Mediocre Monk: Grant Lindsley on what he learnt in his stumbling search for wisdom in a Thai forest monastery
EPISODE 1431: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Grand Lindsley, author of MEDIOCRE MONK, about Theravada Buddhism, ultimate frisbee, and what wisdom he brought back from his solitary quest for wisdom in a Thai monastery
Grant Lindsley is a writer in Brooklyn, New York. He encountered his first Buddhist monk as an undergraduate at Carleton College, where he majored in psychology and minored in neuroscience, because he was majorly interested in himself and minorly interested in himself on drugs. He subsequently spent months training as a monk with the Thai Forest Tradition, a sect of Theravada Buddhism that seeks to follow the exact rules of the historical Buddha from over 2,500 years ago. Lindsley has worked at NOLS and briefly worked at Google until publishing his resignation letter in The Washington Post. An accomplished Ultimate Frisbee player, he has won multiple national championships and two gold medals for Team USA at the World Games. He received his master of fine arts in creative nonfiction from Pacific University and his master of business administration from Cornell Tech. He enjoys pranks and being outside with his family.
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.
Episode 2237: Bethanne Patrick on new Fall Fiction to take your mind off you-know-what
Episode 2236: Stephen Riggio on the greatest Italian novel you've never heard of
Episode 2235: Peter Osnos on LBJ & McNamara - the Vietnam Partnership Bound to Fail
Episode 2234: Terrence Sejnowski asks whether our brains and AI are converging
Episode 2233: More than a Tool: How AI is becoming an independent actor in our world
Episode 2232: Mark Galeotti on whether Putin is a prisoner or a master of history
Episode 2231: Bill Adair on the Epidemic of Political Lying, why Republicans do it more, and how it could destroy American democracy
Episode 2230: Seth Godin on why we are all hard-wired for hope
Episode 2229: Robert Skidelsky worries about the Human Condition in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Episode 2228: Bethanne Patrick on Al Pacino, the Queen, Bob Woodward and Ketanji Brown Jackson
Episode 2227: Allie Funk on how to Build Online Trust
Episode 2226: Why the Economics of our AI Age might be unlike all previous Tech Revolutions
Episode 2225: Katherine Epstein on how American Historians are Killing History