Today The Atlantic is announcing that Jonathan Haidt, who has written a number of hugely significant stories for The Atlantic, and Eugene Robinson, one of the most well-known and influential journalists and columnists, will both become contributing writers. The Atlantic will now be the primary home for Jonathan’s most ambitious essays and features, and Eugene joins us most recently from The Washington Post, where he worked for three decades.
Below is the staff announcement from editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg:
Dear All,
I’m delighted to spread the news that we’re bringing two new contributing writers onto our team. Both of these names will be known to all of you: Jonathan Haidt, and Eugene Robinson.
Jon’s name, of course, will be familiar to anyone who reads The Atlantic, because his byline has already graced our pages numerous times. He has written several hugely influential stories for us in recent years. To name a few: Why the Past Ten Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid; The Coddling of the American Mind; The Dark Psychology of Social Networks; End the Phone-Based Childhood Now. (His first feature for us appeared almost exactly a decade ago.) People around the world turn to Jon to understand, among other things, what technology is doing to us (and what to do about it). Jon is a uniquely influential intellectual and researcher, and a brilliantly clear writer about devilishly complicated issues.
In addition to his extraordinary work for The Atlantic, Jon is a social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business, where his research has focused on the intuitive foundations of morality, and how morality varies across societies. He is the author of, among other New York Times bestsellers, The Anxious Generation and The Coddling of the American Mind (co-authored with Greg Lukianoff). The Atlantic will now be the primary home for Jon’s most ambitious essays and features, and I’m very glad he’ll be writing for us regularly.
About Gene: When I first arrived at The Washington Post a couple of (dozen) years ago, Gene was already the king of the newsroom. (Okay, three dozen.) Gene is one of the most talented all-around journalists ever employed at The Post, which is really saying something. He has been a mentor and role model for many of us across the years, in part because he does everything well, and in part because he is a kind and generous editorial leader.
Gene is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and the author of three books; his fourth, Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal American History, is scheduled to be published by Simon & Schuster in February. Gene was born and raised in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and has written unforgettably about his experiences growing up in the Civil Rights era. After serving as the first Black editor in chief of his college newspaper (The Michigan Daily, Adrienne’s least-favorite college paper), he began his professional journalism career at the San Francisco Chronicle, where he was one of two reporters assigned to cover the trial of the kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. Gene then joined the Post as a city hall reporter, and worked as an editor on the metro desk before moving to Buenos Aires as the Post’s South America correspondent. Later he was the Post’s foreign editor, and ran its Style section, and, of course, spent two decades as a columnist, becoming one of journalism’s most outstanding, memorable, and influential voices. And now he brings that voice to us.
It is such a thrill to bring Jon closer to The Atlantic, and it is equally thrilling to make The Atlantic the home of Gene’s writing. You’ll all have the chance to meet them soon. In the meantime, please join me in welcoming them to Team Atlantic.
Recent editorial hires at The Atlantic include staff writers Tom Bartlett, Will Gottsegen, Tyler Austin Harper, Anna Holmes, Sally Jenkins, Quinta Jurecic, Idrees Kahloon, Jonathan Lemire, Jake Lundberg, Lily Meyer, Toluse Olorunnipa, Luis Parrales, Alexandra Petri, Alex Reisner, Missy Ryan, Vivian Salama, Simon Shuster, Jamie Thompson, Josh Tyrangiel, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, and Nancy Youssef; and senior editors Paul Beckett, Emily Bobrow, Drew Goins, Jenna Johnson, Adam Kirsch, Dan Zak, and Katie Zezima.
Press Contacts:
Anna Bross and Paul Jackson | The Atlantic
[email protected]
