A number of Reddit users say that Google’s smart home ecosystem is falling apart — another casualty of what’s been dubbed “enshittification.” A July 21 Reddit thread has drawn hundreds of comments from users venting about how unreliable Google Home smart speakers and hubs have become in recent years.
“We had a good run with Google Home, but it’s been on its way out for almost two years,” one user wrote. “I only try to do the very basics with mine now, and I’m happy to have lighting, outlets, and inaccurate weather.”
Other Redditors echoed these frustrations: voice commands being misheard, delayed responses, multi-room speaker setups breaking, and basic functionality deteriorating. Features that once “just worked” now frequently don’t.
So what’s going wrong?
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Google is reportedly pursuing AI licensing deals with news publishers
Aging hardware could be to blame for some user complaints. In April, Google officially dropped update support for its first- and second-generation Nest thermostats to focus on newer models. Around the same time, it also cut off support for third-party smart displays. Another theory points to Google’s increasing reliance on AI in the smart home experience — particularly how large language models like Gemini are less adept at understanding context.
Mashable Light Speed
In response to Mashable’s questions, a Google representative pointed us to an X post by Anish Kattukaran, Chief Product Officer of Google Home and Nest, who responded directly to the complaints:
Kattukaran added, “We hear you loud and clear and are committed to getting this right — and making sure we have a long term solution that provides better reliability and capability. We have been actively working on major improvements for sometime and will have more to share in the fall.”
For users watching their devices quietly degrade over time, their concern is clear: what was once a reliable smart home platform now feels like a slow, silent phase-out.
“The best example of this, for me, is asking ‘what’s this song?’ while I have music playing,” one user explained. “Originally, the assistant understood I was listening to music and would tell me what was playing. After some backend change years ago, it just started telling me that ‘This Song’ is a track by George Harrison.”
That shift reflects a known weakness in modern large language models like Gemini: limited context windows, which restrict their ability to handle ongoing, situational interactions.
“I guarantee they’ll shove Gemini into all the existing Google Home things,” another user complained. “And then instead of 25% of the time getting an error, you’ll get ‘I’m sorry but I’m just a large language model and cannot support that feature yet’ 60% of the time.”
Timur Kristóf as a contractor on Valve’s open-source Linux graphics driver team is known for his work on the RADV Vulkan driver and ACO shader compiler but recently he’s been working on some improvements to the AMDGPU kernel driver. A big feat he’s been tackling is enabling support for analog display connectors within the AMDGPU driver for the “DC” code. Besides a few supported older GPUs having DVI-I connections, this analog support is significant in that it’s a milestone for unblocking the aging GCN 1.0 and GCN 1.1 GPUs from using the modern AMDGPU driver by default.
For those that haven’t been on the Linux scene long enough or not paying attention to all the Phoronix content enough, the modern AMDGPU kernel graphics driver by default is used for GCN 1.2 graphics cards and newer — up through the latest RDNA4 graphics. GCN 1.1 and older though is using the older “Radeon” kernel graphics driver for predominantly the generations prior to Graphics Core Next (GCN). GCN 1.0 and GCN 1.1 though are a bit in an odd place that there is experimental support within the AMDGPU driver if disabling the Radeon driver and using a module option to force-load the AMDGPU kernel driver in its place.
Using the AMDGPU driver with GCN 1.0 / GCN 1.1 graphics processors can yield better performance, RADV Vulkan driver compatibility, and other feature enhancements compared to the Radeon DRM driver that’s seldom touched these days. The Radeon driver is basically in a mature legacy state typically just seeing fixes while AMDGPU continues to be the modern open-source kernel graphics drivers.
One of the features missing though from the AMDGPU kernel graphics driver was analog output connections with the AMDGPU Display Core “DC” code. Timur Kristóf is working to address this gap.
He explained in today’s patch series:
“This series adds support for analog connectors to DC for DCE6-10. There are two reasons to add this support:
1. GPUs that already use DC by default and have analog connectors. Some Tonga and Hawaii graphics cards in fact have DVI-I connectors, and the analog part doesn’t work by default. This functionality regressed when switching from the amdgpu legacy display code to DC.
