He has been a White House speechwriter; a Washington journalist; a deputy presidential campaign manager; a Disney studio executive; and a motion picture and television producer and screenwriter.

He graduated from Harvard College summa cum laude in molecular biology, where he was valedictorian of his class, president of the Harvard Lampoon, president of the Signet Society, and on the editorial boards of the Harvard Crimson and Harvard Advocate. As a Marshall Scholar, he received a First in English from Cambridge University in England. As a Danforth Fellow, he received a Ph.D. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University.

He was a program officer at the Aspen Institute; executive assistant to U.S. Commissioner of Education Ernest L. Boyer; chief speechwriter to Vice President Walter F. Mondale; deputy op-ed editor and columnist for the Washington Star; visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution; and a regular commentator on NPR's All Things Considered and on the CBS Morning News. In the Mondale presidential campaign he was in charge of policy, speechwriting, issues, and research. Recruited after the 1984 election by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner, he worked at Disney for 12 years, both as a studio vice president, and as a writer- producer under exclusive contract.

He has credits on THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN, starring Eddie Murphy, which he wrote and executive produced; NOISES OFF, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, which he adapted for the screen; and MAX Q, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer for Disney television.

He is editor of The Harvard Lampoon Centennial Celebration (1973); co-author (with Ernest L. Boyer) of Educating for Survival (1977); and editor of The Monday Morning Imagination (1975) and What Is An Educated Person? (1980). Articles by him have appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Time, U.S. News & World Report, The American Scholar, The Woodrow Wilson Quarterly, and The New Republic.

At USC he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Media & Politics, Campaign Communication, and Entertainment, Communication & Society.

The Center for Entertainment Studies is a multi-disciplinary research, policy, and advocacy center dedicated to exploring the intersection of entertainment, academia, and society. It builds bridges between eleven USC schools whose faculties study aspects of entertainment, media, and culture. The Center is a unique convener of entertainment industry professionals, scholars, political leaders, and critics. Through teaching and research; through its programs of visiting fellows, conferences, public events, and publications; and in its attempts to illuminate and repair the world, the Center works to be at the forefront of discussion and praxis in the field.