A Few of Our Favorite (Wirecutter) Things

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Speaker 12 From the New York Times, you're listening to The Wirecutter Show.

Speaker 14 Hey, everyone, it's The Wirecutter Show.

Speaker 12 I'm Kyra Blackwell. I'm Christine Sierra Clissette.

Speaker 16 And I'm Rosie Guerin, and we work at Wirecutter, the product recommendation site from the New York Times.

Speaker 15 Each week, we bring you expert advice from our newsroom of 140 journalists who review everyday products that will make your life better.

Speaker 15 This episode of The Wire Cutter show is called a few of our favorite wire cutter things.

Speaker 16 Kyra, Christine, this is our last episode of 2024. Can you believe it?

Speaker 12 We made it. Let's go.

Speaker 16 For me, the holidays are a time when things actually slow down a tiny, tiny, tiny bit. I get a little contemplative.
I get a little reflective.

Speaker 12 I'm only human. Might you be like writing your goals for the next year? Day.

Speaker 12 Contemplating what you accomplished this year.

Speaker 15 I feel like we have a lot to be grateful for. We've hit how many episodes? 20.

Speaker 12 This is 20. Wow.
Wow. That's wild.
20.

Speaker 16 Yeah. It's so fun to work on the show with you.
And it's really nice to be able to talk to our incredibly smart and talented, incredibly talented, hardworking

Speaker 16 coworkers in the wirecutter newsroom every week. And

Speaker 16 you guys are okay.

Speaker 12 Well, thank you. Thanks.

Speaker 12 Thanks. I kid.

Speaker 16 I'm very, very grateful.

Speaker 13 It's been fun.

Speaker 12 It's been super fun. It has.

Speaker 16 And so, in the spirit of reflecting, today we're going to do something a little bit different than we usually do. Drum roll.

Speaker 12 What is it? What is it? Yes. Tell us.

Speaker 16 Well, you know, we're all about discovering ways we can try and make people's lives a little bit better, right? That's Wire Cutter's mission.

Speaker 16 Whether it's through tips like using, you know, laundry detergent to pre-treat your stains on your clothes, shout out to episode one, or, you know, through just hacks, tricks from all of these experts at Wire Cutter, we are fortunate to tap into every week.

Speaker 15 And outside of Wirecutter, like Sam Sifton telling us that you actually shouldn't be making appetizers for Thanksgiving. That's right.

Speaker 12 Still very controversial.

Speaker 15 I didn't take that piece of advice, but I appreciate it.

Speaker 16 Well, sometimes here at Wire Cutter, it may not surprise you to learn that we discover products that really, truly do make our lives better.

Speaker 16 And so, I thought it would be fun to reach out to our colleagues in the newsroom and ask them what wire cutter pick they discovered this year or maybe finally took the plunge on buying that really, truly improved their lives.

Speaker 12 Ooh, I love that. I always love to hear what our coworkers are loving because they have a pretty high bar.
They do.

Speaker 12 And I think they have like a very good sense of when something is like really good and really worth the money. So I like to know what they actually will spend their hard-earned dollars on.

Speaker 16 A discerning crew of people.

Speaker 16 So, in a second, we're going to hear their stories. We're going to hear from them directly.
And then later, of course, we'll all share ours.

Speaker 16 Christine, Kyra, I know you've got something, at least one thing you tried out this year that upgraded your lives.

Speaker 12 Oh, yes, I definitely have one. Me too.
Me too.

Speaker 16 This is going to be super fun.

Speaker 12 We'll be right back.

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Upgrade today by visiting Dell.com slash deals.

Speaker 1 The Wirecutter Show is supported by Rocket Mortgage.

Speaker 4 Your home is an active investment, not a passive one.

Speaker 5 And with Rocket Mortgage, you can put your home equity to work right away. When you unlock your home equity, you unlock new doors for your family.

Speaker 7 Renovations, extensions, even buying your next property.

Speaker 8 Get started today with smarter tools and guidance from real mortgage experts.

