An Insider Peep into Tokyo’s Secretive Red Light District: Then & Now

Watanabe Katsumi was the king of treading lightly. As a drifting photographer, his lens was a stealthy observer of Tokyo’s red light district, snapping hundreds of photos of its drag queens, gangsters, prostitutes, and other fringe society members in the 1960s and 70s. Few dared enter the underbelly of the city like him and the…

This is the World’s First Trans Supermodel that Didn’t Get Her Moment

It’s 1981, and the air on-set for the new 007 flick, For Your Eyes Only, overflows with so much sex appeal you could cut it with a knife. A coterie of bikini-clad “Bond Girls,” all bathed in sunshine and ready to snap a press photo with Roger Moore, smile into the camera to capture yet another iconic moment…

If You Like Animals, You’ll Love Amber the Taxidermist

Ah, Death. The last taboo – or one of them, and especially in America. “I think a lot of people assume I’m out here hunting animals, which just isn’t the case,” Amber Maykut tells us in her New York City taxidermy studio, “I study them. I love them.” Her workspace is tucked away in a…

Credit is Due for America’s Black Couturiers

Not a month seems to go by without a new cultural insensitivity courtesy of the biggest names in fashion. The good news is, we’re finally entering an era that just doesn’t let it slide. As brands begin to learn from their mistakes and respond to demands for change and corporate diversity, we hear the call…

Greetings, from the Desert of Ghost Ships

Only 30 years ago, this was home to our planet’s 4th largest inland water mass; an ancient sea so vast, even Alexander the Great wrote of his struggles to cross it; where fishing commerce boomed and holidaymakers once flocked to its seaside spa town. Now, for the first time in 600 years, the Aral Sea…

These are the Real-Life Gardens of Earthly Delights

These are also the places that will confuse the heck out of aliens if they ever do land on this planet. From the forests of Finland to the subtropical mountains of Mexico, we’ve come across some many magical gardens over the years and thought it was about time to put them in one place… The…

Behind the Curtain of New York’s Thriving Subculture of Fortune Tellers

Search “psychic” in New York City on Google Maps, and you’ll be flooded with addresses of not only psychics, but astrologers, tarot card readers, palm readers, and others invested in the business of the esoteric. This is a city where the supernatural thrives, where even in the midst of skyrocketing rent prices, a psychic –…

Snow White Is Real (and She’s a Chinese Vlogger)

“This is China? It looks like a fairyland,” was Nessy’s first reaction to Li Ziqi’s (李子柒) vlogs. Our team watched, entranced, as Ziqi scurried through the misty morning air of her village, dutifully followed by not one but three baby animals (two puppies and lamb); we observed her gather nuts and fruits in a dewy…

Famous Authors Are Writing Books for a Time Capsule Library None of Us Will Ever See

In the frosty forest of Nordmarka, Norway, the seeds have been quietly planted to save the future of the written word. Every year for the next 100 years, 100 famous authors have pledged to each write a novel that will remain unpublished until the 22nd Century, when they will be published as part of the…

What the Movies Don’t Tell Us We’re Hearing

Sometimes, you hear what you wanna hear. Especially in Hollywood, where a coconut steps in for the hooves of a horse, and squishing canned dog food is meant to mimic the sounds of aliens and monsters. It’s all a part of “Foley” making, a term coined after Jack Foley, who pioneered post-production sound effects for…