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Weight-loss pills that harness the same mechanism as the wildly popular drugs Wegovy and Ozempic are coming to the U.S.

On Monday, Novo Nordisk announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its oral glucagonlike peptide 1 (GLP-1) medication for weight loss and obesity in adults.

It’s a milestone for the industry, which has struggled to make effective pill versions of the weight-loss injections for years. Most people are more comfortable taking a pill than regularly injecting themselves, says Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist at the University of Toronto, who previously consulted for Novo Nordisk. “It’s just good to have more options for people,” he says. At the same time, the pills could greatly improve access to the medication by lowering costs—the injections can cost hundreds of dollars per month out of pocket.

“Pills are also easier to transport and produce,” says Rozalina McCoy, an endocrinologist and internist at the University of Maryland, adding that she hopes the new FDA approval will increase access to the drugs.

Prior to that approval, Novo Nordisk, which also makes the injectable semaglutide drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, had seen promising results from its trials of the weight-loss pill, which will also be sold under the brand name Wegovy. In the company’s latest phase 3 clinical trial, the highest dose of the pill resulted in a 16.6 percent weight loss at 64 weeks compared with a 2.7 percent loss among those who took a placebo. For comparison, trials of 2.4 milligrams of Wegovy injections showed up to 17.4 percent weight reduction. (The injection and pill were not compared in a head-to-head trial.)

GLP-1 drugs have transformed the weight-loss industry and revolutionized the treatment of metabolic disease. But until now, they have largely been available in the U.S. only as injections. Novo Nordisk’s pill for type 2 diabetes, Rybelsus, was approved by the FDA in 2019. But oral versions of these drugs haven’t taken off in the same way as the injectables, despite even early data showing weight loss and health benefits to be relatively comparable.

The Wegovy pill, taken once a day, works similarly to the weekly injections—mimicking the activity of a gut hormone that slows down the speed at which people’s stomach empties and that makes them feel fuller. People who take the pills tend to eat less overall. The side effects are pretty similar to those of injections of the drug, and they can include nausea, diarrhea and vomiting.

The pills must also be taken on an empty stomach to work effectively.

“Nothing else can be taken by mouth for at least 30 minutes to allow the medication to be absorbed into the bloodstream,” says John Buse, an endocrinologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who is a consultant and investigator for Novo Nordisk. “If patients take the medication with other medications, food or even more water or coffee, the effectiveness is dramatically reduced.”

The pill will be available in U.S. pharmacies and select telehealth providers in early January, a Novo Nordisk spokesperson told Scientific American. The starting dose of 1.5 mg is anticipated to cost $149 per month out of pocket but could be lower, depending on a person’s insurance.

Importantly, Novo Nordisk’s latest clinical trial success was based on the maximum daily dose of 25 mg, McCoy says. Unlike the injectables, which enter the bloodstream directly, the pills are broken down in the stomach, which means “the oral doses have to be much, much higher” than the Wegovy injections, which cap at 2.4 mg, McCoy explains.

“I expect that the effective doses of oral Wegovy will be much more expensive than the advertised $149, unfortunately. But I would love to see this medication be more affordable,” she says.

A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk told Scientific American that prices for higher doses will be shared in the new year. “We believe this is the most affordable self-pay price to date for a GLP-1 for weight loss,” the spokesperson said.

Other companies are working on their own weight-loss pills: Eli Lilly, which makes Zepbound, is developing a GLP-1 pill, orforglipron, for weight loss and type 2 diabetes, with FDA approval anticipated for March 2026. More pill options—combined with other effective versions of these drugs in the pipeline—will open up the market and hopefully drive prices down, Drucker says.

“I think we’re going to go in the next like 12 to 18 months from these two main [injection] options from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to half a dozen options in this class of medicines,” Drucker says. “That’s only going to be good for people. They’ll have more choice.”

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On December 3, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opened its 2025–26 holiday season at New York City Center with a gala that marked a turning point for the company. The five-week engagement—running through January 4—signals the first full season under Artistic Director Alicia Graf Mack, and a moment where the heralded repertory leans into what audiences expect from Ailey, while expanding its vision for the next generation.

