Uncommon Knowledge

Recorded on August 28, 2018

Is blockchain the technology of the future? George Gilder, author of Life After Google, argues that bitcoin and blockchain technology is revolutionizing the Internet. He sits down with Peter Robinson to discuss technology, cloud computing, big data, and the growing role of blockchain in innovating new technologies.

Gilder argues that cloud computing, while it was the hot new technology ten years ago, has reached its limits as the physical limitations of big data storage centers maxes out. Improvements in parsing big data are incremental at this point, and it’s time for the next big technology to take its place. Gilder points to blockchain as the technology of the future, with its ability to prevent corruption and manipulation of transaction data and the infinite uses it could have in third world countries.

Gilder also discusses the history of technology, artificial intelligence, and the revolutionary bitcoin. He argues that artificial intelligence can never replace human intelligence and creativity and that in principle, it is impossible for machines to take over.

Recorded on August 28th, 2018. 

Is Brett Kavanaugh ready for the Supreme Court? John Yoo, Yale Law alumnus and Hoover Institution visiting fellow, breaks down Kavanaugh’s law career in the U.S. Court of Appeals. Yoo argues that the United States has concentrated too much power in the Supreme Court since the New Deal era legislation and that the Supreme Court is now more powerful than Congress and the President. Based off of Kavanaugh’s past career, Yoo predicts that Kavanaugh will help reign in the power of the Supreme Court and give it back to the states.

Yoo argues that based off of the Constitution, power to decide social issues should reside with states rather than the court. According to Yoo, prior to the New Deal era, the Supreme Court focused on regulatory issues rather than social issues. He argues that momentous social legal decisions like Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges are meant to be left to the individual states to decide.

Yoo analyzes the records of the current conservative justices and predicts that Kavanaugh will side more often with Justice Thomas and Justice Gorsuch, interpreting the Constitution as it was written by the founders, rather than by the changing will of the people.

About The Guest:

John Yoo is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and a professor of law at the University of California Berkeley school of Law.

Additional Resources:

• Hoover Scholars Analyze Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh
• Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Influence
• Adam White: After Trump Taps Textualist Brett Kavanaugh For Supreme Court, The Confirmation Fight Ahead And Potential Impact On Midterm Elections
• Adam White Discusses The Background Of Brett Kavanaugh
• Brett Kavanaugh's Possible Impact On The Supreme Court
• Area 45: The Supreme Court and Judge Brett Kavanaugh
• The Libertarian: Judging Brett Kavanaugh

Recorded on June 22, 2018

In a special edition of Uncommon Knowledge at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, Peter Robinson interviews former presidents and prime ministers on one subject: democracy. Following a unique format, Robinson asks each of the guests the same questions to get their distinctive perspectives on issues such as the rise of authoritarianism in Russia, communist China, and the prospects for democracy.

The guests include the former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom, Nick Clegg; former president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón; former president of Estonia and current Hoover visiting fellow, Toomas Henrik Ilves; and former prime minister of Denmark, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

The guests analyze economic growth in China and how that growth did not lead to the democratic country predicted by economic experts in 90s. They dive into why China does not truly have a free market, nor does it follow traditional Leninist/Marxist communism’s disdain for material goods. The guests go on to analyze changes in Russia in the last thirty years under President Putin and how foreign policy with Russia has affected their respective countries. They discuss the future of Russian and Chinese relations and how they believe those two countries are trying to shape the world.

About the Guests:

Nick Clegg was the deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015.

Felipe Calderón was the president of Mexico from 2006 to 2012.

Toomas Henrik Ilves was the president of Estonia from 2006 to 2016. He is currently a Hoover visiting fellow.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen was the Prime Minister of Denmark from 2001 to 2009. He was the Secretary General of NATO from 2009 to 2014.

Additional Resources:

• Uncommon Knowledge in Copenhagen: Revitalizing Democracies Around the World https://www.hoover.org/research/uncommon-knowledge-copenhagen-revitalizing-democracies-around-world
• The Copenhagen Democracy Summit http://www.allianceofdemocracies.org/initiatives/the-copenhagen-democracy-summit/the-summit/
• America’s Will to Lead With Anders Fogh Rasmussen https://www.hoover.org/research/americas-will-lead

 

Recorded on June 22nd, 2018

At the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, Peter Robinson moderated a panel discussion featuring prominent politicians from some of the world’s leading democracies as they discussed why democracy is declining around the world and what the prospects for democracy are in the future. They discussed how we can build friendships that will support our ambition of bringing together an international alliance of democracies for a freer and more prosperous world.

Participants include José María Aznar, former Prime Minister of Spain; Felipe Calderón, former President of Mexico; Nick Clegg, former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Stephen Harper, former Prime Minister of Canada; and Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former President of Estonia and Hoover Institution fellow.

