Keen On America

Is Elon Human? Charles Steel on the Curious Mind of Elon Musk

15 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“You would not want to be me.” — Elon MuskYesterday I argued that Dario Amodei is the most interesting man in America because he’s doing somet...

Why Dario Amodei Might Be the 21st Century’s First Real Leader

14 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“Whether you like Amodei or not, at least he’s a leader.” — Andrew KeenDario Amodei is the most interesting man in America right now. Not beca...

From Orphanage to Google Brain: David Sussillo on Heroin, Neural Networks and the Mysteries of the Heart

13 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“I can point to things. But is that a systemic explanation? I think there the answer is a little less clear. I mean, surely people need love and all...

Murder on the Abortion Express: Amy Littlefield on Who Killed Roe

13 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“They all did it. They’re all guilty.” — Amy LittlefieldWho killed Roe? Amy Littlefield, the abortion access correspondent at The Nation and b...

The Magical Realist United States: Jazmine Ulloa on El Paso as America’s New Ellis Island

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“It’s about blood. I cover a lot of bloodshed in the book, but I also talk about a different kind of blood: blood that ties, blood that binds fami...

Move Fast and Break the World: Jonathan Taplin on Trump as an Interregnum

11 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“This is not the beginning of a new right-wing revanche fascist era; this is the end of something. But the problem is we can’t get to the new worl...

So Are All Immigrants Manchurian Candidates? Peter Schweizer on How Mexico, China, and the Muslim Brotherhood Are Weaponizing Immigration

10 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“Fidel Castro told his aides, ‘We’re going to fill his arms with shit.’ That is an example of weaponised migration. What we’re experiencing ...

Gatsby Without the Romance: Michael Wolff on Why Trump and Epstein Are the Same Person

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“I have always said that they are the same person. And the drama of this story is that one ends up dead in the darkest prison in America, and the ot...

How to Reclaim the Internet: Olivier Sylvain on Platforms and Policy

08 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“The fatal error is ours. Legislators set out a regulatory regime that keeps regulation at bay. The only other industry with a similar protection is...

No AI Good Guys? Andrew & Keith Ask If Altman Amodei, & Hegseth Have All Failed the Leadership Test

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“They’re both naughty boys in the playground, leveraging the absence of clarity to their own advantage. Neither one of them is an authoritative le...

What Would Daniel Ellsberg Say About Iran? His Son Michael on America’s Most Famous Whistleblower

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“All my life, I’ve absolutely opposed all terrorism by anyone under any circumstances. I define terrorism as the deliberate killing of noncombatan...

From the Muckers to the Mullahs: Christopher Clark on the Lessons of History

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“I don’t think we’re sleepwalking, because people have striven to be as thoughtful as possible. In some ways, they’ve been too thoughtful. We’...

How To Fix Big Med: Halle Tecco and Robin Blackstone on American Healthcare and its Discontents

04 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“We should all be able to look at the numbers and agree that this is not sustainable and that whatever we’ve been doing is not working. Democrats ...

The Coming Storm: Odd Arne Westad Asks If We're On the Brink of World War Three

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“If we let things continue in the direction that they are taking now, I think it is more likely than not that we will end up in some kind of Great P...

Racism as Entertainment: Rae Lynn Barnes on Darkology and American Culture

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“When you use humor to degrade people, you can get away with it—but you’re also doing something that’s completely devastating.” — Rae Lynn...

A Chosen Land for a Chosen People? Matthew Avery Sutton on How Christianity Made America and America Remade Christianity

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“If you disestablish Christianity, then Christian leaders need to make Christianity a consumer product. They need to give the American people someth...

American Yellow Vests? Manissa Maharawal on the Fight Against Tech-Led Gentrification in San Francisco

01 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“We keep telling you there’s an eviction crisis, so organize with us. Feel free to come into our meetings. Feel free to learn about the lives of p...

Is Anthropic Wrong? Andrew vs. Keith on Amodei vs. Trump

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"He's blundered here. He's trying to set policy for the government on the use of AI through a sales contract." — Keith Teare on Dario AmodeiThere's ...

