Episodes

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Tobey Pearl, the author of "Terror to the Wicked", to discuss the violence, war and oppression that shaped life in early America, as well as to share the story and impact of the first murder trial in the nation's history. Tobey Pearl earned degrees in law and international relations from Boston University and studied international law at the University of Hong Kong. She practiced law and taught at Emerson College. Terror to the Wicked is her fir...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Michael Heller, the co-author of "Mine!", to discuss the moral and legal intricacies of ownership, as well as to investigate how the parameters which define what property is have changed over time. One of the preeminent scholars working on private law theory today, Michael Heller writes and teaches about who gets what and why. His writings range over innovation and entrepreneurship, corporate governance, biomedical research policy, real estate d...

Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author. He received a PhD in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel at age 24 (1980-1986), led the first international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative (1983-1988), and was subsequently a long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1988-1993). Loeb has written 8 books, including most recently, Extraterrestrial (Houghton Miffli...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Sherry Turkle, the author of "The Empathy Diaries", to discuss perception vs. reality and the blurred lines that exist in between the two "perspectives". Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT, and the founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. Professor Turkle received a joint doctorate in sociology and p...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Ben Pring, the author of "Monster", to discuss the impact of Big Tech on the fundamental aspects of society such as politics, work, the wider economy and surveillance. Ben Pring co-founded and leads Cognizant's Center for the Future of Work. Ben is a co-author of the best-selling and award-winning books, What To Do When Machines Do Everything (2017) and Code Halos; How the Digital Lives of People, Things, and Organizations are Changing the Rules...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Tom Bergreen, the author of "In Search of a Kingdom", to discuss the life and travels of Francis Drake, as well as his relationship with Queen Elizabeth I and the lasting impact that Drake's exploits had on modern British history. Laurence Bergreen is an award-winning biographer, historian, and chronicler of exploration. His books have been translated into over 25 languages worldwide. In May 2017, Roaring Brook Press, a division of Macmillan, p...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Roya Hakakian, the author of "A Beginner's Guide to America", to discuss the unique experiences and range of emotions that immigrants experience when coming to and settling in to life in America. Roya Hakakian is a writer. Her opinion columns, essays and book reviews appear in English language publications like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and NPR’s All Things Considered, among many others. She has collaborated on over a dozen hours o...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Albert Fox Cahn, the founder and executive director of Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), to discuss the logistics and ethics behind proposed vaccine passports. Albert Fox Cahn is the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project’s ( S.T.O.P.’s) founder and executive director, a member of the Ashoka Fellowship Network, a fellow at the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy at N.Y.U. School of Law, a member of the NYU Alliance...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Nicholas Freudenberg, the author of "At What Cost: Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health", to discuss the extent to which modern capitalism has contributed to public health crises like the coronavirus. Nicholas Freudenberg is Distinguished Professor of Public Health at City University of New York School of Public Health and Director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute. His research examines the impact of food and social policies on urb...

On today's episode, Andrew Keen talks with Georgetown professor Rosa Brooks on her new book, Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City, and the relationship between the police and the population. Rosa Brooks is a law professor at Georgetown University and founder of Georgetown's Innovative Policing Program. From 2016 to 2020, she served as a reserve police officer with the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department. She has worked previously at the Defense Department, the State Departm...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Harriet A. Washington, the author of "Carte Blanche", to tackle the ethical issue of medical consent being abused in America. Unfortunately, minority groups and people of color are the most egregiously taken advantage of, even within the medical field and by those with a duty of care. Harriet A. Washington is a prolific science writer, editor and ethicist who is the author of the seminal Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Experimentation fro...

In this episode of "Keen On". Andrew is joined by Wendy Lower, the author of "The Ravine" to dive into some of the stories of the millions of individuals who were exterminated during the Holocaust, as well as to critique the actions and morals of those responsible for genocide. Wendy Lower is the John K. Roth Professor of History and Director of the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights at Claremont McKenna College. She chairs the Academic Committee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Her resear...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Carol Leonnig, the co-author of "A Very Stable Genius", to discuss the "return" of Donald Trump in the wake of his upcoming speech at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) and the former president's intentions to mount a campaign for the White House in 2024 as Carol prepares to write a sequel to "A Very Stable Genius". Carol Leonnig is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who has worked at The Washington Post since 2000. She won the 2015 ...

