Uncommon Knowledge

Victor Davis Hanson—fifth-generation rancher in California’s San Joaquin Valley, classicist, military historian, Hoover Institution senior fellow, and author of more than two dozen books, including The Case For Trump, The Second World Wars, and The Dying Citizen—joins Peter Robinson to discuss the American founding and its critics.   Drawing on ancient Greece and Rome, Magna Carta, the French Revolution, the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson’s administrative state, and the Trump era, Hanson argues that the genius of the American system lies in its difficult but durable structure: checks and balances, ordered liberty, and a Constitution built for flawed human beings.

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Renowned historian and Hoover Institution senior fellow Frank Dikötter discusses his new book, Red Dawn Over China: How Communism Conquered a Quarter of Humanity. Drawing from tightly controlled Chinese Communist Party archives and Soviet Comintern documents, Dikötter systematically dismantles decades of romanticized Western myths—originally popularized by journalist Edgar Snow—surrounding the rise of Mao Zedong. He details how the Chinese Communist Party was a deeply unpopular, marginal movement that was parameterized and heavily armed by Joseph Stalin rather than gaining organic peasant support, eventually taking the country through the devastation of civil war and the Red Army's strategic handover of Manchuria. Shifting to modern-day geopolitics, the conversation explores how this "enforced amnesia" shapes the systemic constraints of China's current single-party state, analyzing the vulnerabilities behind its economic facade, Xi Jinping's relentless military purges, the critical importance of arming Taiwan, and why the West must counter a regime built on deep-seated political paranoia.

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Stephen Kotkin returns to Uncommon Knowledge for another round of five questions, this time on Iran, China, Ukraine, and the future of the American republic. Kotkin argues that America still possesses unmatched strengths — economic, technological, military, and cultural — but warns that self-inflicted political dysfunction could squander them. Kotkin dissects Trump’s Iran strategy, explains why China wants Taiwan “for free,” argues that Ukraine has already won the sovereignty war against Russia, and delivers a powerful defense of America’s founding ideals at a moment when both authoritarian regimes abroad and political extremism at home are testing them. Sharp, provocative, and deeply informed, this is classic Kotkin: history as a guide to the geopolitical storms of the present.

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Why is America struggling to keep pace with China? Can Silicon Valley help rebuild US military power? And what happens when artificial intelligence transforms warfare? Anduril founder Palmer Luckey joins Peter Robinson to argue that America must rethink everything from defense procurement to manufacturing, innovation, and national identity itself. Luckey explains why he founded Anduril Industries after selling Oculus to Facebook, why he believes the US has become dangerously dependent on China, and how autonomous weapons, AI fighter jets, and drone warfare are reshaping the future battlefield. Luckey also takes aim at Pentagon bureaucracy, Silicon Valley globalism, America’s hollowed-out industrial base, and what he calls the “national divorce” between tech and national security. It’s a provocative discussion about patriotism, innovation, deterrence, and whether the United States still has what it takes to defend itself in a rapidly changing world.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis joins Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson at the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee to explain how Florida transformed from a razor-thin swing state into one of the fastest-growing and most politically distinct states in the country. DeSantis outlines his governing philosophy—pairing conservative policy with a focus on competence—and details the results: rapid population growth, rising revenues without an income tax, debt reduction, and a dramatic political realignment. He reflects on controversial decisions during COVID, his approach to education reform and school choice, and high-profile battles with corporations, universities, and cultural institutions. The discussion also explores broader themes, including the decline of identity politics, the future of the Republican Party, and the enduring relevance of America’s founding principles.

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