Let’s Apocalypse! A Discussion with the Anti-Banality Union
What do the violent obliteration of New York City and the self-destruction of the police have in common? According to The Anti-Banality Union, these are two key motifs in “Hollywood’s dream diary,”...
View ArticleFace Shapes and Blood Types: Wading into the World of Online Dating in China
The Mandarin term shengnu literally means “leftover woman.” It was coined to describe China’s growing crop of middle-class women who, thanks to new educational and economic opportunities, have been...
View ArticleWhen Will South African Police Stop Dragging People from Their Vans?
This week, South African police attached a man to the back of a van and dragged him along the street for nearly 500 yards. This horrific case of police brutality was caught on film in the Daveyton...
View ArticleMy Month Without Sex
Eventually, some women are going to hear those three little life-changing words: “You have HPV.” I first found out I had HPV (the human papilloma virus, cousin of herpes, grows on a woman’s cervix and...
View ArticleOur Constipation Tour of India
Before our first trip to India, my husband Anthony and I were warned constantly that it wasn’t a matter of if but when we’d get sick from the food. “Trust me,” a friend said. “You’ll look at the...
View ArticleWeediquette - The Shwagman Cometh
The quality of weed that I require has gone up since I started smoking. As my taste and tolerance rose in unison, I made more of an effort to fill my medicine jar with the best of what I could afford....
View ArticleExplaining Bangladesh's Month of Massive Street Protests and Violence
The preacher came to life in a packed courthouse. Delwar Hossein Sayedee, one of Bangladesh’s most popular imams burst into fiery rhetoric, denouncing the “infidels” and his “atheist” accusers....
View ArticleWe Spoke to the Guy Who Wrote the Real Screenplay for 'Argo'
While Ben Affleck's teary Best Picture acceptance speech thanked the right Hollywood honchos, there's one person he snubbed that literally made Argo a reality: Barry Ira Geller. In 1979, Geller penned...
View ArticleHow Does It Feel: Melbourne University O-Week
I went to uni for a while so I’m about as special as 99.9 percent of everybody else my age, only slightly less hireable because I studied arts. Like you’d imagine, being back on campus for the first...
View ArticleHow Cops Became Soldiers: A Chat With Radley Balko
In 2007, journalist Radley Balko told a House subcommittee that one criminologist detected a 1,500-percent increase in the use of SWAT teams over the last two decades. That's reflective of a larger...
View ArticleSlayer and Their Original Drummer Are Having a Serious Problem
The world of Slayer is glutted with grisly serial killers, unspeakable war atrocities, blasphemous utterances, and hateful diatribes. During their shows, the band members never smile, delivering their...
View ArticleJulie Kedzie and the Early Days of Women's MMA
Last weekend, Julie Kedzie got word that she would be joining the UFC roster on the same day the promotion held its first ever women's MMA fight. It's been a long time coming for the Indiana native,...
View ArticleThe Great Lost Expedition Brand
Burt Avedon poses with his Navy pilot's helmet at his home in Verona, Wisconsin. Portrait by Narayan Mahon. Until the early 1900s, there was no such thing as “expedition” clothing, much less an...
View ArticleAkon's Wikipedia Page Is Amazing
If you didn’t already know, Akon is a Senegalese American hip-hop artist, songwriter, producer, and businessman. Earlier today, while stumbling out of my Facebook vs. Twitter online consumption...
View ArticleReally, Ryan?: I Don't Like the Internet, I Just Work for It
Hi. My name’s Ryan O’Connell, and I work for the internet, at a website called Thought Catalog, specifically. You might hate Thought Catalog, and that’s OK. Everybody needs something to hate. If it...
View ArticleThe Strange Beauty of the Chinese Politician Who Threw a Tantrum at the Airport
I know China is trying really hard to reinvent itself and that the people there no longer want to be seen as stiff, reserved stoics, but I feel like they're not getting much help from their neighbors....
View ArticleObseshes: Feminist Fatigue
Oooooh la la, you guys, it’s Nike Sky High City Pack “Tokyo” Dunks release month! I put it on my iCal. How are you? How is your heart? Can I hold your teacup face in my hands, just for a second, or a...
View ArticleIrrelevant Interviews - John Baccigallupi of 'Tape Op' Magazine
When I set out to write this intro, I thought it would be heart wrenching. A sob story about yet another great death in music. Another worthy and truly independent establishment sunk into the ashes of...
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