Culture

In a case that has horrified reproductive rights advocates across the country, Marshae Jones, a 27-year-old pregnant Alabama woman, has been indicted for the death of her fetus after being shot in the stomach during a fight. She is being charged with manslaughter for the fetus’s death, and was being …

Jessica Biel is many things: actor, mom, wife to Justin Timberlake, consummate ab-shower, purveyor of the theory that being hotter than Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman has ruined her career. This week, however, the world became aware of another credential on Biel’s resume: anti-vaccine activist. In an Instagram post, prominent …

Frank Lucas, the Harlem drug kingpin immortalized in Ridley Scott’s 2007 crime film American Gangster, died Thursday at the age of 88. Lucas’ nephew Aldwan Lassiter confirmed his death to Rolling Stone, adding that Lucas died of natural causes. Lucas, the “Original Gangster” who was known to confabulate his own …

Teah Banks was born into an evangelical Christian sect called the Radio Church of God. Founded in the 1930s by an advertising sales representative turned minister, the insular group promoted an ultra-fundamentalist reading of the Old Testament, eschewing divorce, premarital sex and even wearing makeup. “It was a super closed …

The vape manufacturer Juul Labs has long faced accusations of using fruity flavors and eye-catching packaging to market its products to teenagers, even though the company has repeatedly denied these claims. Now, a 15-year-old girl from Sarasota, Florida, and her family are filing a class action lawsuit against Juul Labs …

Two people have tested positive for HIV after receiving “vampire facials,” a treatment that involves injecting blood platelets into a person’s skin, from VIP Spa, a clinic in New Mexico. The spa in Albequerque was actually shut down last year, following reports that a patient had received an “unspecified infection” …

Cameron Crowe‘s 2000 film Almost Famous will premiere in San Diego this September. Crowe announced that the musical was in production last fall following a few years of development with composer Tom Kitt. As part of San Diego theater the Old Globe’s 2019-2020 season, Almost Famous will return to its …

When biomedical engineer Robert Gorkin saw the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2013 call for submissions for a next-generation condom, he was hardly a contraceptive innovator. Rather, his work focused on 3D-printing organs and prosthetics. But when he reviewed the initiative’s goals — funding would be awarded to applicants who …

YouTube often plays host to the dark side of human behavior: over the past few years, the platform has scrambled to remove footage of mass shootings, violent children’s videos, and comments’ sections that attracted pedophiles. But if there’s one thing YouTube apparently really can’t stand, it’s videos of people smoking …

Despite its admittedly provocative title, the documentary Hail, Satan? is not an endorsement of devil worship. It is, however, a funny, nuanced, sympathetic look at the people behind the Satanic Temple, an organization that may have originally started out as trolling, but has evolved into a grassroots movement advocating for …