American writer and radio host
Kurt Andersen
(born August 22, 1954) is an American writer, the author of novels and nonfiction as well as a writer for television and the theater.
He was also a co-founder of
Spy
magazine, as well as co-creator and for its 20-year run host of the weekly
Peabody Award
-winning public radio program and podcast
Studio 360
.
[1]
[2]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Andersen was born in
Omaha, Nebraska
.
[3]
Growing up, he lived across the street from
Ginni Thomas
.
[4]
He graduated from
Westside High School
.
[5]
While a student at
Harvard College
, he was an editor and vice-president of the
Harvard Lampoon
. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard.
Journalism
[
edit
]
In 1986, with
E. Graydon Carter
and
Thomas L. Phillips Jr.
, he co-founded
Spy
. In
Spy
, Andersen and Carter in 1988 coined the notable epithet "short-fingered vulgarian
Donald Trump
" for the future U.S. president.
[6]
"It's pretty safe to say," author
Dave Eggers
wrote in the mid-1990s, "that
Spy
was the most influential magazine of the 1980s. It might have remade New York's cultural landscape; it definitely changed the whole tone of magazine journalism. It was cruel, brilliant, beautifully written and perfectly designed, and feared by all. There's no magazine I know of that's so continually referenced, held up as a benchmark; and whose demise is so lamented." In 2006, novelist
Christopher Buckley
wrote that "
Spy
didn't capture the zeitgeist ? it was the zeitgeist," that it was "deliciously vicious" and "despised by all the right people, primus inter pares, Donald Trump."
[7]
Media critic
Jack Shafer
wrote in 2009 that
Spy
was one of "a handful of 20th-century American magazines...whose glory days continue to influence editors."
[8]
And in a 2017 paper about
Spy
,
Marist College
journalism professor and department chair Kevin M. Lerner wrote that "a whole generation of journalists was raised with the
Spy
attitude ingrained not just into their writing but into their world view," and that "more than anything,
Spy
invented the painstakingly reported ? but still funny ? satirical magazine feature. It was as funny as
Mad
, and as well-reported as
The New Yorker
. "
[9]
Andersen co-wrote and co-produced two hour-long prime-time
Spy
specials for
NBC
, in 1991
Spy Magazine Presents How to Be Famous
, hosted by
Jerry Seinfeld
, and
The Spy Magazine Hit List: The 100 Most Annoying and Alarming People and Events of 1992
, hosted by
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
. Andersen and his partners sold
Spy
in 1991, and he left the magazine in 1993; it continued publishing until 1998.
Earlier, Andersen had worked as a writer for the
Today Show
critic and interviewer
Gene Shalit
. Before, during and after
Spy
, he wrote for
Time
, including nine years as its architecture and design critic. From 1996 to 1999 he was a staff writer and columnist ("The Culture Industry") for
The New Yorker
, and from 2004 to 2008 a columnist for
New York
("The Imperial City").
After he became editor-in-chief of
New York
in 1994, its circulation and advertising revenue quickly rose.
[10]
In early 1996, according to a
New York Times
article quoting Andersen,
Henry Kravis
, the head of
KKR
, the financial firm that controlled
New York'
s publishing company, asked him to kill a story about a rivalry between
Felix Rohatyn
and
Steven Rattner
for control of the
Lazard
investment bank, and to stop covering Wall Street altogether. Andersen demurred, and was fired five months later.
[11]
In 1999, he co-founded an online media and entertainment news website and biweekly magazine
Inside
.
[12]
In 2001, he and his co-founders merged
Inside
with a site and magazine founded by
Steven Brill
.
[13]
The merged enterprise was subsequently acquired by
Primedia
, but Primedia closed the Brill site in October 2001, and later
Inside
as well.
[14]
From 2001 to 2004, Andersen served as a senior creative consultant to
Barry Diller
's
Universal Television
, where he co-created the entertainment and arts channel
Trio
with
Michael Jackson
, Lauren Zalaznick and
Andy Cohen
. From 2003 to 2005 he was editorial director of
Colors
magazine, and in 2006, with his former colleague Jackson and
Bonnie Siegler
(and Diller's
IAC
) co-founded the daily email cultural curation service Very Short List. In 2007 and 2008 he was an editor-at-large for
Random House
, and in 2011 a guest op-ed columnist for
The New York Times
.
He had co-created
Studio 360
, a weekly program covering the arts and culture, which he hosted from its launch in 1999 to its last episode in 2020.
[1]
Originally a co-production of
Public Radio International
and
WNYC
, it was broadcast on 240 U.S. public radio stations to a weekly audience of more than 500,000 radio listeners, with an additional podcast audience during the 2010s. In 2005 it won a Peabody Award for an hour-long documentary about
Moby Dick
, the first of its 17 American Icons hours, each exploring one cultural work??including
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
,
2001: A Space Odyssey
,
Monticello
, and
Disneyland
and
EPCOT
.
Studio 360
remains available as a podcast.
