Episodes

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Christopher Gray, the author of "Go Where There Is No Path: Stories of Hustle, Grit, Scholarship, and Faith", to tell the story of his own path to success, as well as to discuss the premise that when you lead with the good—confronting issues such as poverty and racism—the money will follow. Christopher Gray, co-founder/CEO of Scholly, is a regular contributor to Forbes Magazine, has made the top of the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 List for Social Ent...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Jonah Lehrer, the author of "Mystery: A Seduction, A Strategy, A Solution", to discuss the secrets of mystery’s allure, within the context of recent discoveries in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology. Jonah Lehrer is a writer, journalist, and the author of A Book About Love, How We Decide, and Proust Was a Neuroscientist. He graduated from Columbia University and studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He’s written...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by J. Chester Johnson, the author of "Damaged Heritage: The Elaine Race Massacre and A Story of Reconciliation", to discuss a deliberately erased chapter in American history, as well as to offer a blueprint for how our pluralistic society can at last acknowledge—and deal with— damaged heritage and follow a path to true healing. J. Chester Johnson is a poet, essayist, and translator. His writings have been published domestically and abroad and trans...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Emily Bass, the author of "To End a Plague: America's Fight to Defeat AIDS in Africa", to tell the story of US engagement in HIV/AIDS control in sub-Saharan Africa. Emily Bass has spent more than twenty years writing about and working on HIV/AIDS in America and East and Southern Africa. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Esquire, The Lancet, Ms., n+1, Out, POZ, Slice, and has receive...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Lauren Etter, the author of "The Devil's Playbook: Big Tobacco, Juul, and the Addiction of a New Generation", to tell the story of what happened when two of the most notorious industries collided—and the vaping epidemic was born. Lauren Etter is an award-winning investigative reporter at Bloomberg News, where she writes in-depth corporate features and investigative stories for Bloomberg Businessweek. Previously she was a staff reporter at The Wa...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Lizzie Johnson, the author of "Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire", to discuss what went wrong surrounding the 2018 wildfires in California and how to avert future tragedies as the climate crisis unfolds. Lizzie Johnson is a local enterprise reporter at the Washington Post. Previously, she was a staff writer at the San Francisco Chronicle. She is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. Lizzie has worked at Th...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Emily Oster, the author of "The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School", to discuss how parents can use data to think more deliberately about the key issues of the elementary years: school, health, extracurricular activities, and more. Emily Oster is a Professor of Economics at Brown University and the author of Expecting Better, Cribsheet and The Family Firm. She holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard. Pri...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Matthew Zachary, the host of the "Out of Patients" podcast, to cut through the nonsense of American healthcare and explain the steps that can be taken to improve the system. Ten years after surviving brain cancer at age 21, concert pianist and composer Matthew Zachary created the first health podcast, founded Stupid Cancer—the voice of young adults—and ignited a global movement advocating for dignity in the face of health adversity. After stepp...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Lucy Jones, the author of "Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild", to discuss how contact with 'nature' can be therapeutic. Lucy Jones is a journalist and author, based in England. Lucy also teaches writing workshops and talks about her research areas. She writes features about science, health, wildlife and the environment for a variety of publications, including BBC Earth, Emergence, the Guardian and the Independent. Before going freelance i...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Joe Keohane, the author of "The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World", to discuss what happens when we talk to strangers, and why it affects everything from our own health and well-being to the rise and fall of nations. Joe Keohane is a veteran journalist who has worked as an editor at Medium, Esquire, Entrepreneur, and Hemispheres. His writing—on everything from politics, to travel, to social science, business, a...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Edward J. Watts, the author of "The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea", to tell the stories of the people who built their political and literary careers around promises of Roman renewal, as well as those of the victims they blamed for causing Rome's decline. Professor Watts received his PhD in History from Yale University in 2002. His research interests center on the intellectual and religious history of the Roman...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Michael Know Beran, the author of "WASPS: The Splendors and Miseries of an American Aristocracy", to discuss the rise and fall of the distinctly American phenomenon that is White Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture. Michael Knox Beran is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute's City Journal, a lawyer, and a writer. He is the author of Pathology of the Elites (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010), Forge of Empires 1861-1871 (Free Press, 2007), Jeffer...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Sarah Damaske, the author of "The Tolls of Uncertainty: How Privilege and the Guilt Gap Shape Unemployment in America", to discuss the American unemployment system and the ways unemployment shapes families, finances, health, and the job hunt. Sarah Damaske is a scholar of unemployment, work-family, and gender. She is an associate professor of sociology and labor and employment relations at Pennsylvania State University, where she serves as the A...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Jonathan Rapping, the author of "Gideon's Promise: A Public Defender Movement to Transform Criminal Justice", to discuss the pervasive issues inherent in our current system of public defense and what can be done to end mass incarceration. Jonathan Rapping is a nationally renowned criminal justice innovator who is the founder and president of Gideon’s Promise, a non-profit public defender organization whose mission is to transform the criminal ju...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Patrick Wyman, the author of "The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World", to explore the four explosive decades between 1490 and 1530 and bring to life the dramatic and deeply human story of how the West was reborn. Patrick Wyman holds a PhD in history from the University of Southern California. He previously worked as a sports journalist, covering mixed martial arts and boxing from 2013 to 2018. His work has been...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Sheera Frenkel, the author of "An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination", to discuss the complex court politics, alliances and rivalries within Facebook and to shine a light on the company's fatal flaws. Sheera Frenkel covers cybersecurity from San Francisco. Previously, she spent over a decade in the Middle East as a foreign correspondent, reporting for BuzzFeed, NPR, The Times of London and McClatchy Newspapers.

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Melinda Wenner Moyer, the author of "How to Raise Kids Who Aren't Assholes: Science-based Strategies for Better Parenting — from Tots to Teens", to discuss a winning guide for parents who wish to build a ‘better, fairer, stronger world Melinda Wenner Moyer is a contributing editor at Scientific American magazine and a regular contributor to The New York Times, Washington Post, and other national magazines and newspapers. She is a faculty member ...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Maureen Farrell, the author of "The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion", to discuss the inside story of WeWork, its audacious founder, and what its epic unraveling says about a financial system smitten with Silicon Valley innovation. Maureen Farrell is a reporter covering initial public offerings and capital markets for the Wall Street Journal in New York. She previously covered Wall Street, banking and M&A for the...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Richard Leider, the author of "Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old?: The Path of Purposeful Aging", to discuss the empowerment and opportunities that come with ageing. Internationally bestselling author, coach, and keynote speaker, Richard has pioneered the way we answer that question. Widely viewed as a pioneer of the global purpose movement, his work is featured regularly in many media sources including PBS public television and NPR public...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Robert Draper, the author of "To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq", to discuss how failed intelligence and 9-11 led to the most consequential decision in the history of American foreign policy. Robert Draper is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and National Geographic and a correspondent to GQ. He is the author of several books, most recently the New York Times bestseller Dead Certain: The Presid...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Gian Volpicelli, the author of "Cryptocurrency", to discuss what precisely cryptocurrency is and the potential it has to change the world of money. Gian M. Volpicelli is a senior editor at WIRED UK. His areas of interest include cryptocurrency, technology regulation and digital politics.

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Jason Mott, the author of "Hell of a Book", to discuss the fictional yet resonant story of an African-American author's cross-country book tour. New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Jason Mott lives in southeastern North Carolina. He has a BFA in Fiction and an MFA in Poetry, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His poetry and fiction has appeared in various literary journals. He was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart ...

The Bertelsmann Foundation, Humanity in Action, and the Institute for Canadian Citizenship invite you to a live session of How to Fix Democracy with Ben Rhodes, political commentator, former White House aide, and close confidant to President Barack Obama, to discuss his new book, After the Fall: Being American in the World We’ve Made. Together with host Andrew Keen, Rhodes will explain why democracy is so broken both in America and around the world and what we can do to fix it. Hosted by: Andr...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Juan Cole, the author of "Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires", to discuss how the Prophet Muhammad came of age in an era of unparalleled violence. Juan Ricardo Cole is a public intellectual, prominent blogger and essayist, and the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan.