Randy Cohen is an American writer and humorist known as the author of The Ethicist column in The New York Times Magazine between 1999 and 2011.
Cohen is also known as the author of several books, a playwright, and the host of the public radio show Person Place Thing.
"[5] Cohen wrote for TV Nation, sharing in a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series in 1995.
The Spokane, Wash., Spokesman-Review decided on June 20, 2007, to drop Cohen's column, which had been scheduled to begin running in the paper on the following Saturday, because of his donation.
Cohen responded that he saw no ethical violation, because he viewed MoveOn as no more activist than other organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of America.
In the show's first season, Cohen interviewed guests Dick Cavett, Jane Smiley, Susie Essman, Dave Cowens, Michael Pollan, John Hockenberry, Rickie Lee Jones, Ed Koch, Samantha Bee, RL Stine, and Sir Roger Bannister.
[11] Cohen was born in Charleston, South Carolina and raised in Reading, Pennsylvania,[10] in what he has called a "suburban reform Jewish household.