Keen On

Wow. According to the journalist and historian Eoin Higgins, right wing tech billionaires like Marc Andreessen, David Sacks and Peter Thiel have “bought” prominent anti establishment journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi. That’s the highly provocative thesis at the heart of his new book Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left. While I’m no great fan of the Greenwald/Taibbi school of paranoid anti-establishment journalism, I’m not totally convinced. After all, does working for an online publication partially funded by Thiel like Rumble really mean that you’ve been bought by him? But WTF do I know? Listen to Higgins for yourself. He certainly makes an interesting case for this highly controversial thesis.Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways for our conversation withHiggins:* Tech Billionaire Influence on Media: The conversation centers on how right-wing tech billionaires like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Marc Andreessen have invested in and influenced alternative me

Internet scholar and activist Ethan Zuckerman is horrified by the American ban on TikTok. As a self-described “progressive” with a long and distinguished career advocating for internet freedom, Zuckerman expresses alarm at how the U.S. has moved from defending unfettered access to information in the 1960s to now being willing to ban popular Chinese platforms like TikTok and perhaps even DeepSeek. He suggests the ban stems from the anti-China hysteria and exaggerated fears about social media's impact on young people fueled by paranoid critics like Jonathan Haidt. If this trend toward online censorship continues, Zuckerman warns, America will become indistinguishable from other authoritarian states in its disdain for digital freedom. Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from the interview with Zuckerman:* The TikTok ban represents a dramatic shift in American values - Zuckerman points out that the US has moved from defending unfettered access to information (even Communist propaganda) in 1965 to now being willing t

Trust a gay Jewish atheist to defend the value of American Christianity. In his new book Cross-Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy, the Brookings scholar and gay marriage activist Jonathan Rauch argues that Christianity plays a vital role in sustaining American democracy. He points to the Mormon Church (LDS) as a model for balancing religious beliefs with democratic pluralism, contrasting their approach with white evangelical churches that have become increasingly intolerant of democracy. Rauch suggests that Christianity's core teachings of fearlessness, egalitarianism, and forgiveness align more with James Madison's democratic vision than with MAGA politics, and argues that secular liberals should work to make civic spaces more welcoming to people of faith.Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Rauch:* As a gay Jewish atheist, Rauch makes the counterintuitive argument that Christianity is essential for American democracy, suggesting that as religious participation decl

Who gets to go to heaven and who doesn’t? According to John Lee Hooker Jr., son of the legendary bluesman and author of From The Shadow of the Blues, many are called but not everyone is chosen. In the new autobiography, he confesses his own journey from addiction and imprisonment to religious redemption, while reflecting on growing up in his father's musical shadow. Hooker Jr. distinguishes between genius (like Prince) and talent (like himself), and offers thoughtful insights on the blues as both a response to African-American suffering and as a celebration of joy. And then there’s his take on the heaven question which won’t please everyone, especially those from the LGBTQ community.Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Hooker Jr:* On living in his father's shadow - John Lee Hooker Jr. describes it as both a blessing and a burden. While his father was humble and encouraged him to find his own authentic sound, he felt pressure from the music industry to live up to the Hooker name. He make

Few people know the U.S. car industry more intimately than the Wall Street Journal deputy auto editor Mike Colias. His new book, Inevitable, offers an insiders guide into what he sees as our messy, yet unstoppable transition to electric vehicles. In this wide ranging conversation on all things automotive, Colias addresses Trump's recent tariff impacts on the American car industry, the stark contrast between Chinese (50%) and US (10%) EV adoption rates, and China's dominance in battery supply chains and charging infrastructure. Colias explains how Chinese automakers have leapfrogged traditional manufacturers in EV technology, while European makers are caught between regulatory pressures and relentless Chinese competition. He ends with some thoughts about the future of autonomous vehicles which he sees as far less"inevitable" than EVs.Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Colias: * The stark contrast between EV adoption rates globally - China leads with 50% of new car sales being electric,

