True Stories to Melt Your Mind

1. Making Comedians Crack Up

Creating a situation where you make a comic chuckle, let alone laugh, is well beyond an art. It’s friggin’ magic. Which is why what the cats at CrimeFaces do is so magical. With their running commentary on everything from game night at home to street fights alone, they’re one of comedian Bill Burr’s favorites. So where have you been?

2. Porn + Hip-Hop: Together Again. Naturally

They may make strange bedfellows, but none are stranger than the late, great Tupac Shakur and the very much still-kicking Mr. Marcus. They found each other and hung out during the heady last year of Tupac’s short but stunningly special life. One song later, it’s one for the history books.

3. Straight Outta Poland

Recent election news from Warsaw had us thinking about Poland again. The struggle between far-right and centrist candidates there is the mainstream news story. But, as ever, life on the streets is different. Very, very different. And as different as it is for a woman walking home alone at night, some things remain the same. Until, that is, the woman fights back, deliciously flipping the script.

4. Podcasts Not for the Faint of Heart

Someone once described some NPR radio hosts as having voices that sound like macramé, and while macramé is all well and good, it’s not what most of us want pumping from our earbuds. What do we want? The wild-assed and decidedly uncomfortable. Fortunately for fellow travelers, such a thing exists. It’s called OZY Confidential.

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1. Who Will Stand Up for the Mob Bosses?

Once upon a time there was a mob boss who appeared on the covers of national magazines. John Gotti wore expensive suits and was widely suspected of having had his boss gunned down outside of Sparks Steakhouse. Gotti stayed out of jail for a long time, courtesy of one guy: Bruce Cutler.

2. The Fight for Independence Happens Every Day

If you were a punk skater kid from Appalachia with a Black father and a Jewish mom and you decided to deploy for much more than one tour of duty to hot zones in the Middle East as a Navy corpsman, it would be no surprise that your worldview was decidedly upbeat … eventually. After the genius lifesaving power of soap, that is. Yep, soap!

3. Father’s Day: Gone but Not Forgotten

Being a dad is no less difficult these days than it’s ever been, but it is made immeasurably more difficult when you’re dead. Which is why one son’s days have been spent in a slow, directed way trying to figure out who killed his father, and why.

4. In the Future We May All Be Homeless … for More Than 15 Minutes

And if so what better way to spend it than in the company of someone who can see beyond the outer trappings and straight into the heart of who we really are: someone who somebody may once have loved. A counterintuitively heartwarming holiday story about making love to the homeless.

1. Two’s Company and Three’s a Crowd. But Five?

Like everything else, summer weddings are facing coronavirus weirdness. But even without a death-dealing illness, there are still plenty of surprises afoot when humans try to make love work. Like finding out your beloved — an anxious banker you’d never guess could keep more than one energetic fiancée satisfied at the same time — has five other beloveds. Surprise!

2. When a Cat Keeps You From Getting Catfished

Everything will open up again eventually. Including dates, dating and telling lies about said dates and dating. But getting trapped in a precarious position while on a date you don’t want to be on? Well, nobody says, “Come here, kitty,” quite like an allergic Grindr date in need of a quick and graceful escape.

3. Watching Me Have Sex? Now That’s Entertainment

Complicated stuff comes into play when you’re a lawyer, an adulterous exhibitionist and cheap. After all, those hotel bills add up when you’re trying to hide an affair. So when your lover proposes a way to indulge at least two of those kinks for free at a local sex club, the way forward becomes exceedingly clear.