Field archive

Notable People

Biographical profiles of politicians, scientists, artists, activists, jurists, and public figures.

462 entries

A.J. Jacobs

Human Guinea Pig, Curiosity, and Literary Genre

Aaron Copland

Composer and America's Sound

Abby Stein

Leaving Hasidic Life and Returning to Judaism on New Terms

Adam Grant

Psychologist, Work Culture, and Public Conversation

Adam Lambert

Idol Runner-Up Behind a Career Bigger Than the Format

Adam Levine

Frontman, Maroon 5, and a Pop Constant

Adam Schiff

Prosecutor Behind a Career Around the Defense of Institutions

Adam Shankman

Choreographer Bringing Broadway Velocity to Hollywood

Adam Silver

Commissioner, the NBA, and a Global Media Power

Ady Barkan

Activist and America's Health Care System Answer to the Sick

Al Capp

Cartoonist, Dogpatch, and National Mirror

Alan Arkin

Comic Actor With a Serious Side

Albert Einstein

Physicist Changing More Than Physics

Alejandro Mayorkas

Refugee Lawyer and America's Border Deadlock

Alex Borstein

Comedian Behind a Career Out of Voices and Bite

Alex Edelman

Comedian, Belonging, and His Sharpest Material

Alex Katz

Painter Making Flatness Feel Alive

Alexander Rosenberg

Glass Artist Bringing Serious Craft to Reality TV

Alexander Vindman

Officer and Duty Ahead of Presidential Power

Allan Lichtman

Historian, Elections, and a Forecasting Argument

Aly Raisman

Olympic Captain, Survival, and Public Pressure

Amos Oz

Novelist and Israel's Arguments Readable

Amy Berman Jackson

Judge and the Refusal to Let Spectacle Run the Courtroom

Amy Spitalnick

Advocate, Fighting Extremism, and Jewish Democracy Project

Andrea Mitchell

Reporter Making Washington Look Like a Beat, Not a Battlefield

Andrew Marantz

Reporter Mapping How the Internet Broke Politics

Andrew Weissmann

Prosecutor and Complex Crime Public

Andy Borowitz

Satirist Making Fake Headlines Feel More Honest Than Real Ones

Andy Cohen

Ringmaster, Bravo, and a Conversation Machine

Andy Goldfarb

Investor, Doing Nothing, and a Serious Idea

Andy Grove

Refugee Executive and Teaching Silicon Valley to Fear Complacency

Andy Jassy

Cloud Executive and Inheriting Amazon's Hardest Job

Andy Kaufman

Entertainer and the Refusal to Let the Audience Relax

Andy Sweet

Photographer and Preserving Miami's Vanishing Jewish World

Anita Diamant

Writer and Jewish Women's Lives in Public View

Anna Levine

Civil Rights Activist and Lawyer Who Kept Starting Over

Anne Frank

Why the Diary Outlived the Nazis

Annie Leibovitz

Photographer Making Portraits Feel Like Events

Antony Blinken

Diplomat Making Alliance Management His Life Work

Ari Melber

Lawyer-Anchor Making Legal News Feel Watchable

Ari Shapiro

Journalist Making Listening Sound Like Character

Arielle Gold

Halfpipe Rider and Coming Back for an Olympic Medal

Arik Kershenbaum

The Zoologist Listening for Language Beyond Humans

Art Rosenfeld

Physicist and Energy Efficiency in Public View

Art Spiegelman

Cartoonist and Comics Answer to History

Arthur Miller

Playwright and the American Dream on Trial

Audrey Flack

Photorealist and the Refusal to Paint Small

Avi Loeb

Astrophysicist, Alien Questions, and Scientific Fight

Avi Schiffmann

Coder, Crisis Information, and Public Service

Avril Haines

Intelligence Lawyer and Quiet Power in Serious Form

Barbara Kruger

Artist and the Turn Toward Advertising Against Power

Barnett Newman

Painter and Abstraction Like a Moral Crisis

