Five years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, COVID is usually discussed in the past tense — as a thing that happened.

But no event as monumental as COVID simply goes away. The disease forced us to rearrange our society nearly overnight. Even though the days of lockdowns and mass death are behind us, disruption of that scale is bound to have a lasting, if not permanent, impact.

America is simply a different country today than it was before COVID arrived, though some of the aftereffects are difficult to measure. The pandemic undoubtedly altered U.S. politics, for example, but how much and in which directions is hard to quantify given all of the other factors at play.

More than a million deaths and counting

The most important and obvious result of COVID is all of the lives that it took — and continues to take. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 1.2 million people in the United States have died of COVID-related illnesses. During the first wave of infections, as many as 15,000 people were dying every week. A later, even deadlier wave, that started in late 2020 peaked at more than 25,000 weekly deaths. Though those days are thankfully behind us, COVID is still killing several hundred people every week.

Lasting health impacts

The virus’s health impact goes beyond mortality, of course. There have been more than 100 million confirmed cases of COVID in the U.S., though that figure likely dramatically underestimates the actual total. Most people recovered fully, but some didn’t. Millions reported dealing with lingering, in some cases debilitating, effects of long COVID.

In 2024, there were 4 million more Americans living with a disability than there were five years prior. Not all of that increase can be attributed to COVID directly, but there has been a significant increase in the number of people reporting a cognitive impairment over the past five years.

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The way we work

When communal spaces abruptly became the sites of deadly virus transmission, America’s white collar workforce suddenly had to learn how to do their jobs remotely. A lot of them never came back to the office. According to the most recent available data, more than a third of U.S. workers now do some or all of their work from home.

Employers have been trying to coax their workers back into the office for years now, but with only limited success. Many at-home workers like their remote arrangement so much that they would be willing to take a pay cut or even quit to keep it.

Beyond the impact on individual companies, the rise of remote work has also dealt a massive blow to the commercial real estate industry. According to one estimate, office buildings across the country have lost a total of $250 billion in value because so much space is sitting vacant. Some cities have all but given up on some of those offices ever being filled again and begun the difficult process of trying to convert them into residential housing.

The way we learn

America’s schools also closed en masse in the early stages of the pandemic. Unlike remote work, which has had an unclear impact on worker productivity, distance learning proved to be a poor substitute for in-person instruction for most students. The disruptions of the pandemic caused widespread learning loss that still hasn’t been remedied five years later. Anger over what many feel were unnecessary or excessively long school closures has helped fuel a stark decline in satisfaction with the nation’s schools. The majority of states have seen public school enrollment drop from pre-pandemic levels.

School closures also served as an impromptu nationwide experiment in homeschooling. While many parents were eager to get their children back into the classroom, millions decided that educating their children in their own homes was the better choice for their families. Homeschooling has a long history in the U.S., but in recent years it has evolved from its religious roots to become more diverse — both in its structure and the types of families that practice it.

The way we vaccinate

Data from America’s schools is also one of the best ways of measuring another significant post-pandemic social trend: Increased skepticism of vaccines. Anti-vaccine sentiment is nothing new in America. But that view has become increasingly widespread over the past few years as unfounded fears about COVID-19 vaccines appear to have spilled over into more general distrust of all inoculations. As the recent measles outbreak in Texas has shown, this shift can have deadly consequences.

The way we watch

The film industry was dealt a particularly big blow by the coronavirus. Annual box office revenue fell by $9 billion after theaters throughout the country were forced to shutter. Productions also ground to a halt, meaning there were fewer releases to draw audiences back to the cinema once safety concerns faded away. The industry has made significant progress over the past few years, but its output and earnings are still well below where they were at the start of the pandemic.

With no choice but to seek entertainment at home, Americans turned to their TVs, and studios poured billions into streaming platforms to secure their share of the audience. Over the past five years, our relationship to television has fundamentally changed. Traditional cable has cratered while streaming services have boomed. Last year, audiences watched 23 million years’ worth of streaming content, according to Nielsen. This shift doesn’t just affect how we enjoy TV, it could have major repercussions on the industry’s long-term health.

