Uncommon Knowledge

iGeneral H. R. McMaster and military historian Victor Davis Hanson are both senior fellows at the Hoover Institution. In this frank, no-holds-barred conversation, they discuss the United States’ mission in Afghanistan: how it began, how it was conducted, and its ignominious end. McMaster and Hanson debate what worked and what failed, how social issues in the United States may have influenced our mission in Afghanistan and our decision to leave, and whether or not the United States should have continued to maintain a presence instead of leaving in a matter of weeks, abandoning thousands of Afghans loyal to the US mission there (as well as an unknown number of US citizens) after 20 years of military operations in the country. Recorded on September 17, 2021

Joe Felter is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and the William J. Perry Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation. He also served as an officer in the US Army special forces, where he saw combat in Panama, Iraq, and Afghanistan. During the Trump administration, Dr. Felter served as deputy secretary of defense for South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. In this wide-ranging conversation, Dr. Felter discusses the ever growing threat to Taiwan from the People’s Republic of China and the state of preparedness for such a conflict in the United States and the West. Dr. Felter also discusses the India-Russia relationship and the US opportunity there, and how private industry in the United States can provide better support for the armed forces than the Pentagon itself.  Recorded on July 9, 2021

Amy Zegart is the Morris Arnold and Nona Jean Cox Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where she chairs the Working Group on Technology, Economics, and Governance. She’s also a professor of political science at Stanford, and an expert on intelligence, cybersecurity, and big tech. In this wide-ranging conversation, Professor Zegart discusses the US relationship with China and how she views that country’s aggressive stance toward Taiwan; why big tech companies are a potential threat not only to privacy, but also to our national security; and why the next war may well be fought with a keyboard rather than on a battlefield. Recorded on June 30, 2021

Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights, Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book on the explosion of sexual violence and harassment in Europe, was published in early 2021. Since then, the book has sparked a worldwide discussion online and offline about the immigration of huge numbers of mostly young Muslim men (more than 3 million, by some reports) to European cities and its effect on the women who live there. To discuss this phenomenon, explain why many of these young men feel empowered to harass women, and offer some possible solutions, Peter Robinson is joined by Prey author and Hoover Institution research fellow Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Valerie Hudson, a professor of political science at the Bush School at Texas A&M University and an expert on women’s rights and demographics; and Christopher Caldwell, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute and the author of Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West, published in 2009, and The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties

Thirty-four years ago, on June 12, 1987, Ronald Reagan stood before the Berlin Wall to deliver an address. Just over two years later, on November 9, 1989, the East German government suddenly announced that it had decided to permit free passage between East and West Berlin—the Berlin Wall had ceased to function. To commemorate one of the seminal events of the 20th century, the Reagan Institute invited Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson to participate and record a panel discussion featuring  Peter Robinson, author of Reagan’s speech; Jamie Fly, president and CEO of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty; William Inboden, chair of the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin; and H. R. McMaster, former national security advisor to President Trump and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Together, the panel delves into the history and provenance of the speech, the reaction of the Soviets and of the world to the speech, and its place in history looking back three decades la

Tyler Goodspeed is the former director of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and currently the Kleinheinz Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He has published three volumes on economic history and holds undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. He has also studied at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and taught at King’s College London.  Goodspeed explains why he pursued a job in the Trump administration, gives his thoughts on the economic policies of the Biden administration, and describes what it was like to watch one of the strongest economies in the history of the world implode over the course of several weeks in the spring of 2020.  Recorded on May 26, 2021

Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley has just published Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell, the definitive account of the life of Hoover senior fellow Thomas Sowell. In this wide-ranging interview, Peter Robinson and Riley discuss the events and people that helped Sowell become one of the most important American voices on cultural, economic, and racial matters of the last 50 years. Recorded on May 13, 2021