Graf Mack, the 46-year-old mother of two, stepped into her current position with a certain level of familiarity. She danced with the company for years, an experience that informed her approach as an artistic director. In respecting her predecessors, she feels that this endeavor is a responsibility, not simply her duty.

“I am fully aware of what this role carries,” she says. “I worked under Judith Jamison, who was my idol from the time I was little. I saw how she led. I also worked under Robert Battle and saw how he did things. I don’t take any of that lightly. But in order to do the work that needs to be done, I can’t stay frozen in the magnitude of it. I have to stay grounded. I have to be guided by what I know good dance to be, and how to create an environment where dancers can thrive.”

Among the season’s highlights is “Revelations,” which was performed with live music for six shows during opening weekend and the gala. The season also features Jamison’s “A Case of You” in a new production, alongside company premieres and five world premieres by choreographers Maija García, Fredrick Earl Mosley, Matthew Neenan, Jamar Roberts, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar in collaboration with Samantha Figgins and Chalvar Monteiro.

Alongside Matthew Rushing, Graf Mack was able to program this season with a bit more leeway than in previous years, something that really intrigued her. “I’m interested in what audiences can feel when dancers are given time,” she says. “We had an extended rehearsal period this year, which isn’t always possible for Ailey. Being in the studio with the dancers—teaching, coaching, watching how they move together—that matters. I think people will notice a shift in energy. It feels fresh in the room.”

Ironically, Graf Mack’s path to leadership was an unlikely one. She grew up knowing she wanted to dance, but running an institution? That was another story. When performing full-time became unsustainable, she turned toward education, earning a master’s degree in nonprofit management and teaching at several universities before landing at Juilliard, where she eventually became dean and director of dance.

“That’s where I really learned what [this job] requires,” she says. “It’s not a title. It’s how you show up every day. How you listen. How you lift people. How you manage the artistic alongside the administrative. Dance companies today need leaders who understand both. You can’t separate creative vision from fundraising, from marketing, from long-term sustainability. They all feed each other.”

As Artistic Director of Ailey, Graf Mack remains interested in how the company can expand its reach without losing its identity. Technology, partnerships, and new platforms are part of that conversation, but always in service of the work. “Alvin Ailey leaned into humanity,” she says. “That’s the through line. The world has changed since his time. The way we reach people has changed. But the responsibility stays the same. We’re here to move people. To tell stories others can’t tell. To be brave.”

During my interview with Alicia, the most moving moments were when she reflected on her relationship with the late Judith Jaminson—her predecessor, and her north star. As a young girl, Graf Mack had Jamison’s image on her wall and later worked under her guidance. Their connection deepened over time, shifting from director to mentor, confidant, and friend.

“She studied everything,” she says of Jamison. “How you speak. How you carry yourself. How you prepare a room. She was meticulous and warm and funny and stylish. She didn’t rush anything. After she retired, she stayed present in my life. She checked in. She showed up. She believed in me.” Graf Mack now occupies Jamison’s former office. Much of the furniture remains, and so does the feeling. “I sit at Mr. Ailey’s desk,” she explains. “That wasn’t negotiable. I’m aware of where I am every day. I don’t feel pressure. I feel gratitude.”

The years of practice, education, and previous roles within Graf Mack’s career culminated with the opening night gala, which took place earlier this month. The evening honored board chair Daria L. Wallach, featured performances from Samara Joy and violinist Melissa White, along with boasting a guest list that included notable figures such as Jasmine Guy, Phylicia Rashad, Lorraine Toussaint, and Sunny Hostin, among others. As glamorous a position as the Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater may be, for Graf Mack, the goal remains simple.

“I want people to leave the theater feeling lighter,” she explains. “Ailey has always done that. You come in carrying whatever the day gave you. You leave feeling like you can face it. That’s the work.”

