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No Relation No. 9

What's the difference between David McCullough and David Macaulay?

Though they are both hosts of PBS shows, both write best-selling big books about big subjects, and both have a particular interest in big construction projects, they are entirely different people.

David McCullough, 67, is the host of the PBS series The American Experience and author of six books, including Truman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of the president, and Mornings on Horseback, about the young Theodore Roosevelt. He also wrote The Great Bridge, about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, and The Path Between the Seas, about the creation of the Panama Canal.

David Macaulay, 53, is the host of the new PBS series Building Big and author of its companion book about the construction of bridges, domes, skyscrapers, dams, and tunnels. He has written and illustrated many other books, among them Cathedral, Castle, Pyramid, and the compendium The Way Things Work.

Previously in this series, Explainer tackled the Gessens, Glennys, and Kaczynskis, the Cohens (three Stephens, four Richards), the Rays (two Elizabeths), the Hirschfelds (Abe and Al), the Strausses (Robert and R. Peter), the Broders (Jonathan, John M., and David), the Moores (three Michaels), and the Samuelsons (Paul, Robert, and Larry).

Have you noticed people in the news with confusingly similar names? Send your suggestions to Explainer.

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Emily Yoffe is the author of What the Dog Did: Tales From a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner. You can send your Human Guinea Pig suggestions or comments to .
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