Keen On

Should we be defending American democracy if it never really existed? That’s the controversial thesis at the heart of Osita Nwanevu’s new book, The Right of the People. What America needs, the Baltimore-based Nigerian-born Nwanevu argues, is a radical reinvention of its political system. Nwanevu dismantles liberal pieties about traditional American institutions, arguing that the founders deliberately created an anti-democratic republic designed to prevent majority rule. While conservatives celebrate this fact, progressives remain trapped defending a dysfunctional system that structurally disadvantages them. From the anti-majoritarian Electoral College to the archaic Senate's rural bias, America's "democratic" institutions consistently thwart popular will. To realize real 21st century democracy, he argues, requires extending direct democratic power into both the workplace and the economy. When Amazon workers can vote on American foreign policy but have zero say in their company's decisions, something is fundam

In what climate pessimists define as our environmentally apocalyptic times, we’ve become the metaphorical frog in the boiling water. That, at least, is the bleak conclusion of Roy Scranton, the author of Impasse, a new book about climate change and the end of technological progress. For the deeply pessimistic Scranton, the planet is screwed. So the real question is how we can live ethically in these environmentally apocalyptic times. Drawing on his experience as a soldier in Iraq, where he learned to accept death as an everyday spiritual practice, Scranton argues we must abandon fantasies of technological salvation, focusing instead on local community work and the humility of practical good works. This way to the stove, ladies and gentlemen. Our future will be boiling. 1. We're the "Frog in Boiling Water" - Humans adapt so quickly to gradual environmental changes (like rising temperatures) that we normalize catastrophic shifts, making it nearly impossible to recognize existential threats until it's too late.2

How many more times can we report on a week in tech that changed the world? But here we go again…. We just had a week in Silicon Valley where everything, supposedly, changed. At least according to Keith Teare, publisher of the tech That Was the Week weekly newsletter. But last week really really was a special week, Keith insists. It was the week when AI became an actor. When it broke all our traditional software assumptions by becoming an actor, not an app. It was the week AI entered what Keith calls its 'Stone Age' - the moment machines finally got their own tools and began using spreadsheets, databases, and documents without being explicitly told to. If Keith is right, we're about to live in a world where toys talk back to children and cars introduce themselves to their new owners. Yes, AI is in the earliest stages of learning to think for itself. It was, indeed, just another historic week in Silicon Valley.1. AI Has Crossed the Tool-Use ThresholdThis week marked AI's transition from being a tool humans use

Like it or not, Trump and his surreal version of a libertarian patrimonial America is reshaping the world. At least in what the FT’s Janan Ganesh dubs “the high summer of Donald Trump”. But my old friend Jason Pack, host of the excellent Disorder podcast, doesn’t believe that a strategy of short-term chaos is a viable long-term global strategy for America. Pack argues that while Trump may be achieving tactical wins through short-term disruptions—from ending the Iran-Israel conflict to forcing favorable trade negotiations—this approach fundamentally undermines the strategic international coordination needed to address existential challenges like AI regulation, climate change, and systemic economic and military competition with China. Without coherent global governance structures, Pack predicts, we're sleepwalking into a long-term disordered world where private tech giants wield more power than governments themselves. Trump’s high summer of disorder, he warns, could degenerate into an apocalyptic winter of our

Are we Rome yet? It’s become all too easy to compare contemporary America's woes with those of late republican Rome. And even easier to argue that the democracy destroying Donald Trump is the second coming of Julius Caesar. But according to the distinguished American classicist David Potter, author of Master of Rome, we’ve got Julius Caesar all wrong. Don’t trust Cicero’s version of Caesar, Potter warns. Julius Caesar was actually a friend rather than a foe of democracy—he wasn't even 'Caesarian' in the dictatorial sense we've come to associate with his name. Actually Caesar - with his veneration for the Roman state and his attention to detail - has much more in common with FDR than with Donald Trump. Rather than a warning, then, Julius Caesar offers a model for American politicians trying to rebuild democratic institutions and values in our populist age. 1. Caesar was more FDR than TrumpPotter argues Caesar was a competent, detail-oriented administrator who passed major social reforms (land redistribution, v

