BY: JESSICA BEUKER Riding the over-crowded subway on the way home from work, clicking from page to page as you browse the internet, going for a stroll through your neighbourhood – these are typical things that people do every single…
The face of Sudan’s gold miners before bombs rained from the sky (Photos)
BY: ADAM JACOBI I worked in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains as a humanitarian. It was in 2011 just months before the secession of South Sudan. The scorching heat was thick with tension. What would happen to the Nuba people, who were…
This vending machine feeds starving stray animals in exchange for empty plastic bottles
BY: JESSICA BEUKER Istanbul, one of the world’s largest cities, is home to over 14 million people. It is also home to over 150,000 stray cats and dogs – a number that keeps increasing due to animal smuggling and lack…
Meet the woman fighting sexist Afghan circumstance with guerilla style politics
BY: JESSICA BEUKER On November 16, 2014 Shukria Barakzai was headed to parliament when her car was rammed and explosives were detonated, creating a blast that could be heard all across Kabul. The explosion killed three people, including a young…
This village has a homemade-rocket war once a year to keep the peace (Video)
BY: MELISSA GONZALEZ “For about a month people see some tension. There is a state of unrest. Everyone knows that something is going on.” In the small village of Vrontados the month of March is no more than a grand…
14 women pose naked to challenge the elusive definition of “American Beauty”
BY: KAROUN CHAHINIAN Raised on a cookie-cutter image of beauty, whether it was your favourite movie star, super hero, or the band-poster you had taped onto your wall, the role models that are meant to inspire us often have the…
You might want this tree that grows 40 different kinds of fruit in your backyard (Video)
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA Sam Van Aken’s “Tree of 40 Fruit” is one of the world’s only living art pieces. By “chip grafting,” Van Aken, a professor at Syracuse University, is able to Frankenstein trees of 40 different stone fruits…
These beautiful family portraits prove that racial borders are just imaginary lines
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA Perhaps you have heard the myth of the “tragic mulatto,” a term that casts bi-racial people as chronically depressed, caught in the crack between black and white society. The myth was promoted heavily in 19th century…
This incredible woman returned to modeling after she lost her jaw to cancer
PHOTOS BY: Manol Ceron, From the electric lights of Manhattan to ocean front photo shoots on Greek islands, Elizaveta Bulokhova walked down runways across the world with a cultivated grace. In her seven-year career as a fashion model, she saw…
This is Hunter S. Thompson’s daily drug-filled routine that could kill a horse or birth an American hero
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA Hunter S. Thompson was a superhero of the outlaw world, with the uncanny ability to ingest an infinite amount of amphetamines, psychedelics, alcohol and strange outer-worldly substances without even a minute shift in composure or personality.…
Photographer goes behind the scenes of an African mine to show the true cost of gold
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: MATJAZ KRIVIC They can’t read, they can’t write but they can dig. At the crack of dawn children of Burkina Faso one of the world’s poorest countries work alongside their parents slaving in the mines for fourteen hours…
Social media is the debilitating Crack of a crippled generation of addicts
BY: KAROUN CHAHINIAN Refresh. Re-refresh. It’s the first thing you do when you wake up and the last thing you do before going to sleep. Photo by: yipengge Yup, you’re checking your social media profiles to see if you received…
There is an incredible village that recreates normal life for people with Dementia
BY: LISA CUMMING Having a parent or a grandparent with dementia is like watching a group of workers tear down your childhood house. Demolition starts slowly and bricks are carefully removed. Once the bones of the building begin to show…
A group of researchers in the UK are getting high for science
BY: M. TOMOSKI Amanda Feilding, director of the Beckley Foundation, is the Countess of Wemyss and March, and she wants to change the way we think about drugs. Her own experiences with LSD are what fueled the inspiration to study…
Children around the world with their favourite toys capture the transition of childhood innocence
PHOTOGRAPHER: GABRIELE GALIMBERTI From Texas to Kenya all kids have one thing in common: they’ve got big imaginations and an undying love for their toys. Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti has taken photographs of children from all over the world with…
These American-poverty commercials are parodying condescending World Vision ads
The next sad-eyed, impoverished child you see totting donations from developed countries might be the face of an American. Looking to extend a hand to a struggling nation, feed the hungry, and make your positive contribution to the world? It’s…
Uni-Degrees in Medical Clowning are changing the way we treat children for cancer
BY: JESSICA BEUKER Yolana Zimmerman is not your typical doctor. Sure, she spends most of her time in Israeli hospitals, working right beside the other doctors and nurses. She works with the patients one-on one, and accompanies them to CT…
Photographer uses infrared film to capture an invisible war that’s killed 5.4 million people
BY: CONNOR BRIAN So many times have Westerners been confronted with sensationalized coverage of systematic murder and sexual violence in Africa, that many editors appear to view the bloody political conflict of the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo with glazed…
The best argument I have ever heard for physician-assisted suicide is this woman’s silence (Video)
BY: MELISSA GONZALEZ “What would you say to people who are opposed to voluntary euthanasia?” “Swap places with me.” Gina, a woman painfully suffering from a rare genetic disorder, is one among thousands of people in New Zealand fighting for…
Panda daycare is fighting to protect one of the world’s most adorable endangered species
BY: JESSICA BEUKER Giant panda bears are the rarest and most unique members of the bear family. They live mainly in bamboo forests, high in the mountains of Western China. They are also deeply endangered, with only 1,826 left in…