WG’s YouTube Lecture List
(Updated as of May 26, 2022)
A collection of good lectures, some short, some long, that are available on YouTube and that I have found to be of interest. The topics cover geopolitics, grand strategy, physics, economics and population statistics among other subjects. Most of the speakers are also of authors of books on my book list.
All these lectures are good (or they wouldn’t be in the list), but those marked with a ► are in my judgement especially outstanding.
Dr. George Freidman, Geopolitical Futures
► https://youtu.be/Wcq-Z0uMEAU
April 2022 Friedman talk to the World Government Summit, titled The World in 2050: Characteristics of New Rising Powers. Runs about 20 minutes.
► https://youtu.be/zShYE18avNc
Short but very good segment at a conference about how “conventional wisdom” is so often wrong, and how that applies to China today. 14 minutes.
► https://youtu.be/CcBPsIqJVtQ
April 2020 interview about Friedman’s new book The Storm Before The Calm. Very good. 1 hour 20 minutes.
► https://youtu.be/tJmrODCZmmw
Dec 4, 2018 talk to the Danube Institute in Hungary. His attempt to describe to Europeans the American geopolitical view, and how we view NATO. One of the clearest explanations of US foreign policy I have ever heard.41 minutes.
► https://youtu.be/xJhb7K_noXs
2016 talk to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Topic is “The Global Crisis.” 1 hour 10 minutes including questions.
► https://youtu.be/zpAkT5YnpEA and https://youtu.be/scVSEAhvRD4
2013 talk to the Sydney Writers Festival about his book The Next 100 Years. Comes in two parts, totaling about 55 minutes. An informal wander over world issues that shows Friedman’s immense grasp of the interplay of political, cultural and economic forces.
► https://youtu.be/62XUYrANDZA
2014 talk at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, explaining how geopolitical forecasting works. 45 minutes
Talk to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Topic is “There is no EU”. 1 hour.
2017 talk to World Government Summit. Topic is “The Next 100 years” 23 minutes.
2016 Keynote “Best Practices for Oil & Gas”'. Although he is speaking to the petrochemical community about the role of energy in geopolitics, he makes important points about geopolitical power in general. 47 minutes
2018 talk at BrainBar, topic “The Necessity of Nationalism”. 30 minutes
2017 McCain Conference Keynote. Topic: “The Ethics of Future Conflict Scenarios”. 1 hour
Dr. Stephen Kotkin, Prof of History, Princeton Univ
► https://youtu.be/2a7CDKqWcZ0
May 2022 interview with Stephen Kotkin: Putin, Stalin, Hitler, Zelenskyy, and War in Ukraine (Lex Friedman Podcast). Very interesting.
► https://youtu.be/bV7PuqlMOzI
December 2020 Zoom Foreign Policy Research Institute discussion between Stephen Kotkin and Robert Kaplan about what comes after the Communist Party in China. An excellent exchange and review. 1 hour
► https://youtu.be/92-G9czlCOY
December 2020 interview via Zoom about the headwinds that Biden faces as he takes office. About 40 minutes.
► https://youtu.be/RnWp_kr4tfc
2018 talk to Foreign Policy Research Institute. Topic is “What Everyone Needs to Know about Russia Under Putin”. Kotkin is simply an amazingly good teacher, and a brilliant scholar. 30 minutes plus questions.
► https://youtu.be/Ot4OPfWZubM
2017 talk to the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale. Topic is “Trump and Putin? What in world is up?” About 45-minute talk plus excellent Q & A totaling about 2 hours. Watching him interact with students reveals what a brilliant teacher he is.
2017 Sphere of Influence Lecture Series, Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna) Lecture I of three lectures. Topic of lecture I: “The Gift of Geopolitics: How World Are Made and Unmade”. 2 hours
2017 Sphere of Influence Lecture Series, Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna) Lecture II of three lectures. Topic of lecture II: “What, if anything, is the difference between Fascism and Communism?” 1 hour 30 minutes.
2017 Sphere of Influence Lecture Series, Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna) Lecture III of three lectures. Topic of lecture II: “The Chip on the Shoulder”. 1 hour 50 minutes/
2018 10th Isaiah Berlin Memorial Lecture in Riga "Turning Points: Yesterday’s World, and Tomorrow’s", 1 hour 22 minutes
2017 History Institute "What is Eurasia? And Why Does It Matter?", 1 hour 23 minutes
Dr. Ian Brenner, president and founder of Eurasia Group and Harold J. Newman Distinguished Fellow in Geopolitics, Asia Society Policy Institute
► https://youtu.be/Q4xRod2Vt3o
Interview about his excellent 2018 book Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism. 1 hour 18 minutes.
