In this capstone episode of the "What Is the Right?" series, we consider the state of the Right today and where it's headed in the years to come. In this limited series, we've explored the different factions and flavors that make up what we would broadly call "the Right" in America today. We've looked at freedom conservatives and the New Right, talked to libertarians and traditionalists, explored fusionism and MAGA, and we've considered how Catholic, Jewish, and Evangelical conservatives define themselves today. Through it all, we've heard a variety of takes on where we stand, where we're going, and how the ideological landscape has shifted. There are some clear fault lines, particularly between the New Right or National Conservative crowd and the Freedom Conservative/fusionist set, notably in how to utilize power in this current moment where it’s clear the right has power and political capital to spend. So what's next? Can these factions come together in a new fusionism? If so, what does that look like? And if not, are we bound for a fracturing of the Right unlike we've seen in our lifetimes? To explore these questions are two luminaries of the conservative movement, Yuval Levin and Chris DeMuth. Yuval is the Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and a deep thinker on the Constitution, institutions in American government and civics, and conservative thought. Christopher DeMuth is the former head of the American Enterprise Institute. He helped to organize the first National Conservatism conference and remains active in the NatCon world, regularly speaking at events and writing op-eds on from a national-conservative perspective.

Our summer series on "What Is the Right?" has examined the factions that shape the modern conservative movement, from libertarians and traditionalists to fusionists and the New Right. Yet one force has loomed in the background throughout our conversations: Trumpism. While we have focused on ideas more than individuals, it’s impossible to take stock of today’s Right without considering the MAGA movement and the impact it has had on conservative policy and priorities. As we look ahead to a post-Trump political era—whether in 2029 or sooner—the question isn’t just what becomes of Donald Trump the man, but what becomes of Trumpism as a set of ideas and a policy agenda. In this episode, we explore what MAGA means, how it has shaped the intellectual and institutional life of the Right, and what influence it may continue to exert in the years ahead. Two leaders well positioned to speak to this are Greg Sindelar and Adele Malpass. Greg is the interim president of the America First Policy Institute and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, one of the nation’s most effective state-based think tanks. Adele is the president of the Daily Caller News Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Daily Caller, a key voice for many MAGA-aligned ideas and policies.

This episode of "What Is the Right?" features a conversation on the coalition of newcomers who have moved to the right in recent years. In response to the Black Lives Matter movement, the erosion of free speech on the left, and the rise of gender ideology, many who would not have formerly considered themselves conservative now feel at home on the right. Some have adopted the traditional values and policies of the conservative movement, while others appear to be temporary fellow travelers who would drift leftward again should the Democratic Party move to the center. To help make sense of this new coalition of defectors, Peter is joined by John Papola. John is Founder and CEO of Emergent Order Foundation, a nonprofit studio dedicated to telling heroic stories of virtue that celebrate American freedom and the potential it unlocks in each of us.

Christian thought has long been intertwined with political life in America, and churches have long played a central role in civic life and in social movements. Groups like Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition were essential to conservative victories, both at the ballot box and in policy during the '80s and the '90s. And sometimes we' even hear the term "evangelical" used synonymously to mean conservative or Republican, whether rightly or wrongly. In this episode, Peter explores where the Christian community fits on the right side of the ideological spectrum as part of the "What is the Right?" series. Joining him are Ralph Reed and Mark Tooley. Ralph Reed leads the Faith and Freedom Coalition, formed in 2009 to educate and mobilize people of faith to advance pro-family and pro-freedom policies. Ralph is also chairman and CEO of public affairs firm Century Strategies. Mark Tooley is the president of Institute on Religion and Democracy, an ecumenical think tank that aims to rally Christians to advance biblical historical Christianity and affirm its role in democratic society.

Our summer series on "What Is the Right?" has explored the many ideological camps that make up the Right today, from libertarians and traditionalists to fusionists and "FreeCons." In this episode, we explore the intersection of the Jewish faith with conservative thought. Today, antisemitism is on the rise, Israel is at war, and U.S. Republicans are thinking through what an America-First foreign policy should look like. By stepping back and getting a bird's-eye view of how the Jewish community interacts with conservative movement, the contributions of Jewish thought to Western Civilization, and the work Jewish nonprofits are doing, we hope to have a better sense of where to go from here. Two of the thinkers and leaders best positioned to speak to the Jewish conservative intersection are Tevi Troy and Jonathan Silver, who join Peter for this episode. Tevi Troy is a senior fellow at the Ronald Reagan Institute, a Senior Scholar at Yeshiva University’s Straus Center, and a former Deputy Secretary of HHS and senior White House aide. Jonathan Silver is the Chief Programming Officer of Tikvah, the editor of Mosaic, and the Warren R. Stern Senior Fellow of Jewish Civilization.

