Keen On America

Andrew Keen
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Aug 5, 2023 • 44min

How something really strange began to happen on social media in 2016

EPISODE 1638: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Tobias Rose-Stockwell, author of OUTRAGE MACHINE, about the checkered history of social mediaTobias Rose-Stockwell is a writer, designer, technologist and media researcher whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, WIRED, NPR, the BBC, and on CNN. He is the author of the upcoming book Outrage Machine, which forcefully unpacks social media's influence on news, discourse and democracy. His research has been cited in the adoption of major interventions to reduce toxicity and polarization within tech platforms. He previously ran humanitarian projects in Southeast Asia focused on civil-war reconstruction efforts. He spent six years in Cambodia rebuilding communities overcome by violent conflict, work for which he was honored with an award from the 14th Dalai Lama. He lives in New York City.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
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Aug 4, 2023 • 34min

Bonfire of the Unicorns: Keith Teare on the near apocalypse for Silicon Valley billion dollar valued start-ups ("unicorns") and the impact of this meltdown on the broader innovation economy

EPISODE 1637: In this regular weekly show with THAT WAS THE WEEK newsletter author Keith Teare, Keith describes a near apocalypse for Silicon Valley billion dollar valued start-ups ("unicorns") and the impact of this meltdown on the broader innovation economyKeith Teare is a Founder and CEO at SignalRank Corporation. Previously he was Executive Chairman at Accelerated Digital Ventures Ltd - A UK based global investment company focused on startups at all stages. He was also previously founder at the Palo Alto incubator, Archimedes Labs. Archimedes was the original incubator for TechCrunch and since 2011has invested, accelerated or incubated many Silicon valley startups including InFarm, Miles, Quixey; M.dot (sold to GoDaddy); chat.center; Loop Surveys; DownTown and Sunshine. Teare has a track record as a serial entrepreneur with big ideas and has achieved significant returns for investors.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
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Aug 4, 2023 • 36min

Get Out of My Way

EPISODE 1636: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Brooke Kroeger, author of UNDAUNTED, about how fearless women like Ida Wells, Martha Gellhorn and Joan Didion changed American journalismBrooke Kroeger is a journalist, professor emerita at NYU, and the author of six books, the latest of which is Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism, published by A.A. Knopf in May 2023. It explores how women have fared in American journalism’s most competitive and highly valued bastions, the ones men have dominated in the 180 years since mass media began. Her earlier books are Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist (1994, an NPR Best Books of the Year); Fannie: The Talent for Success of Writer Fannie Hurst (1998, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best Books of the Year); Passing: When People Can’t Be Who They Are (2003, a Post-Dispatch Best Books of the Year); Undercover Reporting: The Truth About Deception (2012, finalist, Frank Luther Mott/Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award of the American Journalism Historians Association), and The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote (Gold Medal in US History in the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards and a finalist for the 2018 Sally and Morris Lasky Prize of the Center for Political History.)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
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Aug 4, 2023 • 38min

In Defense of the Abraham Accords

EPISODE 1634: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Aryeh Lightstone, author of LET MY PEOPLE KNOW, about what he believes was the "incredible story of Middle East peace" reflected by the 2020 deal between Israel and Bahrain and the United Arab EmiratesARYEH LIGHTSTONE served as the Senior Advisor to U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman from 2017 to 2021. He played a critical role in advancing bilateral U.S.-Israel relations with a focus on 5G implementation, infrastructure expansion, and economic development. Further, he was instrumental in facilitating the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem as well as its successful merger with the Jerusalem Consulate. Also, he was on the Peace to Prosperity team, led the inaugural Abraham Accord Business Summit, directed the Abraham Fund, and was the point person in the Middle East for the actualization of the Abraham Accords. Prior to joining the State Department in 2017, Lightstone worked as an educator, rabbi, management professional, entrepreneur, and issue advocate. He is a Denver native and now splits his time between Israel and Colorado with his wife and four very adorable children.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
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Aug 3, 2023 • 33min

Remembering a first Tweet with the same bewitching nostalgia as a first kiss

EPISODE 1634: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Bethanne Patrick, prolific on social media as @TheBookMaven, about her memories of Twitter's glory years and what she calls the "dopamine hangover" after 2012Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast.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
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Aug 3, 2023 • 39min

Why 1968 was the year that broke American politics and how this could be repeated in 2024

EPISODE 1633: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Luke Nichter, author of THE YEAR THAT BROKE POLITICS, about 1968, the last year American politics got broken by economic, political and cultural upheavalLuke Nichter holds the H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair in Presidential Studies at Chapman University. His area of specialty is the Cold War, the modern presidency, and U.S. political and diplomatic history, with a focus on the "long 1960s" from John F. Kennedy through Watergate. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Massachusetts Historical Society, a Visiting Scholar at the University of Michigan's Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Rothermere American Institute, and a Hansard Research Scholar at the London School of Economics. He is a New York Times bestselling author or editor of eight books, including, most recently, The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968 (Yale University Press). It is the first rigorously researched historical account of the most controversial election in modern U.S. history to have cooperation from all four major sides – Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, and George Wallace. Luke interviewed approximately 85 family members and former staffers, in addition to extensive archival research and access to new evidence that dramatically changes our understanding of the election. This work was awarded a nNational Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. Luke's last book was The Last Brahmin: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and the Making of the Cold War (Yale University Press). It was the first full biography of Lodge – whose public career spanned from the 1930s to the 1970s – based on extensive multilingual archival research. This work was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Grant. He is also the author of Richard Nixon and Europe: The Reshaping of the Postwar Atlantic World (Cambridge University Press), which was based on multilingual archival research in six countries, and is now at work on a book tentatively titled LBJ: The White House Years of Lyndon Johnson. He is a noted expert on the secret White House recordings of Franklin D. Roosevelt through Richard Nixon, and wrote an authoritative history of their taping systems commissioned by the White House Historical Association.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
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Aug 3, 2023 • 33min

Why Greta Gerwig's BARBIE is Cynical and Vapid

EPISODE 1632: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Celeste Marcus, Managing Editor of Liberties Quarterly, about Greta Gerwig's complete failure  in BARBIE to make a serious movie about womenCeleste Marcus is the managing editor of Liberties. She is writing a biography of Chaim SoutineNamed 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
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Aug 1, 2023 • 40min

Why So Many Smart People Are Turning Against Democracy

EPISODE 1631: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Jaroslav Anders, author of the Liberties essay "An Open Letter to an Enemy of Liberalism in my Native Land",  about why, in his opinion, so many smart people are turning against democracyJaroslaw Anders is a writer and translator specializing in Eastern European literature. He is the author of Between Fire and Sleep: Essays on Modern Polish Poetry and Prose. (June 2021)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
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Jul 30, 2023 • 39min

If We Can Be Taught How to Write, Then Why Not Also Be Educated in How to Love?

EPISODE 1630: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Laura Warrell, author of SWEET, SOFT, PLENTY RHYTHM, about writing, jazz, romance and whether novels are really schools for educating their  readers about love. LAURA WARRELL is a contributor to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Summer Workshop, and is a graduate of the creative writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared in HuffPost, The Rumpus, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications. She has taught creative writing and literature at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and through the Emerging Voices Fellowship at PEN America in Los Angeles, where she lives.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
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Jul 29, 2023 • 30min

How to go from a small handful of book sales to top of the bestseller list via a 16 second Tiktok

EPISODE 1629: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to MAIDENS OF THE CAVE author Lloyd Devereux Richards and his daughter Marguerite about the TikTok video that catapulted him from an unknown author to an overnight internet sensationLloyd Devereux Richards was born in New York City and traveled extensively in Europe, Africa, and Central America before attending law school. He previously served as a senior law clerk for an Indiana Court of Appeals judge, researching and writing drafts for dozens of published opinions, including the appeal of a serial killer sentenced to death. A father of three, he lives with his wife, Cameron O’Connor, and their two dogs in Montpelier, Vermont. This is his second novel, after Stone Maidens. Marguerite Richards, a former teacher, also lives in Montpelier, Vermont.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

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