Episode 2097: Keen On America featuring Francis S. Barry
As America braces itself for the upcoming Presidential election, a growing army of coastal commentators are agonizing over the health of the country’s democracy. In contrast with many of these desk bound pundits, the Bloomberg editorial director Frank Barry bought an RV and drove from New York City to San Francisco on the backroads of old Lincoln Highway. His new book, Back Roads and Better Angels, is an account of this journey into the heart of American democracy and, as Barry told me when I visited him at the Bloomberg offices in New York City, this trip has made him cautiously optimistic about the health of American democracy.
Frank Barry is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and member of the editorial board covering national affairs. He is the author of Back Roads and Better Angels: A Journey Into the Heart of American Democracy.
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.
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
Episode 2163: David Masciotra on Kamala and America's "Harrisist" Moment
Episode 2162: Bethanne Patrick on the Hypocrite, Hitler's People and Hum
Episode 2061: Mimi Casteel explains the how to fix America, one sip of wine at a time
Episode 2160: Steve Benen on how the Republicans have become the Orwellian Party of Big Brother
Episode 2159: Richard J. Evans on how leading Nazis were, in some ways, just ordinary middle class Germans
Episode 2158: Robin Bernstein on the Marriage of American Capitalism with the American Prison System
Episode 2157: Lindsey Cormack on How to Raise a Citizen
Episode 2156: James Muldoon exposes the hidden human labor powering the AI revolution
Episode 2155: David Daley Gets Inside the Far Right's 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections
Episode 2154: Shad White on Brett Favre's Mississippi Swindle
Episode 2153: Lola Milholland on Group Living and Other Deliciously Polyamorous Recipes
Episode 2152: Peter Wehner on the Fate of "His" Republican Party
Episode 2151: Edmund Fawcett compares the Futures of Liberalism and Conservatism