Randy Cohen

Last updated

Randy Cohen
Born
Alma mater University at Albany
Occupation(s)Columnist, screenwriter
Spouse Katha Pollitt
AwardsFour Emmy Awards
Website columns

Randy Cohen is an American writer and humorist known as the author of The Ethicist column in The New York Times Magazine between 1999 and 2011. The column was syndicated throughout the U.S. and Canada. Cohen is also known as the author of several books, a playwright, and the host of the public radio show Person Place Thing.

Contents

Career

Cohen graduated from the University at Albany, SUNY in 1971, with a Bachelor of Arts in music. [1] He received an MFA in music composition from the California Institute of the Arts. During this time there he and Rich Gold created the Serge synthesizer. In 2011, Cohen received the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters from the University at Albany.

From 1973 to 1977 he played Serge synthesizer and drums with the proto no wave band Jack Ruby. Boris Policeband and George Scott III were also members of the group. [2]

He spent several years "writing humor pieces, essays, and stories for leading newspapers and magazines," including The New Yorker, Harper's, and The Atlantic; his first paid, published piece was in 1976 for The Village Voice . [1] In 1981, his book of satiric letters, Modest Proposals, was published by St. Martin's Press. [1] In 1989, his collection of humor pieces, Diary of a Flying Man, was published by Knopf. In 2002 The Good, the Bad, & the Difference: How to Tell Right from Wrong in Everyday Situations was published by Doubleday. His book Be Good: How to Navigate the Ethics of Everything was released by Chronicle Books in August 2012.

Cohen was a writer on Late Night with David Letterman for 950 episodes [3] over seven years, [4] starting in 1984. [1] He shared in three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for his work on the show. [1] Perhaps his biggest contribution was the invention of Letterman's famous feature, the "Top Ten List." [5]

Cohen wrote for TV Nation , sharing in a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series in 1995. In 1996, he became the original head writer for The Rosie O'Donnell Show . [6]

Cohen wrote for Slate starting in 1996. At Slate, he became known for "News Quiz", a satiric reader-participation feature which began in February 1998 and ended in November 2000. He also co-wrote a first-season episode of Ed , first broadcast on February 14, 2001.

Cohen wrote The Ethicist column in The New York Times Magazine between 1999 and 2011. From 2001 to 2005, he also answered listeners' questions on ethics for the National Public Radio radio news program, All Things Considered . [7] The Times ended Cohen's stint as The Ethicist, making his final column Sunday, February 27, 2011. The column continued with the same format but a new byline until early 2015, when it abandoned the question and answer format for a discussion format among a number of persons.

Cohen donated $585 to MoveOn.org's voter registration effort in 2004, apparently in violation of Times policy, which had banned political donations in 2003. The Spokane, Wash., Spokesman-Review decided on June 20, 2007, to drop Cohen's column, which had been scheduled to begin running in the paper on the following Saturday, because of his donation. Cohen responded that he saw no ethical violation, because he viewed MoveOn as no more activist than other organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of America. Nonetheless, he said he would not make such donations in the future. [8]

Cohen wrote a play about the eighteenth century boxing champion Daniel Mendoza. The Punishing Blow debuted in 2009 [9] at the Woodstock Fringe Festival [10] and ran in 2010 at Manhattan's Clurman Theater.

In winter 2012, public radio station WAMC launched Cohen's new show Person Place Thing. In the show's first season, Cohen interviewed guests Dick Cavett, Jane Smiley, Susie Essman, Dave Cowens, Michael Pollan, John Hockenberry, Rickie Lee Jones, Ed Koch, Samantha Bee, RL Stine, and Sir Roger Bannister. [11]

Bibliography

Personal life

Cohen was born in Charleston, South Carolina and raised in Reading, Pennsylvania, [10] in what he has called a "suburban reform Jewish household." [13]

He was formerly married to the writer and activist Katha Pollitt, with whom he has a daughter, Sophie Pollitt-Cohen.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Letterman</span> American comedian and television host

David Michael Letterman is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He hosted late night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982, debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC and ending with the May 20, 2015, broadcast of Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. In total, Letterman hosted 6,080 episodes of Late Night and Late Show, surpassing his friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late-night talk show host in American television history. In 1996, Letterman was ranked 45th on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. In 2002, The Late Show with David Letterman was ranked seventh on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satire</span> Literary and art genre with a style of humor based on parody

Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or exposing the perceived flaws of individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humorist</span> Intellectual who uses humor in writing or public speaking

A humorist is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business entertainers whose business is to make an audience laugh. It is possible to play both roles in the course of a career. A raconteur is one who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish ethics</span> Moral philosophy of the Jewish religion or Jewish people

Jewish ethics is the ethics of the Jewish religion or the Jewish people. A type of normative ethics, Jewish ethics may involve issues in Jewish law as well as non-legal issues, and may involve the convergence of Judaism and the Western philosophical tradition of ethics.

Alan Coren was an English humourist, writer and satirist who was a regular panellist on the BBC radio quiz The News Quiz and a team captain on BBC television's Call My Bluff. Coren was also a journalist, and for almost a decade was the editor of Punch magazine.

