brownsville to $65,000 in New York, according to its website.

“Education is ripe for transformation and the beauty of what has happened in the last few years with artificial intelligence coming on is that now we can really make sure that children are learning efficiently and effectively,” Price said. “And they are getting that one-to-one, mastery-based experience.”

The traditional role of teachers has also been vastly reimagined, Price said, as Alpha guides primarily provide motivational and emotional support rather than creating lesson plans, delivering lectures or grading assignments.

“We believe kids are limitless and we provide really high standards,” she said. “And we provide really high levels of support because our teachers have time to do that. That’s what’s really special — artificial intelligence is allowing us to raise human intelligence.”

Price said Alpha’s growth reflects the increasing number of parents nationwide who want alternatives to traditional teaching methods — what was once a pet cause of a niche subset of parents that exploded with the frustrations born out of the pandemic. She praised the Brownsville Independent School District, but said its “severely underfunded” schools had ongoing challenges.

The SpaceX Connection

Roughly half of Alpha Brownsville’s students are children of SpaceX employees who work at the company’s headquarters, about 25 miles east. Billionaire Elon Musk is trying to formally incorporate the Cameron County community, known as Boca Chica Village, as Starbase, Texas. The SpaceX investment has helped boost the economy around Brownsville, which is home to about 185,000 people and among the poorer parts of Texas. More than a quarter of Brownsville residents live below the poverty line, about twice the national average. Alpha says it provides need-based assistance in special cases to

offset the $10,000 tuition.

“It’s been a really great environment for us to test out the model and understand how it works

with a diverse population, both racially and socially economically,” Price said of Brownsville. “What we’re really showing is artificial intelligence and delivering education via that format is kind of a great

equalizer.”

Messages seeking comment regarding Alpha from Brownsville school district officials, as well as the federal Department of Education, were not returned.

The American Federation of Teachers, the union that represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th grade educators, said AI can be a “powerful tool” in classrooms so long as it is used safely and thoughtfully.

“Yet no matter how advanced, it cannot replace the critical role of human educators,” AFT Secretary Secretary-Treasurer Fedrick Ingram told Newsweek in a statement. “Real, consequential learning only happens when teachers and students collaborate in an atmosphere of mutual trust, charting a learning path forward together.”

Much like pencil and calculators, Ingram acknowledged AI is “here to stay,” but said it can only reach its full potential under the guidance of trained educators who know how best to integrate the technology into their classrooms.

Some students at Alpha Brownsville are so pleased with their success and progress from past public-school environments that they’re working to open a high school, effectively attempting to fill their own need.

Seventh-grader Savannah Marrero, now in her third year at the school, wants to launch the new high school so she can continue her personal momentum after she felt “stagnant” at schools in Fort Worth and Dallas, she said. “Right now, the Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville and all the cities surrounding it are lagging behind in education in the U.S., so students going from a fast-paced environment like Alpha and then having to cut it off and go to a traditional school doesn’t make sense,” she said. “So that’s why I want to continue it.”

Savannah would attend the public high school in Brownsville if her vision doesn’t become reality, but she’s currently researching legal requirements and previously visited Alpha’s high school in Austin as part of her plan. “Obviously, since I’m 12, I’m not going to know everything about financial stuff and funding and things like that, so I have adults to help me,” she said.

Savannah isn’t sure about her ultimate career choice, but thinks about owning a business one day. Helping to launch a private school that she would ultimately attend would be a fitting apprenticeship, she realized as she was speaking to Newsweek. “Even when I get home, I want to do work,” she said. “Like, all the kids here are passionate about learning and reaching their goals.”

The seventh-grader also said she experienced something of a “mindset” changed when she switched schools to attend Alpha, and feels newly empowered in a way she didn’t earlier in her education. “The guides will never tell you that you can’t do something,” she said. “So over time, you develop that mindset and the environment from day one is you can do anything if you set your mind to it. That’s where I started to learn motivation.”

AI and the Role of Teachers

As the Trump administration moves to advance the use of AI in education, some experts said Alpha’s condensed, tech-heavy model and the early successes it is showing should prompt discussions in public districts across the country.

“Take a look at how they’re delivering core instruction, whether it could be reconfigured and delivered more efficiently,” said Robin Lake, director of the Seattle-based Center on Reinventing Public Education.

Lake said many public school districts should take a critical look at how teachers use their time, and think of how to use electronic learning tools more coherently and efficiently. AI and other technological advancements have created an opportunity to rethink the role of educators entirely, she said. “That’s a really important one, a really important challenge for public schools,” Lake said of the teacher question. “Because, you know, the one teacher for 25- to 30-kid model has proven maybe impossible for a lot of schools.”

Alpha acknowledges its model may not work for every student, but the looming integration of AI into education is undeniable and fast approaching, Lake said. “It’s going to push everybody to start asking these kinds of questions,” she said. “Are we leveraging teachers to their best effect? Are we putting their talents to the most important use? There are many who are saying it’s a waste of time to be spending time on basic instruction that an AI-powered tool can deliver. Instead, they should be mentoring, building relationships with kids, helping to motivate kids, helping kids to think critically and deeply — which is what I think Alpha School is trying to do.”

Lake suggested public school officials could begin analyzing staffing models and the typical student’s daily schedule, among other aspects, as part of a possible reimagining of K-12 education. “We have to question that and think differently, especially as dollars get really tight for a lot of public schools and outcomes are not increasing,” Lake told Newsweek. “We’ve got to look for alternatives.”

TASK 1

Read the text and answer

the following questions:

1. What makes Alpha School’s daily schedule different from most traditional schools?

2. How do students at Alpha School learn core academic subjects, and what are the claimed benefits of this approach?

3. Why did Alpha School’s cofounder, MacKenzie Price, start the school model?

4. What role do the ‘guides’ play at Alpha School, and how is it different from traditional teachers?

5. What concerns do some people have about screen time at Alpha, and how does the school address them?

6. How is Alpha School connected to the local economy and SpaceX in Brownsville, Texas?

7. How does the Trump administration’s executive order relate to what Alpha School is doing?

8. What broader implications does Alpha School’s model raise about the future of education, according to experts?

TASK 2

Task description: Students will participate in a discussion about the educational model of Alpha School, as described in the reading text.

Task elements:

1. Recall the most important characteristics of the Alpha School model.

2. Compare and contrast AI-based learning with conventional methods. Consider student motivation, teacher roles, screen time, and access.

3. Do you think Alpha’s model is an effective way to improve education? Why or why not? Give your opinion, supported with examples and arguments. Try to refer to both the text and your own experience or context.

4. Design your own “ideal school.” Which elements from Alpha would you include or leave out? Why? Present it to the class.

TASK 3

Complete the following summary using information from the text.

Alpha School in Brownsville, Texas, uses 1) __________ artificial intelligence to teach core academic subjects in

2) __________ daily sessions. Students then work on

3) __________ such as public speaking, financial literacy,

and biking. Staff members, called 4) __________, support students in developing independence and motivation.

The school’s model allows children to progress more quickly and focus on their interests. Founded to offer more personalized attention, Alpha is expanding across the U.S. While the school emphasizes AI tools, some educators stress that teachers still play a key role in meaningful, 5) __________ learning.

Check the answer key!

It’s chilly and silent inside a witness room adjacent to the execution chamber at Florida State Prison in Raiford. I’m about to witness Michael Anthony Tanzi exhale for the final time as the government’s retribution for kidnapping and killing 49-year-old Janet Acosta during a harrowing four-hour nightmare on April 25, 2000.

Moments earlier—on April 8, 2025, almost 25 years to the day that the crime was committed—I was ushered into the small, unadorned viewing room by Florida Department of Corrections staff, who instructed me to remain silent throughout the entire procedure. Welcome to Death Row.

I’m seated in the far corner of the last row in the gallery with 23 other witnesses including Acosta’s sister Julie Andrew and her niece Jennifer VanderWier. FDC protocol allows relatives of victims to watch alongside invited members of the media, a nurse or medical technician, attorneys for the condemned inmate and a minister of religion, if requested.

The hum of an air conditioner on the wall is the only perceptible sound inside the witness room, where a curtain covers a large pane-glass window that separates us in the gallery from the death chamber.

The curtain is raised, and 48-year-old Tanzi is revealed to us in his last moments of life— strapped to a gurney and draped in an oversized white sheet. He briefly picks up his head to glance at the onlookers on the other side of the glass.

The execution team warden then picks up a telephone inside the death chamber to determine whether Governor Ron DeSantis granted a last-minute stay of execution. He did not.

Tanzi, who we’re told ate a last meal earlier in the day that consisted of fried pork chop, bacon, a baked potato, corn, ice cream, a candy bar and soda, is then given the opportunity to say his last words.

Outside the facility, around 50 anti-death penalty demonstrators descend on the prison complex to protest the execution, the state’s third this year. Nationwide, Tanzi is the 11th man to face capital punishment in 2025.

“I believe whoever is going to be killed tonight, Michael is one of God’s creatures,” one protester told Newsweek. “He’s loved by God just like I am. It’s not up to me to judge how his life ends.”

