Reason’s writers and editors share their suggestions for what you should be buying your friends and family this year.
“It’s that time of year again” doesn’t land quite right this year. It is, in fact, that time of year again—the time for religious festivals and giving thanks, for peppermint candy and evergreen needles, for wassailing and hall-decking, and for the sounds of Mariah Carey’s Christmas renditions playing on repeat. (In the spirit of honesty, I admit I am known to play a certain Carey holiday classic on loop in the Reason offices no matter the time of year, but I digress.) It’s also the time for gift-giving! But this year, is, uh, a bit different. The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on 2020, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who hopes we never again have a time of year like this one. This is my grown-up Christmas list. Yet the world keeps on turning in these unorthodox times, and you must find a way to get that shopping done—even if you’re in, say, California, as I am, where stay-at-home restrictions have made patronizing your favorite businesses a bit difficult. Take heart! The Reason team has you covered with a slew of creative and personality-driven suggestions to make your present-hunting a bit easier in these trying times. And for any number of miscellaneous ideas, check out the list of weekly recommendations from The Reason Roundtable, our flagship podcast where editors sign off with their favorite cultural items of the moment, whether it be a novel, a video game, a cocktail-infused newsletter, or, in last week’s case, Reason magazine itself. (We sell yearly gift subscriptions for less than $20, which is well worth the cost of converting a friend!) Now, without further ado, here are your Reason writers’ and editors’ carefully honed and versatile picks for spreading some holiday cheer. Glad tidings! —Billy Binion, Assistant Editor For the budding scientist (or the hardheaded science denier): Scottish psychologist Stuart Ritchie persuasively and urgently makes that case in Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth: “Science, the discipline in which we should find the harshest skepticism, the most pin-point rationality, and the hardest-headed empiricism,” he writes, “has become home to a dizzying array of incompetence, delusion, lies, and self-deception. In the process, the central purpose of science—to find our way ever closer to truth—is being undermined.” That might sound familiar right about now as we navigate a pandemic where swaths of people disagree on the facts. Fortunately, Ritchie outlines the necessary steps to take in order to restore trust in science by, among other things, encouraging replication, applying anti-plagiarism algorithms, requiring open access to all data, and reducing the incentives to overhype findings. —Ron Bailey, Science Correspondent For the picky (yet practical!) coffee snob: And yet efficiently making a large enough volume of coffee to last all day presents other problems. How do you keep it warm without being left with burnt dregs, the unavoidable result of a glass carafe sitting on a warming plate for hours? The Hamilton Beach BrewStation has been the answer for me. It makes 12 cups at a time—enough to keep even the most hardened addict set for a few hours—and has an internal reservoir with a built-in heating element to limit burning. The last cup won’t taste exactly like the first sip, but then again, nothing ever does. And it costs less than what you used to spend on Starbucks in a couple of weeks. Once the BrewStation pays for itself, use the savings to order up some bags of fresh beans from a local coffee shop (or someplace halfway across the country), get out your Reason mug, and offer cheers to the globe-spanning supply chains that make it all possible. —Eric Boehm, Reporter For the seasoned gamer: Between two to six players compete to “build a better dystopia” by collecting resources and artifacts in a Brave New World-like landscape, all while trying to keep their workers’ morale high and their intelligence low (lest they get dissatisfied with their station in this totalitarian future). The gameplay itself resembles other worker-placement games like Settlers of Catan, though it comes with a lot more rules, pieces, and ways to win. That occasionally frustrating level of detail creates a steep learning curve for beginners, but also a tremendous amount of replay value for veteran players trying to find the optimal path to victory. Euphoria’s strategic depth and bizarre—yet charming!—artwork help justify the higher-than-average list price, making it the perfect gift for that special board game nerd in your life. —Christian Britschgi, Associate Editor For the fashionable libertarian: “No one will step on THIS snake while you wear it,” reads the product description. Can confirm. —Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Senior Editor For the self-care queen (or king): Start with a blessed bar of soap from Monastery Creations. This ain’t your momma’s bar of soap! It’s actually your sister’s. Well, a Catholic sister’s, created entirely by the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. I personally recommend the sage meadow bar, which has worked wonders for my face. Each batch is made with a few drops of holy water and a prayer—something we all could use a little of after this unsettling year. Pair with this ginger/orange/eucalyptus candle from Reason icon Lauren Krisai, who’s been an important criminal justice reform advocate over the years. And lastly, listen to queen Blue Ivy Carter narrate Matthew Cherry’s “Hair Love” in the background, a book which I may or may not be recommending because the main character shares a name with another Reason writer who also cares a lot about criminal justice reform. (That would be me.) —Zuri Davis, Assistant Editor For the baby crypto bro: That’s a question that more people than ever will be asking the libertarians in their lives this holiday season, thanks to the recent stunning price surge and bullish chatter on CNBC and elsewhere. The simple answer: Open an account on Coinbase or the Cash App, or buy some on PayPal, which recently started allowing U.
