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Miho Aikawa / Getty / Katie Martin / ... How to Hire Fake Friends and Family
In Japan, you can pay an actor to impersonate your relative, spouse, coworker, or any kind of acquaintance.
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Roc Morin Transplantees Find Catharsis in Holding Their Old Hearts
An initiative reunites transplant recipients with their former organs for education and therapy.
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Roc Morin Erasing the ‘Ownership’ Tattoos on Sex-Trafficking Victims
A woman who escaped the industry reflects on how changes to the body can help with recovery.
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Roc Morin The People Who Collect Strangers' Memories
In gathering old photographs of daily life, family scenes, and illness, hobbyists get an intimate view into past lives.
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Reuters Do Psychedelic Drug Laws Violate Human Rights?
The prohibition of MDMA and hallucinogenic mushrooms restricts "cognitive liberty," according to some activists.
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No Man's Sky Inside the Artificial Universe That Creates Itself
A team of programmers has built a self-generating cosmos, and even they don’t know what’s hiding in its vast reaches.
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Roc Morin The Western Volunteers Fighting ISIS
“A lot of people come over here thinking they’re going to be Rambo. It’s not like that."
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Jason Lee / Reuters Can Child Dolls Keep Pedophiles from Offending?
One man thinks so, and he’s been manufacturing them for clients for more than ten years.
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Anatol Misnikou / Shutterstock That Time I Tried BDSM Therapy
Not all therapists take the gentle approach.
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Alysia Alexander A Conversation With Koko the Gorilla
An afternoon spent with the famous gorilla who knows sign language, and the scientist who taught her how to “talk”
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Jan Nikita / Wikimedia How to Say (Almost) Everything in a Hundred-Word Language
Those who speak Toki Pona say linguistic simplicity can enable a more profound form of communication.
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Roc Morin What People Around the World Dream About
An atlas of the subconscious, from Tijuana to Reykjavik
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Darhil Crooks/The Atlantic Learning to Live With the Voices in Your Head
Some experts think the problem is how doctors and society treat people who hear things, not the voices themselves.
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Luke MacGregor / Reuters Where the Dead Become Diamonds
A Swiss company wants to change the way people mourn by transforming the remains of their loved ones into gems.
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Amy Sancetta / AP The Amish Farmers Reinventing Organic Agriculture
By studying the immune systems of plants, they've developed a technique that eliminates the need for chemicals.
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Roc Morin The Man Who Would Make Food Obsolete
Rob Rhinehart invented Soylent—a beverage that he claims contains all necessary nutrients—as a food replacement. The first batch is shipping this month.
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Kelly Sikkema/flickr Prescribing Mushrooms for Anxiety
A New York University research team is using hallucinogenic experiences to help patients come to terms with their mortality.
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Steve Snodgrass/flickr On Being an Abortion Doula
The range of emotions involved in helping women terminate pregnancies
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"Le déjeuner sur l'herbe" by Édouard Manet Up for Polyamory? Creating Alternatives to Marriage
How one lawyer helps those, like her, in non-traditional relationships
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Roc Morin The Art of Designer Artificial Limbs
Sophie de Oliveira Barata makes hyper-realistic prostheses as well as elaborate costume limbs that reflect the wearer's personality.
