Photo Illustration: Dana Davis

By Annemarie Conte

I didn’t intend to spend 15 months obsessing over Ralph Nader’s pens. But here we are.

Back in June 2023, Ralph Nader—the ferociously focused consumer advocate and erstwhile presidential candidate—called Wirecutter with a complaint. The Paper Mate Flair pens that he had been using for decades were drying out faster than they used to.

Every day, Nader marks up newspapers with the Flair and sends the annotated articles off to all kinds of people. But the darned ink kept drying out. I wasn’t the first person he contacted. He says Paper Mate dismissed his concerns. He told me that a different product-review organization didn’t even return his call.

But here at Wirecutter? We don’t shy away from taking a weird and wonderful journey to the truth, even when it’s hard. We started by having Nader test some of our favorite pens to see if there was one he liked better. He tried them. He didn’t like them.

Then I turned to the multiplying theories of why his pens were drying out faster than they once did. Was it design or manufacturing changes? Modern newsprint soaking up more ink? Could it be climate change? I couldn’t let these theories go unanswered. So I spent months investigating. Yes, months.

I dug, I needled, I picked. I consulted weather experts and ink obsessives and air quality aficionados. I even had the pens scanned by an industrial CT scanning company. Things got … serious.

Here’s what I learned→

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Photo: Michael Hession

After very much note-taking—testing qualities like ink smoothness, comfort, and consistency—we walked away from our latest round of testing with a few favorite pens, including a top pick that has fast-drying ink and is our go-to for everyday writing on any kind of paper.

Our 7 favorite pens→

Why is this happening?! Photo: Sofia Sokolove

Do you have information that could help us solve the Nader pen mystery? We have set up a tip line: 212-556-1314.

You can reach the Wirecutter Newsletters team at newsletters@wirecutter.com. We can’t always respond, but we do love to hear from you.

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