Radio Live - Podcasts - Keen On America - Jamie Susskind: How the Digital Republic Could Deepen Democracy and Compound Freedom in the 21st Century

Jamie Susskind: How the Digital Republic Could Deepen Democracy and Compound Freedom in the 21st Century

Author: Andrew Keen July 7, 2022 Duration: 37:51

Podcast episode

Keen On America

Society Commentary Culture News

Keen On America is a sharp, fast-moving podcast hosted by author and commentator Andrew Keen. Known for asking impertinent questions, Keen cross-examines some of the world’s most thoughtful voices on politics, economics, history, culture, the environment, and technology. Each episode digs beneath headlines and hype to uncover what is really shaping America today and how those forces connect to global change. Listeners can expect challenging conversations rather than easy talking points, as Keen presses guests to explain not just what is happening, but why it matters and what might come next. Whether you are trying to make sense of polarized politics, rapid technological disruption, or shifting social norms, this show offers a bracing, critical lens. Tune in and listen episodes of Keen On America to hear Andrew Keen interrogate the ideas and assumptions that define contemporary American life.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.

In this episode, Andrew is joined by Jamie Susskind, author of The Digital Republic: On Freedom and Democracy in the 21st Century.

Jamie Susskind is a barrister and the author of the award-winning bestseller Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech (Oxford University Press, 2018), which received the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize 2019, and was an Evening Standard and Prospect Book of the Year. He has fellowships at Harvard and Cambridge and currently lives in London.

More episodes

Scale or Die: Why 2025 really is the Inflection Point That Changes Everything

05.07.2025 Duration: 36:43

You've heard it before and you'll hear it again. AI is a gold rush. It will change everything. But 2025 is different, That Was The Week tech newsletter publisher Keith Teare argues. This is the year that the AI gold rush…

Episode page

249 Years Later: Is America Still Worth the Fireworks?

04.07.2025 Duration: 26:43

On July 4, 2025, is America still worth the fireworks? For Paul Orgel, producer of America 250, C-SPAN's upcoming celebration of 250 years of independence, the answer is a full stars 'n stripes YES! But even this C-SPAN…

Episode page

The Nazi Mind: 12 Warnings from History

03.07.2025 Duration: 52:06

Few people have spent more of their lives thinking about the Nazis than the English filmmaker and writer Laurence Rees. In his new book, The Nazi Mind, Rees offers a lifetime of knowledge about the Nazis to warn about to…

Episode page

Death of the American Dream: Terrence McCauley on why the Mob was behind the JFK Assassination

03.07.2025 Duration: 38:21

If the American dream died in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963, then who killed it? According to the crime novelist Terrence McCauley, the JFK assassination was carried out by organized crime. That’s the heart of his ne…

Episode page

Why Everything is Propaganda: Connor Boyack's Libertarian Manifesto for July 4

02.07.2025 Duration: 53:15

If everything is propaganda (even this show), then we are forever engaged in a war to control other people's minds. That, at least, is the view of the self-described “freedom fighter”, Connor Boyack, the libertarian auth…

Episode page

From the Internet of Trolls to the Internet of Tolls: Has the Publishing Apocalypse Finally Arrived?

29.06.2025 Duration: 34:01

As we transition from the social media age (the internet of trolls) to the AI epoch (the internet of tolls), has the publishing apocalypse finally arrived? That’s the question Keith Teare and I discuss in our That Was th…

Episode page

From Ghana to Goldman Sachs: Rachel Laryea on a Blueprint for Black Capitalism

28.06.2025 Duration: 44:03

Yesterday’s show was on the Great White Hoax of manufactured racism in America. Today’s is on Black Capitalists, the title of a provocative new book by Rachel Layrea. But is this a great black hoax? Or might her focus on…

Episode page

The Great White Hoax: Two Centuries of Manufactured Racism in America

27.06.2025 Duration: 45:57

There’s something fishy about what Philip Kadish calls The Great White Hoax. It’s his new book about America's long con - how racist scientific hoaxes have shaped two centuries of racist politics. From the 1840 Census Sc…

Episode page

The Real Monkey Business: What the 1925 Scopes Trial was actually all about

26.06.2025 Duration: 43:53

Next month, America will celebrate the centenary of the Scopes Trial, the so-called 1925 “Monkey Trial” on evolution that riveted a nation. Although perhaps celebrate is the wrong word to describe the Tennessee trial tha…

Episode page

The Michael Douglas Trap: What Is Wrong with Men

25.06.2025 Duration: 41:00

Don’t blame women. Men are failing spectacularly and it’s totally their own fault. In What Is Wrong with Men, cultural critic Jessica Crispin borrows from Michael Douglas movies to dissect how masculinity devolved from S…

Episode page

The $200 billion dilemma: Is Bill Gates helping or harming Africa?

24.06.2025 Duration: 46:17

So I get why Jeff Bezos isn’t popular in Venice this week. But why would Africans in general, and Kenyans in particular, not love Bill Gates after the philanthropist pledged to give away $200 billion of his fortune to Af…

Episode page

The Architecture of Terror: Rafia Zakaria on Trump, Miller, Israel, Iran and Gaza

23.06.2025 Duration: 43:59

Are Donald Trump and Steven Miller terrorists? Pakistani-American lawyer and author Rafia Zakaria argues that their willfully cruel immigration policies reflect what she describes as an "architecture of terror." In her J…

Episode page

Why Elections Aren't Always Democratic: Challenging American Political Science's Founding Myth

23.06.2025 Duration: 48:27

In today’s age of authoritarian plutocracy, the UCLA political theorist Natasha Piano argues that we need to rethink the supposed “elitist” school of Italian thinkers like Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca. In her intrig…

Episode page

The Virtuous Side Of Silicon Valley: How Jimmy Chen is Building Tech to Help the Poorest America

22.06.2025 Duration: 51:57

Yes, there still are some well meaning folks in Silicon Valley. Take, for example, Jimmy Chen, founder and CEO of Propel, an app designed to simplify food assistance for 41 million of the poorest Americans. Growing up fo…

Episode page

The Tragic Paradox of Survival in Auschwitz: The Mystery of Primo Levi

21.06.2025 Duration: 30:53

Can we ever really know Primo Levi? We know his books, of course, especially If This Is A Man, the astonishing account of his survival from Auschwitz. But what, then, of his apparent suicide in 1987? How can a man who mi…

Episode page