The way we spend

Beyond any one industry, the pandemic has had a lasting effect on the U.S. economy as a whole, but not in the way most would have expected when the world ground to a halt five years ago. The economy took a nosedive at first, but rebounded quickly — thanks in part to trillions of dollars in stimulus from Congress. By early 2021, it had not only recovered pandemic losses, but was surging.

The past few years have seen steady economic growth, low unemployment, rising wages and record highs in the stock market. But those positive trends have been paired with stubbornly high inflation that has driven prices of key consumer goods up and up.

Nowhere has the post-pandemic price spike been more impactful than in housing. A surge in newly remote workers looking for more space and city dwellers relocating to less densely populated areas caused demand to skyrocket in a housing market that was already dealing with a chronic supply shortage. In just two years, the average sale price of a home in the U.S. increased by more than $150,000. Price pressure didn’t only impact homeowners. Renters have also seen their housing costs increase substantially. High interest rates have steadied things to a certain extent, but housing is still less affordable than it has been in decades.

When it comes to television audiences, nothing compares to the Super Bowl. The NFL’s championship game accounts for nine of the 10 most-watched broadcasts in American history, according to Neilsen. Last year’s game was watched by more than 123 million people — the second-biggest TV audience of all time, behind only the moon landing.

So it’s no surprise that brands are willing to fork over huge amounts of money for the chance to make their pitch to such a massive collection of potential customers. Some 30-second slots for this year’s Super Bowl have reportedly sold for a record $8 million, a full $1 million above the going rate a year ago.

Even in its relatively humble early days, the Super Bowl was a big deal. In 1967, more than 50 million people watched the first broadcast of what was then known as the AFL-NFL World Championship Game between competing broadcasts on CBS and NBC. While ratings for the big game have more than doubled over the past six decades, the going rate for commercials has increased at an exponential rate.

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According to the site superbowl-ads.com, a 30-second spot on CBS during the first Super Bowl cost just $42,500. One of the signature ads that year was a commercial for Goodyear Tires that centered around a woman stranded along the side of the road with no man in sight to rescue her. The tagline was, “When there’s no man around, Goodyear should be.”

Viewership for the Super Bowl gradually increased over the next few years, as did the prices networks charged for ad time. But the game truly established itself as “an event for advertisers” in 1973 thanks to a sultry commercial for Noxzema that featured actress Farrah Fawcett preening over New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath. By then, Super Bowl ads went for an average of $88,000.

Prices steadily climbed over the following decade. In 1980, the year Coca-Cola aired its iconic “Hey kid, catch” ad with Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Joe Greene, a 30-second slot cost $222,000. During this period, advertisers were also becoming increasingly conscious of the importance of storytelling when it came to helping their brands stand out from the crowd of other advertisers.

The 1984 Super Bowl broadcast featured the debut of Apple’s famed ad inspired by George Orwell’s dystopian novel, which is still widely viewed as one of the most important commercials of all time.

By the time McDonald’s tapped NBA legends Michael Jordan and Larry Bird for their famous game of H-O-R-S-E in 1993, the going rate for Super Bowl ad slots had gone up to $850,000. Prices broke the million-dollar barrier for the first time two years later, the year Budweiser introduced the public to its trio of soft-spoken frogs. The beermaker’s next breakthrough ad, the notably less serene “Whassup?” spot, came in 2000, when ad slots had jumped to $1.6 million.

By the turn of the millennium, it became the norm for ad costs to leap by several hundred thousand dollars from year to year. In 2009, a 30-second spot was just a hair under $3 million. Just five years later, it was $4 million.

There have been occasional dips or brief moments of stagnation, but the trend of ever-increasing Super Bowl commercial prices shows no sign of slowing down, especially if ratings for the game continue to climb as they have over the past few years.

