Steven Berlin Johnson
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Steven Berlin Johnson (born June 6, 1968) is an American
popular science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
author and
media theorist Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media Studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly ...
.


Education

Steven grew up in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, where he attended St. Albans School. He completed his undergraduate degree at
Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
, where he studied
semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
, a part of the school's modern culture and media department. He also has a graduate degree from
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in English literature.


Career

Johnson is the author of twelve books, largely on the intersection of science, technology, and personal experience. He has also co-created three influential web sites: the pioneering online magazine FEED, the
Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include ...
-winning community site, Plastic.com, and the
hyperlocal Hyperlocal is information oriented around a well-defined community with its primary focus directed toward the concerns of the population in that community. The term can be used as a noun in isolation or as a modifier of some other term (e.g. new ...
media site outside.in. A contributing editor to ''
Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...
'', he writes regularly for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', ''
The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikk ...
'', and many other periodicals. Johnson also serves on the advisory boards of a number of Internet-related companies, including Medium, Atavist,
Meetup.com Meetup is a social media platform for hosting and organizing in-person and virtual activities, gatherings, and events for people and communities of similar interests, hobbies, and professions. It was founded in 2002 by Scott Heiferman and four ot ...
, Betaworks, and
Patch.com Patch.com is an American local news and information platform, primarily owned by Hale Global. As of January 2022, Patch's more than 100 journalists operated some 1,259 hyperlocal news websites, which also have an information component, in 50 U.S ...
. He is the author of the best-selling book ''Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter'' (2005), which argues that over the last three decades popular culture artifacts such as television dramas and video games have become increasingly complex and have helped to foster higher-order thinking skills. His book ''Where Good Ideas Come From'' advances a notion to challenge the popular story of a lone genius experiencing an instantaneous moment of inspiration. Johnson instead argues that innovative thinking is a slow, gradual, and very networked process in which "slow hunches" are cultivated, and completed, by exposure to seemingly unrelated ideas and quandaries from other disciplines and thinkers. He lists the themes he has identified from studying which environments and conditions have been correlated, historically, with high innovation. He argues that they make theoretical sense because of their tendency to effectively explore the "adjacent possible",
Stuart Kauffman Stuart Alan Kauffman (born September 28, 1939) is an American medical doctor, theoretical biologist, and complex systems researcher who studies the origin of life on Earth. He was a professor at the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylv ...
's concept (which Johnson cites) of the space of innovations waiting to be made from combining immediately-available notions and solutions. His book ''Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age'' was released in September 2012. In August 2013,
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
announced that Johnson would be the host and co-creator of a new six-part series on the history of innovation, ''
How We Got to Now ''How We Got to Now'' is a British-American factual television series that was broadcast on PBS in 2014 and BBC Two in 2015. The series was commissioned by the BBC in the United Kingdom and made by Nutopia, a British-American production company ...
'', scheduled to air on
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
and
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
in Fall 2014. Since May 2018, Johnson has hosted the podcast ''American Innovations'', created by
Wondery Wondery is an American podcast network and publisher of numerous award-winning podcasts, including Dirty John, Dr. Death, and The Shrink Next Door. Wondery was founded in 2016 by entrepreneur and media executive Hernan Lopez. The company was lau ...
. Johnson is a co-host (with
David Olusoga David Adetayo Olusoga (born January 1970) is a British historian, writer, broadcaster, presenter and film-maker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. He has presented historical documentaries on the BBC and contribu ...
) of the
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
/
Nutopia Nutopia is a conceptual country, sometimes referred to as a micronation, founded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. One of the reasons that the country was founded was to address Lennon's then-ongoing immigration problems (the previous week he receive ...
4-part series ''Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer'', that premiered on Tuesday, May 11, 2021." New Four-Part Series Explores the Life-Extending Role — ''Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer''".
Retrieved May 1, 2021.
Respective hour-long episodes include "Vaccines", "Data", "Medicine", and "Behavior".


