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Nick Gillespie

Editor in Chief, Reason.com and Reason TV
Reason magazine
gillespie@reason.com
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Chris Mitchell
Director of Communications
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Bio
Nick Gillespie is editor-in-chief of Reason magazine, a libertarian monthly named one of "The 50 Best Magazines" for two straight years by The Chicago Tribune. Established in 1968, Reason is a four-time finalist for National Magazine Awards.
Asks The Washington Post: "Which monthly magazine editor argues that the spread of pornography is a victory for free expression? And that drugs from marijuana to heroin should not only be legalized, but using them occasionally is just fine? And is also quite comfortable with gay marriage? The answer is Nick Gillespie, libertarian and doctor of literature, who...is injecting [Reason magazine] with a pop-culture sensibility."
Gillespie’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Slate, Salon, and many other publications. He is also a frequent commentator on radio and television networks, including National Public Radio, Fox News Channel, CNN, and C-Span.
Gillespie originally joined Reason's staff in 1993 as an assistant editor and ascended to the top slot in 2000. Before joining Reason, Gillespie worked as a reporter for several New Jersey newspapers and as an editor at several Manhattan-based music, movie, and teen magazines. He is almost certainly the only journalist to have interviewed both Ozzy Osbourne and the 2002 Nobel laureate in economics, Vernon Smith.
In 1996, Gillespie received his Ph.D. in English literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He also holds an M.A. in English with a concentration in creative writing from Temple University and a B.A. in English and Psychology from Rutgers University.
AllBlog PostsOp-Eds
- Obama's Jobs Program: If the Choice is Between "Go Big or Go Home," Start Packing Now.
Rhetoric, reality, and the Great Recession
Nick Gillespie
September 1, 2011 - The War of the Debt-Ceiling Analogies
Politicians quibble while real disaster looms
Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
August 4, 2011 - Why Art Failed Us After 9/11
Trying to make sense of senselessness
Nick Gillespie
August 1, 2011 - The Declaration of Independents
Meet the future of American politics.
Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
July 19, 2011 - Five Uncomfortable Facts About the Wonderful, Horrible Debt-Limit Debate
Don't believe the hype. And it's all hype.
Nick Gillespie
July 8, 2011 - Reason-Rupe Poll: 96% Worry About Federal Debt, 74% Want Spending Cap...
And 80% would consider independent/third party candidate in 2012
Nick Gillespie and Meredith Bragg
May 3, 2011 - Joel Klein
"We have a 19th-century classroom model in the 21st century."
Nick Gillespie
April 22, 2011 - Paul Pastorek
"What Katrina did was it allowed us to think differently."
Nick Gillespie
April 21, 2011 - Jeb Bush on Disrupting the Educational Status Quo
"Monopolies don't want to have direct competition."
Nick Gillespie
April 20, 2011 - Jay Greene
"I'm very agnostic about what form choice must take."
Nick Gillespie
April 19, 2011 - Paul Ryan's Budget Plan: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
Nick Gillespie and Veronique de Rugy
April 6, 2011 - The Triumph of Politics Over Economics
David Stockman on TARP, the Fed, Ronald Reagan, and Ron Paul
Nick Gillespie
March 21, 2011 - The Loughner Panic
Breaking down the media/political breakdown over the Tucson massacre
Jacob Sullum, Nick Gillespie, Jesse Walker, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Brian Doherty, Radley Balko and Ronald Bailey
March 14, 2011 - 3 Essential Facts About the Current Moment: We're Out of Money, The Public Sector is Overpaid, & We Can't Tax Our Way Out of This.
Nick Gillespie
March 11, 2011 - The 19 Percent Solution
How to balance the budget without increasing taxes
Veronique de Rugy and Nick Gillespie
February 14, 2011 - We Can’t Win the Future By Repeating the Past
Obama's uninspired State of the Union Address
Veronique de Rugy and Nick Gillespie
January 26, 2011 - Grading Barack Obama
Libertarian legal scholar Richard Epstein on his former University of Chicago colleague
Nick Gillespie
January 24, 2011 - Reason and Free Speech
A primer and a call to arms!
Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
December 17, 2010 - How to Balance the Budget Without Raising Taxes
The 19 Percent Solution
Nick Gillespie and Veronique de Rugy
December 5, 2010 - Did the Midterms Matter?
