Well this is upsetting. via All That Is Interesting


American playwright, filmmaker, actor, and now literal lifesaver Jesse Eisenberg is taking his holiday giving to a whole new level. The Now You See Me star revealed on the TODAY show that he’s donating one of his kidneys to a total stranger.
The man isn’t conjuring a disappearing organ act. He’s actually doing it.
Eisenberg, ever the soft-spoken overachiever, dropped the announcement casually on live TV:
“I’m actually donating my kidney in six weeks… I really am.”
And no, this isn’t a promo stunt for Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.
Asked what inspired the decision, the Social Network star replied with peak Eisenberg energy:
“I don’t know why. I got bitten by the blood donation bug. I’m doing an altruistic donation mid-December. I’m so excited to do it.”
In the U.S., roughly 27,759 kidney transplants were performed in 2024, about a quarter of them from living donors. Eisenberg is now joining that rare and generous club. His kidney, like one of his Now You See Me tricks, will vanish from one person and reappear in another, saving a life in the process.
For anyone unfamiliar with the term, an “altruistic donor” gives a kidney to someone they’ve never met. No family ties, no personal connection—just pure, organ-level kindness. As RWJ Barnabas Health puts it, these are “non-directed” donors who step up for strangers with advanced kidney disease.
Eisenberg explained it in his own words:
“It’s essentially risk-free and so needed. I think people will realize that it’s a no-brainer if you have the time and the inclination.”
While “risk-free” might be a touch of magician’s optimism, experts say the odds are overwhelmingly in donors’ favor: over 95% recover fully and go on to live everyday, healthy lives with just one kidney. The surgery itself carries about the same risk as any routine laparoscopic procedure—more “disappearing appendix” than death-defying illusion.
He also broke down how the kidney exchange process works, in a way that sounds suspiciously like a jewelry heist diagram:
“Let’s say person X needs a kidney in Kansas City, and their child was going to donate, but isn’t a match—but somehow I am. That person gets my kidney, and their child still donates to someone else. It’s a chain reaction—but it only works if there’s an altruistic donor to start it.”
Apparently, Eisenberg first considered donating a decade ago, but the organization he contacted never responded. Could you imagine ghosting Zack Snyder’s Lex Luthor of all people?
This time, a doctor friend pointed him toward NYU Langone Health in New York City. After a few tests, the magician-slash-humanitarian was cleared for surgery in mid-December.
He also wanted to clarify a common concern: what if a family member needs a kidney later?
According to Eisenberg, that’s covered thanks to the National Kidney Registry’s family voucher program:
“The way it works now is you can put a list of whoever you’d like to be first at the top of the list. So it’s risk-free for my family as well.”
You can view the interview clip here:
- YouTubeTODAY
Eisenberg credited his wife, Anna Strout, a teacher and longtime charity worker, for inspiring his sense of activism. Her late mother ran a domestic violence shelter, which the couple continues to support.
Of course, Eisenberg, being Eisenberg, couldn’t resist adding a self-deprecating quip about his ongoing blood donations:
“I just have so much blood in me, and I feel like I should spill it. I really like doing it, and I don’t know why.”
Between blood drives, altruistic kidney surgery, and fatherhood, Eisenberg’s pulling off the ultimate vanishing act—ego, gone; empathy, revealed.
And naturally, the internet pulled a rabbit out of that hat, transforming Eisenberg’s generosity into a viral act of modern magic.
The Oscar-nominated actor isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Fresh off his nod for A Real Pain, Eisenberg is back to bending reality in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, the third installment of the hit magician-heist franchise, opening Nov. 14.
Off-screen, he’s a husband and father. He and his wife, Anna Strout, welcomed their son Banner in 2017, and he even made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in A Real Pain.
Meanwhile, the long-awaited Social Network sequel, The Social Reckoning, is moving forward without him. Aaron Sorkin is returning as both writer and director, with Jeremy Strong taking over the role of Mark Zuckerberg.
Still, between his screenplays, stage work, and upcoming kidney vanishing act, Eisenberg seems to be starring in his most impressive performance yet: making humanity look cool again.
You can view the trailer for Now You See Me: Now You Don’t below—because yes, the magic’s still real:
- YouTubeLionsgate Movies
And if Eisenberg’s act of generosity has you feeling inspired, you can learn more about becoming a living kidney donor through organizations like the National Kidney Registry or NYU Langone Health’s Living Donor Program.
Turns out, the greatest trick of all might be saving someone’s life.
President Donald Trump was criticized after he claimed during a sit-down interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O'Donnell that he doesn't know who Binance cryptocurrency exchange founder Changpeng Zhao is despite pardoning him less than two weeks ago.
In 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to violating anti–money laundering laws after Binance allegedly failed to report suspicious transactions involving groups such as Hamas and al-Qaida. He later apologized, paid a $50 million fine, and served nearly four months in prison before being pardoned by Trump.
