George Packer on Overcoming Injustices and Divides in a Failing America

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by George Packer, the author of "Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal", to explore the four narratives that now dominate American life: Free America, Smart America, Real America and Just America.

George Packer, a staff writer at The New Yorker from 2003 to 2018, has covered the Iraq War for The New Yorker and has also written about the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone, civil unrest in the Ivory Coast, the megacity of Lagos, and the global counterinsurgency. In 2003, two of his New Yorker articles won Overseas Press Club awards—one for his examination of the difficulties faced during the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, and one for his coverage of the civil war in Sierra Leone. He is the author of several books, including “The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America,” “Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century,” and “The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq,” which was named one of the ten best books of 2005 by the New York Times and won the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award and an Overseas Press Club book award. In addition, he has written two novels, “The Half Man” and “Central Square.”