2. GPUs that don’t use amdgpu by default yet. Currently, SI (GFX6) and CIK (GFX7) don’t use amdgpu by default yet, and missing analog connector support is cited as one of the main reasons why not.
With this analog support added to DC, we could already fully switch CIK discrete GPUs to use DC and switch them to the amdgpu driver. For GFX7 APUs and SI, further fixes are needed before enabling DC.
Before starting this work, I asked Harry and Alex about how best to do it and we agreed that we’d like to use the VBIOS to set up the DAC. So I used the amdgpu legacy display code as a reference. The first few commits add some minor changes to DC to prepare for supporting analog stream and link encoders, then analog link detection is added along with polling, and finally DAC load detection support, which is useful for old displays and adapters.”
GCN 1.0 is Southern Islands “SI” while GCN 1.1 is Sea Islands “CIK”. GCN 1.0 was with the Radeon HD 7000 series while the GCN 1.1 hardware represented Hawaii, Bonaire, Kabini, Kaveri, and various other APUs.
While nothing is set in stone yet, the prospects of GCN 1.1 (and potentially GCN 1.0) switching to the AMDGPU kernel driver by default was not on my bingo card for 2025. I had long written off the prospect of the default change-over ever happening… AMD engineers have largely moved on from that older hardware support, but now with Valve’s backing, there is the engineering talent to fill in these gaps like the analog outputs and potentially see a change-over happen. At least now if GCN 1.1 and perhaps GCN 1.0 moves over to AMDGPU by default, the code is better maintained these days than the seldom-touched Radeon driver and any regressions hopefully be ironed out quickly if not already done so given the years there has been the experimental support. Heck the last time I even did Radeon vs. AMDGPU driver testing for GCN 1.0/1.1 was all the way back in 2017 and even then the AMDGPU driver was advantageous and an improvement over the older Radeon driver.
Indian developers can now access Google’s latest AI model Gemini 2.5 Flash, which will support processing of data locally in the company’s data centres in Delhi and Mumbai, allowing them to develop solutions for regulated industries like banking and financial services and for low latency applications.
This is part of broader efforts from Google as it continues to invest and grow its footprint in India, Google Cloud Asia Pacific vice-president Bikram Singh Bedi told ET on the sidelines of the Google I/O Connect event here on Wednesday.
“A key part of investments is partnerships, the local customers, with the local partners to drive things forward, as far as AI from Google and Google Cloud are concerned,” he said.
The company is also working with enterprises and startups where it is seeing momentum.
Speaking at the event, Preeti Lobana, country manager, Google India, said to build endearing companies, startups need to solve fundamental issues in areas such as healthcare, climate and sustainability using deep AI solutions. Building trust, privacy and security from day one is also key.
Google has been expanding in the country in recent years. The US-based tech giant currently operates two data centres, in Mumbai and Delhi, and is reportedly in talks to acquire land in Mumbai for another data centre. Bedi did not respond to queries about expanding its data centre presence in India.
India is second largest in terms of active developers for Google. According to a report by Public First, the Indian app publishers earned Rs 4 lakh crore through Android and Google Play in India.
Google is integrating Gemini 2.5 Pro with its developer studio Firebase, which will allow developers to use multimodal prompts. Its open-source AI model, Gemma 3, supports 140 languages, including six Indian languages.
Indian startups Sarvam, Soket Labs and Gnani.ai are using Gemma to build AI models for various use cases. Sarvam, for instance, has built a translation model using Gemma.
Last week, Google offered a one-year free subscription of Google AI Pro worth Rs 19,500 to students, where they will be able to access a suite of products including Gemini 2.5 Pro, Notebook LLM and video model Veo 3.
Nighttime routines like limiting alcohol and salty snacks can help support healthy blood pressure levels.
Key habits include taking medications, practicing mindfulness, and creating a restful sleep environment.
Small bedtime changes can boost heart health and complement diet and exercise for better blood pressure control.
Maintaining healthy blood pressure is about more than keeping your doctor happy at your checkup. It is a key part of reducing your risk of heart disease, stroke and other serious health issues. When thinking about ways to support healthy blood pressure, a heart-healthy diet and exercise may come to mind, which isn’t wrong. But it’s not just about what you do by day. Your nighttime routine plays a bigger role in your heart health than you might think.
