Well, Kevin, it's July 11th, and what are you doing right now?

Well, I'm time traveling because we are recording this in June. But on July 11th, if all

goes according to plan, I will be on a beach chair, modello in hand, sunblock applied

liberally all over my body, watching my child eat sand,

and enjoying our one and only summer vacation.

Casey, what are you doing right now?

Well, if all goes according to plan for me, I will be in Japan for the first time.

And so if you're in Japan, you see somebody who looks like me.

It might actually be me.

Yes. And let's just say you're going to stick out in Japan. You're very tall.

I'm looking forward to it. So we are away this week, but in our place, we are bringing you something really interesting, specifically an episode of Interesting Times, which is a new Times

opinion podcast where columnist Ross Douthit

explores the ideas of today's most influential leaders and thinkers of the modern American

right. And a few weeks ago, he spoke with Peter Thiel, and we thought, that's a conversation

our listeners should hear. Yeah, Peter Thiel is, of course, the well-known venture capitalist. He was one of the co-founders of PayPal.

He now runs Founders Fund and has a bunch of other important positions within tech. He was on the board of META.

And he is also one of the most prominent conservatives in Silicon Valley. He was on the Trump train before it became trendy for tech

executives, and he's just a guy who's been thinking about tech and the future for a long time.

So here's Ross's interview with Peter Thiel.

Yeah. From New York Times opinion, I'm Ross Douthat, and this is interesting times. Is Silicon Valley recklessly ambitious?

Or is it not ambitious enough?

What should we fear more?

...