BOOKS
ghostwriting that fuels better lives
ELIZABETH QUINN (2024)
Yes You Can: The Power of Self-Discipline
Can you name a challenge so universal that it affects people today just as much as it did thousands of years ago? Think of problems that still haven't been solved despite decades of human innovation and literally hundreds of groundbreaking inventions, from the discovery of fire to the harnessing of electricity to the advent of artificial intelligence.
Still stuck? The answer, of course, is self-discipline. This obstacle (or opportunity, as you'll soon come to see it) has confronted people from all walks of society in every place and time. It's little wonder then that self-discipline has been written and thought about for centuries, by everyone from Greek philosophers to Renaissance thinkers to modern-day writers.
To hammer home the universality of the quest for discipline across the ages, we'll begin our journey together with a brief overview of how approaches to the concept have changed over time. I consider it vital that you know that nearly every person who has ever lived, from the greatest thinkers ever known to the regular Joes whose names are lost to history, has struggled to understand and enact self-discipline.
READ MORE!SLOAN MERCER (2024)
Marion Parker's Abduction and Murder
The day before the crime of the century
Eleven days before Christmas in 1927, twelve-year-old twins Marjorie and Marion Parker left their home in Los Angeles' Lafayette Square to go to school. Outside, they found a nineteen-year-old freckled young man watching them.
The girls didn't recognize the man, so they ignored him and boarded the nearby streetcar, likely expecting him to walk away. Instead, he got into his car and drove beside the streetcar. He was smiling at them, communicating with a wave that they should get off the streetcar.
Again, the twins ignored him. Eventually, the man drove away. But by the end of the next day, only one of the twins would return home. The other would be in the clutches of the very same man who'd tried to coax them off their morning commute.
Marjorie Helen and Frances Marion Parker were born in Los Angeles County on October 11, 1915 to Geraldine (née Heisel) and Perry Marion Parker, a bank teller. Marjorie was born first, and she grew into a cheery and outgoing young girl, with a pleasant disposition similar to that of their older brother, Perry Willard, who was called Bill.
READ MORE!ELIZABETH QUINN (2024)
The Power of Self-Confidence
Since you're reading this book, you're probably coming to the table with a firm belief that a certain kind of self-confidence might be enough to transform your life. And I'd certainly agree with part of that sentiment: Used properly, healthy self-confidence can absolutely give you the strength, determination, and insight needed to make and sustain real, lasting change.
But in order to achieve that growth, you may need to be willing to challenge some assumptions you've made (maybe without even realizing it) about what it means to be self-confident and what it takes to create the kind of life you want. As we'll discuss in greater detail in later chapters, no matter the circumstances of your upbringing, you've doubtless absorbed some helpful and some less useful ideas about what self-confidence should look like and what it can do for you.
In some cases, this might look like an unrealistic expectation of how people gain self-confidence in the first place or how quickly you should be able to do the same. Or it might be a series of self-limiting beliefs you've unconsciously internalized about your own abilities, personality, or working style. Regardless of the specifics, you'll need to shed the weight of these unhelpful ideas if you're ever going to reach your full potential.
READ MORE!CONTENT
helping readers find health & happiness
THE GRIO (2024)
Stories That Shaped History: Essential Classics by Black Authors
When you’re looking to dive into some famous African American works, it’s hard to know where to start. That’s why today we’re shining a spotlight on some of the very best classic books by Black authors.
This roundup includes both fiction and nonfiction spanning multiple genres, so you’re bound to find your next favorite book on this list.
'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' by Maya Angelou
This stunning autobiography may be the best-known work by Maya Angelou (1928-2014), the Black American poet and civil rights activist, but it’s actually the first in a seven-book series. One of the greatest American classics, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” chronicles the first 17 years of Angelou’s life.
READ MORE!DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB (2024)
Why Do My Balls Always Seem to Itch Something Fierce?
There are a number of bodily functions that are so “always on” in the background that, unless you’re actively thinking about them, you probably wouldn’t even know they’re happening: Your heart beats, your lungs breathe, and, if you’re a man, your balls itch.
I mean, c’mon guys, tell me you’ve never been sitting on the couch, or lying in bed, and you suddenly realize your hand is halfway down your pants, itching away like you’ve got a winning scratch card. It happens to the best of us.
But why? There are plenty of other body parts in dark, moist places that don’t itch at random points of the day, ad infinitum. Lookin’ at you, armpits. What, then, is so special (or, uh, decidedly un-special) about the crotch region?
