Life and Career
Podhoretz is the son of conservative journalists Norman Podhoretz and Midge Decter; he is his mother's youngest child of four, and his father's youngest child of two. He grew up on the Upper West Side in New York City. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1982. In 1986, he became a five-time champion on the game show Jeopardy!.
Podhoretz served as speechwriter to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan as well as former President George H.W. Bush. He also served in the capacity of special assistant to White House Drug Czar William Bennett. He was co-founder as well of the White House Writers Group, a corporate speechwriting and public-relations firm in Washington, D.C.
Podhoretz was a consultant for the popular television series The West Wing, including the controversial episode "Gaza" in season five, first broadcast May 12, 2004. on, D.C.
Podhoretz has contributed to a number of conservative publications, including National Review and the Weekly Standard, where he is a movie critic and was the magazine's deputy editor. He was also a consulting editor at ReganBooks, a former imprint of HarperCollins. Podhoretz has a regular column at the New York Post. He has also appeared on television as a political commentator, on Fox News, CNN's Reliable Sources, and The McLaughlin Group (in the chair usually occupied by conservative Tony Blankley), among other places. He has also worked at Time, the Washington Times, Insight on the News, and U.S. News & World Report. Podhoretz was a contributor to The Corner, a group blog run by National Review.
On January 1, 2009, John Podhoretz became editor of Commentary, succeeding Neal Kozodoy, joining his father, Commentary's former Editor-in-Chief and current Editor-at-Large. Podhoretz joined the Commentary staff in November, 2007 in an interim role as editorial director. He is currently contributing extensively to Commentary's blog "Contentions" on political issues.
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