(Sub)Culture Features

Looking back on her childhood, Guinevere Turner recalls the usual mixed bag of good times and incidents she would rather forget. But unlike most people, she was born into a tightly knit commune of 100 adults and 60 children. “So much of my childhood is full of really fond memories …

Although the trial of Keith Raniere, the alleged mastermind behind the self-empowerment cult NXIVM, doesn’t begin until the end of April, the court proceedings have already given us plenty of drama. There’s been fainting in court, child pornography charges and, as with all things 2019, a brief appearance by attorney …

“Why do we build the wall, my children?” asked folksinger Greg Brown, playing the character Hades, on the 2010 recording of Anaïs Mitchell’s “folk opera,” Hadestown. “We build the wall to keep us free!” answers the chorus, over ghostly pedal steel. “Who do we call the enemy, my children?” he …

Excerpted from David Kushner’s book, The Players Ball: A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet‘s Rise, published by Simon & Schuster. [Find the book on Amazon.] Gary Kremen nervously lingered inside his grandfather Manny’s barbershop, ready to bust his move. It was the late 1970s …

When I arrived for Sunday services at the Hundred Harmonies Church near Los Angeles, on a chilly morning last November, I was immediately handed a joint, a lighter and a bottle of water. In a small exurban storefront guarded by a security guard holding an AR-15, about 15 parishioners were …

Every now and then, Kathy Kleiner Rubin likes to duck into a bookstore with her husband, Scott, and head straight for the true crime section. She’ll scan the shelves until she spots it: a book on the serial killer Ted Bundy. The Stranger Beside Me, maybe, or perhaps The Only …