Videos

In 2011, Simon Reynolds (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Reynolds) is one of the world’s most prolific music journalists, came on KEEN ON to explain why (https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/22/keen-on-why-the-internet-has-been-bad-for-both-musical-artists-and-fans-tctv/) the Internet has been bad for both musical artists and fans. Back then it took a brave man like Reynolds to argue against the supposedly cornucopian cultural potential…

Our second July 4 interview features Diane McLain Smith (https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B004ULSWNW/about) , author of Remaking the Space Between Us: How Citizens Can Work Together to Build a Better Future For All (https://www.remakingthespace.org/) . The problem with America, McLain Smith believes, is that “we the people have become the problem” with our…

As the former Assistant Attorney General for Maryland, one would expect Debbie Hines to be a strong supporter of the American criminal justice system. But the Baltimore based veteran trial lawyer is unambiguously critical in her new memoir, GET OFF MY NECK (https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262048910/get-off-my-neck/) , of what she sees as the…

Last week’s horror show debate woke up a lot of progressive Americans. For Celeste Marcus (https://libertiesjournal.com/author/celeste-marcus/) , managing editor of Liberties Quarterly, Biden’s dismal performance was akin to the shock of the January 6th insurrection. In contrast with Jan 6, however, Marcus is calling for a political insurrection amongst progressives…

Over the last couple of years we’ve had multiple guests questioning the economic and moral value of a college education. But Daniel R. Porterfield, (https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/dan-porterfield/) the Aspen Institute CEO and former President of Franklin and Marshall College, strongly disagrees. In his new book, MINDSET MATTERS (https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53828/mindset-matters) , Porterfield argues that…

Amongst the most bizarro thing about last week’s truly bizarre Presidential debate was how much Biden and Trump were in violent agreement on China. Trump certainly has won the ideological battle about the supposedly existential China threat and the two decrepit old men both celebrate American embroilment in a second…

In the wake of Biden’s pathetically dismal performance last week, it’s worth remembering that some progressive thinkers have been warning for months about this catastrophe. Back in May, the New York Times ran an op-ed by UC Berkeley political science professor M. Steven Fish entitled “Trump Knows Dominance Wins, Someone…

Does Silicon Valley have an AI bubble problem? That Was the Week’s (https://www.thatwastheweek.com/) Keith Teare, usually the most bullish of tech bulls, acknowledges that Silicon Valley has an overvaluation issue with AI startups. But I wonder if the problem with AI goes deeper than the frothiness of its startup valuations.…

Imagine accosting a stranger in a grocery store because you mistook him to be your husband? That was the fate of the Washington Post science reporter, Sadie Dingfelder (https://www.sadied.com/) , who suffers from the bizarre condition of faceblindness. She explores this condition in DO I KNOW YOU? (https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sadie-dingfelder/do-i-know-you/9780316545433/?lens=little-brown#:~:text=%E2%80%9CSadie%20Dingfelder%20has%20opened%20a,she%20can't%20recognize%20them.) , her…

If you liked Davy Chou’s excellent 2022 movie, Return to Seoul (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Seoul) , then Tracy O’Neill’s new memoir, Woman of Interest (https://www.harpercollins.com/products/woman-of-interest-tracy-oneill?variant=41114522288162) , might be for you. Both movie and book are about an a female adoptee’s return to South Korea in search of their mysterious birth mother. Chou’s movie…

The New York City based writer John Ganz (https://www.unpopularfront.news/) appeared on episode 2099 (https://keenon.substack.com/p/episode-2099-john-ganz-on-how-america) talking about how American cracked up in the Nineties with the rise of neo-Nazis like David Duke. When it comes to national crack-ups, however, nothing much competes with Nazi Germany in the Thirties - and Ganz,…

Whatever one thinks of the creative potential of AI, it’s definitely been great for metaphor makers. Yesterday, we had Shannon Vallor explaining why AI is a mirror (https://keenon.substack.com/p/episode-2108-shannon-vallor-on-how) of our social and political values. Today, Madhumita Murgia (https://www.ft.com/madhumita-murgia) , the Financial Times’ Artificial Intelligence editor and author of CODE DEPENDENT,…

According to Shannon Vallor, (https://www.shannonvallor.net/) a self-styled AI “ethicist”, artificial intelligence is a mirror (https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-ai-mirror-how-to-reclaim-our-humanity-in-an-age-of-machine-thinking-shannon-vallor/20842432?ean=9780197759066) . When we interact with the latest algorithms from OpenAI or Anthropic, she says, we are actually observing our social and political values, prejudices and ideals. This all-too-human quality of AI makes it less of…

We are focusing on the impact of AI this week with interviews featuring Shannon Vallor, Matt Beane and Madhumita Murgia. First up Beane (https://tmp.ucsb.edu/people/matt-beane) , who teaches Technology Management at UC Santa Barbara and has a new book out about how to save human ability in an age of intelligent…