Experts
Kurt Andersen
Novelist / Host, "Studio 360"
While subversive novelists have historically stood as a spokesperson for their generations, Kurt Andersen believes that, in today’s world, the serious writer is destined for obscurity. Read More
Kurt Andersen has worked across a wide variety of mediums, yet nothing compares to the challenge of writing fiction. Here he gives advice on everything from mapping out a project and staying focused, to figuring out how to keep readers engaged in the age of short attention spans. Read More
While corporate culture has long attracted talented graduates with the promise of status and security, Kurt Andersen believes that our era’s sense of urgency and instability is pushing America’s youth into a variety of new professions. Read More
For Kurt Andersen, mistakes are trivial and easily forgotten—unless the effort was uninspired to begin with. Read More
Kurt Andersen worries that America’s political conversations are turning into polarized and specious ‘echo chambers.’ Read More
Kurt Andersen grants that drugs and alcohol offer few benefits and almost certainly don’t enhance creativity, yet the author does believe that they can play a key role in making life complete. Read More
Big Think interviews the author and host of Studio 360. Read More
Despite the surfeit of bad habits that Americans have picked up during years of prosperity, Kurt Andersen feels that a new form of citizenry is starting to emerge that will prove vital to the country’s future. Read More
All our gadgets were really invented in the 1840s. Read More
Kurt Andersen discusses the future of journalism. He hopes that news organizations are able to find a way to maintain their traditions of integrity and independence while adapting to the new media environment. Read More
Kurt Andersen discusses culture in America. He sees his radio program Studio 360 filling a gap in American media. Read More
Kurt Andersen discusses an etiology of snark. He talks about the impact of Spy Magazine, which he founded with Graydon Carter, on current media. Read More
Kurt Andersen discusses reaching your audience. He talks about trying to give the audience the unexpected. Read More
Kurt Andersen discusses the struggle of writing. He says all writing is a moment-to-moment struggle to find the right words within the right structure. Read More
Kurt Andersen discusses the novel as an intellectual undertaking. He talks about the joy he finds creating his own world. Read More
Andersen discusses his creative process. For him, it is both a solo and collaborative effort. Read More
Andersen talks about the writing process, and his own method collecting extensive notes on a given subject and then allowing time for them to distill in his mind. Read More
An Omahan humility gives Andersen a different perspective on the city. Read More
When you're 52, the clock ticks louder. Read More
Make our healthcare system look less like it does now. Read More
About Kurt Andersen
Kurt Andersen, host of Studio 360 on NPR, is a journalist and the author of the novels Hey Day, Turn of the Century, and The Real Thing. He has written and produced prime-time network television programs and pilots for NBC and ABC, and co-authored Loose Lips, an off-Broadway theatrical revue that had long runs in New York and Los Angeles. He is a regular columnist for New York Magazine, and contributes frequently to Vanity Fair. He is also a founder of Very Short List.
Andersen began his career in journalism at NBC's Today program and at Time, where he was an award-winning writer on politics and criminal justice and for eight years the magazine's architecture and design critic. Returning to Time in 1993 as editor-at-large, he wrote a weekly column on culture. And from 1996 through 1999 he was a staff writer and columnist for The New Yorker. He was a co-founder of Inside.com, editorial director of Colors magazine, and editor-in-chief of both New York and Spy magazines, the latter of which he also co-founded.
From 2004 through 2008 he wrote a column called "The Imperial City" for New York (one of which is included in The Best American Magazine Writing 2008). In 2008 Forbes. com named him one of The 25 Most Influential Liberals in the U.S. Media.Anderson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, and is a member of the boards of trustees of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Pratt Institute, and is currently Visionary in Residence at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He lives with his family in New York City.