Andor has returned for its second season and it’s just as fantastic as ever. While the first three episodes of the show get us ever-closer to the Death Star-focused finale in Rogue One, scenes of characters hiding from visa-checking Imperial forces also make it clear in this first batch of episodes that Andor hasn’t lost the real-world grounding that made it great in the first place. And while it’s easy to map moments from these episodes onto our current political moment, perhaps its strongest real world comparison came from paralleling the Empire to the Nazis.  Star Wars’ Galactic Empire has never been far from Nazi Germany comparisons — if nothing else, the aesthetic inspiration is instantly obvious and totally inescapable. But rarely, if ever, has the connection between the two been drawn quite so clearly as Andor creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy draws it in the first episode of season 2, when Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) calls together a secret Imperial meeting to discuss Ghorman.  [Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Andor season 2, episodes 1-3.] During the meeting, Krennic shows the table an informative video about the planet of Ghorman, and shows a video about the fabric it exports, which is widely renowned as some of the finest in the galaxy. He then lets everyone know that Ghorman also hosts a rare substance inside the planet that the Empire needs for completion of Emperor Palpatine’s “Energy Program” — and that mining it will mean destroying the planet completely. In order to take over the planet without fomenting negative fervor, Krennic details a series of propaganda campaigns the Empire has been running to make the Ghormans seem aloof and stuck up, in an attempt to foment negative sentiments from other planets against Ghorman itself.  It’s an absolutely harrowing scene on its face, but when coupled with Tony Gilroy’s inspiration, it becomes downright chilling to see the connections seep from surface-level signifiers into social and political tactics that were really used.  “I mean, look at the very first episode,” Gilroy told Polygon in an interview. “Krennic’s conference that he has, where he first brings up the topic of Ghorman. That’s very much modeled after the Wannsee Conference that the Nazis had when they, you know, had a PowerPoint luncheon to figure out the final solution.” Drawing an even deeper connection, it’s hard not to notice that the ornate and carefully hidden castle they’re meeting in looks an awful lot like Wewelsburg, a castle in Germany that served as one of the central bases for Heinrich Himmler and the SS. Of course, all these direct parallels shouldn’t be mistaken for clues that Andor season 2 will only parallel the Galactic Empire with the Nazis. Just like Gilroy has said that Andor isn’t simply a story solely about modern times or modern political issues, it’s also not a story of just one political past either. Instead, it weaves in various aspects of historical empires and rebellions across history. “I’m not psychic; we did not write this with a newspaper,” said Gilroy. “The show was supposed to come out a year ago, [but] for the strikes. So the opportunity of the show was to be given this gigantic canvas and to do a show about revolution. And the opportunity for me was to use all the debris that I’d accumulated in my brain from reading about history that I never thought I’d have a chance to use. So I’m catalogue shopping throughout 6,000 years for all kinds of things I can [use] all the way through the show.”  You can see this once you start to look for it: The real world rhetoric Nemik applies to the Imperial takeover of Aldhani, the rebellion’s use of tactics pioneered by T.E. Lawrence during the Arab Revolt, or the clear inspiration that Andor takes from The Battle of Algiers and its realistic portrayal of the National Liberation Front. The show might have given the Empire some heavier shades of Nazism during Krennic’s secret meeting, but the truth is that its cycle of resistance and oppression are more a mosaic of historical references than any one allegory. This, to Gilroy, is exactly what makes the show feel so prescient. “What’s sad about it is that it’s really the moments of peace and prosperity that are unique, and the rinse and repeat of history is the sorry truth. I think you could drop this show almost anywhere in history and and people would say, Oh, that’s where we’re at.”

