It was recently announced that Tyra Banks is returning as the host of America’s Next Top Model for its 24th season, and since the exciting news, the former supermodel has been making her press rounds to talk about the upcoming season of the reality model competition. During a Q&A with AOL’s Build Series, Banks was asked about redefining beauty standards and changing racially insensitive ad campaigns (like H&M’s recent ad controversy) in the fashion industry. Banks responded, "[The industry] is liberal and cyclical, and trends, Oh, it's a black-girl season! Oh, it's a Brazilian season! OK, now where are they? Oh, it's the Russians! Oh, now it's the Asian girls! To me, race is not a trend. My skin is not a trend; your skin is not a trend. We are who we are, so we should not go in and out of fashion.”  Banks continued, “The trend should be what we put on our bodies, not our bodies. And so that's the part of fashion that I don't like, is they'll say, 'Oh, the chocolate girls with the short hair is in for two years.' And now, where's that girl? She's trying to figure out how she's going to pay her bills, because she's no longer hot, and cannot pay to get hired. And that's what hurts me." While we’ve seen more diversity on the runways and in fashion campaigns recently, there is certainly still progress to be made.

Writer, journalist, and podcaster Marc Bernardin returns to Hard NOC Life! Keith and Marc engage in a wide-ranging conversation about representation in media.

Together, they handicap the Oscar potential of films like Get Out, Logan, and Wonder Woman; investigate the balkanization of fandom; discuss how his Top Cow series Genius holds a mirror up to society; relive the summer he spent interning on Deep Space Nine; reveal what it was like writing for the upcoming Hulu series Castle Rock; and anticipate this summer’s Avengers: Infinity War.

All this and more on Hard NOC Life! Watch it on your screen, hit “play,” and check this. Subscribe to all of podcasts in the Hard NOC Media family on Apple Podcasts and Google Play!

As always, our official theme music is brought to you by the super team of Adam WarRock and Chops.

Michelle joins Kim, Natasha aka Natty Willy, and Chris to go over TV news, Once Upon a Time, Knightfall, and Agents of SHIELD. Why does Michelle not watch 3 of the 4 shows? Find out why in this episode. We even have a pre-show discussion at the tell end of the podcast talking about X-Files and other things. Sound off in the comments!

The post TVTalk with The Nerd Element Ep 163: Why Michelle? appeared first on The Nerd Element.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi has been out for almost a month, and there are still a lot of lingering questions coming out of the film, including at least three controversies that proved to be very divisive among the fan community. Fortunately, director Rian Johnson appears to be on a whirlwind press tour and he’s debunking some of those moments by explaining his choices. Today’s Nerdist News is Force-skyping in with The Last Jedi answers that we’ve all been waiting to hear.

Warning: there are massive spoilers ahead for The Last Jedi. If you haven’t seen the movie, head to hyperspace now and come back later!

Join host and America’s top porg chef, Jessica Chobot, as she runs down the three major controversies from the film. First up, the return of Luke‘s blue lightsaber and his younger looking Force avatar during his confrontation with Kylo Ren on Crait. According to Johnson, all of that reflected choices made by Luke that were designed to get under Kylo’s skin. While the audience saw the destruction of the lightsaber that once belonged to Luke and his father, Kylo was knocked out and didn’t witness it. Seeing the lightsaber back in Luke’s hands only enraged Kylo, and that’s what it was meant to do.

Johnson also addressed the galaxy-spanning Force connection between Rey and Kylo. It’s true that none of the previous films established that power, although we have seen Luke and Darth Vader exchange a few Force words over a long distance near the end of The Empire Strikes Back. Johnson’s argument is that every Star Wars movie in the main saga has introduced new Force powers out of necessity to the plot, and this time he needed a way to get Rey and Kylo talking to each other without instantly being at each others’ throats. Plus, it led to shirtless Kylo Ren, an image that launched so many memes.

Finally, Johnson got around to dealing with Supreme Leader Snoke, the enigmatic ruler of the First Order. Everyone had a Snoke theory. Was he the First Jedi? The Last Jedi? Jar-Jar Binks reborn? According to Johnson, he purposefully withheld Snoke’s backstory because he felt that it would have hurt the film’s pace to include it. So, we may have to wait for a novel or some other ancillary media to give us Snoke’s story, unless J.J. Abrams finds a way to put it in Episode IX.

What do you think about Johnson’s latest Last Jedi remarks? Force ghost your way to the comment section below!

Images: Lucasfilm

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