A man wades into the ocean at sunset on June 22, 2021, in Newport Beach, Calif. The world is a stressful, sometimes lonely place. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way” is a phrase you hear a lot these days. But what if things could turn out another way? What if, somewhere, they had? Enter the realm of the multiverse and alternate realities, popular culture’s wildly glorified canvas — and a repository for the ache and longing of living in an uncertain era. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
