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Biography
David Plotz (born January 31, 1970) is an American journalist and former CEO of Atlas Obscura, an online magazine devoted to discovery and exploration. A writer with Slate since its inception in 1996, Plotz was the online magazine's editor from June 2008 until July 2014, succeeding Jacob Weisberg. Plotz is currently Editor at Large at Business Insider.
Early life and career
David Plotz grew up in Washington, D.C., the child of Dr. Judith Plotz, an English professor at The George Washington University, and Dr. Paul Plotz, researcher at the National Institutes of Health. He attended Lafayette Elementary School and the St. Albans School.
In 1992, Plotz graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. degree.
Career
Plotz worked as a paralegal for the Department of Justice. He switched to journalism and served as a writer and senior editor for the Washington City Paper. He joined Slate when it launched in 1996.
Work
Plotz has written for Slate, New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Reader's Digest, Rolling Stone, New Republic, Washington Post, and GQ. He won the National Press Club's Hume Award for Political Reporting in 2000, was a National Magazine Award finalist, for a Harper's article about South Carolina's gambling industry and won an Online Journalism Award for a Slate piece on Enron. He also appears on the weekly Slate Political Gabfest podcast with John Dickerson and Emily Bazelon.
He is the author of The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank (2005) about the Repository for Germinal Choice, and Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned when I Read Every Single Word of the Bible (2009), based on his "Blogging the Bible" series from Slate.com.
Personal life
He is married to Hanna Rosin, a former reporter for The Washington Post and a national correspondent for The Atlantic. They live in Washington, D.C., with their three children. Plotz is Jewish.
Published works
- Plotz, David (2006). The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank. Random House Trade Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0812970524.
- Plotz, David (2010). Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0061374258.