READ MORE!FIN VS. FIN (2024)
The Best Delay Sprays for Premature Ejaculation
Which delay spray is best for you is going to depend on your priorities. Based on our research and testing, the best delay spray for premature ejaculation (PE) is from the brand Hims. They offer one of the most affordable delay sprays, ongoing medical support, free shipping, as well as other treatment options for PE, including delay wipes and prescription pills, making them a truly comprehensive option.
We’ve also selected three other brands to round out our list of top picks for PE sprays, including Promescent, Steady Freddy, and Roman.
In this article, we’ll discuss the best premature ejaculation sprays (and some wipes), specifically focusing on their pricing, effectiveness, unique selling points, side effects, and more, so you can find the right product for your needs.
READ MORE!ZENMASTER WELLNESS (2023)
Adaptogens 101: What Are Adaptogens, and Should You Be Eating Them?
Adaptogens are active ingredients derived from plants, herbs, or mushrooms that may help regulate and manage the body’s stress levels, energy, and more. Examples include ashwagandha, maca root, ginseng, reishi, and lion’s mane. They’re sometimes called adaptogenic substances, functional mushrooms, or herbal supplements and come as capsules, powders, or drinks.
While more research is still needed, various adaptogens have demonstrated clinical safety and efficacy for cognitive function, heart disease, chronic pulmonary disease, cold prevention, erectile dysfunction, diabetes management, and more.
If you’re wondering if it’s a good idea to incorporate adaptogens into your diet, it’s best to speak with your healthcare provider first, as some adaptogens may not be appropriate for individuals with certain conditions, such as high blood pressure. In addition, adaptogens may lead to side effects in certain individuals, such as nausea, headache, dry mouth, and more.
READ MORE!TALKIATRY (2022)
How to cope with change when you have PTSD
When you think about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), flashbacks, nightmares, and other hallmark symptoms might come to mind. One less talked-about effect of PTSD is a strong fear of change, even when it’s an expected and positive change like a new job, a graduation, or a vacation.
Of course, change can feel uncomfortable for anyone, but for people living with PTSD, that feeling can be so intense that it keeps you from stepping outside of your comfort zone. Here’s how to manage your condition so you can be present in your life no matter what happens.
How do I know if I have PTSD?
PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can affect anyone who has experienced a traumatic event. You might think of shell-shocked combat veterans when you hear “PTSD,” but any experience that triggers your body’s survival response can be traumatic. That includes not only one-time events like car accidents, but also prolonged situations like abusive relationships and unstable childhoods.
READ MORE!KEEPS (2021)
What’s the Relationship Between Testosterone and Hair Loss?
You’ve probably heard the hair loss myth that guys with high testosterone tend to go bald. (Sorry to burst your bubble, but male pattern hair loss isn’t caused by excessive manliness.) The truth is that the relationship between hormones like testosterone and hair loss is pretty complicated.
That’s why we’re here to break it all down for you. This article will cover everything you need to know about testosterone, hair loss, and what you can do if you’re not happy with your hormone levels (or your hairline).
What is testosterone?
Let’s start with the basics. Testosterone is the hormone responsible for male secondary sex characteristics like a deep voice, lots of muscle mass, and body hair and beard growth. Naturally, it also plays a big role in sexual functioning, like maintaining your sex drive and producing sperm.
READ MORE!COVE (2019)
The Truth About Treating Migraine With CBD and Marijuana
You’ve probably seen headlines announcing the legalization of marijuana in an increasing number of states. You’ve likely also noticed CBD showing up in more and more products every time you go shopping. And as someone with a chronic condition, you’ve likely been told that one or the other (or even both) can cure basically every symptom you’re experiencing. But just because something is legal to sell doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right treatment for your needs. And when you’re living with migraine, you can’t afford to waste your time on treatments that won’t work.
That’s why we spoke to board-certified neurologist and marijuana expert Dr. Eric Baron to get the facts on this trending treatment.
PBut before we get to the interview, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about what we mean when we say “marijuana” and “CBD.” Marijuana is a type of plant whose flowers are famous for their psychoactive effects. You might know it by one of its other names, like cannabis, weed, or pot. No matter what you call it, it always has two main active ingredients. One is CBD, which stands for “cannabidiol.” The other is THC (that’s where the psychoactive effects come from).
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CLIPS
writing at the intersection of personal & pathological
AUTOSTRADDLE (2020)
I Stopped Tweezing in Quarantine and Realized I’m Nonbinary
Quarantine has a lot of downsides. The crushing isolation, the unfathomable grief of mass death, the creeping feeling that we’re living through the literal apocalypse, the constant unconscious work of repressing all that so you can cross something meaningless off of your to-do list. But I have managed to find one silver lining: longer showers.
