Keen On America

“That’s my story, but not where it ends.” — Bob Dylan, “Key West (Philosopher Pirate)”

Fitzgerald said there were no second acts in the American story. But it is, of course, a narrative of second chances. And there’s no more of an American story than Bob Dylan, whose second act may be more memorable than his first.
Robert Polito — poet, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning biographer, and former director of creative writing at the New School — has written what may be the (anti) definitive book on Dylan’s second act. After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan’s Memory Palace covers the years from “Time Out of Mind” in 1997 through “Rough and Rowdy Ways” in 2020. It’s structured as an abecedarium — twenty-six chapters, A to Z — because Polito explains, he wanted a form that acknowledged the limits of what anyone can know about Dylan. There is no rosebud sled buried in the Tulsa archive. So an alphabet book as good as we are gonna get.
Digging into Dylan’s Tulsa archive, Polito found much blood on the tracks — multiple drafts for every work, songs ripped up and redistributed line by line. The freewheeling spontaneity of Dylan’s first act, Polito suggests, was replaced by something more deliberate: an American folk process merging into literary modernism. A hostage to his own memory palace, Dylan weaves Civil War poetry, Ovid’s exile poems, Homer, and nineteenth-century speeches into songs that know more than any single listener can interpret.
Polito argues that “Rough and Rowdy Ways” is Bob Dylan’s real Nobel Prize speech — his self-reflection on his own art, delivered in his own forms and idioms. This pinnacle of Dylan’s second act is his story, but not where it ends.
 
Five Takeaways

•       Rough and Rowdy Ways Is Dylan’s Real Nobel Prize Speech: The 2020 album is Dylan’s self-reflection on his own art, delivered in his own forms and idioms. Every song addresses his craft, his legacy, his audience. I Contain Multitudes, Key West, Murder Most Foul, My Own Version of You — each one a chapter in the speech the Nobel committee was waiting for. That’s when Polito knew he could write the book.
•       Dylan Works Harder Than Anyone Would Expect: The Tulsa archive reveals multiple drafts of songs that change radically from version to version. For Time Out of Mind, Dylan completed three or four songs, then ripped them up and redistributed the lines across different tracks. The spontaneity of the first act gave way to something more deliberate — folk process merging into literary modernism. Eliot, Joyce, Gertrude Stein.
•       The Memory Palace Is Real: Dylan embeds Civil War poetry, Ovid’s exile poems, Homer, nineteenth-century speeches, and movies into his late songs. The classical mnemonic device — depositing memories in specific rooms — became Polito’s image for how much those songs know. There is no rosebud sled buried in the Tulsa archive. The memory palace is the art itself.
•       That’s My Story, But Not Where It Ends: The last line of Key West — probably Polito’s favourite song on Rough and Rowdy Ways. If the song had ended with “that’s my story,” there would have been a definitiveness about it. Instead, Dylan subverts the line in the very next breath. Tentativeness and self-skepticism, all the way through.
•       The Police Didn’t Believe He Was Bob Dylan: Wandering around New Jersey in the rain, looking for where Springsteen grew up. The police pick him up. What’s your name? Bob Dylan. What’s your real name? Robert Zimmerman. Where do you live? That’s a good question. The more precisely he told the truth, the more they assumed he was lying. Knowing innocence.
 
About the Guest

Robert Polito is a poet, critic, and biographer. His biography of Jim Thompson, Savage Art, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is a former director of creative writing at the New School. After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan’s Memory Palace is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
References:

•       After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan’s Memory Palace by Robert Polito (FSG) — the book under discussion.
•       Episode 2849: How Stories Can Save Us — Colum McCann on Narrative Four. McCann’s “that’s his story, but not where it ends” is also Dylan’s line.
About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.
Website

Substack

YouTube

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

 
Chapters:

(00:00) -

(00:31) - Introduction: Fitzgerald, second acts, and A Complete Unknown

(02:57) - Team Dylan? No — tentativeness and self-skepticism

(04:00) - The abecedarium: twenty-six chapters, A to Z, no rosebud sled

(06:13) - Dylan the movie guy: always watching films on the tour bus

(07:13) - The memory palace: how much those late songs know

(09:26) - The interlude: the Grammy lifetime achievement speech and starting over

