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On February 2, wellness influencer Peter Attia stepped down from his role as chief science officer at the protein company David. On February 12, Goldman Sachs top lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler announced her resignation from the company. And on February 13, Hollywood agent Casey Wasserman revealed that he would sell his talent agency. All of these business execs worked in very different spheres, but their sudden departures can be traced back to the same point of origin: their names cropped up again and again in the Department of Justices (DOJ) latest trove of Epstein files, released in late January. Over the past few weeks, many prominent figures have stepped down from their high-profile positions amidst growing scrutiny over their relationships to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A new tool called Jwiki is dedicated to compiling all of that information in one placeon, as the name suggests, a webpage designed to mimic Wikipedia. [Screenshot: Jwiki] Its the latest interface from a team of developers who have spent the last several months converting the notoriously dense and convoluted Epstein files into easily searchable interfaces, condensing about 3.5 million pages of material spread across .txt files, zip files, and Google Drive folders into recognizable formats. With Jwiki, instead of sifting through all of the Epstein files for individual mentions of various public figures (a nearly impossible task for members of the public), users can simply search their name and receive a succinct summary of their involvement with Epstein. How two technologists build the “Jsuite” Jwiki comes courtesy of a team led by technologists Riley Walz and Luke Igel. Walz has previously built several viral websites, including San Franciscos Tech Jester and a tool to track the citys parking cops. In November 2025, Igel, whos the CEO of an AI company called Kino, requested Walzs help with a tool to demystify Epsteins emails. They built the first iteration in just one night. That initial tool, called Jmail, allows users to wade through Epsteins seemingly endless email correspondence in a Gmail-style interface. To build it, Walz and Igel used Googles Gemini AI to run optical character recognition (OCR) on the individual emails and map it onto a simulation of Epsteins actual inbox. [Screenshot: Jwiki] Since then, Walz and Igel have relied heavily on vibe coding to expand the Jsuite into other apps like Jamazon; which tracks Epsteins Amazon orders through receipts; Jflights, which converts his flight data into a searchable map; and Jphotos, which compiles the files thousands of photos into one massive folder. In an interview with the publication Arena on February 12, Walz and Igel said that the Jsuite is receiving an average of 10,000 visitors daily, with a peak of well over a million visitors in a single day. How to use Jwiki According to a post from the official Jmail account on X, Walz and Igels team built Jwiki using their existing Jmail data. Upon first opening the site, users are greeted with a homepage that includes sections for a daily featured article, top articles by email volume, and top articles by viewership. The wiki includes entries on people, places, and events referenced in the files. [Screenshot: Jwiki] Users can either click on one of these displayed entries or look into their own areas of interest via a search bar. Clicking on Lesley Groff, Epsteins longtime executive assistant, for example, leads to a Wikipedia-style summary that includes a breakdown of her background, correpondence with Epstein (a whopping 224,747 emails), personal connections, and visits to Epsteins properties. It also includes a concluding section called Criminal Exposure Assessment,” which, according to Jmails post on X, cites U.S. codes that people may have been breaking as seen in the Jmail record. [Screenshot: Jwiki] We believe that the US government has a responsibility to fully investigate the people implicated by these files, the X post reads. Each Jwiki entry comes with the important caveat that its contents were generated by AI, meaning it’s fairly likely the resource is peppered with some inaccuracies and potential hallucinations. To address that concern, the Jmail team announced on X on February 18 that theyd opened the site for public contributions. Users can now sign in, propose edits to articles, and view the full revision history of every change. The edits are then reviewed and either approved or denied by a team of admins. Ultimately, the team says, its goal is Wikipedia-style open editing, where the articles self-correct. As the Epstein files slowly begin to bring powerful business leaders to account (albeit not in a court of law), Jwiki is one of the best tools available to the public so far to understand exactly what the rich and powerful were up to behind closed doors.
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Emerald Fennells Wuthering Heights is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of filmand for the most part, critics are falling in the hate it camp. The new adaptation of Emily Brontės classic novel is catching flak as critics say it oversimplifies a complex story of generational trauma and racial tension into a straightforward romance laced with Fennells signature shock value (shes also the director behind Promising Young Woman and Saltburninfamous bathtub scene and all). But a recent comment from star and producer Margot Robbie takes criticism out of the equation, instead saying that as an artist, critics opinions never cross her mind. At a recent panel for Vogue Australia, Robbiegiven her dual role as producer and leading actresswas asked how much she thinks about her audience while making a movie, as opposed to immersing herself in the story. I consider audience always. Ive never, ever been on set and thought, What are the critics going to think of this?’ Robbie replied. Im like, Whats an audience going to feel right now? Whats their emotional response going to be? “I just believe you should make movies for the people who are going to buy tickets to see the movies,” Robbie added. “Its kind of as simple as that. Margot Robbie (left) and Emerald Fennell on the set of Wuthering Heights. [Photo: Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros.] Robbie has produced all three of Fennells films, but Wuthering Heights is the first she appears in. I love working with Emerald [Fennell] because she always prioritizes an emotional experience over a heady idea, Robbie said. Shell let a cool idea fall by the wayside to offer the option that is going to be most exciting for an audience.” Robbies take was immediately divisive online. Some fellow filmmakers, including Cobra Kai writer and director Jon Hurwitz, echoed Robbies sentiment. This is the way. Audience first. Always, Hurwitz wrote in a post on X. This is the way. Audience first. Always. https://t.co/oX8hRlVH7M— Jon Hurwitz (@jonhurwitz) February 18, 2026 But others took issue with Robbies reading, noting that it frames films more as commercial products than as works of artnot to mention that critics are audience members themselves. Critic and editor-in-chief of AwardsWatch Erik Anderson pointed out that actors and directors never say this when their films get good reviews in his own response to Robbies statement. Why do actors and directors never say this when their films get good reviews https://t.co/PLl1LhFHhl— Erik Anderson (@AwardsWatchErik) February 18, 2026 On Rotten Tomatoes, Wuthering Heights is currently labeled rotten, with a critic score of 59%. In his review, The New Yorkers Justin Chang deemed the adaptation extravagantly superficial. For The Guardian, Adrian Horton dubbed it a big movie with a very small mind. And in a take that went viral, Vultures Allison Willmore called the film Fennells dumbest movie, while also praising it as her best to date. That appeal to the lowest common denominator is working for Wuthering Heights, at least on a commercial level. The film made $83 million globally over the Presidents Day holiday weekend, debuting as the number-one movie in North America. Robbies audience-first philosophy clearly gets butts in seatsbut if every creative ditches their heady ideas in favor of broad appeal, the future of film as an art form doesnt look quite as promising.
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Below, Jennifer Reid shares five key insights from her new book, Guilt Free: Reclaiming Your Life from Unreasonable Expectations. Jennifer is a psychiatrist, assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and busy mom of two boys. She is also the creator, host, and author of A Mind of Her Own podcast and Substack newsletter. Whats the big idea? Women are socialized to feel constant guiltnot because they are doing something wrong, but because they are held to impossible expectations. This guilt can be unlearned by understanding its roots and replacing self-criticism with healthier ways of caring, motivating, and relating. Listen to the audio version of this Book Biteread by Jennifer herselfin the Next Big Idea App. 1. Guilt: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Guilt, in certain circumstances, can be a helpful emotion. For centuries, humans have used guilt to help them connect, collaborate, and build community because the ability to feel guilty when weve harmed someone expresses to them that we care enough to feel badly about what has happened. It also motivates us to try to make a repair. Guilt begins to lose its benefit, though, when we are victims of manipulative guilt, whether from our families, our social networks, or in our cultural experiences. Gosh, I wish you were able to visit us more often, but I guess youre really busy with your big, important job. Manipulative guilt can feel pretty terrible. The most toxic guilt, however, is the type of guilt so many women feel almost constantly. This generalized, self-critical guilt leads to thoughts like, Why cant I do anything right? and Why dont I ever feel like Im doing enough? Rather than responding to a particular harm weve committed, were feeling guilty for falling short on several sky-high, unreasonable expectations. Importantly, this is not because we are getting something wrong. This is something women have been socialized to experience, often from a very young age, by the people who care for us and the culture during our lives. We are taught to feel guilty, and we are excellent students. 2. The Four Furies of expectations. Our guilt triggers are incredibly diverse, involving our roles as friends, sisters, daughters, mothers, romantic partners, and employees. But the foundation of all this guilt is based on just two key factors: our expectations and our perceived reality. This is the Guilt Equation, which tells us that our guilt increases when what we believe we should be doing (our expectation) doesnt match what were able to accomplish (our reality). If, for example, we believe a good mother would never forget to pack a bagged lunch on a field trip day, and it slips our mind, here comes the intense guilt. The often unreasonably high expectations women face tend to fall into four main categories, which I call the Four Furies: We are expected to be constant caretakers, making sure everyone in our lives has everything they need, even if this means (and it often does) that we put ourselves last. We must be hyper-accountable, especially for other peoples thoughts and feelings, even though we dont have any actual control over these: Mom seems sad. If I were a good daughter, I would be able to say the right thing to cheer her up. We are expected to strive for perfection in all things, but especially in our bodies, our minds, and our self-control. We should be able to have it all, balancing each of our responsibilities effortlessly, even when we feel totally overwhelmed. 3. Guilty can be sneaky. Before beginning the process of lowering this guilt, its important to recognize another fundamental truth: guilt may be serving us in a variety of ways. We may believe we need this guilt because it provides us with something we really wantmotivation. After all, if we dont feel guilty for skipping a day at the gym or berating ourselves for choosing to sleep in a little instead of getting up with our alarm, then doesnt this mean we will simply give up on ourselves? Guilt can also become a protective stand-in for emotions we dont feel safe feeling, much less expressing, such as anger or frustration. We tell ourselves, I shouldnt be so upset that my partner didnt do what I asked. Hes been really stressed at work, and I should be more understanding. These benefits of guilt, however, are costly because they force us to believe we are getting something wrong, relying on harmful self-criticism to push us toward a goal. Or we repeatedly shift these difficult thoughts and feelings inward where they continue to make us miserable, with no relief in sight. Instead of guilt, we can learn to tap into healthier and more beneficial strategies, such as using self-compassion to enhance motivation and allowing ourselves to experience the full range of natural human emotions. We can also focus our all-important attention on the ways we are already showing up, and the many things we are doing well. Guilt can also become a protective stand-in for emotions we dont feel safe feeling, much less expressing, such as anger or frustration. In addition, although we cant control the thoughts and feelings of people in our lives, we can shape our interactions with them through crucial communication strategies, including learning to accept disappointment in ourselves and others, being clear and consistent with our boundaries, and practicing the powerful art of delegation, even when were met with an eye roll or other clear expressions of frustration. 4. We can SPEAK up for less guilt. To learn concrete steps for lowering guilt, Id like to introduce SPEAK: Showing Up Paying Attention Examining the Evidence Taking Action Keep Going By showing up, you are telling yourself that you are important enough to warrant time, attention, and care, which is no small thing. Paying attention involves becoming a curious, non-judgmental observer of your thoughts and feelings throughout the day, which later allows you to examine the evidence for helpful clues about your own unique guilt triggers. As you gain these crucial insights, you can begin to take action. This is not a one-size-fits-all approach but instead, it allows you to use the strategies you find most helpful. You could challenge unreasonable expectations by learning to limit unhealthy comparisons, especially with strangers on social media. You can rewrite unfair childhood scripts such as being labeled the girl who took care of everybody, by learning about cognitive restructuring, which involves treating your initial guilty or self-critical thoughts as rough drafts, rather than the final product. You can strengthen your sense of self-efficacy by adopting a growth mindset and using tools from positive psychology to reject the idea that you must be perfect to be loved. Finally, and most importantly, you can vow to just keep at it, every single day. 5. Lowering guilt for ourselves and future genrations. We have been socialized to feel guilty, repeatedly reminded that we should be striving for unreachable levels of caretaking, accountability, perfection, and life balance. This has not occurred on an individual level, however, but rather as a delayed shift of the expectations women continue to face, even as weve fought for and achieved more opportunities to create the families, careers, and lives we most desire. This can be our legacy: living our best lives with far less guilt. But this also represents an opportunity for massive change. Much has been written about intergenerational transmission of trauma, a powerful influence on future populations down to the level of their gene expression. What this suggests is the considerable potential for women of this timethrough our refusal to continue living with constant guilt, unfair expectations, and overlooked contributionsto create a cascade of agency and empowerment that affects generations of women to come. This can be our legacy: living our best lives with far less guilt. Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea app. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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