Barry Asher

Hall of Famer and the Push to Make Pro Bowling a Tour Sport

Barry Levinson

Director and Returning to Baltimore

Barry Sonnenfeld

Director and Fast-Moving Weirdness

Bat-El Papura

Performer and Her Size Part of the Story

Bea Arthur

Actress, Sharp-Tongued Women, and Icons

Bella Abzug

Congresswoman Bringing Feminist Insurgency Into the House

Ben Cardin

Human Rights Senator Outside the Spotlight

Ben Ferencz

Nuremberg Prosecutor Arguing for Law Over War

Ben Ginsberg

Republican Election Lawyer and the System Ahead of the Party

Ben Mezrich

Author, Young Geniuses, and Pop Thrillers

Ben Shahn

Painter Treating Art as a Form of Dissent

Benny Leonard

Lightweight Genius and Jewish American Folk Hero

Bernie Sanders

Outsider and Pulling the Democrats Left

Bette Midler

The Divine Miss M and the Art of Being Larger Than Life

Beverly Fishman

Artist and Pharmaceuticals in Beautiful and Dangerous Form

Beverly Sills

American Diva Making Opera Feel Native

Bill Ackman

Activist Investor, Conviction, and Public Drama

Bill Goldberg

Wrestler and the Refusal to Change His Name

Bill Kristol

Conservative Strategist and Breaking With His Own Movement

Billy Crystal

Jewish Comic and a Broader Act

Billy Joel

Songwriter Making New York Sound Like America

Bob Iger

Executive Who Remade Disney for the Franchise Era

Bob Mankoff

Cartoon Editor and Humor Like a System

Bob Simon

War Correspondent With Lasting Curiosity

Bonnie Hammer

Executive, Cable Hits, and NBCUniversal Streaming

Brett Goldstein

Writer-Actor and the Refusal to Stay Inside Roy Kent

Brian Schatz

Senator, Climate, Tech, and Basic Governance

Bruce Feiler

Writer, Life Transitions, and a Public Language

Bud Selig

Commissioner and a Bigger, Messier Baseball

Burt Bacharach

Composer and Elegant, Strange Pop

Calvin Trillin

Reporter and Everyday America

Camila Giorgi

Italian Tennis Shotmaker Who Never Played Safe

Carl Bernstein

Reporter and the Push to Make Watergate a Journalistic Standard

Carl Reiner

Comedy Architect and the Push to Invent Modern Television

Carl Sagan

Scientist, Wonder, and Public Obligation

Carole King

Songwriter, Private Feeling, and Public Music

Cass Elliott

The Voice That Made California Pop Feel Bigger Than Life

Cass Sunstein

Legal Thinker, Nudges, and Statecraft

Chaim Topol

Israeli Actor, Tevye, and Global Figure

Charlie Kaufman

Writing the Anxious Modern Mind

Chuck Rosenberg

Prosecutor and Integrity Part of the Job

Chuck Schumer

Senate Tactician and New York Liberalism National

Claudia Sheinbaum

Scientist and Mexico's First Woman President

Clive Davis

Executive and Rewriting Popular Music

Cory Gil-Shuster

Interviewer and the Conflict in First Person

Cynthia Ozick

Writer, Jewish Seriousness, and Literary Force

Cyril Wecht

Forensic Pathologist and the Biggest Cases

Dahlia Lithwick

Legal Commentator and the Human Court

Dan Abrams

Lawyer, Legal News, and a Media Business

Dan Gelber

Mayor Treating Miami Beach as a Public Duty

Dan Gilbert

Billionaire Treating Detroit as a Long Bet

Dan Goldman

Impeachment Lawyer, Oversight, and an Elected Career

Dan Levy

Writer-Performer and Kindness in Radical on TV Form

Dan Schulman

Payments Chief and Taking Over Verizon at a Turning Point

Dan Wolf

Airline Founder and Human Regional Flying

Dana Nessel

Michigan Attorney General and Civil Rights at the Center of the Job

Dani Goldstein Waldman

