I am Thomas Byrne Edsall, an American journalist and academic known for my weekly opinion column in The New York Times. Throughout my career, I have reported for publications such as The Providence Journal, The Baltimore Sun, The New Republic, and spent 25 years covering national politics for the Washington Post. I held the Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Chair at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism until 2014. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I come from a family with a rich academic and professional background.