Keen On

EPISODE 1850: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to David J. Helfand, author of THE UNIVERSAL TIMEKEEPERS,  about the power of atomic science to unveil the mysteries of unreachably remote time and spaceDavid J. Helfand has served on the Columbia faculty for forty-five years, nearly half that time as Chair of the Department of Astronomy. He has also spent three years at the University of Cambridge, most recently as the Sackler Distinguished Visiting Astronomer, and earlier was a visiting scientist at the Danish Space Research Institute. He has mentored 22 PhD students in high energy astrophysics projects ranging from supernova remnants and neutron stars to the cosmic X-ray background and various areas of radio astronomy. He was a principal in two large radio surveys using the VLA, the FIRST survey of the 10,000-square-degree Sloan Digital Sky Survey footprint, and the MAGPIS survey of the Galactic plane that complements the Spitzer GLIMPSE IR survey. Most of his pedagogical efforts have been aimed at teaching

EPISODE 1849: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Lisa Gornick, author of ANA TURNS, about writing a New York City novel in the philistine age of the Taliban and Donald TrumpLisa Gornick has been hailed by NPR as “one of the most perceptive, compassionate writers of fiction in America…immensely talented and brave.” She is the author of four previous novels—most recently The Peacock Feast and Louisa Meets Bear, both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, as well as Picador—and an upcoming novel, Ana Turns, to be published by Keylight Books in November, 2023.  Her stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, the Wall Street Journal, and Real Simple, and have received many honors, including Distinguished Story by the Best American Short Stories. With the publication of her first novel, A Private Sorcery, Lisa Gornick was described by National Book Award Winner Colum McCann as “a new voice…that makes sense of our deep need for stories and their tellers.” Her secon

EPISODE 1848: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Rob Copeland, author of THE FUND, about Ray Dalio, the billionaire Big Brother of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund on the planetRob Copeland is a finance reporter for the New York Times. He was previously the longtime hedge-fund beat reporter at the Wall Street Journal, and has also covered Silicon Valley and the hidden worlds of the wealthy and powerful. His front-page investigations into Bridgewater Associates won a New York Press Club award; he was also awarded an honorable mention twice by the Society of American Business Writers (SABEW) and was named a News Media Alliance "Rising Star" (formerly Top 30 Under 30). He has appeared on ABC’s "Good Morning America," NPR and other major news networks. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also th

EPISODE 1847: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to John Gray, author of THE NEW LEVIATHANS, about our post-liberal futureJohn Gray is a political philosopher and author. His books include Seven Types of Atheism, False Dawn: the Delusions of Global Capitalism, and Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and The Death of Utopia. His latest book is The New Leviathans: Thoughts After LiberalismNamed as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonu

EPISODE 1846: In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to Major Garrett, host of the AGENT OF BETRAYAL podcast, about the Robert Hanssen, the FBI spy and weaver of a web of liesMajor Garrett was named CBS News' chief Washington correspondent in December 2018. As chief Washington correspondent, Garrett reports for all CBS News broadcasts and platforms. Garrett is also the host of "The Takeout," a weekly multi-platform interview show on politics, policy and pop culture available on CBS News Streaming, top radio stations across the country and all podcast platforms. From 2012 until 2018, Garrett served as the Network's chief White House correspondent. While covering the White House for CBS News, Garrett reported extensively on presidential actions to confront ISIS, Ebola, nuclear negotiations with Iran and U.S.-European efforts to confront Russia in the standoff over Ukraine. On domestic issues, Garrett reported on the Obama administration's handling of the health care website rollout, numerous policy failures at t

EPISODE 1845: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Ben Wildavsky, author of THE CAREER ARTS, about how to use college to successfully build a careerBen Wildavsky is a veteran higher education writer, strategist, and speaker, host of the Higher Ed Spotlight podcast and author of The Career Arts: Making the Most of College, Credentials, and Connections. A frequent keynote speaker and moderator at education conferences and retreats, Ben cuts through the noise and anxiety surrounding this issue to offer sensible, clear-eyed guidance for anyone who is making decisions about education and career preparation with a view to getting ahead in the workforce. He has held senior roles at the Brookings Institution, the College Board Policy Center, Strada Education Network and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. He is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In additi

EPISODE 1844: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Ben Austen, author of CORRECTION, about parole, prison and the near impossibility of change in the current American criminal justice systemBen Austen is a writer from Chicago. He is the co-host of the podcast Some of My Best Friends Are and the author of High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing. High-Risers was long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Nonfiction, shortlisted for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice, and named one of the best books of 2018 by Booklist, Mother Jones and the public libraries of Chicago and St. Louis. A former editor at Harper’s Magazine, he is a story consultant on the podcast The City and a senior fellow at the Invisible Institute. His feature writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, The Best American Travel Writing, and many other publications. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the

EPISODE 1843: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Peter Slen, Executive Producer of the C-SPAN series BOOKS THAT SHAPED AMERICA, about Willa Cather's "My Antonia", the 1918 novel that nailed the ideal of immigrant middle AmericaPeter Slen is the senior executive producer and a host at C-SPAN, a television and radio network known for its unbiased coverage of government proceedings.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus

EPISODE 1842: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Bethanne Patrick, book critic at the Los Angeles Times, about new feminist takes on George Orwell, the man and the writer.Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGIT

EPISODE 1841: In our weekly KEEN ON wrap of tech news with Keith Teare, author of  the THAT WAS THE WEEK newletter  Keith talks about Sam Bankman-Fried and Palo Alto, Elon Musk and Rishi Sunak, and Space X and X Keith Teare is a Founder and CEO at SignalRank Corporation. Previously he was Executive Chairman at Accelerated Digital Ventures Ltd - A UK-based global investment company focused on startups at all stages. He was also previously the founder at the Palo Alto incubator, Archimedes Labs. Archimedes was the original incubator for TechCrunch and since 2011 has invested, accelerated or incubated many Silicon Valley startups including Around (sold to Miro), Millicast (Sold to Dolby), InFarm, Miles, Quixey; M.dot (sold to GoDaddy); chat.center; Loop Surveys; DownTown and Sunshine. Teare has a track record as a serial entrepreneur with big ideas and has achieved significant returns for investors. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, vi

EPISODE 1840: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Lisa M.P. Munoz, author of WOMEN IN SCIENCE NOW, about implicit bias, leaky pipelines, tokenization and other explanations for the persistent gender gap in scienceAs president of SciComm Services, Inc., Lisa Munoz develops, leads, and executes communication strategies for science groups, including VC funds, sci-tech startups, scientific societies and academic research groups, international organizations, and other institutions. She has more than 20 years of experience translating complex science into digestible stories for broad audiences.  Lisa started her career in radio and then print journalism, as a reporter and then managing editor of Geotimes, a geoscience magazine. She is a former Press Officer for the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and former Chief of Staff and Communications Director for the OS Fund. Lisa has an engineering degree from Cornell University with a specialty in science writing. Lisa’s expertise spans cognitiv

EPISODE 1839: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to the French-Israeli filmmaker and writer Pierre Rehov  what he believes are Ianian financed sleeper-cells in US universities and why he admires Hamas' "evil mind"Pierre Rebov is a French-Israeli novelist, journalist and documentary filmmaker. Born in Algiers, he had to flee his native country with his family in 1961, at the end of the French-Algerian war. Established in Paris, and later in New York, he graduated from Assas law school and studied counter-terrorism at IDC Herzliya. Since 2000, he produced and directed 13 documentaries on the Middle Conflict. He now lives in Tel Aviv.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW T

EPISODE 1838: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Juliet Hooker, author of BLACK GRIEF/WHITE GRIEVANCE, about why American democracy is in desperate need of an radical expansion of its political imaginationJuliet Hooker is Professor of Political Science at Brown University. She is a political theorist specializing in racial justice, Latin American political thought, Black political thought, and Afro-descendant and indigenous politics in Latin America. Before coming to Brown, she was a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Race and the Politics of Solidarity (Oxford, 2009); Theorizing Race in the Americas: Douglass, Sarmiento, Du Bois, and Vasconcelos (Oxford, 2017); and editor of Black and Indigenous Resistance in the Americas: From Multiculturalism to Racist Backlash (Lexington Books, 2020). Theorizing Race in the Americas was awarded the American Political Science Association’s 2018 Ralph Bunche Book Award for the best work in ethnic and cultural pluralism and the 2018

