Last year, I wrote the first edition of our “gadget dad” gift guide, inspired by my own gadget-obsessed dad, who loves things like mixology spoons and golf-swing trainers. This year, I’m back with his latest gadget picks, wish-list gadgets, and some of his old favorites. For context: My dad is an interventional radiologist, a job that my mom always explains as being like a “human plumber” because he performs minimally invasive procedures on blood vessels and other internal structures. He uses imaging techniques (such as fluoroscopy and ultrasound) to guide small devices (like catheters or angioplasty balloons) during surgery. From guide wires the size of a human hair to aortic stents as big as a one-and-a-half-inch pipe, he uses all kinds of medical gadgets every day. But it’s not just at work that he uses gadgets — he’s just as into gadgets when he’s off duty, too. He is truly a gadget dad.
He has always hunted for gadgety solutions to fix a range of everyday dilemmas — like a custom baffle door for making back-to-back artisan-level pizzas — to the point that, one past Father’s Day, my mom and I even gifted him a white T-shirt that says LET ME DROP EVERYTHING AND WORK ON YOUR PROBLEM. He takes great pride in the research process, reading countless reviews, scouring Kickstarter and Consumer Reports, and watching hours of videos on YouTube. His research has led him to a charging station that he uses to power all his devices at once, a fan that lets him precisely control the temperature of his smoker, and even a waterproof phone case for capturing photos and videos of seascapes. If this sounds like your dad and you’re stumped on what to get him this Father’s Day, you’re in luck. Here, I’ve rounded up all of my dad’s gadgety picks for Father’s Day, including a few he’s currently trying out and one that’s on his wish list.
