Courtney E. Martin

Courtney is a weekly columnist for On Being, a Peabody Award-winning public radio conversation, podcast, and Webby Award-winning website. Her newest book,

The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream

explores how people are redefining the "good life" in the wake of the Great Recession.

Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor, and Mother Jones, among other publications. Courtney has given two TED talks, one on the reinvention of feminism and the other (forthcoming in September) on the reinvention of the American Dream. She has also appeared on Good Morning America, The TODAY Show, The O’Reilly Factor, CNN, and MSNBC, among other major media outlets. She is a widely sought after speaker, who gives several dozen lectures and speeches annually.

Courtney’s first book,

Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection is Harming Young Women

was awarded a Books for a Better Life nomination and was called "smart and spirited" by The New York Times. She is also the author of

Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists

,

Project Rebirth: Survival and the Strength of the Human Spirit from 9/11 Survivors

, released in conjunction with a documentary film, called Rebirth, by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jim Whitaker,

CLICK: When We Knew We Were Feminists

, co-edited with J. Courtney Sullivan, and

The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful and (HIV) Positive

, the life story of AIDS activist Marvelyn Brown.

Courtney has surprised herself by co-founding a series of status quo bucking enterprises: the Solutions Journalism Network, popularizing the practice of rigorous, compelling reporting about responses to social problems, FRESH Speakers Bureau, and Valenti Martin Media. Courtney also does ongoing strategy work with TED and the Aspen Institute. She is on the Council of Advisors of the Wellesley Centers for Women, Family Story, and Feministing.com.

Courtney is a recipient of the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics and has held residencies at the Roc