In this episode of "What Is the Right," we're turning our attention to the religious dimension at play on the American Right. From the often-talked-about, rarely-understood Evangelical voting bloc to observant Jews and everything in between, it's a confusing landscape. Religious groups add a layer of complexity to the freedom-vs.-order tension we've been exploring in this series as we think about what it means to be conservative or liberal theologically in addition to politically. Indeed, our guests in this first episode are hesitant to apply today's political labels to their own tradition. Joining Peter to explain Catholicism in the public square and in conversation with political conservatism are Kathryn Jean Lopez and Kris Mauren. Kathryn is a Senior Fellow at the National Review Institute, where she directs the Center for Religion, Culture, and Civil Society. She is also the Religion Editor for National Review magazine and a Fellow at the Catholic University of America's Institute for Human Ecology. Kris is President and co-Founder of the Acton Institute, a think tank based on Grand Rapids, MI. Acton works to promote a freer and more virtuous society with research and resources that highlight the benefits and ethical foundations of free markets.

In the fifth installment of our “What is the Right?” summer series, Peter explores the philosophy of Fusionism. As the name implies, Fusionism melds together different strands of conservatism into a single winning coalition. This is often understood as the three-legged stool of conservatism, bringing together traditionalist conservatives, libertarians, and anti-communists into a coalition that ended the Cold War. But as we will hear, that isn't necessarily the right way to think about it. This episode features two great thinkers in the Fusionist movement, Stephanie Slade and Tim Chapman. Stephanie has established herself as perhaps the foremost thinker about Fusionism today, and is careening toward a deadline on a new book exploring the subject that'll be out next year. She is a Senior Editor with Reason Magazine, as well as a fellow in liberal studies at the Acton Institute. Tim Chapman is President of Advancing American Freedom, a newer group started by Mike Pence. He also co-founded Heritage Action, the activism arm of Heritage Foundation, where he worked closely with Jim DeMint, and also ran Nikki Haley's Stand for America organization.

This episode is the fourth installment in our summer series on "What Is the Right?" here on Giving Ventures. Over the course of the summer months, we are looking at the different factions and flavors of what it means to be on the right side of the ideological spectrum in this unique moment we're in. So far, we've explored the Freedom Conservatives, Libertarians, and the New Right. This episode explores the traditionalist wing of conservatism. At a quick glance, you might describe Traditionalist Conservatives as the social conservatives in the postwar coalition that culminated in the Reaganism of the '80s. But that's probably a little bit simplistic. On the landscape of the Right, the Traditionalists can be found on the opposite end of the spectrum from Libertarians. Order, virtue, and continuity with the past are of greater concern to the Traditionalists than unleashing the free market or ensuring government sticks to protecting life, liberty, and property. Conserving the principles of the American Founding is buttressed by the preservation of the Western Tradition and its tension between freedom and order. The episode features Daniel McCarthy and Luke Sheahan. Daniel is Vice President for Publications at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and Editor of ISI's Modern Age, which was launched by Russell Kirk and Henry Regnery in 1957 as a forum for conservatives of various stripes to debate their ideas. Luke is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Duquesne University, and a nonresident scholar in the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also editor of The University Bookman, the online journal of book reviews published by the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal.

For the third installment in the "What Is the Right?" series, we're featuring the New Right. While the Freedom Conservatives and Libertarians we've spoken with in the last two episodes hold to the importance of free markets, today's guests are skeptical of what they see as too much deference to laissez-faire economics. Over the past decade, the New Right has emerged as a force to be reckoned with in Washington. Challenging the Reaganite consensus and offering a vision for the Right that's more centered on family, community, and nation, the New Right's contrast to our previous episodes provides food for thought. In this episode, Peter is joined by Oren Cass and Nick Solheim, two leaders in the New Right movement who will help us understand this ascendant faction. Oren Cass is the founder and chief economist at American Compass, an organization focused on reorienting what productive work and economic development mean in modern society, away from growth for its own sake and more strongly factoring in family and community. His 2018 book, The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America, had a major impact in shifting the conversation around what economic and labor policy should be in America. He is editor of the new volume The New Conservatives: Restoring America's Commitment to Family, Community, and Industry.   Nick Solheim is co-founder and, as of earlier this year, CEO of American Moment. American Moment focuses on identifying and training young leaders toward being public policy leaders that support strong families, a sovereign nation, and prosperity for all. Nick also hosts American Moment's podcast, Moment of Truth.