Show Jumper and the Push to Put Israel on the Olympic Course

Daniel Goleman

Writer, Emotional Intelligence, and Public Language

Daniel L. Doctoroff

Builder, ALS Research, and a Civic Project

Daniel Pearl

Reporter Treating Curiosity as a Form of Respect

Daniella Levine Cava

Social Worker Bringing Advocacy Politics to Miami-Dade

Danny Meyer

Restaurateur, Hospitality, and a Management Creed

Darren Aronofsky

Director and Making Obsession Feel Physical

Dave Aronberg

Prosecutor and the Florida Shuffle Visible

Dave Koz

Saxophonist Making Smooth Jazz Feel Hospitable

David Axelrod

Strategist, Chicago Politics, and a National Language

David Copperfield

Illusionist, Magic, and Mass Culture

David Eagleman

Neuroscientist and Room for Big Questions

David Frum

Conservative and the Movement He Outlived

David Geffen

Mogul Behind Labels, Studios, and Cultural Institutions

David Litt

Speechwriter and Democratic Civics Funny

David Remnick

Editor Keeping The New Yorker Ambitious

David Rubenstein

Financier, Wealth, and Civic Theater

Dean Kremer

Israeli-American Starter Making Jewish Baseball Feel Current Again

Debbie Friedman

Songwriter Changing How Liberal Jews Pray

Deborah Estrin

Computer Scientist, Personal Data, and Public-Interest Question

Debra Katz

Lawyer and Workplace Power Answer Back

Deni Avdija

From Israeli Prospect to Portland's Breakout Star

Denis Goldberg

Rivonia Trialist, Solidarity, and Life Project

Dennis Ross

Diplomat and the Peace Process His Life's Work

Dianne Feinstein

Senator, California Pragmatism, and National Power

Doctor Mike

Physician, Health Literacy, and a Mass Audience

Donna Karan

Designer, New York Ease, and a Global Brand

Doris Roberts

Character Actress, Marie Barone, and Force of Nature

Doug Emhoff

The First Second Gentleman and the Public Face of Jewish Civic Life

Douglas Diamond

Economist and Explaining Why Banks Run

Drake

Rap Star Keeping Jewishness in the Frame

Ed Asner

Actor and Toughness in Humane Form

Eddie Jaku

Survivor, Memory, and a Lesson Against Hatred

Elena Kagan

Justice, Precision, and a Judicial Style

Elie Honig

Mob Prosecutor Turned TV Legal Explainer

Elie Wiesel

Memory, Indifference, and the Duty to Speak

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda became central to modern Jewish history because he treated Hebrew as...

Elissa Slotkin

Spy-Agency Democrat Winning a Midwestern Senate Seat

Ellen Weintraub

Commissioner Warning About Dark Money

Eric Garcetti

Mayor Treating Los Angeles as a Test Case

Eric Lander

The Genome Architect Whose Career Tested the Politics of Science

Eric Topol

Cardiologist and the Attempt to Make Data Serve Patients

Eric Weinstein

Public Intellectual, Dissent, and Genre

Estee Lauder

Saleswoman Behind Modern Prestige Beauty

Eugen Engel

The Composer Whose Opera Outlived the Nazis

Eugene Levy

Comic Actor Making Exasperation Feel Warm

Evan Gershkovich

The Reporter Whose Imprisonment Became a Test of Press Freedom

Ezra Klein

Journalist, Explanation, and a Media Style

Ezra Levin

Organizer, Resistance, and a Durable Grassroots Machine

Faye Kellerman

Mystery Novelist Bringing Orthodox Life Into Crime Fiction

Frank Gehry

Architect and Buildings Refuse to Behave

Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh

Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh's career shows the possibilities and limits of Druze integration,...