Why You Can't Wear a Yellow Vest Anymore: Ida Susser on the Battle for Democracy in France

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"You can't wear a yellow vest on a demonstration anymore because you get arrested as soon as the police see you." — Ida SusserIn November 2018, some...

Was Henry Kissinger Evil? What His Secret Phone Calls Reveal

27 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“He lied more than I thought he did—and I thought he lied a lot.” — Tom Wells on Henry KissingerIn our Epstein age, everyone seems to have acc...

Was Henry Kissinger Evil? Tom Wells on the Kissinger Tapes

27 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"He lied more than I thought he did—and I thought he lied a lot." — Tom Wells on Henry KissingerIn our Epstein age, everyone seems to have access ...

Trump-Epstein: The Axis of Disorder

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“They are fundamentally bound at the hip, because the Trump age is a conspiratorial age and a backlash against global wealth inequality... Epstein f...

Trump-Epstein: Jason Pack on the Axis of Disorder

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"They are fundamentally bound at the hip, because the Trump age is a conspiratorial age and a backlash against global wealth inequality... Epstein fac...

Stuck, Stuck, Stuck, Stuck: Maya Kornberg on Congress as a Four-Alarm Fire

25 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“The House hasn’t reorganized committee jurisdictions since the early 70s—before the internet existed.” — Maya KornbergAmerica is stuck stuc...

Stuck, Stuck, Stuck, Stuck: Maya Kornberg on Congress as a Four-Alarm Fire

25 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"The House hasn't reorganized committee jurisdictions since the early 70s—before the internet existed." — Maya KornbergAmerica is stuck stuck stuc...

No, It's Not Only Social Media: Ross Greene on Why Our Kids Aren't Okay

24 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most persistent worries these days is that our kids aren’t okay. With most of the blame, of course, now being placed on the ubiquity of s...

No, It's Not Only Social Media: Ross Greene on Why Our Kids Aren't Okay

24 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"We didn't have to grow up with that." — Ross Greene, on school shootingsOne of the most persistent worries these days is that our kids aren't okay....

Fresh Hell at 3 AM

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“I wake up at 3 AM, check my phone to see what fresh hell has come out, and it’s usually two words: ‘Trump threatens.’” — Peter BaleWe’r...

Fresh Hell at 3 AM: Peter Bale on the View of America From Down Under

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"I wake up at 3 AM, check my phone to see what fresh hell has come out, and it's usually two words: 'Trump threatens.'" — Peter BaleWe're reversing ...

Why Different Minds Are Great

22 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“Great minds think alike? It’s completely wrong. It’s not that great minds think alike; it’s that different minds are great.” — David Oppe...

Different Minds Are Great: David Oppenheimer on the Diversity Principle

22 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"Great minds think alike? It's completely wrong. It's not that great minds think alike; it's that different minds are great." — David OppenheimerIt'...

The Silicon Gods Must Have Their Blood: How Public Venture Capital Might Kill Venture Capitalism

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"They are changing venture capital from a 30% tax to 0% tax. If Robinhood succeeds, it makes Sequoia and Andreessen's business model untenable." — K...

The Silicon Gods Must Have Their Blood

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“They are changing venture capital from a 30% tax to 0% tax. If Robinhood succeeds, it makes Sequoia and Andreessen’s business model untenable.”...

The Dangerous Myth of Neutrality Brian Soucek on Why Universities Should Take Sides

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“150 universities have adopted neutrality policies just since October 7th. I’m on the losing end of this trend.” — Brian SoucekUniversities ke...

The Dangerous Myth of Neutrality Brian Soucek on Why Universities Should Take Sides

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"150 universities have adopted neutrality policies just since October 7th. I'm on the losing end of this trend." — Brian SoucekUniversities keep cla...

Progressive Populism Prevails

20 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“72% of Americans say they hate big corporations—including Republicans.” — Charles DerberIt’s not just the right that’s reacting against l...

Progressive Populism Prevails: Charles Derber on How to Fight the Oligarchy

20 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"72% of Americans say they hate big corporations—including Republicans." — Charles DerberIt's not just the right that's reacting against liberal d...

He Was Somebody: David Masciotra Remembers Jesse Jackson

19 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“American culture likes martyrs, not marchers.” — David Masciotra, quoting Jesse JacksonA couple of days ago, a great American died. Jesse Jacks...

He Was Somebody: David Masciotra Remembers Jesse Jackson

19 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"American culture likes martyrs, not marchers." — David Masciotra, quoting Jesse JacksonA couple of days ago, a great American died. Jesse Jackson w...

Books Are Dying (Again)

18 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“It truly is becoming a desert right now for book publicists.” — Bethanne PatrickA couple of weeks ago, there was an “absolute bloodbath“ at...

Books Are Dying (Again): Bethanne Patrick on the Enshittification of the Book Biz

18 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"It truly is becoming a desert right now for book publicists." — Bethanne PatrickA couple of weeks ago, there was an "absolute bloodbath" at The Was...

Protesting the Protesters

17 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

I’m much more likely to protest when I feel responsible—when violence is being done in my name.” — Bruce RobbinsAs always, the media is full o...

Protesting the Protesters: Bruce Robbins on the Protests over Vietnam, Gaza and Minneapolis

17 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"I'm much more likely to protest when I feel responsible—when violence is being done in my name." — Bruce RobbinsAs always, the media is full of s...

Mercy Costs Money

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“If you are less than 50 years old, you are living through the safest period in your lifetime.” — Emily Galvin-AlmanzaBack in April 2024, we int...

Mercy Costs Money: Emily Galvin Almanza on the Price of Criminal Justice in America

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"We are still dealing with a system which tolerates rampant abuse of accused people." — Emily Galvin AlmanzaBack in April 2024, we interviewed Thelt...

Two Years Till We're Cooked: The Death of White Collar Work and Other Human Things

15 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“Two years from now, all white-collar jobs may be gone.” — Dario Amodei (via Keith Teare)Are we spiders or are we frogs? That’s the existentia...

Two Years Till We're Cooked: The Death of White Collar Work and Other Human Things

15 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"Two years from now, all white-collar jobs may be gone." — Dario Amodei (via Keith Teare)Keith Teare leads this week's tech roundup with a video he ...

What is Love? A Valentine's Day Special

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"She's a ten to me and that's the part that matters." — Paul Eastwick on his wifeIf it’s Valentine’s Day, we must be talking about love. Paul Ea...

What is Love? Paul Eastwick on the New Science of Attraction

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"She's a ten to me and that's the part that matters." — Paul EastwickIf it's Valentine's Day, we must be talking about love. Paul Eastwick studies a...

Politics Without Politicians: Hélène Landemore's Case for Citizen Rule

13 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"How can you not be a populist in this day and age?" — Hélène LandemoreIn February 2020, The New Yorker profiled a Yale professor making the case ...

Politics Without Politicians: Helene Landemore's Case for Citizen Rule

13 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“How can you not be a populist in this day and age?” — Hélène LandemoreIn February 2020, The New Yorker profiled a Yale professor making the c...

Can Billionaire Backlash Save Democracy? Pepper Culpepper on our Age of Corporate Scandal

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"I will say that QAnon was right and I was wrong." — Pepper CulpepperFrom Bannon and Trump to Summers, Gates, Blavatnik and Chomsky, the Epstein sca...

Can Billionaire Backlash Save Democracy?

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

From Bannon and Trump to Summers, Gates, Blavatnik and Chomsky, the Epstein scandal has revealed elites of all ideological stripes behaving shamefully...

Yes, It's Fascism

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“You either need to call it fascism or you need to invent a new word with more or less the same meaning.” — Jonathan RauchJonathan Rauch’s vir...

Yes, It's Fascism: Jon Rauch on Trump and the F Word

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"You either need to call it fascism or you need to invent a new word with more or less the same meaning." — Jonathan RauchJonathan Rauch's viral Atl...

Californian True Crime: A Killing in Cannabis

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"The black market exists only because we decided that this form of trade should be illegal." — Scott EdenIn October 2019, tech executive Tushar Atre...

Californian True Crime: A Killing in Cannabis

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“The black market exists only because we decided that this form of trade should be illegal.” — Scott EdenIn October 2019, Californian tech execu...

Rage in the American Republic

09 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"We all love Thomas Paine. We just wish we liked him." — Jonathan TurleyJonathan Turley's new book asks a deceptively simple question: why did the A...

