Dissecting the Day's News

Russ Smith is the editor in chief and owner of NYPress, the Manhattan weekly he founded in 1988. He writes the column "MUGGER" for the paper. Ellen Willis directs the cultural reporting and criticism program in the Department of Journalism at New York University. Her latest book, Don't Think--Smile! Notes on a Decade of Denial will be published this fall. Nora Ephron is a screenwriter and director. Her films include Sleepless in Seattle, Michael, and You've Got Mail. Kurt Andersen, the author of Turn of the Century, is now at work on his second novel. He's also the host of the public radio program Studio 360. Tamar Jacoby is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of Someone Else's House: America's Unfinished Struggle for Integration. Brent Staples is on the editorial board of the New York Times and is a member of Slate's book-reviewing team. Ester R. Fuchs is an associate professor of political science, director of the Barnard-Columbia Center for Urban Policy, and author of Mayors and Money: Fiscal Policy in New York and Chicago. Mim Udovitch has written about pop culture and other pre-millennial topics for Esquire, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times Book Review. Mick Farren is a writer, musician, and author of the forthcoming novel Jim Morrison's Adventures in the Afterlife.

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