The White House justified the pardon by claiming Zhao’s prosecution was part of President Biden’s “war on cryptocurrency.” Trump has since declared his intention to make the United States a global leader in digital currency. In response, Zhao pledged to “do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto.”
Zhao still retains his ownership stake in Binance, which has had business ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm owned by the Trump family.
With this in mind, O'Donnell asked:
“The government at the time said that C.Z. had caused ‘significant harm to U.S. national security,’ essentially by allowing terrorist groups like Hamas to move millions of dollars around. Why did you pardon him?”
Trump replied:
“OK, are you ready? I don’t know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.”
O'Donnell noted that in 2025, Binance "helped facilitate a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial's stablecoin and then you pardoned CZ" and asked Trump to explain how he responds to the “appearance of pay for play," to which Trump said:
“Here’s the thing: I know nothing about it. My sons are into it. I'm glad they are because it's probably a great industry, crypto. They're in business, they're not in government."
You can hear what Trump said in the video below.
People were quick to call this out.
Trump's claims that he cannot recall the nature of the pardon are alarming given how Trump has alleged without evidence that former President Joe Biden’s pardons were signed using an autopen, citing a report, published by the Oversight Project, a branch of the Heritage Foundation, that has been used by commentators to fuel claims about Biden’s cognitive decline.
The autopen, a machine designed to replicate signatures, which Trump himself has admitted to using, has long been used by public figures, including U.S. presidents, for signing notes and letters.
However, Trump's claims that Biden's pardons should be rendered null and void are part of his efforts to prosecute his political opponents, particularly since Biden's pardons were preemptive, a move to protect his relatives, all members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack, and several of Trump’s most prominent adversaries.
When it comes time for parents to name their soon-to-be-born child, they often cast a wide net looking for inspiration.
Many will name their child after a beloved friend or family member, while others might choose a name from a classic film, novel, or television series.
The mother-in-law of TikToker @vanessa_p_44 was among those in the latter category, naming her son after her favorite character from a series she and her husband loved.
However, when the Vanessa's husband learned what specific series inspired his mom, he wasn't exactly thrilled with the news.
Vanessa managed to capture this moment on video, later sharing it on her TikTok account, where it has amassed over eight million views:
@vanessa_p_44 Who’s your favorite @South Park character? The second my mother in law (who everyone thinks hates me because we’re an age gap marriage 😂) tells my #husband he’s named after a character on #southpark and he was not having it 😂 #funny #fyp #agegap @kpifer_Z71
In the video's text overlay, Vanessa revealed that her husband's name, Kyle, was chosen by his parents owing to their love of the raunchy, often controversial, animated sitcom South Park, something her husband was learning in real time during the video:
"The moment my mother in law stuns my husband by telling him he's named after a 'South Park' character."
It appeared that Vanessa started recording the video just after her mother-in-law shared this news, as the camera panned in on Kyle with a stunned expression, mouth hanging open, as Vanessa could be heard giggling in the background.
Viewers could then hear Vanessa's mother-in-law saying that Kyle was "the only name" she and her husband could agree on, and that they were "big into watching South Park," cementing that she "loved the name Kyle."
Just after Vanessa veered the camera in the direction of her mother-in-law, her husband could then be heard off-camera expressing his dissatisfaction with the name choice.
It appeared that he would have rather been named "Kenny" which he expressed in a less-than-G-rated fashion to his mother, before resuming his stunned expression.
Even so, Vanessa's mother-in-law firmly stood by her decision:
"Watch 'South Park' and you tell me Kyle isn't the best G*d D*mn character on that show."
A declaration that they disagreed with, both insisting that the potty-mouthed Cartman, and not Kyle, was the long-running animated sitcom's best character.
But the mother stood her ground, saying that Kyle was "the only name" she and her husband "could f*cking agree on."
The man remained in disbelief for the remainder of the 50-second video, but his mother assured him that the inspiration for his name was "one-hundred percent real" and that she and her husband used to watch South Park all the time.
The video ended with Kyle saying he needed "two more" of the beer he could be seen drinking throughout, as his mother confronted him about his reaction, asking him, "seriously, what is wrong with Kyle?"
Nearly all viewers of the video were beside themselves after watching it.
Many pointed out how the shocked reaction was almost exactly how South Park's Kyle would react, with some shocked and unsettled to realize just how long South Park, which premiered on Comedy Central in 1997, has been on the air:





