1. 50 Cent on love, cash and bankruptcy: ‘When there are setbacks, there will be get-backs’
‘Get Rich was really his life story. And what a story. His drug-dealing mother, Sabrina, was murdered when he was eight (drugged and gassed at 23 by an unknown killer in her home); he started selling drugs on the streets at 12, bought his first gun at 15 and was shot nine times at the age of 25 (including a bullet through the cheek that gives him his distinctive slur today).’
2. Shaun of the Dead: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg on their zombie classic
‘A flash point came when I ventured out once to buy milk at five in the morning, after staying up playing Resident Evil. I was taken with how deserted and eerie the streets were. What would a British person do if zombies appeared now? In American zombie movies, everyone had high-powered weapons. What would someone do without all that?’
3. My favourite game: Agüero scores Premier League’s most dramatic goal
‘It is the moments you never expect that have the greatest impact on your life; whether it’s meeting eyes with your future life partner for the first time, winning the lottery or Sergio Agüero scoring the most dramatic goal in Premier League history to give the title to your once mediocre club.’
4. Gladiator at 20: how Ridley Scott’s epic rejuvenated the historical blockbuster
‘“Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?” the creepy pilot asks the small boy in Airplane!. To younger audiences, the joke no longer makes any sense. In Airplane!’s day, sword-and-sandals movies had become an outdated, unwittingly homoerotic joke. But then came Gladiator, and the joke was on us.’
5. Fast and furious: Carlsen and Nakamura transform chess into an adrenaline sport
‘On one side of the virtual board sat the Norwegian world champion, Magnus Carlsen. Facing him was the American Hikaru Nakamura, the world’s top-rated blitz player, who once likened his opponent to Sauron, the dark ruler of Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. The pair, unsurprisingly, do not exchange Christmas cards.’
6. How can we ‘do the splits’ on our mortgage?
‘I appreciate it’s an unusual time to be concerned with mortgage splits, but my boyfriend and I bought a house more than a year ago and we still haven’t drafted a deed of trust. With all the uncertainties at the moment, we agree now is a good time – we just need to agree on the terms.’
7. Can you solve it? Are you smarter than an 8-year-old?
‘Today’s teasers are from my new puzzle book, Football School: the Ultimate Puzzle Book, which is aimed at eight- to 13-year-olds. No pressure. I have extracted some of the problems that I thought might also provide entertainment for grown-ups.’
8. Ex-pope Benedict XVI accuses opponents of wanting to silence him
‘The former pope Benedict XVI has accused opponents of wanting to silence him, while associating gay marriage with the Antichrist and attacking humanist ideologies in an authorised biography published in Germany.’
9. How the Kent State massacre marked the start of America’s polarization
‘Fifty years ago today, 28 soldiers opened fire on anti-Vietnam war demonstrators, letting loose 67 bullets in just 13 seconds. Four students were killed, nine wounded, and a fissure exposed in American society that shaped politics into the Trump era. To large parts of the country, the Kent State massacre was a shocking and seminal event – American soldiers gunning down white students was unthinkable until it happened.’
10. The Kinks: where to start in their back catalogue
‘When the Kinks’ abominable onstage behaviour caused the American Federation of Musicians to bar the group from ever returning to the US, Ray and Dave Davies had a rethink about where their music stood in relation to British culture. The brothers, born and bred in Muswell Hill, north London, had never hit it off, and touring tended to bring out the worst in them.’
How we create the Antidote
Every day we measure not only how many people click on individual stories but also how long they spend reading them. This list is created by comparing the attention time to the length of each article, to come up with a ranking for the stories people read most deeply.
