Keen On

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to RISING UP author Sonali Kolhatkar about how the American healthcare system combines glaring inefficiencies with even more profound injustice. Journalist, activist, and artist, Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host, and executive producer of Pacifica’s  popular drive time program Rising Up With Sonali which airs on KPFK and KPFA and also as a TV show on Free Speech TV. She is a Writing Fellow with Independent Media Institute and was formerly a weekly columnist at Truthdig. Sonali is also the founding Co-Director of the Afghan Women’s Mission, a US-based non-profit solidarity organization that funds the work of RAWA. She is the author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (2006, Seven Stories). She lives in Pasadena with her husband and co-author James Ingalls and two sons. In addition to her journalistic and political work, Sonali is also an accomplished artist and has won awards for her work and displayed her pieces at many exhibi

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to THE OCEAN AND US editor Farah Obaidullah on the existential crisis of the oceans and why we need to be humble in the face of the sea's power and majestyFarah Obaidullah is an Ocean Advocate, Consultant and the Founder of Women4Oceans. She holds both a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science from Imperial College in London. With 18 years’ experience in ocean advocacy, Farah has travelled the world observing the beauty of the ocean and witnessing some of the most egregious practices happening at sea. She has executed campaigns to end destructive fishing, worked with affected communities, lobbied for ocean protection and been deeply involved in exposing fish crimes, including slavery and labour abuse at sea. Farah is currently campaigning together with hundreds of scientists, civil society groups and businesses for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, a reckless emerging industry that will cause irreversible harm to deep-sea ecosystems, and for which the consequences in t

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to the BLUE BLOOD author and former CEO of Cazenove bank Robert Pickering about the rights and wrongs of contemporary banks and bankersName 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.Robert Pickering joined Cazenove in 1985 and served as its Chief Executive from 2001 until 2008, playing a key role in the firm's development from a private stockbroking partnership into a leading investment bank and wealth manager. Since leaving Cazenove, he has acted as a consultant and board member. Blue Blood i

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to INVISIBLE TRILLIONS author Raymond W. Baker about how financial secrecy is imperiling both Capitalism and Democracy in America today.Raymond W. Baker is a businessman, author, and internationally respected authority on corruption, money laundering, and foreign policy issues. He has conducted business around the world, buying and building companies, consulting on anticorruption strategies, and advising on economic matters at the highest levels of government. These experiences confirm his observation that standard business practices, both legal and illegal, funnel money unseen and unrecorded across borders, heightening inequality and weakening democracy. Baker received a MacArthur Foundation grant to support in-depth research on illicit financial flows as a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution. This research culminated in his first book, Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System, cited by the Financial Times as one of the “best

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to THAT WAS THE WEEK's Keith Teare about the growing optimism in Silicon Valley of a tech rebirth around generative AI. Name 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.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 founder at the Palo Alto incubator, Archimedes Labs. Archimedes was the original incubator for TechCr

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to Homo Ecophagus author Warren M. Hern on how human-beings have become a metastasizing cancer destroying all life and beauty on the planet.Warren M. Hern, MD, is a practicing physician in Boulder, Colorado, where he is also on the anthropology faculty at the University of Colorado. He holds a Master of Public Health degree and a PhD in epidemiology. His clinical and epidemiologic research has been published widely in scientific and medical journals, including BioScience and Population Studies. His public advocacy of reproductive rights has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, CBS’ 60 Minutes, and other prominent venues. He has conducted decades of research in fertility and population trends based in the Peruvian Amazon. His latest book is "Homo Ecophagus: A Deep Diagnosis to Save the Earth" (2022) Name 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 K

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to THE UNHACKABLE INTERNET author Thomas P. Vartanian about rebuilding cyberspace to create real security and prevent financial collapse.Tom Vartanian is a longtime financial regulator who worked in both the Carter and Reagan administrations before a long career in private practice. His book, THE UNHACKABLE INTERNET, is about how everyone knows the internet is dangerous and we are all sitting ducks for a massive attack that upends our lives, yet nobody is doing close to enough to prevent it.Name 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

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to Dr Majid Sadeghpour, the political director of the Organization of Iran American Communities (OIAC) , about contemporary Iran and why, in his view, the current Iranian regime isn't reformable.Dr. Majid Sadeghpour is a human rights activist and the political director for Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC).  After the 1979 revolution in Iran, his family was persecuted and his brother ultimately executed. Sadeghpour escaped Iran and has since been an active opponent of the Islamist government in Iran.  Mr. Sadeghpour has written extensively on Iran and has appeared in both national and international TV programs.  Dr. Sadeghpour is a practicing healthcare professional and lives with his wife and children in Fairfax County, VA.Name 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.

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to the ADDICTIVE IDEOLOGIES co-author Dr Emily Bashah about strategies for liberating ourselves from political movements of hate and violence. Dr. Emily Bashah is an author and licensed psychologist with a private practice in Scottsdale, Arizona. An expert witness in criminal, immigration and civil courts, she has worked on high-profile cases covering issues of domestic terrorism and capital offenses, as well as first-degree murder. Dr. Bashah was awarded the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Policy Fellowship and served within the American Psychological Association’s Public Interest Government Relations Office in Washington, D.C. A frequent expert guest in media, Dr. Bashah clinically specializes in mental illness, personal and collective trauma, addiction and grief and loss, as well as family and relationship dynamics. She is the co-author of ADDICTIVE IDEOLOGIES: Finding Meaning and Agency When Politics Fails You (2022)Name as one of the "100 most co

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to the Budapest based Central European University historian Balazs Trencsenyi about the situation in east-central Europe as well as his role in the establishment of the Invisible University for Ukraine.Balázs Trencsényi is a Professor at the History Department of Central European University. His main field of interest is the history of modern political thought in East Central Europe. Between 2008 and 2013, he was Principal Investigator of the European Research Council project, “Negotiating Modernity”: History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe. Among others, he is the author of the monograph, The Politics of “National Character”: A Study in Interwar East European Thought (Routledge, 2012); co-author of A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe, vols. 1–2 (Oxford University Press, 2016, 2018); as well as co-editor of Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1775–1945), vols. 1–4 (CEU Press, 2006–7, 2014); Europea

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to RIVER SING ME HOME author Eleanor Shearer about her hotly anticipated first novel which has been selected as the Good Morning America pick for February.Eleanor Shearer is a mixed-race writer and the granddaughter of Windrush generation immigrants. She splits her time between London and Ramsgate on the English coast so that she never has to go too long without seeing the sea. For her Master’s degree in Politics at the University of Oxford, Eleanor studied the legacy of slavery and the case for reparations, and her fieldwork in St. Lucia and Barbados helped inspire her first novel, RIVER SING ME HOMEABOUT ANDREW KEEN: Name 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: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW T

In this KEEN ON episode a rather skeptical Andrew talks to WHEN EVERYONE LEADS author Julia Fabris McBride oabout what she claims is a "revolutionary approach" to leadership.JULIA FABRIS MCBRIDE is interim president and CEO as well as chief leadership development officer of the Kansas Leadership Center. She is also a certified coach and co-author of two books, the forthcoming When Everyone Leads (Bard Press, January 2023) and Teaching Leadership: Case-in-Point, Case Teaching, and Coaching. In addition to her interim executive management duties, she oversees teacher and coach development and has created three professional programs for leadership developers, including an International Coach Federation (ICF)-approved Leadership Coach training program, and an Advanced Leadership Development Intensive that has drawn people to Wichita from four continents.ABOUT ANDREW KEEN: Name as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In add

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to Zencastr founder Josh Nielsen about how podcasting platforms can democratize professional media to enable anyone to make a living broadcasting from their homes.ABOUT ANDREW KEEN: Name 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: 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.ABOUT JOSH NIELSEN: Josh Nielsen is the founder of Zencastr, a company that makes it easier to record high-quality audio for podcast interviewees based anywhere in the world. Prior to working at Zencastr, Nielsen worked as software developer at Missouri Star Quilt Co., co-founder at Soundkeep,

