Kurt Andersen (born August 22, 1954) is an American novelist who is also host of the Peabody-winning public radio program Studio 360, a co-production between Public Radio International and WNYC. In 1986 with E. Graydon Carter he co-founded Spy magazine, which they sold in 1991; it continued publishing until 1998. Previously he was a writer and columnist for New York Magazine, ("The Imperial City"), and The New Yorker ("The Culture Industry") and Time ("Spectator"), where he wrote on a wide variety of subjects, including the controversial Los Angeles coroner Thomas Noguchi. In 1999 he co-founded with Michael Hirschorn and Deanna Brown an online media news web site called Inside.com, which they sold to Primedia; Primedia closed the site in October 2001.
In 1996, Bill Reilly fired Andersen after two and a half years from his position as editor-in-chief at New York, citing the publication's financial results. Andersen attributed the firing to his refusal to kill a story about a rivalry between investment bankers Felix Rohatyn and Steven Rattner that had upset Henry Kravis, a member of the firm's ownership group.
Andersen was born in Omaha, Nebraska and now lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife Kreamer and his two daughters, Kate and Lucy.
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