A cynical (or realistic) take on the change in D.C. power.
Nick Gillespie
November 29, 2010 - The Democratizer
C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb talks about big spending, the First Amendment, and putting cameras where government doesn’t want them to go.
Nick Gillespie
November 16, 2010 - Glenn Beck’s Great Awakening
Populism, revivals, and goth Americana
Nick Gillespie
November 10, 2010 - The Confrontation
Drew Carey and Nick Gillespie clash with the Cleveland City Council over Reason Saves Cleveland.
Nick Gillespie
September 8, 2010 - Unions ‘Own the Democratic Party’
Contrarian author, blogger, and senatorial candidate Mickey Kaus on interest-group politics, immigration, and the Velvet Underground
Nick Gillespie
July 19, 2010 - How to Save Cleveland
Turning around America’s dying cities is difficult, improbable, and necessary.
Nick Gillespie
May 24, 2010 - Psychedelic Men
Did LSD kill the ’50s?
Nick Gillespie
April 21, 2010 - ‘You Cut Spending’
Former New Mexico governor and possible presidential candidate Gary Johnson talks about Obamanomics, ending the drug war, and climbing the highest mountains.
Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
March 16, 2010 - Profane, Pointless...and Profound
The history Gimme Something Better charts punk's cultural triumph.
Nick Gillespie
March 5, 2010 - Advice to Barack Obama by Two People Who Didn't Vote for Him (or John McCain)
But just might if he ever got serious about governing.
Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie
January 26, 2010 - Three Reasons Why The Dems Are in Big, Big Trouble. And One Reason Why They're Not.
What Obama—and the GOP—should learn from the Coakley defeat and slumping poll
Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
January 20, 2010 - Don't Fear The 2010s!
Embrace the coming decade's new distractions and overblown worries.
Nick Gillespie
January 5, 2010 - Dumbest Government Policies? Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
Government bean-counters, even more than generals, always fight the last war
Nick Gillespie
December 23, 2009 - Whole Foods Health Care
Organic-foods magnate John Mackey talks about his controversial health care proposals, why he was investigated by the feds, and “conscious capitalism.”
Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie
December 15, 2009 - What About the Patient In Health Care Debate?
Health care reform isn't serious until the patient is at the center of the picture
Nick Gillespie
September 11, 2009 - What's Next, Mr. President—Cardigans?
The real reasons why Barack Obama's domestic agenda is faltering
Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie
July 19, 2009 - Reason.tv Video: Hasta La Vista, Arnold
What California's Budget Mess Means for America
Nick Gillespie and Ted Balaker
May 14, 2009 - Obama's Vision Deficit
After 100 days, the new president has revealed himself as an effective salesman of exhausted ideas
Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
April 29, 2009 - Will We Be Stimulated?
Economists sound off on Obama's stimulus package
Nick Gillespie
April 15, 2009 - 'I Think the SEC Was Distracted'
Outgoing Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul Atkins talks about bailouts, hedge funds, and what he thinks the SEC should have been regulating
Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie
February 10, 2009 - A Newer Deal?
Recession to depression
Nick Gillespie
January 27, 2009 - Bush Was Big Government Disaster
He expanded the state, and the sense that the state is incompetent.
Nick Gillespie
January 24, 2009 - Three Predictions for Obama's America
Will the next president be a game-changer or agent of the awful status quo?
Nick Gillespie
November 6, 2008 - The Three Major Memes of the Great Bailout Bonanza
What to expect now that free markets have been thoroughly vilified
Nick Gillespie
October 15, 2008 - The Market, Not Regulators, Should Decide the Internet's Future
Why net neutrality regulations are a bad idea
Nick Gillespie
July 10, 2006
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Out of Control Policy Blog 
- How to Avoid Closing Washington State Parks (5/17)
- Give Managed Lane Conversions Time (5/16)
- Why is the CDC Being Anti-Science on State Liquor Privatization? (5/14)
- Louisiana Republicans Introduce Bills to Replicate Massachusetts's Pro-Union, Anti-Privatization “Pacheco Law” (5/9)
- 40th Anniversary of the Rockefeller Drug Laws: Time to Re-think Sentencing Policy (5/8)
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