Interview with Robert P. George

An Interview with Governor Scott Walker, President, Young America's Foundation, and 45th Governor of Wisconsin Young Americans today are coming of age in a world that can seem to be careening into the future. Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming how we relate to technology and to one another. Socialism, communism, and radical Islamism are on the march, while loud voices — and at times violence — at home and around the world are testing young people's understanding of and confidence in our foundational principles of freedom, opportunity, and constitutional government. And on many college campuses, the case for liberty is seldom made and conservative ideas are simply unwelcome. For the generation that will carry the principles of freedom well into the second half of the 21st century, the challenges are real and the stakes are high. Our guest on this episode of Voices of Freedom has dedicated this chapter of his career to preparing that rising generation. Governor Scott Walker is President of Young America's Foundation and served as the 45th Governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019, leading the state through some of the most significant reforms in modern state government. Since 2021, he has led YAF's work with students at the Reagan Ranch, the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home, and regional sites across the nation. YAF hosts more conservative campus lectures than any other organization and reaches millions more through its digital presence. Governor Walker also recently joined the board of the Bradley Impact Fund, a donor-advised fund affiliated with The Bradley Foundation. Topics Discussed on this Episode: Governor Walker's early years as a pastor's son in Delavan and meeting President Reagan at Boys Nation

An Interview with Karin Lips, Founder and President, Network of enlightened Women (NeW) College should be a place where young people wrestle with big ideas and discover who they are. Yet for many conservative women, campus can feel so isolating that they just decide to keep their views to themselves before they even arrive. In the fall of 2004, a University of Virginia student returned from an internship in Washington, DC, looking for a place where college women could talk about public policy, including conservative ideas. When she asked the campus Women's Center to co-sponsor a group for conservative women, she was essentially laughed at and told, "not here." So she started a book club. Within a year, women on other campuses wanted chapters of their own. Today, the Network of enlightened Women is on more than 40 college campuses, with professional and alumnae chapters that carry its mission beyond graduation: to educate, equip, and empower women to be principled leaders for a free society. That student is our guest on this episode of Voices of Freedom. Karin Lips is the Founder and President of NeW. A graduate of the University of Virginia and its School of Law, she practiced law at Wiley Rein and was a Resident Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics. She is the author of You're Not Alone: The Conservative Woman's Guide to College and editor of She's Conservative: Stories of Trials and Triumphs on America's College Campuses. Topics Discussed on this Episode: How a rejected request at UVA sparked a book club that grew into a national network

An Interview with James Hankins and Allen Guelzo, Authors of The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is a moment to reflect not only on the founding of the United States, but on the much longer story that made the founding possible. The American experiment did not begin in 1776. Rather, the Founders drew on ideas about law, liberty, faith, and human dignity that reach back centuries, if not millennia. Our guests on this episode of Voices of Freedom have spent their careers tracing that story. James Hankins and Allen Guelzo met as boys, and they have been talking about the Western tradition ever since. Those conversations — and their decades of scholarly work spanning the full arc of the Western experience — have now produced The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, a two-volume history published by Encounter Books that runs more than two thousand pages, with hundreds of maps, works of art, and primary sources set alongside the narrative. James Hankins wrote Volume I, which begins with the ancient Greeks and continues through Rome, Christendom, and the Renaissance. He is Professor of Humanities at the Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida, taught at Harvard for forty years, and is the founding editor of the I Tatti Renaissance Library and the author of the prize-winning Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy. Jim is a 2026 Bradley Prize recipient. Allen Guelzo wrote Volume II, which picks up in 1500 and follows the West through the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the age of revolutions, and into our own century. Also a Professor of Humanities at the Hamilton School, he is one of the country's leading historians of Lincoln and the Civil War, a three-time winner of the Lincoln Prize, and the author of Gettysburg: The Last Invasion and Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment. Allen is a 2018 Bradley Prize recipient. Topics Discussed on this Episode: How a boyhood friendship grew into a two-volume history of the Western tradition

An Interview with Adam Josefczyk, Co-founder and President, Forge Leadership Network Many young conservatives have genuine conviction and real potential — but without personal formation, a trusted network, and professional mentoring, they never find their footing in the public arena. Forge Leadership Network was created to change that. Our guest on this episode of Voices of Freedom is Adam Josefczyk, co-founder and President of Forge Leadership Network. Since founding Forge in 2014, Adam has built a pathway for emerging Christian conservative leaders through formation, friendship, and preparation for influence in politics, culture, and business. Through its Leadership Summit, Mentorship Academy, and a growing national network of Forge Fellows, Forge is turning a sense of calling into enduring impact in the public arena. Before Forge, Adam worked in public policy in Ohio and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Dayton. Topics Discussed on this Episode: • What Adam observed working in Ohio policy and politics — and the gap it revealed for young conservatives entering the public arena • Why formation, friendship, and preparation must work together, and how the Forge Summit, Academy, and Network deliver all three • How Forge measures success — and why placement in roles of real responsibility is the right standard • The relationship between faith and political engagement, and the principles that guide how Forge navigates that tension • What gives Adam hope about the next generation, where Forge is headed, and what it can offer young people who want to make a difference

An Interview with Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, Scholar, Rabbi, and Senior Fellow, Tikvah At a time when faith is increasingly viewed as something to be kept out of public life, one of America's most compelling Jewish scholars and public intellectuals is making the opposite case — that religious liberty is not merely tolerated in America but is essential to its founding character and constitutional order. Our guest on this episode of Voices of Freedom is Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York — the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States — and Director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. A Senior Fellow at Tikvah and a scholar who has lectured at the Vatican and at Christian institutions across America and Europe, Rabbi Soloveichik brings both rigorous scholarship and the natural authority of a congregational rabbi to the most urgent questions about faith, freedom, and the American experiment. His most recent book, Providence and Power: Ten Portraits in Jewish Statesmanship, explores the qualities of moral courage and virtue that great leaders have drawn from faith across centuries. Rabbi Soloveichik is also a 2026 Bradley Prize winner. Topics Discussed on this Episode: Rabbi Soloveichik's path from a distinguished rabbinic family to Princeton, the synagogue, and the public square