Gal Gadot

Israeli Star, Wonder Woman, and a Global Emblem

Gary Gensler

Regulator Refusing to Treat Markets as Self-Policing

Gary Slutkin

Epidemiologist Arguing That Violence Spreads Like Disease

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

The Reporter Who Made Women at War Impossible to Ignore

Geoffrey Berman

Prosecutor and the Refusal to Leave Quietly

George Gershwin

Composer and Modern American Music

Gertrud Kauders

The Prague Painter the Nazis Failed to Erase

Gilda Radner

Comic and Strange Women Lovable

Gloria Allred

Lawyer, Public Pressure, and a Women's-Rights Strategy

Gloria Borger

Analyst Making Washington Television Feel Reported

Golda Meir

Founder, Diplomat, Prime Minister, and the Burden of 1973

Greg Joseph

Kicker and Carrying Jewish Day School Into the NFL

Harry Litman

Former Prosecutor, Legal Commentary, and Public Service

Harvey Fierstein

Playwright and Gay Life Center Stage

Harvey Keitel

Actor and Tough Men in Spiritually Exposed Form

Harvey Korman

The Sketch Player Who Made Panic Precise

Harvey Levin

Lawyer, Gossip, and an Industrial News Machine

Harvey Milk

Politician, Visibility, and Civic Strategy

Herb Alpert

Trumpeter Behind A&M and a Lifetime of Making

Herb Caen

Columnist and San Francisco Read Itself

Herman Wouk

Novelist Who Gave War Fiction a Jewish Gravity

Howard Schultz

Entrepreneur, Coffee, and a Third Place Empire

Ida Applebroog

Artist and Power in Cartoonish and Cruel Form

Ina Garten

Home Cook, Ease, and Authority

Ira Flatow

Host Making Science Radio Feel Like Public Life

Ira Glass

Radio Host Changing How America Tells Stories

Ira Glasser

The Civil Libertarian Who Treated Free Speech as a Stress Test

Iris Apfel

The Collector Who Made Personal Style Bigger Than Fashion

Isaac Asimov

Writer and Teaching Science Fiction to Think in Systems

Isaac Herzog

Israel's President in a Time of Fracture

Isaac Mizrahi

Designer and the Refusal to Stay in One Medium

Itzhak Perlman

Violinist Making Classical Music Feel Personal

J.B. Pritzker

Billionaire Governor, Illinois, and Progressive Bulwark

Jack Jacobs

Soldier and the Refusal to Let Valor Stay Abstract

Jackie Tabick

Jackie Tabick is often described as Britain's first woman rabbi. That is true, but it is...

Jacky Rosen

Synagogue President Making Bipartisanship Her Brand

Jacob Frey

The Mayor Shaped by Minneapolis Crisis and Reform

Jacque Fresco

Futurist and the Attempt to Design Scarcity Out of Society

Jake Sherman

Capitol Reporter, Congress, and Daily Power Beat

Jamie Raskin

Constitutional Lawyer Who Took Democracy Personally

Jan Koum

Immigrant Founder Keeping WhatsApp Simple

Janet Yellen

Economist and Reaching Every Summit of U.S. Economic Policy

Janna Levin

Physicist, Black Holes, and Public Conversation

Jared Diamond

Polymath, Geography, and Power

Jared Isaacman

Private-Space Entrepreneur and Taking Over NASA

Jared Moskowitz

Florida Democrat and Learning to Fight Through Crisis

Jared Polis

Governor and the Attempt to Make Colorado Faster, Cheaper, and Freer

Jason Alexander

Comic Craftsman and George Costanza Last

Jason Gould

Singer and the Refusal to Stay Only Somebody's Son

Jeff Zucker

TV Executive and Rebuilding the News

Jeffrey Goldberg

The Editor Who Made Foreign Affairs Feel Domestic

Jeffrey Rosen

Constitutional Moderator, Ideas, and Civic Programming

Jerry Lewis

Comedian Who Turned Frenzy Into Control

Jerry Saltz

Critic Making Looking at Art Feel Urgent

Jerry Seinfeld

Stand-Up and the Comedy of Small Things

Jerry Stiller

Comic Father, Exasperation, and an Art

Jesse Appell

The Comedian Who Learned to Be Funny in Chinese

Jill Wine-Banks

Watergate Prosecutor Still Explaining Power

Jim Dine

Artist Who Made Ordinary Objects Feel Personal

Joan Nathan

Writer, Jewish Cooking, and Cultural History

Jodi Rudoren

Editor and the Attempt to Keep Jewish Journalism Sharp

Joel Meyerowitz

Photographer and the Push to Color Photography Win

Jon Ossoff

Young Senator, Oversight, and Public Service

Jon Scheyer

Duke Successor and Inheritance in Earned Form

Jon Stewart

Comic, Satire, and Civic Pressure

Jonah Goldberg

Conservative, Anti-Populism, and Home

Jonas Salk

Doctor Making Polio Feel Beatable

Jonathan Adler

Potter, Modern American Glamour, and a Brand

Jonathan Neman

Founder and the Attempt to Scale Healthy Fast Food

Jonathan Sacks

Chief Rabbi, Public Intellectual, and a Rare Moral Voice

Jonathan Swan

The Reporter Who Made Follow-Up Questions Hard to Escape

Jonathan Zittrain

Cyberlaw Scholar Treating the Internet as a Constitutional Problem

Joseph Wapner

The Judge Who Taught Television to Act Like Court

Josh Shapiro

The Swing-State Governor Making Competence His Politics

Joshua Braff

Novelist Keeping Family Life Ragged and Funny

Joshua Cohen

Novelist, Jewish Argument, and High Comedy

Judge Judy Sheindlin

Family Court Judge, Arbitration, and Mass Television

Judy Blume

Writer and Truth for Young Readers

Judy Chicago

Feminist Artist and the Refusal to Be Reduced to The Dinner Party

Jules Feiffer

Cartoonist and Drawing American Anxiety Talking

Julian Edelman

Slot Receiver, Reinvention, and Patriot Lore

Julian Schnabel

The Painter Who Treated Scale as Destiny

Julian Zelizer

Historian and American Politics Legible Again

Julie Schumer

Painter and Coming Back to Abstraction

Julie Taymor

Director, Stagecraft, and World-Building

Julius Lester

Writer Who Carried Black History and Jewish Memory Together

Katie Bouman

Scientist and the Push to Turn Black Hole Data Into Images

Ken Goldberg

Roboticist Treating Automation as a Human Problem

Ken Grossman

Homebrewer and the Push to Change American Beer

Kenneth Feinberg

Lawyer and the Attempt to Make Catastrophe Compensation Fair

Kenny G

Instrumentalist, Smooth Jazz, and a Global Habit

Kevin Feige

The Producer Who Turned Marvel Into a Studio System

Kirk Douglas

Star, Fury, and Conscience

Larry David

The Comic of Social Rules and Small Humiliations

Larry Ellison

Founder Keeping Oracle in the Middle of Tech Power

Larry King

Broadcaster and the Next Question

Larry Kramer

Activist, Alarm, and Action

Larry Tesler

Computer Scientist and the Attempt to Make Software Less Annoying

Laurence Tribe

Constitutional Scholar, Argument, and Public Craft

Lawrence Bacow

University President, Steadiness, and Governing Style

Lawrence Weiner

Artist and Language Do the Work of Sculpture

Lee Krasner

Painter and the Refusal to Stay in Pollock's Shadow

Lenny Krayzelburg

Backstroker Winning Four Olympic Golds After Starting Over

Leonard Adleman

Mathematician and the Push to Build the Internet's Locks

Leonard Schleifer

Neurologist Behind Regeneron Around Science

Leonard Susskind

Physicist Keeping Big Theory Public

Lera Boroditsky

Cognitive Scientist Making Language Feel Strange Again

Lesley Stahl

Correspondent and Calm Questioning in Dangerous Form

Lev Raphael

Writer and Gay Jewish Fiction Speak Plainly

Lewis A. Kaplan

Judge and the Refusal to Let Spectacle Run the Courtroom

Libby Schaaf

Mayor and the Attempt to Govern Oakland's Contradictions

Linoy Ashram

Gymnast and Breaking Israel's Olympic Ceiling

Lise Meitner

Physicist, Fission, and Refusing the Bomb

Lori Greiner

Inventor, Retail Instinct, and a Television Empire

Lorne Michaels

Producer, Saturday Night Live, and an Institution

Louis D. Brandeis

Justice and the Attempt to Make Democracy Defend Itself

Louise Glück

Poet Who Made Severity Sing

Ludwig Guttmann

Refugee Doctor, Rehabilitation, and the Paralympics

Maggie Haberman

The Reporter Who Made Trump's Habits Legible

Maimonides

Thinker and the Attempt to Make Reason and Torah Cohere

Mandy Cohen

Doctor and the Attempt to Make Public Health Sound Practical Again

Mandy Patinkin

Performer With Jewish Music Still in the Frame

Marc Benioff

Founder, Enterprise Software, and a Public Philosophy

Marc Chagall

Painter and Jewish Memory Float

Marc Elias

Election Lawyer, Democracy, and Permanent Court Fight

Marc Jacobs

Designer, Taste, and a Moving Target

Margalit Fox

Obituary Writer Who Made the Form Feel Alive

Mark Leibovich

The Reporter Who Made Washington Vanity Readable

Marra Gad

Writer and the Refusal to Choose Between Blackness and Jewishness

Martin Wolf

The Economist Who Asked Whether Capitalism Could Save Democracy

Marty Baron

Editor Treating Accountability as a Reporting Method

Marvin Hamlisch

Composer Making Prestige Sound Like Pop

Masha Gessen

Writer and Autocracy Legible

Maury Povich

Host, Tabloid Television, and an American Ritual

Max Fried

Left-Hander, Command, and an Ace Career

Max Rosenstock

Strongman and Legend Beyond the Archive

Max Weinberg

Drummer, Steadiness, and an Event

Mayim Bialik

Sitcom Star Keeping Science in the Story

Mel Brooks

Comic, Parody, and Major American Art

Merrick Garland

Judge and Institutional Restraint

Merrill Moses

The Goalkeeper Who Turned Bravado Into Longevity

Michael Bloomberg

The Mogul, Mayor, and Philanthropist of Scale

Michael Chabon

Novelist Making Inheritance Feel Like Adventure

Michael Dell

Founder and Rebuilding His Tech Empire

Michael Levitt

Nobelist and the Push to Make Molecules Computable

Michael S. Schmidt

Reporter, Leaks, and Institutional Pressure

Michelle Goldberg

Columnist Treating Reaction as a Reporting Beat

Mikael Dolsten

Research Chief and Pfizer at Pandemic Speed

Mike Nichols

Director and Smart Adults in Exposed Form

Mila Kunis

Immigrant Actress Making Dry Wit Her Signature

Milton Berle

Comic and Teaching America How to Watch TV

Mindy Grossman

Executive and Retail Like a Media Business

Mitchell Schwartz

All-Pro Tackle Making Reliability His Signature

Morton Dean

Correspondent and Going to the Hard Places

Moses

The Biblical Liberator, Lawgiver, and the Problem of History

Nancy Lieberman

Point Guard and the Refusal of the Limits of Women's Basketball

Naomi Klein

Writer Who Treated Crisis as a Political System

Natan Levy

The Israeli Fighter Who Made Jewish Self-Defense a Public Cause

Natan Sharansky

Refusenik, Freedom, and Jewish Public Cause

Nate Ebner

Football Player and the Refusal to Give Up Rugby

Nathan Englander

Fiction Writer and Jewish Irony Hurt

Neil Blumenthal

Founder Treating Eyewear as a Pricing Problem

Nicole Krauss

Novelist Treating Memory as a Living Force

Nissim Black

More Than a 'Hasidic Rapper' Headline

Nita Lowey

Appropriator and Persistence in Powerful Form

Noah Schnapp

Actor and Growing Up Alongside Will Byers

Norman Lear

Producer and Sitcoms Fight About America

Oliver Sachs

Neurologist, Case Histories, and Literature

Oren Liebermann

Israeli-American Correspondent and War Reporting Clearer

P!nk

Pop Star, Defiance, and Arena Art

Paul Kolker

Surgeon, Perception, and an Art Experiment

Paul Simon

Songwriter and Intimate Restlessness

Peter Edelman

Poverty Lawyer Keeping Social Welfare a Moral Question

Peter Max

Pop Artist, Cosmic Color, and Mass Culture

Peter Sagal

Host Making Public Radio Satire Feel Hospitable

Philip Glass

Composer Making Repetition Feel Vast

Philip Levine

Poet and Giving Work Its Own Music

Polly Apfelbaum

Artist and Letting Color Sprawl

Rachel Levine

Public Health Official and Visibility Part of Service

Rachel Weisz

The Actor Who Made Seriousness Magnetic

Rafael Halperin

The Rabbi Who Turned Strength Into a Jewish Spectacle

Ralph Lauren

Designer, Aspiration, and an American Uniform

Randi Zuckerberg

The Facebook Executive Who Turned Tech Fluency Into a Media Career

Randy Rainbow

Musical Satirist, Show Tunes, and Political Comedy

Randy Schekman

Biologist and the Cell's Shipping System Visible

Ray Gelato

Bandleader Keeping Swing in Public Life

Renee Richards

Tennis Pioneer Who Forced the Sport to Face Gender in Public

Richard Blumenthal

Prosecutor and Taking Consumer Politics to the Senate

Richard Serra

Sculptor, Steel, and Experience

Rita Rudner

Comedian and Politeness Cut Deeper

Riva Lehrer

Artist and Disability Portraiture Answer Back

Robert Evans

Producer and Bankable New Hollywood

Robert Mangold

Painter and Shape Carry the Argument

Robert Reich

Public Economist, Inequality, and Civic Fight

Robert S. Langer

Engineer, Biomedicine, and a Buildable Field

Robert Sapolsky

Neuroscientist and Stress, Behavior, and Free Will Public

Robert Smigel

The Writer Who Turned a Dog Puppet Into a Comic Weapon

Roberta Kaplan

Litigator and Power Answer in Court

Rochelle Walensky

Public Health Leader and the Attempt to Rebuild Trust

Ron Chernow

Biographer and Readable American Power

Ron Klain

Chief of Staff Treating Government as a Coordination Problem

Ron Wyden

Senator and Policy Detail Political

Ronnie Landfield

Painter Keeping Lyrical Abstraction Open

Rosalind Franklin

Scientist, DNA, and Scientific Persistence

Ross Bleckner

Painter and Loss Luminous

Roy Lichtenstein

Pop Artist and Reproduction in Strange Form

Rube Goldberg

Cartoonist Who Made Overcomplication an American Joke

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Justice, Dissent, and Democratic Instruction

Ruth Calderon

Scholar Bringing Talmud Into Israeli Public Life

Ruth Handler

Entrepreneur, Barbie, and a New Idea of Girlhood

Ruth Marcus

Columnist and Judicial Politics Readable

Ruth Porat

Executive Who Made Google's Scale Answer to Capital Discipline

Ryan Goodman

Legal Scholar, National Security Law, and a Public Beat

Ryan Turell

Orthodox Scorer and Yeshiva Basketball in Public View

Sacha Baron Cohen

The Satirist Who Turns Disguise Into Exposure

Sam Altman

Operator, AI, and a Public Power Center

Sam Berns

Teenager and Practical Joy

Sam Stein

Reporter Keeping Political Journalism Fast

Sandy Koufax

Pitcher and Greatness in Severe Form

Sara Paretsky

Novelist and Giving Crime Fiction a Harder Heroine

Sara Seager

Astronomer Making Other Worlds Feel Reachable

Sasha Cohen

The Skater Who Made Elegance Look Dangerous

Scooter Braun

Manager, Pop Stardom, and Corporate Power

Scott Gottlieb

Regulator and Urgent Health Policy

Scott Turow

Novelist Making the Law Read Like Fate

Seth Rogen

Comic, Slacker Energy, and an Industry

Seymour Hersh

Reporter and Accountable Secrecy

Shaina Taub

Theater Maker, Suffrage, and a Live Wire

Sheryl Sandberg

Executive, Ambition, and a Public Argument

Shira Marili Mirvis

Shira Marili Mirvis became the first woman chosen as the sole spiritual leader of an...

Sid Caesar

Comic Who Gave Television Its First Great Sketch Age

Sidney Walton

Veteran, One Regret, and a National Tour

Sigmund Freud

Thinker, the Mind, and an Argument

Simon Helberg

Actor and Howard Wolowitz Beyond a Punch Line

Simon Schama

Historian Making Big History Feel Personal

Stan Lee

Editor and Human Superheroes

Stephen Breyer

The Supreme Court Pragmatist

Stephen J. Dubner

Writer, Social Science, and Storytelling

Stephen Jay Gould

Paleontologist, Evolution, and Public Argument

Stephen Sondheim

Writer and Teaching Musicals to Think

Stephen Wolfram

Scientist and the Attempt to Turn Knowledge Into Computation

Steve Adler

Mayor and the Attempt to Keep Austin Governable

Steve Ballmer

Microsoft Chief, Scale, and a Civic Project

Steven Levitsky

Political Scientist and Democratic Breakdown

Steven Pinker

Language, Progress, and the Argument Over Reason

Steven Rosenberg

Surgeon and Forcing Immunotherapy Into Cancer Care

Steven Spielberg

Blockbusters, Jewish Memory, and the Stories America Tells Itself

Steven Weinberg

Physicist and the Push to Make the Standard Model Coherent

Sue Bird

Point Guard, Longevity, and Leadership

Susan Pinker

The Psychologist Who Made Social Connection Feel Measurable

Susan Polgar

Grandmaster Forcing Chess to Treat Women as Competitors

Susan Sontag

Critic and Interpretation Fight With Experience

Susie Essman

Comic, Fury, and a Signature Voice

Sylvan Adams

Cycling, Philanthropy, and the Project of 'Normal Israel'

Tamar Frankel

Scholar and Trust at the Center of Corporate Law

Tamir Goodman

The Orthodox Prospect Who Refused to Leave Shabbat Behind

Ted Deutch

Congressman and Carrying Jewish Advocacy Into Institutional Life

Ted Koppel

Anchor Treating Television as a Public Trust

Terry Gross

Interviewer Making Listening Feel Serious

Theodor Herzl

Journalist, Zionism, and a Political Program

Theodore Maiman

Physicist and the Laser Real

Tom Frieden

Public Health Strategist, Prevention, and Governing Idea

Tom Friedman

Columnist, Globalization, and a Public Argument

Tony Horwitz

Reporter and American History Like a Road-Trip Argument

Tony Randall

Actor Who Made Fastidiousness Funny

Tony Schwartz

Ghostwriter and Spending Years Arguing With His Own Bestseller

Tovah Feldshuh

Performer Who Turned Golda Meir Into a One-Woman Institution

Victor Borge

Pianist and Classical Music Safe for Laughter

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

The President Whose Jewishness Became Part of Ukraine's Story

W. Ian Lipkin

Virus Hunter and Modern Outbreak Science

Walter Isaacson

Biographer, Genius, and Public Argument

Walter Mosley

Novelist, Black Los Angeles, and Literary Universe

Wendy Freedman

Astronomer and Reopening the Argument Over Cosmic Expansion

Wendy Sherman

Diplomat and Taking the Hard Conversations

Wendy Wasserstein

Playwright Who Put Smart Women's Lives on Stage

Werner Reich

Survivor, a Card Trick, and a Moral Lesson

William Goldman

Screenwriter Who Made Hollywood Talk Smarter

William Rosenberg

The Founder Who Turned Doughnuts Into a Franchise Machine

William Safire

Columnist, Politics, and Language

William Shatner

Actor and the Refusal to Stay on the Bridge

Willie Garson

Character Actor and Friendship in Essential Form

Wolf Blitzer

Anchor and Permanent Washington

Yehudah Pryce

The Social Worker Who Made Teshuvah Concrete

Yuval Noah Harari

Historian, Big History, and an Argument About AI

Zeke Miller

White House Reporter and Speed in Reliable Form

Zsolt Balla

Rabbi and Jewish Service in Germany Thinkable Again