Keen on America: Andrew Reflects on 2025 & 2026
Happy New Year everyone! As the final show of 2025 and first for 2026, we turned the tables and had me interviewed by the formidable David Masciotra. As you will see, my reading of 2025 is more optimistic than many of my guests. And my sense about 2026 is that it will be a happier year for America than 2025 (which isn’t saying much). As I explain to David, I suspect the zeitgeist is shifting back to a cautious optimism about the American future. Despite all the doom-mongering, 2025 was actually an exciting year for movies, books, and music — the artistic world being at least as vibrant and diverse as it was twenty years ago. That said, I warn about the medieval wealth gap between rich and poor, Trump’s pride in willful cruelty to immigrants, and the increasingly chasmic divide between young and older Americans.
This is all speculative, of course. But what I can promise is that this show will remain a daily broadcast featuring America’s leading commentators. So stay tuned. I can guarantee that 2026 will be an exciting year for all KEEN ON AMERICA viewers, listeners and readers.
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Episode 2522: Edmund Fawcett on Trump as a Third Way between Liberalism and Conservatism
Episode 2521: Michael Stein on the Real Lives of the American Working Class
Episode 2520: Larry Aldrich on what's Right with America
Episode 2519: Is Criticism of Israel, by definition, Anti-Semitic?
Episode 2518: 100 Days or 100 Years?
Episode 2517: Soli Ozel on the Light at the End of the Authoritarian Tunnel
Episode 2516: Jason Pack on the Trumpian Post-Apocalypse
Episode 2515: David A. Graham on how Project 2025 is Reshaping America
Episode 2514: How to turn America into a Waymo Democracy
Episode 2513: Adam Hochschild on how American History is Repeating itself, first as Tragedy, then as Trump
Episode 2512: Adam Becker on AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
Episode 2511: Jemima Kelly on why she hasn't quite given up on America