For many citizens around the world they do not feel that democracy is working, that there is too much corruption, too much nepotism, and too much bad behavior for democracy to survive. The 2008 crisis and the technology revolution created continued suffering, and citizens feel that democratic systems are not working and that the citizens are burdened with the consequences. The weaponizing of social media has further exacerbated the pain as bad actors can quickly mobilize and cause more confusion and problems.

So what can be done?

Countries need to work together and act super-nationally to give their citizens as well as citizens of other countries security, prosperity, and sustainability. Countries need to use technology to implement coordinated responses to quickly stop the misleading attacks that are causing disruption, disinformation, and decentralization.

Democracies need free and fair elections, an independent judicial system, an independent legislature, freedom of speech, property rights, and an immigration system that works for everyone especially the citizens of a country.

Populism and disagreements are expressions of democracy, and disagreements do not mean we should delegitimize and reject unconventional choices for leaders and label them undemocratic. When we do that, we are heading in the wrong direction. Instead we should ask: what are our citizens telling us and why are they unhappy? How can we offer citizens democracies with better solutions?

As a world, we need to provide security together, but strength comes from within. Countries need to address the shortcoming of how democracies are developed socially, economically, and politically in their own countries first. Democracies must be able to adapt and innovate and they must be allowed the freedom to thrive. The strength of democracies over time is resilience.

Countries also need to promote free trade while respecting borders, which are not incompatible especially when using the United States and Canada as examples.

If we go towards a Chinese style of government there will be no more Facebook or Twitter and fewer freedoms. One man ruling for life almost always ends up with stagnation, tyranny, or both.

Part of the problem democracies are having is that people do not remember what it is like to live in a country where you do not have democratic rights and freedoms. People really need to understand technology and history and to remember what communism and authoritarianism were like in order to avoid those forms of government in the future.

With all of the technologies, ideas, and access to information that we have today, we have greatest possibilities for human life ahead of us if we embrace free and fair elections, an independent judicial system, an independent legislature, property rights, and freedom of speech. If democracies do those things then the force of freedom will be unstoppable and democratic societies will thrive.

Recorded on June 22, 2018

Will the United Kingdom really follow through on Brexit? British politician Daniel Hannan believes that Brexit is happening and cannot come soon enough. As a staunch proponent for the “Vote Leave” side, Daniel Hannan has been ready for Brexit since the referendum vote in 2016. He sits down with Peter Robinson to chat about what Brexit means for the UK, how soon it’s coming, and the likelihood of compromise between the now polarized British parties.

The United Kingdom became a member of the European Union in 1973. In June 2016, in a close 52 to 48 vote, UK citizens voted to leave the EU. Two years later and the UK is less than a year away from their deadline to leave by March 2019. Guest Daniel Hannan explains that while Brexit will ultimately be a good thing for the UK, arguments in Parliament have dragged out the question of if Brexit will happen, even though it’s already been settled by a referendum. Hannan argues that polarization amongst parliamentary parties is preventing real negotiations from taking place that will allow the UK to find the best compromise and regain their voting powers that citizens feel were diminished by membership in the EU. Hannan explains where the Brexit process is at in Parliament and what he feels is the best course of action for the EU moving forward. 

About the Guest:

Daniel Hannan is a British writer, journalist, and politician. Since 1999, he has been a Conservative Member of the European Parliament for South East England. He is the founding president for the Initiative on Free Trade. His most recent book is What Next: How to Get the Best from Brexit.

Did you miss part one? Listen to part one of the episode here.

Recorded on January 25, 2018.

“If you're interested in power, [if] you're interested in how power is accumulated and exercised, and what the consequences are, the subject of Stalin is just unbelievably deep, it's bottomless.” – Stephen Kotkin

In part two, Stephen Kotkin, author of Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941, discusses the relationship between Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler leading up to and throughout World War II. Kotkin describes what motivated Stalin to make the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Hitler and the consequences of his decision.

Kotkin dives into the history of the USSR and its relationship with Germany during WWII, analyzing the two leaders' decisions, strategies, and thought processes. He explains Stalin's and Hitler’s motivations to enter into the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact even without the support of their respective regimes. Stalin’s goal was to defeat the West and he saw the pact as an opportunity to do so by driving a wedge between Germany and the capitalist West. Kotkin analyzes Stalin’s decisions leading up to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and the disinformation Germany was feeding soviet spies to prevent Stalin from moving against Hitler first.

Additional resources:

• Why Does Joseph Stalin Matter?

• Stalin: Waiting For Hitler, 1929–1941
• The Past Isn’t Even Past
• Communism’s Bloody Century
• When Stalin Faced Hitler

Recorded on January 25, 2018

“Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator, creator of great power, and destroyer of tens of millions of lives …” Thus begins this episode of Uncommon Knowledge, which dives into the biography of Joseph Stalin. This episode’s guest, Stephen Kotkin, author of Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941, examines the political career of Joseph Stalin in the years leading up to World War II, his domination over the Soviet Union, and the terror he inspired by the Great Purge from 1936–38.