Speaker 2 Find out how at rocketmortgage.com.

Speaker 9 RocketMortgage LLC, licensed in 50 states, NMLS ConsumerAccess.org, 3030.

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Speaker 12 Welcome back to the Wirecutter Show. Today we're doing something special featuring some of our colleagues from the Wirecutter newsroom.

Speaker 12 We have staffers who have covered everything from refrigerators to bug spray, from drinking glasses to Wi-Fi routers, all the really exciting stuff, you know.

Speaker 12 And when you work here, you can't help but turn to your fellow colleagues for recommendations on what to buy.

Speaker 13 Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 15 They really hate to see me coming in the Slack messages because I always ask about the most obscure things.

Speaker 15 Now we're actually going to hear some messages from our staff about what wire cutter recommended item they purchased this year that really did improve their lives.

Speaker 15 Like always, we'll link the items in our show notes. So let's get to it.

Speaker 25 Hello, this is Mel Plout, a staff writer at WireCutter. I cover pets, and I am calling you from

Speaker 25 icy cold Lincoln, Nebraska, where it is currently 12 degrees. So

Speaker 25 my favorite product of the year is a small portable space heater, the Vornado runner-up pick. This little thing

Speaker 25 has been a lifesaver, especially over the past few weeks, but it's also been a little bit of a marriage saver because as much as I like it, My wife likes it even more and carries this little thing around like Linus with his blanket.

Speaker 25 It's going upstairs and downstairs and wherever she is, which has reduced the amount of many arguments we've had about the house heat because I like it up, she likes it down, everybody wants to save money.

Speaker 25 And so in fact, I'm cold downstairs while she's warm upstairs with her mini heater.

Speaker 25 She did say that this is quite possibly the best Christmas present I could have ever gotten her, even though it wasn't a Christmas present. So I have some work to do.

Speaker 12 All right.

Speaker 15 See you guys later. Bye-bye.

Speaker 18 I'm Angela Amundsen, the Supervising Editor of Style at Wirecutter. And the Wire Cutter pick that most transformed my life slash year is the Sterilite Laundry Baskets in white.

Speaker 18 They are, I'm not going to lie, not the cutest things in my house by a long shot. They are, as the name implies, laundry baskets that can be stacked one on top of another.

Speaker 18 They sort of nest on the handle of the one beneath it previously we had a horrible laundry system where we were just using ikea plastic bags to hold our laundry that was in various states of being processed and they were kind of sprawling all over the place so the the sterilites allow us to use vertical space instead so it looks a lot tidier while we're like you know transferring laundry from the dryer or waiting to have it folded and delivered to the various rooms.

Speaker 18 So if you are looking for a new system to kind of help you wrangle, then I highly recommend you give these a shot.

Speaker 17 Hi, I'm Anne-Marie Conte and I'm a deputy editor at Wirecutter. And my absolute favorite pick that I bought this year was a Garmin 4Runner watch.
And it was for my husband. It wasn't even for me.

Speaker 17 He is a runner and an ultra marathoner and his watch completely bit the dust right before Black Friday.

Speaker 17 So it was so nice to be able to buy him a gift that I knew that he would use and I knew that he would love and that he really needed. And I got it on sale, which was just fantastic.

Speaker 17 And this watch is really great for runners because it does heart rate monitoring. It talks about their speed.
It helps them map their routes and all the little things that their runner heart desires.

Speaker 17 It just accumulates that data for them to figure out and work on improving or whatever it is. it is that runners do.

Speaker 17 So I'm completely thrilled that I was able to get this for him and that it's just a gift that he's really going going to appreciate and think about me, hopefully every day as he wears it.

Speaker 17 Hi, happy holidays. This is Jackie Reeve and I'm a senior staff writer at Wirecutter.
I cover bedding and home linens like towels.

Speaker 17 The best pick that I bought this year was our runner-up ukulele pick, the Donner Concert ukulele

Speaker 12 for my tween daughter.

Speaker 17 She took up the guitar a few years ago. My father-in-law is a guitar player and he he bought her a beautiful one.

