What a Year!
When 2025 began, we had no idea that so many friends, writers, and associates of Brownstone Institute would find themselves in a position to make a major difference in national policy.
BY BROWNSTONE INSTITUTE
When 2025 began, we had no idea that so many friends, writers, and associates of Brownstone Institute would find themselves in a position to make a major difference in national policy. Nor could we have expected to be made the subject of so many hit pieces in the national news – a real mark of pride for us.
Sure enough, we’ve seen some real progress despite all odds. There is headway on a variety of fronts, including the vaccine schedule, government transparency, and food freedom.
It’s not enough yet but it’s a miracle that it is happening at all. We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to help save this country and the world from the depredations revealed to us over the Covid years. This is no time to rest. Indeed, Brownstone Institute has huge plans for 2026, which involve a dramatic expansion of supper clubs in addition to a new Brownstone show on all social channels.
There is time before the end of the year to make your tax-deductible donation to our work. Nothing we do would be possible without your generosity. Thank you!
Take a look at our events page, which features a fantastic new map that is very easy to use. It helps keep track of Brownstone supper clubs spreading all over the country.
On Tuesday, January 6th, the Greater Boston Supper Club welcomes Jeffrey Tucker, founder, author, and President of Brownstone Institute. He is also Senior Economics Columnist for Epoch Times, author of ten books, including Life After Lockdown, and many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture. His most recent book is Spirits of America: On the Semiquincentennial. Jeffrey will talk about the loss of trust in everything and the devastating consequences thereof. Get tickets here.
On Monday, January 12th, the Midwest Supper Club welcomes James Bopp, Jr., distinguished constitutional law attorney and Indiana University Trustee. James Bopp, Jr. is Principal Attorney with The Bopp Law Firm, PC in Terre Haute, Indiana, one of the most prominent First Amendment practices in the nation. Mr. Bopp will talk about “The Importance of the First Amendment to America and Higher Education.” Get tickets here.
On Tuesday, January 20th, the Chicago Supper Club welcomes Jeanne Ives. Jeanne will offer critical insights into IL SB 1560. This bill, signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker on July 31, 2025, makes Illinois the first state to mandate universal mental health screenings for public school students in grades 3 through 12, with the state providing “free” resources to districts for implementation. Get tickets here.
On Wednesday, January 21st, the West Hartford Supper Club welcomes Renaud Beauchard, a French journalist with Tocsin, one of the largest independent media in France. He will discuss the parallels of what is happening in France and Europe more generally and trends in the US. Get tickets here.
On Monday, January 26th, the inaugural Manhattan Supper Club welcomes Lucia Sinatra, Co-founder of No College Mandates, an internationally recognized organization that has courageously led the nationwide charge to restore individual medical autonomy in higher education. Get tickets here.
On Wednesday, January 28th, the Austin Supper Club welcomes Del Bigtree, the founder of the Informed Action Consent Network, host of the rapidly growing internet talk show The HighWire, and executive producer of the documentary An Inconvenient Study. Del will share insights from producing two documentaries, including the accolades and critical responses to help provide context for the current changes and discussions within the CDC around childhood vaccine schedules. Get tickets here.
Here is some content since our last email.
The Great War Was the Great Error By David Stockman. There was no good reason for the Great War. The world had stumbled into war based on false narratives and the institutional imperatives of military mobilization plans, alliances, and treaties arrayed into a doomsday machine and short-term diplomatic maneuvers.
Cochrane Admitted Guilt for Defamation By Peter C. Gotzsche. The Cochrane Collaboration publishes systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare interventions. I was one of the founders but was expelled 25 years later, in September 2018, becoming the only person ever to be expelled.
An Open Letter to the Editor of The New England Journal of Medicine By Eyal Shahar. To summarize, this set of results does not demonstrate “real-world” effectiveness of the mRNA vaccines against symptomatic infection in a vulnerable nursing home population. Nor did the data from a study of Covid mortality of nursing home residents in Israel.
The Real War of the Century: Artificial Intelligence By Joaquim Couto. The real danger of AI is the slow erosion of human responsibility. The defining conflict of the 21st century will not be between humans and machines. It will be between two visions of intelligence: deterministic optimization versus meaning-making under uncertainty.
Should Argentina Leave the WHO? By Roger Bate, David Bell, and Ramesh Thakur. By engaging selectively, aligning with the United States, and preserving the option of withdrawal, Argentina positions itself to influence the future of global health governance rather than being shaped by it. This strategy safeguards sovereignty in a rapidly changing international environment.
How Long Has Industry Captured Vaccine Regulation? By Jeffrey Tucker. Among the many incredible revelations over the past five years is the extent of the power of the pharmaceutical companies. Through advertising, they have been able to shape media content. That in turn has affected digital content companies.
How a Grown-Up Health Care System Operates By Eric Hussey. If you get a chance to grow up and take control of your “health care” by understanding costs and paying for things in some form, like what happens with a Health Savings Account, you might just seriously consider that.
How Social Media Has Distorted Medical Judgment By Joseph Varon. As John Adams wisely reminded us, “Liberty must at all hazards be supported.” This includes the liberty to think critically, to question established norms, to engage in debate, and to practice medicine guided by empirical evidence rather than algorithmic determinism.
Arrogance, Ignorance, or Both? By Russ Gonnering. What is the relationship between education, knowledge, and wisdom? This is not a trivial question, and the ramifications are far from obvious. Our lives may literally depend on it. Let me illustrate the problem.
At the Movies, But for How Long? By Daniel Nuccio. As much as I enjoyed the film, I couldn’t help but wonder how much worse going to the movies was going to get. I couldn’t help but ask myself: How much longer would I be going to the movies at all?
Hepatitis B Vaccination of Newborns: Seriously Misleading Media Reports By Peter C. Gotzsche. They gave undue prominence and praise to the three dissenting ACIP voices and outsiders, who were depicted as experts or scientists. They didn’t check if what the critics of the policy change claimed was correct.
Coffee, Nicotine, and the Politics of Acceptable Addiction By Roger Bate. This essay only scratches the surface. The strange moral history of nicotine, caffeine, and acceptable addiction exposes a much larger problem: modern institutions have forgotten how to reason about risk.
The Third Big Lie of Vaccinology By Clayton J. Baker. The unvaccinated are also the segment of the population that resists the tyrannical impulses so inherent to vaccinology. Mandatory vaccination of an entire population is not imposed to eradicate disease. It is imposed to eradicate the unvaccinated.
Has Orwell’s 1984 Become Reality? By Bert Olivier. It may seem like a rhetorical question to ask whether the narrative of Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984), has somehow left its pages and settled, like an ominous miasma, over the contours of social reality. Closer inspection discloses a disquieting state of affairs.
The Second Big Lie of Vaccinology By Clayton J. Baker. No medical product should ever be allowed to be brought to market and administered to patients on the basis of “relative efficacy.” After all, these products aren’t marketed to consumers as “relatively safe and effective,” are they?
Everyone Lost at ACIP By David Bell. ACIP was still erring on the side of Pharma, which they presumably have to due to the sponsored-Congress problem. They may have got it right, they may not. Now the onus is on someone to do sensible prospective trials.