{{Short description|American cultural critic, anthropologist, and author}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Rich Benjamin | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = New York City, United States | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | known_for = | education = Wesleyan University (BA)<br>Stanford University (PhD) | employer = | occupation = Author, television commentator, cultural critic | title = | networth = | height = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | boards = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = {{URL|richbenjamin.com}} | footnotes = }}
'''Rich Benjamin''' is an American cultural critic, anthropologist, and author. Benjamin is perhaps best known as a lecturer and a public intellectual, who has discussed issues on NPR, PBS, CNN and MSNBC.<ref name=":2">{{citation |last=Melber |first=Ari |title=WHITOPIA Author Discusses Importance of New Book TALK TO ME |date=March 1, 2025 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbuanvTIvz0 |access-date=2025-11-09}}</ref> His writing appears in ''The New York Times'',<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/opinion/presidential-inauguration-2017/the-ego-in-the-spectacle?smid=pl-share|title=The Ego in The Spectacle|last=Benjamin|first=Rich|date=2017|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-08-15}}</ref> ''The New Yorker'',<ref name="TNY">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/gun-control-white-paranoia-and-the-death-of-martin-luther-king-jr|title=Gun Control and the Politics of White Paranoia|last=Benjamin|first=Rich|date=April 4, 2018|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=2019-03-02}}</ref> ''The Guardian''<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/12/donald-trump-understanding-american-phenomenon|title=Leading Writers on Donald Trump|last=Benjamin|first=Rich|date=August 13, 2016|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-07-15}}</ref> and ''The New York Review of Books''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rich Benjamin |url=https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/rich-benjamin/ |access-date=2024-05-09 |website=The New York Review of Books |language=en}}</ref>
== Career == Benjamin's work focuses on United States politics and culture, democracy, money, high finance, class, Artificial Intelligence, public policy, global cultural transformation, and demographic change.<ref name="TNY" /><ref name="LAT">{{cite web|author=Benjamin, Rich|date=July 19, 2019|title=Op-Ed: Trump's race-baiting hasn't produced many policy wins, but that was never the point|url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-07-18/trump-racism-xenophobia-immigration-democrats|work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>
Benjamin has been contributing essays to ''The New Yorker'' since 2017.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=The New Yorker|date=2022|title=The New Yorker Contributors|magazine=The New Yorker |url=https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/rich-benjamin}}</ref>
Benjamin's book, ''Searching for Whitopia'', was the subject of a TED Talk that has been viewed more than 2.8 million times and been translated into 25 languages.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Rich Benjamin |url=https://worth.com/person/rich-benjamin/ |access-date=2025-11-11 |website=Worth |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Rich Benjamin|url=https://www.ted.com/speakers/rich_benjamin|publisher=TED}}</ref> The book has received coverage on NPR<ref>{{cite web|last=NPR Radio Hour|date=November 20, 2015|title=What is a Whitopia? And What Might It Mean to Live There?|publisher=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/11/20/455909004/what-is-a-whitopia-and-what-might-it-mean-to-live-there}}</ref> and MSNBC.<ref>{{Cite web|last=MSNBC News|date=January 15, 2018|title=How Does Race Play to Trump's Base?|website=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lotlHyERT2U}}</ref>
His scholarly research has received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, Brown University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition, Benjamin became a Fellow in the literary arts at the Bellagio Center, Rockefeller Foundation in 2020.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Rich Benjamin {{!}} The Italian Academy |url=https://italianacademy.columbia.edu/directory/rich-benjamin |access-date=2025-11-11 |website=italianacademy.columbia.edu}}</ref>
In 2021 Benjamin delivered the Poynter Lecture at Yale Law School on "conservatism and Trumpism in the era of digital media—on how right-wing ideology, white fear, and the digital media ecosystem threaten democracy in America."<ref>{{cite web|last=Yale University Law School|date=January 15, 2022|title=Whiteness, Conservatism, and Democracy in the Digital Age, Rich Benjamin, Poynter Lecture|url=https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/yale-law-school-events/whiteness-conservatism-and-democracy-digital-age-rich-benjamin-poynter-lecture}}</ref>
He serves on the Board of the Authors Guild, the largest, oldest union of writers in the US that fights for authors’ rights, their commercial interests, and free speech.<ref name=":0" />
He has presented his research on money, blockchain, and decentralization at a conference on technology.<ref>{{cite web |last=New_Public |date=July 1, 2022 |title=Live from the Decentralized Web |url=https://newpublic.substack.com/p/-live-from-the-decentralized-web#%C2%A7dont-miss-this-lineup |website=New_Public}}</ref>
In 2021, he served as a Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=New York Public Library|date=January 15, 2022|title=Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars, NYPL|url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2021/04/05/cullman-fellows}}</ref>