Speaker 17 And she played for about a year, but then kind of wandered away from it until her school started a ukulele club after school. And so we had to get her ukulele.

Speaker 17 So we bought the dark green version of the Donner ukulele pick, which Brent Butterworth, who wrote that guide, told me is fine.

Speaker 17 So she loved the after-school ukulele club and she is now back in private guitar lessons with a teacher who teaches guitar and ukulele.

Speaker 17 So that purchase helped spark her love of music again and has gotten her really excited. And it's been amazing to see.

Speaker 2 Thanks, Brent.

Speaker 12 Thanks, Wirecutter. Love you guys.

Speaker 28 Hi, I'm Brent Butterworth. I'm senior staff writer at Wire Cutter covering audio products.

Speaker 28 And the product that I bought this year that was a wire cutter pick that I most loved is actually one of my own picks. It's the JBL Go For Bluetooth speaker.

Speaker 28 And I bought one because the original sample had to go off for photography and I was going off on a trip and I really wanted a good travel speaker. And this is the one.

Speaker 28 Usually these little speakers for travel are really kind of bad sounding and not that much worth taking with you. But this one sounds really satisfying.

Speaker 28 I use it at home all the time, even though I have, you know, bigger and better speakers I could use. It's IPX7 rated, which means it's waterproof and dust proof.

Speaker 28 So you can take it to the beach, you can leave it outside, you can take it in the shower, which I do almost every day. And

Speaker 28 it's just a really neat product. And I'm loving it.
I actually even had it at a luncheon with a bunch of audiophiles who review things like $20,000 turntables, and they were all pretty blown away.

Speaker 28 So it must sound pretty good.

Speaker 29 Hi, I'm Katie Ogamoto, and I am the sustainability editor at WireCutter. This year, I bought myself a lamp from Hay, which is the

Speaker 29 Matan table lamp that we review in our favorite bedside lamp guide. When I moved into my small apartment a couple years ago, I was thinking, I'm not going to invest in the lighting.

Speaker 29 I'm only going to be here for a minute. But you know what? I'm still here.

Speaker 29 And so I found this lamp. It's so beautiful.
It's got like a minimalist kind of design, but it also feels warm. It has this really nicely shaped folded paper lampshade.

Speaker 29 I have mine in this gorgeous shade of like a burgundy red. What I really like about it also is that the base is these just really slender brass pieces.

Speaker 29 And so you can kind of put stuff underneath the lamp, and it's just kind of this hovering shade that evokes like a sun parasol or something like that. I'm in love.

Speaker 29 I think it really makes my space feel like mine. And

Speaker 29 I am really thankful that I could do that for myself. Thank you and have a great new year.

Speaker 12 Bye.

Speaker 17 Hey, I'm Zoe and I'm a senior staff writer covering style and accessories at Wirecutter.

Speaker 17 This year I bought yet another of what is certainly my favorite wire cutter pick and I might be a little bit biased since I picked it, but it's the Harper Wilde Bliss Triangle Bralet from our guide to the best bras.

Speaker 17 I love this bralet so much that I wrote a whole article just about why I think it's so great. The TLDR is, I am very picky about my bras.

Speaker 17 I don't like underwires. I don't like padding.
I don't like anything itchy. I can't deal with lumps, bumps, bulges.

Speaker 17 I need enough support to make it up and down the stairs with like a modicum of dignity. And I'm not here for the unaboo.

Speaker 17 For me, this bra is the answer to all of that and more. It's a smooth, stretchy pullover style that's ultra-comfy and perfect for lounging, but it's a great everyday style too.

Speaker 17 The band is snug and it's wide enough to provide some good support. It's got adjustable straps.

Speaker 17 It has a cute triangle cut, which keeps my boobs nice and separated, and it can hide out under lower necklines. And it's literally the only bra I wear when I'm not actively testing other bras.

Speaker 17 Obviously, bras are really individual. No bra is going to be the perfect fit for everyone.
But for me, it's been a game changer.

