Kurt Andersen stays a step ahead of history with 'True Believers'

The public intellectual has become a rare creature in America, but Kurt Andersen has helped keep it from going extinct. He co-founded Spy magazine, was editor of New York magazine and now writes pieces like Time's 2011 person of the year story, the Protester. These days, though, he mostly splits his time between hosting "Studio 360," broadcast weekly to 160 NPR stations, and writing the occasional bestselling novel. His next book, "True Believers" (Random House: 447 pp., $27), comes out Tuesday.

By Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times

July 8, 2012