Keen On America

EPISODE 1581: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Ethan Scheiner, author of FREEDOM TO WIN, about the the courageous Czechoslovakian hockey team that successfully fought the Soviets for the soul of its peopleEthan Scheiner is a faculty member in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Davis. His research and teaching focus on the intersection of politics and sports. Scheiner is the author of Freedom to Win: A Cold War Story of the Courageous Hockey Team That Fought the Soviets for the Soul of Its People—and Olympic Gold (July 4, 2023 release): A classic David & Goliath tale, complete with colorful heroes, cold-hearted villains, and nail-biting games—with the hockey rink serving as an arena for a nation’s resistance. Scheiner’s research and teaching also focus on important issues surrounding democratic representation. Scheiner’s first book, Democracy Without Competition in Japan: Opposition Failure in a One-Party Dominant State (2006 at Cambridge University Press) offers an explanation for opposition party failure in Japan, a democracy dominated by one party since 1955. Scheiner’s second book, Electoral Systems and Political Context: How the Effects of Rules Vary across New and Established Democracies (co-authored with Robert Moser, 2012 at Cambridge University Press), examines elections around the world to understand when electoral rules will – and will not – have the effects typically expected of them. In addition, Scheiner was the co-editor, along with Robert Pekkanen, Steven Reed, and Daniel Smith, of the Japan Decides book series editions that offered analyses of the 2012, 2014, and 2017 lower house elections in Japan. He has also published articles on political parties, elections, and electoral systems across a range of political science and Asian studies journals.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

EPISODE 1580: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Benyamin Cohen, the author of THE EINSTEIN EFFECT, how the world's favorite genius got into our cars, our bathrooms and our mindsBenyamin Cohen manages the official social media accounts of Albert Einstein. He is the News Director of the Forward and was the founding editor of both Jewsweek and American Jewish Life magazine. He is the co-host of the "That Jewish News Show" podcast. Cohen is also the author of My Jesus Year: A Rabbi’s Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith (HarperCollins), named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly and for which he received the Georgia Author of the Year award. He is based in Morgantown, West Virginia, where he lives with his wife, three dogs and a flock of chickens known as the Co-Hens. For more, visit www.benyamincohen.com.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

EPISODE 1579: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Sarah Weinman, editor of EVIDENCE OF THINGS SEEN,  true crime in our era of cultural, economic and political reckoningSarah Weinman is the author of Scoundrel, named a Best Book of 2022 by Time, Esquire, CBC, and NPR, and The Real Lolita, named a Best Book of 2018 by NPR, BuzzFeed, The National Post, Literary Hub, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Vulture, and winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award in Nonfiction. She also edited Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit & Obsession (Ecco), winner of the Anthony Award for Best Nonfiction/Critical Work; Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s (Library of America); and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives (Penguin). Weinman writes the monthly Crime & Mystery column for the New York Times Book Review. A 2020 National Magazine Award finalist for Reporting and the Calderwood Journalism Fellow at MacDowell, her work has also appeared most recently in The Atlantic, New York, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and the Washington Post, while her fiction has been published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and numerous anthologies. Weinman also writes (albeit more sporadically) the “Crime Lady” newsletter, covering crime fiction, true crime, and all points in between. She lives in New York City and Northampton, MA.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

EPISODE 1578: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Deborah Bonello, author of NARCAS, about the secret rise of women in Latin's America's drug cartelsDeborah Bonello is a journalist, a writer, an editor, and an investigator based in Mexico City. Born in Malta and brought up in the UK, she moved to Latin America to work as a foreign correspondent in 2005. Deborah is senior editor for Latin America at VICE World News and has nearly two decades of experience covering organized crime and criminal syndicates, particularly the drug trade, as well as the violence and culture connected to the crime world. She’s contributed to several publications, including The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, the BBC, and The Telegraph.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

EPISODE 1577: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to John K. Roth, co-author of WARNINGS, about the Holocaust, the Ukraine and an endangered American democracyJOHN K. ROTH was named the 1988 U. S. National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He is the Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) in Claremont, California, where he taught from 1966 through 2006. In 2003, Roth became the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights (now the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights). Roth received his BA from Pomona College in 1962, graduating magna cum laude and with honors in philosophy and membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He joined the CMC faculty after taking his MA and PhD in philosophy at Yale University. In addition, Roth has been awarded the Doctorate of Humane Letters (Honoris Causa) by Indiana University, Grand Valley State University, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Western University of Health Sciences, and Transylvania University. He holds the Holocaust Educational Foundation’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Holocaust Studies and Research. Roth's expertise in Holocaust and genocide studies, as well as in philosophy, ethics, American studies, and religious studies, has been advanced by postdoc­toral appointments as a Graves Fellow in the Humanities, a Fulbright Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and a Fellow of the National Humanities Institute, Yale University. Roth has served as Visiting Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Haifa, Israel, and as Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Franklin College, Lugano, Switzerland, and Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan. He also served as Fulbright Lecturer in American Studies attached to the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Education, Research, and Church Affairs, Oslo, Norway. He has held invitational fellowships from the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies in England and the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC. In addition to lecturing widely throughout the United States and around the world, Roth has authored, coauthored, or edited more than fifty books, and he has published hundreds of articles and reviews. His books include: Ethics During and After the Holocaust: In the Shadow of Birkenau (Palgrave Macmillan); The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies (Oxford University Press), The Failures of Ethics: Confronting the Holocaust, Genocide, and Other Mass Atrocities (Oxford University Press), Sources of Holocaust Insight: Learning and Teaching about the Genocide (Cascade/Wipf and Stock), and Advancing Holocaust Studies (Routledge).  Roth has been a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, Washington, DC. He is a former chair of the California Council for the Humanities (now Cal Humanities) and trustee of Humanities Washington, both affiliates of the National Endowment for the Humanities.  He has served on the board of the Federation of State Humanities Councils, chairing that board from 2011 to 2013.Named as one of the "100 least 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

EPISODE 1576: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Sonali Kolhatkar, author of RISING UP, about the power of narrative in pursuing racial justice in AmericaSonali Kolhatkar is the host and creator of Rising Up with Sonali, a weekly television and radio program that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates around the United States. She has won numerous awards, including Best TV Anchor and Best National Political Commentary from the LA Press Club, and has been nominated for Best Radio Anchor four years in a row. Currently the Racial Justice editor at Yes! Magazine and a Writing Fellow with the Independent Media Institute, she co-authored her first book, Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, with Jim Ingalls. Sonali is the co-Director of the non-profit group, Afghan Women's Mission. Sonali earned her MS in Astronomy from the University of Hawaii, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. She resides with her husband and two sons in Pasadena, California.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

EPISODE 1575: In this regular weekly show with THAT WAS THE WEEK newsletter author Keith Teare, Andrew and Keith discuss an astonishing week in tech when Apple reached a three trillion dollar valuation and AI ate the internetKeith 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

EPISODE 1574: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Nate Halverson, the producer and lead reporter on the new documentary movie THE GRAB, about the money, influence and rationale behind covert efforts to control the planet's most vital resource Nate Halverson is an Emmy Award-winning senior reporter and producer at The Center for Investigative Reporting, covering business and finance with an emphasis on the global food system. Halverson broke the international news that California was literally sinking, a result of farmers over-pumping groundwater in the drought stricken Central Valley. He won a national Emmy Award for his reporting on the Chinese government’s involvement in the takeover of the world’s largest pork company, Smithfield Foods. He revealed the Saudi government’s plan to support the acquisition of food and water resources around the world that included a 15-square-mile farm in the parched Arizona desert, and other farms across drought stricken California. He reported on classified cables from the U.S. State Department that detailed wealthy countries were concerned about looming water and food shortages, including dire shortages in Yemen that helped trigger its devastating civil war. He has reported across the world, including Russia, Guatemala, England, Zambia, China, and Venezuela, and on investigative topics ranging from financial fraud and organized crime to uncovering internal documents that helped result in a $155 million settlement with a tech company. Before joining CIR, Halverson worked on projects with the Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, PBS NewsHour and at the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Press Democrat. He was awarded a 2014 McGraw Fellowship by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, and he received degrees in economics and journalism from the University of Minnesota.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

EPISODE 1573: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Peace Adzo Medie, author of NIGHTBLOOM, about how to get beyond the shame of sexual violence in AfricaPeace Adzo Medie is a scholar and writer. She is Senior Lecturer in Gender and International Politics at the University of Bristol. Her research addresses gender, politics, and conflict in Africa. Her book, Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence against Women in Africa, was published in March 2020 by Oxford University Press. Her debut novel, His Only Wife, was published in September 2020 by Algonquin Books. It was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, a New York Times Notable Book of 2020, and a Time Magazine Must-Read Book of 2020. Medie’s research has been supported by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council, and her findings have been published in African Affairs, International Studies Review, Politics & Gender, and the European Journal of Politics and Gender. Her work has won several awards, including the 2019 Best Article Award of the European Journal of Politics and Gender. Her short stories have appeared in Slice Magazine, Transition, Four Way Review, and elsewhere. She is a co-editor of African Affairs, the top-ranked African studies journal, and of the Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations book series. She is also a Research Fellow at LECIAD, University of Ghana, and a 2015 - 2017  Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellow. Medie earned a BA in Geography from the University of Ghana, an MA in International Studies from Ohio University, and a PhD in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh. She attended OLA Secondary School, Ho, and was born in Liberia.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 IN 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

EPISODE 1572: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Patrick Dean, the author of NATURE'S MESSENGER, about Mark Catesby, America's First Great NaturalistPatrick Dean writes on the outdoors and the environment. He has worked as a teacher, a political media director, and is presently the executive director of a rail-trail nonprofit. An avid trail-runner, paddler, and mountain-biker, he lives with his wife and dogs on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, and is the author of A Window To Heaven, about the summit of Denali, also available from Pegasus Books. 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