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Photo Credit: Chad Salvador

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It has been a gruesome year for those who see Donald Trump’s kakistocracy clearly. He returned to office newly emboldened, surrounded by obsequious tech barons, seemingly in command of not just the country but also the zeitgeist. Since then, it’s been a parade of nightmares — armed men in balaclavas on the streets, migrants sent to a torture prison in El Salvador, corruption on a scale undreamed of by even the gaudiest third-world dictators and the shocking capitulation by many leaders in business, law, media and academia. Trying to wrap one’s mind around the scale of civic destruction wrought in just 11 months stretches the limits of the imagination, like conceptualizing light-years or black holes.

And yet, as 2025 limps toward its end, there are reasons to be hopeful.

That’s because of millions of people throughout the country who have refused to surrender to this administration’s bullying. When Trump began his second term, conventional wisdom held that the resistance was moribund. If that was ever true, it’s certainly not anymore. This year has seen some of the largest street protests in American history. Amanda Litman, a founder of Run for Something, a group that trains young progressives to seek local office, told me that since the 2024 election, it has seen more sign-ups than in all of Trump’s first four years. Just this month, the Republican-dominated legislature in Indiana, urged on by voters, rebelled against MAGA efforts to intimidate them and refused to redraw their congressional maps to eliminate Democratic-leaning districts.

While Trump “has been able to do extraordinary damage that will have generational effects, he has not successfully consolidated power,” said Leah Greenberg, a founder of the resistance group Indivisible. “That has been staved off, and it has been staved off not, frankly, due to the efforts of pretty much anyone in elite institutions or political leadership but due to the efforts of regular people declining to go along with fascism.”

In retrospect, it’s possible to see several pivot points. One of the first was a Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April. Elon Musk, then still running rampant at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, declared the contest critical and poured more than $20 million into the race. Voters turned out in droves, and the Musk-backed conservative candidate lost by more than 10 points. Humiliated, Musk began to withdraw from electoral politics, at one point breaking with Trump. The tight bond between the world’s richest man and the most powerful one was eroded.

In June, Trump’s military parade, meant as a display of dominance, was a flop, and simultaneous No Kings protests all over the country were huge and energetic. A few months later, Charlie Kirk was assassinated, a tragedy that the administration sought to exploit to silence its opponents. When the late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel made a distasteful comment on ABC that seemed to blame the right for Kirk’s killing, Disney, the network’s parent company, gave in to pressure to take Kimmel off the air. It was a perilous moment for free speech; suddenly, America was becoming the kind of country in which regime critics are forced off television. But then came a wave of cancellations of Disney+ and the Disney-owned Hulu service, as well as a celebrity boycott, and Disney gave Kimmel his show back.

Trump has thoroughly corrupted the Justice Department, but its selective prosecutions of his foes have been thwarted by judges and, more strikingly, by grand juries. Two grand juries refused to indict Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, whom the administration has accused of mortgage fraud, with no credible evidence. After Sean Dunn, a Justice Department paralegal, tossed a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection officer during a protest in Washington, the administration sent a team of agents in riot gear to arrest him. But grand jurors refused to indict him on a felony charge. Dunn was eventually charged with a misdemeanor, only to be acquitted by a jury. Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News personality whom Trump made U.S. attorney in Washington, tried three times to secure a federal indictment for assault against a protester who struggled while being pushed against a wall by an immigration agent. Three times, grand juries refused.

Granted, all these grand juries were in liberal jurisdictions, but their rejections of prosecutors’ claims are still striking, since indictments are usually notoriously easy to secure. “I think you’re seeing reinvigorated grand jury processes,” said Ian Bassin, a founder of the legal and advocacy group Protect Democracy. “Nobody actually knows what’s going on in those grand juries, but the outcome of them seems to suggest that people are actually holding the government’s feet to the fire and being unwilling to simply be a rubber stamp.”

Trump ends the year weak and unpopular, his coalition dispirited and riven by infighting. Democrats dominated in the November elections. During Joe Biden’s administration, far-right victories in school board races were an early indication of the cultural backlash that would carry Trump to office. Now, however, Democrats are flipping school board seats nationwide.

