A.J. Jacobs
Human Guinea Pig, Curiosity, and Literary Genre
Field archive
Biographical profiles of politicians, scientists, artists, activists, jurists, and public figures.
Human Guinea Pig, Curiosity, and Literary Genre
Composer and America's Sound
Leaving Hasidic Life and Returning to Judaism on New Terms
Psychologist, Work Culture, and Public Conversation
Idol Runner-Up Behind a Career Bigger Than the Format
Frontman, Maroon 5, and a Pop Constant
Prosecutor Behind a Career Around the Defense of Institutions
Choreographer Bringing Broadway Velocity to Hollywood
Commissioner, the NBA, and a Global Media Power
Activist and America's Health Care System Answer to the Sick
Cartoonist, Dogpatch, and National Mirror
Comic Actor With a Serious Side
Physicist Changing More Than Physics
Refugee Lawyer and America's Border Deadlock
Comedian Behind a Career Out of Voices and Bite
Comedian, Belonging, and His Sharpest Material
Painter Making Flatness Feel Alive
Glass Artist Bringing Serious Craft to Reality TV
Officer and Duty Ahead of Presidential Power
Historian, Elections, and a Forecasting Argument
Olympic Captain, Survival, and Public Pressure
Novelist and Israel's Arguments Readable
Judge and the Refusal to Let Spectacle Run the Courtroom
Advocate, Fighting Extremism, and Jewish Democracy Project
Reporter Making Washington Look Like a Beat, Not a Battlefield
Reporter Mapping How the Internet Broke Politics
Prosecutor and Complex Crime Public
Satirist Making Fake Headlines Feel More Honest Than Real Ones
Ringmaster, Bravo, and a Conversation Machine
Investor, Doing Nothing, and a Serious Idea
Refugee Executive and Teaching Silicon Valley to Fear Complacency
Cloud Executive and Inheriting Amazon's Hardest Job
Entertainer and the Refusal to Let the Audience Relax
Photographer and Preserving Miami's Vanishing Jewish World
Angela Buchdahl and Jacqueline Mates-Muchin changed the public face of American Jewish...
Writer and Jewish Women's Lives in Public View
Civil Rights Activist and Lawyer Who Kept Starting Over
Why the Diary Outlived the Nazis
Photographer Making Portraits Feel Like Events
Diplomat Making Alliance Management His Life Work
Lawyer-Anchor Making Legal News Feel Watchable
Journalist Making Listening Sound Like Character
Halfpipe Rider and Coming Back for an Olympic Medal
The Zoologist Listening for Language Beyond Humans
Physicist and Energy Efficiency in Public View
Cartoonist and Comics Answer to History
Playwright and the American Dream on Trial
Photorealist and the Refusal to Paint Small
Astrophysicist, Alien Questions, and Scientific Fight
Coder, Crisis Information, and Public Service
Intelligence Lawyer and Quiet Power in Serious Form
Artist and the Turn Toward Advertising Against Power
Painter and Abstraction Like a Moral Crisis
Hall of Famer and the Push to Make Pro Bowling a Tour Sport
Director and Returning to Baltimore
Lawyers, DNA, and a Justice Movement
Director and Fast-Moving Weirdness
Performer and Her Size Part of the Story
Actress, Sharp-Tongued Women, and Icons
Congresswoman Bringing Feminist Insurgency Into the House
Human Rights Senator Outside the Spotlight
Nuremberg Prosecutor Arguing for Law Over War
Republican Election Lawyer and the System Ahead of the Party
Author, Young Geniuses, and Pop Thrillers
Painter Treating Art as a Form of Dissent
Lightweight Genius and Jewish American Folk Hero
Outsider and Pulling the Democrats Left
The Divine Miss M and the Art of Being Larger Than Life
Artist and Pharmaceuticals in Beautiful and Dangerous Form
American Diva Making Opera Feel Native
Activist Investor, Conviction, and Public Drama
Wrestler and the Refusal to Change His Name