The group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said in a statement that “the death penalty is not justice,” and that Florida is “selling a false bill of goods when it tells murder victims’ family members that the death penalty is the best and only way to achieve justice.”

“It is not justice to take a physically and mentally broken man, strap him to a gurney and commit premeditated murder. This is revenge, plain and simple.”

The statement also noted the abuse Tanzi had suffered at the hands of his parents, starting at the age of 2.

One counter-protester outside the prison told Newsweek he came out to voice his support for the execution. “Getting rid of one psycho killer, gotta go, can’t keep these guys around,” said Bill Campbell, of Marion County.

“This guy murdered two women—women are the favorite targets of these psycho killers, so somebody’s gotta do something to stop this stuff. I do believe capital punishment is a deterrent.” “It’s a beautiful day today,” Campbell concluded.

The abduction and murder of Janet Acosta

Those two women were Acosta and Caroline Holder. Tanzi attacked Acosta, an employee at the Miami Herald, as she sat in her van on her lunch break at the Japanese Garden on Watson Island. He promised not to hurt her if she cooperated, but threatened to “cut her from ear to ear” with a razor if she resisted.

Tanzi, then 23, proceeded to drive Acosta through Miami, heading south to Florida City, where he forced her to perform oral sex and warned he would cut her if she “bit him.”

Tanzi then drove more than 130 miles in Acosta’s van into the Florida Keys. She was bound and gagged with ropes. He strangled her on Cudjoe Key then dumped her body in an area masked by mangroves and went on a shopping spree using her ATM card.

Two days later, when Tanzi was arrested in Key West, he told detectives why he killed Acosta. “If I had let her go, I was gonna get caught quicker,” Tanzi said. “I didn’t want to get caught. I was having too much fun.”

After his arrest, Tanzi confessed to killing 37-year-old mother-of-two Holder in Brockton, Massachusetts, in 1999. She was found strangled and stabbed in the throat at a coin laundry, but he was never charged over the killing because of his death sentence.

Back in the execution chamber, an unemotional and declarative voice pipes in at low volume through a speaker, and Tanzi apologizes to the relatives of Acosta and Holder.

“Heavenly Father, please do not blame those who do not know what they’re doing,” he says to conclude his final statement. No one inside the witness chamber appears to react to his words, and none of us knew ahead of time whether he would even make a statement until he was prompted by the execution team warden.

The executioner who initiates the flow of lethal chemicals into Tanzi’s body then enters the room to begin the state’s three-drug protocol—beginning with etomidate , an anesthetic, followed by rocuronium bromide, a paralytic, and potassium acetate, which will induce cardiac arrest. State law allows the executioner, a private citizen paid $150 for her services, to remain anonymous.

At 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighing as much as 383 pounds, Tanzi had been described in court documents by his attorneys as “morbidly obese” and “very likely” to endure “needless suffering” during the execution due to his history of chronic and unremitting sciatic pain and the size of the drug doses needed for the execution.

While it’s difficult to discern Tanzi’s true height and weight from our view, given that he was almost entirely covered by a sheet, he was certainly a large man.

Roughly three minutes after the first injection is administered, Tanzi’s chest starts to palpitate as three prison staffers inside the execution chamber look on. The fluttering continues until the team warden assesses whether the condemned inmate is unconscious. He does this by standing over him and shouting loudly, shattering the eerie silence inside the witness gallery.

The female executioner then returns to the death chamber at about 6:11 p.m. and Tanzi is pronounced dead a minute later. There were no apparent complications from the drug cocktail related to his size.

“The sentence of the state of Florida vs. Michael Tanzi has been carried out at 6:12 p.m.,” the team warden declares through the speaker connected to the witness gallery. The window covering to the gallery is quickly lowered again and we are promptly ushered out.

No one inside makes any overt emotional reactions as we file out of the room in complete silence.

After Tanzi’s execution, VanderWier, Acosta’s niece, said the family was “relieved to finally have closure on this horrific event.”

“She always told us, there’s a lot of world out [there] that needs to be lived. You need to go out there and see everything you can see, experience everything you can experience and have adventures—that’s what life’s all about. And so that’s how my mom and I lived our lives, especially after her passing. She was an exceptional daughter, sister, aunt, friend, coworker—and just overall human being.”

“There is now basically a sense of closure and a sense of peace,” said Andrew, Acosta’s sister, during a brief press conference in front of the prison after Tanzi was pronounced dead.

“One of the things that when this first happened, I said to my sister at her memorial and when we spread her ashes, was that I would do everything I could to make sure that she got justice and I would be there until the bitter end. It’s taken a while—I was getting a little nervous because I’m not a spring chicken —but the fact is we were able to do that today.”

“It’s over, it’s done,” Andrew said. “Justice for Janet happened and my heart just felt lighter, and I could breathe again.” As I exit the prison, the warm Florida breeze hits me as a welcome respite from the stale air of the death chamber. It was the first time I have been a witness to an execution in my two-decade reporting career, and I’m still processing the almost paradoxical feeling of having watched someone be put to death so methodically. The whole experience felt almost clinical, like a trip to the doctor.

For now, all I want to do is take a hot shower.

TASK 1

Read the text and answer the following questions:

1. What event is described in this text, and where does it take place?

2. Who was allowed to witness the execution, and why?

3. What crime did Michael Tanzi commit, and what were the circumstances?

4. How did Tanzi justify the murder of Janet Acosta when speaking to detectives?

5. What were Tanzi’s final actions and words before his execution?

6. What were the different reactions to the execution from people outside the prison?

7. How did Janet Acosta’s family react after the execution?

8. How did the narrator describe the experience of witnessing the execution?

TASK 2

Task description: Students will participate in a discussion about capital punishment. Task elements:

1. Recall the key facts about Michael Tanzi’s case

and the execution procedure.

2. Explain why some people support the death penalty and why others are against it, based on the text.

3. Imagine your country was about to reinstate the death penalty. Based on the information from the article, how would you argue for or against it at a public debate?

4. Propose an alternative justice system response to cases like Tanzi’s that balances punishment, prevention, and victim support. Be prepared to explain your reasoning.

TASK 3

Complete the following summary using information from the text.

Michael Anthony Tanzi was executed at Florida State Prison for 1) __________ and killing Janet Acosta during a four-hour nightmare in 2000.

2) __________, including Acosta’s sister and niece, watched in silence as the execution team followed Florida’s three-drug protocol. Tanzi apologized to both victims’ families. Outside, protesters called the act 3) __________, while supporters saw it as

4) __________. Tanzi had also confessed to another killing in Massachusetts. After nearly 25 years, Acosta’s family expressed 5) __________, saying they finally felt peace, closure, and justice had been served.

Check the answer key!

Eliminated a quarter of a century ago in the U.S., measles may be on track for an "unfathomable" comeback within the next two decades. This is the warning of a study led by epidemiologists from Stanford University who modeled the impact of decreasing vaccination rates on the spread of the infectious disease.

Already, waning levels of immunity have led to significant outbreaks within the states—such as the recent episode in Texas that saw more than 620 cases, 64 hospitalizations and the deaths of two children. "While the effects of declining vaccination won’t be immediate, we could eventually see the return of awful complications from diseases that most clinicians today have not encountered thanks to decades of successful immunization," said Professor Nathan Lo in a statement. "With measles, we found that we’re already on the precipice of disaster. If vaccination rates remain the same, the model predicts that measles may become endemic within about 20 years," added Professor Mathew Kiang. "That means an estimated 851,300 cases over 25 years, leading to 170,200 hospitalizations and 2,550 deaths."

The epidemiologist continued: "It’s worth emphasizing that there really shouldn’t be any cases at this point, because these diseases are preventable. "Anything above zero is tragic. When you’re talking about potentially thousands or millions, that’s unfathomable," Kiang said.

In the year 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the measles had been eliminated from the U.S. However, vaccination rates have recently been falling in the U.S.—a problem that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. "We’ve seen a worrisome pattern of decreasing routine childhood vaccinations. There was a disruption to health care service during the pandemic, but declines preceded this period and have accelerated since then for many reasons," noted Lo. "People look around and say, ‘We don’t see these diseases. Why should we vaccinate against them?’ There’s a general fatigue with vaccines. "And there’s distrust and misinformation about vaccine effectiveness and safety," Lo said.

In their study, Kiang, Lo and colleagues ran large-scale simulations to explore how measles and three other infectious diseases— diphtheria, polio and rubella —could spread across the U.S. under various levels of childhood vaccination. "Specifically, we wanted to look at some key diseases that have been eliminated from the U.S. through vaccination, which means they’re not spreading within the country on an ongoing basis," said Lo. The four diseases in question, he added, "can have awful complications, like lifelong paralysis, birth defects and death."

In its analysis, the team simulated the entire population of the U.S., factoring in such properties as age, level of immunity, state of residence and vaccine status. The models, Lo said, assumed that the diseases are introduced to the United States by travelers returning from abroad—typically unvaccinated U.S. citizens. "Right now, so many people are immune through vaccination that diseases don’t spread far," Lo said, adding: "But if vaccinations decline over a longer period, you start to see outbreaks increase in size and frequency. "Eventually you see sustained, ongoing transmission, meaning these diseases become endemic—they become household names once again."

Taking a conservative approach based on the average vaccination levels between 2004 and 2023, the team found that, if the status quo is maintained, measles (but not the other three diseases) could become endemic within 20 years. Should vaccination rates fall by even 10 percent, Kiang said, "measles cases would skyrocket to 11.1 million over the next 25 years." And if immunization rates were halved, the U.S. could see some 51.2 million cases of measles, 9.9 million cases of rubella, 4.3 million cases of polio and 200 of diphtheria. "This would lead to 10.3 million hospitalizations and 159,200 deaths, plus an estimated 51,200 children with post-measles neurological complications, 10,700 cases of birth defects due to rubella and 5,400 people paralyzed from polio," Kiang added. In this nightmare scenario, the models predicted, measles would become endemic in less than five years, rubella in less than 20, and polio would have a roughly 50 percent chance of becoming endemic in some 20 years.

The models also revealed differences at the state level; Massachusetts, for example, has high vaccination rates, and was found to be at a lower risk across all the models. In contrast, both California and Texas—which see a lot of arriving travelers and have seen decreasing vaccination rates—were found to be at higher risk.

Part of the problem with measles is that it is one of the most-infectious diseases known, meaning that widespread immunity is needed to keep it from spreading. "Also, the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine has become particularly controversial, partly due to a history of fraudulent medical research that raised safety concerns; it has been conclusively shown that there is no link with autism," said Lo.

In addition, the team notes, measles is more common than diphtheria, polio and rubella around the world, meaning that travelers are more likely to bring it back to the U.S. "Travelers importing a disease are like matches, and U.S. under-vaccination is the tinder," said Kiang. "With measles, you’re throwing a lot of matches in—and eventually something is going to happen."

"I would encourage parents who aren’t sure about vaccination to discuss this with their pediatrician and believe in our health-care providers," said Lo. The researchers say they hope that their findings will be useful both for individuals, but also officials, to understand what will happen if vaccine rates continue to decline. "With measles, we’re right on the cusp. Increasing vaccination levels by just 5 percent brings the number of measles cases down safely away from returning to endemic levels," Lo added. He said: "These are the kinds of small percentages that can really be a tipping point. It’s empowering that a small segment of the population can make a difference here."

TASK 1

Read the text and answer the following questions:

1. What warning did the Stanford study give about measles in the U.S.?

2. Why are vaccination rates declining

in the U.S., according to the researchers?

3. What were the consequences

of the recent measles outbreak in Texas?

4. What did the researchers find about the impact of decreasing vaccination rates in their simulations?

5. Why is measles more likely to return than diphtheria, polio, or rubella?

6. What solution do the researchers suggest to avoid a return of measles?

TASK 2

Task description: Students will participate in a discussion about the potential return

of measles and other infectious diseases.

Task elements:

1. Recall key facts from the article about the potential return

of measles and other infectious diseases in the U.S.

2. Compare the potential consequences of low and high vaccination rates. You can use the article’s example of Massachusetts vs. Texas.

3. Debate the following statement with your partner or in a small group: “Vaccination shouldbe mandatory for all children.”

4. In pairs or small groups, design a short campaign message (30 seconds) to encourage vaccination. You will present this to the class as if it were a public service announcement.

TASK 3

Complete the following summary using information from the text.

A study from Stanford warns that measles could return

in the U.S. within 20 years due to falling 1) ____________. Although eliminated in 2000, recent outbreaks—like in Texas—show waning 2) ____________. Researchers modeled how measles, polio, rubella, and diphtheria could spread again if immunization continues to decline. Measles, highly infectious, could become 3) ____________, leading to many hospitalizations, deaths, and complications. The COVID-19 pandemic and misinformation have caused 4) ____________. Scientists urge increasing vaccination rates even slightly,

as small changes could stop 5) ____________ and protect future generations from preventable health problems.

Imagine if adding greenery to a hospital could help patients heal. Or if increasing natural light in an office by upgrading the size of the windows enabled employees to focus better.

Architect Alyssa Anselmo thinks all this is possible, and is sparking conversation about the link between emotion and design. The 30-year-old, from Edmonton, Canada, posted a video to Instagram exploring the psychological impact of everyday buildings. She never expected her clip, comparing office and church interiors, to receive over 220,000 likes and spark such interest in how we can alter our environments to enhance our mental performance and mood.

The award-winning architect behind Studio Anva spoke about how the viral video has invited people to reconsider the architecture influencing their daily lives. "I wanted to show spaces like traditional churches versus ultra-modern ones, inspiring office spaces versus sterile windowless cubicles, classrooms, homes and more," Anselmo, who studied interior architecture in Florence, Italy, before joining an architecture firm in New York, told Newsweek. "My goal was to visually illustrate how our environments have changed, and not always for the better. I wanted to make people pause and feel something...Would you be more inspired in this classroom or in this one? Would you feel more creative in this office or that one? It is not just about aesthetics, it is about how our spaces affect us on a subconscious level."

What Is Neuroarchitecture?

Anselmo’s short video, posted under the handle @alyssaanselmo_, showed her addressing the viewer while showing contrasting images—one a typical dim corporate office, the other a bright, inviting workspace. "Would you feel more stressed in this office or in this one?" she asked, before cutting to two churches—one stark and modern, the other ornate and classical. "Would you feel more inspired in this church or in this one?" she added, before going on to compare a sterile, standard-looking hospital to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in Singapore, which is known for its unique use of greenery.

The caption alongside the video also posed a reflective challenge: "Are you very much affected by your environment? If so, how? This basically comes down to neuroarchitecture, which is the study of how we interact with our built environments. Truly the main, if not only, reason I chose to design buildings really."

Anselmo’s framing—equal parts visual comparison and guided self-reflection—touched on a field of growing relevance: neuroarchitecture, which is the study of how the built environment influences

the human brain, behavior and emotions. Rooted in neuroscience and psychology, it explores how elements like light, space, acoustics, color and greenery can affect stress levels, cognitive function, mood and well-being.

But for Anselmo, it is far more than just a design philosophy—and while it may sound complex, the ethos is simple: inject natural light, characterful design and greenery into spaces for a more rejuvenating experience in them. "We have grown used to dull, lifeless environments because they are cheaper and faster to build, but at what cost to our well-being?" she said. "I want to open up a conversation about design, psychology and how we have undervalued beauty in everyday life. "I want people to see that creating a thoughtful, meaningful space is not just for the rich, it is about intention, materials and tuning into what inspires you."

Dr. Emma Seppälä, a psychologist and researcher affiliated with Stanford University and Yale School of Management, also emphasized the importance of one’s environment on emotional health. "Exposure to nature—even if just for a short walk or a moment spent outdoors—can significantly improve mood, lower stress and enhance cognitive performance, " Seppälä, whose research is focused on how our surroundings can impact on mental performance, told Newsweek. "Natural elements like sunlight, greenery and birdsong have measurable effects on brain chemistry and emotional well-being. Even brief exposures to nature can help to restore focus and reduce anxiety. "

Seppälä is not the only person who has vouched for the psychological impact our surroundings can have. Anselmo’s video led to comments pouring in from people reflecting on their own office spaces, homes and schools, and how those settings shape their mental state. "That’s my hospital," one viewer said. "And we even have gardening therapy for the older folks there!" Another person commented: "I like colors, natural materials, greens, plants, cozy sofas." "When I go to see the doctor in America, I feel like I’m in a cold clinic and ready to die, but in many doctors’ offices in Korea, I feel like I’m at a spa," a third viewer said. "Always the second one," another added, referring to the more uplifting options shown in the clip. "It’s not about money... It’s about personality of the room on itself."

"The comments really proved the point," Anselmo said. "People overwhelmingly said yes, they are affected by their space, whether they realize it or not. While some people kept saying this is all about money, I believe it is not—some of the best spaces I have ever designed were on a tight budget."

That belief—that thoughtful architecture should be accessible—is what drives Anselmo’s current work. "Right now, I am working on additional holistic child care centers and other design projects while also filming and sharing my apartment series," she said. "It is a challenge, but a creatively fulfilling one."

Anselmo was first invited to design a holistic child care center back in her hometown of Edmonton a year after graduating. "I found myself leading the design of a 1,000 square meter [over 10,000 square feet] building solo," Anselmo said. "I had to learn how to navigate everything on my own, from contractors to developers to the industry language. "I completed the project and that is when I grew the craving to do more solo designs."

That first center led to a second child care facility and, with it, a wave of attention online that Anselmo never anticipated. "It was already built by the time I joined TikTok, but I decided to post a walk-through video," she said. "It unexpectedly went viral and led to an overwhelming wave of curiosity and support. "People were amazed that a day care could look and feel like that, filled with natural light, rich materials and a warm, child-led design ethos inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach."

The Reggio Emilia approach centers on the belief that children learn best through self-directed, experiential learning in a collaborative environment. Encouraged by the positive reaction, Anselmo began posting more often, shifting from finished projects to styling her own apartment—offering aesthetic ideas that balance design ambition with affordability.

