John Pollack (born c. 1965) is an American originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who served as a Special Assistant to the President and Presidential Speechwriter for Bill Clinton, as a foreign correspondent, and as an advisor to prominent leaders and philanthropists.
Pollack began his journalism career writing for The Hartford Courant, and later spent several years in Spain as a foreign correspondent, freelancing for American media and eventually working for the Associated Press in its Madrid bureau.
On his return to the United States, he served as Communications Director on the U.S. Senate campaign of his mother, Lana Pollack, and as a project manager for the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, now known as The Henry Ford.
He is the author of four books: The World On a String: How to Become a Freelance Foreign Correspondent (1997); Cork Boat: A True Story of the Unlikeliest Boat Ever Built (2004); The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History and Made Wordplay more than Some Antics (2011); and Shortcut: How Analogies Reveal Connections, Spark Innovation and Sell Our Greatest Ideas (2014).
One of Pollack's notable projects was his 30-year quest to build what became The Cork Boat, a 22-foot Viking ship made almost entirely of wine corks, which he and his boatbuilding partner Garth Goldstein, along with a small crew, eventually sailed and rowed down the Douro River in Portugal.