Today, Thomas Sowell recounts moments in his life that helped shape him into one of the most impactful intellectuals in American history; Condoleezza Rice joins Guy Benson for a discussion of Sowell’s legacy, the Gaza cease-fire deal, and college athletics; Ilya Shapiro speaks with Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer about ideological challenges facing legal education in the United States; and the Hoover Institution welcomes the 2025–26 class of veteran fellows.
Honoring Thomas Sowell
In a new and special episode of Uncommon Knowledge, Distinguished Policy Fellow Peter M. Robinson interviews Senior Fellow Thomas Sowell on the fascinating story of his life. Sowell candidly recounts his early struggles and triumphs: growing up in poverty yet surrounded by love, discovering books and ideas in a Harlem library, working his way through school and menial jobs, serving in the Marine Corps, and eventually earning degrees in economics from Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Chicago. Sowell shares how experience and evidence—not ideology—shaped his transformation from a young Marxist to one of America’s most influential champions of free markets, limited government, and individual responsibility. The release of this conversation coincided with a Hoover Institution conference held yesterday celebrating Sowell’s scholarly legacy.
Hoover is also proud to announce the winners of the 2025 Thomas Sowell Essay Contest and Creator Competition. Watch or listen here.
Determining America’s Role in the World
Yesterday, Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice joined The Guy Benson Show to discuss several timely topics. First, Rice explains how the Institution’s new Substack Freedom Frequency will “regularly reaffirm the idea of freedom with essays by our fellows.” She also shares her plans to write for the Substack on “the challenges facing democracy” as well as “the blessings of liberty” as the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Rice and Benson then reflect on yesterday’s conference honoring Thomas Sowell. Sowell is “one of the great economists ever in this country,” says Rice, and “he’s chosen to use that great rigor and [his] belief in data to inform some of our most difficult political and social and cultural issues.” Turning to current events in the Middle East, Rice argues that with the Gaza ceasefire deal, what the Trump administration accomplished “is really quite remarkable, in getting the hostages out.” Listen or read more here.
Revitalizing American Institutions
On the latest episode of Free Speech Unmuted, Ilya Shapiro, senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, unpacks the argument of his recent book Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites. Shapiro and cohosts Jane Bambauer and Hoover Senior Fellow Eugene Volokh discuss the state of American law schools, why many law students fear open discussion, and what can be done to improve things. Shapiro explains why he chose to focus on ideological capture in legal education and why illiberalism in this area of academia poses unique dangers to the preservation of American institutions. He also notes that many law schools are failing to adequately expose students to conservative legal theories and arguments, including the originalist tradition of constitutional interpretation. Shapiro says this “does a disservice” to future lawyers, because critically examining controversial issues from multiple perspectives is an integral aspect of the legal profession. Watch or listen here.
America’s Veterans
The Hoover Institution is pleased to announce the 2025–26 class of the Bochnowski Family Veteran Fellowship Program (VFP). This is the fifth class since the fellowship was launched in fall of 2021. The 2025–26 group comprises 11 veterans, representing a diverse collection of skillsets and records of service to the US armed forces. Veterans were selected based on demonstrated leadership qualities, success in their professional careers, the viability of their proposed capstone projects, and their shared values with the Hoover Institution, especially their commitment to advancing freedom. This year’s class will contribute solutions to pressing national challenges with their capstone projects, including work advancing US biosecurity standards, promoting responsible use of AI to build trust in state and local governments, addressing vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure, and helping veterans better access the benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Read more here.
US Foreign Policy
“America has returned to the Americas,” write Hoover Fellow Joseph Ledford and coauthor Ryan Berg in a new essay at Defining Ideas. “Yet not everyone agrees with the White House’s new emphasis on the Western Hemisphere: there is mounting anxiety over ‘hemisphereism’ as well as hyperbolic claims that American grand strategy is committing ‘superpower suicide.’” Ledford and Berg counter that a stronger Western Hemisphere security posture “does not mean sacrificing superpowerdom.” “Rather,” they maintain, “waging a great-power competition against China requires the United States to focus on the Western Hemisphere.” The piece goes on to analyze the Trump administration’s “strategic pivot” toward hemispheric defense, an approach which uses “hard power and diplomacy in tandem to resolve challenges that bear directly on America’s capacity to confront the Chinese Communist Party.” Among other issues, Ledford and Berg stress that upholding the “sovereignty and neutrality” of the Panama Canal and combating criminal narcotics organizations are two key goals in the region. Read more here.
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