005 – How Words & Tech Shape a Presidency & Identity – Aneesh Raman

Show Notes

Do The Words A President Uses Really Matter?

Former Obama Speech Writer, and CNN Reporter, Aneesh Raman joins American Enough for a discussion on how words can shape the heartbeat of the country and inform the trust American’s have for the White House. From his time covering presidents, to writing for them, to leveraging technology for a new-media revolution, Aneesh opines on the challenges that presidential rhetoric are presenting to everything from childhood education to cultural identity to consumer consumptions.

 leads civic engagement & partnerships at Facebook. Previously he was a Vice President at Raise.me, a technology startup focused on expanding access to higher education in America.^[1]
Aneesh Raman

Prior to joining Raise.me, Raman was Vice President of Marketing and Communications at OZY Media,^[2] a new media company backed by a number of high-profile investors including Laurene Powell Jobs, Larry Sonsini, David Drummond (Google), Dan Rosensweig and Ron Conway. Before OZY, Raman was a domestic policy speechwriter to the President of the United States Barack Obama, making him the c.^[3][4] Raman came to the White House after working at the United States Department of Defense and at the Treasury Department, where he was speechwriter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner during a historic global financial crisis.^[5] Raman began his career as an award-winning CNN war correspondent and the network’s first correspondent based in the Middle East responsible for region-wide coverage.ountry’s first Indian-American Presidential Speechwriter

A graduate of Harvard College and a former Fulbright scholar, Raman is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations^[6] and a member of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library‘s New Frontier Award Committee.^[7]

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What is American Enough?

America's identity is evolving in real time. Immigrants are being scoffed at for looking a certain way and not being "American" enough. Transgender individuals are being determined not "fit enough" to serve in our military. Sexual assault and neo-nazi behavior is being condoned by the Oval Office. The First Amendment is being ridiculed. And, America's moral authority is eroding internationally, begging the question of who is "enough" of an American ally.

Former Obama White House senior advisor and Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of Commerce, Vikrum Aiyer, is joined by journalists, comedians, politicians, activists, and listeners, to unpack this crucial existential moment for our nation's identity.