"I launched a personal series styling my own apartment," she said. "It was an opportunity to not only share my aesthetic process but also help people create spaces that reflect their personalities and bring them joy, no matter their budget. I truly believe that good design is not about money, it is about thoughtfulness, self-awareness and a sense of connection to the objects and materials in your home."

Design constraints, she explained, do not limit creativity—instead, they foster it by forcing people to think outside the box with what they have access to. What resonated most in her recent clip, perhaps, is the underlying message that people want beauty in their lives, but not for vanity. They want design that makes them feel grounded, uplifted and seen.

"At the heart of it, the video took off because people are craving depth and beauty in their lives," Anselmo said. "And I want to help them reclaim their spaces, regardless of budget, to reconnect with how their environments make them feel."

TASK 1

Read the text and answer the following questions:

1. What is neuroarchitecture, and why is it important according to the text?

2. How did people react to Anselmo’s Instagram video?

3. What message does Anselmo want to share about design and beauty in everyday life?

4. How does Anselmo compare different types of buildings in her video?

5. What example is given in the text

to show how natural elements can improve well-being?

6. How did Anselmo’s early experience designing a childcare center influence her career?

TASK 2

Task description: Students will participate in a discussion about the concept of neuroarchitecture.

Task elements:

1. Recall a few elements mentioned in the text that can affect our emotions in a space.

2. Think of a space where you spend a lot of time (classroom, bedroom, office, etc.). How could it be redesigned to make you feel more relaxed, inspired, or productive?

3. Do you agree with Anselmo’s claim that ‘good design is not about money, it is about thoughtfulness’? Why or why not?

4. Design a space (e.g., classroom, hospital room, or child care center) using the principles of neuroarchitecture. Describe its features and explain how it supports mental health and well-being.

TASK 3

Complete the following summary using information from the text.

Architect Alyssa Anselmo explores how

1) ___________ buildings affect emotion, mood and mental performance. Her viral video shows how light, 2) ___________ and design can change offices, hospitals and churches. This connects to neuroarchitecture, the study of how

3) ___________ influence the brain. Anselmo believes good 4) ___________ does not need to be expensive, but thoughtful and meaningful. Her projects, like holistic 5) ___________, show that beauty and well-being can exist on a budget. Many people responded, saying their spaces strongly affect how they feel every day.

Check the answer key!

The world’s finest beach clubs blend sun and sea views with exceptional cuisine, top-tier beverages and first-class service. There are thousands of them across the globe, but a few stand out as truly noteworthy.

Casa Jondal Ibiza, Spain

Casa Jondal on the southern coast of Ibiza offers respite from the club-thumping vibes that are common throughout the island. It’s nearly always busy during the season thanks to its fabulous sandy lounge space that blends into a shaded dining area, where you’re able to order a deep-fried whole fish, acorn-fed Iberian ham and caviar.

Gitano Tulum Beach, Mexico

This beach club offers a level of privacy that can be hard to find in popular Tulum. It’s on 120 meters of private, white-sand beach next to the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve. The club features a restaurant and lounge area right on the water, where breakfast, lunch and dinner are served.

Scorpios Mykonos, Greece

Ocean, sky, sand and relaxing vibes converge on the Cycladic coastline. Scorpios’ restaurant welcomes diners for long meals, alfresco. Relaxation is the name of the game during the day, but at night artists and DJs take over the manicured terrace.

Yazz Collective Fethiye, Turkey

Accessible only by boat, this remote hideaway focuses on connecting art, nature and personal experiences. The eco-conscious oasis offers services for unwinding but guests can also enjoy the serenity of the sea while lounging on a sunbed at the shore. For access, a two-night minimum stay at the hotel is required.

Carpe Diem Beach Hvar, Croatia

This Pakleni Islands hangout allows for activities and relaxation in a space spanning two beaches, and is reachable only by boat. Luxury sunbeds, freshly caught seafood, diving, transparent kayaking, natural shade and a pool are among the daytime highlights. At 5 p.m., the Terranza After Beach Program kicks off.

Tresanton Beach Club St. Mawes, England

This terraced shoreside locale provides a touch of Mediterranean elegance in the U.K. Sitting across the street from the Tresanton Hotel, the club allows sunbathers to enjoy the surrounds while nibbling and sipping selections from the menu. The hotel’s 1930s Italian racing yacht, Pinuccia, can be tendered out.

Nammos Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Tucked into a nook on the Persian Gulf, the vibes of Greek beach culture mix with the opulence of Dubai at Jumeirah Beach. The lavish luxury experience is seaside splendor that blends mixology with gastronomy, all with the city skyline as a backdrop.

Potato Head Seminyak, Bali

Relax and catch rays on the edge of the Indian Ocean, where swimming during the day can lead to dancing the night away. An extensive drinks menu and several restaurants to choose from make the club a quintessential escape from reality.

If you’re looking for a seaside party, there are beach clubs for that too. Whitney Haldeman, luxury travel advisor at Embark Beyond, recommends these three clubs:

La Guérite Cannes, France

Only accessible by boat, this legendary spot is part lunch, part day party, and entirely scene-y in the best way. Arrive chic, leave barefoot.

Loulou Ramatuelle Saint-Tropez, France

If Saint-Tropez slipped into vintage Celine and spun French disco all afternoon, this would be it. It’s chic but breezy—perfect for a long lunch that casually turns into cocktails and a little barefoot dancing.

Phi Beach Sardinia, Italy

This spot has major drama—in the best way. Carved into the cliffs, it’s mellow during the day and turns into a full-blown (but still tasteful) party spot at night. The kind of place where you dance with strangers and drink good wine under the stars.

TASK 1

Read the text and answer

the following questions:

In which place…

1. …can you eat fresh seafood, go diving, and use a transparent kayak?

2. …do people listen to disco music in the afternoon and sometimes dance barefoot?

3. …do guests relax during the day, but at night the place turns into a party spot?

4. …do you need to take a boat to get there

and stay at least two nights to enjoy its peaceful atmosphere?

5. …do visitors enjoy delicious food, drinks,

and a Greek-style beach setting, with a city skyline nearby?

6. …can you have meals close to the water

and also relax on a quiet beach near a nature reserve?

7. …can you see a stylish old yacht from the 1930s while enjoying food and drinks by the sea?

8. …do people swim during the day and then dance after sunset, all in the same beach club?

TASK 2

Task description: Students will participate in a discussion about dream beach clubs.

Task elements:

1. List a few beach clubs from the article and describe one unique feature of each.

2. Rank the three most appealing beach clubs from the article and justify your ranking.

3. Discuss in pairs what makes a beach club successful.

4. In pairs/groups, design your ideal beach club using features from the article and your own ideas. Consider the location, food, music, atmosphere, and unique services. Prepare a short pitch to present your beach club to the class.

TASK 3

Create a 4-slide Instagram Story (in writing) with short captions or mini paragraphs for each slide.

1. Location: Introduce the beach club and where

you are. Use sensory language to describe your first impression.

2. Food & Vibes: What are you eating, drinking,

and hearing? Describe the scene (music, crowd, view, etc.).

3. Activity or Highlight Moment: Share one fun

or unforgettable thing that happened (e.g., kayaking, sunset dancing, secret DJ set, celebrity sighting...).

4. Final Thoughts + Call to Action: Would you recommend this place? Why or why not? Invite your followers to comment or vote (“Would you come here? Yes/No?”).

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s father, Xi Zhongxun, was a Communist Party official for more than seven decades—from the Communist Revolution through the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square protests and beyond. In the first English biography of Xi Zhongxun, The Party’s Interests Come First, Professor Joseph Torigian uncovers the story of his life and of the modern Communist Party—and sheds light on the formative influences on Xi Jinping. This excerpt from Torigian’s deeply researched book talks about the family’s home life.

At work, Xi Zhongxun faced a dizzying array of policy challenges and the vicissitudes of his own shifting fortunes. But in party culture, home life was no escape from the political. Everything from schooling and leisure to clothes and food in the Xi household were shaped by broader preoccupations within the elite. Aaron Solts, the Soviet Union’s most famous theorist of Bolshevik ethics, had asserted that "the family of a Communist must be a prototype of a small Communist cell" and "must, in all their work and life, represent a unit of assistance to the Party." Domesticity presented an existential challenge to the Communist war on bourgeois weakness and materialism. Having fought decades of war to establish a transformational regime, party leaders in China were proud of what they had achieved yet concerned about their families losing the revolutionary élan that had proven so instrumental. The leadership, including Xi, worried that the next generation would grow up spoiled and separated from the so-called masses.

Before he arrived in Beijing in 1953—well before the one-child policy—Xi was already a father to three surviving children with his first wife (a son, Zhengning, and two daughters, Heping and Qianping), as well as two daughters with Qi Xin (Qiaoqiao and An’an). Two more sons, Jinping and Yuanping, were born in the capital in 1953 and 1955, respectively.

All the children lived at school during the week. Qiaoqiao, An’an, Jinping and Yuanping all went to middle school at the August 1 School, where the students were primarily the children of high-ranking military, not political, figures. One graduate described the school as a place where "softness and delicateness were especially despised. " Although it was tough, the August 1 School was also an exciting place. The students "were full of resolution to give their lives to the desire to struggle, the will to serve, the collective spirit and sincere beliefs and traditional pursuits, and at the same time, they were full to the brim with the special confidence and pride of victors," according to one former student. The education system emphasized class struggle, teaching that enemies could be lurking behind any problem, that anyone could be an enemy, and that such enemies were to be treated viciously. During political-education class, they read books such as Be a Successor to the Revolution, which in Jinping’s own words "influenced the idealistic beliefs and life choices of our generation."

Graduates of the school credit the education there with giving them the spiritual power not to lose hope during the dark times that were to come during the Cultural Revolution.

In 2003, an interviewer bluntly asked whether Xi Jinping had enjoyed a privileged lifestyle as a child. Xi responded: "It can be put this way: there were no worries about clothes or food, but my father’s demands upon us made us live very frugally. " As an example, Xi said that he was forced to wear the clothes of his older sisters as hand-me-downs. He tried to depict his own family as especially thrifty, but in doing so, he also revealed the "privileges" he enjoyed when participating in activities with the party elite: "At the Lunar New Year, we participated in several evening parties; when we went to the Great Hall of the People or to Tiananmen Square, the staffers would ask whose children were wearing such run-down clothing? Those who understood would reply that we were the children of the Xi family."

Xi did spend time with his children on weekends. By several accounts, Xi was a ferocious disciplinarian. Even Qi Xin wrote: "Sometimes, I really believed that your demands on the children were too strict." Xi’s children often spoke of their father’s thriftiness. Qianping wrote: "When we were little, none of us were willing to eat at the same table as father. We were terrified of his strict rules on frugality.... For example, when eating, he never allowed us to drop a single piece of rice or bits of food; if we were not careful and dropped any food, he would immediately pick it up and eat it." In 2001, Jinping told two interviewers at the end of a conversation that he would not ask them to stay and eat. "Actually, eating with me is a form of suffering," he said. "I am the son of a peasant. I have never been picky about eating, and, moreover, I never allow people to leave any leftovers."

Xi’s harshness also included physical punishment. In his diaries, Li Rui described a conversation with Ren Zhongyi—who would later succeed Xi as party boss of Guangdong—in March 1998: "[We] discussed how Xi raised his three sons; he was extremely brutal based on feudal rules of etiquette that included beatings." Journalist John Garnaut, who has conducted extensive interviews with elite political families in China, writes: "Xi Zhongxun, despite his noble exterior, drank too much and would occasionally explode with anger. His children were sometimes on the receiving end of his anger, according to a close family friend who witnessed such occasions." According to another journalist with deep ties in Beijing, on one occasion, Xi was so angry that he lined up his children, as well as the child of another high-ranking leader, and struck them one by one.

Xi was tougher than most, but his behavior was still reflective of the context of the times. Many "cadre offspring" deeply worried their parents because they played too much and did not study hard. The Xi household was not the only "Red aristocratic" family in which children would kowtow; many elite families had such strict protocols. When a friend asked Xi why he was so cruel, he responded: "I do not do this to make them fear me. It is to make them feel a sense of awe and veneration for heaven and earth so that, from a young age, they have understood that one cannot act in an anarchic fashion." Children who did not respect their parents were a disaster when they entered society.

But Xi had a softer side too. On one occasion, he carried Jinping on his head. When Jinping started urinating on him, Zhongxun waited patiently until Jinping had finished. Xi believed that when children were urinating, they should not be frightened, otherwise they will "have an illness for the rest of their life." Xi and Qi Xin would help their children jump rope, and they played "horse" on their father’s back. Although the children feared their father, they cherished the time with him. In Qiaoqiao’s words: "I was happiest at those times, but the time we had together with father and mother was truly too little."

Joseph Torigian — Excerpted from The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping, published by Stanford University Press, ©2025 by Joseph Torigian. All Rights Reserved.

TASK 1

Read the text and answer the following questions:

1. What was Xi Zhongxun’s role in Chinese politics?

2. How did Communist Party beliefs affect the home life of the Xi family?

3. What kind of education did Xi Jinping and his siblings receive?

4. In what ways did Xi Zhongxun show strictness and discipline at home?

5. How did Xi Jinping describe

his childhood in terms of material comfort and discipline?

6. Was Xi Zhongxun always harsh

with his children? Give an example.

TASK 2

Task description: Students will participate in a discussion about Xi Jinping’s childhood.

Task elements:

1. Recall three factual details you remember

from the text about Xi Jinping’s childhood

or his father’s parenting style.

2. Explain in your own words why the Communist Party expected leaders’ families to act

as ‘miniature Communist cells’. How did

this influence everyday life in the Xi family?

3. Do you think Xi Jinping’s strict upbringing was effective or harmful in preparing

him for leadership? Support your opinion

with evidence from the text.

4. Design your ideal upbringing for a future leader. Include at least three qualities or values you would want them to learn. Explain how their family should help develop these.

TASK 3

Complete the following summary using information from the text.

This excerpt from The Party’s Interests Come First by Joseph Torigian explores Xi Jinping’s early life and the strong influence of his father, Xi Zhongxun, a long-time 1) __________ official. Family life followed party ideals, with rules on schooling, food, clothes, and 2) __________. Xi was strict and sometimes brutal, but also loving. His children lived 3) __________ and studied class struggle

at August 1 School. Party leaders feared the next generation would lose 4) __________. Xi’s childhood, shaped by harsh expectations and party 5) __________, reveals how political values influenced future Chinese leaders.

Check the answer key!

Everyone wants to live a long, happy, and productive life. If you’re working class in America, that’s tough to do.

Last month, I asked Americans to share their stories about how financial stress is affecting their lives. The response was overwhelming, heartbreaking, and infuriating. Working people are dying years before they should. Stress kills. Put simply: Being poor or working class in America is a death sentence.

Patrick from Missouri wrote: "Living paycheck to paycheck while supporting a family stresses me out. We are always just one financial emergency from being homeless."

Taryn from Alabama shared that she pays $400 for her children’s asthma medication. On top of struggling to pay for groceries and basic utilities, she worries about astronomical medical bills every time her daughters go to the hospital.

I recently asked a crowd in rural Wisconsin: "What is it like living paycheck to paycheck?" Their responses? "You can’t keep the heat on." "You have to figure out how to eat between paychecks." "You have to choose between getting glasses for yourself or your kids."

Sadly, these stories are not unique. This is what life looks like for millions of working-class Americans. They are struggling. They are exhausted. And they are dying far too young.

A recent report I released as ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee found that the bottom 50 percent of Americans can expect to live seven fewer years than those in the top 1 percent. In some places, the gap is even wider. If you live in a rural, working-class county, you are likely to die 10 years earlier than someone in a wealthy suburb. For example, if you live in McDowell County, West Virginia, where the median household income is just $27,682 a year, you can expect to live 69 years. Meanwhile, just 350 miles away in Loudoun County, Virginia, where the median income is $142,299, life expectancy is 84 years—a 15-year gap.

Why? It’s simple. Day after day, the struggle just to survive takes a horrific toll on a person’s body and mind. Financial stress kills. If your landlord raises your rent by 30 percent and you can’t afford it, what do you do? Where do you live? Will your kids be forced to sleep in a car? If you get sick, and end up with a $20,000 hospital bill, will you go bankrupt? Or will bill collectors hound you every day? If you make $15 dollars an hour, will you have to make a choice between paying for childcare or the prescription medication you need to survive?

That stress doesn’t go away as you get older. Susan from Michigan told my office: "I am nearing retirement with a disabled husband who receives Social Security. If Social Security goes away, we will not be able to live." Over 20 percent of seniors in America are trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less. How does ANYONE survive on that kind of income? If that’s not stress, I don’t know what is.

There is a reason why the life expectancy in the United States is lower than almost every other wealthy nation, even though we’re spending twice as much per capita on health care as they do. And that reason is not complicated. Virtually every major country has a far stronger social safety net than we do, a safety net that protects their citizens from poverty, illness, homelessness, and lack of educational opportunity. We must make sure every American has the same protection. Here are just a few initiatives that would significantly reduce stress and extend life expectancy for Americans.

First, health care is a human right, not a privilege. Regardless of your income, you should be able to walk into a doctor’s office and not worry about the cost. We need a health care system designed to keep people well, not to make the CEOs of the pharmaceutical industry obscenely rich. It is estimated that Medicare for All would save 68,000 lives a year. Knowing that health care is available, with no out of pocket cost, would go an enormous way in easing the anxieties that too many Americans experience.

Second, we need a minimum wage of at least $17 an hour. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality and record-breaking corporate profits, we cannot tolerate millions of workers being unable to feed their families because they work for totally inadequate wages.

Third, we must end the international embarrassment of the United States being the only major country on earth not to guarantee paid family and medical leave to every worker. Women should not be forced to go back to work a couple of weeks after having a baby.

Fourth, we must expand and strengthen Social Security so that every senior can retire with dignity and every person with a disability can live with the security they need. Americans should not be forced to live out their retirement years struggling to buy food or keep their homes warm.

Finally, we can increase life expectancy by ensuring that every child has access to a free, high-quality education from daycare through graduate school. It is not acceptable that today Americans who only have a high school diploma will likely live 8.5 fewer years than someone with a college degree. That gap has more than tripled in the last 30 years.

We are the richest country in the history of the world. There is no excuse for people dying young because of the financial stress that they deal with

every day.

Bottom line: we need to create an economy and a government that works for the many, not the few. That mission will not only improve the financial well-being of the working class—it will extend the lives of the vast majority of Americans.

Let’s get it done.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is the senior senator from Vermont. He is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.

TASK 1

Listen to the recording and answer the following questions:

1. Why is it hard for working-class people

in America to live a long life?

2. What did Patrick from Missouri say about his financial situation?

3. What problem does Taryn from Alabama

have with her children’s health care?

4. What did people in Wisconsin say about living paycheck to paycheck?

5. What is the difference in life expectancy

between poor and rich areas in the U.S.?

6. What solutions does Bernie Sanders suggest

to reduce stress and help people live longer?

7. According to Bernie Sanders, why is life expectancy in the U.S. lower than in other rich countries?

TASK 2

Task description: Students

will participate in a discussion about the impact of economic inequality on life expectancy.

Task elements:

1. Recall two examples from the text that show how financial stress affects people’s lives.

2. Explain why Bernie Sanders thinks being poor

in America is like a death sentence.

3. Compare and contrast the situation in the U.S.

with your own country. In what ways are they similar or different when it comes to health, income,

and support for working people?

4. Imagine you are a government leader. What three actions would you take to improve the lives of working--class people in the U.S. or in your own country?

TASK 3

Complete the following summary using information from the text.

Many working-class Americans die younger than 1) __________ people. The reason is stress from 2) __________ problems. People worry about rent, food, medical bills, and taking care

of family. Some live 3) __________ and can’t afford health care or basic needs. Life is harder in poor or 4) __________ areas. The stress causes health problems and shortens life. Bernie Sanders says America must fix this by improving

5) __________, raising wages, helping seniors,

and giving every child a good education. This would help people live longer and better lives.

Check the answer key!

British diver Tom Daley was thrust onto the world stage at his first Olympic Games in 2008, age 14. What remained hidden from the public was the strain success at a young age put on him. "It was a very lonely period because no one really understood."Daley reflects on his diving career and life in the new documentary Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds (Olympics.com). "Growing up, you think you know everything.... It’s only when you look back, you realize you knew absolutely nothing."

Daley also had to contend with losing his father and coming out as gay. "It was quite scary to finally, actually, come out. Because I knew that it wasn’t just going to be telling my family. There was going to be public opinion." And he recounts being bullied while growing up. "I almost felt guilty for being bullied at school. I’m really grateful and really lucky to be in the position that I’m in, yet I’m having this really rough time." Though revisiting the past was hard, the keen knitter is proud of his documentary. "It would be really cool for my kids to have something to look back on and see what happened in my diving career."

What struck me watching the doc is how young you were when we all were introduced to you. What was it like seeing a lot of this old footage while doing the documentary?

It was the first time that I’d seen most of that footage, if I’m being honest. Obviously, the Olympic stuff I had seen, but the home video stuff and all the footage—I was reacting for the very first time that I’d ever seen that. It was very surreal to look back at my whole life in that way. I remember watching it back the first time—I was very emotional. Because I was like, "Oh my gosh. This is all the stuff that I did and had to go through." And I kind of felt sorry for younger me and how I was thrust into this thing, not really knowing how to deal with any of it. Not really having any advice or knowing anyone that was going through the same thing. Because growing up in a small town of Plymouth, there weren’t many people around that had had any similar experience.

That’s really it, how watching the doc we can feel how much you were thrust into the spotlight.

I look back at it now as a parent as well. My oldest son turned 7 at the end of June, and that was the age I started diving. And I look at that, and I think, "Oh my gosh. That was the age where I started doing all of this stuff." I mean, with Robbie, if he wanted to, great. But it seems so young. And I only thought of it as being young now as a parent, because when I was growing up and I was doing it, I was like, I knew everything. I was an old person. As you’re growing up, you think you know everything. And then it’s only when you look back, you realize that you knew absolutely nothing. And it was a wild ride to go on, I’ll tell you that.

Why did you want to do the documentary now?

Once I released my book in 2021, right after the Olympics in Tokyo, they approached me to do a little bit of a retrospective about my whole career and things like that, because there’s so much footage out there from various documentaries that I’ve done in the past. But then it got to a point where they were like, "Oh, do you want to do something where you look back on everything?" And I was like, "Yeah, that would be great. But also, surprise! I’m also going back to dive again for another year." And it was one of those things that just—I don’t know—it always feels weird when people approach you to do things like that. Because you’re like, "Oh, what? Who would care? Who’s interested in any of that?" But then I actually thought about my kids in that moment. Like, you know what? It would be really cool for my kids to be able to have something to look back on and see what all happened in my diving career. So, if anything, it’s like a token—a thing for them, really.

The doc also reveals things that I don’t think a lot of us knew, like your experience with going back to school after the Olympics, and the bullying you were subjected to. What was it like watching all of that?

Very lonely, honestly. It was a very lonely period because no one really understood. I had my best friends—Sophie, who is still my best friend today, who I never spoke to about diving. She’s there to be, like, "Yay! That was great." But she doesn’t have any interest in knowing what’s going on within it. Well, maybe she does have interest. But she doesn’t see me just as a diver. She’s my best friend. So I think that’s something that’s really quite nice to have, and I’m really grateful for her. Obviously, I had my parents and my diving teammates, but no one really understood what it was like to be that young when I was going away on team competitions, because they were all so much older than I was at the time. So there was nothing that we had ever in common. So it was a very lonely existence. I almost felt guilty for being bullied at school, because I was like, I never want to bother anyone about this. I’m really grateful and really lucky to be in the position that I’m in, yet I’m having this really rough time. It was like being pulled from one side to the other of like, "Yay, great. I’m succeeding in this." But then, "Oh no, I’m being pulled this way." It was this constant back and forth. It was quite difficult to have that moment where I was just like, "You know what? I feel very alone. I don’t really know what to do." That’s part of the reason why I think I kept finding myself putting on this other personality to be able to hide from that bit of me that was really struggling. Because I never really wanted to confront it, whether that was being gay, being bullied, knowing that my dad was terminally ill, and having all these things that I had to deal with. I never wanted to come across as the person that felt sorry for himself, because I felt so grateful and lucky to be in the position I was and I didn’t ever feel like I was in a position to ever complain about that.

How was it grappling with your own sexuality while dealing with all of that at that time?

It’s really difficult. Going through childhood and growing up is difficult anyway, for anyone. We have all of these things pulling us in different directions, telling us what we should be, shouldn’t be, how we should portray ourselves. But it was very difficult to explore who I was sexually because I was always really worried about being caught. Because you know what society says that you should be. So then when there’s something wrong with you or you’re slightly different, you feel like, "Oh, gosh, I can never actually explore that side of me, because I don’t want things to go wrong." And then I was getting advice from different people where it was—it just felt very lonely and a very difficult thing to have to go through and navigate. It was also one of those things that I couldn’t tell anyone that I was struggling with that side of things, because as soon as I told someone, that meant I came out, and I wasn’t ready to do that. So it was quite scary to finally, actually, come out. Because I knew that it wasn’t just going to be telling my family. There was going to be public opinion, and it was scary. But [I’m] very grateful and lucky that it did go way better than I had expected.

It’s touching in the doc to see the impact your father had on you, and the impact of his passing at such a young age. How hard was it looking at that old footage, and what impact do you think he had on your Olympic success?

My dad was a great guy, and he taught me so many valuable lessons I didn’t even know he was teaching me at the time. Mainly to not care what anyone else thinks. As long as the people around you are happy and healthy and you’re not hurting anyone, you’re doing well. And he taught me so much about perspective. But seeing those videos back for the first time when they first came up, oh my gosh, it took me out. I was not ready to be hit with that straight away. I don’t know if anyone else feels the same as me, but I feel guilty sometimes about the fact that, as I’m getting older—I lost my dad when I was 17, and of course, I like to think that he comes into my head every single day. But then there’s some times where he doesn’t—then I’m like, I don’t want to forget about him, but I don’t know how to feel about it being so present all the time. And just seeing that documentary and knowing that that’s there for me to be able to always look back on and cherish those memories is pretty special.

There’s also the impact of your husband, Dustin Lance Black. From the doc it does feel like so much of your life aligned after meeting him, from your marriage to even your Olympic games.

Yeah, it gave me a sense of perspective. Of realizing that I’m more than just a diver. That diving isn’t what matters most in life. It’s all of the stuff on the outside. It’s your friends, it’s your family, it’s feeling loved and supported. And without that, it’s really difficult to succeed and not put the tons and tons of pressure on yourself. But when you go into a competition knowing that you’re going to be loved and supported regardless of how you do, it’s so incredibly freeing, and allows you just to be able to fly in the way that you never thought that you even possibly could.

You’ve accomplished so much at such a young age. What do you do now?

