BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA I graduated from a top school, came from a well-off family, and got a high-paying corporate job. Today, I’m what some like to call a hippie. Two years ago, I was living in Dubai, in an…
Expression & Culture
This man grew an entire church out of trees to create a holy green oasis
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA After years of traveling abroad and observing a multitude of churches, Barry Cox was inspired to build one of his own. Using his New Zealand backyard as the canvas, he began to create a church full…
This is what cheating death by jumping the gaps between city roof tops looks like
BY: SHAY ANSARI Hidden by a grey hoodie in the shadow of skyscrapers, a lone man races across cement roof tops clearing the gaps between buildings without a twitch of hesitation. He is a free runner, a type of underground…
Street art comes alive when street artists of the world gather to collapse the box (video)
BY: MELISSA GONZALEZ “Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it.” ― Banksy, Wall and Piece A diverse group of artists from around the world gather together during one week in order to…
This Instagrammer will make you seriously consider converting to veganism
BY: SHAY ANSARI We’ve all rolled our eyes at one point at the mention of veganism, but maybe the joke is on us. Instagrammer, Moky, posts mouth-watering photos of her vegan meals and makes us reconsider our daily diets. Not…
Bestival is an island paradise of hippies, nudists and lucid dreams (Video)
BY: CONNOR BRIAN, TYLER FYFE, ROB HOFFMAN AND MELISSA GONZALEZ If Salvador Dali and Dr. Seuss had a child born out of wedlock, it would have been conceived at Bestival. On the Toronto Islands, a nature sanctuary and nude beach…
Fathers are tweeting beautiful selfies with their daughters to prove India’s proud of its women
Twitter has become a platform for social change in India, where thousands are posting a #SelfieWithDaughter to fight back against a social stigma that puts a boot to the face of unborn fetuses whose only injustice is failing to grow…
Russian tattoo artist turns childhood fears into permanent works of art
BY: SHAY ANSARI Skulls, snakes and ravens are not usually the first thing you think of when choosing a tattoo. However, Russian tattoo artist, Alexander Grim, takes these dark images and turns them into breathtaking pieces of art that will…
Tinker’s Bubble is a sustainable forest community living almost entirely off the wilderness
BY: MATTHEW CHIN On the southern part of the United Kingdom, tucked away in the thick of a 40-acre woodland in Somerset, England, lies a tiny community that thrives in the wilderness. The community began in 1994 when Michael Zaer…
This old-fashioned bakery/coffee shop, plus $15,000, is going to the best 250-word essay
The Plaid Zebra has already published a couple of well-received articles featuring business owners who, rather than selling their businesses through the more traditional route, have chosen to invite would-be new owners to pen an essay explaining why they might…
Watch New York City’s most influential buskers reveal why they sing to strangers
BY: MELISSA GONZALEZ I race to the subway, balancing a dripping tray of coffee while glancing anxiously down at my wristwatch. Already I’m late to work and I’ll no doubt be caught in the human swarm of Monday morning—sleep deprived…
Chuck Palahniuk reading “Fight Club 4 Kids” is some seriously disturbing shit
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA The consumingly violent novel-turned-cult classic, Fight Club, had millions of Average Joes across North America thinking about clearing the dusty cardboard boxes from their unfinished basements to start an underground fight club and grind their neighbours…
Wedding photographer exacts sweet sweet revenge on homophobic client who asked for a refund
The U.S.’s legalization of same-sex marriages across all 50 states represents a celebrated moment in history for most. For others, the ruling might as well be the first step on the slippery slope of national degeneracy. There’s no doubt it’ll…
Doing Laughter Yoga with complete strangers was awkwardly enlightening
BY: MOLLY SANDERS They say laughter is the best medicine. But even in the funniest of life’s memorable moments, a good tear-jerking laugh lasts a couple of minutes at most; it’s a very temporary high. Enter laughter yoga, or Hasyayoga:…
Skinny jeans refuse to die and they are killing your nerves
BY: DANIEL KORN Skinny jeans have always been pretty ridiculous. I’m not going to be so naïve as to say that they don’t look good; heck, I tried on a pair in high school once, but my stocky build and…
Artists create powerful “anti-logos” to protest modern day slaves building the 2022 World Cup stadium
BY: DANIEL KORN Even before the current World Cup 2022 disaster, FIFA had come under fire for several indiscretions. As covered in a 2014 segment on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the burden of the World Cup forces countries…
Blind artist’s paintings will change your perception of what is and isn’t possible (Photos)
BY: JESSICA BEUKER John Bramblitt was only 30 years old when he lost his eyesight. He suffered from epilepsy since the age of two and as he grew older his seizures became more frequent and more violent. At first his…
How Ken Kesey used LSD and a travelling bus of hippies to start the 60s psychedelic revolution
BY: ROB HOFFMAN Ken Kesey took his first tab of acid in a government control room. “How did the substance make you feel?” Asked the nurse. “I felt like I discovered a hole in the centre of the Earth and…
A 9-year-old girl is building shelters and growing food for the homeless
BY: ZOE MELNYK When most children have their first homeless-person encounter, they are usually stricken with fear, confusion or told by their parents to simply ignore the less fortunate. At age five, Hailey Fort had a much different experience when…
The Church of Cannabis is now a legally recognized religion and weed is its holy sacrament
BY: MATTHEW CHIN In Indianapolis, Indiana, following the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a controversial law that has been known to deliberately suppress LGBT rights, has unintentionally helped The First Church of Cannabis become a legitimate establishment. The RFRA states that…