My 88-year-old grandma still doesn't know what she wants to do when she grows up. In many ways, this is the best life lesson she's ever taught me.
Ellen Lubelfeld
My 88-year-old grandmother has a bustling social life and has always lived in the present.
She doesn't spend too much time worrying about the future and stays open to trying new things.
She's inspired me to enjoy my life instead of worrying so much about where to live and what to do.
Every Wednesday night after graduating from college, I sat in my grandma's living room and spiraled about my future.
How could I decide on the one thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life? One city to live in? One partner to marry?
She nodded and listened while filling our plates with kugel and mandel bread. "Emma," she'd say after my lament. "I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up."
My 88-year-old grandma has always lived in the present
Grandma's favorite thing to do — celebrate her birthday.
Emma Urdangen
My grandma Reva leads the most fulfilled life of anyone I know — not just the 80-plus-year-olds.
Now 88, she told me her secret is to "just live in the moment." And, throughout her life, she's stayed open to giving things a try if they sound interesting.
At 18, she took a leap of faith by marrying an Army man she met through a letter because, she said, she had "nothing to lose." That leap led to a 65-year marriage. The two kissed goodnight, held hands, and slow danced until the very end.
With her "I'll try it out" mindset, she bounced around jobs, only staying where she could find the fun.
As a retail employee, she quit on day one after meeting a rude coworker. As a legal secretary, her "boss was a putz," so she moved on to work for my grandpa's accounting firm. That job was hard work, but she loved the vacations after every tax season.
When that closed, she went to work for my dad. There, she made a best friend and stayed a while. "We used to laugh at all the clients, but I whipped that place into shape," she told me.
When my grandpa passed five years ago, she moved out of their family home and into a one-bedroom apartment. For the first time in her life, in her 70s, she was living alone.
I go on trips with my grandmother every year.
Andrea Urdangen
Aside from the new digs, we figured her life would remain relatively unchanged. With her weekly mahjong and canasta games with friends, Friday night family dinners, and frequent calls with her 13 grandchildren, Grandma's life seemed content as is.
Instead, she chose to lean into this new chapter in her 80s and fill her life with even more joy and community. She and her apartment neighbors (turned friends) now spend their winters gossiping in the party room and summers book-clubbing at the pool.
Last week, she was too busy tasting each of her neighbor's "signature drinks" to take my call. "I never went to college, now I get the sorority-house experience," she told me. "It's made my life more beautiful."
Once again, my grandmother's life led me to reflect on my own. My grandma lives such a rich, social life — people even recognize her by just her laugh. If someone so happy has spent her life finding joy in the present, why was I so worried about the future?
She's inspired me to lean into present feelings while making peace with future uncertainties
My grandma and my mom were with me at my Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism graduation.
Gail Turkeltaub
So, I took her advice. I decided I no longer needed to know what I wanted to do when I grew up — just what I wanted to do tomorrow.
Swallowing my fears, I quit my job in Chicago and moved to New York City. Living in Manhattan, my decision paralysis dissipated.
I made new friends and kept the old. I signed up for the intimidating extracurriculars, and my comedy classes quickly became the highlight of my week. I dated without the pressure of finding one "forever person," and forged connections I'd otherwise convince myself out of.
By this playbook, I realized that tomorrow, I wanted to be a writer. So, I gave up my spot in my graduate program and applied for journalism school instead.
Just a few weeks ago, my grandma was "too busy clapping to take photos," as I walked across the graduation stage to collect my degree.
These days, neither one of us knows what we want to be when we grow up — but I'm no longer worried about it. All I know is we're happy today, and I'm excited to figure out what I'd like to do tomorrow.
For more than two decades, hard drive manufacturer Seagate has been experimenting with heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology for increasing hard drive density—drives that use tiny lasers to heat up and expand parts of the drive platter, write data, and then shut off to allow the platter to cool and contract, all within less than a nanosecond.
After decades of overly rosy availability predictions, Seagate announced in late 2024 that it was finally delivering HAMR-based drives with capacities of up to 36TB to some datacenter customers. Today, the drives are finally available for end users and individual IT administrators to buy, albeit only in smaller capacities for now. Seagate and other retailers will sell you massive 30TB IronWolf Pro and Exos M hard drives for $600, and 28TB drives for $570. Both drives use conventional magnetic recording (CMR) technology, which performs better than the shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology sometimes used to increase disk density.
The drives are based on Seagate's Mosaic 3+ platform, which "incorporates Seagate’s unique implementation of HAMR to deliver mass-capacity storage at unprecedented areal densities of 3TB per disk and beyond."
The Dan Ives AI Revolution ETF limits the influence of mega-cap tech stocks, such as Nvidia and Microsoft.
It still explores the exciting AI opportunity with 30 hand-picked stocks in that market.
This nearly equal-weighted ETF could appeal to investors seeking more diversification in the AI sector.
The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is shaking Wall Street to its very foundations. The "Magnificent Seven" group of market-defining AI stocks all rank among the 12 highest-valued securities on the market today. Together, this group accounts for 32.3% of the S&P 500(SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index's total score, and 61.9% of the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index.
These are the market darlings of this era, all trading at lofty valuations and perhaps headed toward a painful price correction someday soon. What if you're not comfortable giving so much weight to a risky bunch of recent market beaters? Remember, past performance does not guarantee that future returns will be similar.
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Well-known analyst Dan Ives just launched a hand-vetted fund that provides targeted investments in the AI boom, but with lower influence from the handful of top-ranked giants. Let's see what's different about this exchange-traded fund (ETF), so you can decide whether it belongs in your portfolio.
Image source: Getty Images.
This is not your average index fund
The Dan Ives Wedbush AI Revolution ETF(NYSEMKT: IVES) is technically an index fund, but the underlying index is a custom list that simply reflects the stock pick in Ives' top-30 AI stock-picking reports. It was launched just days before the related ETF. So the index formulation is just a technicality. The Wedbush analyst with a long research history and a penchant for colorful suits is really making these stock picks in a very direct sense.
At the same time, the index structure adds some academic rigidity to the ETF. New additions to the index (and ETF) are given a cap-based weight between 1% and 4% of the total portfolio, no exceptions. The index is rebalanced four times a year, on the third Fridays of March, June, September, and December. The hard caps of at least 1% but no more than 4% are reapplied at each of these events, making sure that no single stock ever represents a huge slice of the Dan Ives ETF.
