How to Hire Fake Friends and Family
In Japan, you can pay an actor to impersonate your relative, spouse, coworker, or any kind of acquaintance.
Latest
Miho Aikawa / Getty / Katie Martin / The Atlantic Transplantees Find Catharsis in Holding Their Old Hearts
An initiative reunites transplant recipients with their former organs for education and therapy.
Roc Morin Erasing the ‘Ownership’ Tattoos on Sex-Trafficking Victims
A woman who escaped the industry reflects on how changes to the body can help with recovery.
Roc Morin The People Who Collect Strangers' Memories
In gathering old photographs of daily life, family scenes, and illness, hobbyists get an intimate view into past lives.
Roc Morin Do Psychedelic Drug Laws Violate Human Rights?
The prohibition of MDMA and hallucinogenic mushrooms restricts "cognitive liberty," according to some activists.
Reuters Inside the Artificial Universe That Creates Itself
A team of programmers has built a self-generating cosmos, and even they don’t know what’s hiding in its vast reaches.
No Man's Sky The Western Volunteers Fighting ISIS
“A lot of people come over here thinking they’re going to be Rambo. It’s not like that."
Roc Morin Can Child Dolls Keep Pedophiles from Offending?
One man thinks so, and he’s been manufacturing them for clients for more than ten years.
Jason Lee / Reuters That Time I Tried BDSM Therapy
Not all therapists take the gentle approach.
Anatol Misnikou / Shutterstock A Conversation With Koko the Gorilla
An afternoon spent with the famous gorilla who knows sign language, and the scientist who taught her how to “talk”
Alysia Alexander
