Is Humor The Best Antidote to Tyranny?
Keen On
Andrew talks to the legendary Czech diplomat, writer and human rights activist Michael Zantovksy about how to fight authoritarianism.
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Pivoting to the Killer-app.
Keen On
Andrew talks with writer Larry Downes, the author of five books including this year’s bestselling Pivot To The Future. Best known, however, for his first book, Unleashing The Killer App, which, in 1998, sold 200,000 copies and was one of the first big hits about the internet.
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Facebook’s Moral Crisis
Keen On
The American technology journalist and impresario David Kirkpatrick is probably the world’s leading authority on the history of Facebook. The author of the 2010 best-selling Facebook Effect, over the last few years – become one of the Facebook most articulate critics.
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Ninja Morality: The case for technological innovation
Keen On
Andrew talks to Ninja Future author Gary Shapiro about our moral obligation to unleash technological innovation on society
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Keen On The State of American Democracy
Keen On
Andrew talks to noted Harvard Law School scholar Noah Feldman about the health of American democracy, populism, anti-trust law and what James Madison would think of contemporary America.
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How to Lose a Country With Turkish Author Ece Temelkuran
Keen On
Today Andrew is talking to Turkish born author of How To Lose A Country, Ece Temelkuran. As global citizens we chat about her rejection of the parochial, cul-de-sac of identity politics and shows us how to engage in REAL democratic conversation.
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Why Democracy Is a Conversation
Keen On
Andrew talks to internet guru Jeff Jarvis about how to save democracy through turning it into a civil and civic discussion
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Why Democracy needs Team Human
Keen On
Douglass Rushkoff is one of the world’s leading humanist critics of contemporary capitalism, particularly of the digital economy. In this week’s episode we chat about his latest acclaimed book is TEAM HUMAN.
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How Globalism Is Turning Us All Into Palestinians
Keen On
Andrew talks to Ian Bremmer, author of the bestselling Us Vs Them: The Failure of Globalism about the political crises of inequality and alienation.
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Finally Some Good News: Democracy works in Turkey!
Keen On
Andrew talks to noted Turkish political pundit Soli Ozel about democracy in Turkey. Democracy works, Ozel says. Authoritarianism may even be on the wane.
info_outlineThe theme of this year’s DLD conference was optimism and courage. And so -- if Parag Khanna is indeed right about the future being Asian, should that make us optimistic about the future of democracy?
Yes and no. Certainly his notion of Asia an interdependent system – a reinvented Silk Roads for the digital 21st century, offers much potential for democracy. Trade – a globalized network of economic interaction – lies at the heart of Khanna’s notion of the Asian century. And this represents an essential foundation for a healthy ecosystem of Asian democracies.
Secondly, Khanna is correct to focus on the high level of trust which most Asians regard their government. Democracy is in crisis in the West – particularly the United Kingdom and the United States – because of the historic low levels of trust that the public holds for its elected politicians.
Then there’s the T word. Technocracy – or the rule of experts. Khanna argues that “technocracy isn’t the opposite of democracy.” And, I guess he’s right in some ways. But I’m a little troubled by his embrace of technocracy. He glosses over the undemocratic nature of Asia’s most successful technocratic society – Singapore, with its one party rule and active discrimination against dissenting voices. No, Singapore isn’t China. But nor is it a liberal democracy with a focus on individual rights, privacy and toleration.
And then, of course, there’s China. Khanna very explicitly rejects the conflation of the Asian Century with the Chinese century. And he does remind us that the China won’t be able to expert its deeply undemocratic social credit system to the rest of Asia. But I wonder if Khanna is a little soft on China – particularly in the unambiguous credit that he gives the country’s Communist party government for China’s economic miracle.
There’s quite a lot of optimism in Khanna’s take on China. But much less focus on courage. He seems to suggest that the Chinese people are content with their deal with their government – prosperity and order in exchange for an authoritarian political system. I hope he’s wrong. I still believe in the courage of the Chinese people. And, as I suggested to him, I think that this historic stand-off – between Chinese citizens and their government – will ultimately be the reason why the Future is Asian.
Hope you enjoyed this week’s episode with Parag Khanna, you can find out more about him here:
Find Parag’s Books here:
- The Future Is Asian - ....Now, in the 21st century, the world is being Asianized.
- Connectograpghy - Mapping the Future of Global Civilization.
- Technocracy In America - Rise of the Info-State.
- How To Run The World - Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance
Also Parag’s TedTalks - How Megacities Are Changing The Map Of The World
Please be sure to check out DLD’s up and coming events,
Produced by Jason Sanderson - Podcast Tech