The annual expense ratio is 0.75%, far above the leading S&P 500 index funds and comparable to many handpicked stock collections.
How the portfolio is balanced
On June 30, just 27 calendar days after the ETF's inception, the "Magnificent Seven" stocks added up to 32.6% of the Ives fund's value. That's actually a smidge higher than their combined slice of the S&P 500, but megacaps Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA) and Microsoft(NASDAQ: MSFT) hold significantly lighter weights in the Dan Ives portfolio.
Nineteen of the 30 components ran into the 4% top-end weighting cap at the latest rebalancing, making alternatives such as IBM(NYSE: IBM) and Advanced Micro Devices(NASDAQ: AMD) just as important to the ETF's value as any of the Magnificent Seven.
Image source: Getty Images.
Will slow and steady win the AI race?
No ETF can guarantee market-beating returns, and AI is a volatile field right now. I can't guarantee that Ives' selections will outperform the broader market in the long run, or that the nearly equal-weighted nature of this fund is a better idea than the market cap weightings seen in many other ETFs.
But if you're looking for a lower-risk approach to the exciting but risky AI market, the Dan Ives AI Revolution ETF might hit the spot. Its careful rebalancing policy sets this fund apart from most of its rivals. Ives' decades of market analysis experience should be worth something, too.
The fund is too young to do a deep dive into its market performance, but it's off to a strong start in its first month of operation. Only time will tell how this ETF will stack up in the long run, but its lower risk profile could be right for your portfolio. After all, it will hurt less to hold the Dan Ives ETF if a top stock like Nvidia or Microsoft takes a big tumble.
As always, do your own research before you buy anything -- but if you want a smarter, more diversified way to play the AI revolution, this ETF might just fit the bill.
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A QTS data center under construction in New Albany, Ohio. In exchange for an economic development deal, QTS promised 10 full-time jobs per building.
John-David Richardson for BI
Columbus, Ohio, escaped the Rust Belt rut years ago.
Regional economic development officials offered incentives that attracted warehouses, manufacturing plants, and healthcare startups, reviving the economy and generating jobs. By 2018, hundreds of these deals over the previous eight years had created some 150,000 jobs.
Central Ohio now hopes to repeat that success. It's betting big on "Silicon Heartland," a high-tech innovation hub that proponents hope will be flush with high-paying jobs. Economic officials have dangled multimillion-dollar tax subsidy packages before some of the world's biggest technology companies.
The resulting investment, Gov. Mike DeWine promised, "further cements Ohio as the heart of our nation's technology and innovation."
Mostly, they're getting data centers. Central Ohio has become one of America's hottest hubs for these computing warehouses, with companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, and QTS flocking there, lured largely by generous incentives.
The problem: Data centers, which operate largely autonomously, don't produce many lasting full-time jobs.
A Business Insider analysis of construction permits, economic development deals, and company disclosures found that even the largest data centers generally employ fewer than 150 permanent workers, and some have as few as 25. Building those data centers also creates significant numbers of construction jobs, but those are short term, sometimes lasting less than a year — far shorter than the duration of the tax breaks the companies get, which often last a decade or longer.
That means the tax breaks given to developers can amount over time to more than $2 million for every permanent, full-time job at an operational data center, Business Insider's analysis found. That's roughly eight times higher than the $262,000 average per job that watchdog group Good Jobs First found in 18 economic development deals worth at least $50 million awarded in 2023.
A Google data center under construction in Lockbourne, Ohio. Around 80% of data center jobs are in construction.
John-David Richardson for BI
The number of jobs doesn't balance the cost, multiple economists and researchers who study tax subsidies told Business Insider — even factoring in the construction and other supporting roles that the tech industry uses to calculate its economic impact. Records show that the workforce on data center projects quickly tapers off, meaning industry estimates often significantly overstate long-term employment benefits.
The costs to the public don't end with tax subsidies. Data centers drive up electricity costs for other ratepayers as utility operators invest billions of dollars in new grid infrastructure to support escalating power demands. That has drawn opposition from other companies including retail giant Walmart, which has said that surging electricity bills are imperiling its expansion in states such as Ohio and Virginia.
Industry advocates argue the deals are worth it.
"Each new data center built in Ohio spurs a significant boost in investment, revenue, and wages that flow to Ohio businesses and workers, stimulating the state's economy," Josh Levi, the president of the Data Center Coalition, an industry advocacy group, wrote in an August 2024 op-ed article published by Cleveland.com. In recent US congressional testimony, he cited an estimate that data centers in Central Ohio supported more than "10,000 construction jobs, 2,000 data center jobs, and hundreds of maintenance and retrofitting jobs last year."
Drilling into the terms of specific economic development deals suggests a more complicated picture.
In 2021, for example, Google entered into a much-celebrated deal with Columbus to construct a data center campus. The city offered a 100% property tax abatement worth an estimated $54 million in tax savings over 15 years.
In exchange, the Google facility promised 20 full-time jobs at the data center, rising to about 40 jobs by 2047.
A Google data center in New Albany, Ohio, that received a tax break. Thirty-seven states have such incentive programs for data center investments.
John-David Richardson for BI
Pricing the 'Silicon Heartland'
Artificial intelligence is accelerating data center construction that already was growing quickly to power digital services from social media to medical care. In 2025 alone, Meta plans to spend at least $64 billion on facilities and equipment. Google's parent company, Alphabet, plans to spend $75 billion, and Microsoft said it would invest $80 billion.
Tech companies say their investments will supercharge local tax revenues and high-paying jobs will drive economic growth. Even with tax breaks, data centers contributed $162.7 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenue in 2023, according to a February 2025 PwC report prepared for the Data Center Coalition. The industry, the report said, supported 4.7 million jobs directly at data centers or indirectly through their supply chain.
Amazon, the biggest data center operator, calculates that its data centers each year have supported thousands of jobs, including 6,490 in Ohio and 20,700 in Virginia. Matt Hurst, a spokesperson for Amazon Web Services, Amazon's cloud-computing arm, told Business Insider the company was "proud of the good jobs we create, for the trust local communities invest in us, and for the opportunity we have to invest in those communities."
