Episode 2069: KEEN ON America featuring Bobi Conn
Bobi Conn’s life is an American story. Growing up in a desolate Kentucky holler, her father a drug addicted outlaw who abused her mother, Conn has reinvented herself as a successful writer and mother. But for all Conn’s unflinching honesty about her brutal upbringing, she remains proudly America - both in her love of the Kentucky land and her unwillingness to demonize rural America. Her American spirit, inherited from generations of poor folk scratching out a living on the land, is a defiant optimism and offers hope that America can once again reinvent itself in the 21st century.
Bobi Conn was born in Morehead, Kentucky, and raised in a nearby holler, where she developed a deep connection with the land and her Appalachian roots. She obtained her bachelor’s degree at Berea College, the first school in the American South to integrate racially and to teach men and women in the same classrooms. After struggling as a single mother, she worked multiple part-time jobs at once to support her son and to attend graduate school, where she earned a master’s degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing. In addition to writing, Bobi loves playing pool, cooking, being in the woods, attempting to grow a garden, and spending time with her incredible children.
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
Richard Reeves Identifies Today's Crisis of Masculinity and Explains How to Fix It
Geoffrey L. Cohen: Is There Really a "Science" of Belonging Which Enables Us to Create Connection and Bridge Divides?
Brian Michael Jenkins: Plagues and Their Aftermath: Why Recovering From Covid Is Really "Up to Us"
Thomas Orlik: Why the Chinese Economic "Bubble" Might Never Pop
Jamie Weiner: How Much Sympathy Should We Have for the Children of Privilege Who Have Lost Their Way in Life?
Lilia Moritz Schwarcz: How the Upcoming Brazilian Presidential Election is a Referendum on Racism, Misogyny, and Military Rule
Michael Fabey: How American Shipyard Workers Might Offer Us Lessons on How to Re
Liza Lin: Why China's "New Kind" of Modern Surveillance Government Might Not Be Quite as Chilling as it Appears
Alex Jahangir: Covid Isn't Over and Won't Be Until We Fix Some of America's Fundamental Social and Cultural Problems
John Sides on the Bitter End: The 2020 Election and the Future of American Democracy
John U. Bacon on Winning Fairly: Lessons About Successful Leadership From a Real-Life Ted Lasso
Caryn Franklin & Keon West: How to Recognize and Undermine Sexism, Racism, and Other Corrosive Media Biases
Rina Raphael on the Wellness Scam: Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the Cult of Self-Care