Honestly, I spend all my time knitting. There’s lots of knitting that happens, which is great. Made with Love, my knitting business, is where my passion lies, and I want to keep expanding. But I also have done different TV hosting things. I just finished shooting a TV show in the U.K. called Game of Wool, which is basically like the knitting version of [The Great British] Bake Off. It’s like a competition show. I’m hosting, and then there’s two judges, 10 contestants. Each week, someone gets cast off—if you’re a knitter, that is a knitting pun, when you cast off your work from your needles. It has been really fun. There’s lots of things that we’ve been doing and working on with that. So yeah, we’ll see what comes from that. But ideally, to work in TV hosting and expand my Made with Love passion.

How often do people ask you to randomly knit them things?

Oh, all the time. I get asked to knit things all the time. And if I knit you something, that means that you’re really important. Because I’m so busy with knitting things all the time for different people and different things. I do just genuinely love it. An ideal day would literally just be sitting by a pool—actually, I’ve done that my whole life—maybe on the beach, let’s say. And just knitting the whole day. It’s just so therapeutic to me. I often look forward to going on long--haul flights just to be able to have uninterrupted knitting time.

Wow. You are going to be a great senior citizen.

I know! I’m so ready for being a senior citizen. Well, kind of. Not really. But yeah, I feel like I’m going to be able to pass the time. As long as my hands are still working nicely as I get older.

What do you ultimately hope people take from this documentary?

I mean, there’s so many different things. I think, obviously, never giving up on your dreams and working as hard as you possibly can toward them. But also accepting help, keeping people around you and being able to keep those open lines of communication. Being able to really have a support system around you—whether that’s family, whether that’s friends—and realize a sense of perspective that you’re more than just what you do. And if you take a step back or take a break from what you do, and you see it from a different perspective, it really allows your perspective to shift when you go back into it. So I think that’s one thing that I hope people take away from the documentary. H. Alan Scott

TASK 1

Read the text and answer the following questions:

1. Where was Tom Daley born

and growing up?

2. How old was he when he first competed in the Olympics

in 2008?

3. Why was it a difficult time

for him when he was growing up

and competing?

4. Why was he afraid to come out as gay?

5. Who made him realize that there are more important things in life than just diving?

6. What does he do now in his free time and career after diving?

TASK 2

Task description: Students will participate in a discussion about Tom Daley’s life story.

Task elements:

1. Recall the challenges Tom Daley faced because of being gay and a young athlete.

2. Explain in your own words what “coming out” means and why it can be difficult,

especially for a sportsman.

3. Do you believe that being true to yourself helps people succeed? Why or why not? Share your opinion with reasons and examples.

4. Imagine you are giving advice to a young athlete who is gay and is afraid to show who they really are. What would you tell them?

TASK 3

Complete the following summary using information from the text.

Tom Daley became a famous British

1) __________ at just 14 during the 2008 Olympics, but his early success brought loneliness and pressure. He was 2) __________

at school and found it hard to explore his 3) __________, fearing 4) __________. Losing his father when he was 17 deeply affected him,

but his father’s lessons helped him stay strong. Tom felt very alone because no one around him understood his experience. Now a 5) __________ and father, he values love and support beyond diving. He hopes his story encourages others to keep going and accept help when life is difficult. Check the answer key!

Właśnie tam nauczył się słuchać zwykłych ludzi, a w Peru, dokąd trafił po latach – jak być ich pasterzem. Pracując od 2023 r. w Watykanie poznał funkcjonowanie instytucji Kościoła i samej kurii rzymskiej. Teraz ma przeprowadzić 1,4 mld katolików przez epokę niepewności, polaryzacji i duchowego zmęczenia.

Leon XIV jest pierwszym papieżem z USA, a zarazem jednym z niewielu, którzy naprawdę poznali od środka Kościół pozaeuropejski. Mówi biegle pięcioma językami, ale – co wydaje się jeszcze ważniejsze – potrafi rozmawiać z ludźmi z odległych geograficznie i mentalnie krain i sprawiać, by oni też nawzajem się usłyszeli. Nieprzypadkowo pierwszą papieską przemowę wygłosił po włosku i hiszpańsku – w językach "serca" i "misji".

Obecny Ojciec Święty został papieżem w trudnym momencie. Kościół wciąż zmaga się z konsekwencjami wielu skandali i nadużyć. Musi też odnaleźć swoje miejsce w realiach trwającej i nasilającej się wojny na narracje. Nie może przy tym zatracić umiejętności bycia słyszanym głosem sumienia w ogłuszającym hałasie współczesnego świata. Po latach napięć w hierarchii kościelnej oraz rywalizacji pomiędzy skrzydłem tradycyjnym a postępowym jego wybór odczytywany jest jako próba przywrócenia równowagi. Jest postrzegany jako człowiek autentycznego dialogu, a nie wygłaszanych deklaracji.

Wydaje się jednak, że przywrócenie równowagi na szczytach władzy kościelnej nie wystarczy. Stolica Apostolska musi zmierzyć się z kryzysem instytucjonalnym i przezwyciężyć go. Malejące wpływy, rosnące zobowiązania finansowe, odpływ wiernych w Europie – wszystko to składa się na obraz Kościoła, który potrzebuje nie tylko przewodnika, ale i stratega. Leon XIV zna realia zarządzania: jako przełożony generalny kierował zakonem augustianów, reorganizował diecezje w Peru, a jako prefekt dykasterii ds. biskupów współdecydował o nominacjach biskupów na całym świecie. Teraz jego zadaniem będzie przywrócenie wiarygodności instytucji, która – tak jak on sam – mówi wieloma językami, ale często nie potrafi porozumieć się nawet sama ze sobą. Nie wiadomo jeszcze, czy Leon XIV stanie się papieżem pojednania i reformy, czy milczenia i pozorowanych działań. Wiadomo zaś, że nowy summus pontifex zaczyna od słuchania. W Kościele, który od lat mówił zbyt głośno i zbyt wieloma głosami naraz, może właśnie ta umiejętność okaże się najcenniejsza. Być może pontyfikat 267. papieża stanie się nie tyle nowym otwarciem, ile nowym tonem – głosem zza Spiżowej Bramy.

Drodzy Czytelnicy, w tym wydaniu przygotowaliśmy dla Was 15 tekstów, które – podobnie jak historia papieża z pięciu światów – pokazują, jak złożony i zarazem fascynujący potrafi być współczesny świat. Każdy z nich to nie tylko znakomita lektura, ale też realny krok naprzód w nauce języka. Do tekstów dołączamy nagrania audio, podcasty oraz ćwiczenia, które pomogą Wam czytać, słuchać i rozumieć coraz więcej i coraz bardziej.

Życzę Wam inspirującego czasu z angielskim. Mariusz Gomuła, redaktor prowadzący NLE

Mariusz Gomuła jest absolwentem UW, Wydziału Neofilologii oraz Ośrodka Studiów Amerykańskich. Specjalizuje się w metodyce nauczania języka angielskiego oraz w kulturze i literaturze krajów anglosaskich ze szczególnym uwzlędnieniem Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki. Założyciel i właściciel firmy szkoleniowej Fountain of Knowledge – Nauka Języków Obcych. Współpracował z wieloma polskimi i międzynarodowymi firmami w obszarach: audytów językowych, szkoleń językowych i biznesowych, coachingu językowego oraz tłumaczeń specjalistycznych. Prywatnie zapalony podróżnik

An avid amateur tennis player from Chicago with Creole roots who speaks five languages and is described as a consensus builder will aim to bring unity to the Catholic faith and it’s 1.4 billion adherents.

Robert Francis Prevost was elected Pope Leo XIV following the largest-ever conclave—with 133 cardinals participating—that lasted just two days.

The 69-year-old, who was revealed as the church’s 267th leader on May 8 from the loggia at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, greeted his flock cheering from the square below, and watching on TV around the world, with the words: "Peace be with you."

He expressed a desire to bridge divides in his first address, delivered in Italian and Spanish. "We want to be a synodal church, walking and always seeking peace, charity, closeness, especially to those who are suffering," he said.

While there was much excitement about Leo being the first American pope in the church’s 2,000-year history, the pontiff faces a number of immediate challenges. Leo ascends to the papacy at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions, when Russia is continuing its war in Ukraine and Israel has renewed its offensive in Gaza after a temporary ceasefire. "His greeting to those gathered in St Peter’s Square and those watching globally, ‘peace be with you,’ has set the tone for his papacy," Maria Power, a Catholic and senior research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Las Casas Institute for Social Justice, told Newsweek. "Over the past 50 years, the pope’s role as a global statesman has been emphasized, and he is seen as a neutral figure who has the moral authority required to navigate global political tensions."

His first tasks, she said, will be "to turn his attention to Israel/Palestine and Ukraine, sending Vatican diplomats to engage in shuttle diplomacy while keeping the world’s attention focused on places where the dignity of the human person is being violated daily."

The church in recent years has been divided between conservatives and progressives. Conservative Catholics in the U.S. were particularly critical of his predecessor Pope Francis, but Pope Leo is viewed as a moderate who could strengthen unity—"an inspired choice" to deal with the divisions, Power said. "He is a centrist who has vast missionary experience and will therefore understand the global church. He will have to walk a fine line between the factions of the church, but there are elements of his ministry and priesthood that will appeal to both sides."

