Keen On America

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to Dr Majid Sadeghpour, the political director of the Organization of Iran American Communities (OIAC) , about contemporary Iran and why, in his view, the current Iranian regime isn't reformable.Dr. Majid Sadeghpour is a human rights activist and the political director for Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC).  After the 1979 revolution in Iran, his family was persecuted and his brother ultimately executed. Sadeghpour escaped Iran and has since been an active opponent of the Islamist government in Iran.  Mr. Sadeghpour has written extensively on Iran and has appeared in both national and international TV programs.  Dr. Sadeghpour is a practicing healthcare professional and lives with his wife and children in Fairfax County, VA.Name 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.

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to the ADDICTIVE IDEOLOGIES co-author Dr Emily Bashah about strategies for liberating ourselves from political movements of hate and violence. Dr. Emily Bashah is an author and licensed psychologist with a private practice in Scottsdale, Arizona. An expert witness in criminal, immigration and civil courts, she has worked on high-profile cases covering issues of domestic terrorism and capital offenses, as well as first-degree murder. Dr. Bashah was awarded the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Policy Fellowship and served within the American Psychological Association’s Public Interest Government Relations Office in Washington, D.C. A frequent expert guest in media, Dr. Bashah clinically specializes in mental illness, personal and collective trauma, addiction and grief and loss, as well as family and relationship dynamics. She is the co-author of ADDICTIVE IDEOLOGIES: Finding Meaning and Agency When Politics Fails You (2022)Name 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.

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to the Budapest based Central European University historian Balazs Trencsenyi about the situation in east-central Europe as well as his role in the establishment of the Invisible University for Ukraine.Balázs Trencsényi is a Professor at the History Department of Central European University. His main field of interest is the history of modern political thought in East Central Europe. Between 2008 and 2013, he was Principal Investigator of the European Research Council project, “Negotiating Modernity”: History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe. Among others, he is the author of the monograph, The Politics of “National Character”: A Study in Interwar East European Thought (Routledge, 2012); co-author of A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe, vols. 1–2 (Oxford University Press, 2016, 2018); as well as co-editor of Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1775–1945), vols. 1–4 (CEU Press, 2006–7, 2014); European Regions and Boundaries: A Conceptual History (Berghahn, 2017); and Brave New Hungary: Mapping the “System of National Cooperation” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2019).Name 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.

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to RIVER SING ME HOME author Eleanor Shearer about her hotly anticipated first novel which has been selected as the Good Morning America pick for February.Eleanor Shearer is a mixed-race writer and the granddaughter of Windrush generation immigrants. She splits her time between London and Ramsgate on the English coast so that she never has to go too long without seeing the sea. For her Master’s degree in Politics at the University of Oxford, Eleanor studied the legacy of slavery and the case for reparations, and her fieldwork in St. Lucia and Barbados helped inspire her first novel, RIVER SING ME HOMEABOUT ANDREW KEEN: Name 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: 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.

In this KEEN ON episode a rather skeptical Andrew talks to WHEN EVERYONE LEADS author Julia Fabris McBride oabout what she claims is a "revolutionary approach" to leadership.JULIA FABRIS MCBRIDE is interim president and CEO as well as chief leadership development officer of the Kansas Leadership Center. She is also a certified coach and co-author of two books, the forthcoming When Everyone Leads (Bard Press, January 2023) and Teaching Leadership: Case-in-Point, Case Teaching, and Coaching. In addition to her interim executive management duties, she oversees teacher and coach development and has created three professional programs for leadership developers, including an International Coach Federation (ICF)-approved Leadership Coach training program, and an Advanced Leadership Development Intensive that has drawn people to Wichita from four continents.ABOUT ANDREW KEEN: Name 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: 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.

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to Zencastr founder Josh Nielsen about how podcasting platforms can democratize professional media to enable anyone to make a living broadcasting from their homes.ABOUT ANDREW KEEN: Name 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: 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.ABOUT JOSH NIELSEN: Josh Nielsen is the founder of Zencastr, a company that makes it easier to record high-quality audio for podcast interviewees based anywhere in the world. Prior to working at Zencastr, Nielsen worked as software developer at Missouri Star Quilt Co., co-founder at Soundkeep, and lead frontend engineer at Mahalo. Nielsen studied Computer andInformation Sciences, Web Design/Development, CS, IS, IT at Brigham Young University - Hawaii from 2007-2010.

