It’s been a strange week in tech. The Nobel prizes in both Chemistry and Physics went to prominent former or current Googlers, and yet the tech news cycle has been dominated by the U.S. government’s intent to break up a seemingly prostrate Google. Keith Teare and Andrew, in their regular…
As a Harvard trained pediatrician as well as television writer and producer, Neal Baer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Baer) has particularly interesting take on the moral, policy and ethical challenges of CRISPR gene-editing technology. Baer - He is best known for his work on the television shows Designated Survivor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designated_Survivor_(TV_series)) , ER (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ER_(TV_series)) and…
Why are black men more likely to vote for Donald Trump than black women? According to Tavis Smiley (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavis_Smiley) , the syndicated radio host and best selling author of many books about black America include his latest Covenant with Black America - Twenty Years Later, (https://www.amazon.com/Covenant-Black-America-Twenty-Years-ebook/dp/B0D2TMFG4D?ref_=ast_author_mpb) it’s because some black…
This is an important conversation. Few Americans are better skilled at listening than the UC Berkeley sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlie_Russell_Hochschild) . The author of the best selling Strangers in Their Own Land (https://thenewpress.com/books/strangers-their-own-land) , Hochschild’s much anticipated new book, Stolen Pride (https://thenewpress.com/books/stolen-pride) , takes place in Kentucky, where she…
In December 2008, Lily Bock, the daughter of the novelist Charles Bock (https://www.charlesbock.net/i-will-do-better) , was born. But Bock, the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Beautiful Children and Alice & Oliver, was a reluctant parent, tagging along for the ride of fatherhood, obsessed primarily with his dream of…
American Christianity appears in a state of disrepair, perhaps even imminent civil war. On the one hand, of course, we have the evangelical right who make up much of Trump’s ideological base; on the other hand, there are progressive American theologians like Jim Wallis (https://www.jimwallis.org/) who argue that this Christian…
Might future multi-trillion dollar AI platforms like OpenAI represent not just the end of the app age but also of economic competition itself? As That Was The Week’s (https://www.thatwastheweek.com/) Keith Teare and Andrew discuss in today’s weekly KEEN ON tech round-up, the news of OpenAI’s $6.5 billion new funding round…
Carissa Carter (https://dschool.stanford.edu/team-directory/carissa-l-carter) and Scott Doorley (https://dschool.stanford.edu/team-directory/scott-doorley) both teach at Stanford’s interdisciplinary d.school (https://dschool.stanford.edu/) . They are also the joint authors of Assembling Tomorrow (https://bookshop.org/p/books/assembling-tomorrow-a-guide-to-designing-a-thriving-future-from-the-stanford-d-school-scott-doorley/20464365?ean=9781984858184) , an intriguing new book in which, using their D School experience, Carter and Doorley provide a guide to designing a thriving future. They argue…
Yesterday, I interviewed (https://keenon.substack.com/p/episode-2208-andrew-hill-on-the-financial) The Financial Times’ Andrew Hill about the FT’s best six business books of the year. Today, I talk to Michael Morris (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2149872/michael-morris/) , the author of one of those books. In Tribal (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/557404/tribal-by-michael-morris/) , Morris explains how the cultural instincts that divide us can also help…
The Financial Times has just announced their short list of the best six (https://www.ft.com/content/27f60ee7-94cc-4098-9f5a-52fbf2f71b39) business books of 2024. Authors include KEEN ON regulars like Andrew Scott (https://keenon.substack.com/p/episode-250-andrew-j-scott-on-why) as well as Michael Morris (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/557404/tribal-by-michael-morris/) , who will appear on tomorrow’s show. As the competition’s manager, Andrew Hill, (https://www.ft.com/andrew-hill) told me when…
While many fear that Trump offers an existential threat to American democracy, Barry C. Lynn (https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/staff/barry-c-lynn) believes that the real danger comes from big tech companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft. Lynn, the executive director of the Open Markets Institute, (https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/) is the author of “Antitrust Revolution (https://harpers.org/archive/2024/10/the-antitrust-revolution-big-tech-barry-c-lynn/) ”, Harper’s…
Finally a tech show not about AI. Martin Schmidt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_A._Schmidt) is the President (https://president.rpi.edu/) of Rensselaer Polytechnic (https://www.rpi.edu/) Institute (RPI) as well a distinguished technologist in his own right. So rather than having just another conversation about AI, I talked to Schmidt about how he expects quantum computing to change…
Dr Josh McConkey (https://www.joshmcconkey.com/) ’s new book, Be the Weight Behind the Spear (https://www.amazon.com/Weight-Behind-Spear-Josh-McConkey/dp/B0CKDLBP9X) , is about how to fix America. McConkey, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in North Carolina, believes that the strength of America has always been its people. So his focus is on motivating all…
Is there anyone who still believes in America as a force for good in the world today? There’s that doddery old cold warrior Joe Biden, of course, and his younger globalizing sidekick, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. And then there’s Edward Goldberg (https://edwardgoldberg.info/index-about.htm) , the author of The United States…
Instagram superstar and “Here’s Where It Gets Interesting” podcast host Sharon McMahon (https://sharonmcmahon.com/) has been dubbed America’s government teacher. In her first book, The Small and the Mighty (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709748/the-small-and-the-mighty-by-sharon-mcmahon/) , McMahon writes about twelve unsung Americans who changed the course of history. Some of her heroes are more unsung than…
Back in April 2011, Saad Mohseni (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saad_Mohseni) was made one of Time’s 100 most influential (https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066475,00.html) people in the world. And who exactly is that, you might ask. I have to admit I hadn’t heard of him either. But as Rupert Murdoch wrote about Mohseni for that Time award, “he's…
There are few more authoritative American journalists than the longtime NPR and PBS host Ray Suarez (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Suarez) . So it was a real treat to sit down with Ray earlier this month in Washington DC to talk broadly about his and his family’s experience as American immigrants from Puerto Rico.…
