When Mountains Were Ugly
The lair of witches and ghouls before they became an Instagrammer’s delight, mountains are where we go to find a little distance, a little fear, a little magic.
The State of the Bestiary is Stable
Through personal history, the history of a company, and the history of games writ large, Chris Randle explores the enduring appeal of Magic: The Gathering, the trading card game which has persisted in comic shops, convention centers, and basement rumpus rooms for twenty-five years.
The Fred Rogers We Know
Soraya Roberts mines the CBC archives to view the first images of Fred Rogers on television in 1963 — hosting Misterogers, a fifteen-minute black-and-white children’s program made in Canada — to get a deeper sense of the man who made it ok for people to be valued and loved, exactly as they are.
Barbra Streisand’s Singular Women
Mayukh Sen looks back at Barbra Streisand’s career as an actress, director and producer — shedding light on the sexist double standards in Hollywood that have led to her being portrayed as “difficult” for the kinds of demands and expectations her male counterparts are never called into question for.
The Short-Lived Normalization of Breastfeeding on Television
When Buffy Sainte-Marie had her first child in 1976, she woke up in the hospital next to a basket of formula. As a Native American, she came from a culture in which best-feeling had been discouraged and even prohibited. So she decided to take the issue into her workplace, breastfeeding her son on an episode of Sesame Street.
Late Nights Online
For people who grew on the early dial-up internet, AOL Instant Messenger offered a safe place to refine their identities as they moved toward their grown-up selves. By the time AIM ended, most users could live all its best parts in real life.
To Give a Name To It
Navneet Alang weaves together the story of an ex, his Sikh-Canadian family’s Christmas traditions, and the history of Punjab together to explain why baby names can mean so much, even if they’re just hypothetical.
Anatomy of a Surrogacy
They wanted a baby, she wanted to carry it for them—for a fee. It’s a common transaction but illegal in Canada, and the system here leaves both parties vulnerable.
The Man Behind Meat Loaf
Retracing the career of Jim Steinman, the songwriter responsible for some of the most operatic hits of the past 40 years.
The Last Days of the Leather Fortress
Besides motel rooms and swank LA mansions, where does hardcore porn get filmed? For the last ten years, in this San Francisco basement. Here’s a very NSFW portrait of Kink.com’s final week.