Conservative Strategist and Breaking With His Own Movement
Jewish Comic and a Broader Act
Songwriter Making New York Sound Like America
Executive Who Remade Disney for the Franchise Era
Cartoon Editor and Humor Like a System
War Correspondent With Lasting Curiosity
Executive, Cable Hits, and NBCUniversal Streaming
Writer-Actor and the Refusal to Stay Inside Roy Kent
Senator, Climate, Tech, and Basic Governance
Writer, Life Transitions, and a Public Language
Commissioner and a Bigger, Messier Baseball
Composer and Elegant, Strange Pop
Reporter and Everyday America
Italian Tennis Shotmaker Who Never Played Safe
Reporter and the Push to Make Watergate a Journalistic Standard
Comedy Architect and the Push to Invent Modern Television
Scientist, Wonder, and Public Obligation
Songwriter, Private Feeling, and Public Music
Couple, Las Vegas City Hall, and Family Project
The Voice That Made California Pop Feel Bigger Than Life
Legal Thinker, Nudges, and Statecraft
Israeli Actor, Tevye, and Global Figure
Writing the Anxious Modern Mind
Prosecutor and Integrity Part of the Job
Senate Tactician and New York Liberalism National
Scientist and Mexico's First Woman President
Executive and Rewriting Popular Music
Interviewer and the Conflict in First Person
Writer, Jewish Seriousness, and Literary Force
Forensic Pathologist and the Biggest Cases
Legal Commentator and the Human Court
Lawyer, Legal News, and a Media Business
Mayor Treating Miami Beach as a Public Duty
Billionaire Treating Detroit as a Long Bet
Impeachment Lawyer, Oversight, and an Elected Career
Writer-Performer and Kindness in Radical on TV Form
Payments Chief and Taking Over Verizon at a Turning Point
Airline Founder and Human Regional Flying
Michigan Attorney General and Civil Rights at the Center of the Job
Show Jumper and the Push to Put Israel on the Olympic Course
Writer, Emotional Intelligence, and Public Language
Builder, ALS Research, and a Civic Project
Architect, Memory, and Form
Reporter Treating Curiosity as a Form of Respect
Social Worker Bringing Advocacy Politics to Miami-Dade
Restaurateur, Hospitality, and a Management Creed
Director and Making Obsession Feel Physical
Prosecutor and the Florida Shuffle Visible
Saxophonist Making Smooth Jazz Feel Hospitable
Strategist, Chicago Politics, and a National Language
Founder, Zionism, and a State
Illusionist, Magic, and Mass Culture
Neuroscientist and Room for Big Questions
Conservative and the Movement He Outlived
Mogul Behind Labels, Studios, and Cultural Institutions
Speechwriter and Democratic Civics Funny
Editor Keeping The New Yorker Ambitious
Financier, Wealth, and Civic Theater
Israeli-American Starter Making Jewish Baseball Feel Current Again
Songwriter Changing How Liberal Jews Pray
Computer Scientist, Personal Data, and Public-Interest Question
Lawyer and Workplace Power Answer Back
From Israeli Prospect to Portland's Breakout Star
Rivonia Trialist, Solidarity, and Life Project
Diplomat and the Peace Process His Life's Work
Senator, California Pragmatism, and National Power
Physician, Health Literacy, and a Mass Audience
Designer, New York Ease, and a Global Brand
Character Actress, Marie Barone, and Force of Nature
Couple, a Fit Problem, and Gap
The First Second Gentleman and the Public Face of Jewish Civic Life
Economist and Explaining Why Banks Run
Rap Star Keeping Jewishness in the Frame
Actor and Toughness in Humane Form
Survivor, Memory, and a Lesson Against Hatred
Justice, Precision, and a Judicial Style
Mob Prosecutor Turned TV Legal Explainer
Memory, Indifference, and the Duty to Speak
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda became central to modern Jewish history because he treated Hebrew as...
