Stephanie Slade, senior editor at Reason, joins Veronique de Rugy to discuss her new book Fusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right.

Fusionism isn't a coalition strategy. It's the argument that liberty and virtue need each other — that coerced virtue isn't virtue at all, and that a free society depends on people who can govern themselves. Slade traces the idea from the founding through Hayek, Russell Kirk, and Frank Meyer, and explains how a movement that once took it for granted raised a generation that has never encountered the arguments.

They discuss why young people are looking for answers about the good life and where they're finding them, why the new right turned against markets, whether the culture of free speech can survive its current stress test, and what a recovery would actually require.

Roger Bate joins Veronique de Rugy to discuss his new book, The House Always Wins, sharing his personal brush with sports betting addiction and what it reveals about the industry's explosive growth, corruption risks, and need for smart regulation. They close with a candid look at Fauci and COVID policy accountability.

In this episode of Qualified Opinions, host Veronique de Rugy welcomes Akash Chougule, President of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), to explore how classical liberal ideas can drive real economic mobility for lower-income Americans.

Akash breaks down FREOPP's unique mission—applying free-market principles specifically to uplift the bottom half of the socioeconomic ladder—and explains why lasting policy reform requires genuine bipartisan coalition building. They examine the recent deregulation of housing supply as a blueprint for legislative success before taking a deep dive into the state of organized labor in 21st-century America.