Anyone who’s taken language lessons on the Duolingo app is certainly familiar with the Duolingo owl, Duo. If you skip out on lessons, Duo will ping you — crying! — to come back. Over the past few years, he’s gotten more aggressive with his approach: He died, and was brought back to life by people completing their daily lessons. Talk about guilt tripping. Now, he wants to teach you to play chess. Duolingo is testing out chess lessons on the app; they’re rolling out a limited beta that began Tuesday and will go wider “soon.” A Duolingo spokesperson said it’s the first new course subject to be added since it added math and music in 2023. Chess is more popular than ever, gaining traction with a younger generation of players. (Teens got absolutely obsessed with chess in 2023.) “As chess increases in popularity, we wanted to provide a fun, accessible way for people to learn,” a Duolingo spokesperson told Polygon. “We want to teach subjects that people can learn for a long time, like languages, math and music. Chess is a game you can play your whole life and continuously improve your skills.” Like its other courses, Duolingo breaks down learning into small parts that can be completed in short bursts, daily. It’ll teach everything from what the pieces are, how they can move, and go into patterns and strategy. “Most lessons focus on solving short puzzles to sharpen your thinking, and learners can apply what they’ve learned in fast-paced ‘mini-matches’ or full games against the in-app chess coach, Oscar, one of Duolingo’s beloved characters,” per the news release. Chess will come to all iOS Duolingo users “in the coming weeks.”

From infamous tyrants to modern media monsters, these podcasts explore the most messy, menacing, and sometimes misunderstood figures throughout history. Whether you’re into true crime, pop culture, philosophy, or political intrigue, here are 10 standout podcasts that dive deep into the dark side.Behind the Bastards Credit: 'Behind the Bastards' Hosted by Robert Evans (not the film guy, the journalist and former war correspondent,) Behind the Bastards is a deep dive into some of the worst people in history, from brutal dictators to modern-day grifters and cult leaders. Episodes are long and go extremely in depth. Evans will often take several episodes to cover a single subject. (Like his Vince McMahon series, which is incredible and a good place to start.) With every episode, he and a guest blend sharp historical research with biting humor and a little righteous rage. It’s dark, funny, and educational.Behind the Insurrections Credit: 'Behind the Insurrections' A spin-off of Behind the Bastards (and also hosted by Robert Evans), Behind the Insurrections is a limited series that looks at the history of attempted (and successful) insurrections around the world. (There’s a fun sprinkling about history’s antifascists, too.) Along with his friend and co-host Propaganda (from Hood Politics), Evans uses his signature wit and insight to draw chilling parallels between past uprisings and modern-day threats to democracy that feel both clarifying and terrifying. It’s shocking how familiar it all sounds. Start at the very beginning with "Mussolini's March on Rome: The First Fascist Insurrection."Weird Little Guys Credit: 'Weird Little Guys' On Weird Little Guys, Molly Conger leans into her niche expertise: terrible people who, deep down inside, are actually just messed up weirdos. In each episode, she profiles questionable characters from history, media, and myth whom you may or may not have heard of. I love that even if the subject matter is heavy or depressing, listening to this show feels like getting gossip from your smart, well-read friend. If you can’t do anything about skinheads, the least you can do is figure out how they got to be such huge losers. It’s cathartic. This Guy Sucked Credit: 'This Guy Sucked' Historian Claire Aubin is the host of This Guy Sucked, an academic takedown of awful men throughout history, culture, and current events, from Voltaire to mid-century liberals. Claire ups the ante with historians and professors for conversations that are equal parts funny and smart. This a history podcast with a great host who is doing more than just reading Wikipedia entries—she’s sparking engaging conversations and teaching you about some of the stuff you learned wrong the first time around. Bad Gays Credit: 'Bad Gays' Bad Gays, hosted by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller, shines a light on villainous figures, but only the queer ones. Each episode is full of great storytelling, lots of jokes, and academic rigor. It challenges simplistic narratives and asks important questions about power, identity, and complicity, something that anyone on the gender spectrum can fall prey to. Start with “J. Edgar Hoover,” an episode about an iconic bad gay, dissected with nuance and wit.Real Dictators Credit: 'Real Dictators' Real Dictators is a gripping narrative history podcast that dives into the lives of some of the world’s most infamous authoritarian rulers. Hosted by Paul McGann (with a dramatic, cinematic tone), the show blends historical facts with the kind of immersive storytelling, dramatic