The Best of Reason: Rise of the Samurai Lawyers
An economist explores how a stable and relatively just legal order emerged in medieval Japan.
Podcast: The Best of Reason Magazine
A weekly selection from Reason—the magazine of free minds and free markets—read by AI.
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The Best of Reason: When the Government Puts Wolves in Your Backyard
Endangered red wolves became a symbol of federal overreach—and a target for local ire—in eastern North Carolina.
The Best of Reason: Trump's Dramatic Crossroads Between Protectionism and Dynamism
The GOP faces a choice about how to move forward.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Best of Reason: Everybody Hates Prices
How much should a Wendy's Baconator cost? Elizabeth Warren thinks the government should help decide.
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.
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.
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.
The Best of Reason: Secession Is Back in Style in Texas
Can't Americans all just get along? Maybe we can't—and perhaps we shouldn't have to.
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.
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.
The Best of Reason: Kamala Harris' Freedom Flip-Flop
Harris is running away from her far-left past.
The Best of Reason: Can This Psychedelic Help Cure Opioid Addiction?
This Kentucky Republican won't stop until he finds a state willing to make legal room for ibogaine, a drug he calls "God's medicine."
The Best of Reason: These Pro-Lifers Don't Love Abortion Bans
Reason talked with pro-life Americans who are uncomfortable with the post–Roe v. Wade abortion policy landscape.
The Best of Reason: Should We Blame Fauci for the COVID Pandemic?
America's COVID celebrity is facing scrutiny for funding risky research that may have sparked the pandemic—and for allegedly covering it up.
The Best of Reason: How Inflation Breaks Our Brains
From salt riots to toilet paper runs, history shows that rising prices make consumers—and voters—grumpy and irrational.
The Best of Reason: Project 2025 Is No Match for MAGA Dysfunction
Trump promised to hire "only the best people," yet his presidential plans were repeatedly thwarted by his staff. Will a second term be different?
The Best of Reason: The Afghan Allies Left Behind in the Graveyard of Empires
Thousands of people who helped the U.S. in Afghanistan are still looking for an escape.
The Best of Reason: The Fragile Generation
Bad policy and paranoid parenting are making kids too safe to succeed.
The Best of Reason: Kamala Harris Is a Cop Who Wants To Be President
The former California senator and prosecutor has a long record of pushing illiberal policies.
The Best of Reason Magazine: Your Vote Doesn't Count
Why (almost) everyone should stay home on Election Day
The Best of Reason Magazine: A Baby Dies in Virginia
The lethal consequences of a common, obscure hospital licensing law.
The Best of Reason: Congress 'Can Regulate Virtually Anything'
How legislators learned to stop worrying about the constitutionality of federal drug and gun laws by abusing the Commerce Clause.
The Best of Reason: Why Did Americans Stop Caring About the National Debt?
Both parties—and the voters—are to blame for the national debt fiasco.
The Best of Reason: Child Welfare Systems Are Trapping Innocent Families
Georgia parents were accused of child abuse after they took their daughter to the doctor. Does the state's story add up?
The Best of Reason: What Caused the D.C. Crime Wave?
Don't blame criminal justice reform or a lack of social spending for D.C.'s crime spike. Blame government mismanagement.
The Best of Reason: What If the U.S. Cuts Off Aid to Israel?
Ending U.S. aid would give Washington less leverage in the Middle East. That's why it's worth doing.
The Best of Reason: Government Can't Fix America's Baby Bust
The obstacles to having more babies can't be moved by tax incentives or subsidized child care.
The Best of Reason: American Small Businesses Are Desperate for Foreign Workers
The number of job openings far exceeds the number of unemployed Americans. Seasonal businesses can't get the foreign labor they need.
The Best of Reason: The Mirage of China's I.P. Theft
As allegations of intellectual property theft swirl, a deeper look reveals a tale of phony numbers and twisted data.
The Best of Reason: Not Even Artificial Intelligence Can Make Central Planning Work
Revolutionary AI technologies can't solve the "wicked problems" facing policy makers.
The Best of Reason: 'AI Bullshit' Makes Poets Mad
Is AI-written poetry cheating if you laboriously trained the AI?
The Best of Reason: The Future of Porn Is Consensual Deepfakes
OnlyFans lets women distribute their own porn. Artificial intelligence will give them even more control.
The Best of Reason: The Future of AI Is Helping Us Discover the Past
Historical teaching and research are being revamped by AI.
The Best of Reason: In the AI Economy, There Will Be Zero Percent Unemployment
AI developer Andrew Mayne explains why technology could create more jobs and lead to unprecedented economic growth.
The Best of Reason: A Big Panic Over Tiny Plastics
Science can detect increasingly small particles of plastic in our air and water. That doesn't mean it's bad for you.