EPISODE 1837: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Ronald C. White, the author of ON GREAT FIELDS, about the life of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the unlikely hero of Gettysburg.Ronald C. White is the author of two New York Times bestselling presidential biographies. USA Today said of A. Lincoln: A Biography [2009], “If you read one book about Lincoln, make it A. LINCOLN.” American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant [2016] won the William Henry Seward Award for “Excellence in Civil War Biography.” He has also written Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural [2002], a New York Times Notable Book, The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words [2005], a Los Angeles Times bestseller, and Lincoln in Private: What His Most Personal Reflections Tell Us About Our Greatest President [2021], recipient of the 2021 Barnondess/Lincoln award. He is the narrator of the Random House Audiobook for Lincoln in Private. His new biography, On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrenc

EPISODE 1836: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Daniel Finkelstein, author of HITLER, STALIN, MUM AND DAD: A FAMILY MEMOIR OF MIRACULOUS SURVIVAL, about the extraordinary coincidences enabling the survival of his family in World War TwoDANIEL FINKELSTEIN is a weekly political columnist at The Times of London. Formerly an adviser to Prime Minister John Major, he was appointed to the House of Lords in 2013. He recently became a director of Chelsea Football Club. He is married with three children and lives in Pinner, a suburb of London. He is grandson of Dr. Alfred Wiener, founder of the Wiener Library, the world’s oldest Holocaust archive, where he is a patron.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTE

EPISODE 1835: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks William Deresiewicz, author of THE DEATH OF THE ARTIST, about the fate of the creative artist when , in our digital economy, the price of content has been driven down to zero William Deresiewicz is an award-winning essayist and critic, a frequent speaker at colleges, high schools, and other venues, and the author of five books including the New York Times bestseller Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. His latest book is The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society. Bill has published over 300 essays and reviews. He has won the Hiett Prize in the Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, and a Sydney Award; he is also a three-time National Magazine Award nominee. His work, which has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Harper’s, and many other publications, has been translated into 19 languages and anthologized in 39 college and

EPISODE 1834: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Ruy Teixeira, co-author of WHERE HAVE ALL THE DEMOCRATS GONE?, needs to tone down the volume on cultural issues if its to rediscover its political soulRuy Teixeira is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and co-founder and politics editor of the Substack newsletter, The Liberal Patriot. His forthcoming book, with John B. Judis, is Where Have All the Democrats Gone?Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss t

EPISODE 1833: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Maciej Kisilowski, editor of LET'S AGREE ABOUT POLAND, about the promise and peril of democracy in a post authoritarian Poland after what he calls its "almost miraculous" October election Maciej Kisilowski is a frequent commentator on issues of political-economy of East-Central Europe, contributing (among others) to Project Syndicate, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Haaretz, EU Observer, and EURActive. He is the author/editor of three books, including Administrategy, which was translated into five languages. He’s a consultant to governmental organizations, progressive political parties, advocacy groups and businesses in Central Europe and beyond.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF

EPISODE 1832: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Antonello Provenzale, author of HISTORY OF CLIMATE CHANGE, about whether today's climate change crisis represent an existential threat to humanityAntonello Provenzale is Director of the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources at the National Research Council of Italy. His latest book is History of Climate Change: From the Earth's Origins to the AnthropoceneNamed as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subs

EPISODE 1831: In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to John Kampfner, author of IN SEARCH OF BERLIN, about the enigmatic German capital on the edge of the worldJohn Kampfner has had a 30-year career in international public life spanning media, global affairs, politics and arts. He is the author of seven books. He began his journalistic career as a foreign correspondent with the Daily Telegraph, first in East Berlin where he reported on the fall of the Wall and unification of Germany, and then in Moscow at the time of the collapse of Soviet Communism. He went on to work for the FT and BBC. As Editor of the New Statesman from 2005 to 2008, he took the magazine to 30-year circulation highs. He was Society of Magazine Editors Current Affairs Editor of the Year in 2006. He now writes regularly for newspapers such as the Guardian, FT and Der Spiegel. He has made many programmes over the years for BBC Radio 4 and World Service and regularly appearances on European broadcasters. His new book, In Search of Berlin, is