Science
Reason magazine
Biden's 'Marijuana Reform' Leaves Prohibition Untouched
According to the New York Times, the "marijuana reform" that President Joe Biden announced in October represented "a fundamental change in America's response to a drug that has been at the center of a clash between culture and policing for more than a half-century." If only.
3 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
What Women Want
Maybe it’s to be treated as individuals?
10+ min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
A Modern History of 'groomer' Politics
The social changes that paved the way for gay and trans acceptance have made pedophile acceptance less likely, not more.
10+ min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
In Defense of Algorithms
They’re good for us. They might even be good for democracy.
10+ min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
California Wants to Run Out of Gas
In late august, California air regulators announced that the state would ban the sale of most gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035, a policy aimed at encouraging a shift to electric vehicles (E.V.s). A week later, amid a massive heat wave, California officials begged E.V. owners not to recharge their cars during peak evening hours so as not to overload the state's energy grid.
1 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
Immigration: America Needs 'Low-skilled' Workers
At a moment when even modest immigration reform is politically contentious, several Republicans in Congress are open to letting in more "high-skilled" immigrants. But that approach overlooks the fact that the country would benefit from admitting workers at all skill levels.
2 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
Argentina's Inflation Crisis
Argentina is no stranger to economic turmoil, having defaulted on its national debt three times since 2001.
1 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
Jennifer Sey Keeps Getting Canceled for Speaking Up
In 2008, Jennifer Sey was subjected to a vicious backlash after the 1986 USA Gymnastics national champion released Chalked Up, the first memoir published about rampant abuse in the sport. Her new book, Levi's Unbuttoned: The Woke Mob Took My Job but Gave Me My Voice, feels like a continuation of that story, detailing Sey's ouster from the jeans juggernaut-where she was set to become its first female CEO-after she again ruffled feathers earlier this year. This time she wasn't speaking out against abuse in sports; she was speaking out against COVID-19 school closures.
2 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
The Case for 50 Percent Open Borders
A call for restricting immigration accidentally makes the case for radical liberalization.
6 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
The Everything Bubble
How the Fed redistributed wealth upward and encouraged reckless corporate behavior
5 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
IS THERE A FUTURE FOR THE CITY OF TOMORROW?
THE CONSEQUENCES, OF OUR OBSESSION 7 WITH URBAN DYSTOPIAS AND UTOPIAS
10 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
Can Larry Krasner Fix Philly's Crime Problem?
Philadelphia's progressive district attorney tried to enact criminal justice reform and got impeached for his trouble.
10+ min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
KAMALA HARRIS IS A FLOP
THE UNDERWHELMING VICE PRESIDENCY OF AN UNPOPULAR FORMER PROSECUTOR HAS CREATED A SUCCESSION PROBLEM FOR THE DEMOCRATS.
10+ min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
CIVIL LIBERTIES: WHERE WAS THE MIDTERM PUBLIC SAFETY BACKLASH?
DESPITE PREDICTIONS THAT rising violent crime would sink candidates who support criminal justice reforms, those candidates mostly survived their 2022 midterm elections. What's more, reform-minded prosecutor and sheriff candidates defeated incumbents in a few key races.
3 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
DRUGS: A WIN FOR PHARMACOLOGICAL FREEDOM IN COLORADO
A DECADE AGO, Colorado became the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use, something 20 other states have done since then. Colorado set a new precedent for drug policy reform in November, when its voters approved a ballot initiative that decriminalizes a wide range of conduct related to consuming five natural psychedelics.
3 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
THE LIFE CYCLE OF A THIRD PARTY
THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY has always been fractious, but its infighting has intensified since the Mises Caucus, a faction opposed to \"wokeism,\" took control of the organization. Many of the party's more socially liberal members have exited since the takeover and in some cases, they're trying to take the party's state affiliates with them.
5 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
THE KKK'S PUSH FOR A FEDERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
\"THE GREATEST DUTY of America today is to build up our educational system.\" That sentiment probably seems anodyne, like something you might have heard on the campaign trail in the recently concluded midterms. A century ago, it represented the top priority of the Ku Klux Klan.