Meta says that its data center operations support 16,000 jobs and $1.2 billion in labor income annually, and that it has backed 440,000 construction jobs over the past decade. Google says its data centers supported 119,000 jobs and contributed $12.6 billion to US gross domestic product in 2023 across its supply chain, including construction. Microsoft's website says its data centers generate "public infrastructure improvements and tax revenue that serve as a catalyst for enhancing the quality of life."
"Our developments generate millions of dollars in tax revenue to support local priorities related to schools, roads, housing, and other critical needs, while also reducing the tax burden on residents," a spokesperson for QTS, which is owned by the investment firm Blackstone, said in a statement.
A Blackstone spokesperson also highlighted the benefits of data center development and said the company was "proud that our investment in QTS provides the digital infrastructure critical to the future of our country and economy."
Competition to score these promised benefits can be a race to the bottom, as developers pit state against state and city against city. New projects cluster in areas that offer the most competitive deals.
To investigate how these incentive deals play out, Business Insider identified areas of data center development and filed requests with all 50 states and Washington, DC, for the air permits that regulate backup generators at every data center. Business Insider compiled records for 1,240 data centers nationwide, the most definitive accounting to date, and requested records of data-center-related economic incentives from municipalities and states.
The largest data centers in Business Insider's analysis — the 322 massive facilities that we estimate consume 40 megawatts of electricity or more each — are heavily concentrated in a few places. Northern Virginia has 214, followed by Arizona's Maricopa County with 16, and Ohio's Columbus region with 9.
An entrance to a Meta data center in New Albany, Ohio, where the company has saved about $2 million in taxes per full-time job, according to a Business Insider analysis.
John-David Richardson for BI
Thirty-seven states have tax incentive programs for data center investments. Most exempt developers from sales and use taxes on building materials, machinery, or equipment — resulting in big hits to state coffers. In Virginia, 56 data center projects cost $928 million in abated state sales tax in the 2023 fiscal year alone. Disclosures in Ohio estimate it forfeited nearly $360 million in data-center-related state tax revenue from the 2022 through 2024 fiscal years.
Mason Waldvogel, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Development, called the tax incentive program "a strategic tool used to create long-term economic growth by attracting high-value, capital-intensive projects." A spokesperson for the Data Center Coalition said state tax exemptions for data centers were consistent with programs for other capital-intensive industries.
Cities also offer incentives, including breaks on property taxes and reimbursements for building fees. Arizona cities largely don't give property tax abatements but allow the use of precious water resources. Virginia grants access to enormous amounts of electricity and critical infrastructure but requires data centers to pay local property taxes. Indeed, Northern Virginia cities generate up to 31% of their total tax revenue from data centers, funding fire departments, affordable housing, and other services.
In the Columbus region, Business Insider located 19 data center-related deals that, together with state-level abatements, amounted to at least $750 million in forfeited tax revenue for 770 full-time jobs employed at data centers as of December 2023.
The jobs generally pay well, averaging $100,000 a year in Central Ohio, according to company disclosures. At the Google data center in Columbus, salaries range from $74,000 for a data center technician to $162,000 for an operations manager.
An Amazon data center in Plain City, Ohio. Amazon has signed at least seven data center-related economic development deals in Central Ohio.
John-David Richardson for BI
Amazon tops the list with seven deals. In one, the northwest Columbus suburb of Dublin agreed to sell Amazon 66 acres, which the city valued at $100,000 an acre, for $1 in total. Amazon agreed to pay the farmers previously leasing the land up to $40,000 total to abandon their soybeans and corn crops and terminate the lease. It told Dublin it expected to hire 25 full-time workers by the end of 2018, a nonbinding projection. In contrast, Amazon projected that it would hire 1,000 Ohioans at a new fulfillment center in Canton several years later — without taking any local property tax abatements or state incentives.
Amazon's Hurst said the company works hard to create every job it projects.
'Let 'em walk'
The deals keep coming, from Batavia, New York, to Meridian, Mississippi.
Nathan M. Jensen, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies regional tax incentive programs, said cities are better off sitting these deals out. Communities throw everything they can at tech companies, yet when the costs of lost tax revenue and escalating electricity prices are factored against what the communities get back in jobs, revenue, and prestige, "there's just no evidence that you're going to benefit from that data center," he said.
If data center developers threaten to walk from cities that refuse to compete for these deals, Jensen's advice is blunt: "Let 'em walk."
Jensen said data centers were shaping up like professional sports stadiums, where cities give millions in tax revenue savings in exchange for temporary construction jobs and minimal economic impact. Construction of data centers generally lasts one to two years, or sometimes longer, and many construction jobs run for only part of that period.
In Virginia, one analysis found that about 80% of jobs from data centers created over a recent two-year period were in construction. And the numbers of such data-center-supported jobs cited in this year's Data Center Coalition report may be misleading, multiple economists and researchers who study incentives told Business Insider.
Timothy Bartik, a senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, a not-for-profit organization focused on reducing unemployment, said his own study suggests job numbers in the high-tech sector, like data centers, could be less than half of industry estimates.
A Google data center under construction in Lancaster, Ohio. Many jobs for projects like this last for only a portion of the overall construction period.
John-David Richardson for BI
Microsoft estimated last year that a campus with six data centers that it is building outside Cheyenne, Wyoming, would have 1,005 jobs at peak construction, falling to 335 full-time employees and contractors by the end of next year.
At a construction project in Columbus for the data center operator Cologix, one contractor, Baker Concrete Construction, had 63 people on payroll. Those jobs lasted an average of 6 ½ weeks. Cologix said that overall the site had an average of 146 workers during the project's construction.
Incentive packages often spell out how many jobs a company commits to creating in exchange for its tax breaks. Data center companies generally commit to deliver only the jobs inside their facilities in exchange for their tax breaks — not the construction and other ancillary jobs they say their projects create. Based on what is actually promised in such deals, those jobs can be expensive for local governments. Business Insider identified five deals in Ohio where, as of December 2023, each long-term job in the data centers cost over $1 million in abated taxes over the life of the deal.
An Amazon data center in Hilliard had saved at least $195 million in state and local taxes as of December 2023, according to annual disclosures, driving the price of each job to over $1 million in abated taxes. New Albany, Ohio, garnered 98 jobs at a Meta data center, but forfeited $189.6 million in state and local taxes as of the end of 2023 — making each job worth about $1.9 million in foregone tax revenue.