That’s right! Getting ready for bed might feel like an ordinary part of your day, but did you know certain bedtime steps may be powerful medicine for better blood pressure? We spoke with Mary Branch, M.D., a cardiologist at Cone Health in Greensboro, North Carolina, about how to make the most of those precious pre-sleep moments to support healthy blood pressure. And trust us, it’s easier than you’d expect (no burpees required!).
Before you hit the pillow tonight, try these five simple yet effective tips to give your blood pressure a little extra love.
1. Limit Alcohol
For some people, unwinding at the end of the day might include sipping on a boozy nightcap. However, if you have high blood pressure, cutting back on alcohol is especially important, says Branch. “For women, it is recommended to drink no more than one drink per day, and two for men,” she says.
While alcohol may feel relaxing in the moment, it can actually make it harder to manage your blood pressure over time. Even small amounts can interfere with medications or put additional strain on your heart and blood vessels. And the more you drink, the higher your blood pressure rises. The link is so strong that one study found that each additional daily drink a person had significantly increased their systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
The good news? By swapping that nightcap for something like herbal tea, such as chamomile tea, or simply sticking to water, you’re doing your body a huge favor. In addition to helping promote more stable blood pressure, you’ll give your body a hydration boost, too. Just go for caffeine-free beverage options, as caffeine may make it hard to sleep.
2. Remember Your Medication
“If you’re prescribed medications to treat hypertension, it is recommended that you take these medications each day,” says Branch. This includes medications you may need to take before bed. Yes, even on nights when you feel too tired to open a pill bottle.
Adhering to prescribed hypertension medications is crucial for effectively managing blood pressure and reducing the risk of serious health complications, such as heart attacks and strokes. Consistency is key, as these medications work best when maintained at steady levels in your system. Skipping a dose can disrupt this balance and potentially hinder progress. Incorporating daily reminders, such as setting an alarm or using a pill organizer, can help ensure you take your medications on time. Simple steps like keeping your medications within reach, like near your bedside or in a spot you frequent, can make it easier to stay on track—even on those long days when opening a pill bottle feels like a chore.
3. Practice Mindfulness
Branch suggests that practicing meditation and mindfulness may be a helpful bedtime habit for healthy blood pressure. “This can help bring down your stress level and your blood pressure along with it,” she says. “Furthermore, it can help you with getting a good night’s rest, which is also important for reducing blood pressure.”
Scientific data supports these recommendations. Research highlights the link between stress and higher blood pressure, illustrating the importance of addressing stress for overall health. By taking small but intentional steps toward relaxation before bed, you can set yourself up for restful sleep and a healthier tomorrow.
Some additional ways to manage stress before bed include practicing yoga or gentle stretching to ease muscle tension, journaling to clear your mind, and creating a calming bedtime environment by reducing noise and dimming lights. Establishing a consistent bedtime routine can further signal to your body that it’s time to wind down, creating a seamless transition to restful sleep.
4. Avoid High-Sodium Snacks
Late-night snacking can be tempting. But if you’re aiming to support healthy blood pressure, it’s crucial to steer clear of high-sodium foods before bed. Consuming salty snacks like chips, canned soups or pretzels may cause your body to retain water. This can increase the pressure on your blood vessels. So, keeping your sodium intake in check, especially before sleep, may help stabilize your blood pressure overnight and promote better overall cardiovascular health. Opt for low-sodium snacks like fresh fruit, unsalted nuts or air-popped popcorn. They’ll satisfy your evening cravings without compromising your blood pressure.
5. Keep Your Bedroom Cool, Dark and Comfortable
Creating the right sleep environment can have a surprising impact on healthy blood pressure levels. A cool, dark, comfortable bedroom not only promotes better sleep but also may support heart health by encouraging quality sleep. Conversely, data suggests that poor sleep can lead to elevated blood pressure over time. To keep your bedroom comfortable, ensure your room is dark, quiet and cool. Eliminating distractions such as bright lights or loud noises and investing in a supportive mattress and pillow may also encourage deeper, more restorative sleep. These small adjustments may help your body relax and recover from the day, contributing to better blood pressure regulation.