In 2021 he co-produced, wrote and narrated
Nixon At War,
a seven-episode podcast about how
Richard Nixon
's responses to the
Vietnam War
resulted in his downfall and ultimately the contemporary polarization of U.S. society. The podcast, funded by the
National Endowment for the Humanities
and distributed by PRX/
Public Radio Exchange
, was drawn from hundreds of archival recordings unearthed from the Nixon and
Lyndon Johnson
presidencies.
Literary works
[
edit
]
Andersen is the author of four novels. His first was
Turn of the Century
(Random House, 1999), which was a national bestseller and
New York Times
Notable Book of the Year.
Heyday
(Random House, 2007) was also a
New York Times
bestseller, and won the
Langum Prize
for the best American historical novel of 2007.
True Believers
(Random House, 2012) was named one of the best novels of that year by the
San Francisco Chronicle
and the
Washington Post
. His most recent novel,
You Can't Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year As President
(Penguin, 2017) is a fictional memoir "by" Donald Trump co-authored by Andersen with
Alec Baldwin
. It was a
New York Times
bestseller. Andersen's short fiction has been published in anthologies such as
Neil Gaiman
's
Stories: All-New Tales
(HarperCollins, 2010).
Andersen's first book was a collection of humorous essays,
The Real Thing
(Doubleday, 1980; Holt, 1982; Bison Press, 2008), around the idea of "quintessentialism", and he co-authored two humor books,
Tools of Power
(Viking, 1980), a parody of
self-help
books on becoming successful, and
Loose Lips
(
Simon & Schuster
, 1995), an anthology of edited transcripts of real-life conversations involving celebrated people; it was based on an off-Broadway play of the same name that he created with
Lisa Birnbach
and Jamie Malanowski. Along with Carter and George Kalogerakis, Andersen wrote and assembled a history and greatest-hits anthology of
Spy
called
Spy: The Funny Years
, published in 2006 by
Miramax Books
.
He also wrote
Reset
(Random House, 2009), an essay about the causes and aftermath of the Great Recession, and he has contributed to many other books, such as
Spark: How Creativity Works
(HarperCollins, 2011), drawn from his interviews for
Studio 360
, an introduction to
Heinrich Boll
's novel
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
(Peinguin, 2010), and
Fields of Vision: The Photographs of John Vachon
(Library of Congress, 2010).
In 2017, he published
Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
, which explains American society's peculiar susceptibility to falsehoods and illusions, and how that eventually led to Trump's election and the transformation of the
Republican Party
and the right in general. (Random House) Excerpts from
Fantasyland
appeared as a cover story in
The Atlantic
,
[15]
[16]
and in
Slate.
[17]
[18]
Fantasyland,
which the
Times Book Review
called "a great revisionist history of America,"
[19]
reached #3 on the
New York Times
nonfiction bestseller list.
[20]
In August 2020, he published
Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America
, another
New York Times
bestseller that Andersen described as a "companion" to
Fantasyland
, a "de facto volume two in my history of the fuckening of America."
Evil Geniuses
examines the coordinated efforts to achieve conservative economic and political changes in the United States from the 1970s through 2020, and discusses how the resulting unfettered
laissez-faire
approach to capitalism has produced an extreme level of
economic inequality
and disempowered majority.
The film director
Steven Soderbergh
initiated conversations with Andersen about
Evil Geniuses
when it was published, which led to the two of them co-creating
Command Z
, a satirical sci-fi series starring
Michael Cera
,
Liev Schreiber
and
Roy Wood Jr.
Soderbergh directed the eight episodes, which were released in July 2023 on his web site; all proceeds are going to charity.
[21]
[22]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Andersen lives in
New York City
with his wife, author
Anne Kreamer
. They have two daughters, Katherine Kreamer Andersen and Lucy Kreamer Andersen.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
Books
[
edit
]
- Novels
- Turn of the Century
(Random House, 1999)
[23]
- Heyday
(Random House, 2007)
[24]
- True Believers
(Random House, 2012)
[25]
- You Can't Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year As President
(with Alec Baldwin) (Penguin, 2017)
[26]
- Humor
- The Real Thing
(Doubleday, 1980; Holt, 1982; Bison Press, 2008)
[27]
- Tools of Power: The Elitist's Guide to the Ruthless Exploitation of Everybody and Everything
(Viking, 1980)
[28]
- Loose Lips: Real Words, Real People, Real Funny
(with Jamie Malanowski and Lisa Birnbach) (Simon & Schuster, 1995)
[29]
- Spy : The Funny Years
(with George Kalogerakis and Graydon Carter) (Miramax Books, 2006)
[30]
- Hasta La Vista America: Trump's Farewell Address
(Pushkin Industries, 2021)
[31]
- Non-fiction
Essays, reporting, and other contributions
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Studio 360 Is Ending After 20 Years"
. WNYC
. Retrieved
August 23,
2020
.
- ^
Falk, Tyler (June 27, 2017).
"Slate will take over co-producer role with 'Studio 360'
"
.
Current
. Retrieved
August 23,
2020
.
- ^
Andersen, Kurt (March 25, 2007).
"Omaha's Culture Club"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
June 3,
2014
.
- ^
Mayer, Jane.
"Is Ginni Thomas A Threat to the Supreme Court?"
,
The New Yorker
, January 21, 2022. Accessed July 28, 2023.
- ^
"1970 Westside High School YEARBOOK - Omaha, NE"
. classmates.com
. Retrieved
October 25,
2015
.
- ^
Kelly, Jon (March 7, 2016).
"How Donald Trump Became the Short-Fingered Vulgarian"
. Vanity Fair
. Retrieved
October 4,
2017
.
.
- ^
Buckley, Christopher.
"Bonfire of Inanities"
,
The New York Times
, December 3, 2006. Accessed July 28, 2023.
- ^
Shafer, Jack.
"Scoop"
,
The New York Times
, October 8, 2009. Accessed July 28, 2023.
- ^
Lerner, Kevin M.
"How Spy, the Iconic Satirical Magazine of the 1980s, Invented Contemporary Snark, and How Internet Journalism Has Misappropriated It"
,
The Funniest Pages: International Perspectives on Journalism and Humor
, 2017. Accessed July 28, 2023.
- ^
Weber, Bruce.
"Bill Reilly, Magazine Publishing Executive, Dies at 70"
,
The New York Times
, October 20, 2008. Accessed July 28, 2008.
- ^
Pogrebin, Robin.
"When a Magazine Is Too Brash for the Bottom Line"
,
The New York Times
, September 29, 1996. Accessed July 28, 2008.
- ^
Wolff, Michael
.
"The Insiders,"
New York
(May 29, 2000).
- ^
Snyder, Gabriel.
"Brill's Contented: Inside.com Merger Feeds His Big Maw,"
Observer
(April 9, 2001).
- ^
Barringer, Felicity (October 16, 2001).
"Brill's Content Closes; Web Site, Inside.com, Is Cut Back"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
August 19,
2020
.
- ^
Andersen, Kurt.
"How America Lost Its Mind"
.
The Atlantic
. No. September 2017.
- ^
"New and Notable".
Skeptical Inquirer
.
42
(1). Committee for Skeptical Inquiry: 58. 2018.
- ^
Andersen, Kurt (October 5, 2017).
"America's Gun Fantasy"
.
Slate
.
- ^
Andersen, Kurt (February 2, 2018).
"How the GOP Went Crazy"
.
Slate
.
- ^
Rosin, Hanna (September 5, 2017).
"Fake News: It's as American as George Washington's Cherry Tree"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
August 19,
2018
.
- ^
"Best Sellers - September 24, 2017 - The New York Times"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
August 19,
2018
.
- ^
Zuckerman, Esther.
"Steven Soderbergh Debuts Sci-Fi Series 'Command Z' at Secret New York Screening"
,
The Hollywood Reporter
, July 17, 2023. Accessed July 28, 2023.
- ^
Murphy, J. Kim.
"Steven Soderbergh and Kurt Andersen Tell All About Their Secret Series 'Command Z' and Why Billionaires Can't Be Trusted"
,
Variety
, July 29, 2023. Accessed July 29, 2023.
- ^
Andersen, Kurt (1999).
Turn of the Century
. New York: Random House.
ISBN
0-375-50008-1
.
OCLC
40805493
.
- ^
Andersen, Kurt (2007).
Heyday: A Novel
. New York: Random House.
ISBN
978-0-375-50473-0
.
OCLC
66393698
.
- ^
Andersen, Kurt (2012).
True Believers: A Novel
. New York: Random House.
ISBN
978-1-4000-6720-6
.
OCLC
758388661
.
- ^
Baldwin, Alec (2017).
You Can't Spell America without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of my Fantastic First Year as President Donald J. Trump (a So-Called Parody)
. Andersen, Kurt. New York.
ISBN
978-0-525-52199-0
.
OCLC
1018295515
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- ^
Andersen, Kurt (2008).
The Real Thing
(Bison Books ed.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
ISBN
978-0-8032-2055-3
.
OCLC
221147996
.
- ^
Andersen, Kurt (1980).
Tools of Power: The Elitist's Guide to the Ruthless Exploitation of Everybody and Everything
. O'Donnell, Mark; Parloff, Roger. New York: Viking Press.
ISBN
0-670-72039-9
.
OCLC
6357653
.
- ^
Malanowski, Jamie (1995).
Loose Lips: Real Words, Real People, Real Funny
. Birnbach, Lisa; Andersen, Kurt. New York: Simon & Schuster.
ISBN
0-684-80340-2
.
OCLC
32779313
.
- ^
Spy: The Funny Years
. Kalogerakis, George; Carter, Graydon; Andersen, Kurt. New York, N.Y.: Miramax Books/Hyperion. 2006.
ISBN
1-4013-5239-1
.
OCLC
73496715
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: others (
link
)
- ^
"Hasta La Vista America: Trump's Farewell Address"
. Retrieved
April 3,
2021
.
- ^
Andersen, Kurt (2009).
Reset: How this Crisis Can Restore our Values and Renew America
. New York: Random House.
ISBN
978-1-58836-964-2
.
OCLC
464188303
.
- ^
Andersen, Kurt (2020).
Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History
. New York.
ISBN
978-1-9848-0134-0
.
OCLC
1155487147
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
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