"We disagree with this way of thinking about the benefits we bring to communities," Amazon's Hurst said, adding that it benefits communities in ways beyond direct job creation, such as spending with local businesses and funding job-training efforts. A Meta spokesperson said it helps communities where it operates through grants and partnerships.
The Data Center Coalition spokesperson said that focusing on jobs inside data centers understates the impact on service providers and suppliers, such as electricians, HVAC manufacturers, and portable sanitation companies.
Companies are still required to make yearly payments to the cities in lieu of property taxes to help ensure minimum contributions to the communities, which Business Insider incorporated into our cost-per-job calculations. Meta, for example, paid $21.8 million in total to New Albany as of December 2022. A spokesperson for New Albany said the payments ensure "data centers contribute meaningfully to the community, even with tax abatements in place."
And tech companies often sweeten the deals by promising to invest in education programs to upskill local workers. Amazon, for example, donated $25,000 and some equipment two years ago to the Tolles Career & Technical Center in Plain City, Ohio, to support the school's IT and cybersecurity training programs, which include a four-week training program for entry-level data center workers. At the nearby Columbus State Community College, the company pledged $50,000 in scholarships for a new data center technician certificate program.
Amazon donated $25,000 and some equipment two years ago to the Tolles Career & Technical Center in Plain City, Ohio, to help expand the school's IT and cybersecurity training programs.
John-David Richardson for BI
'Unprecedented' electricity use
The ultrapowerful computer chips crammed into data centers consume enormous amounts of power. A 2024 Department of Energy report estimates their electricity use, driven by the AI boom, could soon command as much as 12% of total US electricity use, from just over 4% in 2023.
Data centers are getting breaks on that, too — which residents and other businesses are helping pay for.
From 2020 through last year, Ohio data centers' load on the grid rose sixfold. By 2030, American Electric Power Ohio, the state's largest electricity provider, expects to grow by another 700% to reach 5,000 megawatts, enough to power at least 2 million homes.
If all hookup requests across more than 90 planned data center sites in Ohio are approved, AEP Ohio told regulators, demand could skyrocket to over 30,000 megawatts.
Since 2017, Ohio regulators have authorized multiple 10-year electricity rate subsidies for data center developers, reducing power costs for tech companies in exchange for their promises of new jobs. Other AEP customers have to pay for the shortfall.
Transmission lines in Central Ohio. Utilities are investing billions in electricity grid improvements to meet skyrocketing data center power demand.
John-David Richardson for BI
Matt Schilling, a spokesperson for the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, said in an email to Business Insider that while the commission had approved some discounted rates for data centers, it had denied other applications for such arrangements.
At the same time, AEP has proposed spending at least $850 million in new or upgraded grid infrastructure and power plants to serve data centers, and another $350 million in other upgrades to support Central Ohio's extreme demand growth, according to filings. Ratepayers across Ohio foot the bill for this too, as AEP spreads the costs across all customers.
Walmart, one of Ohio's largest employers, said last June that an increasingly expensive electricity bill — owing partly to data centers' demand — imperiled its continued expansion in the state. That warning came in a filing supporting the utility's recent proposition to increase tariffs and regulations on data center customers.
A Data Center Coalition representative warned regulators in 2024 that those proposed tariffs and restrictions in Ohio could "depress the growth of an important emerging industry." The rate case remains ongoing.
Regulators across the US have offered similar deals to subsidize data centers' electricity use, shifting billions of dollars of costs to all ratepayers, including residential customers.
Regulators last year OK'd Georgia Power to construct an estimated $300 million 35-mile high-voltage transmission line and a new substation for a QTS data center near Atlanta. And this year, South Carolina regulators authorized Duke Energy to invest $66.5 million to upgrade a transmission line to serve a new QTS data center. The utilities will recoup their investments by increasing electricity bills for all their customers.
Duke Energy said it follows federal rules in allocating upgrade costs. South Carolina's regulator declined to comment and Georgia Power and that state's regulator didn't respond.
A QTS spokesperson said it pays for all utility infrastructure dedicated to its data centers "to ensure no impact to residential rates."
Cities in Central Ohio have forfeited millions of tax dollars in economic development deals with data center companies.
John-David Richardson for BI
"Utilities can fund discounts to Big Tech by socializing their costs through electricity prices charged to the public," a 2025 Harvard Law study of regulatory proceedings about utility rates for data centers found. Utilities profit, the study said, by "forcing the public to pay for infrastructure designed to supply a handful of exceedingly wealthy corporations."
Amazon, Microsoft, and Google told Business Insider they were committed to paying their full share for infrastructure serving their power needs. Tech companies and industry advocates say that other factors, such as electric vehicles, also are driving electricity growth and that the transition to renewable power drives up electricity costs.
To estimate the amount of power data centers demand nationwide, Business Insider used data from the air permits issued to data center backup generators. (See here for more on Business Insider's methodology.)
If every data center that's been issued a permit comes online, Business Insider estimates data centers' total electricity use across the country could reach between 149.6 terawatt-hours and 239.3 terawatt-hours a year. Business Insider's low-end estimate is roughly equivalent to the state of Ohio's electricity needs in 2023, and on the high end, is nearly as much power as the entire state of Florida used that same year. A 2024 federal report estimated US data centers' electricity use could reach the high end of Business Insider's estimate by 2026.
A 2024 report to Virginia's legislature found that data centers had historically paid their fair share of transmission upgrade costs but warned their sharply escalating electricity needs "will likely increase system costs for all customers, including non-data center customers."
Last July, Dominion Energy, Virginia's largest utility provider, asked regulators to approve a $23 million grid infrastructure investment billed across ratepayers, a request that is still pending. Regulatory staff said the investment was likely needed just for a single data center customer.
Months later, Dominion disclosed that it would need to roughly double its electricity generation by 2039 primarily to meet meteoric data center demand and new planned renewable energy capacity. Dominion estimates the planned expansion could cost up to $103 billion, increasing residential electricity bills by as much as 50%.
Aaron Ruby, a Dominion spokesperson, told Business Insider that the company had asked regulators to approve additional consumer protections to shield ratepayers from shouldering costs incurred by large customers like data centers. The planned increase in power bills is primarily driven by the utility's transition to carbon-free power generation, as is required by state law, Ruby wrote.
In Virginia, too, Walmart objected.
