Panic in the Organic Aisle
By Stacy Malkan
You might expect a shampoo labeled “pure, natural and organic” to be, well, pure, natural and organic. So you may have been shocked — and not a little ticked off — to learn that many of your favorite natural body care products contain a nasty petrochemical linked to cancer. (continue reading...)

The Good Bush
Conversations — Interview by Summer Bowen
Apparently, the Bush family tree is home to at least one tree-hugger. Designer and former model Lauren Bush (daughter of Neil Bush, niece of Dubya) is redressing her family’s rep by making a name for herself as a philanthropic and environmental do-gooder. She’s redesigned the stodgy burlap sack into a (continue reading...)

Hot Earth
Photographs by Sabina McGrew
What to wear in a warming world (continue reading...)

Roadrageous
On Our Radar — By Siel
“If you were on a bike, you’d be home by now.” That’s the message behind the Crimanimalz Ride, a monthly event where intrepid Angeleno cyclists infiltrate the concrete jungle that is the LA freeway system (crimanimalz.com). Since April, local bike activists have been pedaling up on ramps during Friday rush (continue reading...)

Mob Mentality
On Our Radar — By E.B. Boyd
Here’s an idea: Instead of trying to bludgeon companies into doing the right thing by threatening them with financial penalties via boycotts, how about enticing them to do the right thing by promising them financial rewards via buycotts? (continue reading...)

What Counts?
On Our Radar — By Jenny Rough
42 Million Number of people in the United States who moved homes last year (the average U.S. citizen moves 16 times in his or her lifetime). (continue reading...)

Salon Selectives
On Our Radar — By Nicole Peyraud
For thousands of years, women have plucked, dyed, cut and polished to squeeze into cultural parameters of beauty. Cleopatra was famous for using minerals to darken her eyelids, ochre to tint her lips and red henna to dye her hair, stain her nails and color the soles of her feet. (continue reading...)

Kelly B.
People In Your Neighborhood — Interview & Photo by Andy Isaacson
As a fashioner designer, you’re probably pulled to NYC or LA. What keeps you here? (continue reading...)

Open Up and Say Spa
Healthy Living — By Amelia Glynn
For many of us, a trip to the dentist usually spells dread — in grape fluoride flavor. But time in the chair beneath the paper bib could be changing for the better. More and more dentists are incorporating spa-like practices to help make the usual rinse, spit (and sometimes drill) (continue reading...)

Buh-Bye Botox
Healthy Living — By Dana Demas
The age-old art of acupuncture has found its dream spokeswoman in porcelain-skinned actress Lucy Liu. The former Charlie’s Angel confessed to InStyle magazine that she assiduously avoids facials, peels, plastic surgery or anything with the word “abrasion” in it. Instead, she “splurge[es] on acupuncture. It’s preventative medicine (continue reading...)

Snack Attack on Sleep
Healthy Living :: Body Talk — By Elizabeth Barker
Those midnight munchies might mess up your sleep patterns, suggests a new study presented at the annual meeting of Associated Professional Sleep Societies. In an experiment involving about 50 adults (ages 20 to 45), researchers found that late-night snacking could lead to fragmented sleep and throw your (continue reading...)

AcroYoga
Healthy Living :: Yogapedia — By Julia Steinberger
Need a dose of adventure, connection and empowerment? Test your limits with AcroYoga. This multidisciplinary style blends yoga, Thai massage and acrobatics into a full-body celebration that we think is even more fun than the sum of its parts. (continue reading...)

Everything’s Great When You’re Downtown
Healthy Living :: Tastebuds — By Eliza Thomas & Andrea Manitsas
Here at the offices of Common Ground magazine, we always eat a well-balanced, socially-, environmentally- and nutritionally-responsible lunch. We never elect to skip this crucial meal of the day because we’re way too busy, or make do with a few almonds, microwaved cheese on bread and some suspicious hummus from (continue reading...)

If I Were President...
Prophet Motive — By Daniel Pinchbeck
As I write this, many progressives have lost hope that a Barack Obama victory will mean a real change in direction for this country. Obama now supports the death penalty as well as retroactive immunity for telecommunication companies that gave data on U.S. citizens to government intelligence agencies, violating our (continue reading...)

Planet Green
Art & Soul — By Stephen Krcmar
Show me someone who knows Tommy Lee only as the degenerate co-star of the Pamela Anderson sex tape, and I’ll show you someone who didn’t share my lunch table in 7th grade. To my small group, Lee was the demigod in charge of playing the skins for Mötley Crüe, a (continue reading...)

BOOKS
Art & Soul —
Homeschooling, A Family’s Journey; ECOpreneuring, Putting Purpose and the Planet Before Profits; Nation Beat, Legends of the Preacher; The Paul Carlon Octet, Roots Propaganda; 1000 Journals; A Jihad for Love; Orgasmic Birth; A Man Named Pearl (continue reading...)

Practice Makes Better
Life, the Universe and Everything — By Chris Malcomb
My meditation cushion and I are not spending much quality time together lately. To be honest, the cushion doesn’t have the problem. It just sits there, crouching its buckwheat haunches on a little space in the corner of my living room. It never demands, never whines. It does, however, invite. (continue reading...)

Earth: SO hot Right Now
From the Editor — By Eliza Thomas
Re-reading my editor’s note from last year’s beauty and fashion issue, I can’t help but shake my head. Back in the halcyon days of early 2007, “the meteoric rise of eco-fashion” had me so wound-up, I was practically cartwheeling off the page. I saw it as indisputable evidence of the (continue reading...)

Breathing Room
Letters to the Editor —
The July 2008 issue was the best one yet, from the resource-packed “Grow Your Own Way” to Andi McDaniel’s thoughtful and touching “Mom’s Cooking, So Hold the Arugula.” My issue is a mess of dog-eared pages, and I even pulled out the highlighting pen. Oh, and the cover was (continue reading...)