Super Bowl audiences have never been bigger, but brands may not be getting as much return on their ad spending as they used to back in the game’s early days. In terms of viewers per dollar spent, the most efficient era for Super Bowl commercials was all the way back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when just $100,000 could buy access to an audience of 40 million viewers or more.

On March 8, Ariana Grande released her long-awaited seventh studio album, Eternal Sunshine, on all platforms, marking the singer’s first album since Positions in 2020. In less than 24 hours since its release, Eternal Sunshine has reached No. 1 on the U.S. Apple Music albums chart and sent her fans — also known as Arianators (or Ariheads) — into a frenzy. They’ve been quick to jump on social media to discuss the album’s revelations and Easter eggs.

Mac Miller and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Grande fans and cinephiles alike were quick to point out that the album’s title appears to be a direct reference to the 2004 Michel Gondry-directed sci-fi romance film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. In fact, Grande even confirmed the film’s influence on this “concept album,” calling it a reflection of her “psychotic, dream world.”

“I’m a massive Jim Carrey fan,” the pop star, 30, told Apple Music 1 on March 7, before talking about how Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which chronicles a couple’s breakup and their decision to erase one another from their memories by way of a clinical procedure, is one of her favorite films.

“I think the movie is so beloved because so many people can relate to knowing that something isn’t right but loving so much and wanting to stay and wanting to figure it out,” she said. “I think it kind of fell into place that these songs had little tidbits of that theme. I just felt really inspired by it.”

In the music video for the album’s single “We Can’t Be Friends,” Grande is seen in a wood-paneled waiting room, similar to the one in the film, and is filling out a form consenting to have her memory erased. She plays Peaches, a character inspired by Winslet’s free-spirited protagonist Clementine, and recreates notable shots from the film with video co-star Evan Peters.

While Grande has spoken about her admiration of Carrey and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind itself, the film was also one of late rapper Mac Miller’s favorites. Grande and Miller famously dated from 2016-18. The popular Pittsburgh native tragically passed away in September 2018 at 26 years old. With this in mind, some fans believe the album’s title was also another way for her to honor him.

“I love Jim Carrey when he’s being serious. He killed this role. Whenever I’m talking to a girl, I always tell them to watch Eternal Sunshine. It cuts deep,” Miller told Complex in 2013.

Do we hear Mac Miller’s voice on Eternal Sunshine?

Grande and Miller first collaborated on her 2013 track “The Way” as part of her debut album, Yours Truly. The track “Ghostin” from her 2019 album Thank U, Next is believed to be about Grande mourning Miller’s passing.

On Eternal Sunshine, however, fans believe that Grande may have featured Miller’s voice on the title track. In the opening seconds of “Eternal Sunshine,” Grande can be heard laughing. Some believe that Miller’s laugh can be heard too, and that Grande inserted an audio clip from a video she recorded of him when they were still dating. Knowing that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was also one of Miller’s favorite films, fans think placing this audio on this specific track was entirely intentional.

“I can’t believe she added the same laugh from the Mac video,” TikTok user Mags (@maggielikescats) wrote.

Does Grande hint at what may have ended her marriage with Dalton Gomez?

While it’s hard to say if and exactly how many songs were inspired by Grande’s ex-husband, real estate agent Dalton Gomez, there are certain lyrics that have many fans convinced he cheated on her. The most damning, according to fans, can be heard on “Eternal Sunshine,” on which they claim Grande alludes to infidelity.

On the first verse of the album’s third track, “Don’t Wanna Break Up Again,” Grande also sings about crying herself to sleep and needing to pull it together:

I fall asleep crying, you turn up the TV

You don’t wanna hear me

One more sleepless night

Big day in the morning

So, I take my time to self-soothe

Some fans believe the “big day in the morning” line refers to Grande’s time filming the forthcoming feature film adaptation of Wicked in London from 2022-24. Grande and Gomez filed for divorce in 2023 after two years of marriage.