"Electricity is a significant operating cost for retailers such as Walmart," Lisa Perry, Walmart's director of utility partnerships, told regulators in February 2025, warning that increasing electricity rates would harm Walmart's investment in Virginia.
Andy Farmer, a spokesperson for the Virginia State Corporation Commission, said that data centers affected all the state's utilities, not just Dominion.
Data centers' ballooning power consumption leaves other businesses, residents, and utility regulators in a bind: Either pay to expand capacity for the tech companies, or risk going without enough power to attract other new business.
A vacant commercial building in Central Ohio. Ohio politicians hope data centers will transform the region into the "Silicon Heartland."
John-David Richardson for BI
In Indiana, the River Ridge Property Owners' Association in Clark County told state regulators in 2024 that a single Meta data center project had bled nearly all remaining power from the grid. Meta promised at least 50 high-paying permanent jobs at the site and hundreds of construction jobs, but the community would have no available electricity to attract other prospective companies investing in the area for at least four years.
"It is possible these data centers ultimately restrict, rather than foster, additional economic development," a representative of the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, a consumer and environmental advocacy organization, told state regulators. By 2030, the representative said, "just a few" data centers used for applications like AI will use "more electricity than all 6.8 million Hoosiers use at their homes."
Walmart representatives told Ohio regulators last year that data centers' massive electricity use threatened the company's planned rollout of electric vehicle charging locations at its retail locations.
"Growth in data center development is an economic boon for Ohioans," Google representatives told regulators this year, adding that the facilities were "pivotal in establishing the state as a leading technology hub."
Walmart argues that it brings more jobs and other benefits to the local economy — a claim supported by research from AEP Ohio. The utility calculated that each megawatt allocated to traditional commercial and industrial customers like Walmart supported at least 25 jobs.
Every megawatt used by a data center, the utility said, supports less than one job.
Shares of Innodata (NASDAQ: INOD), a fast-growing AI stock, were moving higher this week, seemingly on speculation that the company could benefit from Meta Platforms' deal with Scale AI, a competitor to Innodata.
Some of Scale AI's customers are reconsidering working with it now that Meta is acquiring a 49% stake in the company, which could open up an opportunity for Innodata, a rival data labeling company, meaning it helps categorize and prepare data for AI models.
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In a week when a number of AI stocks were moving higher, Innodata was also a winner, as the stock was up 18.2% for the week, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Image source: Getty Images.
Innodata gets some attention
Trading volume has risen for Innodata since earlier this month when Wedbush analyst Dan Ives included the stock in his new Dan Ives AI Revolution ETF.
Last week, the stock moved lower in response to Meta's deal with Scale AI, as investors seemed to bet that the deal would give its competitor, Scale AI, an edge. However, that thinking seemed to reverse itself this week in response to talk that Alphabet, Scale AI's biggest customer, could be looking for a new data labeling provider.
Scale AI is much bigger than Innodata, meaning any customers that leave it could present a big opportunity for Innodata if it can grab that market share.
An under-the-radar AI opportunity
The AI boom has been dominated by large-cap stocks like the "Magnificent Seven," but Innodata shows that there are small-cap stocks capitalizing on the opportunity as well.
Innodata is growing quickly with 120% organic revenue growth in the first quarter, and the stock trades at a reasonable valuation. For investors looking for lesser-known AI stock, Innodata is worth a closer look.
Should you invest $1,000 in Innodata right now?
Before you buy stock in Innodata, consider this:
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A friend reached out to me recently after discovering something alarming in their WordPress posts. They were using Yoast SEO Premium with the Classic Editor, and they found Yoast had been automatically inserting odd-looking CSS classes like ai-optimize-6, ai-optimize-9, directly into their content.
The problem is that these classes remain permanently embedded in the posts even after disabling Yoast AI Optimize or completely deleting the plugin. This goes against expected plugin behavior… that is, when you uninstall it, it should leave no trace in your content.
While these AI markers might not visually affect your site, they clutter up your source code. It could also potentially signal to AI content detectors, plagiarism checkers, and even search engines that your content was AI-generated or optimized.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to remove these hidden classes using a quick code snippet. I’ll also explain how to apply it safely and share the SEO plugin I recommend using as an alternative to Yoast.
Here are the things I will cover in this tutorial:
The ai-optimize-{number} CSS classes are added when you use Yoast SEO Premium’s AI features with the Classic Editor. They don’t appear on the front end, but they’re embedded in your content’s HTML, which can cause problems.
You can view them by visiting any post or page on your site and using the Inspect tool in your browser.
Here’s why I recommend removing them:
They clutter your HTML: These unnecessary classes make your code harder to read and parse.
They serve no purpose: They don’t affect how your content looks or functions. They’re just leftovers from the AI tool.
They can trigger AI detection tools: Some plagiarism checkers and AI content detectors pick up these patterns and may flag your post, even if you wrote it yourself.
They leave AI footprints across your site: If multiple sites use the same classes, Google might start associating that pattern with low-quality or mass-produced AI content.
They increase the risk of formatting conflicts: Unknown classes could interfere with your theme or plugins down the road.
There’s no upside to keeping these hidden markers, and several good reasons to clean them out.
The good news is that there is a quick fix, and I’ll show you how to do it safely in the next section.
Step 1: Make a Backup Before Making Changes
Before we move forward, I always recommend creating a full backup of your WordPress site. It only takes a few minutes and gives you peace of mind in case anything goes wrong.
I use Duplicator when I need a quick and reliable backup solution. It’s the best WordPress backup plugin on the market, it is beginner-friendly, and it works great whether you’re backing up or migrating your site.
✅ On-demand and automatic WordPress backups
✅ Safely stored in remote locations like Dropbox or Google Drive
Once your backup is ready, you’re safe to move on to the next step, where I will show you how to fix the problem.
Step 2: Add the Code Snippet to Remove ai-optimize Classes
Now that your backup is ready, it’s time to clean up those ai-optimize-{number} and ai-optimize-introduction classes.
I’ve put together a safe and flexible code snippet that works with both the Classic Editor and the Block Editor (Gutenberg), as well as bulk edits.
You don’t need to touch your theme files or mess with FTP. Instead, I recommend using the WPCode plugin to add this snippet. It’s what I use to manage code snippets on WordPress sites without risking anything important. (See my full WPCode review for more details.)