Rage in the American Republic

09 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“We all love Thomas Paine. We just wish we liked him.” — Jonathan TurleyJonathan Turley’s new book, Rage and the Republic, asks a deceptively ...

Documenting America: Who to See Beyond the Algorithm

08 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“It may not be Mister Right YouTube, but it is Mister Right Now.” — Erika DildayOn Super Bowl Sunday — with America radically divided over the...

Documenting America: How to See Beyond the Algorithm

08 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"It may not be Mister Right YouTube, but it is Mister Right Now." — Erika DildayOn Super Bowl Sunday — with America celebrating its 250th annivers...

Whoosh! That Really Was a Week in Tech: Winner-Take-All AI and the $1 Trillion Selloff

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"I didn't use my own software this week because the OpenAI agents were better. And that's me retiring my own software." — Keith TeareSomething broke...

Whoosh! That Really Was a Week in Tech

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Whoosh! That really was a week in tech. On Super Bowl weekend here in Silicon Valley, Keith Teare and I unpack an extraordinary seven days that may ha...

Catching More Than Passes From Bobby: Stephen Schlesinger on what RFK Can Still Teach America

06 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What kind of leadership can hold a fractured democracy together?About the GuestStephen Schlesinger is an American historian, author, and foreign polic...

Catching More Than Passes From Bobby

06 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Stephen Schlesinger — son of Arthur Schlesinger Jr., JFK’s court historian — tells a memorable story about Bobby Kennedy. Visiting Bobby at his ...

Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Andrew Guthrie Ferguson on Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A man was convicted by his own heartbeat — and that's just the beginning of our digital dystopia.About the GuestAndrew Guthrie Ferguson is Professor...

Your Data Will Now Be Used Against You

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"Twenty years ago, the internet was all about empowering us. In fact, back in 2006, at the height of the Web 2.0 exuberance, Time even awarded their P...

To Catch a Fascist: The Ethics of Unmasking the Radical Right

04 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An anti-fascist spy handed American officials evidence of murderous intent from a Nazi planning server — and they declined to act.About the GuestChr...

To Catch a Fascist: The Ethics of Unmasking

04 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Doxxing has become one of the most controversial weapons of both left and right in exposing and shaming their enemies. But is it ethically justified —...

How Meat Can Save the Planet: The Vegan Case

03 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Can meat save the planet? That’s the paradoxical promise of the longtime vegan activist Bruce Friedrich, founder of the Good Food Institute. In his ...

It's Always Exploding Somewhere: Why No Weapon Is Ever Perfect

02 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

There’s something absurdly Strangelovian about the American quest for a perfect weapon. As Jeffrey Stern warns in The Warhead, his new history of Th...

Where's the Countercultural Outrage to Trump?

01 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Why did Nixon trigger a remarkable cultural American renaissance while Trump has generated an avalanche of social media bluster, but few great movies,...

AI's Adolescent Crisis: And It's Still Just a Toddler

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Is AI going through an adolescent crisis, even it’s still just a toddler? There certainly seems to be a lot of adolescent angst amongst our new AI o...

Running Away From America: The Rhodes Scholar Who Ran a Male Brothel in Bali

30 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When asked what his parents did, Atlantic CEO and competitive marathoner Nicholas Thompson had a stock response. "My mother's an art historian at Babs...

Your 2026 Reading List: Seven Books You Won't Want to Miss

29 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

According to our favorite literary reviewer, Bethanne Patrick, these are the seven books that “will really matter” in 2026:* Land by Maggie O’Fa...

Human Fracking: The $17 Trillion War for Your Attention

28 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Pay attention to this interview. Because, you see, attention is seriously expensive — the Silicon Valley industry being worth $17 trillion, at least...

Fear and Fury: From Bernie Goetz to Kyle Rittenhouse

27 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

New books are like London buses. You wait and wait and then a handful comes at the same time. Take, for example, histories of the New York City vigila...

Who Needs Goliaths? Don't Write Off Europe's Army of Davids

26 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This is the final conversation from DLD. And the most optimistic - at least from a European perspective. John Thornhill, the FT’s Innovation Editor ...

