RECLAIM YOUR INDEPENDENCE

Polyface Farms, Swoope, VA

September 12-13, 2025 

The experience of the last five years – from lockdowns and closure to vaccine mandates and mass surveillance – blew open a once-hidden machinery of control at all levels of society, nationally and globally. This Goliath has invaded medicine, tech, media, large corporations, and, above all else, government at all levels. The devastation for liberty and rights, even the future of civilization, has been nothing short of traumatic for the whole of humanity. 

Brownstone Institute’s first retreat at Polyface Farms offers loyal Brownstone readers a chance to join us in an exciting opportunity to learn from the best minds on the subjects of health freedom, food freedom, monetary freedom, educational freedom, freedom from censorship, and more. This will all be held at the home of one of the world’s greatest leaders in regenerative farming. 

You can join with these powerful thinkers to share knowledge and expertise, discover hidden histories, learn about the many industrial complexes that have gained so much power, and find ways around and through this crisis. 

There has been a dramatic shift in the political and intellectual history of our time. We’ve gone through a half-century or longer being distracted by various news items…technological advances, end of cold war…we were enticed to believe that there could be a technical fix for many of our problems. We keep missing the point. Our times have presented us, maybe by accident, with the realization that the system is not only not working for us, but is acting as our enemy.

We have to reclaim some sense of independence over our lives. The applications are in the financial world, what we eat, and the medicalization of society. Ultimately, we need a spiritual recapturing of things. Reorienting our sense of who we are and our purpose in this world. How we manage our time, finances, health…whom we trust.

We need to reconnect at Polyface and take a lesson from the farmer in all this. We started off as an agrarian society and became the greatest country in the world, but along the way we have lost the values of that society, becoming enticed by technology, with the promise of making our lives easier. 

What are the values of agronomy? What is the meaning of security, the meaning of the homestead, the value of a family, the discipline of routine? The farmer pays close attention to the cycles of life, and the seasons of the year. What is reality? The agrarian life exemplifies the reality of what has value – including the inherent goodness of work.

The romance of routine is largely lost in our current world. We need to reexamine the way we look at the world and our own culture, reminding ourselves of what is truly valuable to us as humans. We had a huge wakeup call and got a view of reality that had been hidden to us before the Covid lockdowns.

Join us in Reclaiming Your Freedom.

Featured in the program are many of the most effective thought leaders in the last five years, the people who refused to be canceled and have a record of speaking truth to power. Even as so many institutions of the past failed to step up during the crisis of our lives, these people were the light who showed the way back to fundamental principles of Enlightenment values. 

You will leave feeling part of a grand and global movement – energized, knowledgeable, and ready to lead the way back to sanity and freedom. You will find colleagues for your own work in your community and build trusted friendships to depend on for the difficult years to come. These are truly times in which you can make a difference. This event shows the why and the way. 

The event begins on Friday morning with an early morning registration and a delicious breakfast and ends Saturday afternoon. 

Register Now 

The ticket includes all sessions, breaks, and breakfast and lunch on both conference days. Rather than divide attendees up by various packages and price points, this ticket allows everyone to participate in forming a real community of collegiality and friendship. 

General Registration

(includes all sessions and breaks Friday and Saturday, plus breakfast and lunch Friday and Saturday) is $265 (early bird price $240 until May 31) and includes the Farm Tour Saturday morning (8:45 – 10:45 am) of Polyface Farm.

Ticket pricing:

Ticket pricing, individual: $265 (with early bird discount of $25) until May 31, 2025.

• Includes Breakfast and Lunch on both days, as well as coffee both days. Access to all sessions. Also includes Saturday morning Farm Tour.

Farm Tour

• This two-hour tour by Polyface Farms will be on Saturday morning, between 8:45 and 10:45, returning in time for the keynote on Saturday at 11 am.

Hotels

(For hotel accommodations, please check out the Polyface page with a list of local hotels here: Polyface page)

Conference Speakers

Click photos/names for bio (opens new window)

Tentative Schedule 

Friday, September 12, 2025

7:00 am | Registration
7:30 – 8:30 | Breakfast
9:00  | Welcome: Jeffrey Tucker
9:15 – 10:00 | Panel 1 – Regaining our Sense of the World
[Rev. John Naugle, Josh Stylman, Cooper Davis]
10:00 – 10:45 | Interview with Harrington, Baker
10:45 – 11:15 | Break
11:15 – Noon | Keynote – Thomas Massie
Noon – 12:45 pm | Panel 2 – Eyes Wide Open Health
[Malone, Varon]
12:45 – 2:15 | Lunch
2:15 – 3:00 | Interview with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying
3:00 – 3:45 | Interview with Mary Holland and Sarah Thompson
3:45 – 4:15 | Break
4:15 | Interview with Aaron Day
5:00 pm | End of Day

Saturday, September 13, 2025

7:30 – 8:30 am | Breakfast
8:45 – 10:45 | Farm Tour
10:45 – 11:15 |Break
11:15-Noon | Keynote – Joel Salatin
Noon – 12:45 | Panel Healthcare
[Malone, Varon, Cole, Baker] 
12:45 – 2:15 | Lunch  
2:15 – 3:00 | Interview with Tracy Thurman
3:00 – 3:45 | Interview with Josh Stylman
3:45 – 4:15 | Break
4:15  | Speaker Robert Malone
5:00 pm | End of Day

Additional Details 

Transportation (See Polyface page for this)
Airport recommendations:
Shenandoah or Charlottesville. 
Richmond is also possible, but a longer drive.
Dulles is a much longer drive (2.5 hours)

Refund Policy: Contact us at [email protected] to request a refund.

Attire 

• Farm casual

Recording: Brownstone will be recording the talks during the retreat. Videos will be posted here and on X after the event.

Exhibitions/Vendors – co-sponsorships will be available.

Weather: In the case of inclement weather, the schedule may change slightly, to allow the farm tour to occur when it isn’t raining.

Dietary Concerns

If you require a special diet (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, etc.), we suggest that you bring along food for yourself. Most people are able to find plenty of delicious food that suits their diets from the array that is provided by Polyface, but we are not able to provide special meals for individuals with specific needs.

Hotel Details

(See Polyface page)

Driving Directions

43 Pure Meadows Ln, Swoope VA 24479

Parking

Available at Polyface Farms.