What is the most American town in the USA? Las Vegas comes to mind, of course. And Memphis, with its uniquely American church of Graceland. Or one of Springsteen’s forgotten beach towns in New Jersey. Imagine rolling Vegas and Memphis and one of those sad NJ boardwalk places into a small Missouri town that you’ve never heard of. That’s Branson, Missouri, the 12,,638 person self-styled “city” in the Ozarks that is the annual host to millions of mostly white American visitors. a guide to Branson? For a cultural guide to Branson, Rafil Kroll-Zaidi has a 13,000 word essay in this month’s Harper’s entitled “The Branson Pilgrimage”. And as the Princeton educated, Brooklyn based Kroll-Zaidi confesses, it’s a piece about his own surreal experience of trying to gage the soul of the American nation by visiting Branson multiple times of the last ten years. And like his Tocquevillian essay, my conversation with Kroll-Zaidi tries to make sense not just of this weird “beach town” without a waterfront, but of the contemporary United States of America as well.
Rafil Kroll-Zaidi is a writer currently focusing on a nonfiction project about a federal prisoner. He was formerly on the editorial staff of Harper's Magazine, for which he continues to write the monthly "Findings" column.
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.
Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Episode 2065: Craig Whitlock explains how an overweight Malaysian contractor known as Fat Leonard bribed, bilked and seduced the U.S. Navy
Episode 2064: Chris Gavaler explains how How Stars Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Marvel determine how we view reality
Episode 2063: Rabbi Shai Held on why Judaism is really all about Love
Episode 2062: KEEN ON AMERICA featuring Ali Velshi
Episode 2060: Ferdia Lennon on the tragicomedy of the Peloponnesian War
Episode 2059: Keith Teare on why critics of the iPad Crush advertisement are "haters of the future"
Episode 2058: Timothy Morton searches for a Christian Ecology that will get us out of our Planetary Hell
Episode 2057: KEEN ON America featuring R. Derek Black
Episode 2056: Kyle Paoletta exposes the 2024 Republican Primaries as "Farce"
Episode 2055: Michael Ignatieff on a history of his privileges
Episode 2054: Keith Teare follows the money of the online creative economy
Episode 2053: Vince Houghton on how the Cold War transformed Miami into America's most Covert City
Episode 2052: Bryan Caplan on the economic and philosophical case for the radical deregulation of the housing industry
Episode 2051: Mohamed Amer Meziane offers an ecological and racial history of seculization
Episode 250: Andrew J Scott on why we should care about old people
Episode 2049: KEEN ON AMERICA featuring Samyr Laine
Episode 2048: Tobias Buck on the Holocaust on Trial in the 21st Century
Episode 2047: Elisa New on Poetry in America
Episode 2046: David Faris on why American kids are all left these days
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
NABOR® TALKS
U.S Property Podcast
Aligned Money Show
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money