This week on Uncommon Knowledge, host Peter Robinson mediates a discussion between PayPal founder and Stanford Professor Peter Thiel and Velocity Capital Management founder and journalist Andy Kessler on the state of technology and innovation in the United States over the past four decades. Thiel argues that, outside of computers, there has been very little innovation in the past forty years, and the rate of technological change has significantly decreased when compared to the first half of the 20th century. In contrast, Kessler asserts that innovation comes in waves, and we are on the verge of another burst of technological breakthroughs. Industries covered include education, medicine and biotechnology, as well as robots and high tech.
Peter A. Thiel
Andy Kessler
Articles
The headline from the recently released 2026 Medicare Trustees Report was that the Medicare Health Insurance (HI) Trust Fund would exhaust its reserves in 2033—1 year before the Social Security trust funds were also projected to meet the same fate.
August 20, 2026
Articles
Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ro Khanna just introduced a bill proposing a permanent national 5% wealth tax on billionaires, along with an ambitious spending program for the results. (Press release, bill, summary.) It’s permanent. The fig leaf of California’s “just this once” tax is off.
August 19, 2026
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There are a lot of problems with California’s proposed “billionaire tax,” Proposition 40. One of the biggest is how a billionaire might actually pay it. Tech founders usually have their wealth tied up in their companies. And they could not easily sell their shares to pay massive tax bills.
August 18, 2026
