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Peter Thiel—the prominent tech entrepreneur and thinker—returns to Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson to discuss his views on the end times, technology, and societal progress. Thiel delves into the historical and philosophical context of apocalyptic thinking, referencing biblical texts and the work of René Girard. He argues that modern technological advancements, such as nuclear weapons and AI, have apocalyptic potential and should be taken seriously. Be sure to come back for part two of this conversation in which Thiel discusses the concept of the Antichrist.
Recorded on October 8th, 2024
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Niall Ferguson, Victor Davis Hanson, and Andrew Roberts are senior fellows at the Hoover Institution and among the most prestigious and popular historians in the world. This is the first time they have appeared together in a public forum. Among the topics they cover in this wide-ranging discussion: the recent controversy regarding Winston Churchill’s role in World War II, the false premise of the 1619 Project, the Cold War, World War II, and the role of historians in public life. In addition, they critique recent trends in historical writing and the recent phenomenon in much historical research of self-loathing in Western historical narratives, arguing that these views often distort factual history. The scholars also argue for history’s essential role in democracy and for learning from past mistakes. Ultimately, they conclude with reflections on contemporary global challenges, contrasting the open societies of the West with authoritarian regimes and expressing cautious optimism about the resilience of democratic values.
Recorded on October 17th, 2024
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Condoleezza Rice is the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution and a former US secretary of state and national security advisor in the George W. Bush administration. Rice joins Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson at a perilous moment for the United States and the world at large, even more dangerous than the Cold War, Rice argues.
Drawing on her recent article in Foreign Affairs, Rice highlights the complex threats posed by global powers including China, Russia, and Iran. The conversation delves into China’s economic and military growth, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Iran’s nuclear ambitions, while assessing the United States’ preparedness to face these challenges. Rice reflects on the strategic errors made in integrating China into the global economy and raises concerns about the potential for future conflicts, particularly in Taiwan and the broader Indo-Pacific region. Rice emphasizes the need for American leadership in a world threatened by authoritarian regimes, arguing that the US cannot afford to retreat from the world stage.
The interview concludes with a discussion on the upcoming election, with Rice offering advice to candidates and voters alike on the importance of considering foreign policy in determining America’s future.
Recorded on October 17, 2024.
OF FURTHER INTEREST:
Bret Baier (Fox News) Interview on September 2, 2024Atlantic Council Event on September 24, 2024Foreign Affairs Podcast on September 27, 2024Brian Kilmeade Show on October 9, 2024Dana Perino (Fox News) Interview on October 9, 202416 News Now (WNDU Indiana) Interview on October 11, 2024Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (PBS) Interview on October 11, 2024 -
General (ret.) H.R. McMaster, the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, returns to Uncommon Knowledge to discuss his latest book, At War with Ourselves, in which he candidly recounts his experiences as former national security advisor to President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2018.
In this wide-ranging interview, McMaster delves into the complexities and challenges he faced while serving in the administration and describes his role in providing the president with multiple options and safeguarding his independence of judgment, partially by drawing on the Stoic philosophy of Epictetus to “play well the role assigned to you.” He reflects on the internal tensions and conflicts within the White House, often exacerbated by differing agendas among staff and cabinet members. McMaster also discusses the difficulties in maintaining a productive relationship with President Trump, especially when offering candid advice that sometimes led to alienation. The conversation is a revealing look into McMaster's often tumultuous experiences in the Trump White House but also emphasizes the importance of a well-structured decision-making process in the realm of national security.
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“Are we alone in the universe?” That’s the central question we put to astrophysicist Dr. Luke Barnes, cosmologist Dr. Brian Keating, and philosopher Dr. Jay Richards.
Our guests delve into the probabilities and challenges of finding extraterrestrial life, considering the vastness of the cosmos and the fine-tuning necessary for life to exist. They explore the implications of the SETI project, the rarity of Earth-like conditions, and the potential for habitable planets in other solar systems. This discussion is set against the backdrop of broader scientific and philosophical inquiries, including the Big Bang, the multiverse theory, and the role of humanity in the cosmic order. The conversation offers a deep and nuanced perspective on the search for life beyond Earth and what it could mean for our understanding of the universe and our place within it.