Speaker 12 And it comes in cute colors. Bye.

Speaker 30 Hey, I'm Liam. I'm a writer at Wirecutter, and I want to talk about the Gordon multi-tool, which is one of those folding, pocket knife, pliers,

Speaker 30 screwdriver, tiny scissors things that you fold up, carry around.

Speaker 30 I've never been in the habit of carrying a multi-tool like this, just never seemed necessary. I already have all the regular tools.

Speaker 30 The prices always seemed a little high, and the culture around them could be kind of dorky in a way that didn't really resonate with me.

Speaker 30 But my friend and co-worker, Doug, who writes our guide to multi-tools at Wirecutter, he said, hey, Harbor Freight, it's a discount tool store, came out with a really blatant clone of a popular Leatherman tool that's been kind of the standard bearer since the 90s.

Speaker 30 It's really cheap and it's actually really good. Maybe you could get a good piece out of comparing these two.
So he sent me both of them to try out for a few weeks to write this story.

Speaker 30 And now I actually think I get it. I can just keep this tool in that dumb coin pocket all my pants still have.
I don't notice it.

Speaker 30 Anytime I run into a little situation where I need to dig around for a tool, which is at least once a day at this point in my life. I just don't have to.

Speaker 30 There's a good enough version of that tool in my pocket all the time.

Speaker 30 Is that worth $120, which is what the Leatherman version usually costs? No, not for me. I'm not going to use it hard enough to feel like that's justified.
But $40 for the Gordon, yeah, that I'll take.

Speaker 30 That feels worth it to me.

Speaker 30 And because the Gordon actually feels like a deal,

Speaker 30 all those extra tools tools now feel kind of fun and delightful instead of indulgent, even if I'm only going to use them like once a year. So I guess I'm a multi-tool guy now.

Speaker 26 Hi, I'm Elisa. I'm a senior staff writer for Wirecutter.
This year I bought a very silly looking travel pillow called the Turtle.

Speaker 15 I travel a lot.

Speaker 26 My friends and family are mostly all on the East Coast and being out in Denver, I'm on a plane all the time going to visit them.

Speaker 26 And sometimes the cheapest flight is the one that leaves at three in the morning. And so I'm sleepy, and I've never been able to really comfortably sleep on airplanes before.

Speaker 19 So I bought this travel pillow, and it took me a long time to actually use it because I was just too embarrassed.

Speaker 26 It's essentially like this fleece scarf that has a plastic insert, and the plastic insert sits against the side of your neck so that way you can lean your head on it as a pedestal.

Speaker 26 And it looks really, really silly. But the first time I used it, I slept for like three straight hours, which is unheard of for me on an airplane.

Speaker 19 So I don't care anymore.

Speaker 1 And I do get looks sometimes because, again, it's a very silly looking pillow, but it works.

Speaker 26 And honestly, my comfort and actually getting some shed eye before getting to my destination is worth this crazy stairs.

Speaker 24 Hi, this is Alex Hassman, lead editor on Wirecutter's Discovery Team. I'm a long-time textile nerd and clothes horse, and I'm super picky about the garments I buy.

Speaker 24 So I had really low expectations when I bought a t-shirt at the last minute while visiting my grandparents in Wisconsin.

Speaker 24 But the shirt in question is the Comfort Color 1717, and it immediately became a new favorite.

Speaker 24 These 100% cotton shirts are really thick and beefy, so they drape well, and they have a little bit of weight to them, which makes them feel just slightly high-end.

Speaker 24 And they're made of a really nice ring-spun cotton that's comfortable against your skin all day. The fit is relaxed, but it's not boxy.
It's a very flattering fit with dropped shoulder seams.

Speaker 24 It lets you move freely, but you still look sharp. I think what I like most is that they're garment dyed, which is a way of dyeing the garment after it's been sewn together.

Speaker 24 And this gives them an incredibly soft, washed-out, bintage t-shirt-like feel.

Speaker 32 And they're only $10.

Speaker 24 I usually dress like a cartoon character. So of course now I've got a whole drawer full of them.

