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This week, American Gods, the Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s popular novel of the same name, returns — but the path from its exciting, bunny-filled finale of the first season to the first episode of its second season has been surprisingly rocky. Season one showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green departed on not-so-friendly terms, after butting heads with the producers over the show’s budget and with Gaiman himself over the show’s direction. And when Fuller and Green left, two gods went with them: Gillian Anderson, the new god Media, and Kristen Chenoweth, the old god Easter. Both departed saying that their involvement was very much contingent on Fuller’s. But the show must go on! And in this case, it did, with Gaiman taking over more creative control and the rest of the cast seeing things through with the story of Mr. Wednesday and Shadow Moon.

Getting Started in Season Two

The first season ended with a mini-rumble at Easter’s home, during a pastel-colored party she held with more than one Jesus in attendance. Wednesday and Shadow arrived to convince her to join their side in the coming war. She made a show of her powers in assent, intimidating the new gods and stirring Shadow’s faith in the old, while Wednesday revealed that he’s the head honcho in Norse mythology, Odin. Mad Sweeney and Laura, who had been on their own little adventure, also arrived at the party, Laura having tracked Shadow’s glow there.

Season Two begins where One left off: Wednesday, Shadow, Sweeney, and Laura have left Easter’s party and are now headed to the House on the Rock, the center for nostalgia, kitsch, and the kind of American mythology to which the old gods relate. Meanwhile, Mr. World and Technical Boy are regrouping after the tiff at Easter’s, and Mr. World demands that Technical Boy find Media. Why, exactly, did Media leave? Well, the episode’s attempts to explain away the show’s two casting departures are sloppy and, unfortunately, transparent. Media, who can no longer be portrayed by Anderson in Lucille Ball or Bowie cosplay, is just captured conceptually. Her interaction with Technical Boy is just that — conceptual, bland, and a bit unclear. Easter’s absence is a bit more believable, because it conveniently reworks what we can assume was originally meant to be a throwaway scene from the finale. Wednesday had run over some of Easter’s rabbits on his way to her house. Easter found out and is now too upset to join them. OK, I’ll bite, but the move sucks all of the air out of the wonderfully cinematic climax of Easter’s reclamation of her powerful old-god identity, Ostara.

In fact, much of the first episodes of Season Two just feels like a deflated version of the brilliant, engaging, entertaining show we got two years ago. Despite the fireworks ending of the first season, the second season drags its feet. We’re headed toward the direction of war, we know, but we seem to have lost our momentum as the show shuffles along. The big scene at the House on the Rock — which was always going to be perhaps the most challenging for the TV show to adapt, because it was another of the book’s more conceptual moments of imagination and transformation — was underwhelming and slow-moving, with garish effects.

Some Things Still Work

Not everything has lost its glimmer and shine, however. Orlando Jones, as Mr. Nancy, is as charismatic as ever, and a pleasure to watch. In a scene that will surely serve as a salve to those still smarting from Green Book‘s Best Picture win at the Oscars last month, Nancy is in the car with a sleeping Wednesday, a large bucket of fried chicken prominently placed between them, and Nancy mutters to himself contemptuously, “This motherfucker asks me if I want something to eat, and then he gets in the car with a bucket of fried fucking chicken!!” before throwing the entire bucket out of the window. Ian McShane is still the perfect Mr. Wednesday, while Yetide Badaki, as Bilquis, manages to embody total, unrelenting sexual energy every time she’s in a scene. We get more of Mr. World, a role that allows Crispin Glover to show off his uncanny ability to represent an amalgamation of every ghoulish goon who’s ever been, in fiction and real life. And then there’s the odd chemistry between Emily Browning and Pablo Schreiber, as Laura and Sweeney.

It looks like Season Two is setting things up so that Laura and Sweeney will continue to travel together; Sweeney mentions that he may know a demon in New Orleans who can bring Laura back to life. Meanwhile, Salim is still following his lover, the Jinn, and they soon go off on their own journey to retrieve a weapon for the great war to come. All of this sounds enticing, sure, but the problem is how it makes the show feel like it’s taking the unnecessary scenic route to its big moment. Gaiman has said how he looks forward to including more gods and mythologies in the series that he couldn’t include in the book. As appealing as that sounds, it may turn into an issue of the writer world-building for the sake of world-building, at the expense of the narrative.

Filling In The Blanks

Even the backstory we get about Shadow early in Season Two, while it thankfully fills in some of the many blanks the character had in the novel, feels misplaced. Its relevance at this particular point in the story (as opposed to, say, earlier, or later, when what we find out about Shadow’s past can be more directly parallel to Shadow’s present) is unclear. Despite all of Ricky Whittle’s real-life charms, Gabriel Darku, as a teenage Shadow, is much more sympathetic and engaging — but that’s a fault of the writing of the character, not of Whittle’s acting. Young Shadow is smart and compassionate and seems to lack the jaded passivity that older Shadow wears as a semblance of a personality. The backstory tries to explain at what point Shadow lost his personality and agency. It’s something related to a tragedy and the state of racial affairs in the country, but if that’s all we’ll be presented with in the season, that won’t be enough. Time will tell, and hopefully we’ll get more of Darku to let us know how Shadow Moon became Shadow Moon — and more about how Shadow’s interactions with the world are colored by his status as an ethnically ambiguous-looking (but decidedly half-black) person of color.

Gaiman fans know the writer has no dearth of imagination, and here his playground, which exists at the intersection of Americana and multiple world mythologies, is rife with possibility. That would appear to be a recipe for success — until it isn’t. The show will still need the daring and urgency of the first season if it’s going to remain the dazzling adaptation it once was. We’ll see what Gaiman and his gods deliver.