Our Expert Take
Certain healthy bedtime habits can have a significant impact on your blood pressure. And developing these habits doesn’t have to feel overwhelming or complicated. Simple strategies like limiting alcohol, taking your blood pressure medication, practicing mindfulness, avoiding high-sodium snacks and creating a comfortable sleep environment can all help promote better blood pressure. In addition to tried-and-true methods for supporting blood pressure, like exercise and a healthy diet, these easy, proactive steps can help lower blood pressure and improve heart health. Remember, the path to better well-being often starts with small, intentional changes. By prioritizing these pre-sleep practices, you’ll not only support your blood pressure but also enhance your overall quality of life, one restful night at a time.
Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Mohsin Naqvi arrived in Bangladesh on Wednesday to chair the Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) Annual General Meeting.
The high-level meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday in Dhaka. Upon his arrival at the airport, Naqvi, who currently serves as President of the ACC, was warmly received by Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan.
According to sources, the ACC will host a formal dinner in Dhaka later today in honour of the officials and dignitaries attending the event.
Meanwhile, the fate of the Asia Cup cricket tournament, scheduled for September, is set to be decided during a crucial Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting in Dhaka.
However, the tournament faces uncertainty as political tensions and internal lobbying threaten its execution.
According to sources, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is allegedly making concerted efforts to derail the event, a move that could cost the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) over PKR 1.25 billion in revenue.
These developments are also being seen as an attempt to undermine Mohsin Naqvi, PCB Chairman and current President of the ACC.
Reports suggest that India, along with Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, has aligned against the decision to hold the ACC meeting in Dhaka.
Under ACC rules, a quorum for such meetings requires the participation of at least three full Test-playing member nations and at least ten full or associate members.
With key boards refusing to travel or even attend via video link, the quorum may not be met, rendering the meeting legally invalid.
India, despite being the official host of the Asia Cup, has objected to Dhaka as the venue for this meeting.
The BCCI has not confirmed whether it will attend the meeting in person or virtually, casting further doubt on the finalisation of the tournament’s schedule and host nation.
Productions of Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg divide audiences. Should emphasis be placed on the opera’s comical elements, or is it to be seen as more of a serious play about German virtues with antisemitic undertones?
As per DW, in this year’s new production at the Bayreuth Festival, director Matthias Davids aims to highlight the opera’s comical side.
Nevertheless, the fact that the Nazis included the piece in their Reich Party Congresses continues to cast a shadow over the production.
Richard Wagner was Adolf Hitler’s favourite composer, long before coming to power in 1933. The dictator saw Wagner as a kindred spirit who had inspired the masses in the 19th century with the powerful sounds of his operas. Hitler later exploited this for his propaganda.
Craving art and music
Hitler, who wanted to study art, placed as much importance on large-scale musical productions as he did on state-sponsored architectural projects.
“Hitler did indeed attach great importance to art,” says art historian Wolfgang Brauneis, who has studied artists of the Nazi era. “You can see this even well into the ravages of war, when he was still personally selecting the color of mosaic tiles for large construction sites.”
It was no different in Nuremberg, where Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) held its party rallies. He personally selected the singers and conductors for the production of Richard Wagner’s opera “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” which was performed on the eve of the Reich Party Rallies.
When Hitler came to power in 1933, Wagner had already been dead for 50 years. With his concept of a Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art, the composer had revolutionised the world of opera. He envisioned a symbiosis of text, music, directing, stage design and architecture, all according to the vision of a single person.
Richard Wagner designed an opera house on the green hill in Bayreuth specifically for his operas. He was the first to have the orchestra play from a pit in front of the stage while the audience sat in complete darkness, with only the stage illuminated. This inspired Hitler.
From 1935 onwards, the dictator staged his Nuremberg rallies like a big stage spectacle with a special lighting design and huge mass gatherings. The entire city became a backdrop, with flags raised along the streets for the Nazis to march along.
In the final scene of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which is about the preservation of German art, set designer Benno von Arent used the long rows of flags in front of the city’s medieval half-timbered houses as a backdrop for the stage.
