Stephen J. Dubner

Stephen J. Dubner is an American journalist who has written four books and numerous articles. Dubner is best known as co-author (with economist Steven Levitt

Steven Levitt

Steven David "Steve" Levitt is an American economist known for his work in the field of crime, in particular on the link between legalized abortion and crime rates. Winner of the 2004 John Bates Clark Medal, he is currently the William B...

) of the pop-economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

 book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Freakonomics

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a 2005 non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner. The book has been described as melding pop culture with economics, but has also been described as...

and its 2009 sequel, SuperFreakonomics.

Background

His parents were born Solomon Dubner and Florence Greenglass. His mother was the first cousin of Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg. His parents converted to Catholicism from Judaism

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

. After their baptism, they renamed themselves Paul and Veronica.
Dubner grew up in Duanesburg, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 as the youngest of eight children in a devout Roman Catholic family. Stephen Dubner explains his own choice to practice Judaism as an adult as follows: "I did not grow up Jewish, but my parents did. . . . But for my parents -- and now, for me, as I am becoming a Jew -- there is a pointed difference. We have chosen our religion, rejecting what we inherited for what we felt we needed."
Dubner's first published work was in the American children's magazine Highlights for Children

Highlights for Children

Highlights for Children is an American children's magazine. It began publication in June 1946, started by Garry Cleveland Myers and his wife Caroline Clark Myers in Honesdale, Pennsylvania...

. Dubner received a scholarship from Appalachian State University

Appalachian State University

Appalachian State University is a comprehensive , public, coeducational university located in Boone, North Carolina, United States. Appalachian State, also referred to as Appalachian, App State, or simply App, is the sixth largest institution in the University of North Carolina system...

 in North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

, and graduated in 1984. At Appalachian he formed a band, "The Right Profile," which was signed to Arista Records

Arista Records

Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...

. In 1988, he stopped playing music to focus more on writing, going on to receive an MFA

MFA

MFA may refer to:An academic degree or professional field:* Masters of Finance and Accounting* Master of Financial Analysis* Master of Fine Arts* Material Flow Accounting* Material Flow AnalysisA concept or phrase:* Made For Ads...

 in Writing from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 (1990), where he also taught in the English Department.

Dubner currently resides in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 with his wife, Ellen Binder, and their two children.

Books

• Turbulent Souls: A Catholic Son’s Return to His Jewish Family (1998) (ISBN 0-380-72930-X)
• Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper (2003) (ISBN 0-688-17365-9)
• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
  Freakonomics
  Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a 2005 non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner. The book has been described as melding pop culture with economics, but has also been described as...
  
  , co-author (2005) (ISBN 0-06-089637-X)
• SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, co-author (2009) (ISBN 0-060-88957-8)

Affiliations

• New York Times Magazine
• The New York Times
  The New York Times
  The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
  
  
• The New Yorker
  The New Yorker
  The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
  
  
• Time Magazine
• New York Observer
  New York Observer
  The New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...
  
  
• New York Magazine
• Slate
  Slate (magazine)
  Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
  
  

Book Awards

• Finalist for the Koret National Jewish Book Award
• Quill Award
• Short-listed for Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award
  Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award
  Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award is an annual award given to the best business book of the year as determined by the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs. It aims to find the book that has ‘the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues.’ The...
  
  

Articles

• "The Economist of Odd Questions: Inside the Astonishingly Curious Mind of Steven D. Levitt"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/economist.html New York Times Magazine (2003)
• "Blackonomics at Harvard"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/fryer.html New York Times Magazine (2005)
• "The Silver Thief: The Story of a Burglar Who Was Too Good for His Own Good"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/silverthief.html The New Yorker (2004)
• "Choosing My Religion"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/033196.html New York Times Magazine (1996)
• "'I Don't Want To Live Long …' Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, Talks From Prison"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/101899.html Time Magazine (1999)
• "The Unhappy Inheritors: Suddenly Popular, and Bursting With Shame"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/unhappy.html New York Times Magazine (2003)
• "Life Is a Contact Sport: Where N.F.L. Rookies Learn the Facts of Life"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/091802.html New York Times Magazine (2002)
• "Behaviorists at the Gate: The New Economists Have Their Say"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/behaviorists.html The New York Times (2003)
• "Steven Spielberg, in Black and White"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/021499.html New York Times Magazine (1999)
• "John Unitas, Steel-Town Quarterback"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/unitas.html New York Times Magazine (2002)
• "What Kind of an Addiction Is Israel, Anyway?"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/030501.html New York Observer (2001)
• "The Pop Perfectionist on a Crowded Stage:Paul Simon Comes to Broadway"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/110997.html New York Times Magazine (1997)
• "Dutch Schultz's Millions"http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/111901.html The New Yorker (2001)
• "Looking For Heroes - and Finding Them" New York Times (OpEd) (2001)
• "Stronger Than Steel: The Demise of Three Rivers Stadium" New York Times Magazine (2000)
• "What Is Stephen King Trying to Prove?" New York Times Magazine (2000)
• "Stephen Dubner recalls the cardinal as a peacemaker -- between him and his mom" New York (2000)
• "Ricky Who?" New York Times Magazine (1999)
• "Orthodox in an Unorthodox Place" Las Vegas Life (2000)
• "Monkey Business: Keith Chen’s Monkey Research" New York Times Magazine (2005)
• "The Seat-Belt Solution: How Much Good Do Car Seats Do?" New York Times Magazine (2005)
• "Up in Smoke: Whatever Happened to Crack Cocaine?" New York Times Magazine (2005)
• "Does the Truth Lie Within? One professor's lifetime of self-experimentation" New York Times Magazine (2005)
• "The DNA of Dog Dirt: Can technology keep New York City scooped?" New York Times Magazine (2005)
• "Why Vote?" New York Times Magazine (2005)
• "What the Bagel Man Saw: An Accidental Glimpse at Human Nature" New York Times Magazine (2005)
• "Stephen Dubner recalls the cardinal . . ." New York Magazine (2000)
• "The Search for 100 Million Missing Women" Slate (2005)
• "Trading Up: Where Do Baby Names Come From?" Slate (2005)
• "A Roshanda by Any Other Name: How do babies with super-black names fare?" Slate (2005)
• "Is There One Right Way To Be a Jew?" Slate (1999)

External links

• Good Morning America appearance, August 27, 2009
• http://www.stephenjdubner.com/sdubner.wmv Television Appearance
• Video Interview on LX.TV
• Homepage
• Blog
• Appalachian State University
• Reading guide and chapter excerpts (Official publisher web page)