Benjamin Netanyahu is the past and soon to be again prime minister of Israel. In his new book, Bibi: My Story, Netanyahu describes how he went from an Israeli American high school student in Philadelphia to a member of the Israeli Defense Force, detouring along the way to study architecture and get a master’s degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1976. His studies were interrupted when his brother Yoni was killed in the raid on Entebbe, Uganda, which inspired Bibi to return to Israel and dedicate his life to protecting that state. This interview covers those events as well as his rise to the top of Israeli politics—multiple times.

Dr Jordan B Peterson and Dr. Steven Koonin discuss the IPCC reports – the globally sourced research on climate change – and how policymakers take summaries of summaries from these to justify their green agenda, despite what the reports actually suggest. They also discuss starvation, obesity, green economics, and nuclear futures.

Dr. Steven Koonin, a University Professor at NYU, has served as the Department of Energy’s Under Secretary for Science, as Chief Scientist for BP, and as professor and Provost at Caltech. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Governor of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a senior fellow of Stanford’s Hoover Institution, and a Trustee of the Institute for Defense Analyses. Koonin holds a BS in physics from Caltech and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT. He wrote the recent bestseller “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters.”

Alex Story and Dr. Jordan B. Peterson discuss biology and overpopulation, the misguided thinking behind eugenics, and the tendency of politics to weaponize our totalitarian impulses. 

Alex Story was an Olympic class rower for Great Britain, and attended the University of Cambridge. There he set the rowing course record against Oxford in the 1998 Boat Race, a record held for multiple decades. After suffering a career-ending back injury, Story turned his attention to politics, and quickly became a notable voice in the Conservative party. He stood for parliamentary office three times, representing some of the poorest areas in the country. Today he works in the finance sector as head of sales for a US brokerage firm. He has also become a writer, seeing his articles published weekly in magazines such as the National Inquirer and Express.

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s life has been spent serving the state of Israel, from the Israel Defense Force to serving 5 terms as prime minister, and he’s shown no signs he’s done yet. 

During his first term in the 90’s, the prime minister was foundational in tearing out most of the socialist government in Israel. His ongoing strategies resulted in fundamentally remaking the country, particularly in regards to economic freedom and military strength. 

In our episode, PM Netanyahu recounts his lengthy career and explains what it looks like to continue keeping peace while on the edge of disaster at all times. Plus, he tells us about how he managed his relationship with the United States and what he has on the agenda if he is reelected.

Elon Musk tweets that the Left has gotten more radical, and the media are enraged; America is now one quarter away from recession; and the Biden administration continues to pursue insane economic policy. 

  00:00 - The Left’s increasing radicalization 13:11 - Liberal wing outlets go after Musk 22:51 - The Washington Post blames DeSantis for politicization 35:50 - The Left pretends President Biden is still in charge

Congressman Dan Crenshaw and I discuss the fallout of withdrawing from Afghanistan and the details of the 20-plus-year conflict. We talk about life as a US congressman and his experience as a US Navy SEAL. About social media and politics–especially in relation to modern conservatism. And about climate change. On that note, we also examined Dan’s recently-published ”Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage.” 

Dan is a retired Navy SEAL with five deployments overseas during the Afghan and Iraq wars. While in Afghanistan, an IED blast led to Dan losing his right eye. Crenshaw was elected to Congress in 2018, where he serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee (broadest jurisdiction out of all legislative committees). Dan also serves on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

“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.

“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(https://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Waiting...), 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.  

Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson is proud to present the first interview with Condoleezza Rice in her new role as Director of Hoover Institution. After a storied career that includes Provost of Stanford University (1993-1999), United States National Security Advisor (2001-2005), and United States Secretary of State (2005-2009), the author of numerous books, and an inaugural member of the College Football Playoff selection committee, on September 1st, 2020 Director Rice became the Hoover Institution's eighth director in its 101 year history and the first woman to hold the position. In this wide ranging conversation, Peter Robinson and Director Rice discuss Hoover’s mission in the 21st century, the role of think tanks in crafting public policy, her views about the current geo-political situation regarding Russia and China, and her personal thoughts about the national conversation currently underway in the United States about racial relations and how we look back at the country’s founding and history.

The Hoover Institution presents an online virtual speaker series based on the scholarly research and commentary written by Hoover fellows participating in the Human Prosperity Project on Socialism and Free-Market Capitalism. This project objectively investigates the historical record to assess the consequences for human welfare, individual liberty, and interactions between nations of various economic systems ranging from pure socialism to free-market capitalism. Each session will include thoughtful and informed analysis from our top scholars.

Featuring: 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and founder of the AHA Foundation. She served as a member of the Dutch Parliament from 2003 to 2006. She was born in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1969. 

Russ Roberts is the John and Jean De Nault Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He founded the award-winning weekly podcast EconTalk in 2006. Past guests include Milton Friedman, Martha Nussbaum, Thomas Piketty, Christopher Hitchens, Bill James, Nassim Taleb, Michael Lewis, and Mariana Mazzucato. All 675+ episodes remain available free of charge at EconTalk.org and reach an audience of over 100,000 listeners around the world.