Speaker 24 And I love opening my dresser and seeing a row of identical t-shirts. And I love that if they ever wear out or get stained, a replacement is literally just a click away.

Speaker 14 I'm Kathleen Squires, and I'm a staff writer on the the kitchen team at Wirecutter in New York City.

Speaker 14 I never know what to get people for special birthdays, so as a food writer, a really nice bottle of champagne is my usual go-to.

Speaker 14 But last month, when a friend celebrated Milestone Birthday, she invited me on a trip for the occasion. So I wanted to gift her something especially thoughtful and personal.

Speaker 14 I broke out of my gifting comfort zone and I purchased the New York Times Premium Custom Birthday Book.

Speaker 14 It's a beautifully bound collection of front pages from the New York Times for every year of the birthdays in her entire life. She's truly the woman who has everything.

Speaker 14 So to see her delight at such a unique and personalized gift really brought me joy. And now I know exactly what to give for anyone's big birthday.

Speaker 14 Big shout out and thank you to my gifting colleagues at Wirecutter for taking the stress out of milestone birthday gift decision making for me, at least for a while.

Speaker 34 Hi, it's Julia Bush. I run the social and community team at Wire Cutter.

Speaker 11 The Wire Cutter product that changed my life this year was a pair of super shoes.

Speaker 34 They're these running shoes with a carbon plate in the bottom, so you run all bouncy.

Speaker 33 And they have this super stacked sole, so they're like squishy under your feet. I am a super, super slow runner, but I agreed to test them.

Speaker 11 I think I was probably the slowest, most casual runner in the testing group.

Speaker 11 I didn't think I would see very much difference in my running speed, but they ended up shaving almost 45 seconds off my mile time,

Speaker 26 which could be entirely placebo effect.

Speaker 11 But even then, running sub-nine-minute miles for the first time in years made me so much more excited to go running.

Speaker 11 And it was so fun to feel like I was flying around Prospect Park in my little tank sneakers. I loved them so much, and I'm so excited to run in them next year, too.

Speaker 1 Okay, that's it. Thanks.
Bye.

Speaker 27 Hi, I'm Claire Wilcox.

Speaker 27 I'm a travel and outdoors writer here here at Wirecutter, and one of my favorite WireCutter recommendations I've bought this year is the Blue Lizard Sensitive Mineral Sunscreen, SPF 50.

Speaker 35 I live on Oahu, and I spend a lot of time in the water, surfing, swimming, just exposed to sun for sometimes two, up to three hours.

Speaker 35 And I've really struggled to find a sunscreen that lasts in the water. And my skin has definitely taken a bit of a beating since I moved here about five years ago.

Speaker 35 So the last time I went to my dermatologist, she recommended that I find a physical sunscreen, which I had already been using.

Speaker 35 Physical sunscreens are sunscreens that use minerals like zinc and titanium dioxide instead of chemicals to protect your skin.

Speaker 35 But she also recommended that I find one that was made in Australia specifically. So I looked on Wirecutter and lo and behold, the top pick was an Australian-made physical sunscreen.

Speaker 35 So I had to try it. I've been using it for about four months now and it's been working really well for me in terms of performance.
It goes on really easily. It doesn't smell.

Speaker 35 It doesn't get into my eyes. It also doesn't leave too much of a white cast so I don't look like a ghost in the lineup, which I appreciate.

Speaker 35 In terms of performance, it's definitely one of the best sunscreens that I have tried.

Speaker 27 Thank you so much.

Speaker 31 Hey there, this is John Chase. I am the editor for the Smart Home section.
My favorite wire cutter pick this year is the least high-tech thing I can think of.

Speaker 31 It's the Channel Master Flatenna, which is a TV antenna that enables your TV to pull in over-the-air wireless signals like old-timey television. I live in New York City and it's impossible.

Speaker 31 bizarrely to get anything on your TV. And I don't have cable.