(12:11) - Time Out of Mind and the Tulsa archive: how hard Dylan works

(15:55) - Folk process meets literary modernism: Eliot, Joyce, Stein

(18:34) - Lanois, the spoken vs. written word, and why albums are just a stage

(21:41) - Rough and Rowdy Ways as Dylan’s real Nobel Prize speech

(24:19) - Key West: that’s my story, but not where it ends

(26:04) - The sacrificial quality: he was given something and shouldn’t squander it

(30:24) - Race, the civil war, and Love and Theft as minstrel acknowledgment

(34:32) - Murder Most Foul: take me back to Tulsa, to the scene of the crime

(40:56) - Picked up by police in New Jersey looking for Springsteen’s house

“When Haiti plays Brazil, Haitians will feel equal. Football gives even the weakest and the poorest a fighting chance. That is profound.” — Dimitry Elias Léger

Yesterday, Simon Kuper defined the World Cup as a religious feast for all of humanity. Today, Dimitry Elias Léger asks whether God is watching. His new novel, Death of the Soccer God, is a fictional reimagining of the most famous goal in American World Cup history — scored in 1950 by a non-American. Joe Gaëtjens was a half-German, half-Haitian teenager sent to New York to study, not to play football. He picked up the game in Central Park, somehow (as a non-American) made it onto the US team at the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, and scored the goal that famously beat England one–nil in Belo Horizonte. England was so heavily favoured that the football-mad BBC didn’t even send a reporter.
Léger — a Haitian-born writer and (for his sins) an Arsenal fan — spent three weeks in Brazil researching the novel, two of them in Belo Horizonte. The philosophical question at the core of the book asks if God loves Haiti. Does God, Léger wonders, have a particular affection for the poorest people on earth?
And now, for the first time in decades, Haiti have qualified for the World Cup. In the United States of all places. They’re in the toughest group — with Morocco and, yes, Brazil. For ninety minutes, Haiti will be the Seleção’s equal. The democratic spectacle of football, Léger says, gives even the weakest and the poorest a fighting chance. God might even be watching.
 
Five Takeaways

•       The Most Famous Goal in American World Cup History Was Scored by a Haitian: Belo Horizonte, 1950. The US beat England one–nil. The scorer was Joe Gaëtjens — a half-German, half-Haitian teenager sent to New York to study, not to play football. He picked up the game in Central Park. He couldn’t tell his parents he was playing for America in the World Cup. The BBC didn’t even send a reporter. England was so heavily favoured it wasn’t supposed to matter.
•       Football Is the Only Arena Where Foot-Eye Coordination Is the Dominant Skill: We use our hands for everything. Football inverts it. That’s why it seems miraculous when Pelé or Maradona or Messi does what they do. The feet are not supposed to be that graceful. It’s more art than science, more jazz than chess.
•       Pelé Looks Like a Typical Haitian Kid: The first televised World Cup final was 1958 in Stockholm. Pelé was sixteen and scored a hat-trick. He looked like a majority of the planet’s population. That helped football explode globally. He introduced the bicycle kick, the samba flair. Brazil won three World Cups in twelve years.
•       Papa Doc Disappeared Him: In real life, Gaëtjens returned to Haiti after his glory years, ran afoul of the dictator François Duvalier, and was disappeared — never seen again. In the novel, the hero confronts the dictator face to face. Dictators have always used football to drape themselves in glory. The beautiful game has a very dark side.
•       Haiti Play Brazil This Summer: Haiti have qualified for the World Cup for the first time in decades. They’re in the toughest group — with Brazil and Morocco. For ninety minutes, Haiti will be Brazil’s equal. Football gives even the weakest and the poorest a fighting chance. That is profound.
 
About the Guest

Dimitry Elias Léger is a Haitian-born novelist and Arsenal supporter. He is the author of God Loves Haiti and Death of the Soccer God.
References:

•       Death of the Soccer God by Dimitri Elias Léger — the novel under discussion.
•       Episode 2856: One Life in Nine World Cups — Simon Kuper on football fever. The companion conversation.
•       Episode 2849: How Stories Can Save Us — Colum McCann on storytelling and empathy. Léger is the novelist to McCann’s activist.
About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.
Website

Substack

YouTube

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

 
Chapters:

(00:31) - Introduction: World Cup fever, Kuper, Foer, and going fiction

(02:30) - Joe Gaëtjens: the Haitian teenager who beat England

(04:19) - Half German, half Haitian: the immigrant who wasn’t even American

(06:45) - Does God exist? The philosophical question behind both novels

(08:20) - Football as foot-eye coordination: why it seems miraculous

(10:15) - Maradona, Messi, Pelé, Ronaldo: who is the greatest?

