October 14, 2025

Now, on to the news…

An Institute for Family Studies (IFS) survey conducted last year found that, across religious, political, demographic, and geographic groups, Americans overwhelmingly prefer single-family houses with at least three bedrooms for their families.

And yet, apartment construction in the U.S. has reached a record high. The units are getting smaller, too, with more than half containing one bedroom or less.

What if builders started focusing more on family-friendly apartments? “Strikingly, bedroom counts matter, but square footage doesn’t,” Lyman Stone of IFS writes. “We found that showing respondents scenarios with two bedrooms rather than one increased demand just as much as showing them a $2,000 difference in rent.”

This means that significant pent-up demand exists for more bedrooms, Stone concludes, and he argues that the “open floor plan is anathema to American family life.”

You can read more about the survey results here.

Last month, the New York City Council approved Intro 429, a bill that, if signed, would prohibit homeowners and handymen from connecting gas stoves. The job would have to be done by one of the city’s 1,100 master plumbers, who would likely charge about $500.

“Like countless other Americans, I’ve never had a problem with this task,” writes John Ketcham. “There’s no good reason why it should be performed only by a licensed master plumber. All that will do is drive up our cost of living, to the benefit of a few special interests.”

Read his take.

In his new book The Persistence of the Ideological Lie, Claremont Institute Fellow Daniel J. Mahoney observes the intellectual parallels between “woke” progressivism and the totalitarian movements that devastated the twentieth century. “While the punishments for disobedience may not have been as severe—cancellations rather than gulags—the underlying structure of thinking,” Daniel DiSalvo writes in his review, “often follows a disturbingly familiar pattern.”

Read his review.

James Hankins and Allen Guelzo join Brian Anderson to discuss their new book project, The Golden Thread: The History of the Western Tradition.

“Leniency to those who have done wrong can harm innocent people, often by undermining justice and accountability. Without fair consequences for harmful actions, the victims or society can continue to suffer, trust in the legal system erodes, and further harm may be encouraged.”

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Tom W, commenting on Judge Deborah Boardman’s lenient sentencing of Nicholas Roske

Photo credits: Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock / Contributor / Archive Photos via Getty Images