Reception


Critical reception

In 1997, Harvey Blume reviewed Johnson's first book, ''Interface Culture'', and called it "a rewarding read -- stimulating, iconoclastic, and strikingly original." ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' said in a review of ''
Everything Bad Is Good for You ''Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter'' is a non-fiction book written by Steven Johnson (author), Steven Johnson. Published in 2005, it details Johnson's theory that popular culture – in par ...
: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter'', "It's a good argument made in great detail, mapped out with lists and charts of decision-affecting contingencies and intricate narrative structures. But how necessary it is remains debatable, especially once ''Everything Bad'' settles into simply restating its already convincing premise."
David Quammen David Quammen (born February 24, 1948) is an American science, nature, and travel writer and the author of fifteen books. His articles have appeared in ''Outside Magazine'', ''National Geographic'', '' Harper's'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''The New York ...
reviewed ''The Ghost Map'' (2006) for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', writing, "There's a great story here, one of the signal episodes in the history of medical science, and Johnson recounts it well... His book is a formidable gathering of small facts and big ideas, and the narrative portions are particularly strong, informed by real empathy for both his named and his nameless characters, flawed only sporadically by portentousness and small stylistic lapses." He called the book, and Johnson, "intriguing" and "smart." ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' gave ''The Ghost Map'' an 'A' rating, saying, "''The Ghost Map'' asks the reader to imagine a situation in which 'you could leave town for a weekend and come back to find 10 percent of your neighbors being wheeled down the street in death carts.' For inhabitants of mid-19th-century London, cholera rendered this apocalyptic vision a terrifying reality... Johnson traces the courageous and ultimately successful attempt by an anesthetist/scientist/sleuth named John Snow to discover how the disease was transmitted. And he does so in a way that brings to nightmarish, thought-provoking life a world in which a swift but very unpleasant death can be just a glass of water away." Author Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, in ''
The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'', called 2010's ''Where Good Ideas Come From'' "a vision of innovation and ideas that is resolutely social, dynamic and material" and "fluidly written, entertaining and smart without being arcane," -- "a Renaissance alchemical guide."
Bruce Ramsey Bruce Ramsey is an American journalist and editorial writer for the ''Seattle Times'', as well as contributing editor to ''Liberty'' magazine. Personal Ramsey is a native to Seattle and grew up in Edmonds. He obtained his degree from the Universi ...
described in ''
The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...
'' how, in ''Where Good Ideas Come From'', "Johnson is looking for the new ideas in our civilization and seeking to explain why they arise where they do." ''
Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...
'' called ''Good Ideas'' a "robust volume that brings new perspective to an old subject" and said of Johnson, "Throughout, his infectious enthusiasm and unyielding insight inspire and entertain." ''
The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...
'' said, "Like all good ideas, this book is bigger than the sum of its parts... Johnson enlivens his argument with stories and examples that bring personality and depth to his ideas, and make for an engaging read..."
Oliver Burkeman Oliver Burkeman (born 1975) is a British author and journalist, formerly writing the weekly column ''This Column Will Change Your Life'' for the newspaper ''The Guardian''. In 2021, he published '' Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Morta ...
, in a review of ''Future Perfect'', described the book as "a wide-ranging sketch of possibilities, not a detailed policy prescription, and read as such, it's frequently inspiring. Above all, it's exciting to reflect on the possibility that the many achievements of the Silicon Valley revolution might be compatible, rather than in tension, with a progressive focus on social justice and participatory democracy."
Ethan Gilsdorf Ethan Gilsdorf (born September 29, 1966) is an American writer, poet, performer, editor, critic, teacher and journalist. Gilsdorf is the author of ''Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, a ...
, also reviewing ''Future Perfect'', called it "a buoyant and hopeful book" with "clear and engaging prose."