► https://youtu.be/0zBWIDkfRXM
2019 interview on Talks at GS, discusses the forces driving the debate between populists and globalists around the world. 30 minutes.
Dr. Mark Blyth, British political scientist from Scotland and professor of international political economy at Brown University
► https://youtu.be/KGuaoARJYU0
2019 lecture at McMaster University, Canada, “Global Trumpism and the Future of the Global Economy”. Humorous presentation but fascinating information and data about what is happening in the world economy today. 1 hour 40 minutes
► https://youtu.be/lq3s-Ifx1Fo
April 2017 lecture, “Why Do People Continue To Believe Stupid Economic Ideas”. About 40 minutes.
► https://youtu.be/fUqCrtg-wNY
January 2017 lecture, “Is the World Less Risky With Trump in Charge?”. This is not really about Trump, but rather a brilliant exposition about how to think about risk, and about how often even the experts misunderstand risk. About 50 minutes.
Robert Kaplan, author, foreign correspondent, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute
► https://youtu.be/JK7fhSn5AGo
March 2018 Michael J. Zak Grand Strategy Lecture. About 45 minutes lecture plus an extended expert panel discussion totaling about 3 hours
2017 discussion at Policy Exchange UK. Topic Geopolitics in the 21st Century. 1 hour
Dr. John Gaddis, Robert A. Lovett Professor of History at Yale University
2018 talk to the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Topic: “On Grand Strategy”. 1 hour
Talk at Columbia University. Topic: “Nuclear Weapons and Grand Strategy”. 15 minutes
Dr. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, market trader, author, philosopher
2018 talk to Google, about his new book Skin in the Game 1 hour
2018 My Chat with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 1 hour
Bloomberg interview, topic “What People Don’t Get About Trump”, 10 minutes
Nassim Taleb talks about Antifragile, Libertarianism, and Capitalism's Genius for Failure, 50 minutes
Dr. Richard Hass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations
A Conversation with Dr. Richard Haas, April 2021. about 75 minutes
Interview about his new book, A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order, 19 minutes
Dr. Thomas Sowell, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute, Stanford University
► https://youtu.be/sGYl17DiEwo
2015 Peter Robinson interview of Dr Thomas Sowell about his book Wealth, Poverty and Politics. Sowell, an economist who deals in evidence, not ideologies, is such a breath of fresh air. 45 minutes.
► https://youtu.be/V6ZPg6kOBkc
2011 Peter Robinson interview of Dr Thomas Sowell about his book Economic Facts and Fallacies. 30 minutes.
2018 interview by the Hoover Institute. Topic: “On The Myths of Economic Inequality”
Peter Zeihan, author and geopolitical strategist
April 2022 presentation to Eisenhower School Naval Postgraduate School. Runs about 2 hours with a half hour of Q&A afterward. Has new stuff from his latest 2022 book.
2022 discussion with Brad Carr on the collapse of globalization, populations, and the current world order. Based on his new 2022 book. Good. Runs about 50 minutes.
January 2021 presentation to the 2021 Land Investment Expo in Iowa. Emphasis on agriculture, given his audience. Repeats some of the material in other talks, but with some interesting new information.
May 2020 podcast in which Peter discusses such things as the effect of the coronavirus pandemic and Saudi Arabia’s strategy in the current oil price war. Very good. 1 hour 20 minutes.
June 2020 talk. Extensive discussion of China’s current condition. Very good. 1 hour.
► https://youtu.be/feU7HT0x_qU
2018 talk to Gulf Power Economics Symposium 21. Amusing style but very informative and backed up with lots of data. This is an executive summary of his two excellent books the Accidental Superpower (2014) and The Absent Superpower (2016), which go into exhaustive detail and analysis to support his predictions. Although there are naturally debates about details, his overall view is pretty consistent with other major post-Cold War geopolitical thinkers. 1 hour
► https://youtu.be/jT6HFCAFDgU
2020 talk at the WM Sustainability Forum. Much the same initial part of the talk, but interesting analysis of China’s situation starting about minute 17 of the talk, and more about minute 33 of the talk. Also some new data about green energy potentials.
