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.
Keen On America 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
Episode 2192: Mark Weinstein on how to restore our sanity online
Episode 2191: Why the future has to be built by innovators, rather than just hoped for by optimists
Episode 2190: Gary Marcus on How to Tame Silicon Valley's AI Barons
Episode 2189: Wilbur Ross on his mom, Donald Trump, King Charles, and Biden's "Lollipop Economy"
Episode 2188: Build Baby Build - Jerusalem Demsas on how America can fix its housing crisis
Episode 2187: Josh Cowen on how radical right-wing billionaires are wrecking the American public school system
Episode 2186: Branko Milanovic on the history of inequality in America from slavery to neo-liberalism
Episode 2185: Rafil Kroll-Zaidi reveals his lucrative life on the streets of New York City as a citizen-sleuth
Episode 2184: Should Elon Musk be arrested for all the lies and hate on X?
Episode 2183: Mimi Casteel on her life-long love affair with the American land
Episode 2182: Andrew Leigh on how economics explains the world
Episode 2181: Piotr Smolar on his Bad Jew Grandaddy
Episode 2180: Giles Milton on the WW2 Alliance between the US, Soviet Union & Britain which Won the War but Lost the Peace