Benjamin was in Princeton, NJ in 2023 for his research and teaching post as the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies at Princeton University.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Past Anschutz Distinguished Fellows |url=https://effroncenter.princeton.edu/opportunities/anschutz-distinguished-fellowship/past-fellows |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=Effron Center for the Study of America |language=en}}</ref>
In 2023-2024, Benjamin served as a Harvard-Radcliffe Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nietzel |first=Michael T. |title=The Harvard Radcliffe Institute Has Named Its Fellows For 2023-24 |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2023/07/07/the-harvard-radcliffe-institute-names-its-fellows-for-2023-24/ |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref> There he continued research on his major field of interest, high finance—the social-scientific dimensions of quants, flash trading, hedge funds, extreme wealth, and risk.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Harvard Radcliffe Institute Announces 2023–2024 Fellowship Class |url=https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news-and-ideas/harvard-radcliffe-institute-announces-2023-2024-fellowship-class |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University |language=en}}</ref>
== Works == thumb|Rich Benjamin (r) discussing ''Talk to Me'' with Nicholas Thompson (l), CEO of ''The Atlantic'', at The New York Public Library, main stage February 2025
=== Searching For Whitopia === Benjamin is the author of two major nonfiction books and numerous essays, reviews, and opinion pieces across prominent U.S. publications.<ref name=":5" /> According to a 2016 interview, Benjamin garnered information for ''Searching for Whitopia'' through immersive, firsthand research and quantitative data. During his research, he lived in several predominantly white, fast-growing communities, where he engaged residents everyday through activities like golf, poker, zoning meetings, and county town halls. The book is noted for its early exploration of exurban growth, white racial anxiety, and political polarization. <ref>''Adaptation: Rich benjamin: What is A 'whitopia' — and what might it mean to live there?'' (2016). . Washington: NPR. Retrieved from <nowiki>https://proxy.library.georgetown.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/blogs-podcasts-websites/adaptation/docview/2198634023/se-2</nowiki></ref> The book earned Editors’ Choice distinctions from ''Booklist'' and the American Library Association.<ref name=":4" />
=== Talk to Me === In 2025, Pantheon Books published Benjamin’s second major book, ''Talk to Me: Lessons from a Family Forged by History'', a family memoir received “not only as a portrait of his family, but as a bold, pugnacious portrait of America.”<ref>{{Cite web |last=Penguin Random House |date=February 11, 2025 |title=Talk to Me: Lessons from a Family Forged by History |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/714287/talk-to-me-by-rich-benjamin/ |access-date=November 14, 2025}}</ref> The book drew significant critical acclaim, including starred reviews from ''Publishers'' ''Weekly''<ref>{{Cite news |last=Publishers Weekly |date=December 2, 2024 |title=Talk to Me: Lessons from a Family Forged by History |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780593317396 |access-date=November 14, 2025 |work=Publishers Weekly}}</ref>, ''Kirkus Reviews'' <ref>{{Cite news |last=Kirkus Reviews |date=January 15, 2025 |title="An Evocative, Wise Memoir of a Multilayered Search for Roots" |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rich-benjamin/talk-to-me-3/ |access-date=November 14, 2025 |work=Kirkus Reviews}}</ref>, and ''BookPage''<ref>{{Cite news |last=BookPage |date=February 11, 2025 |title="Rich Benjamin reckons with his family’s exile from Haiti in his vivid, novelistic memoir, Talk to Me." |url=https://www.bookpage.com/reviews/talk-to-me-rich-benjamin-book-review/ |archive-url= |access-date=November 14, 2025}}</ref>. The book debuted with interviews of Benjamin on NPR’s ''Fresh Air with Terry Gross''<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |date=June 2, 2025 |title=The Secret of My Grandfather: BBC World Service |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct6wpn |access-date=2025-11-14 |work=BBC World Service |language=en}}</ref>, MSNBC’s ''The Beat with Ari Melber''<ref name=":2" />'', Brené Brown''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Brené |date=February 16, 2025 |title=Five Questions with Rich Benjamin |url=https://brenebrown.com/articles/2025/02/19/5-questions-with-rich-benjamin/ |access-date=November 14, 2025 |website=Brené Brown}}</ref>'','' and BBC World Service<ref name=":6" />. ''Talk to Me'' blends archival research, political history, cultural criticism, and personal narrative reflecting Benjamin’s broader body of work on American identity and democracy.<ref name=":3" />
''Talk to Me'' was named a "Best Book of 2025" by ''Kirkus Reviews''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kirkus Reviews |date=November 17, 2025 |title=Best Books of 2025 |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/best-of/2025/nonfiction/books/ |url-status=live |access-date=January 21, 2026 |website=Kirkus Reviews}}</ref>
== Education ==
As a doctoral student at Stanford University, Benjamin studied with Professors Tim Lenoir and Terry Winograd, an adviser to the founders of Google. Benjamin received his BA from Wesleyan University in Government and Literature and his PhD from Stanford University in Modern Thought and Literature.<ref name=":1" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{official|http://www.richbenjamin.com}} *{{C-SPAN|9265904}} *{{TED speaker}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Benjamin, Rich}} Category:Living people Category:American male journalists Category:American columnists Category:African-American writers Category:American political writers Category:American gay writers Category:Whiteness scholars Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:21st-century African-American people