Spy-Agency Democrat Winning a Midwestern Senate Seat
Commissioner Warning About Dark Money
Mayor Treating Los Angeles as a Test Case
The Genome Architect Whose Career Tested the Politics of Science
Cardiologist and the Attempt to Make Data Serve Patients
Public Intellectual, Dissent, and Genre
Saleswoman Behind Modern Prestige Beauty
The Composer Whose Opera Outlived the Nazis
Comic Actor Making Exasperation Feel Warm
The Reporter Whose Imprisonment Became a Test of Press Freedom
Journalist, Explanation, and a Media Style
Organizer, Resistance, and a Durable Grassroots Machine
Mystery Novelist Bringing Orthodox Life Into Crime Fiction
Architect and Buildings Refuse to Behave
Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh's career shows the possibilities and limits of Druze integration,...
Israeli Star, Wonder Woman, and a Global Emblem
Regulator Refusing to Treat Markets as Self-Policing
Epidemiologist Arguing That Violence Spreads Like Disease
The Reporter Who Made Women at War Impossible to Ignore
Prosecutor and the Refusal to Leave Quietly
Composer and Modern American Music
The Prague Painter the Nazis Failed to Erase
Comic and Strange Women Lovable
Lawyer, Public Pressure, and a Women's-Rights Strategy
Analyst Making Washington Television Feel Reported
Founder, Diplomat, Prime Minister, and the Burden of 1973
Kicker and Carrying Jewish Day School Into the NFL
Refugee and Face of V-J Day
Former Prosecutor, Legal Commentary, and Public Service
Playwright and Gay Life Center Stage
Actor and Tough Men in Spiritually Exposed Form
The Sketch Player Who Made Panic Precise
Lawyer, Gossip, and an Industrial News Machine
Politician, Visibility, and Civic Strategy
Painter and Letting Color Change Shape
Trumpeter Behind A&M and a Lifetime of Making
Columnist and San Francisco Read Itself
Novelist Who Gave War Fiction a Jewish Gravity
Entrepreneur, Coffee, and a Third Place Empire
Artist and Power in Cartoonish and Cruel Form
Home Cook, Ease, and Authority
Host Making Science Radio Feel Like Public Life
Radio Host Changing How America Tells Stories
The Civil Libertarian Who Treated Free Speech as a Stress Test
The Collector Who Made Personal Style Bigger Than Fashion
Writer and Teaching Science Fiction to Think in Systems
Israel's President in a Time of Fracture
Designer and the Refusal to Stay in One Medium
Violinist Making Classical Music Feel Personal
Genius, Power, and the Burden of Los Alamos
Billionaire Governor, Illinois, and Progressive Bulwark
Soldier and the Refusal to Let Valor Stay Abstract
Philosopher and Taking Public Argument to the Radio
Jackie Tabick is often described as Britain's first woman rabbi. That is true, but it is...
