Keen On America
Episodes
Craig Wright: Why Should We Care About Genius?
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Craig Wright, author of The Hidden Habits of Genius, discusses the relationship between hard work and genius and why this term is ...
Tim Weiner: Behind the Closed Doors of Political Warfare
07 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Tim Weiner, author of The Folly and the Glory, discusses why our leaders and citizens need to understand the nature of political w...
Ian Brown: Searching for the American Dream
06 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Ian Brown, photographer and author of American Dreams, discusses traveling across the country over twelve years to document and ex...
Barry C. Lynn: The Threat of Monopolies in America
04 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Barry C. Lynn, the author of Liberty From All Masters: The New American Autocracy vs. the Will of the People, discusses what is pe...
Martha S. Jones: The Epic History of African American Women's Political Lives in America
03 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Martha S. Jones, author of Vanguard, discusses how African American women's political power has transformed America. Martha S. Jo...
Joel Bakan: Why Capitalism Can't Be Reformed From Within
02 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Joel Bakan, author of The New Corporation, discusses how and why good corporations are bad for democracy.Joel Bakan is professor o...
Daniel Yergin: What to Make of Our New Climate Politics
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Yergin is a highly respected authority on energy, international politics, and economics, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author ...
Tom Burgis: The Nexus Between Russian Money and Trump
30 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Tom Burger, author of Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World, discusses the New York Times' recent revelations about D...
Catherine Belton: How KGB Capitalism Took Over Russia—and the World
29 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Catherine Belton, author of Putin's People, discusses how the KGB took a punt on Trump and won.Catherine Belton worked from 2007-2...
Timothy Snyder: The Urgent Call to Rethink Health Care and Freedom
27 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From a live session of How to Fix Democracy, presented by the Bertelsmann Foundation and Humanity in Action, Andrew Keen talks with Timothy Snyder, be...
David S. Reynolds: What Abraham Lincoln Can Teach Us Now
27 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David S. Reynolds is a Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Walt Whitman's America: ...
Tony Schwartz: What It Was Like to Create the Fairy Tale Narrative of Donald Trump
25 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tony Schwartz is the author of several books, including The Art of the Deal, which he co-authored with Mr. Trump. He also wrote "The Power of Full Eng...
Alan Mikhail: How Sultan Selim's Ottoman Empire Shaped the Modern World
25 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A leading historian of his generation, Alan Mikhail, professor of history and chair of the Department of History at Yale University, has reforged our ...
Cynthia Miller-Idriss: How the Far Right Has Successfully Weaponized Youth Culture
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Cynthia Miller-Idriss discusses her new book Hate in the Homeland.Cynthia Miller-Idriss is an award-winning author and scholar of ...
Michael Sandel: What Has Become of the Common Good?
23 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Michael J. Sandel teaches political philosophy at Harvard University. His books What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets and Justice: What's ...
John Freeman: What Does Nationalism and Globalization Mean for the Environment?
22 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, John Freeman discusses his book Tales of Two Planets, whether a Green New Deal is possible, and what a Biden presidency would mean...
Derek W. Black: The Assault on Public Education–and Why This Threatens American Democracy
21 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Derek W. Black, author of Schoolhouse Burning, discusses why public education as we know it is in trouble.Derek W. Black is a prof...
Clarissa Ward: The Crisis of Truth
20 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Clarissa Ward is CNN's chief international correspondent. In her fifteen-year career spanning Fox, CBS, and ABC, Ward has reported from front lines ac...
Eleanor Herman: Why We Don't Care About the Sexual Behaviors of Our Presidents
19 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Eleanor Herman,, author of the upcoming book Sex With Presidents: The Ins and Outs of Love and Lust in the White House, discusses ...
Martin Sandbu: How a Better Economic System Can Work For All
18 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Martin Sandbu has been writing about economics for the Financial Times since 2009. Having started out as the newspaper's economics leader writer, he i...
Kerri Arsenault: A (Decaying, Toxic) River Runs Through It
16 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Kerri Arsenault is the Book Review Editor at Orion magazine, and Contributing Editor at Lithub. Arsenault received her MFA in Creative Writing from Th...
Thom Hartmann: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream
15 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Thom Hartmann, author of The Hidden History of Monopolies, discusses the history of monopolies and why this is a "cancer on Americ...
Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling: What Happens When There Is No Government
14 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, journalist and author of A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear, discusses what happens when a government disap...
Tom Burgis: Following the Dirty Money That Floods the Global Economy
13 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Tom Burgis, Financial Times investigations correspondent and author of Kleptopia, discusses breaking the code of secrecy of money....
Vicky Osterweil: In Defense of Looting
12 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Vicky Osterweil, author of In Defense of Looting, discusses the controversy of her new book and a real desire for change in the li...
David Nasaw: How Do We Return to Normalcy After Suffering?
