Episode 2310: Why Progressives must become "Yes People" on Technology
In this week’s That Was The Week round up of tech news, Andrew and Keith Teare discuss the need for progressives to become what Keith calls “yes people” on technology. At the moment, he argues, their reactionary “no” on tech is handing MAGA conservatives and their Silicon Valley backers a free pass to win the debate about the future. While Keith and Andrew aren’t always on the same page about the need to regulate Big Tech, they are in complete agreement that progressives - both inside and outside Silicon Valley - need to liberate themselves of their nostalgia for the industrial 20th century and embrace the digital future.
Keith Teare is the founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. Previously, he was executive chairman at Accelerated Digital Ventures Ltd., a U.K.-based global investment company focused on startups at all stages. Teare studied at the University of Kent and is the author of “The Easy Net Book” and “Under Siege.” He writes regularly for TechCrunch and publishes the “That Was The Week” newsletter.
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
Maud Newton: How to Come to Terms With Troubling Ancestors
Isaac Fitzgerald: What's Wrong (And Right) With American Male Writers
Paul Tucker: What Chinese and American Statesmen Need to Do to Lessen Global Discord
Priyanka Kumar: How "Reading" Nature, Especially Birds, Enables Us to Transcend Ourselves
Ben Kesling: The Gut-Wrenching Story of One U.S. Army Unit's Experience in Afghanistan
Samantha Cole: How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex
RJ Andrews: Why the Future of Publishing For One Start-Up Entrepreneur is High-End and Analog Books That Visualize Data
Lenore Andreson: How California is Pioneering the Reform of the American Criminal Justice System
Claudia Lux: Imagining a Kafkaesque Hell in Which There Is Only Jägermeister to Drink and the Devil Is a Corporate Bureaucrat
Henrietta Harrison on the 18th-Century China Question: The Perils of Translating Between Qing China and the British Empire
Greg Melville: How Cemeteries Reveal America's Most Hidden and Often Deadliest History
Paul Sexton: Perhaps the Most Remarkable Thing About Charlie Watts Was Just How Remarkably Ordinary He Was
Colin L. Read on Not the People's Money: Uncovering Bitcoin's Catastrophic Economic and Environmental Cost