David Epstein

David Epstein is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World and The Sports Gene.

He was the host of Slate’s popular How To! podcast and a science and investigative reporter at ProPublica. Prior, he was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he co-authored the story that revealed Yankees’ third baseman Alex Rodriguez had used steroids. His writing has been honored by many organizations, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Center on Disability and Journalism, and has been included in the Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology. His story “Following the Trail of Broken Hearts,” on sudden cardiac death in athletes, was chosen as one of the top 100 stories of the last 100 years by Columbia Journalism alumni.

Epstein has given talks about performance science and the uses (and misuses) of data globally; his TED Talks have been viewed more than 11 million times. Three of his stories have been optioned for films.

Epstein has master’s degrees in environmental science and journalism and co-authored a paper in the journal of Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research while a writer at Sports Illustrated. He has worked as an ecology researcher in the Arctic, studied geology and astronomy while residing in the Sonoran Desert, and blithely signed up to work on the D-deck of a seismic research vessel shortly after it had been attacked by pirates.

Epstein has enjoyed volunteering with the Pat Tillman Foundation and Classroom Champions, and he is currently on the board of directors of Jubilee JumpStart, an early-childhood education center focused on families with the least access. An avid runner, he was a Columbia University record holder and twice honored as NCAA All-East as an 800-meter runner.