

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 17, 2022 • 39min
Anna Badkhen on Today's Bright Unbearable Reality: We Need to Dream Differently
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 Anna Badkhen, author of Bright Unbearable Reality.Anna Badkhen was born in the Soviet Union and is now an American citizen. She is the author of six previous books of nonfiction. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Barry Lopez Visiting Writer in Ethics and Community Fellowship, and a Joel R. Seldin Award from Psychologists for Social Responsibility for writing about civilians in war zones.

Oct 17, 2022 • 40min
Gautam Mukunda on How to Pick an American President? Making the Most Consequential Decision in the World
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 Gautam Mukunda, author of Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World.Gautam Mukunda is a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, author of Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, and the host of NASDAQ’s World Reimagined podcast. He was formerly an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University.

Oct 17, 2022 • 37min
Lisa Hajjar on Fighting Guantanamo: How Hundreds of Lawyers Successfully Challenged the Illegal Treatment of Prisoners Captured in the American War on Terror
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 Lisa Hajjar, author of The War in Court:Inside the Long Fight against Torture.Lisa Hajjar is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose work focuses on the relationship between law and conflict. She is the author of Courting Conflict and Torture: A Sociology of Violence and Human Rights.

Oct 17, 2022 • 41min
Chris Miller on Why the Most Powerful Thing in the World Is Computer Chip Technology
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.

Oct 16, 2022 • 33min
Sean Connolly on How Irish Immigration Made the World Modern
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 Sean Connolly, author of On Every Tide: The Making and Remaking of the Irish World.Sean Connolly is professor of Irish history (emeritus) and visiting research fellow at the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s University Belfast. He is the author of five books, including Contested Island and Divided Kingdom, and was general editor of The Oxford Companion to Irish History. Born in Dublin, he lives in Belfast.

Oct 16, 2022 • 35min
Natasha Lance Rogoff on Muppets in Moscow: The Crazy Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia
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 Natasha Lance Rogoff, author of Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia.Natasha Lance Rogoff is an award-winning American television producer, filmmaker, and journalist of television news and documentaries in Russia, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union for NBC, ABC, and PBS. Lance Rogoff executive produced Ulitsa Sezam, the Russian adaptation of Sesame Street, between 1993 and 1997. She also produced Plaza Sesamo in Mexico. In addition to her television work, Lance Rogoff has reported on Soviet underground culture as a documentary director and magazine and newspaper writer for major international media outlets. Today, Lance Rogoff creates current affairs videos and is the CEO and founder of an ed-tech company that produces KickinNutrition.TV, a children's cooking and nutrition program. She is an associate fellow at Harvard University's Art, Film, and Visual Studies department. Lance Rogoff lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and New York City. Author website: www.natashalancerogoff.com

Oct 16, 2022 • 38min
Rita Katz: In Our Age of Internet-Born Terrorism, Should We Consider QAnon, ISIS, Proud Boys, and Individual School Shooters to All Be Terrorists?
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 Rita Katz, author of Saints and Soldiers: Inside Internet-Age Terrorism, from Syria to the Capitol Siege.Rita Katz is the founder and executive director of the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks and analyzes extremist movements. Her decades of experience include assisting in a wide range of governmental terrorism investigations and developing counterterrorism strategies used across the tech sector. Katz is the author of Terrorist Hunter: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman Who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America (2003).

Oct 15, 2022 • 29min
Jerry Stahl on Which Nazi Concentration Camp Had the Best Cafeteria
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 Jerry Stahl, author of Nein, Nein, Nein!: One Man's Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust.JERRY STAHL has written ten books, including the best-selling memoir Permanent Midnight, made into a movie with Ben Stiller; the essay collection OG Dad; and the novels Pain Killers; I, Fatty; Perv; Plainclothes Naked; Happy Mutant Baby Pills; and Bad Sex on Speed. A Pushcart Prize-winning author, Stahl's work has appeared in Esquire, Vice, the Believer, Tin House, Los Angeles Review of Books, and the New York Times, among other places. He has written extensively for film and television, including HBO's Hemingway & Gellhorn, which earned a Writers Guild Award nomination; Bad Boys II; and the cult classic Dr. Caligari; series credits include Maron, CSI, and Escape at Dannemora, for which he received an Emmy nomination. Stahl's writing has been widely translated, and he has taught with the InsideOUT Writers program for incarcerated youth, edited The Heroin Chronicles for Akashic Books, and participated in the documentary series, San Quentin Film School. He has two daughters, and lives with artist Zoe Hansen.

Oct 15, 2022 • 35min
Alice Wexler Remembers Her Father, Milton, An Unconventional and Controversial Freudian Psychoanalyst
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 Alice Wexler, author of The Analyst: A Daughter's Memoir.Alice Wexler is the author of a two-volume biography of Emma Goldman as well as Mapping Fate: A Memoir of Family, Risk, and Genetic Research (1995) and The Woman Who Walked Into the Sea: Huntington’s and the Making of a Genetic Disease (2008). She is a former Guggenheim fellow and is active on the board of the Hereditary Disease Foundation.

Oct 15, 2022 • 36min
Victor Pickard on Why American Democracy Can't Survive Without Reliable Journalism: How to Confront Our Misinformation SocietyVictor Pickard
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 Victor Pickard, author of Democracy Without Journalism?: Confronting the Misinformation Society.Victor Pickard is Associate Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, where he co-directs the Media, Inequality & Change (MIC) Center. He is the author of America’s Battle for Media Democracy and co-author of After Net Neutrality: A New Deal for the Digital Age.


