Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.

Andrew talks to Abbott Kahler, author of Where You End, about writing unnerving literature for unnerving times.

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Abbott 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’s ever encountered. Her debut novel, Where You End, is inspired by a true story of identical twins and amnesia, and will be out next January. USA Today once named her “a pioneer of sizzle history.” Abbott’s books have featured as Indie Next picks, Amazon’s best books of the year, Library Journal’s best books of the year, and Smithsonian Magazine’s best history books of the year. She has also been a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime, the Goodreads book award for history, and the Ohioana Book Awards, the second oldest state literary prize in the country. She has written for newyorker.com, New York Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, and other publications, and has appeared on the History Channel, CBS Sunday Morning, AMC’s “Making of the Mob,” the Discovery Channel, and other media outlets. Her books have been optioned for television and film, and her podcast about George Remus, REMUS: THE MAD BOOTLEG KING, is forthcoming from iHeartRadio. bAbbott is a native of Philadelphia, where she spent six years as a journalist, covering crime, advocating for abused women, and hanging out with mafia bosses and baseball wives. She lives in New York City and in Greenport, New York, where she’s convinced her little bungalow is haunted. She appreciates a good poker hand, an old bottle of wine, and the never-ending hunt for new stories to tell.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.

Andrew talks to Max Marshall, author of Among the Bros, about a Fraternity crime story that reveals the rigged system of money and power in 21st century America.

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Max Marshall is a writer and journalist. Raised in Texas, he attended Columbia University, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 2016. He served as a Princeton in Asia Media Fellow in Hanoi, Vietnam, and his work has appeared in GQ, Texas Monthly, Sports Illustrated, and the New York Times. He lives in Austin.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.

Andrew talks to Georges Ugeux, author of Wall Street’s Assault on Democracy, about how today’s financial markets exacerbate inequalities, increase government debt and foment authoritarianism

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Georges Ugeux is the founder of Galileo Global Advisors, which offers CEOs, boards of directors and governments independent advice on international business development, mergers and acquisitions, and capital raising. The firm specializes in cross-border transactions to and from emerging markets. Prior to founding Galileo, Ugeux was group executive vice president of International & Research at the New York Stock Exchange, where he built and managed the exchange’s international group. Ugeux, a dual American and Belgian national, began his career at Société Générale de Banque, the leading Belgian bank, where he became general manager of the investment banking and trust division. He was the managing director of Morgan Stanley’s mergers and acquisitions department in London, as well as the group finance director at Société Générale de Belgique, the leading Belgian diversified industrial and financial conglomerate. In addition, Ugeux was the president and managing director of Kidder, Peabody Europe while serving as a member of the management committee and the board of directors of Kidder, Peabody, Inc. He was in charge of the firm’s global origination efforts, and was also a member of the European Corporate Executive Council of General Electric Inc. He served as a special advisor of the Program on International Financial Systems of Harvard Law School. He is a U.S. FINRA registered representative with Series 24 and Series 62 licenses. Ugeux is honorary chairman of the Belgian American Chamber of Commerce and of the Catholic University of Louvain Foundation. He is a director of Amoeba Capital, British American Business, Inc., and the French-American Chamber of Commerce. Ugeux sits on the international advisory board of the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School and Oxford Analytica. He is officer of the Order of Leopold. He is regularly called to speak or comment on international financial matters and recently published a book The Betrayal of Finance: Twelve Reforms to Restore Confidence, Odile Jacob, 2011. Ugeux holds a doctorate in law and is licentiate in economics from the Catholic University of Louvain. He has lectured there and at the College of Europe in Bruges.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.

Andrew talks to David Keen, co-author of Wreckonomics, about why we find ourselves locked into so many failed and counterproductive economic, environmental, and political policies.

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David Keen is a professor of conflict studies at the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has researched civil wars, global wars and disasters. He is the author of The Benefits of Famine (1994) and Useful Enemies (2012), among other books, and winner of the Edgar Graham prize.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.

Andrew talks to Judith Tick, author of Becoming Ella Fitzgerald, on the jazz singer who transformed both American song and culture.

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Judith Tick is professor emerita of music history at Northeastern University. She has published award-winning books and articles about American music and women’s history in music, including Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer’s Search for American Music. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.

Andrew talks to Hannah Gold, author of “Your Mind’s in the Hands of Everything: Letting Go of Philip Roth,” about Roth’s mind, his hands, and his followers.

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Hannah Gold lives in New York City. Her work has been published by The Drift, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and The Nation. Her feature, “Your Mind’s in the Hands of Everything: Letting go of Philip Roth”, appeared in the December 2023 issue of Harper’s Magazine

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.

