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 2117: Celeste Marcus Exposes the Generational Crisis of American Liberalism
Episode 2116: Daniel Porterfield defends the personal and civic value of a college education
Episode 2115: Dmitri Alperovitch on how America can beat China in the Second Cold War
Episode 2114: M. Steven Fish on why Trump's dominance-style politics will win in November (didn't anyone tell the Democrats?)
Episode 2113: Does Silicon Valley have an AI Bubble Problem? Duh....
Episode 2112: The Woman Who Mistook A Stranger For Her Husband
Episode 2111: Tracy O'Neill's Return to South Korea to Discover her Birth Mother
Episode 2110: John Ganz on his German Jewish ghosts of resistance and exile
Episode 2109: Madhumita Murgia on why we are living in the dark shadow of AI
Episode 2108: Shannon Vallor on how to Reclaim our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking
Episode 2107: Matt Beane on How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines
Episode 2106: Julie Satow remembers a time when Women ran Fifth Avenue
Episode 2105: Alexandre Lefebvre explains why Liberalism is a Way of Life