Jake Halpern

Who is Jake Halpern?

Jake Halpern is an American writer, commentator, and radio producer.

He was born in Buffalo, New York, where he attended City Honors School. Halpern later attended Yale University, where he received an undergraduate degree in 1997. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, the New Republic, Entertainment Weekly, Slate, Smithsonian, GQ, Sports Illustrated, New York Magazine and other publications.

Halpern is also a commentator and a freelance producer for National Public Radio's All Things Considered and a contributor to This American Life . Jake's hour-long radio story, "Switched at Birth," is on This American Life's "short list" as one of its top eight shows of all time.

His first book, Braving Home, considered the lives of Americans who actively chose to live in or near dangerous places like volcanoes. The book was a main selection for the Book of the Month Club by Bill Bryson and was a Library Journal “Book of the Year.” His second book, Fame Junkies, considers the psychological underpinnings of celebrity obsession, and was the basis for an original series on National Public Radio's All Things Considered.