

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

Dec 30, 2022 • 29min
Julia Hobsbawm: Why the 2022 Trend of the Year Was Working From Home and How This Probably Won't Change in 2023
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.In this episode, Andrew is joined by Julia Hobsbawm, author of The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future.Julia Hobsbawm is an entrepreneur, writer, and consultant who addresses the challenges of the hyper connected age, in particular remedies of what she has called Social Health for organizations. She is Chair of The Workshift Commission and is Founder and Chair of the content and connection business Editorial Intelligence. Her bestselling book The Simplicity Principle: Six Steps Towards Clarity in a Complex World was published in 2020 and won the American Book Fest Best Book Award 2020 – Business: General and the NYC Big Book Award 2020 – Self-Help: General. Awarded an OBE for services to business, her articles are amongst the most downloaded on the Strategy + Business site and she is an adviser to the British Academy’s Future of the Corporation project.

Dec 29, 2022 • 49min
Larry Downes on How the Federal Government Failed to Rein in Big Tech in 2022: Expect the Same Inaction in 2023
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.In this episode, Andrew is joined by Larry Downes, author of Pivot to the Future: Discovering Value and Creating Growth in a Disrupted World.Larry Downes is an Internet industry analyst and author on developing business strategies in the age of disruptive innovation. He is the co-author of Big Bang Disruption and author of New York Times business best-seller, Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance (1998), which was named by The Wall Street Journal as one of the five most important books ever published on business and technology. He is a columnist on innovation for both The Washington Post and Forbes and writes regularly for Harvard Business Review. Downes has held faculty appointments at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Northwestern University School of Law, and the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he was Associate Dean of the School of Information. Since 2014, he has served as project director at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy.

Dec 29, 2022 • 36min
Peter Wehner: Why 2022 Might Represent the End of the Trump Era and What Might Replace It in 2023
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.In this episode, Andrew is joined by Peter Wehner, author of The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump.Peter Wehner is a New York Times contributing Op-Ed writer covering American politics and conservative thought and a popular media commentator on politics. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and veteran of three White House administrations.

Dec 28, 2022 • 36min
Elissa Epel: More Empathy, More Psychedelics, or More Grapefruit? How to Best Relieve Stress in 2023
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.In this episode, Andrew is joined by Elissa Epel, author of The Stress Prescription: Seven Days to More Joy and Ease.Elissa Epel, PhD, is a leading health psychologist who studies stress, aging, and obesity. She is the director of UCSF’s Aging, Metabolism, and Emotion Center and is associate director of its Center for Health and Community. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and serves on scientific advisory committees for the National Institutes of Health and the Mind & Life Institute. She has received awards from Stanford University, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the American Psychological Association. She is the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller The Telomere Effect.

Dec 28, 2022 • 33min
Matthew Krogh on Why Watergate Will Never Die: The Moral Lessons of One of Nixon's White House Plumbers
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.In this episode, Andrew is joined by Matthew Krogh, author of The White House Plumbers: The Seven Weeks That Led to Watergate and Doomed Nixon’s Presidency.Matthew Krogh (1970 - ) is a professional change maker focused on issues of climate change, fossil fuels, and policy. Mostly based in Bellingham, Washington, he has spent his career in nonprofit activism at various organizations, and has worked as a freelance writer, ranger, and geographic analyst. He currently co-owns Warthog Information Systems, a company focused on using geographic information to make the world a better place. He is grateful for the opportunity to amplify his dad's important life lessons through co-authoring The White House Plumbers, along with its earlier iteration Integrity.

Dec 28, 2022 • 34min
Chris Miller: Why 2022 Was the Year of the Chip and the Three Great Unanswered Questions That Will Bedevil Us in 2023
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.In this episode, Andrew is joined by Chris Miller, author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology.Chris Miller is Assistant Professor of International History at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He also serves as Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Eurasia Director at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and as a Director at Greenmantle, a New York and London-based macroeconomic and geopolitical consultancy. He is the author of three previous books—Putinomics, The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy, and We Shall Be Masters—and he frequently writes for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The American Interest, and other outlets. He received a PhD in history from Yale University and an AB in history from Harvard University. Currently, he resides in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Dec 25, 2022 • 34min
Peter Coy: Why Inflation Dominated Our 2022 Economy and Why Everything Might Change in 2023
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.In this episode, Andrew is joined by Peter Coy, New York Times Opinion writer.Peter Coy writes about economics, business and finance for Opinion. He has been covering the topics for four decades.

Dec 24, 2022 • 36min
Martin Rees: Why 2022 Was a Triumphant Year for Science and What Needs to Happen in 2023 to Build Upon These Advances
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.In this episode, Andrew is joined by Martin Rees, author of On the Future: Prospects for Humanity.Martin Rees is Astronomer Royal, and has been Master of Trinity College and Director of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University. As a member of the UK’s House of Lords and former President of the Royal Society, he is much involved in international science and issues of technological risk. His books include Our Cosmic Habitat (Princeton), Just Six Numbers, and Our Final Hour (published in the UK as Our Final Century). He lives in Cambridge, UK.

Dec 24, 2022 • 28min
Vivek Wadhwa on Modi, Indian Tech, and Kashmir: What America Gets Wrong About India
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.In this episode, Andrew is joined by Vivek Wadhwa, authors of From Incremental to Exponential: How Large Companies Can See the Future and Rethink Innovation.Vivek Wadhwa is director of research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization and executive in residence at the Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University; vice president of innovation and strategy at Singularity University; fellow at the Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University; and distinguished visiting scholar, Halle Institute of Global Learning, Emory University. He is a regular columnist for the Washington Post, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and Forbes.com. In February 2012, the US government awarded him distinguished recognition as an “Outstanding American by Choice” for his “commitment to this country and to the common civic values that unite us as Americans.”

Dec 24, 2022 • 35min
Rob Reich and Jeremy Weinstein on Political Regulation and a Moral Education: What Needs to Happen in 2023 to Reign in Big Tech
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.In this episode, Andrew is joined by Rob Reich and Jeremy Weinstein, authors of System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot.Rob Reich is professor of political science and codirector of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford University.Jeremy M. Weinstein went to Washington with President Obama in 2009. A key staffer in the White House, he foresaw how new technologies might remake the relationship between governments and citizens, and launched Obama’s Open Government Partnership. When Samantha Power was appointed US Ambassador to the United Nations, she brought Jeremy to New York, first as her chief of staff and then as her deputy. He returned to Stanford in 2015 as a professor of political science, where he now leads Stanford Impact Labs.