More than 6 million Americans now suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease. So the stakes in find a cure for this neurological illness are huge. Too large, in fact, for some fraudulent American medical researchers. As the investigative science reporter Charles Piller reveals in DOCTORED, there has been considerable fraud, some of it outright criminal, in Alzheimer’s research in the United States. Piller’s key finding, discovered through brave whistleblowers like Vanderbilt’s Dr. Matthew Schrag, is that researchers often doctored images in their studies, either for career advancement or financial gain. Piller emphasizes that while most scientists are honest, institutional oversight has been inadequate in preventing and addressing research misconduct. So I guess Americans should be thankful that the incoming administration has nominated a man of unambiguous moral standing to be the new Secretary of Health and Human Services. I wish.Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Piller:* The Alzheimer's rese

A week is certainly a long time in tech. On last week’s That Was the Week roundup, Keith Teare and I were asking if Trump’s America was a tech oligarchy. This week is all about the so-called “Sputnik Moment” of DeepSeek, a relatively underfunded Chinese AI company which seems to have radically undercut the value of massively financed American AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. As Keith notes, however, while the commodification of AI through a Chinese startup like DeepSeek is probably inevitable, it doesn’t actually undermine the value of US startups like OpenAI and Anthropic. The real victims of DeepSeek, Keith warns, are big tech corps like Meta and Alphabet which are struggling to monetize AI. While nobody outside Silicon Valley will be shedding tears over the travails of Meta and Alphabet, I what we really need, I think, is some Sputnik thinking about wealth redistribution in our big tech age. And, as we discuss, that might come from a certain Bill Gates who, this week, called for a “robot tax” to

In an era where even toothpaste shopping can trigger an existential crisis, intellectual historian Sophia Rosenfeld explore how we became both imprisoned and freed by endless options. Her new book The Age of Choice traces our evolution from a world where nobility bragged about not having any choices to one where choice itself has become our modern religion. From voting booths to gender identity, from Amazon's infinite scroll to dating apps' endless swipes, Rosenfeld reveals how "freedom of choice" conquered modern life - and why having too many options might be making us less free than we’d like to think.Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Rosenfeld:* Choice wasn't always central to freedom: Historically, especially among nobility, freedom was associated with not having to make choices. The modern equation of freedom with endless choice is a relatively recent development that emerged alongside consumer capitalism and democracy.* The transformation of choice from moral to preferential:

According to Andrew Lipstein, here are 3 questions at the heart of his acclaimed new novel Something Rotten: a) What do we want masculinity to look like? b) What constitutes truth? c) How to present death in our culture?Yeah, seriously big questions for anb ambitious novel. Set in Copenhagen, Something Rotten follows a canceled NPR host wrestling with masculinity in liberal society. Lipstein, a Brooklyn-based writer with three young boys (all under 3) and a Danish wife, offers his own insights into the cultural contrast between America and Denmark, on everything from social welfare to masculine ambition. In contrast with Lipstein’s three points, here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation:* On Writing Fiction vs. Nonfiction* Lipstein finds writing nonfiction significantly more challenging and less enjoyable than fiction* He estimates it takes him 2-3 times longer to write a single paragraph of nonfiction compared to fiction* Despite the challenges, he's currently working on a nonfiction book about

From Dylan to democracy, from Bobby Kennedy to Putin's Russia - this wide-ranging conversation with Michael Ignatieff riffs off “The Adults in the Room,” his latest essay for Liberties Quarterly. A liberal intellectual and politician who grew up enchanted by the Sixties counterculture, Ignatieff is deeply concerned by the American lurch into MAGAism. That said, however, the Canadian still seems (half) in love with the United States and hasn’t totally given up on what he calls liberalism's “incorrigible vitality”. Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Ignatieff:* Ignatieff sees the current global situation as potentially the biggest change since 1945, marked by a fundamental shift in America's approach to international relations under Trump - from viewing allies as sources of power to treating them as potential adversaries to be exploited.* He describes a profound crisis in the international rules-based order, with institutions like the UN Security Council deadlocked, Geneva Conventions b

A new book by the Pulitzer Prize finalist Nicholas Carr is always a major event. And today’s release of SUPERBLOOM: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart offers a prescient critique of our social media age. As Carr explains, our assumption that more communication leads to better understanding is fundamentally wrong. Instead, he suggests that excessive communication through digital platforms actually tears people apart. Carr’s use of the “Superbloom” metaphor refers to an actual 2019 event in Southern California where people flocked to photograph wildflowers for social media, trampling the actual flowers in pursuit of the perfect image. Carr uses this as a metaphor for how we increasingly experience reality through online media rather than directly. Carr challenges the idea that new communication technologies automatically bring people together, noting how previous innovations like the telegraph and telephone came with similar utopian promises that were never fulfilled. He argues that modern smartphone

Is AI the latest chapter in our long history of creating an all-knowing God? AI ethicist Christopher DiCarlo certainly suspects it is. In his new book "Building a God: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Control It, DiCarlo argues that we are creating AI systems with godlike capabilities that will eventually exceed all human intelligence through their ability to make unprecedented inferences and connections. Like so many other self-styled ethicists, DiCarlo emphasizes the urgent need to establish ethical guardrails and principles for AI development. He expresses both hope for AI's potential benefits, particularly in medicine, while warning about the risks of losing control of super intelligent systems that might, one day, develop their own ethical frameworks. Given that AI development is currently largely controlled by profit-driven companies and shaped by geopolitical competition rather than ethical considerations, DiCarlo advocates for raising public awareness and establishing robust inter

Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it’s another anti tech book. In Against Platforms: Surviving Digital Utopia, digital activist Mike Pepi argues that major tech companies like Meta, Amazon, Tesla, and OpenAI are all driven by "platform logic" - a business model focused on creating intermediary layers that mediate human activities while collecting data and maintaining control. While different tech leaders may have different political views, Pepi contends they are all ultimately "prisoners of the platform" driven by growth imperatives. Pepi distinguishes his critique from other tech criticism by arguing that even proposed solutions often fall into the "digital utopian" trap - the belief that better technology can fix technology's problems. Instead, he advocates for strengthening traditional institutions rather than trying to replace them with platforms. He cites journalism as an example where platforms have weakened traditional institutions rather than improved them. While not exactly anti-technology, Pepi beli

In Keith Teare’s That Was the Week newsletter for this week, he categorically asserts that there is no oligarchy in Trump’s America. Instead there are “just technologists with a passion for change and, of course, self-interest”. But I’m not so sure. So in this issue of our weekly show, Keith and I debate the nature of tech power in America. Keith argues argues against characterizing tech leaders like Musk, Zuckerberg, and Altman as oligarchs, claiming they're simply competing businessmen seeking influence rather than a unified controlling group. He views their alignment with Trump as a reaction to what he sees as over-regulation by the Biden administration. But regardless of whether tech leaders agree on everything, I argue, their enormous wealth and influence on what I call MAGA’s “national capitalism” effectively makes them an oligarchy. Indeed, they are, I think, a textbook example of Aristotle’s definition of “oligarchy” which he defined as "rule by the rich”. Keith Teare is the founder and CEO of Signal

So what, exactly, is a philosophical life? According the University of Chicago philosopher Agnes Callard, author of the much acclaimed new book Open Socrates, it means being able to ask questions with the intuitive fluency of Socrates. In our conversation, Callard confesses her own hilarious early attempt to emulate Socrates by approaching strangers at the Art Institute of Chicago, and explains why it failed spectacularly. Callard offers the Socratic diagnosis that many of our current political and social divisions stem from a failure to be sufficiently inquisitive. Our conversation - which I also hope had a Socratic quality - presents philosophy not as an academic exercise, but as a vital way of engaging with others and understanding ourselves.Agnes Callard is an American philosopher and an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago. She has written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, The Point, and others.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ maga

This is the last and amongst the liveliest of my interviews at Munich’s DLD Conference this year. An old friend who has appeared on KEEN ON several times before, Andrew McAfee is a MIT professor who co-wrote the 2014 classic The Second Machine Age. In our conversation, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the DLD Conference, McAfee reflects on the technological changes of the past 20 years,. He acknowledges that while he accurately predicted the broad trajectory of technological advancement, he underestimated AI's capabilities in areas like language processing and creative tasks. McAfee discusses the emergence of deep learning around 2012 and its evolution into today's generative AI. While maintaining overall optimism about technology's impact, he expresses concern about increasing social polarization and anxiety, particularly related to social media use, though he notes these trends actually preceded current technology. On economic matters, McAfee challenges the notion that tech innovation is stagnating, poi

Most of the breathless talk in snowy Munich at this year’s DLD conference, of course, was about the generative AI revolution. But amongst all the hype and glitz about our brave new AI future, Richard Socher stands out. Born in 1983 in Dresden, East Germany, the now Silicon Valley based Socher is amongst the headful of genuine pioneers who helped revolutionize natural language processing. In this conversation, he discusses his journey from being part of a small "heretical" group of researchers in 2010 who believed in using neural networks for natural language processing, to seeing his ideas become mainstream technology that even Munich and San Francisco taxi/Uber now discuss. Socher explains how he helped develop crucial concepts like word vectors and prompt engineering, which influenced the development of modern AI systems. He founded you.com, which focuses on providing accurate AI answers for knowledge workers and enterprises, differentiating itself from consumer-focused AI platforms. Regarding AI's future,

If anyone should be anointed “aunt” or “court jEsther” of the tech industry, it’s long time journalist, investor and philanthropist Esther Dyson. When I caught up with Dyson at DLD, she reflected on her 40+ year career in technology and her evolution from tech industry observer to wellness advocate. Her aunt/court jester" role, she explains, is to provide honest feedback to the tech powers-that-be while maintaining independence. In this role, Dyson expresses concern about society's vulnerability to "information diabetes" - addictive content that, like processed food, provides short-term pleasure but long-term harm. She details her work with Wellville, a 10-year project focused on community health and resilience, and explains her upcoming book "Term Limits," which argues for the importance of knowing when to pass the torch rather than trying to live or serve forever. Dyson - who, between 2008 and 2009 lived in Star City outside Moscow, Russia and trained as a backup cosmonaut - also shares her unique insigh

With Trump’s inauguration today, are we really about experience a new “golden age” in America? No. Not at least according to the best selling writer Robert D. Kaplan, author of Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis (out next week), who argues that Trump's inaugural ceremony today, attended by fawning Silicon Valley moguls, exemplifies the moneyed “decadence” that often precedes imperial decline. A new book from Kaplan is always a big deal. But in today’s Trumpian America, Waste Land seems particularly prescient. The book draws heavily from historians of decline like Oswald Spengler and examines how globalization has split American society into two halves: a cosmopolitan, globally-oriented coastal elite and a poorer, more nationalistic hinterland. He argues that this division has eliminated the political center, burdening every election an existential quality. Despite the book's generally Spenglerian pessimism, Kaplan concluded with a note of hope, suggesting that a rediscovery of classical liberalism – char

Amidst all the doom and gloom of the current zeitgeist, Harvard University literature professor & DLD 2025 speaker Martin Puchner remains cautiously optimistic about our high tech future. Reflecting on cultural and technological changes over the past 20 years. Puchner explains how digital technology has transformed academic research and teaching since 2005, noting how the internet has made obscure texts more accessible and changed how scholars work. While acknowledging concerns about declining humanities enrollment and student reading habits, Puchner maintains a cautiously optimistic outlook. He observes that while fewer top students choose to study literature, there's been a growth in public engagement with humanities through book clubs, podcasts, and adult education. Puchner offers nuanced perspectives on several contemporary issues, including the rise of student anxiety (which he attributes more to psycho-pharmaceuticals than technology), the paradox of people valuing reading while actually reading les