11 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, David Nasaw, author of The Last Million, discusses his eight-year project researching the one million refugees left behind in Germ...
Sinan Aral: How Social Media Affects Our Decision-Making and Shapes Our World
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Sinan Aral, head of MIT's Social Analytics Lab and author of The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Econom...
David Goodhart: How Pushing Higher Ed Led to Brexit and Trump
09 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Goodhart, author of Head, Hand, Heart: Why Intelligence Is Over-Rewarded, Manual Workers Matter, and Caregivers Deserve More Respect, discusses ...
Vanessa Veselka: Approaching the Exploitation of Labor in Fiction
08 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Vanessa Veselka is the author of the novel Zazen, which won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. Her short stories have appeared in Tin House and ZYZZYVA,...
Sir Martin Sorrell: On the Shifts in the Global Economy
06 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sir Martin Sorrell is Executive Chairman of S⁴Capital, a new London listed vehicle with the objective of building a new age, new era, digital advert...
John Dean: The Comparison Between Donald Trump and Richard Nixon
04 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
JOHN W. DEAN served as White House counsel for President Richard Nixon from 1970 to 1973. During the Watergate scandal, his Congressional testimony he...
Jonathan Karl: Front Row at the Trump Show
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Karl is the chief White House correspondent and chief Washington correspondent for ABC News and the president of the White House Corresponden...
Anne Applebaum and Michael Ignatieff on the Rise of Authoritarianism
02 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On this special episode of Keen On, presented by the Bertelsmann Foundation and Humanity in Action, Anne Applebaum and Michael Ignatieff discuss the d...
Carl Hoffman: Inside the Upside-Down World of Trump's MAGA Rallies
01 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Carl Hoffman is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockef...
Kurt Andersen: The Manifestation of Anger in Popular Culture
30 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Kurt Andersen is the bestselling author of the novels Heyday, Turn of the Century, and True Believers. He contributes to Vanity Fair and The New York ...
Kai Strittmatter: Life in China's Surveillance State
29 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, Kai Strittmatter, foreign correspondent and author of We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State, discusses a ret...
Jill Filipovic: How Baby Boomers Have Maintained a Near Total Grip on Political Power
28 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jill Filipovic is a Brooklyn-based journalist, lawyer, and author of The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness. A weekly columnist for CNN and a 2...
Ian Buruma: A "Special Relationship" Built on Delusion and Bluster
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ian Buruma teaches at Bard College. His books include A Tokyo Romance, Their Promised Land, Year Zero, The China Lover, Murder in Amsterdam, Occidenta...
Thomas Frank: In Defense of Populism
26 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Frank is the author of Listen, Liberal, Pity the Billionaire, The Wrecking Crew, and What's the Matter with Kansas? A former columnist for The ...
Harold James: Why the Present Moment Is Like the Dying Days of the Soviet Union
25 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Harold James is the Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies and Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Eric Alterman: A History of American Presidents Lying
24 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Alterman is a distinguished professor of English at CUNY Brooklyn College and holds a PhD in history from Stanford University. A columnist for th...
Victoria De Grazia: What Can We Learn from Mussolini's Italy
23 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Victoria de Grazia is Moore Collegiate Professor of History at Columbia University and a founding editor of Radical History Review. Her widely transla...
William Deresiewicz: The Death of the Working Artist
21 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
William Deresiewicz is an award-winning essayist and critic, frequent speaker at colleges and other venues, and former professor of English at Yale. H...
David Gessner: Is the Great American Outdoors Act Made in Roosevelt's Vision?
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Gessner is the author of ten books, including the New York Times bestseller All the Wild That Remains. He has taught environmental writing as a ...
Robert Draper: Why We Should Still Care About the Iraq War
19 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Draper is a writer at large for the New York Times Magazine and a contributing writer to National Geographic. He is the author of several books...
Richard Kreitner: The Secret History of America's Imperfect Union
18 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Kreitner is a contributing writer to The Nation. He is the author of Booked: A Traveler's Guide to Literary Locations Around the World.
Jean Guerrero: How Stephen Miller Became the Most Influential Advisor in the White House
16 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jean Guerrero, winner of the PEN/FUSION Emerging Writers Prize, is the Fronteras reporter for KPBS, the NPR and PBS affiliate in San Diego, reporting ...
Jim Tankersley: How to Revive the Middle Class in America
15 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jim Tankersley, a tax and economics reporter for the New York Times, has written extensively about the stagnation of the American middle class, the de...
Nicholas Nehamas: What Does Mar-A-Lago Tell Us About the American Economy?
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Nicholas Nehamas is an investigative reporter for the Miami Herald. He was part of a team that won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting o...
Norm Eisen: Why We Should Still Care About Donald Trump's Impeachment Trial
12 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Norman Eisen was special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2020, including for the impeachment and trial of President Donald Trump...
