Uncommon Knowledge

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Uncommon Knowledge was a weekly 30-minute current affairs show hosted by Peter Robinson and co-produced and presented by San Jose, California, PBS member station KTEH from 1997 to 2005. It was distributed first by American Public Television and later by PBS to public television stations throughout the United States and internationally by NPR Worldwide.

The show was funded by the conservative John M. Olin Foundation and produced by the Hoover Institution. However, its format and involvement with public television helped ensure a fair hearing from both sides of the issue.

[edit] Format

Typically, the show invites two or three expert guests with opposing points of view on controversial issues and/or matters of international/public policy to debate each other on the air. Robinson moderates and posits devil's advocate-type arguments, recites quotations to elicit the perspectives of his guests, and questions his guests in order to generate thought-provoking, in-depth discussion. After several segments the show concludes with Robinson asking the guests to predict what the future held for the issue in question.