

Keen On America
Andrew Keen
Nobody asks sharper or more impertinent questions than Andrew Keen. In KEEN ON, Andrew cross-examines the world’s smartest people on politics, economics, history, the environment, and tech. If you want to make sense of our complex world, check out the daily questions and the answers on KEEN ON.
Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best-known technology and politics broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running show How To Fix Democracy and the author of four critically acclaimed books about the future, including the international bestselling CULT OF THE AMATEUR.
Keen On is free to listen to and will remain so. If you want to stay up-to-date on new episodes and support the show please subscribe to Andrew Keen’s Substack. Paid subscribers will soon be able to access exclusive content from our new series Keen On America. keenon.substack.com
Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best-known technology and politics broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running show How To Fix Democracy and the author of four critically acclaimed books about the future, including the international bestselling CULT OF THE AMATEUR.
Keen On is free to listen to and will remain so. If you want to stay up-to-date on new episodes and support the show please subscribe to Andrew Keen’s Substack. Paid subscribers will soon be able to access exclusive content from our new series Keen On America. keenon.substack.com
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 11, 2023 • 35min
The Emotional Life of Populism in Israel: Eva Illouz on Netanyahu, Hamas and what the left has lost by not embracing the fear, disgust, resentment and love that determine democratic politics
EPISODE 1776: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Eva Illouz, author of THE EMOTIONAL LIFE OF POPULISM, about the fear, disgust, resentment and love determining politics in Israel and around the worldEva Illouz is professor of sociology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her books include Why Love Hurts: A Sociological Explanation, Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism, Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, Saving the Modern Soul: Therapy, Emotions, and the Culture of Self-Help, among others.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

Oct 11, 2023 • 39min
The October weekend that changed the Middle East forever: Uri Kaufman compares the Yom Kippur war of October 1973 with the Simchat Torah war of October 2023
EPISODE 1775: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Uri Kaufman, author of EIGHTEEN DAYS IN OCTOBER, about the 2023 October weekend that changed the Middle East foreverA graduate of New York University School of Law, Uri Kaufman is an award-winning real estate developer, specializing in adaptively restoring historic buildings. He has worked on his 2023 book, EIGHTEEN DAYS IN OCTOBER: THE YOM KIPPUR WAR AND HOW IT CREATED THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST for over twenty years, visiting the battlefields, speaking to participants and reviewing literally thousands of pages of material. He lives with his family in Lawrence, New York.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

Oct 10, 2023 • 34min
Tripping into our brave new psychedelic world: Andy Mitchell on his odyssey into the new reality of psychedelics
EPISODE 1774: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Andy Mitchell, author of TEN TRIPS, about his odyssey into the new reality of psychedelics Andy Mitchell is a neuropsychologist and therapist. He has specialised in treating patients with rare brain conditions, head injuries and epilepsy, and in the application of mindfulness for neurological patients. As a therapist he has worked with people with a range of mental health disorders. Before entering medicine, his first degree was in English Literature at Oxford University. He is originally from Leeds.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

Oct 10, 2023 • 30min
The Blood Years, then and now: Elana K. Arnold on book banning, book burning and what we can learn from Second World War books about good and evil
EPISODE 1773: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Elana K. Arnold, author of THE BLOOD YEARS, about book banning, book burning and what we can learn from Second World War books about good and evilELANA K. ARNOLD is the author of critically acclaimed and award-winning young adult novels and children’s books, including the Printz Honor winner Damsel, the National Book Award finalist What Girls Are Made Of, and Global Read Aloud selection A Boy Called Bat and its sequels. Several of her books are Junior Library Guild selections and have appeared on many best book lists, including the Amelia Bloomer Project, a catalog of feminist titles for young readers. Elana teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program and lives in Southern California with her family and menagerie of pets. 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

Oct 10, 2023 • 14min
Disorder, Disorder, Disorder: Jason Pack and Alexandra Hall Hall order our disordered world
In this special guest episode, Andrew hands the KEEN ON mic to Jason Pack and Alexandra Hall Hall, co-hosts of the DISORDER podcast. For more about the DISORDER show: https://linktr.ee/disorderpod?lt_utm_source=lt_share_link#331393001 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

Oct 9, 2023 • 38min
Is peace there for the taking? Jason Pack on Israel, Gaza, the Middle East and beyond
EPISODE 1772: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Jason Pack, co-host of the DISORDER podcast, about the disorder in Israel, Gaza, the Middle East and globallyJason Pack is the Founder ofLibya-Analysis LLC, and the co-host ofDisorder, a geopolitics podcast co-produced with Goalhanger Podcasts. He is a Senior Analyst for Emerging Challenges at theNATO Defence College Foundation in Rome. In partnership with NDCF, Jason leads a project entitledNATO and the Global Enduring Disorder, which produces a range of content (including the Disorder podcast and series of publications) attempting to sketch out a ‘unified field theory’ of our current era of geopolitics while proposing actionable solutions to our most pressing collective action challenges.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