Much of the credit for the reinvigoration of the resistance belongs to Trump himself. Had he focused his deportation campaign on criminals or refrained from injuring the economy with haphazard tariffs while mocking concerns about affordability, he would probably have remained a more formidable figure. He’s still a supremely dangerous one, especially as he comes to feel increasingly cornered and aggrieved. After all, by the time you read this, we could well be at war with Venezuela, though no one in the administration has bothered to articulate a plausible rationale for the escalating conflict.But it’s become, over the past year, easier to imagine the moment when his mystique finally evaporates, when few want to defend him anymore or admit that they ever did. “I think it’s going to be a rocky period, but I no longer think that Trump is going to pull an Orban and fundamentally consolidate authoritarian control of this country the way that it looked like he was going to do in March or April,” said Bassin, referring to Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary. If Bassin is right, it will be because a critical mass of Americans refused to be either cowed or complicit.

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Jonno Rattman for The New York Times

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A languid spiral galaxy appears draped against deep space in a stunning new image from the European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope.

Euclid launched in 2023 on a six-year mission to map the cosmos at scale, observing billions of galaxies stretching as far away as 10 billion light-years from Earth. The effort could reveal how galaxies form and evolve and how the universe has expanded over its 13.8-billion-or-so-year history.

In turn, astronomers hope Euclid will shed light on dark matter, which we know tugs at normal matter but is utterly invisible to us, and dark energy, the force that is responsible for accelerating the speed at which the universe expands.

That effort will begin in earnest next year, when Euclid releases its first formal batch of data, which will account for about 14 percent of its final survey area.

Until then, the Euclid team has offered the occasional teaser for the telescope’s power, including a festive new image of the galaxy NGC 646. This elegant spiral galaxy, filled with stars, is about 392 million light-years away from Earth—some 4 percent of the distance of Euclid’s farthest targets—and is retreating at more than 5,000 miles per second.

Appearing at the left tip of NGC 646 is a second galaxy, known as PGC 6014—but their apparent closeness is merely an optical illusion; in truth, PGC 6014 is nearly 45 million light-years closer to Earth.

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ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing: Euclid Science Ground Segment and M. Schirmer (MPIA) (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

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If the rule stands that you shouldn’t discuss money at the dinner table, then there will likely be some awkward conversations happening over the next couple of decades.In the next 25 years, an intergenerational wealth transfer of $74 trillion is expected, according to a June report by UBS. Among the ultrawealthy, this transfer is accelerating: By 2040, the world’s billionaires are expected to pass down $5.9 trillion to their children, UBS estimated in a December report, which focused on billionaires.

That amounts to the greatest wealth transfer in history — and plenty of familial expectations.

The billionaires surveyed by UBS have high aspirations for their children: 82% hope their kids “develop the skills and values to succeed independently,” and 61% hope their children are “happy/comfortable with managing the family’s wealth.”

Richard Orlando, the founder of Legacy Capitals, a consulting and advisory firm for wealthy families and family offices, aims to help that transfer, and the expectations that come with it, go as smoothly as possible. He works with clients to educate them and cement plans around succession, investing, giving, and — the big one — inheritance.

While more money can mean more complex problems — Legacy Capitals families are worth between $20 million and $3.5 billion — everyone can learn from a thoughtful approach to these topics, he said.

“Any family who’s more intentional about transferring values, educating, and preparing the next generation for stewardship, whether that’s $2 million going to the kids or $200 million,” sees better results, he told Business Insider.

He broke down three common mistakes families make when dealing with inheritance — and how to correct them.

1. Silence is not the solution

Many wealthy parents shy away from discussing money with their children, fearing it may lead to entitlement.

The problem with that, Orlando said, is that it can leave a child totally unprepared until “someone dies and the estate plan speaks,” Orlando said. “It’s almost like a lottery winner.”

There are ways to be more open without showing your kids your bank statement or breaking down every asset.

“Move toward transparency” gradually, Orlando suggested, adding that families shouldn’t expect to flip a switch overnight.

