A few months ago, we made a bet: Free Pressers didn’t just want to read our articles and listen to our podcasts. They wanted to meet up, wrestle with ideas together, and share a drink after.
Since then, thousands of you have sat down with strangers at Supper Club events around the world. More than 4,000 of you are reading East of Eden as part of our new Free Press book club. Every day in the Forum, readers exchange opinions, advice, recommendations, and occasionally phone numbers.
So we started to wonder: If a few hours around a dinner table can create that kind of connection, what might happen over four or five days?
We want to find out, so today we’re introducing Free Press Excursions: intimate journeys that bring readers together with Free Press writers and expert guides to explore history, culture, and consequential ideas in the places where they come alive.
Our first three trips grow directly from questions that animate our pages: What happens when a society loses touch with the faith that shaped its moral imagination? What can a great novel teach us about friendship, courage, and duty? And what does the history of D-Day and Dachau tell us about American power—and our role in the world today?
Now we’re taking those conversations around the world.
From D-Day to Dachau with Aaron MacLean
France and Germany | August 2–7, 2027
On June 6, 1944, thousands of young Americans landed under fire, climbed cliffs, liberated villages, and began the campaign that would help bring down Nazi Germany.
More than eight decades later, the generation that fought that war has nearly disappeared. Soon, the responsibility of remembering will belong entirely to us.
Led throughout by expert military historians, we’ll follow the Allied advance from Utah Beach, Pointe du Hoc, and Omaha Beach to Munich and Dachau. For part of the journey, Free Press contributor and School of War host Aaron MacLean will join the group for lectures and conversations about what this history requires of us now: When is war just? What obligations accompany American power? And what happens when a nation forgets the sacrifices that made its freedom possible?
Aaron’s father participated in the liberation of Dachau. For him, this is personal. For all of us, it is a chance to confront evil, sacrifice, and why America still matters to the world.
Explore D-Day and Dachau with Aaron MacLean
Faith, Power, and the Vatican with Will Rahn
Rome | November 10–14, 2027
Christianity began as a persecuted faith on the margins of the Roman Empire. It became one of the most powerful and enduring institutions in human history.
Join Free Press senior editor and writer Will Rahn, a practicing Catholic, to examine what the Church built and preserved, what it gained and compromised as it moved from persecution to power, and what it can still say to a secular world searching for meaning and belonging.
Through special access to the Vatican, encounters with its art and architecture, and private conversations with clergy, scholars, and leaders, we’ll consider the Church’s beauty and failures, its contradictions and endurance. And with Leo XIV—the first American pope—now at its helm, we’ll ask what comes next.
Explore Faith, Power, and the Vatican with Will Rahn
Enter the World of Lonesome Dove with Shilo Brooks
New Mexico | April 29–May 2, 2027
Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove is about a cattle drive. It is also about male friendship, courage, duty, death, and the American longing to find out what lies beyond the horizon.
Shilo Brooks believes great literature can teach us how to live. It’s the idea behind his Free Press podcast, Old School, and it will be at the heart of this long weekend at a retreat in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
We’ll revisit the novel with Shilo and fellow Free Pressers, then head outside for local history, traditional leatherworking, and a cowboy cookout beneath the open sky.
Explore Lonesome Dove with Shilo Brooks
More Ways to Engage
Free Press Excursions are part of our larger commitment: to create more ways for our readers to engage deeply with the subjects in our pages—and with one another—whether in the Forum, over a great novel, around a neighborhood dinner table, at a live event, or halfway around the world.
We hope you’ll come with us.
Free Press Excursions are created with Indagare Travel and Essential History Expeditions, experienced travel partners specializing in extraordinary journeys and historical programming.
For travelers who prefer to plan their own adventures: As part of our partnership with Indagare, Free Press subscribers receive complimentary 30-day access to Indagare’s Self Planner Membership, which includes more than 390 expert destination guides, vetted hotel recommendations, booking tools, and access to VIP amenities at participating properties. Email Membership@Indagare.com to redeem.
Questions or feedback for future trips? Please email Events@TheFP.com. Want to stay up to date on all Free Press live experiences? Bookmark our events page.
The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through all book links in this article.