In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his vision for four fundamental freedoms that ought to be secured for people everywhere: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

These four ideals formed the bedrock of the liberal world order. But in 2025, they are under threat from a radically new set of technological, economic, and cultural challenges.

What does free speech look like on the internet, where a handful of tech giants control the flow of information? Would the crisis of meaning in our society be alleviated if people turned back to religion? Why, in an age of unprecedented prosperity, are so many of us so unhappy? And how can we guarantee both freedom and security in an era of mass surveillance?

This year, The Free Press is partnering with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) to present The Freedom Debates, four live debates in cities across the country that speak to FDR’s four freedoms and tackle the urgent, complex questions associated with them. We are thrilled to have the support of FIRE, the country’s premier civil liberties organization, for this series.

Our first debate—“Does the West Need a Religious Revival?”—will take place February 27 at The Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, featuring Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ross Douthat, Adam Carolla, and Michael Shermer.

Paid subscribers can head HERE to purchase presale tickets before they open to the general public in 24 hours, using the code at the end of this article.

We can’t think of a topic more urgent than this one.

Anyone with eyes to see has noticed that our culture is fraying. It’s not just the degradation of trust in institutions, the extreme political polarization, and the culture wars tearing our communities apart. Marriage rates have reached historic lows, as have childbirths. Conversely, depression, anxiety, loneliness, addiction, and deaths of despair have spiked.

It’s a crisis of meaning that has befallen not just the United States but most countries in the West.

In recent years, a growing chorus of intellectuals has pointed to the decline of traditional religion as a culprit. Our existential dread, they argue, is the result of a “God-shaped hole,” filled only with consumerism, hedonism, nihilism, and destructive ideological movements. That was the subject of one of the most important essays we published last year: Peter Savodnik’s “How Intellectuals Found God.”

At the time of FDR’s Four Freedoms speech, American churches were flourishing. One half of Americans were attending services regularly. Now, fewer than half of us even belong to a church, synagogue, or mosque.

Despite their emphasis on freedom of worship, the founders of the United States understood religion to be fundamental to a well-functioning society. John Adams wrote in 1798 that “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Is rising secularism the culprit for our modern malaise? Or is the problem elsewhere—the result of rapid technological changes, growing economic inequality, and other social disruptions? And would a return to religion be a return to dogma, repression, and intolerance?

On February 27, we’re convening an all-star lineup to answer the question: “Does the West Need a Religious Revival?” For the first event of our Freedom Debates series, Ross Douthat and Ayaan Hirsi Ali will face off against Adam Carolla and Michael Shermer.

Paid subscribers now have exclusive access to purchase presale tickets before they open to the general public in 24 hours. The access code is below.

At The Free Press, passionate, smart, good-faith debate is at the very core of our mission. Our commitment to open conversation is why we partnered with FIRE to host our America Debates series last year. We are so proud to partner with them again on this year’s series, The Freedom Debates.

We are grateful to our paid subscribers for making this debate, and everything we do at The Free Press, possible. We encourage you to take advantage of the 24-hour presale period by using the access code at the end of this email.

VIP tickets include an invitation to our debate after-party, where you’ll chat with Bari Weiss and members of The Free Press and FIRE teams, mingle with the debaters, and get a chance to meet each other IRL. Plus: strong drinks and great food. You won’t want to miss it.

If you’re a student, verify your academic status here to receive a special student discount code!

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Trump’s inauguration is right around the corner, and there is so much to cover about the new White House. In the coming weeks, we’ll have key figures in the Trump administration on Honestly to talk about what they are planning.

But, we all know that if Trump 2.0 is anything like Trump 1.0, there are going to be a lot of twists and turns here. And we want…

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The devastating fires in Los Angeles have killed 24 people. The fires have burned tens of thousands of acres, and hundreds of thousands of Angelenos have been forced to evacuate. The blaze has destroyed at least 12,000 structures and thousands of people have nowhere to live.

For most people, this is a horrific tragedy. But numerous landlords in the area are treating it as a money-making opportunity.

A review of rental listings revealed dozens of properties where the landlords have sharply increased their prices since the fires began on January 7. Popular Information used Zillow to identify rental homes in communities near the areas impacted by the fires — including Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, Huntington Beach, and the San Fernando Valley — that have increased their asking price over the last week.

While not every rent increase is evidence of exploitation, the timing and scale of many increases strongly suggest price gouging is occurring.

In Manhattan Beach, for example, Popular Information identified a five-bedroom home listed on December 31, 2024, for $8,750 per month. By Monday, the rent was bumped up 125 percent to $19,750 monthly.

But it is not only luxury properties with ocean views whose prices have skyrocketed in the last week.

A three-bedroom home in Tujunga, listed for $4,100 on December 28, was increased to $8,500 on January 7, the day the Pacific Palisades fire broke out, 93 percent higher than its initial listing price.

Popular Information found dozens of homes whose rents property managers have hiked during Los Angeles’s state of emergency. Some are 5,000-square-foot mansions that regularly go for tens of thousands of dollars per month. Others are modest single-family homes that can already be too expensive for many renters.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) declared a State of Emergency for Los Angeles and Ventura counties on January 7. Landlords who have increased rent by more than 10% since January 7 could find themselves on the wrong side of the law. California’s price gouging law prohibits increasing rental prices by more than 10% for 30 days after a State of Emergency is declared. For housing not rented at the time of the declaration, the rental price is defined as the most recent price paid or offered within one year. (For housing that hasn’t been offered for rent within the last year, the price is capped at “160 percent of the fair market rent established by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.”)

Violations of the state’s price gouging law are punishable by up to a year in jail, a $10,000 fine, or both. On Sunday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said that state and federal prosecutors were “very eager to prosecute anyone who thinks they’re going to take advantage of the people who have been through this tragedy.”

Some landlords appear to be belatedly familiarizing themselves with the law. Popular Information identified several properties where the rental prices were increased well in excess of 10% after January 7 but then subsequently decreased to be at or just below the legal limit. These landlords are also exploiting the fires to increase their profits, but they are now doing so within the technical limits of the law.

One four-bedroom home in Glendale has undergone three price changes in less than a week. After being purchased in November 2024 for just over $3 million, the house was listed on January 7 at $11,800 per month. Two days later, the price shot up to $17,900 per month, a 51% increase. Then on January 12, the price was reduced to $12,980 — exactly 10 percent higher than the price it was listed for on January 7, making it the legal maximum the property manager can charge under the emergency order.

A three-bedroom home in Sherman Oaks, CA was initially listed for $6,975 on December 3 and then increased to $8,000 on January 9 — a 14.7% increase. On January 12, the price was adjusted to $7,670, representing a 9.96% increase over the initially listed rent.

Popular Information also found two properties whose rents were raised by 40% and 60% that were then reduced but remain above the legal limit. Several other properties have been reduced to below the 10% threshold.

Popular Information’s analysis focused on rental homes, and not apartments, because prices for multi-family units are more opaque. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, however, emphasized that large corporate landlords will also be scrutinized. In a press conference on Saturday, Bonta noted that “some of our landlords use algorithms based on demand and supply to set their prices,” referring to AI software like RealPage. Bonta warned that blaming software, or claiming ignorance of the law, “is not an excuse.”