This Friday, Daniel Heil and Tom Church examine health care reform measures on the table in the wake of the government shutdown; Anne Neuberger joins the GoodFellows for a discussion of cyber warfare and the technology sector’s role in national defense; and Victor Davis Hanson explains what the American Founders took away from their readings of classical thinkers such as Plato and Cicero.
Freedom Frequency
In a new “Plot Points” post at Freedom Frequency, Policy Fellows Tom Church and Daniel Heil explain how the government shutdown ended with a pledge of a December vote on enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which were the trigger for the shutdown. An upcoming change to the Affordable Care Act, meanwhile, could let up to five million more enrollees set up Health Savings Accounts. Heil and Church argue that these accounts help consumers exercise more choice over their health care decisions and potentially save money. Lawmakers are also thinking about potentially revolutionary innovations such as prefunded Flexible Spending Accounts, which might even shift existing subsidies directly to consumers. Read more here.
Politics, Institutions, and Public Opinion
Will future wars be decided by who controls space—cyber and outer—and which superpower has better paired geostrategic thinking with emerging technologies? For the latest episode of GoodFellows, Visiting Fellow Anne Neuberger, a former White House and Pentagon cyber policy advisor, joins Senior Fellows Niall Ferguson, John H. Cochrane, and H.R. McMaster to discuss what she sees as a “cyber gap” between China and America, the need for the US to rethink traditional weapons platforms, and how Dwight Eisenhower’s warning of a “military-industrial complex” is being redefined by the tech sector’s growing role in present-day and future warfare. After that: the three senior fellows weigh the significance of a utopian socialist recently elected mayor of a very capitalist New York City, a new “algocracy” (algorithms running the government) in Albania, and whether the “war of tomorrow” may be in . . . Venezuela? Watch or listen here.
US History
How did the ideas of the ancient world shape the birth of the American republic? In the first episode of a three-part lecture series hosted by the Pepperdine School of Public Policy, Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson explains the ancient philosophical roots of the American Founding—how the wisdom of classical thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero informed the Founders’ understanding of freedom, citizenship, and good governance. From Athens to Rome to Philadelphia, Hanson explains, these enduring ideas helped frame the structure of our divided government, the meaning of civic virtue, and the responsibilities of citizenship in a free society. Watch here.
US Foreign Policy
The Hoover Institution and the Israel Studies Program at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law hosted a book launch for Explaining Israel: The Jewish State, the Middle East, and America on Wednesday, October 29, 2025. The event featured the author Senior Fellow Peter Berkowitz, Senior Fellow Larry Diamond, and Amichai Magen, director of the Israel Studies Program. In this collection of 40 columns written for RealClearPolitics between 2014 and 2024, Berkowitz explains Israel by reporting events, examining ideas, and placing both in their larger geopolitical context. Berkowitz’s essays clarify the breathtaking achievements, the heartbreak, and the remarkable resilience of a nation struggling valiantly to be Jewish, free, and democratic in a dangerous region crucial to America’s interests. Watch or read more here.
Revitalizing American Institutions
Last month, the Hoover Institution hosted “Decadence or Renewal? Envisioning Competent Government in America,” a workshop bringing together participants from across the political spectrum to develop an agenda to revive confidence that democratic government can actually work. Hoover scholars including Senior Fellow Philip Zelikow, Research Fellow Jennifer Burns, and Director Condoleezza Rice engaged in discussions with public figures including the San Francisco city attorney and the director of the US Office of Personnel Management, as well as private sector stakeholders from firms including McKinsey & Company and Google. Watch or read more here.
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