Synagogue President Making Bipartisanship Her Brand
The Mayor Shaped by Minneapolis Crisis and Reform
Futurist and the Attempt to Design Scarcity Out of Society
Capitol Reporter, Congress, and Daily Power Beat
Constitutional Lawyer Who Took Democracy Personally
Immigrant Founder Keeping WhatsApp Simple
Economist and Reaching Every Summit of U.S. Economic Policy
Physicist, Black Holes, and Public Conversation
Polymath, Geography, and Power
Private-Space Entrepreneur and Taking Over NASA
Florida Democrat and Learning to Fight Through Crisis
Governor and the Attempt to Make Colorado Faster, Cheaper, and Freer
Comic Craftsman and George Costanza Last
Singer and the Refusal to Stay Only Somebody's Son
TV Executive and Rebuilding the News
The Editor Who Made Foreign Affairs Feel Domestic
Constitutional Moderator, Ideas, and Civic Programming
Comedian Who Turned Frenzy Into Control
Critic Making Looking at Art Feel Urgent
Stand-Up and the Comedy of Small Things
Comic Father, Exasperation, and an Art
The Comedian Who Learned to Be Funny in Chinese
Watergate Prosecutor Still Explaining Power
Artist Who Made Ordinary Objects Feel Personal
Writer, Jewish Cooking, and Cultural History
Editor and the Attempt to Keep Jewish Journalism Sharp
Photographer and the Push to Color Photography Win
Young Senator, Oversight, and Public Service
Duke Successor and Inheritance in Earned Form
Comic, Satire, and Civic Pressure
Conservative, Anti-Populism, and Home
Doctor Making Polio Feel Beatable
Potter, Modern American Glamour, and a Brand
Founder and the Attempt to Scale Healthy Fast Food
Chief Rabbi, Public Intellectual, and a Rare Moral Voice
The Reporter Who Made Follow-Up Questions Hard to Escape
Cyberlaw Scholar Treating the Internet as a Constitutional Problem
The Judge Who Taught Television to Act Like Court
The Swing-State Governor Making Competence His Politics
Novelist Keeping Family Life Ragged and Funny
Novelist, Jewish Argument, and High Comedy
Family Court Judge, Arbitration, and Mass Television
Writer and Truth for Young Readers
Feminist Artist and the Refusal to Be Reduced to The Dinner Party
Cartoonist and Drawing American Anxiety Talking
Slot Receiver, Reinvention, and Patriot Lore
The Painter Who Treated Scale as Destiny
Historian and American Politics Legible Again
Painter and Coming Back to Abstraction
Director, Stagecraft, and World-Building
Writer Who Carried Black History and Jewish Memory Together
Scientist and the Push to Turn Black Hole Data Into Images
Roboticist Treating Automation as a Human Problem
Homebrewer and the Push to Change American Beer
Lawyer and the Attempt to Make Catastrophe Compensation Fair
Instrumentalist, Smooth Jazz, and a Global Habit
The Producer Who Turned Marvel Into a Studio System
Star, Fury, and Conscience
The Comic of Social Rules and Small Humiliations
Founder Keeping Oracle in the Middle of Tech Power
Broadcaster and the Next Question
Activist, Alarm, and Action
Founders, Search, and Infrastructure
Computer Scientist and the Attempt to Make Software Less Annoying
Constitutional Scholar, Argument, and Public Craft
University President, Steadiness, and Governing Style
Artist and Language Do the Work of Sculpture
Painter and the Refusal to Stay in Pollock's Shadow
Backstroker Winning Four Olympic Golds After Starting Over
Mathematician and the Push to Build the Internet's Locks
Maestro and Classical Music Public
Neurologist Behind Regeneron Around Science
Physicist Keeping Big Theory Public
Cognitive Scientist Making Language Feel Strange Again
Correspondent and Calm Questioning in Dangerous Form
Writer and Gay Jewish Fiction Speak Plainly
Judge and the Refusal to Let Spectacle Run the Courtroom
Mayor and the Attempt to Govern Oakland's Contradictions
Gymnast and Breaking Israel's Olympic Ceiling
Physicist, Fission, and Refusing the Bomb
Inventor, Retail Instinct, and a Television Empire
Producer, Saturday Night Live, and an Institution
Justice and the Attempt to Make Democracy Defend Itself
Poet Who Made Severity Sing
Refugee Doctor, Rehabilitation, and the Paralympics
The Reporter Who Made Trump's Habits Legible
Thinker and the Attempt to Make Reason and Torah Cohere
Doctor and the Attempt to Make Public Health Sound Practical Again
Performer With Jewish Music Still in the Frame
Founder, Enterprise Software, and a Public Philosophy
Painter and Jewish Memory Float
Election Lawyer, Democracy, and Permanent Court Fight
Designer, Taste, and a Moving Target
Obituary Writer Who Made the Form Feel Alive
The Reporter Who Made Washington Vanity Readable
Writer and the Refusal to Choose Between Blackness and Jewishness
The Economist Who Asked Whether Capitalism Could Save Democracy
