Keen On America

Last week, we featured an interview with the leftist American theologian, Jim Wallis, who warned about the false white gospel of contemporary Christian nationalism. And we return to the existential dangers of American religion today with Talia Lavin whose new book, Wild Faith, warns that the Christian right is actually taking over America. In contrast with Wallis, however, Lavin doesn’t offer a more loving version of American christianity as an theological alternative to the evangelical right. For radically secular Lavin, the challenge is to get any kind of fundamentalist religion out of politics. That’s the way to fix democracy. That’s how to save America.Talia Lavin is the author of the critically acclaimed book Culture Warlords. She is a journalist who has had bylines in the New Yorker, the New Republic, the New York Times Review of Books, the Washington Post, and more. She writes a newsletter, The Sword and the Sandwich, which is featured in Best American Food and Travel Writing 2024. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

The 2024 winners of the Nobel prize for Economics were announced this morning. One of the winners was the MIT economist Simon Johnson, who, as the co-author (with his MIT colleague Daron Acemoglu) of Power and Progress, appeared on KEEN ON just over a year ago to talk about technology & prosperity. Given that the prize was given to Johnson (and Acemoglu) for their work on explaining the gaps in prosperity between nations, we thought it worthwhile to rerun the interview from last year. Particularly since, if anything, the relationship between new technologies like AI and economic inequality is even more pertinent in 2024 than it was last year. SIMON JOHNSON is the Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he is head of the Global Economics and Management group. In 2007-08 he was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, and he currently co-chairs the CFA Institute Systemic Risk Council. In February 2021, Johnson joined the board of directors of Fannie Mae. Johnson’s most recent book, with Daron Acemoglu, Power and Progress: Our 1000-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, explores the history and economics of major technological transformations up to and including the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence. His previous book, with Jonathan Gruber, Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream, explained how to create millions of good new jobs around the U.S., through renewed public investment in research and development. This proposal attracted bipartisan support.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Earlier this week, the prominent African-American broadcaster and writer, Tavis Smiley, came on the show to voice his support for Reparations to correct the past racial injustices in American history. The Kentucky based historian, Joel Edward Goza, author of Rebirth of a Nation, agrees with Smiley, arguing that Reparations is, in fact, the central civil rights issue of our age. The struggle for Reparations in California, he argues, has turned the state into the Alabama or Mississippi of the 2020s. Perhaps. Although I’m not sure everyone, either in and out of California, will agree with Goza’s analysis of Ronald Reagan’s central role in 21st century America’s racial injustice. Or his suggestion that California should pay reparations to the rest of America for Reagan’s sins. Joel Edward Goza is a writer, speaker, and community advocate. He is professor of ethics at the HBCU Simmons College and teaches in Kentucky prisons. Before focusing on writing and teaching, Joel worked in urban redevelopment and community activism for over a decade in Houston’s Fifth Ward. He is also the author of America’s Unholy Ghosts: The Racist Roots of Our Faith and Politics, and contributes to The Hill, Salon, and Religion News Service. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

In her quest for the White House, it seems as if Kamala Harris is doing everything in her power to disassociate herself with liberal ideas. So what, exactly, has happened to liberal politics in the United States today? That’s exactly the question which the excellent young George Washington historian, Timothy Shenk, asks in his new book, Left Adrift. And in tracing the fate of liberal politics in America today, Shenk goes back to the Democratic party’s two most influential political strategists of the Clinton era: Stan Greenberg and Doug Schoen. The story of these two Zeligs of the center-left, Shenk explains, helps us understand not only Kamala Harris’ innate conservatism, but also the challenges (and perhaps opportunities) for American liberalism to reinvent itself in today’s age of illiberal populism. Timothy Shenk is an assistant professor of history at George Washington University. A senior editor at Dissent magazine, he has written for the New York Times, the Nation, the New Republic, and Jacobin, among other publications. He received his bachelor’s degree and PhD in history from Columbia University, has been a Mellon postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis, and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the New America Foundation.  Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

It’s been a strange week in tech. The Nobel prizes in both Chemistry and Physics went to prominent former or current Googlers, and yet the tech news cycle has been dominated by the U.S. government’s intent to break up a seemingly prostrate Google. Keith Teare and Andrew, in their regular That Was The Week summary of tech news, discuss Google’s failure to present itself in the United States as the motor of American economic innovation. OpenAI has stolen that mantle, Keith suggests, which may be why the editorial in his newsletter this week is about OpenAI’s trillion dollar opportunity. Google’s messaging is off, Keith suggests, which is why they might consider hiring Chris Lehane, the subject of an intriguing New Yorker piece on Silicon Valley’s new master of the political message. The only problem is that Lehane is Sam Altman’s new messaging man at OpenAI. Perhaps Altman should use ChatGPT to create a Lehane bot, which they could then sell, for billions of dollars, to Big Tech rivals like Google, Amazon and Microsoft. Keith Teare is the founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. Previously, he was executive chairman at Accelerated Digital Ventures Ltd., a U.K.-based global investment company focused on startups at all stages. Teare studied at the University of Kent and is the author of “The Easy Net Book” and “Under Siege.” He writes regularly for TechCrunch and publishes the “That Was The Week” newsletter.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

