Ross Douthat — SPARQNOW

At-a-Glance

Regular columnist for The New York Times since April 2009, becoming its youngest regular op-ed writer.
Author of books including "Grand New Party" (2008), "The Decadent Society" (2020), and "Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious" (2025).
Hosts the Times Opinion podcast "Interesting Times," which began in 2025.
Previously served as a senior editor at The Atlantic and has been the film critic for National Review since 2007.
Graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 2002, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Biography

Ross Gregory Douthat is an American author and a prominent columnist for The New York Times. Born in San Francisco in 1979 and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, Douthat converted to Catholicism as an adolescent, influenced by writers such as C. S.

Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and J.

R. R. Tolkien.

He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 2002, where he contributed to The Harvard Crimson and edited The Harvard Salient, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.