There is a secret to radically improving your productivity – it’s called a Weekly Review. It’s not a very secret secret. It’s a secret hiding in plain sight. We’ve all heard countless times that we sh

Todoist is designed to be simple to use, yet powerful enough to take on your most ambitious projects. To make sure you’re in the know about just how powerful Todoist can get, we’ve put together a list of 19 lesser-known features that make adding and organizing your tasks faster, more personalized,…

President Donald Trump’s failure to respond to the coronavirus pandemic didn’t begin with the administration’s inability to send out the millions of test kits experts say are needed to tackle the crisis. It didn’t start with Trump’s bungled messaging downplaying the crisis even as it’s worsened. It…

I was once a horny and confused disabled teenager, and somehow managed to come into my own as a horny and downright pervy disabled adult. Growing up, no one ever talked to me about sex or sexuality. Outside of my peer groups (and often times even within them), sex was a touchy issue. Doctors,…

In Which Grandma Visits me in a Dream, Explains the Meaning of a Despised Heirloom, and Harnesses the Power of Queer Theory in Order to Show Me What to Treasure Background Story #1: My family has never quite been that touchy-feely kind of family that is good at expressing affection for one another.…

Hello, zonked Frank! It’s me! That ideal Frank you wish you could more regularly be! I’ve taken a moment away from my self-actualized, perfect state to jot down some advice that you may find handy as you trudge through your inharmonious slog of a life! I think you will find this timely, relatable,…

My World, My Words is a series of first-person essays featuring totally unique, inspiring personal experiences unlike anything you've heard before. The most interesting stories are also often the most overlooked, so we're on a mission to find them and share them with you. Written by people from all…

Dearest Queer Person, Chances are you don't even know that you are holy, or royal or magic, but you are. You are part of an adoptive family going back through every generation of human existence. Long before you were born, our people were inventing incredible things. Gifted minds like the inventor…

“There is nothing more synchronized of body and mind than orgasm. That is the ultimate synchronization. Your discursive mind is turned off. You can’t be spaced out and have an orgasm,” says Susan Piver, founder of the Open Heart Project Online Meditation Center. But what about when we want our…

Javier Zarracina/Vox There are two Trump presidencies. One of them is the official presidency of Donald Trump, leader of the Republican Party, driver of the legislative agenda, head of the executive branch. A year in, that presidency looks surprisingly normal. Trump has largely outsourced his agenda…

“If we do turn it over,” Newman says, “I think we can get Medicare for All. I think we can get a comprehensive workers’ bill through.” One of the most closely watched Democratic primary races of 2018 is taking place in Illinois’s 3rd Congressional District, an increasingly diverse patch of Chicago’s…

When you first meet Neil, a handsome if regular-looking guy in a tight waffle shirt and a pair of jeans, you might call him nerdy if he wasn't so nondescript. Based on looks, you wouldn't think that this former IT guy makes his living giving people the most mind-bending, dick-splitting orgasms found…

Berlin is a city full of abandoned buildings with long and troublesome histories. But one building has been through more turmoil than most: Tempelhof Airport. The colossal airport straddles Neukölln and Tempelhof -- neighbourhoods approximately 4 kilometers, or 2.5 miles, south of the city's centre.…

On a beautiful September morning sixteen years ago, my German 3 students and I together heard news of the attacks in New York. We stumbled through the rest of a day that further unfolded at the Pentagon and in a field in Shanksville. Even as I struggled to process the events of that day, I felt…

In 1994, sexual educator Janet W. Hardy, was bedridden for a month with a bad flu that had evolved into bronchitis. She was, as she recalls, “high off my ass on Codeine cough syrup” when she caught a showing of Indecent Proposal on TV. Married couple David (Woody Harrelson) and Diana (Demi Moore)…

Mastodon might be tiny compared to Facebook, but it’s laying the foundations for a post-corporate social internet. Digits May 1, 2017 · 5 min read What is Mastodon, and why is it promising? Over the course of April, there has been a small exodus of Twitter users to a new social network called…

Over the seven or eight years I've been practicing nonmonogamy, I've never felt the need to keep it a secret. My girlfriend and I don't exactly shout it from the rooftops, but if it comes up in conversation, we're happy to be honest. Our close friends have known for years. Our families roll their…