Niall Ferguson is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, his new book on the decisions made by governments and public health officials around the world during the COVID pandemic. In this wide-ranging discussion, Ferguson describes what governments and leaders got right and got wrong—very wrong—over the 15 months since the coronavirus spread from China. Were the lockdowns instituted around the world prudent and life saving, or did they cause more damage by crippling economies and creating massive unemployment and enormous government debt across the globe? How can vaccines be created and distributed faster and more efficiently than this one? Finally, what lessons can we learn from this pandemic that can be applied to or even prevent the next one? Yes, Niall is certain there will be another one. Recorded on April 28, 2021

China is a nation with 1.3 billion people, an economy projected to become bigger than the United States’ in just a few years, and a rapidly growing military.  Hong Kong has already fallen under its authority. Meanwhile, Taiwan looms in the distance—with a population of almost 24 million, it’s a technology hub and the world’s leading manufacturer of microchips and other items essential to high tech. What are China’s ambitions toward Taiwan? And if they are ominous, what should the US response to Chinese aggression be? To answer these questions, we’re joined by two experts: former national security advisor (and current Hoover Institution senior fellow) H. R. McMaster and former US deputy national security advisor (and current Hoover distinguished visiting fellow) Matthew Pottinger. They also discuss the Biden administration’s recent diplomatic encounters with China, and which countries might be allies in a conflict with China—and which ones would not be.  Recorded on April 9, 2021

Dr. Stephen Meyer directs the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute in Seattle. He returns to Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson to discuss his newest book,  Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe. In this wide-ranging and often mind-bending interview, Dr. Meyer explains the God Hypothesis; makes his continuing and evolving case for intelligent design; describes how Judeo-Christian theology gave rise to science; discusses why the discovery of DNA is actually an enigma, as its existence cannot be explained by natural selection; and more. Recorded on March 30, 2021

Interview with Laurence Fox Thursday, March 25, 2021   A brilliant British actor, Laurence Fox happened to say something mildly controversial on the BBC last year—and suddenly found himself a victim of cancel culture. Instead of retreating or apologizing, Fox made the unusual choice to not just rebel but to do it in the most public way possible: by running for mayor of London. Fox knows his chances of winning are slim, but he is using his candidacy to shine a light on what he considers the heavy hand of political correctness in our culture, the increasing lack of freedom of speech, and the oppressive nature of COVID lockdowns in the United Kingdom. It’s a bold and innovative strategy, and who knows—it just might work.  Recorded on March 23, 2021

Dr. Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School. He’s also been speaking and writing about climate science for almost 20 years. In this wide-ranging discussion with Peter Robinson, Lomborg analyzes the Biden administration’s plan to address climate change, lauds a slew of new clean energy technologies that are coming in the next decade, and discusses the upsides—and the downsides—of migrating the world from a carbon-based economy to one based on electricity generated by clean energy sources. Recorded on March 4, 2021

Hoover research fellow Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s new book is Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights. It examines the sharp rise in the number of sexual assaults in Western Europe that coincides with the sharp rise in illegal immigration from Muslim-majority countries. The book points out that almost three million people have arrived illegally in Europe since 2009, close to two million in 2015 alone. A majority have come from Muslim-majority countries. Two-thirds are male, and 80 percent of asylum applicants are under the age of 35. In this conversation, Peter Robinson and Hirsi Ali explore the cause-and-effect relationships occurring in these countries, and the responses from European governments, law enforcement, and most surprisingly, from feminists in both Europe and the United States who seem very eager to deflect attention away from illegal immigration, a point the book makes very strongly.

The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump begins on February 9, 2021, but a fierce debate as to the constitutionality of trying a former president in this manner has been ongoing in the legal community for weeks. To bring some possible clarity and resolution to the matter, we assembled three of best and most cogent legal minds we know: Professor John Yoo of Berkeley Law School, Professor Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago and New York University School of Law, and Andrew McCarthy, former federal prosecutor and a legal commentator for National Review and Fox News. Two of our guests argue that a former president of the United States can be tried; one guest takes the other side of the argument. We won’t reveal who takes what angle, but we can say that both points of view get a thorough airing. We leave it to our audience to determine the winning argument. Recorded on February 8, 2021

