Yesterday morning, The Verge broke the story that Peter Thiel appeared to be teaching a course on “heterodox science” at the Berkeley Institute starting in January. The Institute identified the course’s “guest instructor” as “Author and Founder of IMITATIO.” Of IMITATIO’s three founders, only Thiel is still living.
Since the story’s publication, the “heterodox science” course has been deleted from the Berkeley Institute’s website without explanation.
Before the story was published, we reached out to Matt Rose, Director of the Berkeley Institute, and Jeremiah Hall, a spokesperson for Thiel and his family office Thiel Capital. Both declined to confirm Thiel as the course’s instructor, or to comment further. We also reached out to them for comment yesterday after the story broke, and today when we saw the seminar had been deleted; neither Rose nor Hall have responded to our request.
We will update this story as more information becomes available. For more information about the Berkeley Institute, “heterodox science,” Thiel’s beliefs, read the story here.