Editor Treating Accountability as a Reporting Method
Composer Making Prestige Sound Like Pop
Writer and Autocracy Legible
Host, Tabloid Television, and an American Ritual
Left-Hander, Command, and an Ace Career
Strongman and Legend Beyond the Archive
Drummer, Steadiness, and an Event
Sitcom Star Keeping Science in the Story
Comic, Parody, and Major American Art
Judge and Institutional Restraint
The Goalkeeper Who Turned Bravado Into Longevity
The Mogul, Mayor, and Philanthropist of Scale
Novelist Making Inheritance Feel Like Adventure
Founder and Rebuilding His Tech Empire
Nobelist and the Push to Make Molecules Computable
Reporter, Leaks, and Institutional Pressure
Conductor Making American Music Feel Central
Columnist Treating Reaction as a Reporting Beat
Research Chief and Pfizer at Pandemic Speed
Director and Smart Adults in Exposed Form
Immigrant Actress Making Dry Wit Her Signature
Comic and Teaching America How to Watch TV
Executive and Retail Like a Media Business
All-Pro Tackle Making Reliability His Signature
Correspondent and Going to the Hard Places
The Biblical Liberator, Lawgiver, and the Problem of History
Point Guard and the Refusal of the Limits of Women's Basketball
Writer Who Treated Crisis as a Political System
The Israeli Fighter Who Made Jewish Self-Defense a Public Cause
Refusenik, Freedom, and Jewish Public Cause
Football Player and the Refusal to Give Up Rugby
Fiction Writer and Jewish Irony Hurt
Founder Treating Eyewear as a Pricing Problem
Novelist Treating Memory as a Living Force
More Than a 'Hasidic Rapper' Headline
Appropriator and Persistence in Powerful Form
Actor and Growing Up Alongside Will Byers
Producer and Sitcoms Fight About America
Neurologist, Case Histories, and Literature
Israeli-American Correspondent and War Reporting Clearer
Pop Star, Defiance, and Arena Art
Surgeon, Perception, and an Art Experiment
Songwriter and Intimate Restlessness
Poverty Lawyer Keeping Social Welfare a Moral Question
Pop Artist, Cosmic Color, and Mass Culture
Host Making Public Radio Satire Feel Hospitable
Composer Making Repetition Feel Vast
Poet and Giving Work Its Own Music
Artist and Letting Color Sprawl
Public Health Official and Visibility Part of Service
The Actor Who Made Seriousness Magnetic
The Rabbi Who Turned Strength Into a Jewish Spectacle
Designer, Aspiration, and an American Uniform
The Facebook Executive Who Turned Tech Fluency Into a Media Career
Musical Satirist, Show Tunes, and Political Comedy
Biologist and the Cell's Shipping System Visible
Bandleader Keeping Swing in Public Life
Tennis Pioneer Who Forced the Sport to Face Gender in Public
Couple, Premium Ice Cream, and Category
Prosecutor and Taking Consumer Politics to the Senate
Scientist and Well-Being in the Lab
Sculptor, Steel, and Experience
Comedian and Politeness Cut Deeper
Artist and Disability Portraiture Answer Back
Producer and Bankable New Hollywood
Painter and Shape Carry the Argument
Public Economist, Inequality, and Civic Fight
Engineer, Biomedicine, and a Buildable Field
Neuroscientist and Stress, Behavior, and Free Will Public
The Writer Who Turned a Dog Puppet Into a Comic Weapon
Litigator and Power Answer in Court
Public Health Leader and the Attempt to Rebuild Trust
Biographer and Readable American Power
Chief of Staff Treating Government as a Coordination Problem
Senator and Policy Detail Political
Painter Keeping Lyrical Abstraction Open
Scientist, DNA, and Scientific Persistence
Painter and Loss Luminous
Pop Artist and Reproduction in Strange Form
Cartoonist Who Made Overcomplication an American Joke
Justice, Dissent, and Democratic Instruction
Scholar Bringing Talmud Into Israeli Public Life
Entrepreneur, Barbie, and a New Idea of Girlhood
Columnist and Judicial Politics Readable
Executive Who Made Google's Scale Answer to Capital Discipline
Legal Scholar, National Security Law, and a Public Beat
Orthodox Scorer and Yeshiva Basketball in Public View
The Satirist Who Turns Disguise Into Exposure
Operator, AI, and a Public Power Center
Teenager and Practical Joy
Reporter Keeping Political Journalism Fast
Pitcher and Greatness in Severe Form
Novelist and Giving Crime Fiction a Harder Heroine
Astronomer Making Other Worlds Feel Reachable
The Skater Who Made Elegance Look Dangerous
Manager, Pop Stardom, and Corporate Power
Regulator and Urgent Health Policy
Novelist Making the Law Read Like Fate
Comic, Slacker Energy, and an Industry
Reporter and Accountable Secrecy
Theater Maker, Suffrage, and a Live Wire
Rabbi and the Attempt to Reclaim Religion
Executive, Ambition, and a Public Argument
Shira Marili Mirvis became the first woman chosen as the sole spiritual leader of an...