To mark the first anniversary of the passing of Roger Scruton, Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson was asked by the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation to participate in its Remembering Roger Scruton Memorial Event by interviewing the Right Honourable Michael Gove. Gove is a member of Parliament,  a member of Britain’s Conservative Party, and the current chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and minister for the Cabinet Office.  Gove began reading Scruton’s work as a teenager, and it had a very strong influence on Gove’s intellectual journey toward becoming a Conservative. In this conversation, Gove describes his own relationship with Scruton, how Scruton influenced British politics while living and even after his death, and how Scruton’s fierce support of Brexit was both personally and politically helpful to Gove. He also discusses Scruton's warnings about— and his own experience fighting—“wokeness,” as well as what Scruton might have thought about lockdowns. Finally, Gove shares some thoughts about Scruton’s

In 1997, Margaret Thatcher asked Charles Moore (also known as Lord Baron Moore of Etchingham) to write her biography, under two conditions: that she would never read the manuscript and that the work would appear only after her death. Twenty-four years later, Moore has just published the third and final volume of Herself Alone: The Authorized Biography. In this conversation, Peter Robinson and Moore discuss Thatcher’s final years as prime minister and her life out of office. They delve into Thatcher’s relationships with the world leaders of her era, including Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. They also discuss her image now, seven years after her passing, including her portrayal in Netflix’s The Crown. Moore points out that while the show gets many personal details about Thatcher correct, it takes massive liberties when depicting her relationship with Queen Elizabeth and her stewardship of many important events that occurred during her tenure as prime minister, including the Falklands War and the coal miner

It’s our last show of 2020, and we decided to do something a little different: assemble a few of our favorite guests and take a look back at the year that was. Our panel: the Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel, author and columnist Douglas Murray, and Commentary Magazine editor and New York Post columnist John Podhoretz. They discuss the election, the coming Cold War with China, the future of the conservative movement in the United States and abroad, the pandemic, and the political class, and we get some recommendations from our panel members of their favorite shows, books, or movies they used to get through the lockdowns.  Thanks for all of the views, comments, emails, and tweets this past year. We are grateful to have such an engaged and thoughtful audience, and we wish all of you a happy and safe holiday season. We have some great shows planned for 2021 and are looking forward to getting back to our studio and on the road. See you then. Recorded on December 10, 2020

A little over 18 months ago, we interviewed author and columnist Douglas Murray about his then new book The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity. That show was one of our most-watched interviews of 2019, so we thought it was time to sit down with Douglas again and get an update on where things stand with regard to, as Douglas describes in his book, “the interpretation of the world through the lens of ‘social justice,’ ‘identity group politics’ and ‘intersectionalism’ . . . the most audacious and comprehensive effort since the end of the Cold War at creating a new ideology.” We also discuss European politics, examine Boris Johnson’s tenure as UK prime minister, and take a sobering look at American politics from the perspective of a very sharp observer. Recorded on November 23, 2020

Hoover Fellows Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Peter Berkowitz discuss the final report recently issued by the US State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, of which Berkowitz was the commission secretary. Together they discuss the findings of the report, why Secretary of State Pompeo felt the need for the commission and the report, and the controversy that surrounded both. They compare and contrast the report to the US Constitution, which also prominently mentions unalienable rights, as well as the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948. Finally, they discuss how US foreign policy should employ our belief in human rights to improve the human condition. Recorded on September 3, 2020

Larry Kudlow is the director of the National Economic Council, a position he has held since April 2018. As such, Mr. Kudlow was on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis in its early days, trying to manage and maintain one of the strongest economies in US history and prevent it from falling into a catastrophic depression. Kudlow discusses in detail what those dark days were like for Kudlow and the rest of the Trump administration and, in addition, how it felt to be on the receiving end of withering and seemingly endless criticism from the media and the administration’s political opponents. Kudlow also discusses why he thinks the economy is well positioned for a strong rebound once the virus is under control and why he fears a Biden administration may reverse many of the economic policies Kudlow has championed, which led to the economic progress achieved before the pandemic struck. Recorded on October 6, 2020