Quintessential German opera
The opera is about a singing contest for the love of a woman. Bakers, tailors, goldsmiths and other master craftsmen go head-to-head. The town scribe Beckmesser carefully makes sure everyone follows the rules. Master craftsman Hans Sachs, a respected singer and shoemaker, urges everyone to honor the old masters and preserve German art.
This is one reason Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is often described as Wagner’s most German opera. Jewish Australian director Barrie Kosky agrees. He feels, however, that antisemitism also plays a role. In 2017, he staged Die Meistersinger in Bayreuth as a “witch hunt against a Jewish singer,” whom he associates with the character of Beckmesser.
“I am not dealing with Jewish culture. I’m dealing with the parody of antisemitism,” Kosky explains in the DW film Why Hitler adored Wagner.
Whether Jewish characters are portrayed and caricatured in what way in Wagner’s operas remains a matter of debate among Wagner scholars to this day. Wagner himself reportedly never commented on the issue. However, the composer was an avowed antisemite. He wrote a pamphlet entitled Judaism in Music, in which he vilified music by Jewish composers and claimed that they were only capable of copying others.
Columbia University announced a much-anticipated deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220m, an agreement meant to bring a resolution to the threat of massive funding cuts to the school, but certain to rankle critics given the extraordinary concessions made by the Ivy League university.
Under the agreement, the school will pay a $200m settlement over three years to the federal government, the university said. It will also pay $21m to settle investigations brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty,” acting university president Claire Shipman said.
The administration pulled the funding because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Gaza war that began in October 2023.
Columbia first agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism.
Wednesday’s agreement codifies those reforms, Shipman said.
On Tuesday, the university announced that it had disciplined more than 70 students for participating in a May protest against the war in Gaza.
The deal is the first between a university and a presidential administration that has described higher education institutions as “the enemy” and launched an unprecedented campaign to reshape them. The government has withheld billions in grants and contracts from schools in an effort to force university administrators to abide by a sweeping list of demands.
The news comes the same week that Harvard University appeared in federal court to argue that the Trump administration illegally cut $2.6bn in funding over what it described as similar, politically motivated attempts to reshape higher education.
Harvard is the first – and so far only – university to sue.
In April, the administration also threatened to freeze $510m in grants to Brown University, citing similar motives, and has raised the prospect of cutting funding to Cornell, Northwestern, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton.
In exchange for Columbia’s concessions, the White House will reinstate $400m in federal funding it had stripped from the university earlier this year over allegations that it allowed antisemitism to fester on campus.
Researchers estimate that Columbia was likely facing another $1.2bn in frozen funding from the National Institutes of Health. After the Trump administration cut the original $400m from the top research university, the lead funder of scientific research also terminated or froze unspent dollars previously awarded to Columbia.
In a June statement to alumni, Shipman said the university was in “danger of reaching a tipping point in terms of preserving our research excellence and the work we do for humanity”.
While the Trump administration is likely to hail the agreement as a victory in its battle against universities, the deal fell short of some of the most restrictive measures the administration had sought, like a legally binding consent decree and an overhaul of Columbia’s governance structure.
Earlier this month, the university announced a host of new measures to further combat antisemitism on campus, including the adoption of the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition and additional antisemitism training. The measures add to several similar ones introduced as the university has come under mounting criticism over the last two years by students, alumni and lawmakers who accused it of failing to stop pro-Palestinian protests on campus that they deemed antisemitic.
The deal, which settles a bevy of open civil rights investigations into the university, will be overseen by an independent monitor agreed to by both sides and who will report to the government on its progress every six months.
Alphabet’s Google and OpenAI said their artificial-intelligence models won gold medals at a global mathematics competition, signaling a breakthrough in maths capabilities in the race to build powerful systems that can rival human intelligence, reported Reuters.
The results marked the first time that AI systems crossed the gold-medal scoring threshold at the International Mathematical Olympiad for high-school students. Both companies’ models solved five out of six problems, achieving the result using general-purpose “reasoning” models that processed mathematical concepts using natural language, in contrast to the previous approaches used by AI firms.
The achievement suggests AI is less than a year away from being used by mathematicians to crack unsolved research problems at the frontier of the field, according to Junehyuk Jung, a math professor at Brown University and visiting researcher in Google’s DeepMind AI unit.