One of Orlando’s clients planned to leave each of their children $100 million, he said. Up until then, their kids had largely been supporting themselves, with no idea they would soon have nine-figure fortunes.

Orlando convinced the parents to put $5 million into wealth management accounts in each of the children’s names to prevent a shock to the system.

“Let’s get them to start developing skills,” he said. “If you want your children to be responsible for $100 million, don’t stay silent.”

2. There is no plan

A large part of Orlando’s work revolves around creating policies for families around everything from communication to investing.

If a family owns a business, there should be a conversation about who will take over control and ownership of it. If there is a foundation, there should be a conversation about its goals.

For example, say a grandparent is conservative and a grandchild wants to give all their money to Planned Parenthood. There will likely be a disagreement. Orlando’s suggestion: Find common ground, agree on a few key causes, and incorporate those into a philanthropy mission statement.

Guidelines help prevent future conflict, he said.

3. If you want to produce leaders, stop controlling them

According to the UBS survey, 43% of billionaires hope their children “grow the family’s business, brand, or assets, ensuring the family legacy continues.”

But that expectation can lead to conflict.

The solution is for the leader not to micromanage, but to gradually hand over the reins through projects that are low-risk and allow the children to voice their opinions.

“That way we can go from a voice to a vote,” Orlando said. “There are these progressions.”

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More money, more problems? High-net-worth families are planning for the Great Wealth Transfer. Constantine Johnny/Getty Images

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Congress designated the center as a “living memorial” to President John F. Kennedy in 1964. Relatives of the slain 35th president opposed the change in posts on social media.

Mr. Redd said seven musicians were scheduled to perform on Wednesday. The concert had been held at the Kennedy Center for 20 years and was previously hosted by the jazz bassist Keter Betts, who died in 2005. Mr. Redd took over in 2006.

The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment after business hours. It was unclear whether ticket holders for the jazz concert would receive refunds.

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An annual Christmas Eve jazz concert was canceled by its host after President Trump’s name was added to the Kennedy Center building.Credit…Eric Lee for The New York Times

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If New York City sees more than 4 inches of snow, it will be the most significant accumulation since January 2022, when more than 8 inches fell in Central Park.

The storm is expected to make getting into and out of the city even more complicated during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. Gov. Kathy Hochul said that New Yorkers traveling on Friday “may wish to rearrange” their plans, and Mayor Eric Adams asked city residents to avoid driving on Friday if possible.

Ms. Hochul said that the state is planning to deploy more than 1,600 large plow trucks. The city’s sanitation department will send out hundreds of salt spreaders to pre-treat roads ahead of the storm.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said this week that it was expecting nearly 15 million travelers to use the region’s airports — including John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International, and LaGuardia — along with its bridges and tunnels during the holiday season, with travel peaking on Sunday.

The Port Authority said it was monitoring the weather forecast and encouraged travelers using the region’s bridges and tunnels to sign up for email alerts ahead of the storm, and for people using airports to check FlightAware for delays and cancellations.

On Christmas Day, some children in New York City were already anticipating the possibility of significant snowfall.

At the Hippo Playground within Riverside Park on the Upper West Side, Arianna Wesby, 11, was playing with her five cousins, whom she was visiting from El Paso, and bracing for the coming unfamiliar weather.

Back home, Arianna said, “They have sand storms, they have wind storms,” — not snowstorms. She was not prepared for what Friday would bring. “I brought shorts!”

The storm will represent one last managerial challenge for Mr. Adams, the outgoing mayor.

The city’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, had been responsible for snow removal in her old job as sanitation chief. She joked on social media that she was “suffering from an acute case of FOMO” after reading the forecast.

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New York City got a bit of snow earlier in December. On Friday and Saturday, the city is expecting a more significant accumulation. Credit…Charly Triballeau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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The space around Earth has become increasingly cluttered with decades of accumulated debris left over from rocket launches, derelict satellites, and the occasional antisatellite weapon test—not to mention growing mega constellations of thousands of active satellites. This influx of traffic means satellite operators have a fast-shrinking window of time to avoid a catastrophic collision in an emergency.

