(Sub)Culture Features

In the midst of an unprecedented global coronavirus pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, it can be hard to make sense of the destruction COVID-19 has wrought. In this context, the proliferation of conspiracy theories downplaying the dangers of the virus is sadly unsurprising, though disheartening …

Skateboarding outside the Brooklyn townhouse she shares with five roommates, Alexis Sablone soars through a shaft of January light with her hoodie pulled over a beanie, her five-foot-four frame swimming in baggy jeans. A seven-time X Games medalist, her movement is effortless. Yet Sablone, 33, is more than just one …

As a platform, YouTube is not known for its subtlety. At any given point, billions of users are competing for clicks with eye-popping, colorful thumbnails, and all-caps, high-octane, SEO-driven headlines (“5 MCRIBS IN 5 MINUTES MCDONALD’S MUKBANG CHALLENGE”). But the early days of YouTube were quieter. Much quieter. One of …

In 2013, Gawker published a sex tape featuring the wrestler Hulk Hogan and a female partner, the then-wife of his best friend Bubba the Love Sponge. The outrage following this story emerged at a slow trickle: while some media commenters suggested the story may have been in poor taste, most …

On an unseasonably warm October afternoon, in a basement in the historic Cooper Union Building in Manhattan, Ronan Farrow, flanked by a team of well-dressed publicists, is diligently signing books. It is Tuesday, the day of the book’s release, and he says it is the first time he has seen …

Over the past few months, a string of mysterious U.S. tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic has caught the attention of tourists all over the world. To date, there have been at least 10 tourist deaths connected to the Dominican Republic in the last year alone, with the latest tourist, …

Facial recognition technology is everywhere these days, and people aren’t having it. Cities like San Francisco have officially instituted bans preventing police officers from using it, and none other than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez issued an ominous warning that the rise of facial recognition technology is “tied to the political reality that …

It is a truth universally acknowledged that everyone loves a good scam. From Elizabeth Holmes to Fyre Fest to ersatz German heiress Anna Delvey, grifters have had us all in their thrall. Yet in our zeal to find a new, juicy con-artist tale, we often forget about the scammers who …

Last week, the FDA announced that it had officially approved Spravato, a brand-name nasal spray containing esketamine, a chemical cousin of ketamine, to treat depression. The drug was hailed by many as a game-changer, as it’s proven to be an effective therapy for people with treatment-resistance depression (TRD), or approximately …

When you think of weed, you likely think of a sticky bud, an oil, maybe even a tincture. But what if you reconfigured your notion of cannabis to instead envision an abstract scientific equation? Sure, this may sound like the stuff of stoner sci-fi, except that it’s the real-life direction …