The 10 Best Masterclass Classes to Take Right Now

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I always recommend Masterclass as a gift. Whenever my mom asks what to buy my brothers, or my girlfriend asks what to buy my dad, I love saying Masterclass, the reasoning being there's no better gift than knowledge. Your wife, husband, retiring uncle, boyfriend, or whoever all have one thing in common: They could all use more knowledge. More kitchen knowledge, more style knowledge, more design knowledge. We all should be eager to learn, so this makes a great gift. After all, a great gift is something people don't want to buy for themselves, and case in point, Masterclass.

But then I thought ... why don't I gift myself a subscription? This wasn't a bid to be more productive or level up my life. I'm actually of the mindset that I'm way more productive than I need to be already. This was more a search for more enjoyable learning. I hadn't learned a new skill in years, so I decided to dive into the Masterclass offering and see what gripped me.

After a few weeks tooling around, I came up with a list of the best classes you can take on the platform right now. It's a list of ten Masterclasses that I think showcase the best of the platform, ten reasons for you to shell out ten measly dollars a month. I'll probably be updating this list as I try more classes, but for now, these are the ten best Masterclasses to get you started.

Gardening with Ron Finley

I really believe in growing your own food, more than anything else on Earth, actually. It gives you a sense of independence that's rare in the modern world, and luckily for this article, it's something that can be taught pretty easily in a video format.

Ron Finley is a food-security activist who got his start growing gardens on unused plots of land in L.A. So there's really no excuse for you to say you don't have the space to grow any of your own food.

Southern Cooking with Mashama Bailey

Another thing I'm passionate about, and something that really works with the Masterclass format, is cooking. There's a big Masterclass culinary section, and I'd advise working through every single series.

For the purpose of this story, though, I'll talk about this class from Mashama Bailey, the culinary mind behind the Grey in Savannah, Georgia, coincidentally one of my favorite restaurants on Earth. She teaches you the classics of Southern cuisine, and she dives deep on dishes that are often overlooked in the mainstream food industry. The class finishes with learning to cook a gumbo, and... well, it's better than my mom's.

Intuitive Cooking with Roy Choi

Speaking of learning to cook, you should always seek to branch out beyond recipes. When my mom taught me to cook—all those Southern recipes that Mashama Bailey is better at—there were rarely recipes involved. Cooking is an art, a feeling—not a science.

That's what Roy Choi gets at here. Throughout this class (one of my favorites) Choi shows you how to cook specific recipes but dives into what you're actually doing and how to make it your own. He empowers you to get in the kitchen and have fun.

Design Floral Arrangements with Maurice Harris

This is why I love Masterclass. You can pay one little subscription and learn all kinds of shit. When else am I going to get a professionally taught class on making my own floral arrangements?

This is a tight class; no time is wasted. Maurice Harris, who owns Bloom & Plume, has an incredible client list—Louis Vuitton, the Row, and Goop, to name a few. The class runs you through five floral arrangements, but by the end of it, you're empowered enough to strike out on your own.

Values-Driven Leadership with Coach K

In this class, you'll learn how to "Define Your Core Values" and "Own Your Team Culture" while "Leading with Emotion." What does any of that mean, concretely? I'm not sure. But if any of you are fans of The Bear, you'll remember how Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) is always talking about Coach K's book Leading with the Heart. Think of this as the video format of that book. Learn how to be a great leader, boss, and recruiter.

Personal Branding with Kris Jenner

Of all the people on the Masterclass platform, I'd trust Kris Jenner the most—1 billion percent. Maybe you think you can learn personal branding on your own, but I'd treat Kris's videos like gospel. I'm not sure if there's a more shrewd business mind on Earth. She's masterminded America's royal family, and that's more valuable than whatever Mark Cuban is going to teach you.

Business with Mark Cuban

Speaking of! Mark Cuban's got a class where he teaches you business, general business. Will it make you a billionaire? Probably not. But it's rare that you get actionable advice like this from a real business mind.

Instead of being self-help-y about his own story, Cuban gives advice in this Masterclass that's actually quite actionable. It goes through a lot of his business mindset. So if you want professional development, it's either this Masterclass or you can spend ten years trying to get on Shark Tank and hopefully walk away with Mark as a mentor. The Masterclass is a better bet.

Fashion Design with Marc Jacobs

This is another more conceptual type of class. Am I going to learn how to be a fashion designer from this five-hour course? Nope. I came out of it still not knowing how to sew. But! It's a seriously fun watch. Less actionable advice and more a digital mentorship from one of the best to ever do it.

Mathematical Thinking with Terence Tao

This class didn't make me better at math, and that's a compliment. Instead of teaching you college-level mathematics (impossible with the Masterclass format), Terence Tao teaches you mathematical thinking.

Think of it as a class to teach you to problem-solve in a new way. Instead of thinking with Mark Cuban's business mind or Marc Jacobs's designer mind, you get a peek into Tao's mathematical approach to problem-solving. At the end of the day, a lot of other stuff (especially business) comes down to mathematical models... which are kind of like games.

Relational Intelligence with Esther Perel

The pandemic did a number on y'all, relationally. I'm in a long-term romantic relationship and plenty of other, longer-term, non-romantic relationships. (Sorry, not to flex.) I have no issues with self-awareness, empathy, or conflict resolution. (I'm flexing again.) Some of you, though, could stand to learn a thing or two.

Jokes aside, think of Esther Perel's class as therapy lite. Improve your work life, romantic life, and interpersonal life with direct help from a renowned psychotherapist.

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