Tip: WPCode has a limited free version that you can use for this tutorial. However, I recommend upgrading to a paid plan to unlock its full potential.
First, you need to install and activate the WPCode plugin. See our tutorial on installing a WordPress plugin if you need help.
Once the plugin has been activated, go to the Code Snippets » + Add Snippet page and click on ‘+ Add Custom Snippet’ button under the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ box.
Next, you need to provide a title for your code snippet. This could be anything that helps you identify this code easily.
After that, choose PHP Snippet from the ‘Code Type’ drop-down menu.
Now, you need to copy and paste the following code into the Code Preview box.
Here’s the full code snippet:
// For Classic Editor and programmatic updates
function strip_ai_optimize_classes($data, $postarr) {
if (empty($data['post_content']) || $data['post_type'] !== 'post') {
return $data;
}
$data['post_content'] = strip_ai_optimize_from_content($data['post_content']);
return $data;
}
add_filter('wp_insert_post_data', 'strip_ai_optimize_classes', 10, 2);
// For Gutenberg/Block Editor
function strip_ai_optimize_classes_rest_insert($prepared_post, $request) {
if (isset($prepared_post->post_content) && $prepared_post->post_type === 'post') {
$prepared_post->post_content = strip_ai_optimize_from_content($prepared_post->post_content);
}
return $prepared_post;
}
add_filter('rest_pre_insert_post', 'strip_ai_optimize_classes_rest_insert', 10, 2);
// For bulk edit operations - this is the key addition
function strip_ai_optimize_classes_bulk_edit($post_id) {
$post = get_post($post_id);
if (!$post || empty($post->post_content) || $post->post_type !== 'post') {
return;
}
$cleaned_content = strip_ai_optimize_from_content($post->post_content);
if ($cleaned_content !== $post->post_content) {
remove_action('post_updated', 'strip_ai_optimize_classes_bulk_edit');
wp_update_post(array(
'ID' => $post_id,
'post_content' => $cleaned_content
));
add_action('post_updated', 'strip_ai_optimize_classes_bulk_edit');
}
}
add_action('post_updated', 'strip_ai_optimize_classes_bulk_edit');
// Catch bulk operations via the bulk_edit_posts action
function strip_ai_optimize_classes_bulk_action($post_ids) {
if (!is_array($post_ids)) {
return;
}
foreach ($post_ids as $post_id) {
strip_ai_optimize_classes_bulk_edit($post_id);
}
}
add_action('bulk_edit_posts', 'strip_ai_optimize_classes_bulk_action');
// Shared function to strip ai-optimize classes
function strip_ai_optimize_from_content($content) {
if (empty($content) || !is_string($content)) {
return $content;
}
return preg_replace_callback(
'/class\s*=\s*["\']([^"\']*)["\']/',
function($matches) {
$classes = $matches[1];
$classes = preg_replace('/\bai-optimize-\d+\b\s*/', '', $classes);
$classes = preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', trim($classes));
if (empty($classes)) {
return '';
}
return 'class="' . $classes . '"';
},
$content
);
}
After adding the code, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section.
Then, select ‘Run Everywhere’ next to the ‘Location’ option.
Finally, go to the top of the page and switch the status toggle in the top-right to Active, and then click on the ‘Save Snippet’ button to store your changes.
Once you’ve added this snippet to your site using WPCode, it will automatically strip these AI-generated classes from any post you create or update in the future.
If you want to remove the ai-classes from existing content, you’ll have to bulk edit your existing content.
🌟Expert Tip: If you’re not comfortable editing code yourself, don’t stress!
Our team at WPBeginner offers Emergency WordPress Support Services to help you fix issues like this quickly and safely. We can clean up your content and set up your SEO plugin the right way.
Step 3: Bulk Update All Posts to Clean Up Existing AI Classes
Now that the code snippet is in place, it will automatically clean up any AI markers when you edit or publish a post. But to remove these classes from your older posts, you’ll need to bulk update them.
Don’t worry—this won’t change your content. It simply triggers the filter we just added so the hidden AI classes can be stripped out safely.
First, you need to go to the Posts » All Posts page in your WordPress dashboard and click ‘Screen Options’ at the top right.
From here, set the number of posts per page to 999 (This is the maximum number of posts you can show on this screen) and click ‘Apply’ to load all your posts.
Next, select all posts on the page by clicking the top checkbox. After that, select ‘Edit’ by clicking on the Bulk Actions dropdown, then click ‘Apply’.
WordPress will now show you bulk editing options. Without changing anything else, simply click on the ‘Update’ button.
WordPress will now start updating all your posts. By doing this, it will also trigger the code you saved earlier and remove the AI classes.
Tip 💡: If you have more than 999 posts, just go to the next page and repeat this process until all posts have been updated.
This will clean the ai-optimize-{number} and ai-optimize-introduction classes from all your existing posts—no manual editing needed.
Bonus Tip: Switching to an Alternative SEO Plugin (Better and More Powerful)
Yoast SEO has been around for a long time, but lately, its innovations have slowed down.
Important ⚠️: If you have upgraded to the latest version of Yoast SEO Premium (version 25.3.1 or later) or switched to All in One SEO, then you can now simply disable the code snippet in WPCode.
Just go to the Code Snippets page in the WordPress admin area, and switch the toggle next to the snippet to disable it.
Bonus SEO Resources
Whether you’re switching away from Yoast SEO or just want to tighten up your WordPress SEO strategy, here are some helpful resources to guide you.
These tutorials and comparisons can save you time, avoid costly mistakes, and help you get better results from your SEO efforts:
I hope this guide helped you fix the ai-optimize class issue in Yoast SEO and set your site up for better long-term results. You’ve got this—and if you ever need a hand, we’re here to help.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are a great way to gain exposure to the hot field of artificial intelligence (AI). ETFs provide a diversified portfolio of AI stocks while typically charging low fees.
A new AI ETF emerged recently, and what makes this one stand out is that it's overseen by Dan Ives, the global head of technology research at Wall Street firm Wedbush Fund Advisors. Naturally, the fund, the Dan Ives Wedbush AI Revolution ETF(NYSEMKT: IVES), is named after its founder.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »
But just because it sports the name of a well-known stock market analyst doesn't mean the ETF is a buy. Here's a deeper look into this new opportunity to invest in the hot field of artificial intelligence.
Image source: Getty Images.