(12:08) - Pelé in the first televised World Cup final: looking like a typical Haitian kid

(14:22) - Football and jazz: the improvisational connection

(16:30) - Belo Horizonte: two weeks walking the pitch

(18:45) - Papa Doc disappeared him: the dark side of football and dictators

(20:55) - Haiti qualified for the World Cup. They play Brazil.

(23:10) - Equal footing for ninety minutes: what football gives the poorest

“The World Cup is a kind of religious feast. It’s like Easter, or Passover, or Eid, but it’s for all of humanity.” — A Church of England vicar, quoted by Simon Kuper

Nick Hornby measured his (sad) life in Arsenal fixtures. The FT columnist Simon Kuper has measured his in World Cups. His new book, World Cup Fever: A Soccer Journey in Nine Tournaments, is the Kuper story told through the nine tournaments he attended as a journalist — from Italy 1990 to Qatar 2022.
World Cup Fever is as irresistible as a Maradona slalom or a Pelé feint. In 1990, three Oxford students blag their way into Italy on Mars corporate tickets, pulling out library cards at the Swiss border to prove they’re not Liverpool hooligans. In 1998, France’s World Cup victory changes Kuper’s life — he buys an apartment/office in Paris and never really leaves, even writing World Cup Fever there. In 2006, the newly reunited Germany reinvents itself as the nice guy of World Cups, and the German Football Association’s designated handler of World War Two queries receives exactly zero calls. In 2014, Brazil loses one–seven to Germany in the most stunning result in tournament history — and Kuper watches Brazilian football lovers line the road to applaud the German bus.
But, after Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022, those glory days might now be history, Kuper fears. The North American World Cup this summer will be the biggest yet — forty-eight teams, three host countries, and a grifter FIFA president (Gianni Infantino) not unlike Donald Trump. What could possibly go wrong?
So who will win in 2026? Kuper thinks England have their best squad since 1966. Spain are probably the best team. Messi will be thirty-nine. But the World Cup has so many random elements that none of that really counts. What matters, a Church of England vicar told Kuper, is that the World Cup is a religious feast for all of humanity. In a time when we’re increasingly lonely and miserable, it’s the most joyous communal event we have. As the non-doctrinal Kuper promises, “it’s like Easter, or Passover, or Eid, but it’s for all of humanity.”
 
Five Takeaways

•       Every World Cup, You Remember Where You Were: Kuper’s first was 1978 — eight years old, sitting with his parents and grandparents in the Netherlands. His mother is now dead. His grandparents are long dead. But he can see it: June 25th, 1978. Nick Hornby measured his life in Arsenal fixtures. Kuper has measured his in World Cups.
•       The Oxford Library Card Got Them Past the Border Guards: Italy 1990. Three students blag World Cup tickets from Mars. The Italian border guards see “Liverpool” on a passport and think: hooligans. Five years after Heysel. They pull out their Oxford library cards. “Studenti, Oxford.” The guards make a snap sociological analysis and let them in.
•       One–Seven: The Wall Came Down: Brazil 2014. The home of World Cup football loses to Germany in the most shocking result in tournament history. Brazilian fans line the road to applaud the German bus. They’ve accepted it: the era is over. Brazil will never again be impregnable. Kuper compares it to the fall of the Berlin Wall — equally stunning, no going back.
•       The World Cup Is a Religious Feast for All of Humanity: A Church of England vicar told Kuper: it’s like Easter, Passover, or Eid, but everyone’s allowed to join. In a time when we’re all atomised and on separate screens, the World Cup is the biggest communal event we have. Fans hug, exchange shirts, celebrate shared nationhood and shared humanity.
•       England’s Best Chance Since 1966: Kuper and his co-author Stefan Szymanski say this is the strongest England squad in sixty years. One-in-six chance of winning. Spain are probably the best team. Messi will be thirty-nine. France have reached four of the last seven finals. But the World Cup has so many random elements that quality alone won’t decide it.
 
About the Guest

Simon Kuper is a columnist for the Financial Times and the author of Soccernomics (with Stefan Szymanski), The Barcelona Complex, and World Cup Fever. Born in Uganda to South African parents, raised in the Netherlands, educated at Oxford, he lives in Paris.
References:

•       World Cup Fever by Simon Kuper — the book under discussion.
•       Simon Kuper’s FT column — his political and society writing for the Financial Times.
About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.
Website

Substack

YouTube

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

 
Chapters:

(00:00) -

(00:31) - Introduction: life measured in four-year increments

(02:07) - First World Cup: Holland 1978, sitting with the dead

(05:45) - Nine tournaments in a row: the double life of a football writer

(09:25) - Italy 1990: Oxford library cards, Italian border guards, and Mars tickets

(12:35) - Gascoigne, Cameroon, and England’s last real chance

(16:03) - USA 1994: Maradona’s primal scream and the end of Germany as villain

(18:23) - France 1998: the World Cup that changed his life

(22:16) - Korea/Japan 2002: feeling four years old in Tokyo

(24:36) - Germany 2006: Wannsee, the new Germany, and zero queries about the war

(31:20) - South Africa 2010: nation building in his parents’ backyard

(34:26) - Brazil 2014: one–seven and the end of an era

(38:48) - Russia 2018: Peruvians on Red Square and the policeman who’d never met a foreigner

(43:46) - Qatar 2022: the World Cup of the Global South

(46:30) - USA 2026: forty-eight teams, Trump, Infantino, and why we shouldn’t boycott

“There is tremendous loneliness in the kind of life where you just don’t feel like anybody knows you.” — Margaret Rutherford

Yesterday, the Brooklyn psychotherapist Daniel Smith defined perfection as the devil. Today, the Arkansas-based Dr. Margaret Rutherford explains what happens in our FOMO age when the devil wins. Her subject is what she calls the “perfectly hidden depression” of today’s Instagrammable types. Perfectionism rates are going up, Rutherford warns. And so, not uncoincidentally, are suicide rates.
Rutherford’s own mother in Fifties suburban Arkansas was a case study. Beautiful, smart, talented and anorexic. The perfectly mannered and coiffeured hostess. Married the “right” husband but in love with the wrong man. An Arkansas Madame Bovary. “The fucked-up fifties woman” as one of her friends called it. She became a prescription drug junkie because of her addiction to perfection. Nobody knew her, not even herself. The relentless camouflage of her life became a prison. Rutherford has spent the last decade trying to help people escape that prison — first with her book Perfectly Hidden Depression, now with a companion workbook.
On AI and therapy, Rutherford is equally blunt as Daniel Smith. She noticed that AI always praised her ideas. But what if AI, like Instagram, is what she calls “a bunch of shit”? A real therapist tells you what you may not want to hear. The AI shrink starts with flattery. Rather than therapy, that’s just more camouflage for a perfectly imperfect life.
Five Takeaways

•       Perfectionism Rates Are Going Up. So Are Suicide Rates: The academic researchers have been screaming this for years. People whose lives look like they’re going great are dying by suicide. They slip through every diagnostic crack because they answer every question the way a non-depressed person would. They leave the therapist’s office with a wave and a smile.
•       The Relentless Camouflage of Performing Your Life: Destructive perfectionism isn’t wanting to do things well. It’s fuelled by fear and shame — the need to cover up everything that’s caused you pain. The camouflage becomes a prison. Your sense of worth depends on it. You can allow no one to see you struggling — not even yourself.
•       Her Mother Was a Fucked-Up Fifties Woman: Beautiful, smart, talented — and knew none of those things. Anorexic. The perfect hostess. Married the right man but was in love with someone else. Became a prescription drug addict because of the need to look perfect. Nobody knew her. She didn’t allow anybody in.
•       The Harvard Study: It’s Not Money. It’s Connection: The seventy-five-year longitudinal study found that happiness comes from feeling in relationship with other people — not wealth, not success, not followers. We’ve transplanted connection with metrics. The perfectionism epidemic and the loneliness epidemic are the same epidemic.
•       AI Therapy: What If It’s a Bunch of Shit? Rutherford noticed that AI always praised her ideas. Oh, these are wonderful. Then she thought: what if they’re not? Real therapy means being told what you may not want to hear. AI starts with flattery. A good therapist starts with the truth. You cannot replace the human sense of gentle — or not so gentle — confrontation.
 
About the Guest

Dr. Margaret Rutherford is a clinical psychologist, TEDx speaker (2 million+ views), and host of the Self Work podcast (500+ episodes, 5 million+ downloads). She is the author of Perfectly Hidden Depression and its companion workbook. She practices in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
References:

•       Dr. Margaret Rutherford — her practice, podcast, and books.
•       Episode 2854: Perfection Is the Devil — Daniel Smith on boredom, envy, and why our darkest emotions aren’t so dark. The companion conversation.
•       Episode 2850: Bring the Friction Back — Stephen Balkam on social media addiction. Rutherford’s camouflage meets Balkam’s friction.
About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.
Website

Substack

YouTube

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

 
Chapters:

(00:31) - Introduction: Daniel Smith, perfection is the devil, and the anxiety memoirist

(02:47) - Constructive vs. destructive perfectionism

(05:00) - The relentless camouflage of performing your life

(08:19) - FOMO, social media, and keeping up with the Joneses on steroids

(10:46) - Her son’s Patagonia moment: the comparison trap

(13:02) - Are therapists the new priests? The secular Bible problem

(15:06) - Perfectly Hidden Depression: the book publishers said perfectionists wouldn’t buy

(17:18) - You deserve to be truly known

(20:00) - Her mother: the fucked-up fifties woman

(22:44) - The Epstein files, dystopia, and perfectly imperfect times

(27:18) - Agency and the American dream of reinvention

(30:25) - Perfectionism and the epidemic of loneliness

(32:51) - The social media trial: why did people celebrate?

(37:17) - AI therapy: what if it’s a bunch of shit?

“Perfection is the devil. Growth means a greater capaciousness, not a narrowing and an optimisation.” — Daniel Smith

Don’t feel bad about feeling bad. That’s the message of Daniel Smith’s therapeutic new book, Hard Feelings: Finding the Wisdom in Our Darkest Emotions. Smith — psychotherapist, anxiety memoirist, married Brooklynite — wants to rescue boredom, envy, shame, and regret from the category of emotions that are supposed to shame us. The things that bore us most — raising children, long marriages, breakfast with your spouse for the two thousandth time — are also the most meaningful. Boredom, Smith argues, is the price we pay for meaning. Our darkest emotions aren’t quite as dark as we fear.
 
Five Takeaways

•       Boredom Is the Price of Meaning: The things that bore us most — raising children, long marriages, eating breakfast with your spouse for the two thousandth time — are also the most meaningful. Repetition is boring. But that’s where the connection, the love, and the main event reside. Boredom is a sign that meaning is nearby.
•       Perfection Is the Devil: Growth means greater capaciousness, not narrowing and optimisation. Smith sees patients who want to perfect themselves out of their own emotions. The feelings that trouble them make perfect sense given the conditions of their lives. Real psychotherapy isn’t a quick fix. It’s about deep change, and deep change is uncomfortable.
•       Social Media Is an Envy Engine: The leaders of early consumer capitalism discovered that stoking envy drives economic growth. Edward Bernays, Freud’s nephew, was the architect. Social media put it on steroids. The result: people constantly questioning whether their own lives are alright. Smith is far more worried about Mark Zuckerberg than about psychotherapists who write books.
•       His Father Heard Voices for Decades and Kept It Secret: He met none of the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia. But the culture thought hearing voices was prototypically insane. Smith’s first book argued the border between sanity and insanity is far more porous than we think. Rilke said it best: it’s so often in the way we name things that we go wrong.
•       AI Chatbots Are Inherently Sycophantic: You go to AI for clinical services and what you get is straight validation. These systems have been built to please. There are documented cases of AI psychosis — where sycophantic validation led people into actual delusion. AI can give the illusion of empathy. It cannot deliver the real thing.
 
About the Guest

Daniel Smith is a psychotherapist and writer based in Brooklyn. He is the author of Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety, Muses, Madmen, and Prophets, and Hard Feelings: Finding the Wisdom in Our Darkest Emotions.
References:

•       Hard Feelings: Finding the Wisdom in Our Darkest Emotions by Daniel Smith.
•       Episode 2850: Bring the Friction Back — Stephen Balkam on social media addiction. Smith’s envy engine meets Balkam’s friction argument.
•       Episode 2849: How Stories Can Save Us — Colum McCann on narrative and empathy. The real thing AI cannot deliver.
About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.
Website

Substack

YouTube

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

 
Chapters: