Steven Johnson Biography

Fast Facts

• His book "Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software" was a finalist for the Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2002
• Quote: "It's very, very rare to find cases [of innovation] where somebody on their own, working alone, in a moment of sudden clarity has a great breakthrough that changes the world․ And yet there seems to be this bizarre desire to tell the story that way․"
• Quote: "We have this assumption that innovation really comes from competitive marketplaces․․․But there are all of these people whose work we benefit from every day, particularly in public health, who didn't make a lot of money or any money․"
• Best known as a popular science author and as the host of "How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson․"
• Is a Distinguished Writer in Residence with the Department of Journalism at New York University
• Was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the web magazine FEED as well as co-founder of Patch and outside․in, and has been an advisor to several other startups like Medium and Jelly
• Is the author of "Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation," "Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter," and "The Ghost Map," among others
• Is also a contributing writer for Wired magazine and a columnist for Discover magazine