Keen On

EPISODE 1937: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Alex Byrne, author of TROUBLE WITH GENDER, about slippery sex facts and factual gender fictions​Alex Byrne teaches in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (In the philosophy half of the department.) His main interests are philosophy of mind (especially perception), metaphysics (especially color) and epistemology (especially self-knowledge). A few years ago he started working on philosophical issues relating to sex and gender. He recently finished a book on these topics, Trouble with Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions, which is now out in the UK and the US.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 INTERNE

EPISODE 1936: In this special KEEN ON show from DLD in Munich, Andrew talks to Martin Puchner, author of CULTURE: THE STORY OF US, FROM CAVE ART TO K-POP, about on the future of artistic creativity in the age of the smart machine​Martin Puchner, the Byron and Anita Wien Professor at Harvard University, is a prize-winning author, educator, public speaker, and institution builder in the arts and humanities. His writings range from philosophy and theater to culture and technology and have been translated into many languages. Through his best-selling Norton Anthology of World Literature and his HarvardX MOOC Masterpieces of World Literature, he has brought four thousand years of literature to audiences across the globe. His book, The Written World, which tells the story of literature from the invention of writing to the Internet, has been widely reviewed in The New York Times, The Times (London), the Financial Times, The Times Literary Supplement, The Atlantic, The Economist, among others, covered on radio and te

EPISODE 1935: In this special KEEN ON show from DLD in Munich, Andrew talks to Susan Danzinger about she is putting radical philosophical ideas into practice in upstate New YorkSusan Danziger is an investor and entrepreneur, founding a venture capital firm along with several social and environmental impact organizations including Wally Farms—a living research project dedicated to finding a food system that is better for the planet, the economy and the consumer. With their eyes set on the future of farming, Wally Farms is looking to find new, more sustainable ways to structure the food industry. By working with farmers, processors, distributors, chefs and more, Wally Farms is actively looking for solutions to the sustainability and nutrition accessibility issues that pervade our current system. Wally Farms also offers an extensive educational program, providing online courses, workshops and events as well as hands-on experiences for the local community at the farm. Additionally, Wally Farms is committed to red

EPISODE 1934: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to the founder & CEO of Fairly Trained, about the dire consequences of generative AI companies "scraping" data without acknowledging its creators Ed Newton-Rex work sat the intersection of generative AI and music creation. He founded Jukedeck, an AI music generation company that provided music for video, TV, radio, podcasts and games. In 2019, Jukedeck was acquired by ByteDance, where he ran the European AI Lab and later led Product in Europe for TikTok. Most recently he was VP of Audio at Stability AI. Ed was on the founding team of the AI Song Contest, and he is a mentor at Abbey Road Studios’ music tech incubator. He writes choral music, which is published by Boosey & Hawkes.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

EPISODE 1933: In this special KEEN ON show recorded at the DLD conference in Munich, Andrew talks to the Founder & CEO of Hidden Door, Hilary Mason, who peers behind the hidden door of AI, Gaming and StorytellingHilary Mason is the Founder & CEO of Fast Forward Labs, a machine intelligence research company, and the Data Scientist in Residence at Accel Partners. She co-founded HackNY, and she is a member of NYC Resistor.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

EPISODE 1932: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Yanis Varoufakis, author of TECHNO FEUDALISM, about the death of capitalism ad its replacement with a "cloudalist" totalitarianismYanis Varoufakis is the former finance minister of Greece and the author of several international bestselling books. And the Weak Suffer What They Must?: Europe, Austerity and the Threat to Global Stability reveals the underlying problems that led to the Eurozone crisis and its ongoing catastrophic mishandling. Adults In the Room: My Battle with Europe's Deep Establishment is an explosive memoir that reveals what goes on behind the scenes in Europe's corridors of power. Talking To My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism (forthcoming) explains through vivid stories and easily graspable concepts what economics actually is and why it is so dangerous in the form of a letter to his teenage daughter. Born in Athens in 1961, Yanis Varoufakis was for many years a professor of economics in Britain, Australia and the US

EPISODE 1931: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Nick Romeo, author of THE ALTERNATIVE, about how to build a just economyNick Romeo is a journalist, critic, and essayist. His new book, The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy (forthcoming January 2024 from PublicAffairs and Basic Books), uses extensive original reporting to provide a road map for a sustainable and survivable twenty-first-century economy. He has spent years covering policy and ideas for The New Yorker magazine, where he has explored the neuropsychologist Nicholas Humphrey’s novel theory of consciousness, reported on the world’s largest worker-owned cooperative in Mondragon, Spain, and examined a job guarantee experiment outside of Vienna, Austria. Nick has contributed front page breaking news stories, profiles, and essays to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, The New Republic, and many other venues. His work ranges from reports on the refugee crisis in Greece to the privatization o

EPISODE 1930: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Frank Vogl, author of THE ENABLERS, about the marketing scammers behind the increasingly mainstream success of cryptocurrencyFrank Vogel  is the co-founder of two leading international non-governmental organizations fighting corruption -- Transparency International and the Partnership for Transparency Fund (Frank is the Chair of the PTF Board).  He teaches at Georgetown University, writes regular "blog" articles on corruption for theGlobalist.com and lectures extensively.  Frank is also a specialist in international economics and finance with more than 50 years of experience in these fields - first as an international journalist, then as the Director of Information & Public Affairs at the World Bank official and, from 1990 to 2017, as the president and CEO of a consulting firm, Vogl Communications Inc.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 pr

EPISODE 1929: In this DLD special recorded in Munich, Andrew talks to Kenneth Cukier, co-author of BIG DATA, about AI, spirituality and the new humanism in our digital ageKenneth Cukier is the Deputy Executive Editor at The Economist in London and cohost of its weekly tech podcast Babbage. He is coauthor of the award-winning book “Big Data" with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, a NYT Bestseller translated into over 20 languages. He is a regular commentator on BBC, CNN, and NPR, and a popular keynote speaker, from TED to Davos. In 2002-04, Cukier was a research fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He is a board director of Chatham House, a fellow at Oxford's Saïd Business School and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His latest book is "Framers" on the power of mental models and the limits of AI.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-r

EPISODE 1928 : In this special DLD edition, Andrew talks to Azeem Azhar, author of the popular Substack newsletter EXPONENTIAL VIEW, about AI's impact on politics, economics and society in 2024Azeem Azhar is the creator of Exponential View (www.exponentialview.co), one of the world's leading platforms for understanding the impact of technology on society. His weekly newsletter is read by 200,000 people from around the world, and his chart-topping podcast has featured guests including Yuval Noah Harari, Tony Blair and Reid Hoffman. The founder of a number of tech companies, Azhar is an active startup investor and has advised the World Economic Forum, McKinsey and Accenture. He is a contributor to publications including the Financial Times, Wired and the MIT Technology Review.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 i

EPISODE 1927: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Abbot Kahler, author of WHERE YOU END, about writing unnerving literature for unnerving timesAbbott Kahler (formerly Karen Abbott) is the author of four New York Times bestselling works of narrative nonfiction. A search for an ancestor who went missing in 1905 led her to write Sin in the Second City, which tells the true story of two sisters who ran the world’s most famous brothel and the nationwide battle to shut them down. Her interest in Gypsy Rose Lee, the subject of American Rose, stems from stories her grandmother shared about the ecdysiast’s performances in the 1930s and 40s. Liar Temptress Soldier Spy was inspired by a six-year stint in Atlanta, where the ghosts of the Civil War still seem omnipresent. The HBO show Boardwalk Empire introduced her to bootlegger George Remus, the subject of The Ghosts of Eden Park and a character much more fascinating than Al Capone. Then Came the Devil, her next nonfiction book, is by far the most outrageous story she

EPISODE 1926: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to the LA Times book critic, Bethanne Patrick,  about her 10 must read books for 2024Bethanne 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, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSW

Episode 1925: In this special DLD edition of KEEN ON, Andrew talks to John Thornhill, innovation editor at the Financial Times, who distinguishes the truth from the fiction of today's AI hysteriaJohn Thornhill is the Innovation Editor at the Financial Times writing a weekly column on the impact of technology. He is also the founder and editorial director of Sifted, the FT-backed site for European startups, and founder of FT Forums, which hosts monthly meetings for senior executives. John was previously deputy editor and news editor of the FT in London. He has also been Europe editor, Paris bureau chief, Asia editor, Moscow correspondent and Lex columnist.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

EPISODE 1924: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Brian Klaas, author of FLUKE, about why we are all accidents of the most arbitrary chance and chaosDr. Brian Klaas is an Associate Professor in Global Politics at University College London and a contributing writer for The Atlantic.  He is also the author of the book Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us and host of the Power Corrupts podcast. Dr. Klaas is an expert on democracy, authoritarianism, US foreign policy, American politics more generally, political violence, and elections. He has previously authored of three books: "The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy" (Hurst & Co, November 2017); "The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding & Abetting the Decline of Democracy," (Oxford University Press, December 2016) and "How to Rig an Election" (Yale University Press, co-authored with Professor Nic Cheeseman; May 2018).  Klaas has advised governments, US political campaigns, NATO, the European Union, multi-billion

EPISODE 1923: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Casey Michel, author of the upcoming FOREIGN AGENTS, about the dirty overseas money sloshing around both sides of American politicsCasey Michel is an author, journalist, and director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program with the Human Rights Foundation. He is the author of American Kleptocracy, named by The Economist as one of the "best books to read to understand financial crime." His writing on offshoring, foreign lobbying, authoritarianism, and illicit wealth has appeared in Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and The Washington Post, among other outlets, and he has appeared on NPR, BBC, CNN, and MSNBC, among other stations. He has also testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the links between illicit financial networks and national security. He received his Master’s degree in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies from Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, and served as a Peace Corps Voluntee

This is a pretty funny interview. Especially at the end when, having asked Eve Herold whether or not we should have sex with our robots, there is a huge rumble of thunder in her home. Perhaps it was the Gods growling their disapproval of the question. Or maybe it was the cry from the heart of a jealous robot. Enjoy (but not too much). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

EPISODE 1922: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Eve Herold, author of ROBOTS AND THE POEPLE WHO LOVE THEM, about our narcissistic echo-chamber culture in which we are falling in love with our robots (ie: ourselves)EVE HEROLD is an award-winning science writer and consultant in the scientific and medical nonprofit space. A longtime communications and policy executive for scientific organizations, she currently serves as Director of Policy Research and Education for the Healthspan Action Coalition. She has written extensively about issues at the crossroads of science and society, including stem cell research and regenerative medicine, aging and longevity, medical implants, transhumanism, robotics and AI and bioethical issues in leading-edge medicine. Previous books include Stem Cell Wars and Beyond Human, and her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Vice, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe, among others. She’s a frequent contributor to the online science magazine, Leaps, and is the recipient

EPISODE 1921: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Dr Robert Pearl, author of UNCARING, about how the American healthcare system is rigged against ethical doctors and poor patients and what needs to change  in 2024Dr. Robert Pearl is the former CEO of The Permanente Medical Group (1999-2017), the nation’s largest medical group, and former president of The Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group (2009-2017). In these roles he led 10,000 physicians, 38,000 staff and was responsible for the nationally recognized medical care of 5 million Kaiser Permanente members on the west and east coasts.  Named one of Modern Healthcare’s 50 most influential physician leaders, Pearl is an advocate for the power of integrated, prepaid, technologically advanced and physician-led healthcare delivery. He serves as a clinical professor of plastic surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and is on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he teaches courses on strategy and leadership, and lectures on in

EPISODE 1920: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to PJ Caldas, author of THE GIRL FROM WUDANG, about why a future of digitally connected brains is about to transform all our realities. PJ CALDAS The author of multiple best-selling novels in Brazil, PJ Caldas, a.k.a PJ Pereira was picked by the Dictionary of Brazilian Literature as one of the most important writers of the twenty-first century. There, he published four books inspired by the mythology carried to the country by the African diaspora, and reached the top five best-selling titles multiple times. PJ is also a martial artist with 40 years of experience in combat sports, including kempo, karate, tai chi, and Brazilian jiu jitsu. He currently lives in the greater NY area. PJ is the co-founder of Pereira O'Dell, an Emmy award-winning advertising agency with offices in NY and San Francisco. Known as a pioneer in the intersection of marketing, entertainment and technology, he has worked with brands such as Coca-Cola, LEGO, Google, Skype and Intel. In 2023

EPISODE 1919: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Dominique Shelton Leipzig, author of TRUST, who offers protection from the high risk dangers of AI malfunction Dominique Shelton Leipzig is a Privacy & Cybersecurity Partner at Mayer Brown. She is an authority on how companies can transform their governance to be responsible data leaders by focusing on legal trends in AI, privacy and cyber. She leads the firm’s Global Data Innovation Team, the first data team to focus on CEO and board level advice for digital transformation. She has been practicing law for over 30 years after obtaining her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, and doing her undergraduate work at Brown University in International Relations and French Civilization. Dominique has advised on the global strategies for responsible data leadership for hundreds of companies, with a collective market cap of over $3 trillion. She has trained over 50,000 professionals on privacy, AI and cyber including Fortune 100 CEOs and board members