Comic Who Gave Television Its First Great Sketch Age
Veteran, One Regret, and a National Tour
Thinker, the Mind, and an Argument
Actor and Howard Wolowitz Beyond a Punch Line
Historian Making Big History Feel Personal
Editor and Human Superheroes
The Supreme Court Pragmatist
Writer, Social Science, and Storytelling
Paleontologist, Evolution, and Public Argument
Writer and Teaching Musicals to Think
Scientist and the Attempt to Turn Knowledge Into Computation
Mayor and the Attempt to Keep Austin Governable
Microsoft Chief, Scale, and a Civic Project
Political Scientist and Democratic Breakdown
Language, Progress, and the Argument Over Reason
Surgeon and Forcing Immunotherapy Into Cancer Care
Blockbusters, Jewish Memory, and the Stories America Tells Itself
Physicist and the Push to Make the Standard Model Coherent
Point Guard, Longevity, and Leadership
The Psychologist Who Made Social Connection Feel Measurable
Grandmaster Forcing Chess to Treat Women as Competitors
Critic and Interpretation Fight With Experience
Comic, Fury, and a Signature Voice
Cycling, Philanthropy, and the Project of 'Normal Israel'
Scholar and Trust at the Center of Corporate Law
The Orthodox Prospect Who Refused to Leave Shabbat Behind
Congressman and Carrying Jewish Advocacy Into Institutional Life
Anchor Treating Television as a Public Trust
Interviewer Making Listening Feel Serious
Journalist, Zionism, and a Political Program
Physicist and the Laser Real
Public Health Strategist, Prevention, and Governing Idea
Columnist, Globalization, and a Public Argument
Reporter and American History Like a Road-Trip Argument
Actor Who Made Fastidiousness Funny
Ghostwriter and Spending Years Arguing With His Own Bestseller
Performer Who Turned Golda Meir Into a One-Woman Institution
Pianist and Classical Music Safe for Laughter
The President Whose Jewishness Became Part of Ukraine's Story
Virus Hunter and Modern Outbreak Science
Biographer, Genius, and Public Argument
Novelist, Black Los Angeles, and Literary Universe
Astronomer and Reopening the Argument Over Cosmic Expansion
Diplomat and Taking the Hard Conversations
Playwright Who Put Smart Women's Lives on Stage
Survivor, a Card Trick, and a Moral Lesson
Screenwriter Who Made Hollywood Talk Smarter
The Founder Who Turned Doughnuts Into a Franchise Machine
Columnist, Politics, and Language
Actor and the Refusal to Stay on the Bridge
Character Actor and Friendship in Essential Form
Anchor and Permanent Washington
The Social Worker Who Made Teshuvah Concrete
Historian, Big History, and an Argument About AI
White House Reporter and Speed in Reliable Form
Rabbi and Jewish Service in Germany Thinkable Again