“While we had many months in the past, we now have less than a week for a close passage of serious concern—quite possibly a major collision,” says Aaron Boley, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia.

A new “Collision Realization and Significant Harm (CRASH) Clock” measure, described by Boley and his colleagues in a preprint posted to the server arXiv.org, shows how the rise of mega constellations has created an “orbital house of cards.” The clock uses statistics to estimate how long spacecraft now have to avoid a dangerous close pass or a collision, Boley says.

That reaction window has shrunk considerably since satellite mega constellations took off with the launch of SpaceX’s first Starlink satellites in 2019. The researchers’ latest, unpublished calculations suggest that the CRASH clock value stood at about 5.5 days as of June 2025, compared with 164 days back in January 2018. The clock suggests the average satellite in low-Earth orbit currently faces a 17 percent chance of a close approach that could lead to a collision within 24 hours, which means satellites must make more frequent evasive maneuvers than they used to.

“As a concept, the CRASH Clock is powerful because it turns ‘space is getting crowded’ into a time-based metric people can understand,” says Aaron Rosengren, a mechanical and aerospace engineer at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the study. “The exact number matters less than the trend.”

The calculation looks at the current orbits of all cataloged objects and makes simplified assumptions about factors such as satellite distributions in orbit. It doesn’t account for different maneuvering policies or risk thresholds among satellite operators.

Spacecraft may not always be able to act quickly enough to avoid a crash, especially if software glitches or powerful solar storms interfere. In 2019, a European Space Agency science satellite had to dodge a SpaceX Starlink satellite, in part because of a “bug” in the communication system used between the agency and Starlink. More recently, this month, SpaceX described a near miss between one of its Starlink vehicles and a newly launched Chinese satellite.

The risk of collision and the cascading buildup of space debris—described as Kessler-Cour-Palais Syndrome—is only growing as companies and governments launch more satellites into similar orbits. The more than 9,000 Starlink satellites that are currently active account for about two thirds of all active satellites. Rivals such as Amazon’s Project Kuiper and Chinese companies are also racing to build their own mega constellations. Future plans for orbital space mirrors and space data centers may further complicate the situation.

The challenge is to coordinate collision avoidance among so many independent organizations that use different tools for monitoring space and do not all share information equally, Rosengren says. “The biggest driver is simple arithmetic,” he adds. “Far more satellites in the same orbital bands means far more close approaches, and the screening and response workload grows extremely fast.”

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This holiday season, an unexpected treat has stepped into the limelight and onto the buffet table at many a festive gathering: the Jell-O shot. But the shot in question, which is currently going viral on TikTok and popping up on high-end menus across New York City, is nothing like the ones you probably remember from the sticky basement of a college frat party. Instead, these treats are sleek, refined, classy, and coveted—in short, the opposite of electric green slime in a plastic cup. 

Brooklyn-based Solid Wiggles, cofounded by pastry chef Jena Derman and mixologist Jack Schramm, is among the pioneers of this Jell-O shot revival. Founded in 2020, the company describes its mission as “reimagining the nostalgic Jell-O shot” with its “cocktail jellies” that double as edible art. Flavors include margarita, espresso martini, and mezcal negroni, all presented in eye-catching cubes with expertly layered colors, flavors, and designs. A 40-piece, full-menu sampler costs $115.

After just five years in business, Solid Wiggles are on the menu at 20 bars and restaurants in the U.S., including NYC’s ultrapopular restaurant Tatiana, helmed by James Beard award-winning chef Kwame Onwuachi. According to Derman, the brand’s sales have roughly doubled every year for the past three years, and it’s gearing up to release its own cookbook with Penguin Random House in 2026.

A clear trend is emerging: the Jell-O shot is getting a rebrand as a classy treat for a more mature drinker (foodie?) In a growing number of circles, it’s no longer a kitschy throwback, but instead a fashionable food statement.

The Jell-O shot’s tasteful rebrand

To get a taste of the Jell-O shot’s newfound popularity, one need only search the term on TikTok and browse through some of the most popular videos. 

