Media Theorist, CNN Commentator, and author of Present Shock Douglas Rushkoff is one of the most influential thinkers of the digital age. He offers accessible and provocative insights into how interactive communications affect society, business, and our day-to-day lives.

The originator of such terms and ideas as “viral media” and “social currency,” Dr. Rushkoff is the author of 12 books on technology, media, and pop culture that have been translated into 25 languages. Winner of the Neil Postman award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity, Rushkoff was named one of the ten most important thought leaders in the world by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute. 

His 2013 book, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, describes the constant movement of information and events flowing from Twitter, our smart phones, and our daily routines. From Occupy Wall Street to the Tea Party Movement to The Simpsons, present shock is, according to Forbes, “a big concept with profound implications for culture, politics and business.”

In Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out, Rushkoff proposes a new renaissance in creativity and collaboration that gives organizations the freedom to reconnect with the passion that fuels true innovation. “Rushkoff is damn smart,” proclaimed Walter Isaacson. “Most business books try to scare you into adopting lessons from other companies. His teaches you how to improve your core business from the inside.”

His book Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age expresses how to use new technologies to gain access to the control panel of civilization. According to Dr. Rushkoff, an Evangelist for Codeacademy, computer programming will become the equivalent of literacy in a digital age.

His other books include Playing the Future and Life Inc., which The Miami Herald named one of 2010’s best business books. 

Writer and host of three PBS Frontline documentaries, Rushkoff received national exposure and acclaim for The Merchants of Cool, which explored the relationship between corporations and youth culture; The Persuaders, about creative marketing and consumer resistance; and Digital Nation, investigating life in a virtual age.

Rushkoff is a columnist for MPI and a contributor to The Guardian, Discover, and NPR. He holds a PhD in New Media from Utrecht University and teaches at NYU and The New School.