Speaker 31 And so in order to see, I don't know, things like the Super Bowl or Oscars, the World Series, all these things, it was impossible trying to do it using a set-top box box or having to subscribe to things.

Speaker 31 When this stuff is broadcast for free, anyway, I plugged it in, went to the settings menu. I was able to tune the channels.
It ran for, I don't know, a minute or two.

Speaker 31 And next thing you know, I'm watching the Yankees lose the World Series. So thanks, Channel Master.

Speaker 36 Hi, I'm Lauren Dragan, Senior Staff Writer covering headphones and hearing aids at Wirecutter. And this year I wanted to treat myself to a nice apron.

Speaker 36 I do a lot of baking, especially around the holidays.

Speaker 36 So I wanted to get something that was breathable because I live in Los Angeles, so it can get kind of hot in the kitchen, but I still want to keep flour off of me, you know?

Speaker 33 So I got the white bark workwear full crossback apron. And oh, that thing is so soft.

Speaker 15 I just, I love it.

Speaker 36 It feels like it sort of melts into your body when you put it on, which I know sounds weird to say.

Speaker 15 I love that it has a lot of little pockets.

Speaker 36 So there's like a place for a Sharpie and my phone and, you know, whatever it is I might need to carry around with me.

Speaker 36 All in all, I just love wearing it and I love that it's going to be part of all of these memories going forward. And I know it sounds silly, but it hangs in the corner of my kitchen.

Speaker 36 And every time I see it, I smile because it just sort of reminds me of all the family celebrations.

Speaker 12 Hope you have a wonderful holiday. Bye.

Speaker 37 Hi, I'm Dori Shevlin. I'm a staff writer here at Wirecutter based in Los Angeles.

Speaker 37 And earlier this year, I bought our Wirecutter recommended best waffle maker, the Quisinar Round Flip Belgian Waffle Maker, WAF 530.

Speaker 37 And I am just sorry I didn't buy it sooner. I think that as a lover of all breakfast foods, Obviously waffles have been on my mind.
It is the perfect breakfast food.

Speaker 37 It is a tiny little vessel for flavor and delight.

Speaker 37 And I just had never bought one for myself because it felt like something you do when you have a family, but it just always felt like something that as a person who lives alone was sort of, I don't know, silly to get or maybe impractical in some way.

Speaker 37 But then earlier this year, it went on sale and I just, I went for it, you know, I thought. It's going to be no cheaper than it is today.
I may as well just take the plunge. And

Speaker 37 I'm here to tell you that you don't have to wait for your life to look a certain way to have a waffle maker. You can just have a waffle maker.

Speaker 37 If you make two waffles because the recipe can't be divided any smaller, you can just eat two waffles. It'll be fine.
You can also just put that waffle in the refrigerator for later.

Speaker 37 And I just wish I'd known this sooner because

Speaker 11 it's great to have waffles.

Speaker 12 Waffles are truly for everyone. I think that's the message from Dory there.

Speaker 15 That's really nice. I do get it though, because then when you make too many waffles, what are you going to do? Eat them for the rest of the day into tomorrow?

Speaker 12 No, you freeze them. That's what we do at our house.
We make a big batch of waffles and then we freeze them on a sheet pan. Go back to our food waste episode.
We'll talk about sheet pan freezing.

Speaker 12 Okay, plus.

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 12 And that's how we have waffles throughout the week. Our kids just pop them into the toaster and it's quite delightful.

Speaker 13 That's actually, I don't know why I didn't think of that.

Speaker 12 It seems so common sense.

Speaker 15 Amazing. Yeah.

Speaker 12 I love that.

Speaker 15 I really liked Brent's little snippet because I find it really funny that our audio expert actually doesn't use his amazing sound system more than he uses his little portable speaker.

Speaker 12 That's great. Well, it speaks volumes for the speaker.
If he's listening to it and he's happy to listen to his music on it, then that's great.

Speaker 16 I was particularly delighted by Jackie Reeves' ukulele pick and her daughter getting sparked

Speaker 16 with the inspiration to play music again. I taught myself how to play the ukulele many years ago, and it brings me a lot of joy.
And I loved to hear that it brings it to Jackie's daughter, too.