For five hundred years, scientists as credible as Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Darwin and Freud chipped away at the scientific existence of God. So, by the beginning of the 20th century, Nietzsche was able to announce the death of God. A century later, however, modern science is now resurrecting God. That, at least, is the suggestion of Michel-Yves Bollore, the co-author of Europe’s latest publishing sensation, GOD The Science The Evidence. It’s a post Einsteinian science, Bollore and his co-author Olivier Bonnassies contend, which has enabled this kind of scientific Easter. With endorsements from Nobel Prize winners and over 400,000 copies sold across Europe, their controversial thesis argues that seven independent lines of evidence—from thermodynamics to quantum mechanics—point toward an absolute beginning of the universe, making materialism, in their words, 'an irrational belief' in the 21st century.1. The Historical Reversal For 400+ years (Galileo to Darwin to Freud), scientific discoveries seemed to eli

For all its multiple obituary notices, the American Dream is alive and kicking. That, at least, is the view of Matson Money CEO and founder, Mark Matson, author of Experiencing the American Dream. But you have to work for it, the Scottsdale, Arizona based Matson says, arguing that many Americans have lost agency over their own lives. Growing up in poverty in West Virginia, Matson built an $11.7 billion asset management firm by embracing his father's core principles: nobody owes you anything, provide value to others first, and view hard work as a core virtue. Matson rejects victim mentality and entitlement culture, even of his own kids (two of whom he fired from his company), insisting the dream remains accessible to anyone willing to serve others and create wealth through disciplined effort rather than expecting government or personal handouts. 1. Mindset Over Circumstances Success stems from how you think, not what you're born into. Matson argues that having the right mental framework—rejecting victimhood an

Podcasts are ruining our lives. That, at least, is the thesis of the sometime podcaster, Liel Leibovitz. It’s the insidious charm of chat, Leibovitz believes, that is behind the faux intimacy of popular podcasters like Joe Rogan. Speaking from Tel Aviv, the Tablet magazine editor-at-large argues that what began as a revolutionary medium for deep, unfiltered conversation has devolved into the same shallow journalism that plagues mainstream media. Podcasters, Leibovitz contends, have traded meaningful discourse for chummy celebrity interviews, creating parasocial relationships that feel intimate but deliver little substance. The medium's unique power to reach listeners in their most vulnerable moments—while doing dishes, walking dogs, working out—has been weaponized into artificial friendships that replace genuine human connection with performative conversations designed to maintain access rather than pursue truth. So what should wannabe podcasters and their audiences do? You could, of course, stop listening to

Yesterday, the Canadian writer Diane Francis argued that Donald Trump should consider Xi Jinping’s China a competitor rather than an enemy. Perhaps. But in this zero-sum “competition” between Trump and Xi for top tough guy, there can only be one winner. As Xi Jinping’s father’s biographer, Joseph Torigian explains, Xi had a brutally harsh upbringing. In his new book about Xi’s father, Xi Zhongxun, Torigian explains that it was a childhood descent from privileged son of a communist party aristocrat to utter poverty, political exile and literal homelessness. That’s the kind of tough guy that our self-styled “tough guy” President is competing with in today’s Hobbesian bipolar world of international politics. I’m pretty sure that only one of these tough guys will come out on top. And it won’t be the pampered middle son of a real-estate mogul from Queens.1. Xi Jinping's "Toughness" is Genuine, Not PerformativeUnlike privileged leaders who talk tough, Xi was forged by real hardship - his father was purged five time

Should America go soft on China? According to the Toronto based foreign affairs writer Diane Francis, the United States ought to consider Xi Jinping’s China a competitor, rather than a enemy. In contrast, Francis views Vladimir Putin’s Russia as not just an enemy, but an existential threat to Europe, North America and free world. Putin Won’t Stop, Francis’ latest Substack post argues. Unless, perhaps, he’s locked in a room with the redoubtable Diane Francis.1. Francis Views American "Isolationism" as Reasonable and Justified"Isolationism is reasonable, I think it is. I mean, traipsing all over the world, thinking you're the policeman and you have the answer and you pick the right side all the time and you're gonna squander the wealth and the tax dollars of your population is to me an ego trip to a certain extent." Francis sees Trump's America First approach as a logical response to failed interventions like Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.2. She Distinguishes China as Competitor, Russia as Malevolent Enemy"I s