One concrete detail about “ Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt ” explains the secret of the title character’s relentless optimism and surprising physical strength: the Mystery Crank. Viewers learn about the crank early on in Season 1 during a flashback to Kimmy’s captivity in Rev. Richard Wayne Gary Wayne’s…

The bishop spoke the traditional words as she placed her hands on the new deacon named M with just a slight difference from the way those words have always been spoken before. “Pour out your Holy Spir

Nick Sumida for BuzzFeed News There comes a time in every young queer’s life when they are struck by lightning. For me, that time comes on a brisk spring morning in rural Oklahoma, when I’m standing behind the middle school, waiting for the bell to ring for first period. Two people are standing with…

The word “queer” has a complex history. With a literal meaning of “unusual, strange, or odd,” people used queer as a pejorative towards members of the LGBT community in the late 19th century. It was specifically used for men who acted effeminate. However, starting in the 1980s, members of the LGBT…

Like many others, I had a fun time on mastodon.social this weekend. Many great people from Twitter showed up , as well as other generally cool and famous - ish people . For those just tuning in, Mastodon is a re-implementation of the GNU Social codebase, which itself is — (okay, bear with me people,…

Lola Phoenix Oct 22, 2016 · 28 min read When you first learn about polyamory or non-monogamy, what most people call ‘open relationships’, you’ll likely be directed to several publications: The Ethical Slut, Opening Up, and the website More Than Two. And these were things I read when I started my…

Leah Varjacques / The Atlantic In 2011, I was hired, straight out of college, to work at the White House and eventually the National Security Council. My job there was to promote and protect the best of what my country stands for. I am a hijab-wearing Muslim woman––I was the only hijabi in the West…

Good news: In two years, we’ll have a new president. Bad news: If we make it that long. My “good” prediction is based on the Law of the Pendulum. Enough Americans, including most independent voters, will be so ready to shed Donald Trump and his little shop of horrors that the 2018 midterm elections…

opinion Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast Donald Trump is off to quite a start. He sits atop a globally despised kakistocracy whose first 24 hours included historic opposition marches around the country (and indeed around the world) and top White House flaks beclowning…

Anti-Nazi graffiti on the streets of Oslo, reading “Live” above the monogram for the Norwegian king, who had fled when the Germans invaded in 1940. (Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images) One cold morning in April 1940, the streets of Oslo awoke to the sights and sounds of thousands of invading German…

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters I am not surprised by President Donald Trump’s antics this week. Not by the big splashy pronouncements such as announcing a wall that he would force Mexico to pay for , even as the Mexican foreign minister held talks with American officials in Washington. Not by the quiet,…

Since the election, a lot of people not previously involved in activism have jumped in with both feet. The ACLU and Planned Parenthood have been inundated with donations , mostly from first-time givers. A reproductive rights non-profit I work with just hosted its third 30-person meeting of…

Newscasters frequently report on folks forced from burning homes absent their possessions. What frantic decisions were required in Gatlinburg, for instance, about items to save during that emergency? I often wonder what I would do in such a situation. Actually, I am not a “thing” person. Oh, I enjoy…

Could understanding other cultures’ concepts of joy and well-being help us reshape our own? The Positive Lexicography Project aims to catalogue foreign terms for happiness that have no direct English translation. ILLUSTRATION BY JULIANNA BRION Last summer, Tim Lomas flew from London to Orlando to…

I am a Christian. Actually, it’s more accurate lately to say that I am still a Christian. I now say this with much trepidation. I say it with great fatigue. I say it somewhat begrudgingly. I say it with more than a good deal of embarrassment—not of Jesus, but of so many of his people and so much of…

In place of my usual essay, I offer the story of a teenager’s Christmas some five decades ago… Although Lizzie had been thirteen all summer, she still felt twelve. Her parents ignored the fact she was now a teenager, treating her as if she were nine or ten like the middle girls or as young as her…

Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. Here are twenty lessons from the twentieth century, adapted to the circumstances of today: 1. Do not obey…

As the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump is being sorted out, a common theme keeps cropping up from all sides: “Democrats failed to understand white, working-class, fly-over America.” Trump supporters are saying this. Progressive pundits are saying this. Talking heads across all forms of the…

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problem.” “If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago…

America just endured its first presidential election in which the majority of the electorate got its news from social media. And the outcome is already prompting soul searching by the companies that shaped it. Facebook Inc. will have to contend with mounting dissatisfaction over its role as the most…