John Avlon

John Avlon is an award-winning political commentator, journalist, author, news anchor and historian. He was formerly editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, a CNN senior political analyst and anchor, and, in 2024, the Democratic congressional nominee in New York’s first district. Avlon is the author of Washington’s Farewell, Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America, and Independent Nation: How Centrists can change American Politics, as well as the co-editor of the two Deadline Artists: America’s Greatest Newspaper Columns anthologies; his most recent book is Lincoln and the Fight for Peace, published in 2022. 

A defining moment of his early career was when he served as chief speechwriter and deputy director of policy to New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani throughout his time in office, including on September 11th, 2001. In the immediate aftermath he was responsible for writing the eulogies of the first responders murdered in the attacks and, shortly after, wrote the distinguished essay ‘The Resilient City’ which was selected to conclude the anthology Empire City: New York through the Centuries. 

Avlon currently serves as the Chairman of the Citizens Union, New York’s oldest good government group, and sits on the advisory board of The Theodore Roosevelt Association; he was also a longstanding advisory board member of the Bronx Academy of Letters. Most recently, he is hosting ‘How to Fix it’ – a solutions journalism podcast on The Bulwark. He lives in New York with his wife, Margaret Hoover, and two children, Jack and Toula Lou. 

Avlon has been a dedicated member of House of SpeakEasy’s Board of Directors since it was founded in 2013 – regularly co-hosting both Seriously Entertaining shows and launch events for the Bookmobile library initiative. John performed on stage for Seriously Entertaining at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater on February 7, 2017, speaking on the evening’s theme, “Failing Up”; in June 2026, he co-hosted the Seriously Entertaining show ‘We the People’ alongside Max Rudin, President of the Library of America – an evening dedicated to examining how democracy shaped the nascent United States 250 years ago, and how it continues to evolve.