Hello, I am Benjamin Eli Smith. I was born on November 4, 1976, in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I co-founded Semafor, a global news organization, with Justin Smith in 2022. Prior to that, I served as a media columnist at The New York Times from 2020 to 2022 and was the editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News from 2011 to 2020. My upbringing was influenced by my Jewish, Democratic mother, and my Christian, conservative father. My educational background includes graduating with a B.A. summa cum laude from Yale University in 1999, where I wrote for The Yale Herald and The New Journal magazine.