P. J. O’Rourke and Andrew Ferguson on COVID-19, their wasted youth, Trump versus Biden, the state of journalism, and why they’d both bet on the United States over China any old day.

What’s So Funny about Corona, Politics, the Media, and the Culture? A Conversation with Andrew Ferguson and P. J. O’Rourke

For more than two decades the Hoover Institution has been producing Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson, a series hosted by Hoover fellow Peter Robinson as an outlet for political leaders, scholars, journalists, and today’s big thinkers to share their views with the world.

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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.

Andrew Roberts on “Conflict: The Evolution of War from 1945 to Ukraine” | Uncommon Knowledge | Peter Robinson | Hoover Institution

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.

Why Bitcoin Will Take Over The World: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong | Uncommon Knowledge | Peter Robinson | Hoover Institution

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.

Growing Up Segregated: Three Witnesses To The Struggle For Civil Rights, Part 2 | Uncommon Knowledge | Peter Robinson, Condoleezza Rice, Mary Bush, and Freeman Hrabowski| Hoover Institution

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.

Birmingham, 1963: Three Witnesses to the Struggle for Civil Rights | Uncommon Knowledge | Peter Robinson, Condoleezza Rice, Mary Bush, and Freeman Hrabowski| Hoover Institution

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.

Uncommon Knowledge Archive: Oppenheimer’s Edward Teller and Sid Drell on ICBM Defense Systems | Uncommon Knowledge | Peter Robinson | Hoover Institution

What’s So Funny about Corona, Politics, the Media, and the Culture? A Conversation with Andrew Ferguson and P. J. O’Rourke

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