In this KEEN ON episode Andrew talks to UNTOUCHABLE author Elie Honig on why powerful men like Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein are able to break the law and get away with it.ABOUT ELIE HONIG: Elie Honig worked as a federal and state prosecutor for 14 years. He prosecuted and tried cases involving violent crime, human trafficking, public corruption, and organized crime, including successful prosecutions of over 100 members and associates of the mafia. Honig now is a CNN Legal Analyst, hosts podcasts and writes for Cafe, is a Rutgers University scholar, and is Special Counsel to the law firm Lowenstein Sandler. His latest book is UNTOUCHABLE: How Powerful People Get Away With It (2023).ABOUT ANDREW KEEN: Name 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

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to THE DIARY KEEPERS author Nina Siegal about the moral murkiness of Dutch complicity in the Nazi persecution of Holland's Jewish communityABOUT NINA SIEGAL: Nina Siegal received her MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and was a Fulbright Scholar. She has written for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, among other publications. She lives in Amsterdam. Her latest book is "The Diary Keepers: World War II in the Netherlands, as Written by the People Who Lived Through It" (2023)ABOUT ANDREW KEEN: Name 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: 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

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to the best-selling master of suspense Dean Koontz about the limits of literary fiction, the value of human agency, the problem with AI and why dogs remain our best friends.ABOUT DEAN KOONTZ: When he was a senior in college, Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and has been writing ever since. His books are published in 38 languages and he has sold over 500 million copies to date.Fourteen of his novels have risen to number one on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list (One Door Away From Heaven, From the Corner of His Eye, Midnight, Cold Fire, The Bad Place, Hideaway, Dragon Tears, Intensity, Sole Survivor, The Husband, Odd Hours, Relentless, What the Night Knows, and 77 Shadow Street), making him one of only a dozen writers ever to have achieved that milestone. Sixteen of his books have risen to the number one position in paperback. His books have also been major bestsellers in countries as diverse as Japan and Sweden.The New York Times has calle

In this Keen On episode, Andrew talks to THE TERRAFORMERS author Annalee Newitz about the nature of things in 60,000 years - a world simultaneously all-too-familiar and unimaginably different from our own.ANNALEE NEWITZ is an American journalist, editor, and author of fiction and nonfiction. They are the recipient of a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship from MIT, and have written for Popular Science, The New Yorker, and the Washington Post. They founded the science fiction website io9 and served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008–2015, and then became Editor-in-Chief at Gizmodo and Tech Culture Editor at Ars Technica. Their book Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction was nominated for the LA Times Book Prize in science. Their first novel, Autonomous, won a Lambda award. Their latest book is THE TERRAFORMERS (2023)Name 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

In this regular KEEN ON Friday episode, Andrew talks to SignalRank CEO Keith Teare about the death of unicorns, the birth of AI, the irrelevance of social media and the other developments in tech for That Was the Week in Tech. ABOUT KEITH TEARE: Keith is the CEO and Founder at SignalRank Corp (https://signalrank.co) - previously Accelerated Digital Ventures, Archimedes Labs, TechCrunch, RealNames, EasyNet.ABOUT ANDREW KEEN: Name 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: 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

In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to WORLD CITIZEN author Jane Olson about Eleanor Roosevelt, Nicaragua and Uganda, Greta Thunberg and why she remains optimistic about young people making the world a better place.ABOUT JANE OLSEN: Jane Olson has worked as a volunteer for many decades to promote peace and justice through international human rights and humanitarian organizations. She chaired the International Board of Trustees of Human Rights Watch from 2004 to 2010 and served as co-chair of the Women’s Refugee Commission. As founding board chair of Landmine Survivors Network/Survivor Corps, she gave leadership to LSN for 12 years. Extensive travels with those and other humanitarian organizations took Jane to Nicaragua and El Salvador during the Contra Wars and to the former Soviet Union beginning with trips to Ukraine in 1989 and 1990, a time of revolution. As the former USSR fell apart and wars broke out, she participated in investigative trips to the former Yugoslavia during “ethnic cleansing” of Bosnia,