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Stephen J. Dubner Biography
Stephen J. Dubner is the co-author of the international bestseller, Freakonomics. Published in May 2005, Freakonomics instantly became a cultural phenomenon. Hailed by critics and readers alike, it first topped the sales charts in the U.S. before moving on to the U.K., Canada, India, Brazil, and even Singapore. Dubner and his co-author, the University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt, have appeared widely on television and are now regular contributors to ABC News, appearing monthly on Good Morning America and a segment of World News Tonight called “Freakonomics Friday.” They also write a monthly “Freakonomics” column in the New York Times Magazine and maintain a popular website, www.freakonomics.com which has been called “the most readable economics blog in the universe.”
Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Dubner shows how economics is, at root, the study of incentives—that is, how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. Freakonomics shows that the modern world, despite much complication and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, as long as you ask the right questions and find the right data. The art of Freakonomics is the art of challenging conventional wisdom, and showing that the modern world is in fact even more intriguing than we might think.
Freakonomics is primarily based on the research of Steven Levitt, whom Dubner originally profiled for the New York Times Magazine. Dubner is an award-winning journalist who spent several years at the Times, and has also written for The New Yorker, Time, and elsewhere. His journalism has been anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing and The Best American Crime Writing. He is the author of two previous best-selling books, Turbulent Souls and Confessions of a Hero-Worshipper, as well as a forthcoming children’s book.
He has been writing since he was a child; his first published work appeared in Highlights magazine. During college, he started a rock band that was signed to Arista Records. But he quit playing music to attend graduate school at Columbia University, where he also taught in the English Department. He still lives in New York with his wife, a former war photographer, and their two children.