In this KEEN ON episode Andrew talks to UNTOUCHABLE author Elie Honig on why powerful men like Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein are able to break the law and get away with it.ABOUT ELIE HONIG: Elie Honig worked as a federal and state prosecutor for 14 years. He prosecuted and tried cases involving violent crime, human trafficking, public corruption, and organized crime, including successful prosecutions of over 100 members and associates of the mafia. Honig now is a CNN Legal Analyst, hosts podcasts and writes for Cafe, is a Rutgers University scholar, and is Special Counsel to the law firm Lowenstein Sandler. His latest book is UNTOUCHABLE: How Powerful People Get Away With It (2023).ABOUT ANDREW KEEN: Name 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: 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.

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to THE DIARY KEEPERS author Nina Siegal about the moral murkiness of Dutch complicity in the Nazi persecution of Holland's Jewish communityABOUT NINA SIEGAL: Nina Siegal received her MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and was a Fulbright Scholar. She has written for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, among other publications. She lives in Amsterdam. Her latest book is "The Diary Keepers: World War II in the Netherlands, as Written by the People Who Lived Through It" (2023)ABOUT ANDREW KEEN: Name 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: 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.

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to the best-selling master of suspense Dean Koontz about the limits of literary fiction, the value of human agency, the problem with AI and why dogs remain our best friends.ABOUT DEAN KOONTZ: When he was a senior in college, Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and has been writing ever since. His books are published in 38 languages and he has sold over 500 million copies to date.Fourteen of his novels have risen to number one on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list (One Door Away From Heaven, From the Corner of His Eye, Midnight, Cold Fire, The Bad Place, Hideaway, Dragon Tears, Intensity, Sole Survivor, The Husband, Odd Hours, Relentless, What the Night Knows, and 77 Shadow Street), making him one of only a dozen writers ever to have achieved that milestone. Sixteen of his books have risen to the number one position in paperback. His books have also been major bestsellers in countries as diverse as Japan and Sweden.The New York Times has called his writing “psychologically complex, masterly and satisfying.” The New Orleans Times-Picayune said Koontz is, “at times lyrical without ever being naive or romantic. [He creates] a grotesque world, much like that of Flannery O’Conner or Walker Percy … scary, worthwhile reading.” Rolling Stone has hailed him as “America’s most popular suspense novelist.”Dean Koontz was born and raised in Pennsylvania. He graduated from Shippensburg State College (now Shippensburg University), and his first job after graduation was with the Appalachian Poverty Program, where he was expected to counsel and tutor underprivileged children on a one-to-one basis. His first day on the job, he discovered that the previous occupier of his position had been beaten up by the very kids he had been trying to help and had landed in the hospital for several weeks. The following year was filled with challenge but also tension, and Koontz was more highly motivated than ever to build a career as a writer. He wrote nights and weekends, which he continued to do after leaving the poverty program and going to work as an English teacher in a suburban school district outside Harrisburg. After a year and a half in that position, his wife, Gerda, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: “I’ll support you for five years,” she said, “and if you can’t make it as a writer in that time, you’ll never make it.” By the end of those five years, Gerda had quit her job to run the business end of her husband’s writing career.Dean Koontz lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirit of their goldens, Trixie and Anna.ABOUT ANDREW KEEN: Name 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: 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.

In this Keen On episode, Andrew talks to THE TERRAFORMERS author Annalee Newitz about the nature of things in 60,000 years - a world simultaneously all-too-familiar and unimaginably different from our own.ANNALEE NEWITZ is an American journalist, editor, and author of fiction and nonfiction. They are the recipient of a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship from MIT, and have written for Popular Science, The New Yorker, and the Washington Post. They founded the science fiction website io9 and served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008–2015, and then became Editor-in-Chief at Gizmodo and Tech Culture Editor at Ars Technica. Their book Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction was nominated for the LA Times Book Prize in science. Their first novel, Autonomous, won a Lambda award. Their latest book is THE TERRAFORMERS (2023)Name 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: 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.