Videos

July 21, 2024

KEEN ON America featuring Joshua Browder, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and great grandson of the U...

As CEO of the AI start-up DoNotPay, Joshua Browder (https://x.com/jbrowder1?lang=en) is one of Silicon Valley’s rising young entrepreneurs. Born in the UK and educated at Stanford, Browder is from a remarkable family of American innovators and activists. His great grandfather, Earl Browder (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Browder) , was head of the US Communist…

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July 20, 2024

Episode 2135: J. Malcolm Garcia on the humanity of San Francisco's homeless community

Lauded by KEEN ON favorites like Dave Eggers & Dale Maharidge, J. Malcolm Garcia (https://jmalcolmgarcia.com/) might be the Studs Terkel of contemporary American literature. Having worked as a social worker with San Francisco’s homeless community for 14 years, he then became an acclaimed journalist and winner of the Studs Terkel…

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July 19, 2024

Episode 2134: Jonathan Rauch on Reinventing Liberalism in the 21st Century

I was at the Liberalism for the 21st Century (https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/liberalism-for-the-21st-century-a) conference last week in DC where I bumped into an old friend and KEEN ON regular Jonathan Rauch (https://www.jonathanrauch.com/about.html) . A Brookings Fellow and prolific author, Rauch is amongst America’s most thoughtful commentators on the contemporary crisis of liberalism and…

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July 19, 2024

Jonathan Rauch

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July 18, 2024

Episode 2133: Ebony Reed on the Shameful Black-White Wealth Gap in America

For all the “progress” in civil rights front over the last couple of generations, the wealth gap between white and black Americans hasn’t changed much. As Ebony Reed, co-author of best selling new book, Fifteen Cents on the Dollar (https://www.harpercollins.com/products/fifteen-cents-on-the-dollar-louise-storyebony-reed?variant=41226132357154) , whites on average have 85% more wealth than blacks,…

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July 17, 2024

episode 2132: Elle Reeve on how the darkest corners of the internet have poisoned society and cap...

In the wake of the failed Trump assassination attempt by what seems to be a conventionally lonely and bullied young man, more and more Americans are asking what has gone wrong. According to CNN correspondent Elle Reeve (https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Elle-Reeve/189169861) , online Americans - particularly lonely, alienated young men on networks like…

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July 17, 2024

Elle Reeve

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July 16, 2024

Episode 2131: Laurent Dubreuil's creative answer to whether AI can think creatively

Trust a French literary theorist to think creatively about whether AI can think creatively. Laurent Dubreuil (https://complit.cornell.edu/laurent-dubreuil) is a professor of French literature at Cornell and the author of the intriguing Harper’s piece, Metal Machine Music (https://harpers.org/archive/2024/07/metal-machine-music/) , which asks both if AI and we humans can think creatively. Using…

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July 16, 2024

Louise Story

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July 16, 2024

Laurent Dubreuil

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July 15, 2024

Episode 2130: Renee DiResta on our Invisible Rulers Who Turn Lies into Reality

I’m just back from the Liberalism for the 21st Century (https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/liberalism-for-the-21st-century-a) conference in DC which featured a lively discussion about digital misinformation between KEEN ON regular Jonathan Rauch (https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-forced-erasure-of-gays-from-20th-century-american-life/id1448694012?i=1000646062399) and Renee DiResta (https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/renee-diresta/?lens=publicaffairs) , the author of Invisible Rulers (https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/renee-diresta/invisible-rulers/9781541703377/?lens=publicaffairs) . As the former manager of the Stanford Internet Observatory,…

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July 14, 2024

Episode 2129: Niobe Way on America's Crisis of Masculinity

Does America have problem with its boys and men? Yes (https://lithub.com/richard-reeves-identifies-todays-crisis-of-masculinity-and-explains-how-to-fix-it/) , says author of Boys and Men, Richard Reeves, a previous guest on KEEN ON. Today’s guest, Niobe Way, a NYU professor of developmental psychology, give a more nuanced answer. The author of the Rebels With a Cause: Reimagining…

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July 13, 2024

Episode 2128: Peter Hessler on what life is really like in Xi's China

Few Americans know contemporary China better than Peter Hessler (https://www.peterhessler.net/) . The author of four prize winning books about life in China as well as the former China correspondent of the New Yorker, Hessler originally came to China as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1996 and has been writing about…

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July 12, 2024

Episode 2127: Andrew O'Hagan goes up the Caledonian Road in search of Truth, Justice and a Man in...

What a treat. LA Times book critic Bethanne Patrick (https://www.bethannepatrick.com/) and I got the opportunity to talk today with the great Andrew O’Hagan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_O%27Hagan) , author of Caledonian Road (https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324074878) , his new blockbuster novel about the state of contemporary Britain. It’s a fabulous read and O’Hagan was no less…

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July 11, 2024

Andrew O'Hagan & Bethanne Patrick

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July 11, 2024

Episode 2126: Daniel Silva on why the Criminal Rich Collect the Masterpieces of Van Gogh, Vermeer...

Spy novelists often make excellent moralists and the American writer Daniel Silva (https://danielsilvabooks.com/about-daniel/) , author of the Gabriel Allon series of best-selling thrillers, is a particularly sharp critic of contemporary morals. His new Allon thriller, A Death in Cornwall (https://www.amazon.com/Unti-Silva-Novel-2024/dp/0063384205) , focuses on money laundering, murder and mayhem in the…

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July 10, 2024

Episode 2125: Mike Maples on how to Break Patterns and Invent the Future

Earlier this week, I visited the offices of Floodgate Partners in Menlo Park to talk with its co-founding partner Mike Maples (https://www.floodgate.com/team/mike-maples-jr) . As an early investor in Twitter, Twitch.tv and many other successful start-ups, Maples is one of Silicon Valley’s most respected venture capitalists. He is, to borrow the…

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July 10, 2024

Peter Hessler

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July 10, 2024

Daniel Silva

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July 9, 2024

Episode 2124: Jeremy Kahn's Survival Guide for our AI Future

In episode 2022 (https://keenon.substack.com/p/episode-2022-is-the-ai-tech-boom) , That Was The Week publisher Keith Teare and I violently disagreed about the current AI boom. Keith, the eternal techno-optimist, thinks AI is about to radically change everything; as the perennial techno-pessimist, I argued that much of the current Wall St AI insanity is a…

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July 8, 2024

Niobe Way

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July 8, 2024

Episode 2123: Mara Kardas-Nelson Reveals the Seductive Promise of Microfinance

The seductive promise of microfinance might have conveniently died in the Western media, but Muhammad Yunis’ alluring economic idea has actually wreaked unintentional havoc around the world. Mara Kardas-Nelson’s important new book, We Are Not Able to Live in the Sky (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250817228/wearenotabletoliveinthesky) , reveals the damage done by microfinance loans…

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July 8, 2024

Jeremy Khan

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July 8, 2024

Brigid Schulte

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