Excited and Terrified: The Atlantic CEO on Journalism's AI Reckoning

25 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For media moguls, we are living, to borrow from Dickens, in the best and worst of times. As Nicholas Thompson confessed to me at DLD, The Atlantic CEO...

64% and Counting: America's Venture Capital Dominance

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most bracing presentations at DLD this year was given by Crunchbase's data queen Gene Teare. Breaking down America's VC dominance, Teare's ...

From the Soil Up: Regenerating the Economy

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Not everything at DLD this year was on the growing US-European economic and technological divide. There were many speeches on the environment includin...

Three Minutes to Midnight: How Europe is Running out of Time

22 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Few speakers at DLD this year were more sombre than The Economist's deputy executive editor Kenneth Cukier. “Civilizations aren’t killed,” Cukie...

Why Today's AI Boom Is No Dot-Com Bubble

21 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Few people experienced the Dot-Com bubble with more vertiginous intensity than Bill Gross, the Pasadena-based founder of Idealab and many many other i...

Is It Game Over For Europe?

20 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Yesterday’s show from the DLD conference was about the need for Europe to relearn the language of power. Today, things get even more dire for our Eu...

Why Europe Must Learn the Language of Power

19 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

I'm just back from another stimulating Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich where all the talk was about the growing technological and polit...

The 1984 NYC Subway Vigilante: Self Defense or Racial Rage?

18 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For a country forever flirting with amnesia about its racial history, America sure struggles to forget. Take, for example, Bernie Goetz, the white sub...

The Myth of Willpower: It's not YOU. It's THEM

17 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In his new co-authored book It’s On You, the English behavioral scientist Nick Chater exposes how the rich and powerful - the THEM - have convinced ...

Chinese Amorality vs. American Immorality

16 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

According to the New Yorker writer Nicholas Niarchos, Africa is rich in both raw materials and tragic paradox. We know about the continent's wealth in...

Why This Might Be Robert Redford's Most Prescient Movie

15 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

We all have our own favorite Robert Redford movie. But what's Redford’s most prescient film about today’s America? His Seventies trilogy about Ame...

Can Swiftynomics Save America?

14 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Can Swiftynomics save America? That’s the intriguing thesis at the heart of Misty Heggeness’ new book about Swift’s impact on the American econo...

On Fire for the God Con

13 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Music Man was a 1957 Broadway show written by Meredith Willson, a musician from the small Iowa town of Mason City. The popular play (and later mov...

How Jefferson Seduced America

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Few biographers can claim to know what it feels like to be Thomas Jefferson more than the Charlottesville-based historian Andrew Burstein. The author ...

The Man Who Made Books Random

11 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

There was a time in the mid 20th century, the literary historian Gayle Feldman reminds us, when the book business was cool. Back then, New York publis...

Gaza: The Dream and the Nightmare

10 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Trump’s Gazan dream is to overlay the complex human history with his own narcissistic real-estate fantasy. But for Maia Carter Hallward, co-author o...

Old School Principles for the New Century: What if the Right isn't Wrong about Education?

09 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What if the right isn’t wrong - or, at least, totally wrong, about education? That seems to be the conclusion of James Traub, a liberal educationali...

Melting Ice & Vanishing Cultures: The Chilling Costs of the New Cold War in the Artic

08 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Timing is everything. The versatile American journalist Kenneth Rosen was last on the show in early 2021 talking about troubled teens. Since then, Ros...

Trump and 25th Amendment: Why Removal will NEVER happen

07 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Will Trump be removed by the 25th Amendment? No, it’s never going to happen - not after Jan 6 or Venezuela or Greenland or any other mad foreign or ...

Lindsey

06 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The great John Maynard Keynes explained it a century ago. In his 1930 essay, "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren," Keynes predicted that the...

The School of Misery: The Children of a Manufactured Miracle

05 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Back in 2018, the New York Times reporters Katie Benner and Erica L. Green exposed the disturbing reality of the T.M. Landry college prep school in ru...

WTF Will Happen in 2026? The Promise and Peril of the New Year

05 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

WTF will happen in 2026? Over the last week, we’ve been running a series of interviews about the promise and peril of the new year. And in this new ...