Speaker 12 When will you be bringing the ukulele into the studio? Never.

Speaker 12 Not ever. Not ever.

Speaker 12 I really love Elisa's recommendation for this turtle pillow, this travel pillow. I'm going to get it.
I don't have a good one, and I'm going on a big trip in February.

Speaker 12 Yeah, how long is that flight to Japan? Yes, I'm going to Japan and it is 12 to 14 hours, depending on which way you're going. So I'm getting one and I'm going to try to sleep.

Speaker 16 And as always, we've got all these items linked, everybody's picks in the show notes for this episode so you can find them.

Speaker 13 All right, so we're going to take a quick break.

Speaker 15 And then when we're back, Christine, Rosie, and I will share our favorite wire cutter approved items from this year.

Speaker 12 Oh, I cannot wait to hear your picks. We'll be right back.

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Speaker 4 Your home is an active investment, not a passive one.

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Speaker 7 Renovations, extensions, even buying your next property.

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Speaker 9 Rocket Mortgage LLC, licensed in 50 states, NMLS ConsumerAccess.org, 3030.

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Speaker 16 Welcome back to the Wire Cutter Show. This is a special holiday episode where we're getting staff reflections all about the items that improved our lives this year.
So, Kyra, Christine, I got to know.

Speaker 16 What are yours?

Speaker 12 Ooh, I will start.

Speaker 12 My favorite new thing, I have basically told both of you about this already, maybe like 50 times already.

Speaker 16 Ready? I think Kyra, you and I should say it together. Yes.

Speaker 12 One, two, three. The Mocha Master.
I love it so much.

Speaker 12 The Mocha Master Coffee Maker. And I have the Technivorm

Speaker 12 model, which is the one with the Metal Craft. So the coffee stays warm.

Speaker 12 I love it so much because it's our upgrade drip coffee maker and it makes coffee that tastes just as good as a pour over that you've spent a ton of time being finicky over.

Speaker 12 My husband and I have done pour over for many years and our two kids recently discovered that they cannot live without coffee in the morning.

Speaker 12 And so my husband was spending all of his time in the morning making coffee and it was getting really annoying. So we got the Mocha Master and we've got coffee for everyone.

Speaker 13 Your kids drink coffee in the morning?

Speaker 12 Yeah. So before all the haters send in all the notes.

Speaker 13 Do you all have a cigarette?

Speaker 12 Well, that's only on the weekends.

Speaker 12 the comment section is closed

Speaker 12 kyra what about you what do you what's your pick well mine sounds overly simple now i think in light of the mocha master 5000 or whatever it's called um i just i

Speaker 15 honestly love my silk pillowcases still i don't know i know it's kind of not on theme because i didn't buy them this year and i want to be honest about that but i've had them for about three years and they still are the best thing that i've ever purchased in my life the brand i like the lily silk It's a 25 mom silk, so it's very thick, it's very sleek, and I love it because I have really curly hair and I'm supposed to be sleeping with a bonnet or a scarf, and I just won't.

Speaker 12 I can't do it.

Speaker 15 So when I sleep with the silk pillowcase, it still protects my edges so my hair isn't breaking off.

Speaker 15 And I wake up and I don't have a bird's nest on my head, which is like, you know, key when you have curly hair because I can make or break your day.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I have one silk pillowcase. It is not this brand.
It's like some cheap one from Amazon.

Speaker 12 But even when I use that, I notice that my hair, which I also have curly hair, but it's less curly than yours. Yeah, it's less frizzy.

Speaker 15 Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. I literally take this thing with me everywhere.
I've gone to like my partner's parents' house, and his mom was like, Oh, like, you know, our pillowcases are clean.

Speaker 12 You don't have to bring your own. I'm like, I promise it's not what this is, it's just for my hair.

Speaker 12 BYO pillowcase.

Speaker 14 Like, she's like, We have those, you know.

Speaker 12 Rosie, what's your pick?