narration, beautiful sound design, and compelling pacing that will make you feel like you’re at the movies. Each season or multi-part episode focuses on a different dictator—think Stalin, Mao, Saddam Hussein—tracing their rise to power, ideologies, and brutal regimes.The Villain Was Right Credit: 'The Villain Was Right' The Villain Was Right is a hilarious rewatch podcast that defends famous movie villains and asks, “Were they really that wrong?” Comedians Craig Fay and Rebecca Reeds bring episodes that are clever, irreverent, and surprisingly persuasive. You’ll never look at The Devil Wears Prada the same way again. We’re not talking about Stalin and Hitler, we’re talking about The Wet Bandits in Home Alone. (In fact, that’s a fun place to start.) Disgraceland Credit: 'Disgraceland' On Disgraceland, Jake Brennan combines true crime stories and the music world, to tell the stories of musicians who have gotten away with murder, if not literally then figuratively. The production level is high, Jake has an unforgettable voice that brings drama to every story, and the show is endlessly bingeable. Think Behind the Music behind bars.Evil Genius with Russell Kane Credit: 'Evil Genius' You’ll love the debates on Evil Genius, where host and comedian Russell Kane (and his guests) argue whether controversial historical figures were truly evil—or just complicated. It’s both history and game! Russell is a comedian, so this is for people who like their history with a dash of comedy. Episodes are fast-paced and dig into moral gray areas without getting preachy. Start with Walt Disney, a guy we all love but who also really needs a few minutes under the microscope. Very Bad Wizards Credit: 'Very Bad Wizards' On Very Bad Wizards, a philosopher (Tamler Sommers) and a psychologist (David Pizarro) talk about the morality of bad behavior in pop culture, film, and real life. It’s both entertaining and will send you down philosophical rabbit holes. You’ll love it because it’s both academic and insightful while still being casual and fun. Sommers brings the fiery, contrarian philosopher energy and Pizarro offers thoughtful, data-informed perspectives. They have great chemistry, and they’re not afraid to roast each other.

Looking for a good VPN service? ExpressVPN is offering one heck of a deal right now. You can snag a 28-month subscription, which is well over two years, for 61 percent off the typical price. This boils down to $5 per month, but there’s one catch. You have to pay up front, which comes out to $140. That’s a hefty initial payout, but having access to a good VPN service into late 2027 sounds pretty dang nice. To that end, ExpressVPN is one of the more reputable companies out there and it easily made our list of the best VPN providers. We appreciated the speedy connections offered by the service. This isn’t always the case with VPNs. We also didn’t encounter too much lag during our testing. It works on a variety of devices, so this isn’t just for the living room desktop. ExpressVPN integrates with mobile gadgets, smart TVs and game consoles, among other items. It’s really the best solution for gamers who travel a lot. It also comes with an in-house password manager, which would eliminate the need for a standalone subscription. Truly the only real downside of this service is the price. The regular cost is $13 per month, which is mighty steep. This sale alleviates this concern, at least for 28 months. Spending $5 per month for a VPN of this caliber is something of a no-brainer. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/get-61-percent-off-expressvpn-two-year-subscriptions-150758737.html?src=rss

If you've been waiting to pick up Apple's latest MacBook Air M4 then your patience has paid off. Right now, the 13-inch model is down to $939 from $999 — a six percent discount. It's an all-time low price for the 13-inch MacBook Air M4, dropping to $10 less than it cost during Amazon's Spring Sale. The deal is available for the laptop in Starlight, Midnight and Sky Blue, so just not Silver.  Apple only released the MacBook Air M4 in Mid-March and it's already our pick for 2025's best MacBook overall. We gave it in a 92 in our review thanks to features like its 13.6-inch liquid retina display and slim build — it weighs 2.7 pounds and is 0.44 inches thick. But, it's the M4 chip that really gives this MacBook Air a boost. The 13-inch model has a 10-core CPU, 8-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. Plus, it lasted over 18 hours while playing HD video.  If you're looking for something a little bigger and with more RAM, then it might be worth getting the 15-inch MacBook Air M4. It's currently down to $1,499 from $1,599 and offers 24GB of RAM, compared to the 13-inch's 16GB. The only catch: This deal is just for the Starlight model (though the Midnight version is only $20 more at $1,519).  Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-m4-macbook-air-is-cheaper-than-ever-right-now-144625495.html?src=rss

A new report says that Motorola is preparing to launch its first pair of open-ear headphones, and a smartwatch too

Spoilers ahead for the crushing twist at the heart of the new episode of the HBO and Max show.