I’ve always considered my friend Keith Teare a bit weird. Maybe it’s living in Palo Alto amidst the tech plutocracy. But I wonder if the That Was The Week weekly tech news publisher has finally lost his mind. In this week’s conversation, he speculates that OpenAI will soon be worth $10 trillion while its closest competitor Anthropic, will be valued at $5 trillion. Has he finally gone totally bonkers? Or is it really possible that these two still private companies will be collectively worth $15 trillion (more than the GDP of every country except the U.S. and China) in a few years?1. AI Valuations Have Entered Fantasy Territory OpenAI at $10 trillion and Anthropic at $5 trillion would make these two private companies worth more than the GDP of every country except the U.S. and China. Even tech insiders are now seriously discussing valuations that would have been laughed out of the room during the dot-com bubble.2. We've Hit the AI Search Tipping Point Traditional Google search is rapidly being replaced by AI-po

Can Democrats pull a Ronald Reagan? That's the provocative question at the heart of Peter Wehner and Jonathan Rauch's New York Times intriguing piece about how the Democrats can win back the presidency in 2028. Just as the neo-liberal Reagan crushed the cardigan-wearing Carter by promising economic vitality over malaise, Democrats now have a chance to flip the script—if only they can drop their annoying cultural politics and reclaim the mantle of middle-class prosperity. By owning the American Dream, Rauch and Wehner suggest, you also own American politics. Given the Republican abandonment of growth politics, they argue, the seeds of a Democratic revival have already been sown. Now all the party needs is somebody with Reagan’s messaging genius. Mark Cuban, perhaps?1. Democrats Are Abandoning Anti-Trump Strategy for Positive MessagingThe 19 Democrats interviewed for the article were explicitly asked not to mention Trump—a "disciplining exercise" that revealed the party's recognition that pure opposition isn't

How to write about the kaleidoscopic Sixties in the gloom of 2025? According to James Grady, author of the classic Six Days of the Condor and the new mid-century novel American Sky, the key is calibrating nostalgia with unflinching honesty about the past's complexities. "You can't just write about the past and not have a focus also on current times and really the future," Grady explains. The novelist’s approach involves fictionalizing personal experiences while ensuring memories of traumatic events like the JFK or MLK assassinations connect with the painful realities of MAGA America. Rather than romanticizing the Sixties, Grady emphasizes the civil rights violence, the generational divide, and the "silent majority's" anxieties alongside the era's optimism. Grady’s goal isn't to escape into nostalgia but to help readers understand how past dreams and failures shaped our present moment, making history a lens for understanding America’s current challenges.1. Historical Fiction Must Connect Past to Present "You c

Both the American left and right are revolted by elites. But whereas the right has channeled its distaste for the powers-that-be into Trump and MAGA, the left has mostly failed to capitalize on populist hatred of American elites. So what to do? According to the influential Turkish political theorist Soli Ozel, progressives need to reread Christopher Lasch, author of the 1995 classic, The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy. In an essay entitled “Lasching Out,” Ozel observes that Lasch's critique of meritocratic elites who abandoned their sense of social responsibility—what he calls their noblesse oblige—offers a progressive roadmap for understanding why figures like Kamala Harris failed to connect with working-class voters, and how the left might forge a new populist coalition that prioritizes material interests over cultural absolutism.1. Lasch predicted Trump decades before 2016 - Writing between the 1970s & 90s, Christopher Lasch warned that American elites had abandoned their sense of s

Dubbed the Meme Queen of Depression by Mashable, Aiden Arata's real goal on Instagram was to build a big enough following to convince traditional publishers to let her write a book. Thus her new collection of essays, You Have a New Memory, in which Arata reveals the chillingly empty realities about her millennial "Doom" generation's relationship with social media. There really isn't much of an influencer economy, Arata confesses, acknowledging that most social media "stars" are, in fact, grifters. So the only way to monetize one's influencer status is by writing a traditional book which, Arata argues, also offers a refuge from what she calls the "flattened" language of digital media. 1. Arata Became an Influencer to Enable Her Real Dream"I think that I created an internet following to trick people into letting me write a book. I've always wanted to write a book... I've always been a writer."Arata reveals her Instagram success was strategic - a means to literary credibility rather than an end goal.2. Social Me

