I write about bodies and people. Vaccinated for rabies. [leigh.cowart@gmail.com]
New Research Is Taking Women’s Sexual Pleasure Seriously
Despite its presence in about half the population, the anatomical wonder that is the clitoris has had a rough go of it in the hallowed halls of academia. From Freud’s pet theory that clitoral orgasms are infantile and indicative of a failure to mature properly, to its unceremonious deletion from the 1948 edition of Gray’s Anatomy, the only organ known to exist solely for pleasure has been quietly and systematically denied its due. Even after we had split the atom and enjoyed 20 years of penic...
Why Running Sometimes Makes You Shit Blood
Welcome to Meat Sack, a guide to sports-related body horror. Today’s column is about bloody shits.
What do you picture when you think of a runner? Shirtless white men, trotting down the exhaust-choked sidewalks of busy streets, looking like jaunty, tan crepes? Or maybe you see a virtuous sort, full of the kind of piety that only chia pudding and daily meditation and predawn runs can bestow? I used to think of my grandpa, an early adopter of the new jogging trend in the 1960s. He was covered b...
How To Fuck In The Woods, And Other Survival Tips
Welcome to Meat Sack, a guide to sports-related body horror. Today’s column is about enjoying the great outdoors.
How To Fuck In Nature Without Getting A Weird Rash
There are people who will tell you that the best way to have sex in the woods is to do it in a tent, but those people are lying to you. Life is too short not to get mother nature all in your mouth when you’re face-down/ass-up in bear country. As an inveterate mountain-dweller, I have enjoyed all manner of outdoorsy fucks, be it on...
Welcome To Meat Sack, A Guide To Sports-Related Body Horror
The ecosystem of the human body does not want for complexity, nor do the myriad of idiot things we inflict upon it. This is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the world of sports, where athletes willingly submit their bodies, like monks to their vows, in pursuit of Larry having a nice, drunken night because a bunch of super-fit young ‘uns in matching outfits did the correct thing with the ball more often than the other boys.
Of course, when you push the ol’ haunted meat toilet that is your...
Burn Me Like a Forest Fire
I wonder if the trees are screaming. I wonder where the birds go. I wonder how anything could ever escape the inferno and rebuild. I think about my marriage
Ebola: Where is it hiding and when will it be back? - CNN.com
Ebola: Where is it hiding and when will it be back?...
The weird history of vitamin D — and what it actually has to do with sun
The weird history of vitamin D — and what it actual...
Here's What Actually Happens When You Stop Using Birth Control
Here's What Actually Happens When You Stop Using Bi...
Scientists investigate the weird genetics of bat wings - The ...
Scientists investigate the weird genetics of bat wi...
Roadkill Crafts: A Squeamish Beginner's Guide
Roadkill Crafts: A Squeamish Beginner's Guide
She Was Kicked Out of Court for Breastfeeding - The Daily Beast
She Was Kicked Out of Court for Breastfeeding - The...
You're unlikely to catch Ebola from a survivor — unless you have sex
You're unlikely to catch Ebola from a survivor — un...
Women are still getting Toxic Shock Syndrome, and no one quite knows why
An explainer on the pathology and history of toxic shock syndrome, with information on the recent outbreak in Michigan.
This new research could help us fight off superbugs. Here's How.
The fight against antibiotic-resistant superbugs has only just begun, but research published Monday in the journal Nature suggests there may be hope. The new findings give us insight into how we might win bacterial wars by busting up some walls, so to speak -- hijacking a system that many bacterial cells use to maintain a defensive barrier against external threats, be they pharmacological or immunological.