Speaker 12 Well, I am

Speaker 16 going to talk to you about the Visco Soft 3-inch memory foam mattress topper. And this is a special one because my parents recently sold the house that we grew up in and they are downsizing.

Speaker 16 And so everything is getting a little bit smaller.

Speaker 12 It's all good.

Speaker 16 We went to stay at their house and my mom wanted a recommendation. Kyra Blackwell came through.
Oh, God, who's that?

Speaker 12 The sleep queen.

Speaker 13 Sounds amazing.

Speaker 16 And recommended this mattress topper for her.

Speaker 16 And I slept on it and I had an amazing sleep really in their new house

Speaker 16 it was like sort of a foreign environment I wasn't sure how I was gonna feel about being in a new space but I'll tell you what this new guest room with this mattress topper it was really really really really special and really nice and I actually slept well what's it feel like is it like it's well so it's placed on top of a pullout couch and so the pullout itself is you know it's like like a pullout.

Speaker 16 It's a nice pullout, but it's a pullout. And so this is really helping to elevate it.

Speaker 16 It feels like probably like half a mattress, you know, half a memory foam type mattress, but it really brings up the comfort level of a pullout couch, certainly.

Speaker 12 And honestly, it kind of felt a little luxe, like sleeping on it.

Speaker 16 It was, it was really, really nice. That's nice.

Speaker 12 That's a good hack.

Speaker 15 There's one thing about being a wire cutter journalist when you do recommend something to somebody that you know personally and you get this bit of joy when they use the item and they love it, do you ever feel a little nervous?

Speaker 12 Like, oh, what if they don't like it? What if I've recommended this thing and they don't like it?

Speaker 15 This stuff is subjective. Yeah, Christine, I recommended home mattresses to people, and I'll go out and spend like hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on this mattress.

Speaker 15 And like, that feels like high stakes to me. Like, I hate it.

Speaker 12 It is high stakes. Yeah, yeah.
I actually, I feel like I have a really good record so far.

Speaker 16 Yeah, no, you have an amazing record in the Guerin household.

Speaker 12 So, love

Speaker 16 10 stars for Kyra.

Speaker 16 Well, before we wrap things up this week, we have to say a huge thank you to everyone at Wirecutter for their support this year as we brought this show to life.

Speaker 16 Thank you to all our colleagues at NYT Audio. And mostly, thank you to all of you for listening.
We wish you and yours very, very happy holidays.

Speaker 16 Thank you for listening and we're psyched to see you in 2025.

Speaker 15 We really couldn't have done this without you guys and I hope that we actually helped you somewhat this year. That's my biggest wish.

Speaker 12 As always, you can check out these items in the show notes or at nytimes.com/slash wirecutter, where you can also read about how they became wire cutter picks in the first place. That's it for us.

Speaker 12 See you next year.

Speaker 15 Here's what's coming up next week on the wirecutter show.

Speaker 16 All right, well, I'm looking at these gorgeous bottles that you brought in. Can we taste test?

Speaker 12 Yes. Yeah.
Let's party.

Speaker 12 So the lightest one is pentire,

Speaker 15 which is gin, adjacent, I would say. So you're adding tonic water and a squeeze of lemon.

Speaker 12 Juice.

Speaker 15 Make sure you're following the show on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss it. The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel.
Editing by Abigail Keel.

Speaker 15 Engineering support from Maddie Mazziello and Nick Pittman. Today's episode was mixed by Catherine Anderson.
Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Alicia Butt YouTube, and Diane Wong.

Speaker 15 Wirecutter's deputy publisher and interim general manager is Cliff Levy. Ben Fruman is Wirecutter's editor-in-chief.

Speaker 12 I'm Kyra Blackwell. I'm Christine Syr-Clissette.

Speaker 16 And I'm Rosie Guerin.

Speaker 15 Thanks for listening.

Speaker 16 My favorite thing is

Speaker 16 that your nuclear family is your husband, your two children, and your Mocha Massey.

Speaker 12 Yeah.

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