Randy Cohen

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Randy Cohen is a U.S. writer and humorist best known as the author of The Ethicist column in The New York Times Magazine. Cohen's column is syndicated throughout the U.S. and Canada and he also answers listeners' questions on ethics on the National Public Radio radio news program, All Things Considered.

Cohen's book, The Good, The Bad & the Difference: How To Tell Right From Wrong in Everyday Situations is based on his magazine column. Among his earlier books is Diary of a Flying Man, a collection of stories and humor pieces.

Cohen wrote for Slate starting in 1996. At Slate, he became known for "News Quiz", a satiric reader-participation feature which began in February 1998 and ended in November 2000.

[edit] Television writer

Before becoming a journalist, Cohen wrote extensively for television programs. He shared in three Emmy Awards for his work on Late Night with David Letterman during the mid-1980s. The Late Show newsletter of August 15, 2005 credits him for the August 1990 remote "Crushing Things with a 150-ton Diesel Locomotive", taped in Cromwell, Connecticut. Cohen went on to write for the television program, Ed and TV Nation, sharing in an Emmy Award for the latter in 1995. He was head writer for the Rosie O'Donnell show.

[edit] Personal life

Cohen was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and raised in Reading, Pennsylvania in a Reform Jewish household, but has not been inside a synagogue for 30 years, with the exception of bar mitzvahs and weddings. He attended graduate school at the California Institute of the Arts as a music major studying composition.

He was formerly married to the writer and activist Katha Pollitt, with whom he has a daughter, Sophie Pollitt-Cohen.