Rec Room is VICE’s shopping brain trust. Our mission is to put products through their paces before they ever earn your attention. We cover cannabis, tech, events and entertainment, sex and dating, health and wellness, fashion, beauty and grooming, travel, home, and all the other stuff that quietly (or loudly!) makes life better.
This isn’t haul culture. No ring lights. No “obsessed 
” captions. We’re not paid to pretend we love things, and we don’t recommend anything just because aggressively marketed on social media. Our team spends an unreasonable amount of time researching, testing, and stress-using products IRL—then telling you what’s actually worth your time and money.
Think: less influencer hype, more informed opinion. We curate with taste, vet with skepticism, and write with authority earned the hard way: by doing the messy work. If something shows up in Rec Room, it’s because it passed our standards, not because someone sent us a freebie and a brand brief.
Simply put, we’re bullshit-resistant, and firmly on your side.
Our editorial policy
Rec Room is reader-supported. Here’s how: If you read one of our articles, click through to one of the products we recommend, and buy it, we may make a small commission from the retailer as a little thank you for sending readers their way (at no additional cost to you).
The Rec Room team and contributors independently select all of the products featured in every single article. If we think something is wack, we are not gonna recommend it. Our writers and editors never guarantee editorial coverage in exchange for free stuff, and our staff does not make any personal commission from purchases made by our readers. Additionally, we operate separately from VICE’s newsrooms, so you don’t have to worry that our team’s love of “the good stuff” will impact VICE’s reporting.
Meet Our Team
Ysolt Usigan
Ysolt Usigan is Rec Room’s editorial director. She’s a shopping expert and content leader who’s spent over a decade covering lifestyle, beauty, health, travel, and tech for other major publishers. You’ve seen her work in Good Housekeeping, Everyday Health, Digital Trends, The Manual, Outdoors.com, AskMen.com, Woman’s Day, SheKnows.com, Geek.com, and RetailMeNot. She’s tested and reviewed thousands of products—from cult skincare finds to weird-but-useful gadgets—always with an eye for what’s actually worth your money. At Savage Ventures, VICE’s parent company, she leads commerce content initiatives with a mission to help readers cut through the noise to shop smarter.
Matt Jancer
Matt Jancer has been in the industry for 15 years and lives in his favorite urban death maze, New York City. Some of his longest-running bylines were spent covering motorcycles, electric cars, outdoors gear, and other cutting-edge technology for Car and Driver, Outside, Esquire, Playboy, Popular Mechanics, and Wired. When he’s not writing about motorcycles and our place in the wilderness for a living, he’s writing for enjoyment, riding his motorcycle, and mountain climbing out West. He believes everyone needs at least one hobby they have none of their ego invested into, and so guitar noises and the scents of cooking have been known to emanate from his apartment. Oh yeah, and he thinks pigeons are way underrated.
Veronica Booth
Veronica Booth is a lifestyle writer and Seattle resident with an appreciation for the greener things. She covers cannabis and other lifestyle topics for VICE.com. She aims to connect with her readers through honest human experiences, whether that’s mindlessly online shopping for sneakers you can’t afford or approaching complex family conversations. Her byline appears in Rolling Stone, Popsugar, CNN, Daily Mail, Brit + Co, SUCCESS, and The Weather Channel, where she’s covered topics like fashion and beauty trends, business insights, relationships, and more. If she’s not on her laptop, she’s sweating in a vinyasa class or making obnoxiously fancy food.
Macey Wolfer
Macey Wolfer is a freelance cannabis writer from Seattle. She’s covered the industry extensively for nearly a decade, with a particular interest in the economic opportunities for Indigenous entrepreneurs and the plant’s many therapeutic uses. Her writing focuses on the people, stories, and labors of love behind every venture.
Sean Abrams
Sean Abrams is a writer, editor, and content strategist with over a decade of experience in the editorial world, having written and edited for brands such as Maxim, Elite Daily, AskMen, Men’s Health, and Delish. His career has taken him from intimate celebrity red carpets to facing his fears and learning how to swim in his mid-30s—all in the name of journalism. He’s covered everything from sex and culture to food, mental health, and viral memes. Sean covers sex and dating for VICE.com. When he’s not at his desk, he’s probably at an AMC theater or at a bar with a large glass of tequila in hand.
Ashley Fike
Ashley Fike is a writer with 15+ years of experience, a home base in Savannah, and a habit of chasing stories across the map. Raised in the Pacific Northwest and shaped by everywhere she’s lived since, her work blends cultural curiosity with lived-in perspective—covering travel, lifestyle, wellness, music, and whatever else deserves a closer look. Ashley covers various lifestyle topics for Rec Room.
Kaitlyn McInnis
Kaitlyn McInnis is an award-winning lifestyle and travel journalist with over a decade of experience in the digital media space. Her travel writing has been published in international publications across six continents, including Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Tatler Asia, South China Morning Post, CNN, The Points Guy, and more. She holds a Bachelor of Arts focused in English Literature and Irish Studies and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction Writing from the University of King’s College. She also speaks three languages (English, French, and Turkish).
Tay Belgeri
Tay Belgeri is a full-time writer living in Barcelona. Leaning on an academic background in Global Studies and two decades of travel and immigration experience, she writes about the art of travel and fringe culture. Her work has appeared in AP News, Ranker, MSN, and other major publications. She has a “drink the bhang lassi” approach to travel. Tay writers travel content for VICE.
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