Just a few months into Donald Trump’s second term, are the manosphere influencers who championed him already starting to backpedal? In a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, host Joe Rogan raised concerns about the president’s decision to send undocumented immigrants directly to El Salvador’s mega-prisons—without trial, lawyers, or, as critics argue, any semblance of due process. “What if you are an enemy of, let’s not say any current president. Let’s pretend we got a new president, totally new guy in 2028, and this is a common practice now of just rounding up gang members with no due process and shipping them to El Salvador, ‘you’re a gang member.’ ‘No, I’m not.’ ‘Prove it.’ ‘What? I got to go to court.’ ‘No. No due process,’” said Rogan. “We gotta be careful we don’t become monsters, while fighting monsters.” For those who had been sounding the alarm during Trump’s campaign, it was a painful watch. “Watching Joe Rogan figure this shit out in real time is painful,” one commenter wrote. “That ol’ ‘Even a broken clock is right twice a day’ idiom comes to mind,” another added. As one Reddit comment pointed out, “Why does he need to use a hypothetical president to make this point? This entire commentary describes the current administration.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler) This election cycle, Trump owes at least part of his victory to Rogan and other manosphere influencers who endorsed him. After hosting the now-president on The Joe Rogan Experience—in what became one of the most-watched podcast episodes of all time, with 58 million views at the time of writing—Rogan followed up with a full-throated endorsement just one day before the 2024 election. Are we now seeing the first cracks appear? Rogan isn’t the only vocal Trump supporter expressing unease in recent weeks. Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who publicly backed Trump during the campaign, voiced frustration after the president’s rollout of sweeping tariffs sent markets into a nosedive. Portnoy claimed he lost $7 million in the aftermath. “So, Trump rolls out the tariffs, right?” Portnoy said in a livestream posted April 7. “This is a decision that one guy made that crashed the whole stock market. That’s why we’re calling it ‘Orange Monday’ and not ‘Black Monday.’” Just days earlier, Portnoy had reaffirmed his support for Trump. “I voted for Trump, I think he’s a smart guy,” he said in a clip. “I also think he’s playing a high-stakes game here. I’m gonna roll with him for a couple days, a couple weeks, see how this pans out.” By Monday, he said his estimated losses had climbed to $20 million.

Tesla has reached a potentially lethal moment in its history, and it isn’t solely due to CEO Elon Musk’s political radicalization. Years of design and technology stagnation have led to a languishing model line and outdated technology. Back in 2023, I wrote that the beleaguered carmaker should aspire to survive and become yet another car manufacturer. Now that objective feels more pressing—and distant—than ever. The company just announced a new quarter of abysmal vehicle sales. Tesla’s first quarter of 2025 was a disaster—a 71% decline in net income compared to the same quarter last year—except for a better-than-expected gross margin thanks to its energy business. Its EV sales cratered, with a 13% drop in relation to the previous quarter. Worse yet: The company would have posted a loss if it weren’t for the government’s zero-emission credits.  Predictably, Musk tried to distract from all of this with more of his usual empty promises about self-driving cabs and magical robots. During the Q1 financials conference call, he declared—with a faltering train of thought—that he remained optimistic about the future of the company. A future that is “based on a large number of autonomous cars and autonomous humanoid robots.” He said that he expects autonomy to start moving Tesla’s financial needle in mid-2026.  Musk also claimed Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus will be working at Tesla’s factories by year’s end. “I feel confident we will make a million units per year in less than five years, maybe four years,” he said. Tesla will be the most valuable company in the world by far “if we execute well,” he declared after a pause. Then he said it will be “maybe as valuable as the next five companies combined.” Delay tactics Is anyone falling for all this bluster? I’m not. You shouldn’t either. Musk’s promises have a tendency to end in the graveyard of delusions, some of them literally buried, most delayed for many years.  During the Cybercab reveal in October 2024, he promised the two-seater with scissor doors and no steering wheel by 2026, a claim that was met with derision. Remember that he promised robotaxis for 2020. The company declared in its Q1 report that the Cybercab “is scheduled for volume production starting in 2026.”   