Ezra Klein (born May 10, 1984) is an American journalist, political analyst, New York Times columnist, and the host of The Ezra Klein Show podcast. He is a co-founder of Vox and formerly served as the website's editor-at-large. He has held editorial positions at The Washington Post and The American Prospect, and was a regular contributor to Bloomberg News and MSNBC. His first book, Why We're Polarized, was published by Simon & Schuster in January 2020. Klein rose to prominence as a blogger, who became well known for his in-depth analysis on a range of policy issues. By 2007, Klein's blog had gained a substantial following and was acquired by The American Prospect, where he served as an associate editor. At The Washington Post, Klein managed Wonkblog, a branded blog that featured his and other reporters’ writing on domestic policy. In 2014, alongside fellow journalists Matt Yglesias and Melissa Bell, Klein co-founded Vox, a website for explanatory news owned by Vox Media. He served as the editor-in-chief, and later as editor-at-large. Klein also contributed articles to the website, hosted an associated podcast (The Ezra Klein Show), and worked as an executive producer for Vox's Netflix series Explained. In November 2020, Klein announced he would be leaving Vox to join The New York Times as a columnist and podcast host. In 2012, Klein was described as a "Washington ". Early life and education Klein was raised in a Jewish family in Irvine, California. His father, Abel Klein, originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Irvine; his mother is an artist. Klein attended University High School, where he was a poor student and graduated in 2002 with a 2.2 GPA. Klein attended the University of California, Santa Cruz for two years before transferring to the University of California, Los Angeles, from which he graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. While at UCSC, he applied to write for City on a Hill Press but was rejected. He said school was never a great fit for him academically or socially. Career Klein worked on Howard Dean's primary campaign in Vermont in 2003 and interned for the Washington Monthly in Washington, D.C., in 2004. "The media is as effective and important an agent for change as the legislative bodies, and I think it's where I'm happiest and most effective," Klein