This episode is the second installment in the "What Is the Right?" summer series for Giving Ventures. In this series, we're exploring the different factions and flavors that make up the right side of the ideological spectrum here in this weird political moment we live in. Today, we're looking at a group that some say isn't even fairly categorized as "right" at all: libertarians. How do you fairly describe what "libertarian" really means? They are the smallest of the small-government people, the most live-and-let-live of any group. It is the focus on freedom and individual liberty that means you also get a free range of ideas on what that liberty means. This episode features two great leaders in the libertarian space: Katherine Mangu-Ward and Peter Goettler. Katherine is Editor-in-Chief of Reason Magazine, the longest running libertarian magazine. Reason is a key cog in the libertarian ecosystem, and Katherine's leadership is doing much to keep it that way. Peter Goettler is President and CEO of the Cato Institute, the foremost libertarian think tank, based in Washington, DC. For more than 40 years, Cato has been the place for sound, reasoned policy ideas from a libertarian perspective.

What is "the Right"? Over the next several months, Giving Ventures will be exploring this question through a series of interviews with leaders in the conservative and libertarian space. From the libertarians to the traditionalists, the national conservatives and the New Right—this series will give you a sense of the scope and diversity on the American Right. In this inaugural episode, we're considering Freedom Conservatism. Launched in response to the increasingly popularity of nationalism and populism in conservative quarters, Freedom Conservatism aims to preserve a Reaganite understanding of classical liberalism. To help unpack what it means to be a "FreeCon," Peter is joined by Avik Roy and John Hood, who helped launch the Freedom Conservatism movement with a Statement of Principles in the summer of 2023. That statement boasts signers like former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, columnist George Will, and former Heritage Foundation President Kay Cole James. John Hood is president of the John William Pope Foundation, based in Raleigh, and previously spent many years running North Carolina's free-market think tank, the John Locke Foundation. Avik Roy is the founder and chairman of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a think tank focused on promoting market-based solutions to economic and social issues affecting low and middle-income Americans.

There was a time in the not-too-distant past where every political candidate looking to tout his or her conservative principles trotted out connections to and affinities for Ronald Reagan. And in a certain subset, those who really wanted to signal they were committed to smaller or more limited government reached even farther back into history, preaching the wisdom of President Calvin Coolidge. So what do their legacies look like today in this interesting political moment we find ourselves in? This episode of Giving Ventures features the leaders of both the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute as well as the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation. First, Amity Shlaes, chair of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, discusses how Coolidge’s ideals are being revived and instilled in new generations. Next, David Trulio, president and CEO of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, shares how Reagan’s timeless principles are being adapted to modern challenges.

In an era where federal overreach seems to be the norm, the concept of federalism stands as a beacon of hope for many seeking a return to localized power and decision-making. In this episode, Tony Woodlief of the State Policy Network's Center for Practical Federalism shares insights into how states can reclaim their autonomy from an ever-expanding federal government. This episode goes beyond American civics and history, diving deep into the practical tools and strategies available to state and local officials aiming to push back against federal encroachment and restore the balance of power envisioned by the framers of the Constitution. Tony Woodlief is a Senior Fellow at the State Policy Network's Center for Practical Federalism and author of I, Citizen: A Blueprint for Reclaiming American Self-Governance. His work focuses on empowering state and local governments to reclaim authority and push back against federal overreach.

California has long been a trendsetter...but not always for the right reasons. Known for its innovative spirit and sun-soaked coastline, the state grapples with a multitude of policy challenges, from housing costs to environmental regulations. California's decisions often ripple across the nation, influencing policies from coast to coast. This episode features interviews with leaders from two influential think tanks—Pacific Research Institute and California Policy Center—about their efforts to counteract detrimental policies and promote free-market solutions in the Golden State. These organizations are not only tackling local issues but are also providing a blueprint for other states to avoid California's pitfalls. Sally Pipes is the longtime president of the Pacific Research Institute, a healthcare expert, and author of several books. Rowena Itchon serves as the Chief Operating Officer at the Pacific Research Institute. Will Swaim is the president of the California Policy Center.

In recent years, the landscape of free speech on college campuses has become a battleground, with incidents of censorship and cancel culture making headlines. Yet, out of this challenge, a new wave of hope is rising—one led by passionate alumni who are taking action to restore open discourse. This episode features three leaders from organizations working tirelessly to promote free speech: Charles Mitchell from the Open Discourse Coalition, Todd Rulon-Miller from Princetonians for Free Speech, and Peter Bonilla from the MIT Free Speech Alliance. Each brings a unique perspective and strategy to this shared mission, showcasing how alumni can be pivotal in reshaping the academic environment.

