'Spider-man: Brand New Day' is smashing Marvel Cinematic Universe box office records. The “Superhero fatigue” Hollywood had felt seems to fade away thanks to a mix of deep characters, strong storyline, and building excitement for the next Marvel film. On this episode of The Takeaway with Alex; NBC Chicago’s Alex Maragos welcomes Entertainment & Culture Contributor Richard Roeper, who hosts Roeper’s Take on NBC Chicago and The Movie of Your Life podcast. Roeper explains why Brand New Day excelled above its superhero peers, what Hollywood executives should learn from it and why 2026 has been a special year at the movies.

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This summer’s Cyclosporiasis outbreak is the largest in U.S. history, with thousands getting sick from the intestinal parasite. Millions of Americans have heard about the symptoms -- like “explosive diarrhea” -- and are second guessing what to eat. Taylor Farms de Mexico has voluntarily recalled all iceberg lettuce from Central Mexico, but as of July 19th the FDA had zero positive sample results for the intestinal parasite. On this episode of The Takeaway with Alex, food safety expert Brian Schaneberg shares what we know about the outbreak and what he thinks is safer to eat. As Executive Director of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute for Food Safety and Health, Schaneberg talks about his hypothesis for the source, how the FDA tracks down the cause and what steps everyone can take to eat their vegetables and still stay safe.

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Governor JB Pritzker is a consistent critic of President Donald Trump, and could run to succeed him in 2028. With the Democratic Party seeing a recent swing of progressives and Democratic Socialists win primaries, Pritzker talked about the future of his party and the country on the Season 2 premiere of The Takeaway with Alex. NBC Chicago’s Alex Maragos covered a range of topics with the governor: inflation, Democratic Socialists’ success, his accusation that Trump has dementia, US support for Israel, the 2028 DNC, the Bears stadium search, how Pritzker uses AI, and much more.

CHAPTERS:

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:49 Agreement with Trump
• 1:55 Trump’s Use of Power
• 3:42 Democratic Socialists
• 6:01 Affordability and Inflation
• 9:45 Israel and the Democratic Party
• 12:06 Biden, Trump, dementia?
• 13:40 Bears stadium search
• 21:18 Future of AI
• 25:03 Elon Musk
• 28:20 Data centers
• 29:40 Being a billionaire

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