CATEGORIES

THE METAVERSE IS ALREADY HERE

HOW IS VIRTUAL REALITY REMAKING OUR WORLD?

OBAMACARE AND SCOTUS, 10 YEARS LATER

THE PATIENT PROTECTION and Affordable Care Act of 2010, better known as Obamacare, was designed to patch the insurance gaps between Medicare, Medicaid, and employer-sponsored health care, which is bolstered by a tax carve-out for workplace benefits.

Gay History in the City of Secrets

DURING J. EDGAR Hoover's 48 years as FBI director, people often gossiped about whether his bedroom tastes were as straight as his agents' marksmanship, citing everything from his fondness for socializing in male groups to his close relationship with longtime deputy Clyde Tolson.

Zora Neale Hurston's Inconvenient Individualism

The author of their eyes were watching god defies easy political categorization.

11 Insanely Corrupt Speed-Trap Towns

Caught stealing from motorists, these towns disbanded their police forces or even disbanded their governments altogether.

Canceling Putin, Canceling Russians

Reason works with a contractor who lives in small-town Siberia. As Vladimir Putin’s tank convoy rolled toward Kyiv in early March and a flurry of economic sanctions were imposed on Russia by public and private actors, I found myself asking if we could still pay our guy, whether we should do so in bitcoin, and what the consequences might be if we did.

Bars Are Full of Good Ideas

Shutting them down—for prohibition or Covid—does more harm than you think.

The New Campaign for a Sex-Free Internet

Sex, money, and the future of online free speech

Are News-letters the Future of Free Speech?

Substack’s Hamish McKenzie on censorship, discourse, and Joe Rogan

'They Just Took Me Away'

Adults declared “incapacitated” by the courts can lose everything— their homes, their savings, their freedom—to Florida’s sprawling guardianship system.

Welcome to the Nicotine Prohibition Era

Regulators have long targeted tobacco products, but there’s new energy behind outright bans on vapes and cigarettes.

Why Do Legalizers Keep Blocking Pot Banking?

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer claims to favor repealing the federal ban on marijuana. The New York Democrat nevertheless helped sink legislation that would have removed federal obstacles to banking services for state-licensed marijuana businesses.

This Is the School Choice Moment. Will the GOP Screw It Up?

REPUBLICANS ARE IN DANGER OF SQUANDERING A PROMISING OPPORTUNITY FOR EDUCATION REFORM ON CULTURE WAR SQUABBLES.

THE PANDEMIC KILLED DISSENT IN HONG KONG

WHEN GREAT BRITAIN returned control of Hong Kong to China in 1997, a condition of the transfer was that Beijing would allow the territory to maintain its own government until 2047. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never liked this agreement, and the COVID-19 pandemic provided the excuse to all but erase the “one country, two systems” distinction.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE OATH KEEPERS

How Stewart Rhodes went from denouncing authoritarianism to urging an authoritarian crackdown

MIKE SOLANA WANTS YOU TO COMMIT THOUGHT-CRIMES

The Hereticon organizer on deplatforming, tribalism, and why tech dudes and journalists are natural enemies

SAVING THE RAINFOREST, ONE PET FISH AT A TIME

DESPITE THE OBJECTIONS OF ANIMAL PROTECTION ORGANIZATIONS, CAREFUL COMMERCIAL FISHING MAY BE THE BEST BET FOR THE AMAZON AND THE WORLD’S AQUARIUMS.

The Real Cost of a Magical Education

Blood, sweat, and tears in Naomi Novik’s scholomance novels

Two Libertarianisms

Within the big tent, a divide over libertarianism’s limits

Can We Fix San Francisco?

San Fransicko author Michael Shellenberger on homelessness, crime, addiction, and his differences with progressives and libertarians

Weather Is Not Climate. Or Is It?

Science

Why Can't We Build Anything?

Future

THE BIG LABOR PRESIDENT

SCORES OF MILLIONS of Americans have zero memory of living under a White House of, by, and for Big Labor. So we are going to have to make new memories to accurately assess President Joe Biden.

The 1619 Project Unrepentantly Pushes Junk History

NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES’ NEW BOOK SIDESTEPS SCHOLARLY CRITICS WHILE QUIETLY DELETING PREVIOUS FACTUAL ERRORS.

Some People Love a State of Crisis

Can’t we get back to some version of normal? That’s a fair question now that every American who wants a COVID-19 vaccine has had the opportunity to get one. But we still get breathless coverage of every variant and new rounds of travel restrictions, mask mandates, and vaccine document checks as if it were still the early days of the pandemic.

Corruption and Crackdowns in California's Marijuana Market

Black markets thrive under mismanaged legalization.

How Anti-Smut Activists Made ‘Louie, Louie' Famous

Censors wore out their welcome during the 20th Century’s indecency wars.

The Destruction of Black Bottom

How the zeal for government project housing killed a prosperous black community in Detroit

A Nation of Quitters?

Has America become a nation of quitters? It might seem so.

Two Courts Debunk Persistent Opioid Myths

Since 2014, state and local governments have filed thousands of lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies they blame for causing the “opioid crisis” by exaggerating the benefits and minimizing the risks of prescription pain medication. The theory underlying these cases is pretty straightforward: Drug manufacturers lied, and people died.