Affordable housing is a persistent challenge in American politics. Bad public policy leads to artificial housing supply restrictions which causes prices to rise. But stimulating housing supply to bring costs down is a thorny issue. The latest episode of Giving Ventures brings together Sonja Trauss from Yes in My Backyard and Charles Gardner from the Mercatus Center to explore how grassroots advocacy and deregulation can make housing more abundant and more affordable. Sonja is the Founder and Executive Director of Yes in My Backyard (YIMBY), a grassroots organization that aims to address the housing shortage by advocating for policies that promote affordable housing. Charles is a Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center, where he explores housing policy, zoning, and land use. He brings a legal background and experience as an elected official in Connecticut to his work on housing policy.

From the challenges posed by technology use to political biases creeping into the therapist's office, America is experiencing something of a mental health crisis. To help address this critical issue, the Philanthropy Roundtable recently compiled a Mental Health Playbook that provides philanthropists with an introduction to the most effective organizations working to solve this crisis while remaining faithful to the principles of liberty, opportunity, and personal responsibility. As the Roundtable explained in a recent article, private philanthropy is "essential to confronting our nation’s mental health crisis" because "it’s flexible and nimble, allowing the most effective, unique approaches to emerge." To learn more about the Playbook and to get a look at two of the organizations it highlights, Peter assembled a panel for this episode of Giving Ventures. Esther Larson is the Senior Director of Programs at the Philanthropy Roundtable. She spearheaded the creation of the Mental Health Playbook, a resource designed to guide donors through the complex landscape of mental health funding. Dr. Andrew Hartz is the Founder and President of the Open Therapy Institute. A clinical psychologist by training, he focuses on removing bias within the counseling space to improve mental health care. Carolyn Gorman serves as a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, one of the country's leading think tanks. Her work concentrates on the policy challenges and potential solutions in the mental health sector.

This episode of Giving Ventures features a special interview with Senator James Lankford (R-OK), who provides a charitable-minded view from Capitol Hill. As one of the few U.S. Senators with extensive experience running a nonprofit, Lankford understands the needs and challenges of the charitable community and appreciates the role public policy can play in fostering a vibrant nonprofit sector. In this conversation, Peter and Senator Lankford discuss the state of charitable giving in America, the dangers posed to donor privacy, and how a new tax bill could incentivize more philanthropy. Senator Lankford has represented Oklahoma in the United States Senate since 2015 and, prior to his Senate service, represented the 5th District of Oklahoma in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015. Before entering public service, the Senator led the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center in Oklahoma.

When conservatives discuss K-12 education, it can be tempting to cede public schools to their leftward drift and look to alternatives. And while Giving Ventures has featured some fantastic groups working in the school choice field, this episode is all about improving the public schools that educate 80% of our nation's school children. Giving our kids the best public education possible means engaging on the ground and at the local level, especially in our school boards. This episode features two impressive groups working to effect change at the school-board level. First, David Hoyt from School Boards for Academic Excellence describes his work equipping school board members to do their job effectively. SBAE has built an impressive network of state-based organizations and provides members with model policies, legal advice, and more. Then, Aiden Buzzetti from 1776 Project Foundation tells the story of how 1776 Project PAC was formed to help elect conservatives to local school boards before spinning out a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation to arm board members with the policy expertise and know-how they need to reverse pandemic learning loss.

It's important that our elections earn the confidence of American voters. In recent years fraud allegations, lawsuits, and elections rules changes have cast doubt on the integrity of our elections. Thankfully, groups like Public Interest Legal Foundation and the Foundation for Government Accountability are working hard to ensure elections are administered fairly. In this episode of Giving Ventures, Peter checks in with J. Christian Adams of PILF and Madeline Malisa of FGA for a post-election breakdown. Together, Christian and Madeline address issues like mandatory voter identification, ranked-choice voting, and the importance of holding elections for one day only rather than letting ballots trickle in for weeks after Election Day. J. Christian Adams is president and general counsel for Public Interest Legal Foundation. He also serves as commissioner of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity and previously served in the Voting Section at the United States Department of Justice. Madeline Malisa is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability, where she is a policy and legal expert on election and initiative integrity. Prior to joining FGA, she served as chief counsel to Governor Paul LePage in the State of Maine.