American Gods Season Two returns to STARZ on March 10th.

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The post American Gods Season Two Is Coming, Are You Watching?: Our Preview appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

No one walks away from watching a TED Talk without being changed on some level. And one by a black woman undoubtedly doubles that impact. If you’ve already watched the previous eight TED Talks from exceptional black women we highlighted last year and you’re motivated and ready for some more leveling up, the nine we have lined up below will not disappoint.

Each talk in this roundup of influential women of power delivers thoughtful advice, insightful personal stories, and invigorating perspectives just in time for Women’s History Month. They are sure to spark change, whether in you or the women of power you share these talks with.

#MeToo founder and activist Tarana Burke delivers a searing message that #metoo is more than a moment; it’s a movement. Globe-trotting Evita Robinson, founder of the Nomadness Travel Tribe, a 20,000 strong global lifestyle brand will have you planning your next trip. Educator Dena Simmons teaches students of color how to deal with impostor syndrome. Nadine Burke Harris, California’s new surgeon general, discusses the long-term health effects of childhood trauma. And Kasiva Mutua, the Kenyan percussionist who is breaking down gender barriers each time she beats her drum by challenging the taboo against female drummers, will have you questioning why women were even banned from playing in the first place. And we’ve only named five of the nine speakers listed here.

These women are shaking the table and stirring up change while improving the world and sharing ideas that are definitely worth spreading.

9 Uplifting TED Talks by Black Women

Evita Robinson

Nadine Burke Harris

Tarana Burke

Maya Penn

Kasiva Mutua

Wanuri Kahiu

Dena Simmons

Kim Katrin Milan

Nnedi Okorafor

The post 9 Uplifting TED Talks by Black Women You Need to Watch Right Now appeared first on Black Enterprise.

Not living as healthy a life as possible can lead to more than just physical challenges. The fiscal results can add more problems to your life—but some are avoidable. Here are three bad health habits and how they can affect your financial health and that of your business.

Smoking: Quitting smoking is considered one of the hardest endeavors to take on (and science backs this notion.) Besides the fact that a pack of cigarettes can cost you up to $17, the American Cancer Society reports that tobacco-related healthcare costs are more than $130 billion and the direct healthcare cost for those who smoke cigarettes is about $35 per pack. (So, let’s say you smoke only a pack per day. That’s more than $13,000 per year.)

Recent Wallet Hub research also indicates that smokers can lose up to $5,932 per year in income, and more than $156 billion is lost in productivity due to premature death and exposure to secondhand smoke. In some states, health insurance premiums are higher for smokers—up to 50% higher than those who do not smoke.

The American Cancer Society and healthcare professionals cite options for quitting including counseling, nicotine-replacement therapy, and prescription drugs. Smokers are also advised to seek help from a licensed medical professional or to take advantage of cessation programs covered by insurance.

Overworking: There are several health-related effects of overworking and researchers have found that the resulting stress can lead to depression, heavy drinking, impaired sleep, diabetes, and other conditions and illnesses. It can also lead to a loss in productivity, which is quite counterproductive. The domino effect: absences at work, appointments, and business meetings, which then leads to a breakdown in your reputation and credibility as a leader. If you’re missing a meeting that could have netted you that lucrative partnership, that’s money lost to your business. And even if you show up, you won’t be at your best—yet again risking the loss of money-making opportunities.

Productivity experts suggest working in 60-to 90-minute intervals throughout the day, and to manage your time in a way that promotes a healthy balance between professional and personal time. Prioritizing deadlines, being prompt for meetings, and avoiding distractions are all ways you can avoid unnecessary midnight oil-burning sessions.

Skipping Doctor’s Appointments: No-show rates for doctor’s appointments can range from 5% to 55%. Not scheduling routine exams, especially for conditions and diseases that disproportionately affect black women and men or people of a certain age range, can mean missed diagnosis and exposure to health challenges that could have been avoided or treated earlier.

The CDC indicates that getting the right health services, screenings, and treatments, help your chances for living a longer, healthier life, and catching things early can help to avoid the healthcare and insurance costs that you could face if a condition is not detected early enough, gets worse, or leads to a more serious one. It’s definitely less expensive to go to the doctor regularly than to avoid it for years and end up having an extended stay in a hospital or high costs of a lifetime of prescription drugs or medical treatments.

Editor’s Note: This article originally published on July 2, 2016 

The post Entrepreneurs: Here Are 3 Ways Bad Health Habits Can Cut Into Your Bottom Line appeared first on Black Enterprise.

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It’s not inconceivable that two friends would find a reason to work together, or would even come up with a business idea together. You may have become friends because you work in the same or adjacent industries. And, since you do have the same interests and passions, you likely chat about these, and spark ideas. You see businesses started by friends all of the time. But there’s one thing I know every friend-business-duo will tell you: working with your friend changes the friendship forever. It just does. Your friendship won’t be the exception. I’ve worked with friends several times, and even I know this to be true. Now, to be clear, I have friends who started as colleagues, and we developed a friendship after. That’s easier. There’s always that foundation of a professional relationship, and the friendship was just the cherry on top. But, starting as friends and becoming business partners is very different. Here’s what to prepare for when working with a friend.

Source: aldomurillo / Getty

If you don’t have to, then don’t

I mean it. Only do this thing with this friend if this is literally the only person with whom you can do this thing. If you could pull it off, just as well, with a pure work acquaintance, go in that direction. Good friends are hard to come by and I promise you now, your friendship will not be the same after working together.