“I think the moment we can solve hard reasoning problems in natural language will enable the potential for collaboration between AI and mathematicians,” Jung told Reuters.
The same idea can apply to research quandaries in other fields such as physics, said Jung, who won an IMO gold medal as a student in 2003.
Of the 630 students participating in the 66th IMO on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, 67 contestants, or about 11 per cent, achieved gold-medal scores.
Google’s DeepMind AI unit last year achieved a silver medal score using AI systems specialised for maths. This year, Google used a general-purpose model called Gemini Deep Think, a version of which was previously unveiled at its annual developer conference in May.
Unlike previous AI attempts that relied on formal languages and lengthy computation, Google’s approach this year operated entirely in natural language and solved the problems within the official 4.5-hour time limit, the company said in a blog post.
OpenAI, which has its own set of reasoning models, similarly built an experimental version for the competition, according to a post by researcher Alexander Wei on social media platform X. He noted that the company does not plan to release anything with this level of math capability for several months.
This year marked the first time the competition coordinated officially with some AI developers, who have for years used prominent math competitions like IMO to test model capabilities. IMO judges certified the results of those companies, including Google, and asked them to publish results on July 28.
“We respected the IMO Board’s original request that all AI labs share their results only after the official results had been verified by independent experts and the students had rightly received the acclamation they deserved,” Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said on X.
For Ginger Minj, the fourth time on RuPaul’s Drag Race was the charm.
After making her debut in 2015 on the seventh season of the RuPaul Charles-led drag show, the Florida native nearly won the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar, but came up short. Then, she returned a year later to compete in the second season of the All Stars spinoff. And again for All Stars season six, where similarly to her run on season seven, she made it to the finale but did not win the show.
It came as a surprise to some viewers when Ginger was announced as part of the cast of All Stars season 10, considering she’d already competed a total of three times before and almost won on two separate occasions. Despite disdain from Drag Race’s fandom (which is known to be rather toxic), the drag artist tells The Hollywood Reporter that her homecoming resembles that of the drag pageant world.
“It’s kind of nice that Drag Race is catching up to actual in-person, real-life drag by throwing back to old school drag pageantry where you do go as many times as it takes,” she says, a sentiment that executive producer Tom Campbell echoed to THR ahead of the show’s premiere.
Plus, Ginger says landing in the hospital before she got the call to return to the competition influenced her decision to say yes to battle for the crown for a fourth time.
“I was at my worst mental and physical health. … I didn’t know if I was going to really pull through, and I felt like, what is there to live for?” she says. “And then once I pulled myself out of that and started to take my life back, it made me go, you know what? If you’re ever gonna do anything, why don’t you take this opportunity to go back and show yourself how much you can grow?”
To commemorate her win, Ginger chatted with THR about the mixed fan reception to her taking home the crown, why she thought All Stars 10 would end in a double crowning between herself and Jorgeous, and what advice her season seven sister Trixie Mattel gave her for navigating her reign.
***
Congratulations on your win, Ginger. It’s only been a few days since you were officially crowned, but has it sunk in that you won All Stars season 10?
To be honest with you, no. There are still moments where I glance over at the crown and scepter just sitting there on the shelf, and I’m like, “Oh, wow, it really happened. It finally happened,” and I get that wave of every emotion that you could imagine all over again.
What has the reception to your win felt like so far?
It’s felt really good, simply because I am an artist, and when you create [art], it is something that’s so subjective, so whether it’s good or bad, it’s evoking some kind of massive emotion amongst the entire fan base around the world, and I feel that that is really kind of a testament to how much hard work that I’ve put in to create something very special.
Why do you think that right now, with All Stars 10 and it being your fourth time coming back on Drag Race, was the right time for you to win?