What's in the Dan Ives ETF
Ives started his namesake ETF because he's excited about the transformative power artificial intelligence brings to every industry. He told Fox Business, "In 25 years covering tech, I've never seen a bigger theme than the AI revolution."
The fund is made up of 30 businesses across a number of industries ranging from semiconductor manufacturing and robotics to cybersecurity and consumer products. What ties these disparate companies together is that each has developed strong AI capabilities in their fields.
The Dan Ives Wedbush AI Revolution ETF encompasses many key players in the AI space, including tech stalwarts Microsoft, Tesla, Apple, Palo Alto Networks, and of course, AI darling Nvidia. Some newcomers to the AI arena are also included, such as SoundHound AI and C3.ai.
All 30 stocks were handpicked using Ives' proprietary investment framework. Ives intends to actively manage the roster of companies in his ETF, and the plan is to reconfigure and rebalance the stocks quarterly. At the time of this writing, Microsoft has the heaviest weighting in the ETF at 5.65%.
Ives described this process to CNBC, saying:
It's based on our research. So as new companies come in, then some companies could come out. This is a living organism, in terms of this AI 30. It's not static. And that's a key part of the theme here, because the theme will continue to evolve.
More details about the Dan Ives ETF
While available to all investors, the ETF is aimed at retail investors. Ives explained there's "a heavy focus on retail for all the investors that follow me."
The Dan Ives Wedbush AI Revolution ETF charges an annual fee of 0.75%, which is higher than several other AI ETFs. That's not surprising because the fund is actively managed, so investors will be paying $75 annually in fees for every $10,000 invested.
In fact, Cullen Rogers, chief investment officer at Wedbush Fund Advisers, told CNBC, "We're kind of walking this line between active and passive."
This is actually a strength of Ives' ETF compared to a passively managed fund. The AI industry is dynamic and evolving rapidly. Having Ives and his team researching and staying on top of who the important AI players are across diverse industries is essential to the fund's performance over time.
And Ives wasn't modest when he highlighted another reason to invest in his ETF, telling Yahoo! Finance, "There is only one Dan Ives." He elaborated, "There are plenty of other great vehicles out there, but there's only one that encompasses my investing team and the research that investors have trusted me to deliver."
Factors to weigh before investing in Dan Ives' ETF
Is there enough reason to invest in the Dan Ives Wedbush AI Revolution ETF? It boasts a number of exceptional AI stocks. For example, it includes shares of Facebook parent Meta Platforms, which rose 42%, and Pegasystems, which skyrocketed 78% over the past 12 months.
But because the fund is so new, with an inception date of June 3, the ETF lacks a track record to assess how it's performed over time. Some of the veteran companies in the fund, for example, Nvidia, are a solid choice, but others, such as Soundhound, are newer businesses that may not succeed over the long run.
So there's risk this ETF can underperform the overall market. If so, you're better off opting for one of the ETFs focused on the S&P 500.
Moreover, the method Ives is taking with his fund warrants careful consideration. He told Yahoo! Finance: "I've never been too focused on valuations. It's about the themes, the best places, and the disruptors."
To say stock valuation is taking a bit of a back seat is concerning. It's also counter to how investing legend Warren Buffett approaches stocks. As Buffett has famously said, "It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price."
As a result, before deciding to invest, wait to see how the ETF performs over the next few quarters. This gives you some history to evaluate whether Ives can deliver worthwhile returns in the dynamic, ever-evolving AI industry.
Should you invest $1,000 in Wedbush Series Trust - Dan Ives Wedbush Ai Revolution ETF right now?
Before you buy stock in Wedbush Series Trust - Dan Ives Wedbush Ai Revolution ETF, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Wedbush Series Trust - Dan Ives Wedbush Ai Revolution ETF wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider whenNetflixmade this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,you’d have $657,871!* Or when Nvidiamade this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,you’d have $875,479!*
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Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Robert Izquierdo has positions in Apple, C3.ai, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Palo Alto Networks, SoundHound AI, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends C3.ai, Palo Alto Networks, and Pegasystems and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Not too many Wall Street analysts have name recognition, but Wedbush's Dan Ives is one of the best-known commentators and AI cheerleaders.
Ives is a frequent guest on CNBC and other financial news outlets, as well as social media, typically wearing a bright-colored jacket and a loud shirt. He's known for his bullish commentary on stocks like Nvidia and Palantir. In fact, Ives recently said that Palantir would hit a market cap of $1 trillion within three years.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »
Now, the Wedbush analyst has taken the next logical step, creating an exchange-traded fund (ETF). On Wednesday, Wedbush Fund Advisers launched the Dan Ives Wedbush AI Revolution(NYSEMKT: IVES), which trades on the New York Stock Exchange and is based on his picks and research in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
The ETF holds 30 stocks, ranging from semiconductors to hyperscalers to cybersecurity, robotics, and other industries. Ives says he is more focused on themes and disruptive impact, rather than valuation, and the ETF features many of the best-known names in AI.
What's in the IVES ETF?
The top 10 holdings in the IVES ETF are as follows:
Company
Percent of Fund
Microsoft
5.67%
Nvidia
5.37%
Broadcom
5.25%
Tesla
4.65%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
4.63%
Meta Platforms
4.61%
Amazon
4.41%
Palantir
4.33%
Alphabet
4.31%
Apple
4.24%
That list shouldn't come as a big surprise. It includes the "Magnificent Seven" and three other well-known AI stocks, Broadcom, Taiwan Semiconductor, and Palantir. Combined, those stocks make up nearly half of the fund.
Of the remaining stocks, there are several cloud software and cybersecurity names like ServiceNow, Palo Alto Networks, Salesforce, Adobe, Snowflake, and Zscaler.
Among the lesser-followed stocks it owns are Innodata, Elastic, and Pegasystems, which are all relatively small positions in the fund. Each stock is at least 1% of the fund.
As of June 4, the fund had net assets of $26.4 million, and its expense ratio is 0.75%, meaning investors will pay $0.75 out of every $100 invested in the fund to Wedbush to manage it.
Why it matters for investors
The launch of the IVES ETF matters to investors for a few reasons. First, if the fund serves as a big draw, bringing billions into the fund, it will funnel that money to the stocks it holds, helping them rise further.
The fund is also contributing to a greater proliferation of AI ETFs, potentially making it easier to invest in AI stocks.
