My Life Is Not Mine — Give up wanting what other people have. That way you’re safe. “Where, where can I be safe?” you ask. This is not a day for asking questions, Not a day on any calendar. This day is conscious of itself. — Rumi This is my penis song I wish that I had a bigger shlong One that was quite a bit more thick and way more long One of those porno king kong dongs — Macklemore, Penis Song (2005)

According to these MCs, Soundcloud has nothing on your least favorite social network — A couple of weeks ago, a Coventry, U.K.-based rapper connected with me on LinkedIn. In his bio, Skatta (aka 23-year-old Nathan Hunter) describes himself as a “Grime Artist” and has been “endorsed” by other LinkedIn members for his skills in music production and entertainment. His work experience details his time…

And making history in the process — As a kid, Simran Jeet Singh had dreams of becoming a professional boxer. At 10, sleeping in a Leicester bedroom surrounded by posters of Muhammad Ali — his favorite being the iconic image of Ali towering over a knocked out Sonny Liston — Singh started boxing at a local sports…

Forty-year-old Marcus Jones finished his first marathon in London this year, in just under six and a half hours, an unremarkable, if not disappointing, time for most marathon runners. (Even the average mark for novices tends to be just under four and a half hours.) It was far from unremarkable…

Introverts are carving out their own space in the resistance movement—and changing the way we protest — In November 2010, Andrew, 28, was in a fetal position on a side street in central London. At the time, he was a first-year undergraduate at the University of Leeds, studying history and politics. Like many students across the country, he’d traveled to the city to protest against the government’s…

In the opening shots of the trailer for the Bollywood movie Stree, a group of men are huddled together in darkness, whispering about a notorious female ghost who captures the souls of her male victims, leaving only their clothes behind. Written on the walls of the house in red paint…

In a greenhouse in Istanbul, Tayfun, a young Turkish man with a shaved head and a thick, black beard, sits shirtless in the sun, casually admiring a fan palm tree. Meanwhile in Bangkok, Takoyakrit, a male model, stands among bright green barringtonia flowers, showing off his pec, chiseled abs and…

In their suburban home in Finchley, North London, Stuart and Mary Townsend, a young, professional couple in their 30s, are hovering over a laptop, adding to a spreadsheet labeled “donors.” The eight column sheet lists almost every detail about potential sperm donors, ranging from their height and weight to snippets…

Such guides are as old as dust, but they’ve found new life online among recent gym converts who swear by them — For the past four months, Shravan Upadhayay, a 30-year-old tech consultant in Faridabad, India, has been on a strict workout regime. He lifts four to five times a week and does one high-intensity cardio session at a small, cheap gym at an old motorcycle repair shop near his house. Similarly…