The Best of Reason: Can Ultimate Frisbee Heal the Middle East?
The spread of Ultimate Frisbee testifies to a kind of Western soft power in the Middle East, one far friendlier than bombs or bullets.
Artificial Intelligence
The Best of Reason: Inside the Russian Occupation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy's book tells the stories of soldiers, stalkers, and squatters in Chernobyl during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The Best of Reason: Surrogacy Is the New Battleground in Reproductive Freedom
Critics on both the left and the right decry surrogacy as exploitative, especially when carriers are compensated.
The Best of Reason: Javier Milei Ended Rent Control. Now the Argentine Real Estate Market Is Coming Back to Life.
"The effects were immediately seen by everyone and they were all beneficial," says the former vice president of Argentina's central bank.
OpenAI: "AI Should Empower People to Explore, Debate, and Create Without Arbitrary Restrictions—" …
"no matter how challenging or controversial a topic may be."
The Best of Reason: How the Fair Housing Act Gave Us Emotional Support Parrots
The right to a reasonable accommodation has produced some absurd results.
'All Hell Is Going To Break Out' in Israel
Plus: OpenAI vs. Musk, Eric Adams corruption charges dropped, and more...
Life, Liberty, and the Right To Shitpost
Generative AI is a powerful tool for creativity and speech. Efforts to censor, regulate, and control it threaten America's tradition of open discourse.
The Best of Reason: The Pentagon Keeps Losing Equipment and Buying Stuff It Doesn't Need
How the U.S. military busts its budget on wasteful, careless, and unnecessary "self-licking ice cream cones."
Will Trump Embrace the AI Future or Succumb to His Protectionist Impulses?
Trump and Biden both backed trade restrictions that ultimately lead to higher prices for the computer chips necessary to power artificial intelligence.
In Companion, the Killer Robot Is the Hero
An AI sexbot undergoes a feminist awakening in this clever sci-fi thriller.
Chinese AI Enters the Chat
Plus: Federal employees offered buyouts, immigration crackdown continues, and more...
The Best of Reason: Cutting Off Trade Will Make the U.S. Poorer and China More Totalitarian
Politicians in both major parties see the People's Republic as an economic and military threat. But the real threat is an isolated China.
How a Chinese AI Company Found a Way Around America's Export Controls
DeepSeek made a more efficient product that the rules wouldn't hinder.
Is This New Chinese AI a 'Sputnik Moment'?
DeepSeek has released a cheap, open-source artificial intelligence. Does it challenge American AI supremacy?
Stargate: Artificial Superintelligence in 4 Years?
The dawn of a new golden age?
The Best of Reason: 'The Constitution Is Not a Suicide Pact'
How a 1949 Supreme Court dissent gave birth to a meme that subverts free speech and civil liberties.
"Regulation of Algorithms" Panel at Federalist Society Faculty Conference,
featuring Prof. Saurabh Vishnubhakat (Yeshiva), Profs. Gregory Dickinson (Nebraska), Prof. Christina Mulligan (Brooklyn), Dhruva Krishna (Kirkland & Ellis), and me.
The Best of Reason: The Improbable Rise of MAGA-Musk
Is Elon Musk a reactionary with a defective bullshit meter or the best part of the second Trump administration?
The Best of Reason: Bidenomics Goes Out With a Whimper
There's a good reason Biden eventually stopped saying Bidenomics. Americans didn't like the results of his economic policies.
2024's Most Undercovered Stories
Surely 2025 will be a freewheeling romp, right?…Right? Happy New Year!
Can Nativists and Dynamists Coexist Within Trump's MAGA Coalition?
An ongoing online debate over visas for highly skilled foreign workers is revealing a fissure that might define Trump's second term.
Byrne Hobart: What happened to progress?
Finance and tech writer Byrne Hobart discusses how bubbles are a good thing, overcoming stagnation, and the religiosity of space exploration.
Guillaume Verdon: Should We Have a 'Second Amendment for AI'?
Based Beff Jezos, co-founder of Extropic, discusses AI safety, decentralization, and going analog.
The Best of Reason: The Great American City Upon a Hill Is Always Under Construction
American history is often a story of people leaving to try to build their voluntary utopias.
Which Way, FCC—Build or Stagnate?
Marc Andreessen’s call to build clashed with Washington’s regulatory mindset.
The Best of Reason: Everybody Hates Prices
How much should a Wendy's Baconator cost? Elizabeth Warren thinks the government should help decide.
Does Spying on Laptops Really Prevent High School Suicides?
Administrators say AI surveillance tech helps struggling students get care. But false alarms are common.
Donate Because Reason Is Consistent in the Chaos
Saturday is a great day to give to the magazine of free minds and free markets—and double your dollars!
China Goes Tit for Tat Over U.S. Chip Bans
Semiconductor protectionism is a downward spiral that makes both parties poorer.
The Best of Reason: The 2024 Campaign Was an Embarrassment for Elite Media
Journalists increasingly see their job as protecting their preferred candidates, not asking tough questions.
The Best of Reason: Abolish the DEA, ICE, and the Small Business Administration
In the Abolish Everything issue, Reason writers make the case for ending the DEA, ICE, the SBA, and everything else.
Deepfake Crackdowns Threaten Free Speech
From criminal penalties to bounty hunters, state laws targeting election-related synthetic media raise serious First Amendment concerns.
The Best of Reason: Abolish Amtrak, the FDA, and the TSA
In the Abolish Everything issue, Reason writers make the case for ending Amtrak, the FDA, the TSA, and everything else.
The Best of Reason: Is Being a Mom Bad for Your Career?
A recent study shows that women experience a short-term "motherhood penalty," but their earnings rebound within a decade.
Regulations Are Making It Harder To Meet the Nation's Power Demands
Federal regulators have rejected a proposal to increase electricity generation from a nuclear power plant to a large data center in Pennsylvania.
Judge Dismisses Copyright Lawsuit Against OpenAI
Copying information is not the same as copying content.
The Best of Reason: How the Political Spectrum Turned Inside Out
From 9/11 to the COVID-19 pandemic, crisis moments keep reshaping the political landscape.
What the Past Can Teach Us About Our AI Fears
Regulating AI could threaten free speech, just as earlier proposed regulations of other media once did.
The Best of Reason: Big Pot vs. Big Government in Florida
Mom-and-pop marijuana operations do not exist in Florida. That's by design.
Glasses Equipped with Facial Recognition Are in Our Future
Two Harvard undergrads give us a glimpse of the surveillance future.
The Best of Reason Magazine: How Did Immigration Politics Get So Toxic?
Changing migration patterns, outdated policy tools, and growing presidential power made it inevitable.
Review: A Murder Mystery After the Apocalypse
The Last Murder at the End of the World explores the dangers of absolute power.