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Stephen Meyer is the author of Return of the God Hypothesis and the director of the Discovery Institute. James Tour is a synthetic organic chemist and professor at Rice University, renowned for his work in nanotechnology and his skepticism toward the current scientific models explaining the origin of life.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Meyer and Tour contrast biological evolution with the more complex challenge of chemical evolution, where modern science still struggles to explain how nonliving chemicals could give rise to life. They critique early experiments like the Miller-Urey experiment, emphasizing that producing basic molecules is far from creating life itself. Meyer and Tour also argue that as scientific understanding deepens, the complexity of life's origins becomes more daunting, raising both scientific and philosophical questions about the adequacy of the current mainstream scientific explanations and theories for the origin of life.
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In his 1943 book The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis wrote: “The serious magical endeavor and the serious scientific endeavor are twins: One was sickly and died, the other strong and throve. But they were twins. They were born of the same impulse.” In this Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson, mathematician and philosopher David Berlinski, intelligent design advocate Stephen Meyer, and Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Cambridge University, James Orr explore the parallels between scientific and magical endeavors, referencing C. S. Lewis's notion that both were born from the same impulse, with one thriving and the other fading. They also explore the historical relationship between science and religion, noting how early scientists such as Newton and Galileo saw their work as uncovering divine order, in contrast with the more secular views of modern scientists such as Steven Weinberg and Stephen Hawking. The discussion also reveals deep philosophical and historical insights into the evolution of scientific thought and its complex relationship with materialism and religion.
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Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, a think tank dedicated to applying economic analysis, including cost-benefit analysis, to proposed policies around the issues of the day. He’s also a visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School and visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He's the author of many books, including the 2001 bestseller The Skeptical Environmentalist. His latest book, and the topic for this interview, is Best Things First. Offering cost-benefit analyses of many of the top-line policies of industrial and developing nations, Dr. Lomborg discusses which policies we should prioritize and which we should pay less attention to or end. Lomborg also asserts the benefits of economic growth and says that by spending on technology, we can solve all kinds of big problems, including hunger.
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Author and columnist Douglas Murray has spent much of the past few years reporting from battlefields in Ukraine and Gaza. His reporting on the harrowing conditions in those wartorn locations make his journalism a must-read. In this wide-ranging conversation, Murray describes what he has witnessed, why the West must ensure victories in both wars, and his reaction to the campus protests across the United States, as well as his views on the upcoming British elections.
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Classicist Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history and essays on contemporary culture. He has written or edited twenty-four books, the latest of which is The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation. The book—and this conversation—charts how and why some societies choose to utterly destroy their foes and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time. Hanson provides a warning to current societies not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
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Currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution, Paul Wolfowitz previously served as director of policy planning at the State Department, as US ambassador to Indonesia, as under secretary of defense for policy, as dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, as deputy secretary of defense, and as president of the World Bank. He is perhaps best known as a policymaker during the war in Afghanistan and the first and second wars in Iraq, and that is what we delve into in great detail in this episode. Wolfowitz gives his views on what the United States got right and got wrong in both Iraq and Afghanistan, recounting the data available to decision makers at the time and the decision-making processes. He also gives new details on why the Bush administration believed Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and determined an invasion of Afghanistan was necessary after 9/11, and how the idea for the surge in Iraq was conceived and executed.
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John Etchemendy and Fei-Fei Li are the codirectors of Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), founded in 2019 to “advance AI research, education, policy and practice to improve the human condition.” In this interview, they delve into the origins of the technology, its promise, and its potential threats. They also discuss what AI should be used for, where it should not be deployed, and why we as a society should—cautiously—embrace it.
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Historian Andrew Roberts is the author of more than a dozen major works of history, including Napoleon: A Life, Churchill: Walking with Destiny, and The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III. His latest book, coauthored with General David Petraeus, is Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine, which provides the basis for this interview. Roberts discusses the differences in the way nations and allied forces prosecute wars in the twentieth century vs. today. Roberts also discusses his strong support for Israel in the current conflict in Gaza both in the media and in the House of Lords, where he is now a member. Roberts also explains (with some understandable exasperation) why Ridley Scott (the director of the recent film biography of Napoleon) is wrong —really wrong—when he says that historians are not to be trusted because “they weren’t there” when they describe historical events.