We're about 2.5 years into the AI boom, which kicked off with the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, and some AI ETFs have been created. However, the formation of AI ETFs has generally lagged in the sector, and many of the funds that purport to track AI stocks don't invest in the household names that investors might expect an AI ETF to hold.
For instance, the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF holds little-known stocks like ABB, Keyence, and Fanuc, which are focused on robotics and automation, among its top five holdings.
The IVES ETF gives investors exposure to the more traditional AI stocks that have become associated with the AI boom.
Image source: Getty Images.
Is the IVES ETF a buy?
If you backtested the IVES ETF over the last year or two, it would have outperformed the S&P 500. The ETF doesn't get credit for that, but the top holdings are many of the stocks that Ives has been publicly bullish on during that time.
If the AI boom continues, the IVES ETF is likely to be a winner as it offers exposure to a range of stocks driving the "AI revolution."
With an expense ratio of 0.75%, the IVES ETF is more expensive than most ETFs, but on par with actively managed funds. For investors looking for easy exposure to a range of AI stocks, investing a bit of money into the IVES ETF is a good way to do it.
Should you invest $1,000 in Wedbush Series Trust - Dan Ives Wedbush Ai Revolution ETF right now?
Before you buy stock in Wedbush Series Trust - Dan Ives Wedbush Ai Revolution ETF, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Wedbush Series Trust - Dan Ives Wedbush Ai Revolution ETF wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jeremy Bowman has positions in Amazon, Broadcom, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Abb, Adobe, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Palantir Technologies, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Snowflake, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Tesla, and Zscaler. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom, Elastic, Fanuc, Palo Alto Networks, and Pegasystems and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Hulu's reality TV show about eight Mormon mom influencers debuted in September 2024 and quickly became the most-watched unscripted season premiere on the streamer that year.
The concept for the show had its roots on TikTok, where influencer Taylor Frankie Paul confessed in 2022 that she and her then-husband, Tate Paul, were divorcing after "soft swinging" within their friend group got messy.
After sitting out season one, Miranda is ready to clear the air in season two, now streaming on Hulu.
"Taylor's a very vocal person and everybody has heard her side of the scandal. But I'm finally here to tell mine," Miranda says in the season two premiere.
Here's everything to know about her.
Miranda McWhorter shares 2 kids with her ex-husband, Chase McWhorter
Miranda and Chase met after she graduated from high school. They married in 2017 and welcomed their first child, a son named Brooks Wesley McWhorter, two years later. Their second child, a daughter named Cohen Roo McWhorter, was born in 2021.
Miranda and Chase revealed in 2024 that they had divorced after seven years of marriage.
In August of that year, during an appearance on Josie Van Dyke's podcast, "Weekly Trash," Miranda said that her and Chase's reasons for splitting stemmed from issues that arose prior to the swinging scandal.
"That might have not helped for sure, but it definitely did not play a part in the decision-making process," she said.
Chase, for his part, told Us Weekly that they got married "a little prematurely" but continue to be cordial coparents.
Miranda and Chase initially denied their involvement in the 'soft swinging' scandal
"The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" season two star Miranda McWhorter.
Pamela Littky/Disney
Chase eventually detailed his connection to the incident two years after the scandal, during his 2024 interview with Us Weekly.
Chase said that the parties where swinging took place began during COVID-19. He said that couples they were friends with would hang out, "get trashed on alcohol," and play games like spin the bottle.
Chase said that he and Miranda participated in some of the games, but "it was never predetermined that we were going to be doing, like, swinging."
"That's what we always thought was a little bit misrepresented in Taylor's story, as she presents it," he said.
Miranda and Taylor hash out what constitutes 'swinging' in season 2
"The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" stars Taylor Frankie Paul and Miranda McWhorter during season two.
Natalie Cass/Disney
Miranda's unexpected appearance at an influencer event that the start of the season surprises Taylor and the other women because she left MomTok after the scandal exploded.
Now single and at a different point in her life, Miranda says she hopes to repair her friendships and perhaps rejoin MomTok. But her version of the scandal contradicts Taylor's claims, leading to confusion. Plus, some of the women suspect Miranda may want to rejoin the group to take advantage of the lucrative brand deals that come with MomTok fame.
"The height of what I was ever involved in was playing spin the bottle and kissing other people," Miranda tells them. "And so it was very jarring for me for Taylor to come out and say everyone was hooking up with everyone, because that was simply not the case at all."
"No one had sex ever, period." Miranda says, adding, "I will go to my grave."
"The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" stars Miranda, Whitney, Layla, and Mikayla during season two.
Natalie Cass/Disney
In episode two, Miranda says that she lied about not being part of the swinging controversy because she wasn't ready to own up to her actions.
In the following episode, Miranda and Taylor discuss the specifics of what actually occurred in a one-on-one conversation.
While Miranda insists that she only went as far as kissing other people, Taylor says in the confessional that it was more complicated than that.
According to Taylor, they participated in other things too, like the couples having sex in the same bed at the same time. Other times, she said they were blindfolded and tried to guess which husband they were kissing. Taylor also recalls a night when she and Miranda got so drunk that they made out while people filmed it.
In a confessional, Miranda says that a lot of embarrassing things happened, and she felt out of control and wronged when Taylor spoke out on TikTok.
"I wish that I would have come out with what really happened rather than denying everything," Miranda says. "That probably did make her feel worse and look worse, and that wasn't my intention. It was very much, 'I'm terrified and I have a reputation as a Mormon to uphold.' And I regret that."
Miranda seems to be on friendly terms with the MomTokers
Season two stars Layla Taylor, Miranda McWhorter, Jessi Ngatikaura, Mikayla Matthews, Mayci Neeley, Taylor Frankie Paul, Jen Affleck, Whitney Leavitt, and Demi Engemann.
Stewart Cook/Disney
Nowadays, Miranda's social media presence includes sponsored content and videos about single life.
In the lead-up to the season two premiere, she's has been posting videos that include some of the MomTokers. Members of the group have also been commenting on her TikTok videos.
In April, MomToker and fellow cast member Layla Taylor joined Miranda and her friends at the country music festival Stagecoach. That month, Miranda also posted a TikTok featuring Taylor, Layla, Mayci Neeley, Mikayla Matthews, and Jessi Ngatikaura.
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