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
Why Even Sam Altman Wants to be Gary Marcus: From Son of Sam to Son of Gary in a single ChatGPT Release
Dr Strangelove Returns: Palantir and the New Military-Industrial-Digital Complex
MAGA Voters Aren't Stupid: That's Why They Don't Care What Right-Wing Podcasters Think
Getting Queerer Quicker: No, The Literary Man Isn't Disappearing—He's Just Not Longer White or Straight
Who Owns The Front Door? The Multi-Trillion Dollar Battle to Assemble the AI Jigsaw
From Mean Streets to Wall Street: How Trump, Koch, and the other Gods of New York Remade America
Move Fast and Fix the World: Here Comes the Sun in the Nick of Time
The Redistricting Apocalypse: How Chief Justice Roberts Let All the Evil Spirits out of American Democracy
Back to the Digital Future: Why the Future of AI Healthcare Might be a Return to the Gig Economy
From Scrubbing Toilets to Talking around the Water Cooler: Why AI Won't Kill the Jobs of Those Who Clean Up Our Mess
Nostalgia vs. Progress: The Left's Dilemma in Post-Industrial America
When AI Breaks Your Heart: The Week Nothing Changed in Silicon Valley
From Brazilian Model to Nuclear Advocate: How one Woman's Radical Climate Anxiety is Generating a "Rad Future"