That’s very unlikely to happen, as fully autonomous Tesla cars have not been approved anywhere, and they are far from going through the certification process needed for “volume” to happen. Waymo is still progressing slowly in its approval process and it’s years ahead of Tesla. “Full Self-Driving manages just 489 miles between disengagements, dwarfed by Waymo’s 17,311,” notes industry expert Ashok Elluswamy. To achieve human-level safety, analysts say, Tesla needs a 1,400x improvement. Which is why Musk’s claim of launching unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) in June 2025 sounds so absurd. Tesla’s FSD currently remains a beta experiment linked to federal probes and crashes. Meanwhile, Volvo and Mercedes currently deploy safer autonomous tech made by Waymo, a company that already has self-driving cabs on the road.  Even if Musk could actually deliver on his Cybercab promise, Tesla’s internal analysis admitted Robotaxis would hemorrhage cash. According to a report by The Information, the company’s own executives warned Musk that the payback around FSD and Robotaxi would “be slow . . . very, very hard outside the U.S.” He ignored them. Instead, he canceled the Model 2—the alleged name for an affordable Tesla model—to chase the “geofenced 5mph Disneyland ride” of Robotaxis, as critic Dan O’Dowd mocked. The company is now implicitly recognizing it made a mistake in its first quarter financial report, saying that “more affordable options are as critical as ever.” No wonder its top designers and engineers are leaving the company.  Rotting design and cybertruck carnage During the call, Musk said he will focus more on Tesla and less on the government, blaming “people benefiting from fraudulent government money” for the protests against him. In his mind, these fraudsters are responsible for the company’s ongoing disaster, not him. But that shouldn’t distract from the real reasons for the “Teslapocalypse.” This didn’t happen because of Musk’s support for Donald Trump, though it did accelerate it.  Even without Musk’s recent behavior, Tesla would still suffer from its preexisting condition and the bare facts of its business model: stale design, no forward vision, no technological innovation. This is a trifecta for failure. Tesla lacks what it needs to save itself from the current realities of the automobile market. China—mainly BYD and brands like Xiaomi and Xpeng—has established itself as the clear design and technological car manufacturing leader in the world, resulting in its top spot in global sales, despite U.S. tariffs. And in Europe, Japan, and South Korea, the old brands have finally risen to the challenge, with BMW’s EV sales in Europe overtaking Tesla for the first time in February of this year. Tesla’s collapse began with its rotting design DNA. “The Model S is 10 years old now,” Adrian Clarke, a veteran car designer, told me in 2023. “Its other cars—Models 3, X, and Y—look like spitting-image cousins.” It’s 2025, and except for a lackluster refresh of Model Y so unappealing that the company has just announced a zero-interest five-year buying plan, nothing has changed. Tesla’s lineup remains a museum of stagnation in an industry where everyone refreshes models yearly. “Most manufacturers would replace a model after about seven or eight years,” Clarke told me. But Tesla clings to a decade-old template, a strategy former Jaguar designer Jeremy Newman calls “strategically irresponsible.”  How can anyone expect the market to keep buying Teslas when every other manufacturer is releasing new models, like BYD’s Yangwang U7 and its magical suspension system that eliminates all bumps. Then there’s the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra and its supercar features that come at regular sports car prices. Or the BMW iX—the best 2024 EV according to Consumer Reports. With this in mind, can anyone truly be surprised to see Tesla’s U.S. market share plummeting from 79.4% in 2020 to 65.4% in 2022 to 48.7% in 2024? Only the most deluded fanboys and Tesla bulls could ignore this. Everyone else is seeing the writing on the wall. The Cybertruck epitomizes Musk’s delusional leadership. When it launched, industry experts criticized and warned about its design. “Cold, sterile, and almost repulsive,” legendary designer Frank Stephenson spat. “Everyone I know thought there’s no way they’re gonna get that into production,” Clarke said at the time. They were partially right. The truck’s “dead straight panels” defied manufacturing logic, leading to countless recalls for razor-sharp frunks that slice fingers, accelerators that stick mid-drive, and “bulletproof” windows that can shatter from hail. By June 2024, more than 11,000 units faced recalls for failing wipers and loose trim. Sales cratered: After peaking at 16,692 units in Q3 2024, sales dropped to 12,991 in Q4—a 22% decrease—and fell further to 6,406 in Q1 2025, marking a 50% decline from the previous quarter. Can it be saved? Now you can add cratering financials to this technological and design mayhem. Tesla’s Q4 2024 deliveries hit a record 495,570 vehicles, but the cost was catastrophic. Price cuts and 0% financing slashed profit margins, with average sales prices plunging to $41,000—the lowest in four years. Annual deliveries fell 1.1% to 1.79 million, Tesla’s first decline since 2011. Meanwhile, BYD sold 595,413 battery electric vehicles in the same quarter. Analysts called Tesla’s performance an “unmitigated disaster” masked by temporary incentives. Today confirmed what we knew. Tesla’s first-quarter 2025 revenue came short of the estimated $21.1 billion at only $19.3 billion. Auto revenue fell 20%. It’s the worst quarter in almost three years, and the company’s first-ever year-to-year drop in sales.  Sure, the protests at stores and vandalism of Tesla lots fueled by Musk’s polarizing politics didn’t help this situation. But at the end of the day, if you give consumers the choice of buying a new EV design with superior technology at a lower price or a tired Tesla model, they will choose the former. Having a better product at the best price possible is the most important part for the long-term survival of any company. Talking to CNBC, Patrick George, editor-in-chief of InsideEVs, said the biggest operational challenge in the latest quarter was “the nuts-and-bolts job of being a car company.” For a car company that runs on, you know, car sales, things like robocabs and humanoid robots are a distraction. It’s no wonder that Tesla’s stock plummeted since December. Meanwhile, the rest of the market keeps innovating at record speeds. BYD’s flash-charging tech—refueling EVs in five minutes—and its Blade battery, hailed as “the world’s safest,” have left Tesla in the dust. The Xiaomi SU7, a luxury sports sedan priced like a Toyota, sold 88,898 units in 24 hours, proving Chinese brands can out-innovate and undercut. In Europe, BMW and Mercedes leveraged 60% customer loyalty to reclaim the luxury segment. “People want cars that fit into their lives,” Clarke told me two years ago. It was an industry lesson that Musk ignored.  Legendary investor and economist Bruce Greenwald warned about all of this in 2021, way before Musk descended into the political mud: “Twenty years from now—you really think that [Tesla is] going to dominate the auto market? Not a chance.” He was wrong by almost two decades. After today’s results, there are only two questions in my mind. First: How much more value will Musk obliterate before shareholders eject him? And the other, more pressing question: Will the next CEO be able to save the company? Tesla needs to do something radical right now. And that should start with Musk leaving the company.

After decades of working as a biologist at a Southern school with a Division 1 football team, coming to MIT was a bit of a culture shock—in the best possible way. I’ve heard from MIT alumni all about late-night psetting, when to catch MITHenge, and the best way to celebrate Pi Day (with pie, of course). And I’ve also learned that for many of you, the Institute is more than simply your alma mater. As the MIT Alumni Association celebrates its 150th anniversary, I’m reflecting on the extraordinary talent and drive of the people here, and what it is that makes MIT alumni—like MIT itself—just a little bit different. As students, you learned to investigate, question, argue, critique, and refine your ideas with faculty and with each other, managing to be both collaborative and competitive. You hacked the toughest and most interesting problems and came up with the most unconventional solutions. And you developed and nurtured a uniquely entrepreneurial, hands-on MIT spirit that only those who have earned a degree here can fully understand, but that the rest of us can easily identify and admire. An article in this magazine about the history of the MIT Alumni Association notes that when the association was formed, there were 84 alumni in total. By 1888, the number had increased to an impressive 579. And it grew by orders of magnitude; today nearly 149,000 alumni are members. But even as the alumni community has grown and evolved, its culture and character have remained remarkably consistent, represented by men and women known for their rigorous thinking, incisive analysis, mens et manus ethos, and drive to make a real and transformative impact on people and communities everywhere. As MIT alumni, you recognize each other by your Brass Rats. These sturdy, cleverly designed rings not only signify your completion (some might say survival) of an immensely difficult course of study. They also signal to the world that you stand ready to share your expertise, knowledge, and experience in the service of humanity.  Alumni have always been the Institute’s greatest ambassadors, and today that role has taken on even greater meaning and importance. We are working intensely, every day, to make the case for the vital importance of MIT to ensuring the nation’s security, prosperity, health, and quality of life. And I’m deeply grateful that we can rely on MIT’s extraordinary family of alumni to help share that message far and wide.