Beau Friedlander is an American writer, publisher, and media consultant. He was the founder of Context Books, an award-winning small press, an editor-in-chief at Air America and garnered notoriety as a provocateur for progressive causes.
First published in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, most notably in the May Anthology of Oxford and Cambridge Poetry edited by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney (under the name E.B. Friedlander), Friedlander's writing has appeared in many publications, including Harper's Magazine , The New York Times , [1] Time , the Los Angeles Times , The Paris Review , Lapham's Quarterly , and the Huffington Post , where he is a regular contributor. [2]
Friedlander is co-host of the Webby-nominated podcast What the Hack with Adam Levin .
Beau Friedlander received a B.A. in Literature and Languages from Bennington College, a M.A. in English Romanticism from Oxford University and a M.Phil. in Comparative Literature and Scandinavian Studies from Columbia University. [3]
In 1998, Friedlander started Context Books, an independent press. He was twenty-seven. [4]
In 1999, Friedlander and Context Books came to public attention when he acquired a manuscript from Theodore J. Kaczynski, the Unabomber. The book, in which Kaczynski argued that he was not insane, as his family had claimed during his trial, was ready to be published by Context Books [5] when Kaczynski refused to paraphrase some letters which he did not own the copyright to. The book was never published because of these copyright issues. [6]
Context Books published several award-winning works of literary fiction by authors including David Means, David Marshall Chan, and Daniel Quinn. Nonfiction authors included Derrick Jensen and John Bonifaz. The publishing house won several national awards, including The Los Angeles Times Book Prize (2000) for Assorted Fire Events. [7]
The New York Times singled out two of the anti-war books published by Context, stating they, “emerged from and then codified opposition to the war in Iraq.”
The first of these books was War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know by William Rivers Pitt. It was published in at least 10 languages in editions worldwide, and became an international bestseller—including an appearance on the New York Times extended bestseller list. [8]
Target Iraq by Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich was a national bestseller. [9] It was cited by whistleblower Katharine Gun as a catalyst in her decision to leak a 2003 NSA memo revealing illegal activity on the part of the United States to create diplomatic pressure to generate support for the war. [10]
In 2008, Friedlander became the editor-in-chief at Air America, the progressive radio network with hosts Rachel Maddow, Al Franken, Randi Rhodes and Marc Maron among others. [8]
Beau Friedlander's writing has appeared in Harper's Magazine , The New York Times , Time , the Los Angeles Times , Lapham's Quarterly , The Paris Review , The Huffington Post , the Air America website, The Dominion, as well as several anthologies and journals. [8]
He is currently co-host of the podcast What the Hack with Adam Levin with host Adam K. Levin.
Friedlander was at the center of controversy on the internet in 2010 when he publicly offered to broker a deal for $100,000 on the Huffington Post for anyone who could produce a sex tape of Glenn Beck. [11] Despite his initial stated intention for the article to be a satire in the context of Andrew Breitbart's offer of $100,000 for an archive of progressive listserv messages, the article created a firestorm which led to the Huffington Post's pulling the article and requiring Friedlander's posts to be reviewed by an editor before being publicly viewable.
Friedlander later posted an apology, stating: "I was actually trying to mimic what I saw as the way right wingers go about these matters, and by misapprehending the way they do things, I went too far. (I offered to broker a deal for anyone who had damaging media pertaining to Glenn Beck.) First, I owe Glenn Beck an apology. I crossed the line. On the off chance something comes in over the transom...scratch that; I'll delete the email account. Problem solved. I meant to tilt at a windmill in the post, and I planted my lance in the dirt." [12]
Friedlander has co-written several books including Uncle Charlie with Marc Asnin (2012), [13] Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves with Adam Levin (2015), [14] and The Butler's Child, an autobiography by Lewis M. Steel (2016). [15]
He became a board member of the Evergreen Review in 2011. [16]
Friedlander co-hosts a weekly podcast called What the Hack with Adam Levin, which features guests and experts who discuss their experiences with scams, identity theft, privacy and other cyber-related issues. Notable guests have included Sen. Al Franken, [17] Daily Show Correspondent Roy Wood, Jr. and others.
In 2023, What the Hack won two Signal Awards, [18] a Gold AVA Award, [19] and was nominated for a Webby [20]
Beau Friedlander has two children from a previous marriage. He is originally from Redding, Connecticut where he currently lives with model and photographer Guinevere Van Seenus. [21]
Glenn Lee Beck is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, entrepreneur, and television producer. He is the CEO, founder, and owner of Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of his television and radio network TheBlaze. He hosts the Glenn Beck Radio Program, a talk-radio show nationally syndicated on Premiere Radio Networks. Beck also hosts the Glenn Beck television program, which ran from January 2006 to October 2008 on HLN, from January 2009 to June 2011 on Fox News and now airs on TheBlaze. Beck has authored six New York Times–bestselling books.
David Hillel Gelernter is an American computer scientist, artist, and writer. He is a professor of computer science at Yale University.
David Richard Kaczynski is an American charity worker. He is the younger brother of the domestic terrorist and mathematician Ted Kaczynski (1942–2023), also known as the Unabomber.
Glenn is a news talk and political opinion show on TheBlaze hosted by Glenn Beck. It is produced and recorded at TheBlaze studios in Dallas, TX. The show originally ran on CNN Headline News from 2006 to 2008 and moved to the Fox News Channel in 2009. Beck's program departed Fox News on June 30, 2011, with Beck announcing the creation of an online only network, later to become TheBlaze, that would air his television show among other programming.
Mark Reed Levin is an American broadcast news analyst, columnist, lawyer, political commentator, radio personality, and writer. He is the host of syndicated radio show The Mark Levin Show, as well as Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News. Levin worked in the administration of President Ronald Reagan and was a chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese. He is the former president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, an author of seven books, and contributor to media outlets such as National Review Online. Since 2015, Levin has been editor-in-chief of the Conservative Review and is known for his incendiary commentary.
Anthony Kapel "Van" Jones is an American political analyst, media personality, lawyer, author, and civil rights advocate. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author, a CNN host and contributor, and an Emmy Award winner.
Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, was an American mathematician and domestic terrorist. He was a mathematics prodigy, but abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a primitive lifestyle.
Threshold Editions is an imprint of book publisher Simon & Schuster, a division of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, specializing in conservative non-fiction. The imprint was co-founded by Mary Matalin, serving as its first editor-in-chief, and Louise Burke, who served as publisher until 2017.
Arguing with Idiots is a book written by conservative syndicated radio talk show host Glenn Beck, in collaboration with his company, Mercury Radio Arts.
Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance is a 2010 book by investigative reporter Alexander Zaitchik. Released in June 2010, the book attempts to critically explain the life story and phenomenon of conservative host Glenn Beck.
The Overton Window is a political thriller by political commentator Glenn Beck. The book, written with the assistance of contributing writers, was released on June 15, 2010.
The Restoring Honor rally was held August 28, 2010 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and was organized by Glenn Beck to "restore honor in America" and to raise funds for the non-profit Special Operations Warrior Foundation. Billed as a "celebration of America's heroes and heritage," several veterans were honored. Along with Beck, the speakers included former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and activist Alveda King, a niece of Martin Luther King Jr.
Blaze Media is an American conservative media company. It was founded in 2018 as a result of a merger between TheBlaze and CRTV LLC. The company's leadership consists of CEO Tyler Cardon and president Gaston Mooney. It is based in Irving, Texas, where it has studios and offices, as well as in Washington, D.C.
The Glenn Beck Radio Program is an American conservative talk radio show, hosted by commentator Glenn Beck on over 400 radio stations across America, his company's own TheBlaze Radio Network, with a live television simulcast weekdays on TheBlaze TV. Since its inception as a nationally syndicated show in 2002, the program has become one of the highest rated radio programs. Furthermore, it led to television shows on CNN and the Fox News Channel, six New York Times bestselling books, a magazine, and a stage tour. In 2009, many editorials, such as those on The Huffington Post, singled out Glenn Beck's radio and television programs for raising issues which led to the resignation of Obama advisor Van Jones.
Adam K. Levin, the former director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, is the co-founder of Credit.com and the founder of CyberScout. He is the author of the Amazon Best Seller Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves, and is host of the Webby-nominated podcast What the Hack with Adam Levin.
Context Books was an American independent publishing house founded by Beau Friedlander that featured often controversial and critically acclaimed titles from authors such as Derrick Jensen, Daniel Quinn, David Means, and William Rivers Pitt which operated from 1998 to 2004.
Defeating ISIS: Who They Are, How They Fight, What They Believe is a non-fiction book about counterterrorism against ISIS. It was written by Malcolm Nance, a former cryptology analyst, with a foreword by Richard Engel. Its thesis is that ISIS is not part of Islam, instead, it functions as a separate destructive extremist group. He emphasizes the fact that the majority of those who have been harmed by ISIS are themselves Muslim. The book traces the history of the movement back to the history of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and it also discusses ISIS's combat style and recruiting tactics. Nance offers a four-point plan to defeat ISIS, including airpower and special forces, Internet tactics, strengthening the Syrian military, and engaging Arab world states.
Industrial Society and Its Future, also known as the Unabomber Manifesto, is a 1995 anti-technology essay by Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber". The manifesto contends that the Industrial Revolution began a harmful process of natural destruction brought about by technology, while forcing humans to adapt to machinery, creating a sociopolitical order that suppresses human freedom and potential. The 35,000-word manifesto formed the ideological foundation of Kaczynski's 1978–1995 mail bomb campaign, designed to protect wilderness by hastening the collapse of industrial society. The manifesto states that the public largely accepts individual technological advancements as purely positive without accounting for their overall effect, including the erosion of local and individual freedom and autonomy.
Technological Slavery is a 2008 non-fiction book by American domestic terrorist Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. In it, Kaczynski continues the critique of modern technological society that he began with his 1995 manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future. The book serves as a compendium of his thoughts and philosophies on technology, freedom, and the impacts of societal progression on individual autonomy.
“Ship of Fools” is a 1999 short story by Ted Kaczynski. The story is a parable demonstrating Kaczynski's views that identity politics within liberalism is a distraction from the issue of environmental collapse and that revolutionary violence is justified.