If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what famous people add to their carts. Not the JAR brooch and Louis XV chair but the hairspray and the electric toothbrush. We asked Andrew Yang — a Democratic candidate running to be New York City’s next mayor — about the bike helmet, humidifier, and board game he can’t live without.
There’s one in our bedroom and one in the kids’ room. They have become a bit of a family ritual: When the white-noise machine goes on, it’s bedtime. I think we all sleep more soundly? I have a very intense schedule, but when I go into my bedroom and hear the white-noise machine, it activates a certain part of my brain that’s like, Okay, no matter what I was doing today, now it’s time to sleep. I think the kids at this point have the same mental association with it. I do not bring anything like this on the road with me, and I always feel better rested at home.
I developed a little bit of an addiction to green tea while on the road. My preference is this unsweetened Japanese green tea — I’ll buy it whenever I can, but if I can’t, I will adapt to whatever green tea I can find. I don’t drink coffee, so green tea is a replacement for that.
I think Quip is very smart. My genius wife gave one to me. Before that, I was just using a regular toothbrush, and I was sometimes too lazy to replace it. But with Quip, you can just subscribe, and by the time you start thinking, Hey, my toothbrush is getting a little bit worn out, it’ll send you another one. It’s something I can set and forget, so it feels more effective.
One of our family’s goals is to have a board-game night at least once a week. That has fallen by the wayside recently, but we did it a lot in the height of the pandemic. We tried to get the kids into Monopoly, but they did not like Monopoly. They do like Mario, though. So I found this Super Mario edition of Monopoly and they got very excited. It has these little tokens of all of their favorite characters and the properties are more familiar to them.
I think it was relatively early in my presidential campaign when someone was like, “Hey, you might want to get some shirts that are fitted.” They recommended shirts from J.Hilburn because they are high quality. I ordered a bunch of these blue ones, and they just kind of became a uniform. As someone who has been running for office for much of the past several years, having a lot of identical shirts is very handy. I get recognized when I go outside wearing these. Putting on one of the shirts, I sort of feel like Batman.
We’ve gone through a number of reusable straws, and these ones have been the kid-pleasers, which is the real test in many ways. They are the best we found — extendable, easy to clean, and they have just enough color that the kids find them interesting enough to use.
I like this bike helmet because it makes me feel a little bit more stylish. I ride my bike whenever I can, and no one should ride a bike without a helmet. I have fallen once — it was very minor and I didn’t really hit my head, but I had the helmet on. My wife would absolutely be furious if she saw I wasn’t wearing a helmet. I have it in matte black.
A friend recommended Ecco shoes to me after I went through a bunch of other styles that broke down and weren’t that comfortable. I don’t think these wow anyone, but that’s perfectly fine with me. They’re relatively nondescript and really comfortable. I’ve done a lot of walking over the last few years and they have a particular feel and durability that I’ve grown to appreciate a lot. I can stand in them for hours. I have pairs in both black and brown, and I wear them interchangeably.
We use it for basically everything. It’s a lot easier than reheating things in the actual oven, so we’ll throw anything from pizza to bagels to fries in there. It feels a little bit better than microwaving stuff. And food heated up in a toaster oven just tastes better.
This is another thing that my wife implemented. Our air was getting dry and either she or I or one of the kids would be more prone to sinus problems or a sore throat or something along those lines. So she got this humidifier, which really did help. We started to experience fewer sinus and throat issues. Some humidifiers get kind of gross, but this one is easy to clean. It’s not quite self-cleaning, but it’s very, very easy to clean.
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