For most people, eating nothing but mac and cheese seems like a childhood fantasy. But for 20-year-old Austin Davis, who has been eating nothing but mac and cheese for the past 17 years, it’s not a fantasy — it’s his reality and has become his affliction. For Austin, it’s about much more than just “liking” mac and cheese. Austin suffers from Selective Eating Disorder, also known as Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, an anxiety disorder that’s characterized by the persistent refusal to eat specific foods or refusal to eat any type of food due to a negative response from certain sensory characteristics of that food.
Tag Archives: real story
The Polyamorous Unicorn Movement
When a charismatic former alcoholic named Shaft had his life changed by Burning Man, he realized that he actually identifies as a unicorn. No longer able to face the monotony of work and life in the real world, he decided to form a polyamorous and hedonistic movement with other like-minded unicorns.
Donning glittery horns and galloping through London’s streets, Shaft’s unicorns set about trying to create a free-love utopia. But as the unicorn revolution begins to clash with the realities of life and love, some of the “glampede” became disillusioned, and Shaft’s reasons for starting this whole thing came into question.
Is this the hedonistic, free love revolution we were promised in the 60s? Or is it as fake as the unicorn horns they wear, a desperate and clever ploy by Shaft to escape his own inner loneliness by starting a cult?
The Guide to Las Vegas
Taji arrives in Las Vegas with a tiny budget and a wild plan: gamble it at Blackjack with help from a card counter. It backfires, sending him broke and on a strange detour through a haunted motel and a brothel before he makes it back to the Strip. Desperate to recover his losses, he sets up a blind date, coached by a male escort and secretly guided by a mind reader observing from afar.
The Anarchists Skatepark
Skatopia is 88 acres of woods and farmland turned into a skatepark in Meigs County, Ohio. Known for anarchy and destruction, the land consists of two indoor bowls, a full pipe, a concrete outdoor bowl and The Museum of Skateboarding History – which houses more than 12,000 vintage skateboards.
Since suffering a traumatic injury, Founder and Owner, Brewce Martin now faces a changing of the guard as his son returns home and sees Skatopia moving forward in a new direction.
3MMC: Europe’s Explosive New Party Drug
Europe is undergoing a synthetic boom, with hundreds of stimulants springing up across the continent. None though are creating quite as much buzz as 3-MMC. Piggybacking into the party scene off its predecessor Mephedrone, 3-MMC (3-methylmethcathinone) offers a cleaner, cheaper, and potentially more addictive high with virtually no comedown. Many describe it feeling like a mixture of cocaine and molly—no wonder partiers can’t wait to get their hands on it. But, they’re not the only ones…
Since its ban in 2022, 3-MMC has been illicitly trafficked back into Europe by mafia groups in the Netherlands. Smuggling shipments of drugs and precursor chemicals into Rotterdam and neighboring Antwerp, underground mafias are on the verge of turning the Netherlands into a narco-state.
Zach Shucklin heads to Berlin and Amsterdam to learn about 3-MMC’s unique properties, its role in the party scene, and the potential ramifications for its growing popularity.
Garbage Island
We sail to the North Pacific Gyre, collecting point for all of the ocean’s flotsam and home of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: a mythical, Texas-sized island made entirely of our trash.
Congo: Warlords, Child Soldiers and Blood Minerals
Warlords, soldiers, and child laborers all toil over a mineral you’ve never even heard of. Coltan is a conflict mineral in nearly every cell phone, laptop, and electronic device. It’s also tied to the deaths of over 5 million people in Congo since 1990.
The Cartels Cash Catch
There’s a race to save a dozen small cetaceans, the last in the world of their species. They’re caught as bycatch in nets set to trap a fish with a huge demand in China. Can anything be done?
It all begins in Mexico, in the Gulf of California, just 97 miles from the US, where the totoaba is endemic. The demand for its swim bladder is at the heart of the issue. Two key towns in this region, San Felipe and Santa Clara, rely almost entirely on fishing shrimp and local fish. Times are perpetually challenging but engaging in illicit totoaba fishing can yield a substantial paycheck. They became overfished in the 2010s when a catch like this could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars each month.
Adding to the severity of the situation for this endangered fish, the nets used to catch this species, as well as those used for local shrimp, have inadvertently captured a small porpoise native to the Gulf of California, Mexico: the vaquita marina. This has pushed it to the brink of extinction. The latest survey in 2024 was only able to spot 6-8 vaquitas, from 10-13 last year. The US is exerting pressure on Mexico over the issue, and scientists, along with environmentalists and law enforcement in several countries, are working tirelessly to save the vaquita, halt totoaba trafficking and develop sustainable alternatives to harmful nets.
The Gangs That Steal Dogs
Since the lockdown puppy phenomenon pushed up the price of dogs by up to 450% in the UK, a huge increase in dog thefts and importations has followed.
With access to the minds behind the crimes and the people on the frontline trying to prevent them, we discover why illegal puppy farms have become one of the fastest growing illicit markets in Europe.
We gained access to a gang who explained how they grab dogs in parks and from people’s houses. Plus, we secured an interview with an illicit dog importation organisation who bring dogs into the UK from Eastern European puppy farms. They implant fake microchips before selling them on.
Finally, we learned about the fight back, meeting a victim who managed to steal her dog back and a pet detective who takes on these cases as her day job.
The Mormon War on Porn
Utah has started a war against pornography. In 2016, Utah became the first State to officially declare porn a public health crisis, claiming porn has “detrimental” effect on brain function, contributes to “emotional and medical illnesses,” and gives rise to “deviant sexual arousal.” But with the science being murky at best, is this just Mormon morality infiltrating Utah legislation?
Porn is obviously a polarizing topic. The LDS Church (“Mormons”) perpetuate the belief that porn addiction is a “plague like we have never seen,” however, the psychiatric community does not even recognize porn as a clinical diagnosis. So, is porn actually contaminating our brains, or is this symbolic porn ban just a way of shaming Utah residents for their sexual desires? Having sprung out of this repression, the pornography site MormonGirlz.com, founded by a lapsed mormon, directly plays on LDS inspired sexual oppression for the sake of titillation – illustrating the ultimate backlash against suppressed sexual desires.
The Real Saul Goodman
Like a real-life Saul Goodman, we find Howard Greenberg — a fast-talking, boundary-pushing, notoriously eccentric criminal defense attorney in Brooklyn. We follow Howard as he works through his latest case and see just how far he’s willing to go to get his clients off.
The Fake Funerals of South Korea
Whilst the rest of the world gorges itself on K-Pop, Korean movies, and smartphones produced by Korean tech giant Samsung, Koreans themselves have never been more bummed out. With over 14,000 of its citizens killing themselves in 2012, South Korea is the suicide capital of the developed world, despite its booming economy.
This troubling trend has resulted in a lot of national soul-searching and the formation of the “Well Dying” or “Near Death” movement, which aims to help people appreciate their lives more and thus reduce the number of suicides. The most bizarre manifestation of this movement is the rise of “Fake Funeral” services, where people are lectured by a philosophical guru, told to write out their own eulogies, and ultimately climb into a coffin to meditate for 30 minutes so as to experience the afterlife.