3 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
SCHOOL CLOSURES CAUSED LEARNING LOSS
TESTS MEASURING THE academic performance of American schoolchildren consistently show dramatic declines in scores between the years directly before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. While the full scope of learning loss is not yet known, the data indicate that many children entered the 2021 school year with unprecedented education gaps that were likely exacerbated by widespread school shutdowns.
1 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
TAIWAN SHOULDN'T COUNT ON U.S. SUPPORT
IT WAS INEVITABLE that U.S. military and economic support for Ukraine's self-defense against Russia would spark comparisons to our relationship with Taiwan.
3 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
REGULATION" IS IT 'TREASON' TO OPPOSE PROTECTIONISM?
AT LEAST ONE member of a federal advisory panel thinks it's \"treason\" to oppose a law that protects the domestic shipping industry from foreign competition, even though the result of that law is higher prices for American consumers.
1 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
BURGER KING VS. HENRY VIII
WHEN IT COMES to fresh, tasty food, who had it better? Henry VIII, king of England from 1509 to 1547, or you and me going to Burger King with $10 in our pockets? \"The Burger King Whopper is actually a combination of foods from different parts of the world that wouldn't have come together for most of human history,\" says historian (and Reason contributor) Katrina Gulliver. And Henry VIII \"would never have seen a potato\" either, without which a delicious side of fries would be impossible.
3 min |
February 2023
Reason magazine
Keri Blakinger Is a Figure Skater and a Felon
KERI BLAKINGER IS many things: a former elite figure skater, an Ivy League graduate, a prolific criminal-justice journalist, a convicted felon. The Texas-based writer recently published Corrections in Ink (St. Martin’s Press), a memoir that strings these seemingly disparate lives—from her near-Olympic rise to her drug addiction to her two-year prison stint to her Cornell graduation—into one very compelling narrative about redemption, second chances, and what you’re probably getting wrong about the legal system.
2 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
THE U.S. AND THE HOLOCAUST
Otto Frank-father of Anne, the teenager whose posthumously published diary became standard reading for students learning about the Holocaustfled with his family from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933. But the Nazis eventually followed him there. One target of their 1940 bombing campaign was the U.S. consulate in Rotterdam, where Frank's visa application was destroyed along with everything else.
1 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
How Venture Capital Made the Future
LIBERATION CAPITAL,\" AS investor Arthur Rock called it, \"was about much more than keeping a team together in the place where its members happened to own houses.\" In 1957, Rock took a gamble on the \"traitorous eight\"-a team of promising engineers at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory-and counseled them to free themselves of their authoritarian boss by quitting en masse and striking out to form Fairchild Semiconductor.
5 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
Psychiatrists Do Not Know What They Are Treating
AS A BOY, especially while lying in bed or suffering a fever, I was periodically troubled by harshly critical voices that vaguely charged me with misconduct and failures of character. As I grew up, the murmuring Greek chorus was replaced by a single voice, which by then I recognized as my own.
6 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
Stop Spazzing Out About 'Spaz'
SOCIAL MEDIA, STREAMING, AND A NEW ERA OF DIGITAL SELF-CENSORSHIP
10+ min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
JOHN CLEESE ON HOW WOKENESS SMOTHERS CREATIVITY
IN A CAREER that has spanned seven decades—and included such classic shows and movies as Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers, Life of Brian, and A Fish Called Wanda—the comedian John Cleese has relentlessly satirized politics and religion while stretching the boundaries of decorum and good taste.
10+ min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
D.C. METRO GOES OFF THE RAILS
PUTTING WASHINGTON’S TRAIN SYSTEM BACK ON TRACK WILL TAKE MORE THAN BETTER BUREAUCRACY.
10+ min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
GOVERNMENTS SCRAMBLE TO MANAGE REGULATE, AND THROTTLE CRYPTO
MOST DANGEROUSLY OF ALL, THEY'RE STARTING TO MAKE THEIR OWN CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCIES.
10+ min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
PROSECUTORS SHOULDN'T BE ABOVE THE LAW
BY GIVING POWERFUL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY FROM CIVIL LIABILITY, THE SUPREME COURT LEAVES THEIR VICTIMS WITH NO RECOURSE.
10+ min |