Donald Hoffman: Why Our Perception Of the Current Moment Can Deceive Us
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Hoffman is professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine. His writing has appeared in Scientific American and Edge, an...
Denise Young Smith: How Can Silicon Valley Actually Help to Fix America?
10 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Denise Young Smith is of the most prominent African-American female executives in Silicon Valley, Smith’s 20-year career at Apple includes leading h...
David Dayen: How Is Monopolization Reshaping Cultural and Intellectual Life in America?
09 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Dayen writes regularly for The Intercept and The Nation and has just been appointed the editor of the American Prospect. He is the author of Cha...
John W. Compton: Why Did White Evangelicals Stop Loving Their Neighbors?
08 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
John W. Compton is Associate Professor of Political Science at Chapman University and the author of The Evangelical Origins of the Living Constitution...
David Runciman: What Can Thomas Hobbes Tell Us about Donald Trump?
07 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Runciman is a professor of politics at Cambridge University. The author of five previous books and a contributing editor to the London Review of...
Claire Bond Potter: How Can You Tell You're a Political Junkie?
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Claire Bond Potter is a political historian at the New School for Social Research. She is executive editor of Public Seminar and was the author of the...
Jon Taplin: Why America Is Afraid of the Future
05 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Taplin is Director Emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. He was a Professor at the USC Annenberg...
Zephyr Teachout: Has the Entire American Economy Become Monopolized?
04 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Zephyr Teachout is an attorney, political activist, and anti-trust and corruption expert. A rising star on the left, her campaign for New York Attorne...
Stuart Stevens: Why Are Republicans Better at Critiquing Donald Trump Than Democrats?
03 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Stuart Stevens is the author of seven previous books, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Esquire, and Outside, amon...
Blair Sheppard: Are We On Our Way to the Black Horse Tavern?
02 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Blair H. Sheppard is the global leader for strategy and leadership at PwC, a network of professional services firms committed to building trust in soc...
Conor Friedersdorf: Are We In an Age of Intolerance?
01 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Conor Friedersdorf is a California-based staff writer at The Atlantic, where he focuses on politics and national affairs. He is the founding editor of...
Janan Ganesh: How Radical Is Joe Biden?
31 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Janan Ganesh is a biweekly columnist and associate editor for the FT. He writes on American politics for the FT and culture for FT Weekend. He was pre...
Suzanne Nossel: What's the Case Against Free Speech?
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Suzanne Nossel is the CEO of PEN America, the foremost organization working to protect and advance human rights, free expression and literature. She h...
Sir Ronald Cohen: How to Reorganize the Architecture of 21st-Century Capitalism?
28 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sir Ronald Cohen is a pioneering philanthropist, venture capitalist, private equity investor and social innovator, who is driving forward the global I...
Carol Anderson: How to Ensure a Free and Fair Presidential Election
28 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair of African American Studies at Emory University. She is the author of White Rage, whi...
Robert Rotberg: How Do We Fight Corruption?
27 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Robert I. Rotberg is President Emeritus of the World Peace Foundation, Founding Director of Harvard Kennedy School's Program on Intrastate Conflict, a...
Brad Feld: How Venture Capitalists Can Reshape Communities For the Better
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Brad Feld has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty years. Prior to cofounding Foundry Group--a Boulder, Colorado-based early-...
Martin Gurri: The Crisis of Authority in the 21st Century
22 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Martin Gurri is a former CIA analyst specializing in the relationship of politics and global media. His book, The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis ...
Anne Trubek: Why Should You Write a Book During a Pandemic?
21 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Trubek is the founder and director of Belt Publishing. She is the editor of the forthcoming Voices From the Rust Belt (Picador 2018), the author ...
Joel Kotkin: A Warning to the Global Middle Class
20 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Joel Kotkin is the Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange, California and Executive Director of the Houston-based Urban ...
Ron Brownstein: Is Trump's America Slipping Away?
20 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ronald Brownstein is political director of Atlantic Media, publishers of the Atlantic, National Journal, and the Hotline, among other publications. He...
Nicholson Baker: What Secrets Do the Freedom of Information Act Hold?
16 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Nicholson Baker is the author of ten novels and six works of nonfiction, including The Anthologist, The Mezzanine, and Human Smoke. He has won a Natio...
Eric Lonergan: Is 2020 the Year of Anger?
15 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Lonergan is a macro hedge fund manager, economist, and writer. His most recent book is Money (2nd ed) published by Routledge. He has written for ...
Osita Nwanevu Calls Out Yesterday's Liberals
15 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Osita Nwanevu joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2018, covering politics and policy in Washington, D.C. He is a former staff writer at Slate a...
Camila Russo on Ethereum and the Future of the Internet
13 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Camila Russo is one of the most prolific and dedicated cryptocurrency journalists, speaking frequently at industry events and appearing on major media...
Mario Alejandro Ariza: Is Miami's Future Apocalyptic?
12 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mario Alejandro Ariza grew up in Santo Domingo and Miami, where he lives currently. His work has appeared in outlets such as The Atlantic, The Believe...
Cass Sunstein: How Can Social Change Happen?
11 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, where he is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral ...
Brian Dumaine: What Does Bezonomics Tell Us About the Future of Labor?
10 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Dumaine is an award-winning journalist and a contributing editor at Fortune magazine. In addition to Bezonomics his works include The Plot to Sa...
Yascha Mounk: Why We Need to Defend a Free Society
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Yascha Mounk is a writer, academic and public speaker known for his work on the rise of populism and the crisis of liberal democracy. Yascha has writt...
Eric Holthaus: What Will the World Look Like in 2030?
08 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Holthaus is the leading journalist on all things weather and climate change. He has written regularly for the Wall Street Journal, Slate, Grist, ...
Kevin Roose: Is 2020 the End of the Wild, Wild Web?
07 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin Roose is an award-winning technology columnist for The New York Times. His column, "The Shift," examines the intersection of tech, business, and...
Bret Stephens: The Threat to Liberty From the Left
06 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bret L. Stephens joined The New York Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2017. His column appears Thursday and Saturday.Mr. Stephens came to The Time...
Mehrsa Baradaran: Who's Actually Independent in 2020?
04 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mehrsa Baradaran is J. Alton Hosch Associate Professor of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law and author of How the Other Half Banks.
Pavlina R. Tcherneva: The Case for the Job Guarantee
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Pavlina R. Tcherneva is Associate Professor at Bard College and Research Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute.
Kevin Delaney: How to Save Democracy From Capitalism
01 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin J. Delaney is a senior editor for The New York Times. Previously, he co-founded Quartz and served as co-CEO and editor in chief from 2012 to 201...
David Shimer on the Ideology of Putinism
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Shimer is pursuing a doctorate in international relations at the University of Oxford as a Marshall Scholar. His reporting and analysis have app...
Margaret O'Mara: Has Silicon Valley Ruined America?
29 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Margaret O’Mara is the Howard & Frances Keller Endowed Professor of History at the University of Washington and a contributing opinion writer at...
Ben Ehrenreich: A Road Map for the End of Time
26 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Ehrenreich writes about climate change for The Nation. His work has appeared in Harper's Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, the London Review ...
Elif Shafak: Why Is Nationalism Not a Force For Good?
25 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Elif Shafak is the acclaimed author of fifteen books, ten of which are novels, including The Bastard of Istanbul and The Forty Rules of Love. Her work...
Steven Weber: How Do We Make Things Better?
24 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
teven Weber works at the intersection of technology markets, intellectual property regimes, and international politics. His research, teaching, and ad...
Ezekiel Emanuel: Which Country Has the World's Best Health Care?
24 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ezekiel J. Emanuel is Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsyl...
Evy Poumpouras: How Do We Prepare For the Unexpected?
22 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Evy Poumpouras is a former Secret Service Special Agent and on-air national TV contributor who frequently appears on NBC, MSNBC, CNN, and HLN. She als...
David Kirkpatrick: Is Facebook Increasingly the Platform for the Right-Wing?
20 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Kirkpatrick is the author of the definitive book on Facebook, The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World,...
Matt Alt: How Japan Has Conquered the World
19 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Matt Alt is a Tokyo-based writer, translator, and reporter. He is a contributor to The New Yorker online, CNN, Wired, Slate, The Independent, Newsweek...
Maëlle Gavet: Why Is Big Tech Both the Problem and the Solution?
18 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Maëlle Gavet is on the board of Edenred SA. In the past she occupied the position of Chief Executive Officer at Ozon Holdings Ltd. and Chief Executiv...
Ian Bogost: How Can the Tech Industry Change for the Better?
17 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ian Bogost is the Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in media studies and a professor of interactive computing at the Georgia Institute of Technol...
Peter Wehner: "I Am Critical of Trump Because I Am a Conservative"
16 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Wehner is a New York Times contributing Op-Ed writer covering American politics and conservative thought and a popular media commentator on poli...
Jennifer Mercieca: Is Donald Trump a Demagogue?
15 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
JENNIFER MERCIECA is associate professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University. She is the author of Founding Fictions and co...
Scott Santens: Is This the Moment When Universal Basic Income Becomes a Reality?
14 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Santens is a founding member of the Economic Security Project, an adviser to the Universal Income Project, a founding committee member of Basic ...
Robin Hauser: How Do We Address Bias Now?
13 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Robin Hauser is the director and producer of cause-based documentary films at Finish Line Features, LLC and Unleashed Productions, Inc. As a business...