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Despite a tumultuous and volatile marketplace; scandals, arrests, and bankruptcies at rival digital exchanges; and social issues disrupting his own company, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is a devout believer in digital currencies and the power of the blockchain. In this interview, Armstrong describes how he co-founded Coinbase, explains the basics of how digital currencies work, and responds to criticisms of cryptocurrency from Warren Buffet and others.
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Mary Bush, Freeman Hrabowski, and Condoleezza Rice grew up and were classmates together in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, in the late 1950s and early ’60s. After taking a brief visit with Rice to her childhood home, we gather them again for a second conversation in Birmingham’s Westminster Presbyterian Church, where Rice’s father was pastor during that period. In this second part of our interview, the three lifelong friends further recount what life was like for Blacks in Jim Crow Alabama and the deep bonds that formed in the Black community at the time in order to support one another and to give the children a good education. They discuss how they overcame the structural racism they experienced as children to achieve incredible successes as adults. Lastly, they discuss their views on the recent reckoning with racism in today’s culture and weigh in on the 1619 Project and other social programs.
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Mary Bush, Freeman Hrabowski, and Condoleezza Rice grew up and were classmates together in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, in the late 1950s and early ’60s. We reunited them for a conversation in Birmingham’s Westminster Presbyterian Church, where Rice’s father was pastor during that period. The three lifelong friends recount what life was like for Blacks in Jim Crow Alabama and the deep bonds that formed in the Black community at the time in order to support one another and to give the children a good education. They also recall the events they saw—and in some cases participated in—during the spring, summer, and fall of 1963, when Birmingham was racked with racial violence, witnessed marches and protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King, and was shocked by the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. The latter event resulted in the deaths of four little girls, whom all three knew. The show concludes with a visit to a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. erected in Kelly Ingram Park—where in 1963 Birmingham’s commissioner for public safety Bull Connor ordered that fire hoses and attack dogs be used on protestors. There, Condoleezza Rice discusses Dr. King’s legacy and his impact on her life.
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With the recent announcement that Oppenheimer, the film directed by Christopher Nolan, had garnered 11 Academy Award nominations, it seemed timely to pull from the archives this rarely seen episode of Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson from 1996 (the third episode ever shot), featuring nuclear physicists and Hoover senior fellows Edward Teller and Sidney Drell. Teller was involved in the development of the first atomic bomb and is prominently featured in Oppenheimer. Drell was an expert in the field of nuclear arms control and cofounder of the Center for International Security and Arms Control, now the Center for International Security and Cooperation. He later was deputy director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) from 1969 until his retirement from the lab in 1998. In this episode, Teller and Drell engage in a lively debate about the role of nuclear weapons and how they should be regulated in the late 20th century.
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Niall Ferguson is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University. In this interview, Ferguson discusses his stunning essay “The Treason of the Intellectuals,” published in December 2023 in the Free Press. The essay delves deeply into the changes Ferguson has observed in his 30-year career as an academic, especially over the past 10 years. He describes in the opening of his essay: “I have . . . witnessed the willingness of trustees, donors, and alumni to tolerate the politicization of American universities by an illiberal coalition of ‘woke’ progressives, adherents of ‘critical race theory,’ and apologists for Islamist extremism.”
Ferguson also discusses the resignation of Harvard president Claudine Gay and what it means for all institutions of higher learning, as well as putting forth some solutions for addressing these issues.
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Between now and the spring, the Supreme Court will rule on at least three cases involving Donald Trump. Two questions: What should the Court’s rulings be? What will they be? To answer those questions and more, we turn to our in-house legal experts: NYU Law School’s Richard Epstein and Berkeley Law School’s John Yoo.
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Tom Cotton has been a US Senator since 2015. Before that he served for two years in the US House of Representatives from the Arkansas Fourth District, after defeating a two-term Democratic incumbent. Cotton served in the US Army, where he was stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. In this wide-ranging interview, conducted in the Hugh Scott Room in the US Capitol, Senator Cotton opines on a variety of issues, including the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and the looming conflict with China over Taiwan; his “war” with the New York Times; what can be done about the lack of trust in US institutions; and why he’s not running for president in 2024.
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