In this episode of "Keen On". Andrew is joined by Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson, the co-authors of "Bring Back Our Girls", to discuss the events of the 2014 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping, as well as the wider issue of liberating women in Africa. Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw are Wall Street Journal Pulitzer Prize finalists and nominees who have covered Nigeria for more than a decade. Their work has been submitted for virtually every international reporting award. Two of the newspaper’s most s...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Kehinde Andrews, the author of "The New Age of Empire", to discuss the history of racism and colonial exploitation. Kehinde is an academic, activist and author whose books include Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century (2018). His first book was Resisting Racism: Race, Inequality and the Black Supplementary School Movement (2013). Kehinde led leading the development of the Black Studies degree and is director of the Cent...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Emma Brown, the author of "To Raise A Boy", to discuss the origins of sexually inappropriate behavior in boys and men, as well as considering what can be done preemptively during childhood to filter out predators. Emma Brown is a reporter on the investigative team. She worked as a wilderness ranger and as a middle-school math teacher before discovering journalism during an internship at High Country News, a magazine that covers the American West...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by John Kampfner, the author of "Why the Germans Do It Better", to discuss how Germany and the EU have botched their respective rollouts of the coronavirus vaccine compared to the UK which has dramatically turned the tables on their bitter struggle against the novel virus. As a rule however, John is convinced that Germany has a more grown up political culture than the UK and that over the last 75 years has been able to progress as a nation from it's...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Adam Cohen, the author of "Supreme Inequality", to discuss the dynamic of the Supreme Court that inherently and hypocritically serves the wealthy and further drives the inequality gap between them and the poor. Adam Cohen, who served as a member of the New York Times editorial board and as a senior writer for Time magazine, is the author of Supreme Inequality:The Supreme Court’s Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America, Imbeciles: The Supreme...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Tim Harford, the author of "The Data Detective", to discuss the evolution of record keeping and statistics, as well as to consider whether or not data should ever be taken at face value. Tim Harford is a senior columnist for the Financial Times. His long-running column, “The Undercover Economist”, reveals the economic ideas behind everyday experiences, while he also writes op-eds, interviews and long feature articles for the FT. He is an evangel...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Annie Auerbach, the author of "FLEX", to discuss the notion of a flexible working lifestyle and how it can empower women in particular to lead a healthier and happier work/life balance. Annie Auerbach is a New York Times bestselling author. She has written over 300 books for children, from board books to chapter books, and everything in between. Publishing clients include Scholastic, Disney Press, Warner Bros., HarperCollins, ABC Mouse, Little,...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by William J. Bernstein, the author of "The Delusions of Crowds", to discuss Bitcoin and the Gamestop/Robinhood saga, as well to touch upon subjects like ISIS and even conspiracy groups like QAnon. William J. Bernstein is a neurologist, co-founder of Efficient Frontier Advisors, an investment management firm, and has written several titles on finance and economic history. He has contributed to the peer-reviewed finance literature and has written fo...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew reflects on a week in which Rush Limbaugh passed away, extreme cold weather rocked Texas and the coronavirus continued to ravage the globe. Named as one of the "100 Most Connected Men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known and controversial commentators on the digital revolution. He has written five books including the best-selling Cult of the Amateur, The Internet Is Not The Answer and How To Fix The Future. He directed and wrote the...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Ben Boyer, the Chairman and co-Founder of R-Zero, to weigh in on the right and wrong steps taken so far during during the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as to explain how economic and other infrastructural policies can help protect jobs and lives moving forward. Ben Boyer focuses on consumer and related investments with an emphasis on vertical applications and network effect businesses. He loves partnering with product oriented CEOs who solve pro...

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Heather McGhee, the author of "The Sum of Us", to discuss racial inequality in the United States of America and to explore the notion that institutionalized racism has hamstrung the development of black communities so badly to the point where the concept of bettering a black person or community is to hurt the white community. Heather C. McGhee joined Demos in 2002 and served as its president from 2014 through June, 2018. A recognized thought lea...