Oct 9, 2023 • 36min
The All American B***h: Evelyn McDonnell on Joan Didion's artistic sensibility and moral clarity
EPISODE 1771: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Evelyn McDonnell, author of THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JOAN DIDION, about Didion's artistic sensibility and moral clarityEvelyn McDonnell is a professor of journalism at Loyola Marymount University. She has been writing about popular culture and society for more than 20 years. She is the author of five books: The World According to Joan Didion (published by Harper One September 26, 2023), Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways, Mamarama: A Memoir of Sex, Kids and Rock 'n' Roll, Army of She: Icelandic, Iconoclastic, Irrepressible Bjork and Rent by Jonathan Larson. She coedited the anthologies Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop and Rap; Stars Don't Stand Still in the Sky: Music and Myth; and Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyoncé. Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl. She also edited the Music Matters series published by the University of Texas Press. She has been the editorial director of www.MOLI.com, pop culture writer at The Miami Herald, senior editor at The Village Voice, and associate editor at SF Weekly. Her writing on music, poetry, theater, and culture has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, including the Los Angeles Times, Ms., Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Spin, Travel & Leisure, Us, Billboard, Vibe, Interview, Black Book, and Option. She codirected the Grrrls on Film festivals at LMU and the conference Stars Don't Stand Still in the Sky: Music and Myth at the Dia Center for the Arts in New York in 1998. She has won several fellowships and awards, including multiple National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and Southern California Journalism awards. She was an Annenberg Fellow at USC and a fellow to the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater. Her 2004 Herald expose of hip-hop cops was awarded first place for enterprise reporting by the South Florida Black Journalists Association and second place in the Society of Professional Journalists' Sunshine State Awards. She earned her Master's in Specialized Journalism, the Arts, from USC, where she was chosen for the Phi Kappa Phi honor society. She earned her Bachelor's in American studies, graduating magna cum laude from Brown University. And she is a proud member of the Beloit Memorial High School Hall of Fame.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

Oct 9, 2023 • 39min
Why politics needs to be relegated to its proper place: Alexandra Hudson offers timeless principles on how to heal society and ourselves
EPISODE 1770: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Alexandra Hudson, author of THE SOUL OF CIVILITY, about timeless principles to heal society and ourselvesALEXANDRA HUDSON is a writer, popular speaker, and the founder of Civic Renaissance, a publication and intellectual community dedicated to beauty, goodness and truth. She was named the 2020 Novak Journalism Fellow, and contributes to Fox News, CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, TIME Magazine, POLITICO Magazine, and Newsweek. She earned a master's degree in public policy at the London School of Economics as a Rotary Scholar, and is an adjunct professor at the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy. She is also the creator of a series for The Teaching Company called Storytelling and The Human Condition, now available for streaming. She lives in Indianapolis, IN with her husband and 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

Oct 9, 2023 • 52min
Claudia Goldin, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize for Economics, on women's journey to close the gender gap
EPISODE 1769: In this repeat of a KEEN ON show from December 2021, Andrew talks to Claudia Goldin, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize for Economics, about women's journey to close the gender gapClaudia Goldin is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and was the director of the NBER’s Development of the American Economy program from 1989 to 2017. She is a co-director of the NBER's Gender in the Economy group. An economic historian and a labor economist, Goldin's research covers a wide range of topics, including the female labor force, the gender gap in earnings, income inequality, technological change, education, and immigration. Most of her research interprets the present through the lens of the past and explores the origins of current issues of concern. Her most recent book is Career & Family: Women's Century-Long Journey toward Equity (Princeton University Press, 2021).. She is the author and editor of several books, among them Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women (Oxford 1990), The Regulated Economy: A Historical Approach to Political Economy (with G. Libecap; University of Chicago Press 1994), The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century (with M. Bordo and E. White; University of Chicago Press 1998), Corruption and Reform: Lesson’s from America’s Economic History (with E. Glaeser; Chicago 2006), and Women Working Longer: Increased Employment at Older Ages (with L. Katz; Chicago 2018). Her book The Race between Education and Technology (with L. Katz; Belknap Press, 2008, 2010) was the winner of the 2008 R.R. Hawkins Award for the most outstanding scholarly work in all disciplines of the arts and sciences.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

Oct 8, 2023 • 42min
The Myth of Progress: Erik J. Larson on Silicon Valley's failure to change anything of any significance since the Fifties
EPISODE 1768: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Erik J. Larson, author of THE MYTH OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, about Silicon Valley's failure to change anything since the 1950sErik J. Larson is a computer scientist and tech entrepreneur. The founder of two DARPA-funded AI startups, he is currently working on core issues in natural language processing and machine learning. He has written for The Atlantic and for professional journals and has tested the technical boundaries of artificial intelligence through his work with the IC2 tech incubator at the University of Texas at Austin. Follow Erik on Substack: https://substack.com/@erikjlarsonNamed 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