A few people pointed out the bitter irony of the woman naming her son after Kyle, as that would effectively make her "Kyle's Mom."
Thanks to a somewhat infamous song, she does not have the best reputation among television sitcom mothers...
As Kyle is an extremely common name, it's safe to say that Vanessa 's husband will avoid immediate comparisons to Kyle Broflovski.
Had he gotten his wish and been named after Cartman, one imagines the comparisons would have been immediate and inevitable.
Of course, if he had gotten his wish, who knows whether he would have been named Cartman or ... Eric?
California Governor Gavin Newsom had social media users cackling after he, in a series of photos on X, mocked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with photoshopped meme versions of Spirit Halloween costumes.
Noem, who has led the nationwide immigration crackdown that continues to tear apart families around the country, is the "Border Barbie" of one meme that pokes fun at her for shooting her dog, her penchant for bringing camera crews wherever she goes, and the way South Park writers lampooned her in one of its most widely-seen episodes this year.
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Newsom skewered Hegseth as a "Sloshed Signal Leaking Specter"—a nod to Hegseth's known drinking problem and penchant for participating in Signal chats that always seem to end up in the hands of the press.
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You can see the meme below.

Meanwhile, Kennedy Jr., the conspiracy theorist with a hatred for vaccines, a disturbingly close relationship with a brain worm and a thing for dumping wild animal carcasses in public parks, is introduced as the "Brain-Worm Boogeyman":
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You can see it below.

Newsom even threw in a Brooke Rollins special, a nod to the Secretary of Agriculture who is currently not lifting a single finger to help the 42 million Americans who have lost their SNAP benefits and are in the middle of a hunger crisis the Trump administration is weaponizing during the ongoing government shutdown.
Oh, and she's the "Beef Import Bully," a reference to the Trump administration's recent move to quadruple Argentine beef imports.
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You can see it below.

People agreed—these are hilarious, not to mention accurate.
Next time you want a creepy costume idea, pick one from Newsom's list—you really can't go wrong.
Actor Ethan Hawke has become a Hollywood legend in his own right, but his career started with being a child actor learning from the greats, like Robin Williams.
The two co-starred in Dead Poets Society, one of the greatest films of the 1980s. It was a breakout role for Hawke and one that solidified Williams as a dramatic actor after a career mostly focused on comedy.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Hawke described how he got to see exactly why Williams was so adept at spanning those two genres, and that it changed his own acting forever.
Hawke told the magazine that Williams leveraged his skills in comedic improvisation to make his performance as John Keating all the more vivid, something Hawke learned to adapt into his own performances.
Hawke told Vanity Fair:
"Robin Williams didn't do the script, and I didn't know you could do that."
"If he had an idea, he just did it. He didn't ask permission. And that was a new door that was opened to my brain, that you could play like that."
Hawke went on to explain that director Peter Weir ended up letting Williams go with his improvisations, even though he was not used to working that way, because of the way it honed the performance.
He explained:
"Peter liked it, as long as we still achieved the same goals that the script had."
"They had a very different way of working, but they didn't judge one another or resist one another. They worked with each other. That's exciting."
"That’s when you get at the stuff of what great collaboration can do. You don’t have to be the same — you don’t have to hate somebody for being different than you are."
"And then the collective imagination can become very, very powerful, because the movie becomes bigger that one person’s point of view. it’s containing multiple perspectives."
You could certainly say that's exactly what happened in Dead Poets Society, a film that has made an indelible mark on generations of people despite never being any kind of blockbuster.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
Hawke said that watching Weir and Williams' collaboration was a huge learning experience as well.
"[Weir] thought about making movies with real discipline."
"And I'm watching him direct Robin Williams — not an easy thing to do, because Robin was a comic genius, but dramatic acting was still new to Robin at that time."
"Watching that relationship in the room — I was four feet away while they were talking about performance — that was something you don't unsee."
On social media, fans of both actors were fascinated and touched by Hawke's tribute to Williams.
Hawke would go on to become perhaps best known for his work with director Richard Linklater in the Before Sunrise trilogy and, later, Boyhood, films that are all often assumed to be improvised because of the natural way the performances unfold.
But Linklater has confirmed many times that he doesn't allow improvisation on set, which is a testament to Linklater's writing and directing as well as Hawke's acting.
Knowing how much he learned about improvisation from Williams on the Dead Poets Society set, it's easy to see Williams' mark on some of Hawke's own iconic performances.
Yet another item to add to Robin Williams' long list of legacies during his legendary career.