Andrew talks to Ben Lerner, the Poetry Editor of Harper’s Magazine, about the dangers of falling in love once again with the supposed democratizing power of digital technology.

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Ben Lerner is the poetry editor of Harper’s Magazine, and author of Harper’s December cover story: “The Hofmann Wobble: Wikipedia and the problem of historical memory,” His latest book is The Lights.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.

Andrew talks to Bulent Atalay, author of Beyond Genius, about how Shakespeare, Da Vinci, Newton, Beethoven, and Einstein all shared the same kind of transgressive minds.

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Bulent Atalay is a scientist, artist and author. After his participation in a scientifically incongruous archaeological expedition to Mt. Ararat in Eastern Turkey — one in which the late astronaut James Irwin was also a member — the Washington Post carried the story, “Indiana Atalay and the Search for the Ark.” With roots in Turkey and England, Atalay now resides in the United States. His grandfather was a Turkish military officer who survived the Battle of Gallipoli in WWI, only to die while fighting against Lawrence of Arabia in 1916. His father was a military officer and diplomat who served as diplomatic courier to European capitals during WWII, and subsequently held successive assignments as military attaché to London, Paris, and Washington. Read “A Tribute to Kemal Atalay.” He received his early schooling at Eton in England and St. Andrew’s School in Middletown, Delaware, the institution which served as the site of the 1989 Robin Williams film, Dead Poets Society. He went into physics by accident when a secretary in the admissions office at Georgetown University read his intended career as “physicist” instead of “physician,” and he stayed in physics when he found he had latent interest in the field. His advanced education includes BS, MS, MA, PhD and postdoctoral studies, completed at Georgetown, Princeton, University of California-Berkeley, and Oxford University. A professor of physics in Virginia now, he has previously been a member of the Department of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford, as well as the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where Einstein spent the last twenty-five years of his life. An accomplished artist, Atalay has presented his works in one-man exhibitions in London and Washington, and his two books of lithographs — Lands of Washington and Oxford and the English Countryside — can be found in the permanent collections of Buckingham Palace, the Smithsonian, and the White House. Ten years after its release by Smithsonian Books in April 2004, his best selling book, Math and the Mona Lisa, has had numerous printings in English, and appeared in thirteen languages. His last book, Leonardo’s Universe, coauthored with former student Keith Wamsley, was released by National Geographic Books in 2009, and declared “… one of ten must-have books for the year,” by the Britannica Blog writer. It has appeared in English and Japanese. In April, 2019, the National Geographic Society released the book as a “bookazine,” abridged to 25,000 words with the title Leonardo da Vinci: Celebrating the Renaissance Man.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.

Andrew talks to Kliph Nesteroff, author of Outrageous, about the history of American showbiz and its perennial culture wars.

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Kliph Nesteroff was born and raised in a pacifist community in rural British Columbia. After being permanently expelled from high school for the content of a speech he delivered during a campaign for school president, he moved to Toronto and started performing stand-up comedy. Influenced by the Beat Generation, punk rock music, and his anti-war upbringing, Nesteroff primarily performed in underground bars, punk rock clubs, and alternative comedy venues. He quickly developed a cult following for the combative, insult-comic character Shecky Grey, which landed him on the cover of several Canadian free weeklies. After eight years of stand-up, Nesteroff became an advocate for the homeless, the mentally ill, and the drug addicted, accepting a position in an experimental clinic that nursed addicts with life threatening infections back to health. While working night shifts at the clinic, Nesteroff spent much of his time writing about stand-up comics from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, focusing on the mafia-run nightclubs that used to employ comedians. The articles were frequently published by the web-magazine of free form radio station WFMU. In 2011, Marc Maron began talking about Nesteroff’s articles on several episodes of his WTF podcast, eventually extending an invitation to Nesteroff to appear on his program. After a 2012 appearance on WTF with Marc Maron, Nesteroff got a book deal with Grove Press to write the definitive history of 20th Century American stand-up. Released in 2015, The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy became a best-selling book and led to a television career. Nesteroff is a frequent talking head on countless programs and documentary films about comedy.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.

Andrew talks to William B. Eimicke, author of Leveling the Learning Curve, about to how to create a more inclusive and connected university.

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William B. Eimicke is co-author of Leveling the Learning Curve: Creating a More Inclusive and Connected University by William B. Eimicke, Soulaymane Kachani, and Adam Stepan (Columbia University Press, 2023). He is professor of practice and founding director of the Picker Center for Executive Education at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and has led major online learning projects at Columbia and with partner institutions around the world. His books include Social Value Investing (with Howard W. Buffett, 2018) and Management Fundamentals (with Steven Cohen, 2020), both published by Columbia University Press.