David Adam Javerbaum is an American comedy writer and lyricist. Javerbaum has won 13 Emmy Awards in his career, 11 of them for his work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He runs the popular Twitter account @TheTweetOfGod, which as of November had 6.2 million followers. The account was the basis for his play An Act of God, which opened on Broadway in the spring of 2015 starring Jim Parsons, and again in the spring of 2016 starring Sean Hayes. The play has gone on to receive over 100 productions in 20 countries and 11 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katha Pollitt</span> American poet, essayist and critic (born 1949)

Katha Pollitt is an American poet, essayist and critic. She is the author of four essay collections and two books of poetry. Her writing focuses on political and social issues from a left-leaning perspective, including abortion, racism, welfare reform, feminism, and poverty.

<i>The David Letterman Show</i> American morning talk show

The David Letterman Show is an American morning talk show that was hosted by David Letterman on NBC. It originally aired from June 23 to October 24, 1980. Originally, the series lasted 90 minutes, then 60 minutes from August 4 onward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joel Stein</span> American journalist

Joel Stein is an American journalist who wrote for the Los Angeles Times. He wrote a column and occasional articles for Time for 19 years until 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene Shalit</span> American film critic

Eugene Shalit is an American retired journalist, television personality, film and book critic, and author. After starting to work part-time on NBC's The Today Show in 1970, he filled those roles from January 15, 1973, until retiring on November 11, 2010. He is known for his frequent use of puns, his oversized handlebar moustache and fuzzy hair, and for wearing colorful bowties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Meyer</span> American producer and writer (born 1956)

George Meyer is an American producer and writer. Meyer is best known for his work on The Simpsons, where he led the group script rewrite sessions. He has been publicly credited with "thoroughly shap[ing] ... the comedic sensibility" of the show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Cohen</span>

Roger Cohen is a journalist and author. He was a reporter, editor and columnist for The New York Times, and the International Herald Tribune . He has worked as a foreign correspondent in fifteen countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenn McGee</span>

Glenn E. McGee is the Dean of Admissions at Salem College and Professor of health sciences at Salem College. He has been noted for his work on reproductive technology and genetics and for advancing a theory of pragmatic bioethics, as well as the role of ethicists in society and in local and state settings in particular.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey L. Seglin</span> American columnist, author, and teacher (born 1956)

Jeffrey L. Seglin is an American columnist, author, and teacher. Since 2011, he has been a faculty member and director of the communications program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His weekly column on ethics, "The Right Thing," is syndicated in newspapers in the United States and Canada. Seglin lives in Boston with his wife, a psychotherapist. He has two adult children and four grandchildren.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve O'Donnell (writer)</span> Television writer

Steve O'Donnell is an American television writer. His credits include Late Night with David Letterman, The Simpsons, Seinfeld, and The Chris Rock Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Zweibel</span> American author, playwright, screenwriter, producer, director, actor, and comedian

Alan Zweibel is an American television writer, author, playwright, and screenwriter whom TheNew York Times says has “earned a place in the pantheon of American pop culture." An original Saturday Night Live writer, Zweibel has won five Emmy Awards and two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work in television, which includes It's Garry Shandling's Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Subitzky</span> American writer and artist

Ed Subitzky, full name Edward Jack Subitzky, is an American writer and artist. He is best known as a cartoonist, comics artist, and humorist. He has worked as a television comedy writer and performer, a writer and performer of radio comedy, and a writer of radio drama. He has also created comedy and humor in other media. Subitzky is a member of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the Writers Guild of America.

Jewish medical ethics is a modern scholarly and clinical approach to medical ethics that draws upon Jewish thought and teachings. Pioneered by Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits in the 1950s, Jewish medical ethics centers mainly around an applied ethics drawing upon traditional rabbinic law (halakhah). In addition, scholars have begun examining theoretical and methodological questions, while the field itself has been broadened to encompass bioethics and non-halakhic approaches.

Bruce Weinstein is an American ethicist who writes about ethics, character, and leadership for Fortune. He also writes for and is on the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) editorial board. Much of Weinstein's work focuses on business leaders, members of professional trade associations, and students who appreciate ethics' role in everyday life. This work often is through interactive keynote addresses to corporations, universities, and other organizations.

Eyal Kitzis is an Israeli actor, comedian and TV host.

References

Specific references:

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Randy Cohen '71: New York Times "The Ethicist" Columnist". University at Albany, SUNY . Retrieved October 13, 2009.
  2. "Real Vinyl History: Jack Ruby". February 29, 2016.
  3. "Randy Cohen". International Speakers Bureau. Archived from the original on December 26, 2010.
  4. Cohen, Randy (October 12, 2009). "Who Is Letterman Hurting?". The Ethicist. The New York Times . Retrieved October 13, 2009.
  5. "Piers Morgan Show, transcript". CNN.
  6. "Author Spotlight: Randy Cohan". Random House .
  7. "Columnist Randy Cohen Tackles NPR Listeners' Ethical Dilemmas". All Things Considered . NPR. May 15, 2005. Retrieved October 13, 2009.
  8. "Journalists dole out campaign cash". NBC News. June 2007.
  9. Ted Merwin (March 18, 2009). "Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A ... Jew". The Jewish Week . Archived from the original on April 28, 2009.
  10. 1 2 "New York Times "Ethicist" Randy Cohen's Provocative First Play The Punishing Blow to be Performed at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust" (PDF). Press release. Museum of Jewish Heritage. February 26, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2010. Retrieved October 12, 2009.
  11. "Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen". May 13, 2023.
  12. "The Good, the Bad & the Difference". Random House.
  13. "Q&A with Randy Cohen". bookreporter.com. 2002.

General references: