Keen On America

2,051 episodes — Page 21 of 42

Keen On America

The Dismal Science investigates that most dismal of things - economic inequality: Branko Milanovic on visions of inequality from the French Revolution to the end of the Cold War

That Sinking Feeling of Falling Out of the Middle Class: Ray Suarez on his fear of being poor in the America of the inegalitarian Twenties

Celebrating a transcendental photography of nature that blurs art and science: Photographer Anand Varma on his lifelong wonder with the natural world

How to stand up to the apocalypse: Peter Sarris on Justinian, the 6th century Byzantine ruler who confounded a narrative of decline

The Fruit of the Gods or of the Devil? Alexander Sammon on the sordid history of the avocado, the thirstiest fruit on the planet

Why Nineteen Eighty-Four wasn't really like Nineteen-Eighty Four: Sandra Newman on Julia, Winston Smith and the totalitarianism of gender that George Orwell ignored in his masculine dystopia

How to Reawaken the American Dream: David Leonhardt on unions, constitutional reform, immigration and the need for a progressive populism

Why Generative AI could make artists extinct: Karla Ortiz warns about the existential "theft" at the heart of the AI revolution

Memoirs of a cranky old New York Gen X'er: Christian Lorentzen on the half-life of a literary critic in our digital age of cultural decay and disinformation

What makes humans so special? John Parrington on how human brains, unlike those of all other species, can turn matter into meaning

What the data tells us about the cancellation of the American mind: Greg Lukianoff on why today's cancel culture is as much of a threat to free speech as the McCarthyite Red Scare of the 1950s

Why an elite establishment economist is calling bullsh*t on the promise of the American dream: Jeff Fuhrer reveals the existential crisis of economic inequality now threatening the United States

Why Poland is still in therapy over its "complex" World War II history: Roger Moorhouse on the forgotten story of a Polish diplomatic rescue operation to save the lives of Polish Jews

How "responsible" was Benjamin Netanyahu for the events of October 7? Israel novelist Noa Yedlin on the worst thing that has happened to the Jewish people since the Holocaust

Broken bodies, broken homes, broken families &amp; broken work: Alissa Quart reveals life on the edge in the world's richest country

How to resurrect the World's Greatest Detective: Sophie Hannah on her latest Agatha Christie sanctioned murder mystery HERCULE POIROT'S SILENT NIGHT

In Defense of Place: Seth Kaplan on how to repair American society, one zip code at a time

Should we celebrate or mourn technological abundance? Keith Teare weighs up the costs and benefits of abundant artificial intelligence

Why Oliver Wendell Holmes' book "Common Law" is most uncommon: Peter Slen on the 1881 legal classic that has profoundly shaped America

What is it about scientists that makes many of them so consensual and collaborative? Lorraine Daston explains how scientists have learned to cooperate with each other

Why the American Dream has turned into a nightmare for many Americans: Andrea Dobynes Wagner on life in the United States as a black woman with an invisible disability

Listening Once Again to Prozac: Peter D. Kramer offers a thirty year history of antidepressants and the remaking of the American self

The Impact of Small Things: Best-selling writer and Hollywood actress Annabelle Gurwitch on her experience of taking in a homeless couple in Los Angeles

Are handheld video games a valuable kind of art or are they a worthless technological curse? Jon Doyle celebrates the glory years of video gaming when handheld devices provided their users with a simultaneously social and intimate experience

Didn't we learn anything from COVID? Joe Nocera on why American capitalism needs to be radically reformed if it is to successfully confront the next pandemic

Burn Baby Burn: M.R. O'Connor on the life-giving force of fire to regenerate nature

Ten Years that Didn't Change the World: Vincent Bevins on the global mass protests of 2010-2020 that failed to change anything

The Canceling of the American Mind: Rikki Schlott on why she believes cancel culture is an existential threat to the free speech of both conservatives and progressives

The American Ant King who transformed our understanding of animal behavior: Richard Rhodes on E.O. Wilson and his scientific life in nature

Being less anxious about today's epidemic of anxiety: David Rosmarin on why anxiety is both normal and healthy and how we can thrive with it

The Big Fail or A Big Success? Bethany McLean on what the Covid pandemic reveals about strengths and weaknesses of American healthcare, innovation and capitalism.

It's a Horrible Situation..... I Wish I Could Sound More Cheerful: Former British Ambassador Alexander Hall Hall on Israel, Gaza and the New Global Disorder

The Care Economy as the Highest Stage of Capitalism: Premilla Nadasen explains why we need to bring care back to what she calls the "care" economy of healthcare and teaching

How to get to a regenerative future before we blow ourselves up: Trond Undheim on averting the end of the world by 2075

An obscure 1722 naval battle off the coast of West Africa which had a monumental impact on the history of America: Angela C. Sutton on the battle of Cape Lopez and the birth of chattel slavery as an American institution

Placing African-Americans at the center of their own story: Dylan Penningroth excavates the hidden histories of Black civil rights in 19th and 20th century America

Why cheap food isn't really cheap: Will Harris on the repellant nature of industrial farming and why the future of food should be local

What makes writing, speaking and computer programming similarly human activities: Michael Littman on why all humans, in our AI age, should learn a little programming

How to Take Liberties with History: Abby Smith Rumsey on what we should remember and what we should forget about the past

How to be Abe Lincoln: Jonathan Shapiro offers seven steps to finding a moral compass and living a worthy life

Why OpenAI could be worth $5 trillion by 2028: Keith Teare explains how OpenAI might already be the most valuable company on the planet

The Man Who Could See Around Corners: Peter Slen on Frederick Douglass and his 1845 autobiography about his life os an American slave

America in the Dillon era: Richard Aldous on Douglas Dillon and mainstream Republicanism in the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations

An American Gun for the age of Sandy Hook and Uvalde: Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson on the history of the AR-15, an assault weapon that captures contemporary America's love affair with technology, freedom and guns

How to transform yourself from a good girl into a bad b***h: Lisa Carmen Wang's bad b***h business bible for taking charge of your body, boundaries and bank account

Why Food Stamps Work: Christopher Bosso's political history - and defense - of SNAP

Saving Bill Clinton's life and other tales from the operating theater: Craig R. Smith on his life as one of America's most celebrated heart surgeons

A New Deal to Save the Earth: John J. Berger outlines the three dimensions to solving the world's climate crisis

The Emotional Life of Populism in Israel: Eva Illouz on Netanyahu, Hamas and what the left has lost by not embracing the fear, disgust, resentment and love that determine democratic politics

The October weekend that changed the Middle East forever: Uri Kaufman compares the Yom Kippur war of October 1973 with the Simchat Torah war of October 2023

Broken bodies, broken homes, broken families & broken work: Alissa Quart reveals life on the edge in the world's richest country

How to transform yourself from a good girl into a bad bh: Lisa Carmen Wang's bad bh business bible for taking charge of your body, boundaries and bank account