Monkey Herpes, Face Eating, and the Pork Chop Gang: How Public Records Laws Created the Florida Man
The growing anti-transparency atmosphere in the state might make the Florida Man extinct.
Features
The Abundance Agenda Promises Everything to Everyone All at Once
Some progressives want to remove bureaucratic obstacles to growth—in the service of Democrats and big government.
The Endangered Species Act at 50
Why have so few species been taken off the endangered species list?
Dobbs Is Reshaping American Politics
A wave of ballot measures reminds us most Americans are moderate on abortion.
How To Yell 'Fire' in a Crowded Theater
Aside from narrowly defined exceptions, false speech is protected by the First Amendment.
Take Nutrition Studies With a Grain of Salt
The epidemiology of food and drink is a mess.
Comic: John Stuart Mill in 'Superliberal'
The English economist's unapologetic liberalism often drew the ire of other members of Parliament.
Do Social Media Algorithms Polarize Us? Maybe Not.
A series of studies suggest it's not algorithms that are driving political polarization, ignorance, or toxicity online.
Competition, Not Antitrust, Is Humbling the Tech Giants
The worst of the antitrust alarmism keeps proving untrue, as tech companies believed by some to be monopolies instead lose market share.
The Pirate Preservationists
When keeping cultural archives safe means stepping outside the law
How Hippies Saved the Fourth Amendment
The Nixon administration did everything it could to curb antiwar activism. Then the courts said it had gone too far.
Federal Prison Guards Confessed to Rape and Got Away With It
"I knew they were scumbags," a former Bureau of Prisons officer tells Reason.
Africa's Planned Cities Need Unplanning
Nigeria's shantytowns are more functional than its centrally planned gated communities.
The Town Without Zoning
Can Caroline, New York, resist the imposition of its first-ever zoning code?
Be Like Pixar, Not NASA
Artificial intelligence poses the most risk when it is embedded in a centralized, tightly coupled organization. But it can facilitate decentralization too.
'Private Tyranny' Is Less Private Than You Think
Sohrab Ahmari inadvertently gives even more reasons to reduce the power of the state.
When Trade War Threatens Real War
Biden is blurring the lines between economic policy and military action.
Inside an Abusive Anti-Porn Camp for Teens
Is sending kids into the wilderness really the best way to keep them off Pornhub?
After 50 Years, the DEA Is Still Losing the War on Drugs
For five decades, the agency has destroyed countless lives while targeting Americans for personal choices and peaceful transactions.
Adam Smith Said Colonists Should Join the British Union. Was He Serious?
Reading between the lines of The Wealth of Nations
Gadgets and Gizmos That Inspired Adam Smith
Smith appreciated the beauty and allure of intricate systems.
Butchers, Brewers, and Bakers Still Thrive in Urban Marketplaces
Adam Smith recognized that man has a natural "propensity to truck, barter, and exchange."
Adam Smith Understood That We Need Each Other
The thinker's views of human sympathy, beneficence, justice, and the division of labor still resonate.
Adam Smith's Quiet Christianity
The Scottish thinker's famous friendship with David Hume demonstrates his liberalism, not his atheism.
Liberalism Isn't Rule by Elites
But Patrick Deneen’s “common-good conservatism” almost certainly would be.
Comic: The Revised Adam Smith
The ghost of the so-called father of economics chastises those who would use his words for their own misbegotten ends.
Adam Smith Wasn't a Progressive
Stop quoting him out of context on taxation, education, and monopoly.
The Left-Right Spectrum Is Mostly Meaningless
The political landscape doesn’t fit on a simple map.
Will 2024 Bring the Return of the Neocons?
The GOP nominee can forge a humbler path on foreign policy—or turn back to failed neoconservatism.
Storks Don't Take Orders From the State
Falling birthrates, pro-natalist policies, and the limits of population control
Debate: The E.U. Was a Mistake
Are the plausible alternatives to continental governance any better?
How an Ill-Informed Internet Mob Ruined a UVA Student's Life
Morgan Bettinger was accused on social media of telling protesters they would make good "speed bumps." It was more than a year before investigations cleared her.
Debate: To Preserve Individual Liberty, Government Must Affirmatively Intervene in the Culture War
What happens when anti-liberty zealots get the same powers?
Debate: Despite the Welfare State, the U.S. Should Open Its Borders
Can Americans afford to welcome the huddled masses?
Debate: Democracy Is the Worst Form of Government Except for All the Others
What is the relationship between liberty and democracy?
Debate: Mentally Ill Homeless People Must Be Locked Up for Public Safety
Have we forgotten the era of mass institutionalization?
Debate: Cats Are More Libertarian Than Dogs
Do felines contribute more to human liberty?
Debate: It's Time for a National Divorce
Are political breakups really as American as apple pie?
Debate: Bitcoin Is the Future of Free Exchange
Where am I supposed to spend my cryptocurrency?
Debate: The U.S. Should Increase Funding for the Defense of Ukraine
Does Ukraine face an existential risk? Does it matter?
Introducing Reason's 2023 Debate Issue
Where libertarians debate democracy, open borders, cats and dogs, and more
Debate: Artificial Intelligence Should Be Regulated
Is an A.I. "foom" even possible?
The Zoning Theory of Everything
Land use policies explain the battles over everything from the Great Recession to abortion to Donald Trump.