A representative for Gomez did not immediately respond to Yahoo News’s request for comment.

“Dalton, can you fight? Because if you haven’t heard, we’re all coming for you,” Tabs (@sincerelytabs) says in a video she posted.

Does she put the Ethan Slater infidelity rumors to rest?

Eternal Sunshine’s seventh track, “True Story,” on the other hand, is believed to address the rumors that Grande’s boyfriend, her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater, was still married to his high school sweetheart, Lilly Jay, with whom he welcomed a son in August 2022, when they got together. Grande and Slater’s relationship timeline prompted suspicion that they cheated on their spouses to be with one another.

Grande told Apple Music 1 that “True Story” is “an untrue story based on all untrue events” in which she plays the role of “the bad girl.” In the first verse, the R.E.M. beauty founder sings:

I’ll play the villain if you need me to

I know how this goes, yeah

I’ll be the one you pay to see, play the scene

Roll the cameras please

Though unconfirmed, it’s possible Grande may be referring to having to “play the villain” that the tabloids have painted her to be in response to her relationship with Slater. If this is the case, then “True Story,” for some fans, can be interpreted as Grande reclaiming the narrative and speaking her truth.

We don’t know exactly how Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance will look, but we do know it will be spectacular. It’s become an annual tradition for one of the world’s biggest stars — or often several of them — to put on an epic show that, for many viewers, outshines the action on the field. Surprise special guests, amazing stunts, massive pyrotechnics and elaborate set pieces are the norm these days.

But that hasn’t always been the case. The Super Bowl halftime show in fact has incredibly humble beginnings. It took decades for the superstar-centric extravaganzas we see today to become the standard. Even that formula has gone through major changes, with distinct shifts in the types of artists and structure of their shows over the years.

Here’s a breakdown of the Super Bowl halftime’s many eras, from its modest roots through its evolution into one of the year’s most important pop culture events.

The Super Bowl hasn’t always been so super. In fact, it wasn’t even called the Super Bowl the first two times it was played. Those early matchups, which started when the NFL merged with the upstart American Football League in the 1960s, were modeled after the college football bowl games that had been around for decades. That vision also carried over to halftime.

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The roster of performers for the first 10 years of halftime shows was filled with marching bands and jazz performers with only sporadic appearances by genuine celebrities. Occasionally there would be some extra dramatic flourishes thrown in, like men flying on jetpacks in 1967 or a brief reenactment in 1970 of the Battle of New Orleans, but the scope of these productions was tiny relative to what halftime would later become.

By the late 1970s, with viewership for the Super Bowl nearly double what it had been 10 years earlier, halftime shows had started to shift away from the marching-band-centric college football model. In their place came a series of variety show-style musical reviews with themes like “A Salute to the 60s and Motown” and “Beat of the Future.” This was the heyday of Up With People, a non-profit organization with an achingly-earnest message of harmony through the power of music.

Producers also began to weave gimmicky features into shows to liven things up. All 105,000 people in attendance at the 1983 Super Bowl were given colorful cards so they could take part in that year’s “KaleidoSUPERscope” theme. Chubby Checker, pictured above, starred in the “Something Grand” review alongside 88 grand piano players in 1988. The next year’s “Be Bop Bamboozled” show, led by a lip-syncing Elvis Presley impersonator, was the first network broadcast in 3D.

This period is frequently considered to be the low point for Super Bowl halftimes — the San Francisco Chronicle described 1989’s 3D extravaganza as an “atrocious stab at entertainment.” That left NFL broadcasters vulnerable to competitors who offered something more engaging than a medley of cheesy hits. Fox, a fledgling competitor to the big three networks at the time, seized on this opportunity in 1992 by airing a live episode of its sketch comedy show “In Living Color” in direct competition with the official halftime show airing on CBS. More than 20 million people tuned in, robbing CBS of about one-fifth of its audience for the main broadcast. Fox’s gambit was a “major wake-up call” for the big networks, who knew they needed to make serious changes to keepp viewers from reaching for the remote.