Awards and honors

Johnson's book '' Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software'' was a finalist for the 2002
Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism The Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism is an annual literary award for "a journalist whose work has brought public attention to important issues", awarded by the New York Public Library. It was established in 1987 in memory of j ...
. His ''Where Good Ideas Come From'' was a finalist for the 800CEORead award for best business book of 2010, and was ranked as one of the year's best books by ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
''. His book ''The Ghost Map'' was one of the ten best nonfiction books of 2006 according to ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'', and was
runner up A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.
for the
National Academies Communication Award The National Academies Communication Award was an annual prize bestowed in recognition of creative works that help the public understand topics in science, engineering or medicine. The awards were established in 2003 and administered by the Keck Fut ...
in 2006. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He was the 2009 Hearst new media professional-in-residence at
Columbia Journalism School The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...
, and served for several years as a distinguished writer in residence at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
's Journalism School. He won a Newhouse School Mirror Award for his 2009 ''
TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine cover article "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live". He has appeared on television programs such as ''
The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focuse ...
'', ''
The Charlie Rose Show ''Charlie Rose'' (also known as ''The Charlie Rose Show'') is an American television interview and talk show, with Charlie Rose as executive producer, executive editor, and host. The show was syndicated on PBS from 1991 until 2017 and is owned b ...
'', ''
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'', and ''
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer ''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events. Anchored by Judy Woodruff, the prog ...
''.


Personal life

After growing up in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
and graduating from St. Albans School in 1986, Johnson moved to
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in 1990 and spent twenty-one years there, living in
Morningside Heights, Manhattan Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside H ...
for seven years, then the
West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, 14th Street (Manhattan ...
, where his first son was born. Johnson writes that, on September 11, 2001, he and his wife "watched the Twin Towers fall from Greenwich Street on our son's first day home from the hospital. When our second son was on the way, we decamped for
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
..." In 2010, interviewer
Oliver Burkeman Oliver Burkeman (born 1975) is a British author and journalist, formerly writing the weekly column ''This Column Will Change Your Life'' for the newspaper ''The Guardian''. In 2021, he published '' Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Morta ...
wrote that "Johnson, who lives with his wife Alexa Robinson and their three sons in Brooklyn... gives around 50 lectures a year, and writes plenty of high-profile opinion columns, all of which he has accomplished by the not-exactly-ancient age of 42. (While we're on the topic, he also has an enormous 1.4 million followers on
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
...)" In a 2011 blog, he wrote that he and his family would be leaving New York "for a few years" as they would be "moving to
Marin County Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...
, on the north side of the
Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...
across the bay from
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
" — "a two-year move: an adventure, not a life-changer." Johnson talks about a near-death experience in his 2004 book ''Mind Wide Open''. He and his wife lived in "an apartment in a renovated old warehouse on the far west edge of downtown Manhattan," a home with "a massive eight-foot-high window looking out over the
Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
" where they often enjoyed the view. On a June afternoon, they watched "an especially severe storm" approaching. Within minutes, the storm smashed the window, of which they were not directly in front during the crisis. He has written that he has some difficulty with visual encoding, "a trait that I seem to share with
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley ...
," whom Johnson quotes at greater length in ''Mind Wide Open'' than cited here: "I am and, for as long as I can remember, I have always been a poor visualizer. Words, even the pregnant words of poets, do not evoke pictures in my mind. No hypnagogic visions greet me on the verge of sleep. When I recall something, the memory does not present itself to me as a vividly seen event or object. By an effort of the will, I can evoke a not very vivid image of what happened yesterday afternoon..."


Books


See also

*
Googleshare Googleshare is a measure of mindshare based on the results of Google search engine queries. It is a percentage measuring how closely one thing belongs to another according to page counts returned by Google (similar measures using other search eng ...
* List of notable English-language science popularizers


References


External links

* *
Interview with Roy Christopher, December 2004

Being There Interview July/August 2006
* *
"The Web as a city" (TED2003)
*
"How the 'ghost map' helped end a killer disease" (TEDSalon 2006)

Consilience defeats miasma
Long Now The Long Now Foundation, established in 1996, is an American non-profit organization based in San Francisco that seeks to start and promote a long-term cultural institution. It aims to provide a counterpoint to what it views as today's "faster ...
tal
audio
May 2007
Steven Johnson and The Long Zoom
The Long Now Foundation, San Francisco, CA, May 11, 2007 * *
''In Depth'' interview with Johnson, October 7, 2012
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Steven 1968 births Living people 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male bloggers American bloggers American male journalists American science writers Brown University alumni Columbia University alumni People from Marin County, California St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.) alumni Wired (magazine) people Writers from Washington, D.C. Journalists from California 20th-century American male writers