Episodes

I usually hate agreeing with Keith Teare, my libertarian-conservative friend from Palo Alto/Yorkshire. But on TikTok, we are in violent agreement. As Keith explains, TikTok isn’t a Chinese company and even it was, there’s abs...

The most troubling casualty of today’s social media age is our shared sense of reality. Perceptions of reality still exist, but they often come packaged, mirroring a priori assumptions about the world. So how to win democrati...

Last week, the LA Times book critic Bethanne Patrick came on the show to discuss new books about life in our age of the polycrisis. One of these was Emily Raboteau’s much acclaimed Lessons For Survival: Mothering Against “The...

University of Pennsylvania sociologist Benjamin Shestakofksy spent a couple of years as the fly on the wall in an anonymous tech startup. His new book, BEHIND THE STARTUP , not only reveals what he learned about the insanely ...

Think you know Frank H. McCourt, Jr , the illustrious real estate media magnate, former chairman/owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers & current owner of Marseilles FC? Think again. McCourt is also now in the business of saving us...

If, as Sam Daley-Harris believes, “cynicism is obedience”, then active citizenship is a form of rebellion. That seems to be the argument in both the 2024 edition of Daley-Harris’ RECLAIMING OUR DEMOCRACY and in our discussion...

I talk to Peter Ross Range, Hitler historian and author of 1924 & UNFATHOMABLE ASCENT, about Adolf Hitler as the "gold standard" of authoritarianism and how the Nazi leader compares with Donald Trump. In contrast with Range, ...

The US Congress just announced war on TikTok; while, in Europe, the EU declared war this week on Spotify and Apple. Elon Musk and Sam Altman have declared war over OpenAI. And everyone inside and outside Google are all war ov...

The cover story of Harper ’s this month is piece by Andrew Cockburn , their Washington DC editor, entitled “The Pentagon’s Silicon Valley Problem”. But as Cockburn explained to me today, the Pentagon’s problem is also ours. S...

In episode 1991, Andrew talks to the LA Times book critic, Bethanne Patrick, about six intriguing new non-fiction books about our contemporary age of inequality, existential anxiety and political and environmental upheaval. B...

“Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself,” Miles Davis once remarked. Most artists, of course, never ascend to the heights of even closely sounding like themselves . But as James Kaplan, the author of 3...

One of the more annoying characteristics of our coastal elites is their incessant virtue signaling. Every life choice - from drinking from plastic water bottles to driving electric cars to deciding to have children - is prese...

You couldn’t make up the kidnapping of Patty Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army in February 1974. The granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, America’s most divisive media baron, was kidnapped in Berkeley (of all plac...

In episode 1977, Andrew talks to Maxwell L. Stearns, author of PARLIAMENTARY AMERICA, about the need for a parliamentary system to repair the broken democratic system in America. Maxwell L. Stearns (BALTIMORE, MD) is the Vena...

In our weekly KEEN ON wrap of tech news with Keith Teare, author of the THAT WAS THE WEEK newletter, Keith explains why the Google Gemini fiasco is a feature rather than a bug of our preoccupation with identity politics. Keit...

In episode 1975, Andrew talks to Ira Shapiro, author of THE BETRAYAL, about what he sees as Mitch McConnell's grave and unprecedented crime against American democracy. Ira Shapiro spent the first half of his 45 year Washingto...

In episode 1974, Andrew talks to Sarah Scoles, author of COUNTDOWN, about the chillingly blinding future of nuclear weapons. Sarah Scoles is a Colorado-based science journalist, a contributing editor at Popular Science and a ...

EPISODE 1973: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to the LA Times book critic, Bethanne Patrick, about six intriguing new fiction and non-fiction books to read in February. Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the pub...

In episode 1972, Andrew talks to Gregory Makoff, author of DEFAULT, about the cautionary tale of Argentina's $100 billion 2001 debt default. Gregory Makoff has been writing about sovereign debt for the past decade and is the ...

In episode 1971, Andrew talks to Charan Ranganath, author of WHY WE REMEMBER, who unlocks memory's power to hold on to what matters about our lives. CHARAN RANGANATH is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and director ...

In episode 1970, Andrew talks to Debby Irving, author of WAKING UP WHITE, about how she discovered herself and the story of American racial injustice. Debby Irving brings to racial justice the perspective of working in non-pr...

EPISODE 1969: In our weekly KEEN ON wrap of tech news with Keith Teare, author of the THAT WAS THE WEEK newsletter, Keith explains why none of us can stop thinking about our high tech future. Keith Teare is a Founder and CEO ...

In episode 1968, Andrew talks to Peter McGraw, author of SOLO, about how remaining single offers the promise of a remarkable life. Dr. Peter McGraw is a bachelor, behavioral economist, and business school professor at the Uni...

In episode 1967, Andrew talks to Matt Gatton, author of THE SHADOWS OF SOCRATES, about the heresy, war and treachery behind the trial of Socrates. Matt Gatton is a scholar based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a pioneer of the...