Jim Holt (born 30 October 1954) is an American journalist, popular-science author, and essayist.
He has contributed to The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The American Scholar, and Slate.
In 1997 he was editor of The New Leader, a political magazine.
For ten years Holt hosted a weekly radio spot on BBC Wales, "Living in America, with Jim Holt".
He has appeared on William F. Buckley's Firing Line, NBC News with Tom Brokaw, CNN, and had a brief appearance in an episode of Billy on the Street in which he ended an impromptu interview after his interlocutor insisted he reveal his sexuality.