Amanda Ripley writes books and feature magazine articles for the Atlantic and other outlets. She is the author, most recently, of The Smartest Kids in the World–and How They Got That Way, a New York Times bestseller. Her first book, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes–and Why, was published in 15 countries and turned into a PBS documentary. In her writing, Amanda explores the gap between public policy and human behavior. For Time and The Atlantic, she has written cover stories on the primacy of sports in American high schools, the college of the future and the science of motivating children. She has visited schools on four continents and interviewed hundreds of kids, teachers and parents. The Smartest Kids, Amanda’s last book, follows three American teenagers living for one year in countries with higher-performing education systems. The book was referenced on the op-ed page of the New York Times seven times, and it was published in 15 countries. A documentary film inspired by The Smartest Kids is currently in production across six countries. Amanda’s writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Slate, the Wall Street Journal and the Times of London. Her work has helped Time win two National Magazine Awards. To discuss her writing, Amanda has appeared on ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX News and NPR. She has spoken at the Pentagon, the U.S. Senate, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Before joining Time as a writer in 2000, Amanda covered the D.C. courts for Washington City Paper and Capitol Hill for Congressional Quarterly. She graduated from Cornell University. She currently lives in Washington, D.C., where she is a senior fellow at the Emerson Collective.