In the early days of quarantine, most of my time was booked up by either a Zoom call or the spontaneous crying that always followed a Zoom call. Showers provided a rare opportunity to stop panicking about all of the work I wasn’t doing, slow down, and take a moment to panic about something else.
On the 24th day of quarantine, I decided to take a shower in the middle of the day. I know it was daytime because I remember the sunlight disappearing as I closed my curtains. When I felt like being kind to myself, I would do the next part by the dim light leaking through the “blackout” cloth. This time, I did not feel like being kind to myself. I turned on all of the lamps in my room and took off all of my clothes. Then I stood in front of the mirror and stared.
READ MORE!REACTOR (2020)
The Dreams and Nightmares of Women: Lucid Dreaming on Film
You look in the mirror and find that one of your arms has been replaced by a purple tentacle. Or you glance at a clock and find that the numbers have been swapped for alien symbols. Or maybe you just look closely at your surroundings and realize that everything is brighter and stranger than it usually is. You’re dreaming, and now that you know you are, you can do anything you want. But you’re sixteen, so all you want is to undress that girl from your history class. You conjure her and begin to re-enact your daydreams. Her body is warm, you can feel her breath, but in an instant she’s gone, the walls melt away, and a monster looms over you. You’ve lost control.
When the lucid dreams I enjoyed as a teenager turned into nightmares, I stopped sleeping. I stayed up all night staring at the television, the volume as loud as it could be without waking the neighbors. Denied their nocturnal spotlight, my nightmares seeped into the daylight. Columns of spiders crawled up walls at the edges of my vision. I constantly felt like I was being followed. Sometimes, as I sat up all night, a shadowy golem kept me company. I never looked directly at it, but I’m certain it was the most hideous thing I could possibly imagine.
Have you ever realized in the middle of a dream that what’s happening isn’t real? That’s lucid dreaming. Experienced lucid dreamers can manipulate their dreams to live out their fantasies—or their fears. No art form is better positioned to explore the pleasures and perils of lucid dreaming than filmmaking, and no film has illuminated the connection between movies and dreams for more people than Inception. What’s disappointing is how few people have seen Satoshi Kon’s Paprika, a strikingly similar and arguably superior treatment of the same theme that was released in Japan four years before Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster. Both films rely on a device that enables people to enter others’ dreams, and both include elevators used to travel through them. More importantly, the two movies share a character: a woman so skilled at lucid dreaming that she can bend others’ dreams to her will.
READ MORE!AUTOSTRADDLE (2019)
How My Badass Butch Skyrim Character Saved My Life
It was probably late afternoon by the time I woke up — I typically got out of bed around three those days. I started drinking immediately. I ate a piece of toast for breakfast, then replaced the rest of my meals with cigarettes. At 9:40 p.m. I wrote in my journal, in tiny crabbed letters that list across the page, “I want to see blood.” Less than an hour later, I skirted past my father, who was asleep on the living room couch, grabbed a knife from the kitchen, and disappeared into the bathroom.
About a month earlier—June 2015—I’d crash-landed at my parents’ house in New York after weeks of gallivanting around the Midwest with friends, celebrating our graduation from college with endless rounds of drinks, joints and a few harder drugs. The hangover hit like a closed fist. I think I slept for a few days straight before I even spoke to my parents.
While I was still in school, I’d considered this my worst-case scenario: returning to a bedroom so small it would horrify Harry Potter, with no job, no money and no plan. Suddenly, most of my friends had scattered across the country, started jobs or vacations, moved on to the next chapter of their lives. But I was stuck. Stuck at home and stuck with the memories of the girl I’d wasted my senior year chasing, the girl who preferred femmes, the girl who would never feel for me what I felt for her.
READ MORE!FILTER MAGAZINE (2019)
How My First LSD Trip Led Me to Accept My Sexuality
Someone had to tell me what to do with it: under your tongue, leave it there for a while, don’t swallow. We used a laptop to film ourselves. In the video, the three of us put the paper squares on our tongues, sticking them out for the camera, then giggle nervously.
I had never taken a psychedelic before and had no idea what to expect. Part of me hoped that nothing would happen. But within the hour, the walls began to breathe, the couch transformed into a rickety ship tossed by a turbulent sea, and my organs writhed. I prepared myself for death.
This didn’t require much effort; I had been preparing myself for death for years. I had spent the previous semester living alone in London and made little effort to reconnect with friends upon my return to college in the States. My days were murky and endless, with most hours endured either in class or in bed. Whenever I passed a window I would see myself crashing through it. Knives called my name at night.
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