Keen On America

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to UPSHIFT author Ben Ramalingam on how to turn pressure into performance and crisis into creativity. Ben Ramalingam is a senior leader, innovator, and researcher specializing in international crisis management and development. He is the executive director of the United Kingdom Humanitarian Innovation Hub and has worked with and advised the United Nations, the...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to Nok Nok CEO Phillip Dunkelberger on digital technology that, he promises, will finally kill the online password. Phillip Dunkelberger has broad experience resulting from more than 30 years in technology. Prior to becoming CEO of Nok Nok Labs, Mr. Dunkelberger served for 8 years as co-founder and CEO of PGP Corporation, the leader in the Enterprise Data Prot...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to the founder of Instapundit.com, Glenn Reynolds, about the origins of the blogging revolution at the turn of the 21st century. Glenn Harlan Reynolds (born August 27, 1960) is Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee College of Law , and is known for his American politics blog , Instapundit . His special interests are law...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to the author of MISS ALDRIDGE REGRETS Louise Hare about the history of blacks in England and how to write a second novel as successful as her first Louise Hare is a London-based author. Her debut novel, This Lovely City , was published in the UK to wide acclaim, and was a Between the Covers Book Club Pick on BBC Two. She has an MA in creative writing from the...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to NO MIRACLES NEEDED author Mark Z. Jacobson on how today's technology of wind, solar and water can save our climate and clean our air. Mark Z. Jacobson’s career has focused on better understanding air pollution and global warming problems and developing large-scale clean, renewable energy solutions to them. Toward that end, he has developed and applied three...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to FRAGILE CARGO author Adam Brookes about true story of how a group of Chinese museum curators saved the priceless treasures of China's Forbidden City in the years leading up to World War II Adam Brookes was born in Canada and grew up in the United Kingdom. For many years he was a journalist for BBC News, working as a correspondent in Beijing, as well as in I...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to FREEDOM MOVES co-editor H. Samy Alim about Hip Hop knowledges, pedagogies and futures H. Samy Alim is the David O. Sears Presidential Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at UCLA. He also serves as the Associate Director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, where he is Faculty Director of the UCLA Hip Hop...

In this Valentine's Day edition of KEEN ON, Andrew talks to THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRATIC CAPITALISM author Martin Wolf on why Capitalism and Democracy have fallen out of love and how to bring them back together Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 “for services to financial journalism”. His latest bo...

In this KEEN ON episode Andrew talks to WELCOME ME TO THE KINGDOM author Mai Nardone about the struggle of ordinary people to survive in contemporary Bangkok Mai Nardone is a Thai and American writer whose work has appeared in American Short Fiction , Granta , McSweeney’s Quarterly , Ploughshares , and elsewhere. He lives in Bangkok. Welcome Me to the Kingdom is his first book. Name as one of the...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to BURN THE BOATS author Matt Higgins about why we need to toss Plan B overboard if we are to unleash our full potential in business and in life. Matt Higgins is a proven operator, investor and business builder with a knack for helping founders at pivotal growth moments achieve breakout success. He serves as CEO of RSE Ventures, a private firm that incubates a...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to ON WRITING AND FAILURE author Stephen Marche on why all writers are failures and how generative AI will become the pocket calculator of language. Stephen Marche is a novelist and essayist. He is the author of half a dozen books, including The Next Civil War , The Unmade Bed: The Messy Truth About Men and Women in the Twenty-First Century (2016) and The Hung...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to EMPIRELAND author Sathnam Sangheera about how imperialism has shaped both modern Britain and America and how to escape this colonial legacy in the 21st century Sathnam Sanghera was born to Punjabi parents in the West Midlands in 1976. He entered the education system unable to speak English but, after attending Wolverhampton Grammar School, graduated from Ch...

In this episode of KEEN ON, Andrew talks to the author of RAIL SPLITTER, John Cribb, on distinguishing between fact and fiction in Abraham Lincoln's unbelievable life and what all Americans can learn from the great man today JOHN CRIBB is a bestselling author who has written about subjects ranging from history to education. His novel Old Abe has been hailed for its vivid portrayal of Abraham Linco...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to Reprieve's Head of Death Penalty (Middle East and North Africa) about Reprieve's new report, "Bloodshed and Lies: Mohammed Bin Salman's Kingdom of Executions" Jeed Basyouni oversees Reprieve’s work on the death penalty across the MENA region. She previously spent several years in the humanitarian sector managing work on the Syria crisis. Jeed holds a Master...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to the Italian political economist Massimo Morelli about nature and future of European populists like Viktor Orban and Georgia Meloni Massimo Morelli is Professor of Political Science and Economics at Bocconi University. He has been elected Fellow of the Econometric Society – and Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory – mostly for his contributions to...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to the author of THAT WAS THE WEEK newsletter Keith Teare about why a week is a long time in Silicon Valley and how AI is now unstoppable. 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 prev...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to THE UNITED NATIONS AS LEVIATHAN author Roland Rich about why we need a United Nations 3.0 that can fix our broken planet. Roland Rich received his B.A. and LL.B. from the University of Sydney and his M.Int. Law and Ph. D. from the Australian National University. He joined Rutgers in 2015 after seven years at the United Nations where he was Executive Head of...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to THE INFLUENCER INDUSTRY author Emily Hund about the sad quest for authenticity on today's social media. Emily Hund, PhD, is the author of The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media ( Princeton University Press), and a research affiliate at the Center on Digital Culture and Society at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to author of THE GHOST AT THE FEAST, Robert Kagan, about American foreign policy between 1900 and 1941 and its lessons for America's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine Robert Kagan is the Stephen & Barbara Friedman Senior Fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. He is a contributing co...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to HIJAB BUTCH BLUES author Lamya H on what it's like being queer, brown and Moslem in America right now and how to make the world more open and tolerant. Lamya H (she/they) is a queer Muslim writer and organizer living in New York City. Her memoir HIJAB BUTCH BLUES is forthcoming from Dial Press in February 2023. Lamya’s work has appeared in Los Angeles Revie...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks REVOLUTIONARY ROADS author Bob Thompson about his search for the war that made America independent.... and all the place it could have gone terribly wrong. Bob Thompson is the author of Born on a Mountaintop, an on-the-road exploration of the real and legendary Davy Crockett. As a longtime feature writer for the Washington Post and the editor of its Sunday mag...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to the Head of Social Impact at Singularity University about the moonshot technologies that could significantly improve the lives of billions of people around the world. Darlene Damm is Faculty Chair & Head of Social Impact at Singularity University. She has spent nearly two decades working on moonshots and initiatives designed to solve our world’s toughes...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to A HACKER'S MIND author Bruce Schneier about how the powerful have learnt to hack society rules and why we need to learn to outhack the hackers. Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a “security guru” by The Economist. He is the author of over one dozen books—including his latest, A HACKER'S MIND —as well as hundreds of...

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to WE DON'T KNOW OURSELVES author Fintan O'Toole about contemporary Irish history, identity, movies and known and unknown fictions. Fintan O'Toole is an Irish Times columnist and writer. His books include We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958, Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain, and Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corr...

In this KEEN ON. episode, Andrew talks to HOW TO FIX A BROKEN PLANET author Julian Cribbs about the best strategies for confronting our "Castastrophocene" age of environmental crisis, overpopulation and surveillance capitalism. Julian Cribb AM is an Australian author and science communicator. His career includes appointments as scientific editor for The Australian newspaper, director of national a...