stevenberlinjohnson.com: Status Update

So it's been a ridiculously long time with almost no posts here. Somehow the combination of new baby, pre-book launch planning, a little end-of-summer travel, and a bunch of speeches conspired against the poor neglected blog. I'll try to be better, but scanning the calendar for the next month, it doesn't look promising.

A few updates on my activities:

1. Last month's Harpers has a fun roundtable discussion on video games and education that I participated in a few months ago. (It also included the excellent Ralph Koster, whose book A Theory Of Fun is a must-read for anyone interested in the gaming culture.) Annoyingly, the forum is not online, but Ralph's got a few followup responses on his blog.

2. I did a little roundup of the top five books about plague and epidemic for the Wall Street Journal last weekend, as a preview of some of themes in The Ghost Map.

3. I've just started teaching a seminar this semester at NYU Journalism on public intellectuals -- revisiting one of my all-time favorite seminars from my school years, a seminar that Edward Said taught at Columbia while he was writing his Reith Lectures (and subsequent book) Representations of the Intellectual. If you're interested in reading along, the syllabus is here.

The Basics

I'm a father of three boys, husband of one wife, and author of seven books, and co-founder of three web sites. We spend most of the year in Marin County, California though I'm on the road a lot giving talks. (You can see the full story here.) Personal correspondence should go to sbeej at earthlink dot net. Media requests should go to Matthew.Venzon at us.penguingroup dot com. If you're interested in having me speak at an event, drop a line to Wesley Neff at the Leigh Bureau (WesN at Leighbureau dot com.)

My Books

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
An exploration of environments that lead to breakthrough innovation, in science, technology, business, and the arts. I conceived it as the closing book in a trilogy on innovative thinking, after Ghost Map and Invention. But in a way, it completes an investigation that runs through all the books. Sold more copies in hardcover than anything else I've written.
The Invention of Air
The story of the British radical chemist Joseph Priestley, who ended up having a Zelig-like role in the American Revolution. My version of a founding fathers book, and a reminder that most of the Enlightenment was driven by open source ideals.
The Ghost Map
The latest: the story of a terrifying outbreak of cholera in 1854 London 1854 that ended up changing the world. An idea book wrapped around a page-turner. I like to think of it as a sequel to Emergence if Emergence had been a disease thriller. You can see a trailer for the book here.
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
The title says it all. This one sparked a slightly insane international conversation about the state of pop culture -- and particularly games. There were more than a few dissenters, but the response was more positive than I had expected. And it got me on The Daily Show, which made it all worthwhile.
Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
My first best-seller, and the only book I've written in which I appear as a recurring character, subjecting myself to a battery of humiliating brain scans. The last chapter on Freud and the neuroscientific model of the mind is one of my personal favorites.
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
The story of bottom-up intelligence, from slime mold to Slashdot. Probably the most critically well-received all my books, and the one that has influenced the most eclectic mix of fields: political campaigns, web business models, urban planning, the war on terror.
Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate
My first. The book I wrote instead of finishing my dissertation. Still in print almost a decade later, and still relevant, I think. But I haven't read it in a while, so who knows what's in there!

Comments

I like the round up of the top five books about plague and epidemic.

Not must into gaming but I like history

Posted by: Keith Cash | September 17, 2006 at 07:41 PM

Posner's "Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline" is a great book to add to the list. Keep us posted on that class! Sounds great.

Posted by: Ben Casnocha | September 17, 2006 at 09:59 PM

Wow class looks fun! Are you going to podcast the lectures!!!!

Posted by: chris Larry | September 18, 2006 at 07:55 AM

hey...I was just thinking last weekend how i need to make following public intellectuals one of my side projects. i don't suppose it's possible to get into that seminar, still? (posted here in case others had the same question)

Posted by: disanpoter | September 22, 2006 at 10:10 AM

How did Preston make the top 5 books on epidemic disease but no Garrett?

Posted by: san | September 24, 2006 at 01:59 PM

Can you perhaps tell us (me) what department you will be represented by when you teach this course? I am considering applying to one or more graduate programs, interested in studying intellectualism in the 21st century (and blogs, and pop culture, and...what you do, essentially) but I'm not sure what department to apply to!

Posted by: Jackie | September 27, 2006 at 03:56 PM

Hey Steve, The Toilet Buddies from Staten Island. If you ever feel like writing a kids book, look us up. Good job on all the books. Jess & Joe AKA: The Toilet Buddies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvaHKNs_4c0

Posted by: The Toilet Buddies | December 05, 2006 at 07:36 PM

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