The Super Bowl halftime show changed forever the moment that Michael Jackson burst onto the stage — literally — to launch his iconic performance at the Rose Bowl in 1993. After spending the previous decade coming up with elaborate tricks to infuse excitement into lackluster spectacles, the NFL had solved its halftime woes by doing something incredibly simple — having the world’s most captivating pop star do what he did best.

Rather than bleeding viewers once the players left the field, the audience actually grew by more than 10 million people at halftime. According to Neilsen, the 1993 halftime show on its own is one of the 20 most-watched U.S. television broadcasts of all time, surpassed only by recent Super Bowls, major news events and the M*A*S*H finale.

The King of Pop’s thrilling performance sent a clear message that stars are a must-have for any halftime show. It took a few years, though, before the league fully shook off its impulse toward campy theatrics. The ensuing years included concerts by the likes of Diana Ross, Christina Aguilera and Stevie Wonder. But they also featured an Indiana Jones-themed adventure designed to promote a new ride at Disneyland and a “Blues Brothers Bash” headlined by Dan Aykroyd and John Goodman.

By the turn of the millennium, the formula for success was well established. The gimmicks were gone and halftime was all about having the biggest stars of the day perform their biggest hits on the nation’s biggest stage. The league might have stuck with this approach indefinitely were it not for Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction in 2004, which set off a nationwide scandal and prompted broadcasters to start booking less risky acts to headline their halftime shows.

After the drama that erupted in response to Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction, Super Bowl halftimes underwent a notable shift to a brand of artist that was less likely to inspire bad press. That meant digging into the past.

Between 2005 and 2010, halftime shows featured tried-and-true rock bands that — despite being well past their peak in popularity — were still huge acts in their own right. This safer era started with Paul McCartney, then moved on to the Rolling Stones the next year before eventually featuring the Who, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. The notable exception to this trend was Prince, who courted controversy throughout his career and gave what is widely considered to be one of the greatest halftime performances ever in 2007.

The nostalgia rock period only lasted a few years. Before long, the list of older bands that could warrant such a huge spotlight was running out and interest among younger viewers had waned significantly.

In 2011, the Black Eyed Peas were brought to kick off a “generational shift” for Super Bowl halftime. After years of classic rock acts that were more appealing to older Americans, the NFL was back to booking artists that were at the top of the charts. Though the group’s performance mostly received lackluster reviews, they initiated a decade of pop dominance.

Our culture’s engagement with halftime shows also changed dramatically during this period. Thanks to the rise of social media, the show wasn’t just about the performance. It was also fodder for moments and memes that spread far beyond the audience watching on TV. This was the era of Beyonce’s Formation, Katy Perry’s left shark, Lady Gaga’s rooftop plunge, a shirtless Usher and The Weeknd getting lost in a maze of lights.

It’s too early to label the current era, but the trend so far suggests that it may be remembered as the years when hip-hop was in command.

Nostalgia once was again at the center of Super Bowl halftime in 2022. This time, though, it was hip-hop legends Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Eminem on stage rather than classic rock stars. The following two years were headlined by Rihanna and Usher, whose hits straddle the line between hip-hop and pop.

Now it’s Kendrick Lamar’s turn. Just one week after winning five Grammys, rap’s biggest star will put on a show that — whatever happens — will feel like it’s from a different universe than the modest, traditional halftime shows that used to fill time between quarters of America’s premier sporting event.

Rapper Young Thug’s lawyer avoided jail time Wednesday, thanks to the Georgia Supreme Court, after he was held in contempt by a Georgia judge in the high-profile RICO case against his famous client. Prosecutors have accused the rapper of leading an Atlanta-based street gang to commit acts of murder and robbery, among others.