As a Harvard trained pediatrician as well as television writer and producer, Neal Baer has particularly interesting take on the moral, policy and ethical challenges of CRISPR gene-editing technology. Baer - He is best known for his work on the television shows Designated Survivor, ER and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - has edited a new collection of essays on The Promise and Peril of CRISPR. It’s a critical issue because CRISPR technology allows us to become God in determining what types of humans should and shouldn’t exist. And Baer even has a new tv series in the works, appropriately entitled The Edit, about a group of rogue scientists who use CRISPR technology to eliminate a group of supposedly “undesirable” people. Born in 1958 in Denver, Colorado, Neal Baer is an award-winning showrunner, television writer and producer, physician, and author. He is a lecturer on global health and social medicine and the co-director of the master’s degree program in Media, Medicine, and Health at Harvard Medical School. He was an executive producer and showrunner for Designated Survivor, Baking Impossible, Under the Dome, and Law & Order: Special Victims...Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Why are black men more likely to vote for Donald Trump than black women? According to Tavis Smiley, the syndicated radio host and best selling author of many books about black America include his latest Covenant with Black America - Twenty Years Later, it’s because some black men, especially younger ones, are attracted to the outlaw in Trump. Black women, in contrast, Smiley suggests, are repelled by everything about the former President, particularly what they see as his faux outlaw image. For Smiley, the host of the fastest growing syndicated Black radio talk show in America, this division between male and female African-Americans get to the heart of the complexity of what it means to be black in the United States today. Tavis Smiley is the host and managing editor of the nationally syndicated radio program and podcast “Tavis Smiley,” which is produced and distributed by SmileyAudioMedia, Inc., where he serves as founder and chief visionary officer. In 2023, Smiley received the highest honor in the talk radio industry, the coveted “Freedom of Speech” award and presently appears on the “Heavy Hundred” list of the “100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts” in America. He is a New York Times bestselling author of over two dozen books, the recipient of nearly 20 honorary doctorate degrees, has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and recognized by TIME magazine as one of the world’s “100 Most Influential People.”Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

This is an important conversation. Few Americans are better skilled at listening than the UC Berkeley sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild. The author of the best selling Strangers in Their Own Land, Hochschild’s much anticipated new book, Stolen Pride, takes place in Kentucky, where she examines rural loss, shame and the rise of the American Right. Hochschild’s superpower is her ability to listen. It’s what she defines as “bilingualism” - the skill in separating the literal from the symbolic in other people’s language. This bilingualism makes Hochschild one of the few members of America’s coastal elite able to truly listen to the other America. What she hears - and the rest of us miss - is the pained language of stolen pride, loss and shame. Arlie Russell Hochschild is the author of many groundbreaking books, including The Second Shift, The Managed Heart, and The Time Bind as well as Strangers in Their Own Land, which became an instant bestseller and was a finalist for a National Book Award, and Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right (both from The New Press). Hochschild is professor emerita of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Berkeley with her husband, the writer Adam Hochschild.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

In December 2008, Lily Bock, the daughter of the novelist Charles Bock, was born. But Bock, the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Beautiful Children and Alice & Oliver, was a reluctant parent, tagging along for the ride of fatherhood, obsessed primarily with his dream of a writing career. However, when Lily was six months old, his wife, Diana, was diagnosed with a complex form of leukemia. Two and half years later, when all treatments and therapies had been exhausted, Bock found himself a widower—devastated, drowning in medical bills, and saddled with a daunting responsibility. He had to nurture Lily, and, somehow, maybe even heal himself. Bock’s new memoir, I Will Do Better, is about this experience. It’s a confessional about heartbreak, parenting, and, above all, his love for Lily Bock. And to discuss I Will Do Better, already named one of the best books of Fall by Oprah Daily and People, Charles is joined by the now 15 year-old Lila Bock in a memorably intimate conversation about the challenges and joys of single parenting in the 2020s. Charles Bock is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Beautiful Children and Alice & Oliver, and a creative writing professor at New York University. The father of two daughters, he lives in New York City.Lily Bock is many things including the daughter of Charles & Diana BockNamed as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

American Christianity appears in a state of disrepair, perhaps even imminent civil war. On the one hand, of course, we have the evangelical right who make up much of Trump’s ideological base; on the other hand, there are progressive American theologians like Jim Wallis who argue that this Christian nationalist wing of the Republican party isn’t quite kosher. In his new book, The False White Gospel, Wallis argues that it’s time to call out genuine faith—specifically the “Christian” in White Christian Nationalism. These people, he says, are not only fake Christians, but their racism and cruelty represents an existential threat to American democracy. True faith, for Wallis, Georgetown University’s inaugural holder of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair in Faith and Justice, is loving one’s neighbor rather than throwing them out of the country. Jim Wallis is Georgetown University’s inaugural holder of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair in Faith and Justice, and the Director of its new Center on Faith and Justice. He served on President Obama’s first White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and is the author of multiple New York Times bestselling books, including God’s Politics. In 2022 and 2023, Washingtonian magazine named Wallis one of the 500 most influential people shaping policy in DC.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe