He was born in 1957 and grew up in San Jose, California, where his father worked for Lockheed as a satellite test engineer.
He is a faculty member in the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia.
[4] In 2003, after being fired from the Vancouver Sun over a controversial editorial about freedom of speech in a post-9/11 milieu, Beers started an online publication in Vancouver, British Columbia called The Tyee.
[5] Funded in large part by non-profit groups, the British Columbia Federation of Labour and an advertising agency called Quest Advertising, the Tyee's goal is to publish news and opinion not adequately covered by the mainstream news media.
[6] His book, Blue Sky Dream: A Memoir of America's Fall from Grace, is based on his essay, "The Crash of Blue Sky California", which won the American National Magazine Awards when it appeared in Harper's.