Episode 2202: Ray Suarez on what it means to be an American in the 2020's

Keen On

There are few more authoritative American journalists than the longtime NPR and PBS host Ray Suarez. So it was a real treat to sit down with Ray earlier this month in Washington DC to talk broadly about his and his family’s experience as American immigrants from Puerto Rico. Suarez is part of that golden generation of late twentieth century American journalists who exemplified both trust and authority in their coverage of the news. And listening to him today is a reminder of what America has lost because of its failure to replace guys like Suarez with a young generation of equally trusted and authoritative journalists.

Ray Suarez is the host of the public radio program and podcast "On Shifting Ground," produced by Commonwealth Club-World Affairs and KQED-FM. His next book, on the modern era of American immigration, We Are Home: Becoming American in the 21st Century, is published by Little, Brown. He has been a visiting professor of Political Science at NYU Shanghai, and the John McCloy Visiting Professor of American Studies at Amherst College. He is a graduate of New York University and the University of Chicago. Earlier in his career, Suarez was the host of the daily news program "Inside Story" from Al Jazeera America, Chief National Correspondent for The PBS NewsHour, and the host of "Talk of the Nation" from NPR. His recent podcast productions include two seasons of "Going for Broke," produced with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and "The Things I Thought About When My Body Was Trying to Kill Me," from Evergreen Podcasts, about cancer and recovery. Suarez’ journalism has been recognized with two DuPont-Columbia Awards, the Ruben Salazar Award from UNIDOS-US, and UCLA’s Public Policy Leadership Award for his reporting on urban America, among others.

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.

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