Tracy Mumford

Experts say there's no one clear answer for why crime rates have been falling, but they have a wide range of educated guesses.

Some point to the phasing out of lead gasoline back in the 70s, which had impaired brain development.

Some other possible factors?

The growing use of surveillance cameras, new policing techniques, more programs that give teenagers summer jobs, better mental health treatment, or even the country's aging population.

One professor who studies crime told The Times that changing habits, like more screen time, could also be playing a role, saying American society is, quote, becoming much less face-to-face, which is sort of a requirement for violence.

The big wow out of the Oscar nominations this year was that the vampire movie Sinners broke the record for most nominations ever, beating out the previous three-way tie of Titanic, La La Land, and All About Eve.

Thank you, sensei, thank you!

Viva la revolución!

The movie One Battle After Another, about a scrappy crew rising up against authoritarianism, was close behind.

Both are the kind of movies Hollywood has mostly stopped making.

Big-budget original stories instead of sequels, spinoffs, etc.

In fact, the studio executives who originally backed Sinners and One Battle After Another were widely expected to lose their jobs for taking those swings.

The biggest snub in the nominations, according to The Times pop culture reporter Kyle Buchanan, is that the Wicked sequel got none, zero, even after the first installment got a bunch.

And one of the major, hmm, reallys, according to Kyle?

F1, the race car movie featuring Brad Pitt driving real fast and taking his shirt off, walked away with a Best Picture nomination.

Vroom, vroom.

The Oscar ceremony will be March 15th.

Those are the headlines.

If you'd like to play the Friday News Quiz, it is just after these credits.

This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford.