Episode 2068: Jacob Kushner on the National Socialist Underground's plot to kill German immigrants
Is it time to start worrying about the Germans again? Perhaps, at least according to Jacob Kushner, the author of LOOK AWAY: A True Story of Murders, Bombings, and a Far-Right Campaign to Rid Germany of Immigrants, a book about an eleven year terror campaign by the National Socialist Underground (NSU). Kushner is ambivalent about the broad appeal in Germany of the NSU’s murderous violence against immgrants, but he does suggest that this recent chapter in German history suggests that the country isn’t quite the peaceful haven of toleration that some previous KEEN ON guests, like Peter Gumbel, believe it to be.
Jacob Kushner is an international correspondent who writes magazine and other longform stories from Africa, Germany, and the Caribbean. He reports on migration and human rights, foreign aid and investment, terrorism and violent extremism, science and global health, climate change and wildlife, and press freedom. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Economist, National Geographic, The Nation, VQR, The Atavist, WIRED, Foreign Policy, and VICE. He has photographed for National Geographic and field-produced for VICE on HBO, and PBS NewsHour. He is the author of China’s Congo Plan, which was favorably reviewed in The New York Review of Books.His new book, Look Away: A True Story of Murders, Bombings, and a Far-Right Campaign to Rid Germany of Immigrants, is published in May 2024. He teaches International Reporting and Migration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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.
Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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
Alexander Rose on The Lion and the Fox: Two Rival Spies and the Secret Plot to Build a Confederate Army
David Fenton on Lessons From Fifty Years as a Progressive Agitator: Never Lie, Tell the Truth, Repeat Repeat Repeat
Ian Kershaw: The Eleven Men (and One Woman) Who Authored 20th-Century Europe
Richard McCarthy: What Japan Can Teach Urban Americans About Regenerating Rural Values and Practices
Steve Kemper: Could Pearl Harbor Have Been Avoided With More Skillful American Diplomacy?
Eduardo Halfon: Why "Writing" Has Nothing to Do With Being a "Writer"
Katherine Corcoran: How the 2012 Murder of a Mexican Journalist Should Be a Warning About Press Freedoms in America
Andrew Hill on the Sign of Our Financial Times: How 2022's Best Business Books Address the Challenges of Contemporary Global Capitalism
Shannon O'Neil on The Globalization Myth: Why Most Economics Is Regional
Travis Baldree: Want to Self-Publish Successfully? Write Fast, Leverage All Your Social Media Networks, and Prioritize Memorable Cover Art
John Mulholland on Inside High Noon: Why the Classic 1952 Movie Is As Relevant in America Today As It Was 70 Years Ago
Ellis Cose on Reckoning on Race: Why Can't America Escape Its Racist Past?
Adam Mendelsohn on What Was It Like to Be a Jew in Lincoln's Armies: Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War