Doctrinal peace is only part of the challenge—Leo faces a moral reckoning as well. The pope will have to continue dealing with the sex abuse scandals that have dogged the church for decades. He faced scrutiny over allegations that he mishandled sexual abuse complaints filed in Chicago in 2000 and Peru in 2022. Newsweek contacted the Vatican via email for comment.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called on Leo to institute a "truly universal zero tolerance law for sexual abuse and cover-up" by clergy and demanded an investigation into his handling of prior misconduct allegations.

"Tackling the pain, effects and causes that result from clerical sexual abuse" will be one of the pope’s biggest challenges, Thomas O’Loughlin, a professor of historical theology at the U.K.’s University of Nottingham, told

Newsweek.

Meanwhile, Pope Leo must contend with the crisis of disengagement. While the number of Catholics is growing in some parts of the world, church attendance is declining in others—especially Europe. More than 321,000 German Catholics left the church in 2024. He addressed the issue as he celebrated his first Mass in the Sistine Chapel the day after he became pope.

"There are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power or pleasure," he said. "These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied. Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed."

Pope Leo also inherits the Vatican’s troubled finances, which Francis tried to fix even in his final months. The Vatican faces an €83 million ($93.4 million) budget shortfall, according to Reuters, and a pension fund with up to €2 billion in liabilities, the Wall Street Journal reported.

This financial strain is a sharp contrast to his path to the papacy. Born on the working-class streets of Dolton, Chicago, where he was raised in a Catholic family as one of three siblings, in 1985 he began missionary work in northern Peru, splitting his time between there and the U.S. for over 30 years. An Augustinian priest with a doctorate in canon law who can speak English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese, he embedded himself in local life, gaining a reputation as both a skilled administrator and a warm, grounded pastor.

Tennis became his reprieve. "A very amateur player," he once joked, "but it’s always been a joy."

Pope Francis recognized Prevost’s leadership and brought him to Rome in 2023 to lead the Dicastery for Bishops, a key role shaping the Church’s global hierarchy. His cross-cultural background and pastoral experience are expected to shape his leadership of a complex and diverse Church.

Słowniczek

• temporary ceasefire – tymczasowe zawieszenie broni
• shuttle diplomacy – dyplomacja wahadłowa (pośredniczenie między stronami konfliktu)
• priesthood – kapłaństwo, duszpasterstwo
• moral reckoning – rachunek sumienia
• dog – nękać, prześladować, ciążyć na kimś
• face scrutiny – mierzyć się z krytyką
• clergy – kler
• prior misconduct allegations – wcześniejsze oskarżenia o niestosowne zachowania
• contend with something – zmagać się
• z czymśdisengagement – odwracanie się wiernych od Kościoła
• preach the Gospel – głosić ewangelię
• bear witness to something – stanowić dowód czegoś
• mock – drwić, szydzić
• despise – gardzić, pogardzać (kimś)
• pity – współczuć
• missionary outreach – działalność misyjna
• financial strain – obciążenie finansowe
• embed in sth – zaangażować się w coś
• grounded pastor – twardo stąpający po ziemi ksiądz
• reprieve – ulga, wytchnienie

TASK 1

Read the text and answer the following questions:

1. Who is Pope Leo XIV, and what makes his background unique?

2. What message did Pope Leo XIV emphasize in his first public address as pope?

3. What major global issues does Pope Leo XIV need to address early in his papacy?

4. What internal challenges does the Catholic Church face under Pope Leo’s leadership?

5. What is the issue of disengagement, and how is it affecting the Church?

6. How does Pope Leo XIV’s past experience prepare him for leading the Church?

Task 2

Task description: Students will participate in a discussion about the role of Pope Leo XIV – a modern spiritual leader.

Task elements:

1. Recall at least five facts about Pope Leo XIV from the text.

2. Discuss how Pope Leo’s life experiences and language skills might help him in his new role.

3. Identify and discuss the main challenges Pope Leo will face. Divide them into internal (Church) and external (global) issues.

4. Evaluate Pope Leo XIV’s potential to bring unity and solve problems. Do you think he is the right person for the role? Why or why not?

5. Imagine you are an advisor to the new Pope. Create a 3-point plan for what he should focus on in his first year as Pope.

Task 3

Writing : Text summary

Complete the following summary using information from the text.

Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost, is the first American 1) ___________ and aims to bring unity to the Catholic Church’s 1.4 billion followers. Elected after the largest-ever 2) ___________ , he greeted the world with "Peace be with you." He is seen as a 3) ___________ and consensus builder, with missionary and leadership experience. His key challenges include bridging divides, addressing 4) ___________ scandals, reviving 5) ___________ in disengaged regions, and solving Vatican financial problems. Fluent in five languages, he brings a global perspective and a strong desire for peace, charity, and closeness to those suffering.

Even if you don’t know Tadge Juechter’s name, there’s still a good chance that you’ve drooled over one of the many projects he oversaw during his long stint at Chevrolet. The Corvette programs he worked on during his 46 years in the auto industry developed into the stuff of posters-in-childhood-bedrooms dreams.

Juechter’s passion for performance started early. "I have always been interested in high-performance machinery, especially sports cars, from a young age. My father drove Porsches and that helped fuel my passion. Arriving at General Motors in 1977, I had no idea how to get to work on Corvettes. I was in manufacturing in the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant. It took a long succession of jobs within the company to get to Corvette in 1993. It was there I found my mission in life," he told Newsweek.

"Not many people can say their career matched what they ‘were born to do.’ I can. My time at GM and Corvette felt like a golden era for the car and we elevated the brand and the business to new heights," Juechter said.

Of Juechter’s time at GM, he spent more than three decades of them involved with the Corvette brand. What did he do there? "This could fill a book," he told Newsweek. "I had many job titles during my 31 years on Corvette, but they always involved bringing the entire car together. We have specialists who design individual components or subsystems, but a few of us are assigned the task of coordinating, balancing and integrating the whole car."

Among his biggest accomplishments was convincing GM brass that the current-generation C8 Corvette needed to have a mid-engine setup, something sports cars and supercars from Ferrari and Lamborghini have.

"Moving to a mid-engine architecture was a technical and organizational challenge. There were many, many people skeptical of the move. I have to give my marketing partner Harlan Charles a big shoutout as a co-conspirator in the effort. We had quite a road show making presentations to convince the skeptics," he said.

Convincing GM’s executives was only one part of the equation. Juechter said: "Getting a decision was only the beginning, the actual execution was daunting Our Corvette would have to compete with manufacturers with many learning cycles on mid-engine cars.... We had to get it right on our first attempt.

"This leads me to the thing I am most proud of during my time on Corvette: creation of a high-performance team that was capable, daring and focused on the mission. That small team inside GM deserves all of the credit for doing what many thought impossible.

"This does not happen often inside large companies. It is also rare that large companies choose to disrupt themselves. Even rarer that they do it successfully."

In 2024, Juechter called time on his career. After getting up at 5 a.m. for 46 straight years, he said that he is glad to have "escape[d] that tyranny" in retirement. He and his wife will travel more in the coming years and spend more time at their home in Northern Michigan. Even so, his former job isn’t far from his mind. "I have stayed connected to the Chevrolet team and plan to continue to do so. The team is not just co-workers, they are my extended family," he said.

Słowniczek:

• drool over something – pożerać coś wzrokiem (odczuwać przyjemność, patrząc na coś)
• stint – praca, epizod
• fuel passion – rozbudzić pasję
• assembly plant – montownia (np. samochodów)
• accomplishment – dokonanie, osiągnięcie
• shoutout – podziękowanie
• daunting – zniechęcający, onieśmielający
• daring – brawurowy, śmiały

Task 1

Read the text and answer the following questions:

1. Who is Tadge Juechter, and what is he known for?

2. What inspired Juechter’s interest in sports cars?

3. How did Juechter finally get to work on Corvettes at GM?

4. What was one of Juechter’s biggest achievements with the Corvette?

5. Why was making the mid-engine Corvette difficult?

6. What are Juechter’s plans after retirement?

Task 2

Speaking

Task description: Students will participate in a discussion about dream cars.

Task elements:

1. In your own words, explain Tadge Juechter’s passion to sports cars.

2. Design a car that represents your values. What kind of car would you create? Describe your car: the name, design, engine type, and special features.

3. Create a 2-minute group presentation. Introduce your dream car. Explain your values, your design, and what makes your car special/different.

Task 3

Writing: Text summary

Complete the following summary using information from the text.

Tadge Juechter worked at 1) __________ for 46 years, spending over 30 of them with the

2) __________ brand. His passion for high-performance 3) __________ started young, inspired by his father’s Porsches. After joining GM in 1977, it took many jobs to reach Corvette in 1993. One major success was leading the team that created the 4) __________ C8 Corvette, a big technical and organizational challenge. Juechter retired in 2024, proud of his team’s work. He still feels connected to the Chevrolet team, his "5) __________ family."

Check the answer key!