In a special edition of Qualified Opinions, host Veronique de Rugy hosts an insider roundtable discussion featuring three AIER scholars: David Hebert (Director of Economics and Economic Freedom), Julia Cartwright (Senior Research Fellow in Law and Economics), and Thomas Savidge (Research Fellow) .

Together, the panel tackles three pressing geopolitical and economic developments :

• Canada's European Pivot: How tariff threats, trade tension, and rhetoric from Washington are driving Canada to explore an unprecedented "associate membership" with the European Union .

• The New Era of Populist Handouts: An analysis of high-dollar political promises—from a proposed $5,000 citizen dividend to $9,000 stay-at-home child subsidies—and how populist policy is blurring the traditional lines between the political left and right .

• AI Panics and Regulatory Capture: A critical look at recent doomsday warnings from tech whistleblowers and industry CEOs calling for AI regulation, exploring whether "pacing" innovation is genuine risk mitigation or a classic move to entrench market leaders against open-source rivals .

The episode wraps up with recommended reading from across the institute on central bank independence, international commerce, Gen Z spending habits, and inflation .

Stephanie Slade, senior editor at Reason, joins Veronique de Rugy to discuss her new book Fusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right.

Fusionism isn't a coalition strategy. It's the argument that liberty and virtue need each other — that coerced virtue isn't virtue at all, and that a free society depends on people who can govern themselves. Slade traces the idea from the founding through Hayek, Russell Kirk, and Frank Meyer, and explains how a movement that once took it for granted raised a generation that has never encountered the arguments.

They discuss why young people are looking for answers about the good life and where they're finding them, why the new right turned against markets, whether the culture of free speech can survive its current stress test, and what a recovery would actually require.

Roger Bate joins Veronique de Rugy to discuss his new book, The House Always Wins, sharing his personal brush with sports betting addiction and what it reveals about the industry's explosive growth, corruption risks, and need for smart regulation. They close with a candid look at Fauci and COVID policy accountability.