“Maturing is realizing your friends will take jello shots if you call them ‘edible cocktails,’” reads the caption of one recent TikTok with 13,000 likes, starring Jell-O shots with encased maraschino cherries cut into cubes.

Another TikTok of “lychee martini jello-shots with cherries,” once again artfully cubed (and this time dusted in powdered sugar), amassed nearly 140,000 likes in just two days. And a third YouTube Short, also sharing a lychee martini shot recipe, recently surpassed half a million views.

“I’m 27, and a real shot sends chills through my literal spine these days,” creator @babytamazz explains in the clip. “I’m still gonna take them, but a Jell-O shot is just preferred at this time. Plus, they’re so fun and bitchy and an awesome party pull.”

Perhaps the most popular video, though, was created by the publication Punch and features Solid Wiggles’ unique take on the Jell-O shot. Derman says it’s now been viewed more than eight million times across social media, leading to what she described as a “colossal” spike in sales just before the holidays. 

Solid Wiggles has spent five years trying to convince consumers that the Jell-O shot can be cool—and, clearly, it’s paying off. 

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[Photos: @solidwiggles]

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For years, Democratic leaders have cast their party as a firewall against the threats to American democracy they argue are posed by President Trump and his political movement. With their fierce opposition to Mr. Trump, Democrats became the party of institutional preservation, championing political norms, expertise, and the role of the federal government.

But with Republicans now in control of Washington, many Democratic politicians are trying to revamp their image with promises to upend existing power structures, whether they are the Trump administration, Congress or even their own party orthodoxy. It is a message for an electorate that barely trusts government, politicians, or Washington to accomplish any change at all.

“I took on the powerful and corrupt Democrats,” Mayor Paige Cognetti of Scranton, a Democrat running for a swing House seat in northeast Pennsylvania, said in a video announcing her run that was widely praised across her party. “We can stand tall against a Washington that takes advantage of working people.”

Combating a ‘Corrupt System’

But changing the party’s image won’t be easy for Democrats.

For much of the past year, they have fiercely opposed efforts by the Trump administration to drastically cut the size of the federal government. They have protested the shuttering of agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development, defended federal workers, and backed lawsuits filed by federal unions and advocacy groups.

Democrats know that those actions have affected how voters view their party. In the spring, congressional lawmakers were briefed in private meetings on polling by Navigator Research, a progressive public opinion firm, showing that a majority of voters described Democrats as focused on “preserving the way government works,” while only 20 percent said the same of Republicans, according to slides of the presentation given to The New York Times.

The challenge Democrats face is how to simultaneously defend government institutions that Mr. Trump is trying to gut while also offering a forward-looking message that resonates with voters who believe politics and democracy are broken.

“We have to embrace the need for change and reform. At the same time, I’m not interested in throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” said Representative Jason Crow of Colorado, a Democrat chosen by his party’s House campaign arm to recruit candidates. “We end programs that aren’t working, we reform agencies that are not delivering, and then we preserve those that are.”

Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California who is trying to position himself as a leader of his party, said Democrats needed to do more than simply oppose Mr. Trump to restore the trust and support of voters.

“We can’t start with just, ‘We want to return to normalcy,’” he said. “What we need is a vision for change and holding elites accountable that is consistent with our values and our Constitution, and that we have a positive vision of building things up, not just a negative vision of tearing things down.”

What that vision is, exactly, remains unclear. Deep divisions on policy issues, including taxes and the role of money in politics, are already dividing the party in increasingly contentious primary races across the country.

Government-Critical Veterans of Government

Many Democratic candidates believe they will connect with voters better if they start by acknowledging that government — including their own party — has not always worked. The problem is that many of those candidates have been part of state and federal government for years.

In Minnesota, both Democrats competing for the state’s open Senate seat have cast themselves as independent-minded fighters eager to upend the status quo.

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“The Democratic Party should be leading, rather than just saying: ‘No, no, no. Status quo, status quo,’” Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, left, said in May. Next to her on the Capitol steps is Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey.Credit…Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

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