The charge against Brian Steel, who has been representing the Grammy-award-winning artist in Georgia’s high-profile case, is the latest development in a case that has been marred with setbacks, adding another layer to what is said to be the longest trial in state history.

Here’s what to know about Young Thug’s complex criminal trial.

What’s happening with Young Thug’s lawyer?

On June 7, Judge Ural Glanville held Steel in criminal contempt after he accused Glanville and prosecutors of having an “unconstitutional” closed-door meeting with Kenneth “Lil Woody” Copeland — the prosecution’s star witness — and refused to tell the judge who told him about the meeting.

Copeland is accused of being an associate of YSL, Young Thug’s record label. Copeland says that YSL stands for Young Stoner Life, but prosecutors say YSL also stands for Young Slime Life, a violent street gang.

That same day, Copeland, who had been granted immunity, did not take the stand after asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege, and was taken to jail.

However, Copeland came back and testified on June 10 about his connections to Young Thug and YSL.

Steel told Glanville in court that if a closed-door meeting happened, “what this is is coercion, witness intimidation, ex parte communications that we have a constitutional right to be present for.”

Glanville had ordered Steel to serve the next 10 weekends in the Fulton County Jail starting this weekend, but on June 12, the Georgia Supreme Court granted an emergency request for bond. Steel will not report to jail on Friday, and will remain free while his contempt of court charge is being appealed.

What’s the trial about?

In May 2022, a Fulton County grand jury indicted rapper Jeffrey “Young Thug” Williams on conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, otherwise known as RICO. The rapper was also charged with gang, drug and gun crimes.

The rapper, charged along with 27 other people, is standing trial with five co-defendants. Several of those listed in the indictment either took a plea deal, did not have some sort of legal representation, had their cases separated from Young Thug’s trial or had not been arrested.

Among the gang activities listed in the indictment are murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and vehicle hijacking. In August 2022, additional counts were added to include drug and gun charges for Young Thug. The RICO charge and his two gang charges carry a five to 20-year prison sentence.

Fulton County prosecutor Adriane Love accused members of YSL of “moving like a pack,” with Young Thug leading them and their associates.

“For 10 years and counting, the group calling itself Young Slime Life dominated the Cleveland Avenue community of Fulton County,” Love said during opening statements in November. She also accused YSL of creating “a crater in the middle of Fulton County’s Cleveland Avenue community, that sucked in the youth, the innocence and even the lives of some of [its] youngest members.”

All defendants on trial have pleaded not guilty.

​​Steel told the New York Times in 2022 that the rapper “came from an incredibly horrible upbringing, and he has conducted himself throughout his life in a way that is just to marvel at. He’s committed no crime whatsoever.”

What makes the trial so complex?

Since the trial began in November 2023, at least 17 specific sets of lyrics from Young Thug and YSL that were mentioned in the indictment have been submitted as evidence. Prosecutors say the lyrics represent “overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy” to violate the RICO Act.

The lyrics include: “You wanna be slime? Go catch you a body,” from YSL’s song “Really Be Slime” and “I never killed anybody, but I got something to do with that body … I get all types of cash, I’m a general,” from Young Thug’s 2018 song, “Anybody.”

However, the defense has argued that admitting the lyrics as evidence was racist.

“Using these lyrics/poetry/artistry/speech against Mr. Williams is racist and discriminatory because the jury will be so poisoned and prejudiced by these lyrics/poetry/artistry/speech as the same is unlawful character assassination,” Young Thug’s lawyer said in a motion.

Young Thug’s trial is one of two high-profile cases the office of Fulton Count District Attorney Fani Willis is prosecuting. In 2023, she indicted former President Donald Trump and more than a dozen of his allies on RICO charges for allegedly conspiring to attempt to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results.

The complex trial has also been weighed down by a series of events that have slowed down the judicial process including:

What happens next

Glanville has denied Young Thug bond multiple times, claiming that the rapper was a threat to witnesses, had the potential to flee and is a danger to the community.

The trial could continue into 2025.