The troubling thing about William F. Buckley, the media savvy founder of modern American conservatism, isn’t so much his politics, but his likability. How could such an overtly reactionary racist and homophobe (even if he was himself gay), be such a charming fellow beloved by all who knew him? That’s one of the central questions which Sam Tanenhaus addresses in his massive new biography Buckley. Tanenhaus reveals shocking new details about the Buckley family's secret funding of segregationist newspapers and White Citizens Councils—information that even appalled Buckley's own son Christopher. Buckley explores how someone could be genuinely charitable and philanthropic in his personal affairs while promoting such corrosive politics. Tanenhaus argues we live in a moment when it seems "almost impossible to disentangle those personas," yet Buckley embodied both simultaneously. This wasn't just genteel bigotry—it was a foundational contradiction that changed the United States and now helps define the theatrical tox

Yesterday, we focused on the death of the American way of work. But today the news on the AI front isn’t quite as dire. According to the New York based economic historian Dror Poleg, AI will be too busy to take your job. That’s the provocative thesis of Poleg’s upcoming book focused on the radical opportunities in our AI age. He argues that AI's massive energy consumption will actually preserve human employment, as society redirects computing power toward critical tasks rather than simply replacing human labor with algorithms. Unlike Yuval Noah Harari's pessimistic "useless class" prediction, Poleg cheerfully envisions a future where everyone becomes valuable through constant experimentation and human connectivity. He believes we're entering an era where work becomes indistinguishable from leisure, interpersonal skills command premium value, and the economy depends on widespread human creativity and feedback to determine what's truly valuable in an increasingly unpredictable world. That’s the electrifying tru

In 1963, Jessica Mitford published her remarkable account of the American funeral industry, An American Way of Death. Over sixty years later, another distinguished Englishwoman, the workplace futurist Julia Hobsbawm, is announcing the death of the American way of work. Whereas Mitford exposed the predatory practices of funeral directors, Hobsbawn reveals how corporate America has become equally disconnected from reality—clinging to outdated workplace models while other nations innovate. From Thomas Edison's countless inventions to Henry Ford's revolutionary assembly line, Hobsbawm notes, America dominated innovative 20th century work practices. But as countries like the UAE introduce more flexible policies than Silicon Valley, and demographic shifts reshape global labor markets, American corporations are "sleepwalking into disaster” by failing to adapt to both generational changes and to the post-pandemic workplace revolution. 1. America's Century of Workplace Dominance Is Ending"I've always thought that Amer

It’s an old thesis - that capitalism has created a religion out of money. But nobody, not even Marx, has been quite as theologically explicit as Paul Vigna, author of The Almightier: How Money Became God, Greed Became Virtue, and Debt Became Sin. The former Wall Street Journal reporter argues that money literally functions as our modern deity, complete with faith-based belief systems, sacred rituals of accumulation, and moral frameworks that equate wealth with divine favor. Tracing money's origins back 5,500 years to — surprise surprise — Mesopotamian temples, he reveals how what began as a practical accounting tool has evolved into humanity's central organizing principle. Unlike Marx's revolutionary critique of capitalist exchange, Vigna argues in favor of recalibration rather than outright destruction. Imagining money as a useful hammer rather than an almighty god, he questions why we chase dollars instead of human welfare, especially in a digital age when innovative new technologies could provide basic ne

Douglas Rushkoff has spent decades warning how each new digital technological “revolution” has promised liberation but actually only compounds social and economic injustice. Six months after describing AI to me as the "first native app for the internet," the New York City media theorist and author returns with a provocative historical parallel: AI as the next "dumb waiter." Just as Thomas Jefferson's mechanical food elevator appeared automated but relied on hidden slave labor, today's artificial intelligence presents itself as magical automation while depending on vast networks of invisible human workers in developing nations like Kenya and the Philippines. Rushkoff argues that slowing down AI development—not accelerating it—might be our most revolutionary act. And that successfully harnessing AI to our needs and desires might represent our "last chance" to rewrite society.1. AI is the "Dumb Waiter 2.0" - Like Jefferson's mechanical food elevator that appeared automated but depended on hidden slave labor, AI