Smoking is cool again. But it's still very deadly

Cigarettes were once unavoidable in the U.S., in restaurants, airplanes, your mom's living room — until health warnings and cultural pressure put out the hype.

The big picture: Something's shifted. Young people are talking up smoking again, and celebrities are casually lighting up on screen. Experts worry that they're not paying attention to the dangers of addiction. • Films and TV shows are bringing cigarettes back as props, too, making them en vogue once again. • More than half of the top box-office films released in 2024 featured tobacco imagery — marking a 10 percentage point jump from the year before, according to a report from public health nonprofit Truth Initiative and NORC at the University of Chicago

You'd be hard-pressed to miss cigarettes across pop culture. • Dakota Jo