Matthew Yglesias

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Matthew Yglesias

Born	May 18, 1981
Education	magna cum laude Harvard University (2003)
Circumstances
Occupation	Blogger, journalist
Ethnicity	Caucasian - U.S.
Notable credit(s)	influential blogger; staff writer at The Atlantic Monthly magazine; former writer for the American Prospect; frequent guest on BloggingHeads.tv

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Matthew Yglesias (born May 18, 1981) is a popular American political blogger and a prominent voice in the liberal blogosphere.

Yglesias went to high school at The Dalton School in New York City and later attended Harvard University where he studied philosophy. He graduated magna cum laude in 2003. He was editor-in-chief of The Harvard Independent, a weekly newsmagazine, and also wrote for several other campus publications.

Yglesias started blogging in early 2002, while still in college, focusing mainly on American politics and public policy issues, often approached from an abstract, philosophical perspective. Yglesias joined the American Prospect as a writing fellow upon his graduation in 2003, subsequently becoming a staff writer. His posts appeared regularly on the magazine's collaborative weblog TAPPED. His personal blog has been hosted, at various times, on Blogger, Typepad, Josh Marshall's TPMCafe, and at matthewyglesias.com. Since 2007, he has been a staff writer at The Atlantic Monthly magazine and his blog is affiliated with the The Atlantic's website.

He has also written for mainstream publications such as the New York Times Magazine, and has made occasional appearances on radio and television as a political commentator. He is a regular contributor to BloggingHeads.tv. His first book, Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats (ISBN 978-0470086223), was published by Wiley in April 2008.^[1]

Yglesias is one of the few bloggers whose work is cited regularly (and respectfully) on both sides of the blogosphere, receiving frequent mentions from liberals such as Duncan Black and Kevin Drum but also from writers sometimes labeled conservatives, particularly Glenn Reynolds and Andrew Sullivan. In fact, Sullivan takes nominations on his blog for the Yglesias Award, a tongue-in-cheek honor "for writers, politicians, columnists or pundits who actually criticize their own side, make enemies among political allies, and generally risk something for the sake of saying what they believe." ^[2] Yglesias is often referred to in the blogosphere as Big Media Matt, a semi-affectionate nickname coined by Black after his recruitment by the American Prospect. ^[3]

Besides analytic philosophy, Yglesias has a passion for basketball and occasionally posts about the NBA, particularly the Washington Wizards. His father is screenwriter and novelist Rafael Yglesias.