Listen, I would not have appreciated this nearly as much if I had won any of my previous seasons, because I just wasn’t in the right headspace to receive anything positive. I was at my worst mental and physical health, and it wasn’t until right before I even got the call to come back to All Stars 10, I was in the hospital. I didn’t know if I was going to really pull through, and I felt like, what is there to live for? It sounds so morbid and so awful, especially looking back on it. And then once I pulled myself out of that and started to take my life back, it made me go, you know what? If you’re ever gonna do anything, why don’t you take this opportunity to go back and show yourself how much you can change and how much you can grow and how much better you can be? So I did this for myself for the first time. Out of all of my seasons of Drag Race, I did [All Stars 10] solely for me and to really solidify the fact that I can trust myself, and I did, and that’s how I played the game this time. Instead of worrying about what all the other girls were doing, I just lived in every moment and tried to do the best with what was given to me. And I think that’s why I was successful, and why I can sit back and appreciate it so much.
Your weight loss was highlighted on the show, but I didn’t know that you were experiencing health issues prior to All Stars 10. When you were announced as part of the cast, there was some controversy with that, and with every winner, there’s always backlash, but do you think that if more of your personal health journey would have been highlighted on the show, as opposed to just noting that you had lost weight, that viewers would have better understood your journey on All Stars 10?
I think it’s a double-edged sword. I think that the people who want to know more about me personally are invested enough to find out that information outside of the competition. But I also feel like I did the competition to kind of prove some things to myself. So I don’t know that I would have really wanted my health journey to overshadow the artistic journey that I took on the season.
Some fans argued that you and Jorgeous shouldn’t have been on the season because you’ve already done All Stars, but you were the top two [queens] of the season. What do you think that says about returning All Stars coming back for another shot at the competition? Do you think it’s fair?
I come from the pageant world in drag, that’s where I kind of got my footing and learned about being a competitor and what turned me into the queen that I am. It gave me a name and some fame before I even competed on Drag Race [season seven]. And even [season 15 winner] Sasha Colby, she competed half a dozen times at Miss Continental before she won that title. It’s kind of nice that Drag Race is catching up to actual in-person, real life drag by throwing back to old school drag pageantry where you do go as many times as it takes, because you learn something new that you can apply, and by the time you win, you really are the best version of yourself that you’ve ever been. I think that’s why a lot of people have really resonated with my win, because you don’t typically succeed the first or second time you try something big. You have to learn, and you have to get knocked down, and you have to grow before you can really become that best version that is deserving of the reward.
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ season 10.
Paramount/WOW
Do you think that your win is going to open the door for other past All Stars competitors to want to come back again? Now they see there is a path where you can really come back and [win] no matter how many times you take.
I hope it does. I hope so. And it’s like any other competition show, we’ve got people that have gone on to Project Runway several times more than I’ve been back to Drag Race. We’ve even got people that have won Project Runway that then come back and compete again just because they enjoy the competition, they enjoy showing the new techniques that they’ve learned. I don’t think that anybody should ever be discounted or told that they shouldn’t continue to pursue something that they are so passionate about. I truly believe that if you are passionate about something, you should share it with the world, because you never know who it’s going to resonate with. And can we just end the narrative right now that people who do return have an unfair advantage? Because I feel like I and Jorgeous and Jujubee and all of us who have appeared more than two or three times have a disadvantage walking into the competition, because we’ve already shown what we can do to the best of our abilities, and if we don’t at least meet that or exceed it, we’re going to be the ones with egg on our face. We’re going to be the ones that are sent home and look like a fool. We have the most to lose because we’ve already been good.
You were on season seven and All Stars six. Now, there have been three queens from both of those separate seasons that have gone on to win crowns. Have you heard from fellow winners Violet [Chachki], Trixie [Mattel], Kylie [Sonique Love] or Ra’Jah O’Hara after you were crowned?
Yeah, theAll Stars six cast is still really, really close, and we talk all the time. Ra’Jah and Kylie were two of the first people in my DMs going, “Oh my god sister, we’re so proud of you! This is so exciting.” All Stars 6 filmed at the height of the pandemic, and we had all been locked up in our houses for so long that we were just so happy to be in a room full of people creating art and doing drag and having a good time, and I think that’s why we’re all still so close. And then Saturday, after the dust had kind of settled a little bit, Trixie called me and we had a long heart-to-heart. And she just said, “I’m so proud of you. You’ve achieved this goal that’s so cool, and you’ve wanted it for so long.” And she said, and “There’s days now, like 10 years later, almost, where I look at my [All Stars three] crown and go, ‘Oh my god, it’s so cool. It’s so cool that I did this thing.’” She said, “But you’re also getting all of the people who are giving you backhanded compliments of, ‘Congratulations on your win, ignore the haters.’” She said, “Just don’t entertain any of it. You know why you did it, you know why you deserve to win and you just kind of have to live in that moment for yourself before you can start entertaining the good or bad from anybody else.” So it was really nice to hear that from somebody that I respect so much.