► https://youtu.be/BclcpfVn2rg
November 2018 Keynote at the 12th annual Kern County Energy Summit. There is some overlap with the presentation above, but also some interesting new points, and a very good Q & A afterward, so it is worth listening to both of them. 1 hour
January 2019 talk in Des Moines, Iowa to the Land Investment Expo. Much the same talk as those above, but with some new ideas here and there.
2018 interview. 25 minutes
Dr. Michael Pillsbury, Director of the Center on Chinese Strategy, The Hudson Institute
► https://youtu.be/7HnNEIkxzCc
Discussion of his 2016 book The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower. 18 minutes
► https://youtu.be/u-QRVYVg50g
Extended moderated discussion of his 2016 book The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower. 1 hour 30 minutes
Mark Mills, Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
► https://youtu.be/F4Nh134LhS4
Keynote address as the Basin Electric 2018 Annual Meeting. Topic is: “The New Energy Economy Delusion”. Demonstrates that some of the “green” proposals being bandied about by politicians, activists, and the media are delusional, given real world limits in physics as well as economics. 1 hour.
► https://youtu.be/3Fp45Vy7DNs
Robophobia and the Future of Work (Northwestern Engineering Dean's Seminar Series). 1 hour.
Dr. Stephen Walt, Professor of international affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
► https://youtu.be/0tLLUtc1mZA
Dec 2018 discussion at the World Affairs Council. Topic: “The Repeated Failures of the US Foreign Policy Elite”. 45 minutes
2018 presentation at the Watson Institute, Brown University. Topic: “What Grand Strategy for America?”: Why Offshore Balancing is Best. 1 hour 30 minutes.
Dr Paul Dibb & Dr John Lee, Australian National Univ.
► https://youtu.be/_AvNT3vyzr0
2015 talk by a strategist and an economist, who explore the serious deficiencies in China in both its military and economics which may well limit its future growth. Topic: “Why China Will Not Become the Dominant Power in Asia”. 1 hour 10 minutes.
Dr. Peter Navarro, White House National Trade Council and Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Director
► https://youtu.be/eRnIse9v_jc
Discussion of 2018 report, How China’s Economic Aggression Threatens the Technologies and Intellectual Property of the United States and the World, put out by his office. 30 minutes.
► https://youtu.be/g3rxjaOPQD4
Nov 2018 presentation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Topic: “Economic Security as National Security”, 1 hour.
Dr. Yukon Huang, Carnegie Asia Program
► https://youtu.be/XepCi0I_g6I
Discussion of his 2017 book Cracking the China Conundrum: Why Conventional Economic Wisdom Is Wrong. 1 hour
Dr. Jordan Peterson, Professor of psychology at the University of Toronto
Note that Jorden Peterson has a website at https://jordanbpeterson.com/ that includes links to many of his lectures on his YouTube Channel and his podcasts.
► https://youtu.be/x9QHlEbO4OM
Talks about his book 12 Rules for Life. Peterson is absolutely brilliant. 20 minutes
► https://youtu.be/AscPHmLWo-M
A long (almost 3 hour) interview with Dr Peterson. Well worth listening to. 2 hours 45 minutes.
Dr. Yuval Noah Harari, Prof of History, Hebrew University
► https://youtu.be/szt7f5NmE9E
TED dialog. Topic “Nationalism vs. globalism: the new political divide.” 1 hour
Talk at Google about his three books, Sapiens (2015), Homo Deus (2017), and most recently 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018), 50 minutes
2017 talk. Topic: his 2017 book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind 1 hour 18 minutes
Dr. Andrew Pontzen, University College London
2014 talk at the Royal Institute. Topic: “Dark Matter’s Not Enough”. 55 minutes.
The Royal Institute at https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution/videos lists many of their YouTube presentations on science
Dr. David Tong, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge
► https://youtu.be/zNVQfWC_evg
2017 talk at the Royal Institute. Topic: “Quantum Fields: The Real Building Blocks of the Universe”. Engaging presentation style, and quite accessible to the non-physicist, but also very good and sound. 1 hour
2017 LMS Popular Lecture Series. Topic: 'The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Physics in Maths” 1 hour
Dr. Sean B. Carroll, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
► https://youtu.be/yzDISuJdfZk
2017 talk at the Royal Institute. Topic: “The rules that govern life on earth”. 55 minutes
Dr. Sean M Carroll, Research Professor of Physics. Caltech
► https://youtu.be/RwdY7Eqyguo
2013 talk at the Royal Institute. Topic: “The Particle at the End of the Universe”. About why finding the Higgs boson matters so much. 1 hour.
Dr. Carlo Rovelli, Centre de Physique Theorique de Luminy
► https://youtu.be/-6rWqJhDv7M
2018 talk at the Royal Institute. Topic: “The Physics and Philosophy of Time”. 1 hour
Dr. Richard Wolff, Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts
► https://youtu.be/TXNrVaJJfHA
Topic: “Socialism in America”. A serious academic economist reviews what Marx really said (instead of what people think he said) and how it applies to America. Provocative and very good. 1 hour with half hour of Q&A
► https://youtu.be/XlhFMa4t28A
Topic: “The Game is Rigged”. Discusses economic rights and reform. I have to say that Wolff makes a good case for addressing the growing inequality in the US by democratizing the workplace. It’s an interesting perspective on capitalism.1 hour 45 minutes
Captain Steve Knott, Army War College
► https://youtu.be/lrXxz4iniRs
Discusses how and why Confederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart ended up in Carlisle while the rest of the Confederates were converging on Gettysburg, as a way of making points about command and strategy. Very good. 32 minutes
Dr. Christopher Yung, Donald Bren Chair of Non-Western Strategic Thought, Marine Corps University (MCU)
► https://youtu.be/1UMhxAJaM5Q
2017 talk, Topic: “China’s Developing Naval Force Structure”. An analyst’s attempt to discern China’s long term strategy based on how they are modernizing their forces. The conclusions are fascinating. 1 hour 11 minutes
Ola Rosling, President & Co-Founder @Gapminder
Note that the Gapminder Foundation website at https://www.gapminder.org/ lists many more excellent presentations .
► https://youtu.be/kD1gxFvjJ6o
2017 presentation at the Centre for Global Health at University of Oslo, Norway. Topic: “Fake news and fact resistance”. It’s astounding how even the so-called “experts” can be ignorant about their own field. 54 minutes.
Dr. Hans Rosling, Gapminder Foundation
► https://youtu.be/FACK2knC08E
Hans Rosling showing the facts about population. A wonderful presentation. The late Has Rosling was simply a marvelous presenter. 1 hour
► https://youtu.be/Sm5xF-UYgdg
Short 2014 TED talk. Topic: “How not to be ignorant about the world”. 20 minutes
Christopher Caldwell, author and journalist
► https://youtu.be/CuY8hTWDqYw
2017 talk. Topic: “How to think about Putin’s Russia”. This is a very important talk, because it provides a very different perspective on both Putin and on America’s view of Russia, one at some variance with the story the media has been pushing.
Dr John Mearsheimer, Univ of Chicago
► https://youtu.be/CXov7MkgPB4
2012 talk at the Univ of Ottowa by the author of, among other excellent books The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001) and The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities (2018). Topic; Why China Cannot Rise Peacefully. Blunt but fascinating discussion of international realities. Hour and 30 minutes, including long and interesting Q & A session.
► https://youtu.be/hYkZU6Ix79s
July 2018 talk in Bonn to the Center for International Security and Governance. Topic: “The Great Delusion”. 45 minutes.
► https://youtu.be/AlaHGYlXntQ
2018 talk to Univ of Bucharest. Topic: “The Future of NATO in the Age of Trump”. 2 hours with good Q & A.
Pat Caddell
► https://youtu.be/xKXSB6fxao8
The late Pat Caddell was a Democratic public opinion pollster and a political consultant who worked in the Carter White House, and worked in the campaigns of Jimmy Carter, Joe Biden, Gary Hart, and Jerry Brown among others. He was, however, dismayed at what has become of his party (though he hasn’t anything good to say about the Republicans either). This presentation, given just before the 2016 presidential election, deals with his assessment of what has gone wrong in his party, and what the future holds. It is a bit disjointed, but passionate and I think his assessment is fairly accurate. 1 hour.
Chris Hedges
► https://youtu.be/L6unS2JF8TA
Chris Hedges is a journalist, author and Methodist minister. This is a powerful piece about the pathology of the rich. It is worth listening to him as one tries to understand the political revolt that is going on now against the ruling elites of the country. 23 minutes
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