We are 47 days out from one of the most important elections of our lifetimes, and there is a lot on the line. Despite how fond (or not) you may be of Joe Biden, one thing is for sure: the courts may never be the same if he loses. The "Ruth Bader Ginsburg is in the hospital" freakout is such a well-recognized feeling among left-leaning folks that it has become a meme. Bader Ginsburg is a national treasure, of course, but we deserve better. The moral...

The BUST Guide to Media Literacy Now, more than ever, it is important not to believe everything you read (and watch, and listen to, and scroll through). But how do you know what’s real—and what’s a carefully crafted lie? IT WAS 2015 when it likely first popped up in your Facebook feed: an old interview with Donald Trump. “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country,” Trump was quoted as saying in a 1998 People Magazine...

FROM FOOD, TO HOUSING, to health care, indigenous people in America have been exploited and neglected by the governments set up by European colonizers since the 1600s. Federal policies enacted to exert control over native communities are still restricting the ability of people on reservations to survive and thrive. And with the onset of COVID-19 this injustice is being compounded, as government aid going to the rest of the U.S. does not apply to indigenous communities. For example, on the Wind River Reservation in Riverton, WY,...

Every joke and off-handed comment about the swell of December quarantine babies has been an utter gut punch. My stomach aches, my muscles tense, and it takes every ounce of my already-depleted energy not to scream.  March 18, 2020.  I remember that date the same way you remember an important anniversary. Not the date when everything got shut down with COVID-19 and suddenly the world shifted into a “before” and an “after.” No. March 18, 2020 was a day that began like so many others over the previous...

In May, The U.S. women's soccer team filed to appeal to a district court decision that dismissed their calls for equal pay. So far, there have not been many updates. However, there was some big news last week to close the gender pay gap in sports, just not in the United States. The Brazillian Football Federation (CBF) announced that the women's soccer team would receive the same pay and prize money as their male counterparts. The CBF president announced in a statement, "There is no more...

Ava Rheeve and Julia Going, two seniors at Wisconsin’s Cedarburg High School, protested — and won — after the school announced that masks would be optional, yet the dress code would persist. For Rheeve and Going, these guidelines brought to focus a blatant double standard: that spaghetti straps and skirts are more threatening than the coronavirus. In an interview with The Lily, Rheeve called out the administration’s contradictory policies. “They say my shoulders are somehow a distraction to a boy’s education,” she explained. “Well, then, isn’t it...

Food is love, food is life. With the pandemic hitting us hard, I can imagine how many sourdough starter kits have been open, attempted, and then discarded in a huff. Or trying out a new baking recipe from Youtube that ends up looking like someone did it blindfolded. Either way, food is one thing that, in many cultures and areas and despite all odds, can bring people together. Six feet apart or not. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, food was a storyteller. An orator of ancestral...

  From BUST's Fall 2020 issue, our house astrologer, Emmalea Russo, gives astrological guidance to getting laid.   Virgo(Aug. 23 to Sept. 22)Happy birthday, V! September commences with a full moon in your relationship sector, spotlighting all that’s working (or isn’t) just in time for Venus to cascade into your sign on October 2, reminding you to love thyself first and foremost. Mercury retrogrades through your house of communication starting October 13 and then slides into your house of income and self-worth on October 27, urging you to rethink...

Last Thursday night, a Category 4 storm Hurricane Laura tore through the Gulf Coast. Many think this disastrous storm is the result of the numerous refineries and chemical plants present in the region. The hurricane didn’t spare the Lake Charles region of Louisiana. Alongside a chemical fire that erupted on the outskirts of the city, the fate of a Confederate monument was decided by the storm. The South's Defenders monument, which stood on the grounds of a courthouse in Lake Charles, collapsed during Hurricane Laura. The Confederate...

Los Angeles feels like a hodgepodge of disparate towns, mashed into one giant, perennially sunny, palm tree-studded city. It’s got glittering beaches and boardwalks, lush mountains, jammed freeways, and towering skyscrapers. There’s old Hollywood glamour and new Cali cool. Taco stands are ubiquitous and famouses roam wild. Writing this during quarantine, I miss it all. So here’s a little love letter to L.A., featuring recs from some of our favorite BUST-y Angelenos. This piece is also a practice in manifestation (so very L.A.): hopefully as...