You won four challenges this season. Which one was your favorite, and are there any others that you wish you had won?
My favorite challenge was the one that I didn’t win, which was the talent show. And I feel like that’s because people expected me to do well in Snatch Game, and I’ve proven that I could do that several times before. I can do improv challenges, I’ve done sewing challenges where I’ve done well and I’ve done poorly, but I’ve never gotten to show that side of me as an entertainer, and that’s really me at my core is this little Broadway brat, this musical theater kid who got into drag through theater. It was a way for me to give a love letter to that younger version of myself, and I’m so glad that it was so well received by the fandom. That was really the most important challenge to me.
Going off your love for Broadway, you’ve recently teased that you may be making your Broadway debut in the near future. What can you tease about that?
It’s going to be happening sooner than we all think, and it’s going to be happening in a very unexpected way.
Ginger Minj
Santiago Felipe/Getty Images for Paramount+
You’ve said that your aesthetic has been changing, but you’ll always be the same performer. In terms of your aesthetic, how would you describe that as a newly crowned All Stars winner?
Even though I’m still a plus size beauty, and I will continuously remain that way because I’ve found my comfort and my joy in representing the plus size community, now that I have lost weight, I am more comfortable in my skin and I’m feeling sexier. I’m taking a lot more chances when it comes to fashion. I’m enjoying cutting the neckline a little bit lower and the skirts a little bit higher and showing off a little bit more of what I’ve got to offer.
You looked amazing in your finale episode look.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it, and I felt good. That’s the thing — I never set out to lose weight as an aesthetic goal. I was pre-diabetic, my blood pressure was through the roof, my sugar levels were ridiculous, I had horrible sleep apnea, so I never got any kind of restful sleep. I was on the verge of a heart attack, like all of these things went into me going on this health journey and losing weight. But also aesthetically, I just am starting to feel more like who I’ve always wanted to be. I’ve always felt really beautiful on the inside. I think it’s finally reflecting on the outside.
In the video of you winning, you just seemed so excited, happy [and shocked]. Can you take me through what that moment specifically felt like?
I was fully prepared for the disappointment of losing again, especially since Jorgeous is such a fierce competitor and I’m such a fan of Jorgeous that, you know, much like when Kylie won All Stars six, I could be super happy for her and also very disappointed for myself at the same time. Those two things can coexist, and it’s kind of the opposite this time. I was very happy for me, but super disappointed for my sister. I didn’t know if maybe it would be a double crowning. To me, that would have been the most exciting thing, because I think we both represent two completely opposite ends of drag, and together, we kind of encompass all the beautiful things about what drag has to offer. But having gotten so close two times before and not getting it, I had prepared myself that it wasn’t going to happen. And when it did it, it awakened so many other emotions that I hadn’t prepared myself for. So I think that’s why my first inclination was to check in with Jorgeous and be like, “Are you okay?” Like, I know that I’m not okay, and I just won. Because I’m concerned about you, but I’m also really happy for me, and I don’t quite know how to process this moment from this perspective, because I’ve never had to do it before. It was shocking and exhilarating, and I was happy and I was sad, and I kind of experienced every emotion that you could imagine at one time.
You’re heading out on your Hocus Pocus Live! tour this fall. What else can we expect to see from you during your reign?
I just signed a contract to star in a brand new Universal Pictures movie that’s going to movie theaters, directed by Adam Shankman. I’ll get to act and sing and dance and be silly and fun in front of your movie screens all around the world! I’ve got a couple of other really fun big things in the works. My book Southern Fried Sass is out there for anybody who wants to learn a little bit more about me as a person in my life, as well as cook some delicious Southern recipes. Just keep your eyes peeled. There’s music, there’s Broadway, there’s movies, there’s everything!
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RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season 10 is available to stream on Paramount+.
