"More than 7 in 10 Americans say that raising children is unaffordable — an increase of 20 percentage points over the last decade and a significant jump of 13 percentage points over the last year."

"May we live in a way that’s in harmony with our core values, and by the values that we see in others who we admire."

"Marriage and childbearing belong to the domain of the spirit, the rational part of the rational animal. Marriage and kids are choices we make. They have to be chosen because we are reasoning beings. The reasons to do them have to be weightier than the reasons not to do them. And there are many reasons not to do them. Marriage and kids are hard to do. You give up a lot. But what do you gain?"

Tyson Reeder, an Affiliated Scholar for Wheatley Institute's Constitution Initiative, was awarded the prestegious George Washington Prize for his book Serpent in Eden. The book is an exploration of foreign meddling in early American politics, analyzing both the ways in which foreign powers swayed American democracy and the ways the new republic attempted to respond. The work was praised as "a blend of wonderful storytelling and intriguing characters along with perceptive historical analysis. . . . This important contribution stands out as an incredibly timely and relevant book for how we can use the past to understand the present."

I am not legally bound to honor the holy spaces of others, to make room for their beliefs and practices, or to respond to their religious speech with peace, tolerance and respect. But the norm of religious freedom creates a powerful social force encouraging me to do so.

Differences of opinion are part of life and differences of conviction are part of life too. I think we need to have the expectation that we're not always going to agree, even on the most important, even on the most personal, down-to-the-heart type of things. And that is okay. The way that we disagree is what's important.