“Why does Joseph Stalin matter?” is a key question for Kotkin, as he explains the history of the Soviet Union and Stalin's enduring impact on his country and the world. Kotkin argues that Stalin is the “gold standard for dictatorships” in regard to the amount of power he managed to obtain and wield throughout his lifetime. Stalin stands out because not only was he able to build a massive amount of military power, he managed to stay in power for three decades, much longer than any comparable dictator.

Kotkin and Robinson discuss collectivization and communism and how Stalin’s regime believed it had to eradicate capitalism within the USSR even in regions where capitalism was bringing economic success to the peasants, with the potential of destabilizing the regime. This led to the Great Purge, a campaign of political repression that resulted in the exile and execution of millions of people. 

Recorded on Friday, May 11, 2018 in Washington DC.

In his first televised interview in almost a year, Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis sits down with Peter Robinson to discuss a wide range of issues facing the United States Armed Forces at home and across the globe. Earlier this year, Secretary Mattis published the National Defense Strategy, the first such document in a decade. Secretary Mattis describes why the document is an important blueprint for the Armed Forces and what he hopes to accomplish by publishing it.

After a moving story about a captured Iraqi suicide bomber, Secretary Mattis describes the complicated nature of our relationship with China and the possible flash points in the South China Sea. A discussion follows about Europe and how political controversies with Russia affect our military relationship and why Secretary Mattis believes NATO is not a threat to them. Moving on to the Middle East, Secretary Mattis defines our mission in Syria, comments on the use of chemical weapons, and explains why that theater is the most complex security conundrum he’s seen in his forty-year career. He says that the refugees coming out of Syria are more traumatized than refugees he’s seen anywhere else in the world. He discusses the need to work with the international community on the refugee crisis as, “It is a tragedy much worse than anything BBC or CNN can show.” 

In the Far East, Mattis describes how a coordinated effort across different departments of the US federal government and allied countries have achieved a dialogue that may lead to the denuclearization of North Korea. Secretary Mattis also makes the case that the Iranian regime and the Iranian people are different constituencies with different priorities and agendas. He relates how he is reforming the Pentagon’s provisioning and spending policies and why it’s important for the military (the seventeenth largest economy in the world) to be a responsible steward of the nation’s tax dollars.

Recorded March 14, 2018

Rich or poor, most people agree that wealth disparities exist. Thomas Sowell discusses the origins and impacts of those wealth disparities in his new book, Discrimination and Disparities in this episode of Uncommon Knowledge.

Sowell explains his issues with the relatively new legal standard of “disparate impact” and how it disregards the American legal principle of “burden of proof.” Sowell and Robinson discuss how economic outcomes vary greatly across individuals and groups and that concepts like “disparate impact” fail to take into account these variations.

They chat about the impact of nuclear families on the IQs of individuals, as studies have not only shown that children raised by two parents tend to have higher levels of intelligence but also that first-born and single children have even higher intelligence levels than those of younger siblings, indicating that the time and attention given by parents to their children greatly impacts the child’s future more than factors like race, environment, or genetics. Sowell talks about his book in which he wrote extensively about National Merit Scholarship finalists who more often than not were the first-born or only child in a family.

Sowell and Robinson go on to discuss historical instances of discrimination and how those instances affected economic and social issues within families, including discrimination created by housing laws in the Bay Area. They discuss unemployment rates, violence, the welfare state in regards to African American communities, and more.

Related Resources:

• Discrimination and Disparities
• Wealth, Poverty, and Politics
• Thomas Sowell Brings the World into Focus through an Economic Lens
• Thomas Sowell discusses his newest book, Intellectuals and Race
• Thomas Sowell discusses his essay “‘Trickle Down’ Theory and ‘Tax Cuts for the Rich.’”
• Thomas Sowell on the second edition of Intellectuals and Society

Recorded on March 29, 2018 Washington Post columnist and author, George F. Will, sits down with Peter Robinson in Austin, Texas to chat about the current administration and America’s favorite pastime—baseball. They discuss politics in the age of polarization and the future of America. Will argues that Americans need to stop looking at presidents as moral exemplars and instead focus on the president as the head of the executive branch. Will and Robinson discuss a quote from his 1984 book, Statecraft as Soulcraft: What Government Does, “The United States acutely needs real conservatism, characterized by a concern to cultivate the best personas and the best in persons. It should express appreciation for the ennobling functions of government.” They use this quote as a launchpad to discuss the future of American politics. The discussion turns to young adults and teenagers, and Will argues why history should be a required class for all college students. They also discuss the rise in birth rates of illegitimate children and what that means for society. They talk about family as the transmitter of social capital and that when the family fails, free society fails too. In the end they discuss baseball as America’s favorite pastime, and George Will argues it is the sport of America’s future as parents stop letting their children play football because of the dangers of lifelong head and body injuries. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe! (Playing time: 48:37)