James Hamblin (born James Richard Hamblin) is an American physician specializing in public health and preventive medicine. He is a former staff writer at ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', an author, and a lecturer in public health policy at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

Early life and education

Hamblin grew up in Munster,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, and graduated from

Munster High School Munster High School (MHS) is a public high school in Munster, Indiana. It is part of the School Town of Munster. Munster High School serves as the only high school for the Munster School District. Demographics The demographic breakdown of the 1, ...

. He received his undergraduate degree from

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...

where he was a member of the

Lilting Banshees The Lilting Banshees are a sketch comedy troupe at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. They are notable for launching the entertainment careers of several alumni and for being a popular campus attraction. History The sketch comedy troupe ...

comedy troupe. Hamblin later graduated from the School of Medicine at Indiana University, then did his internship in internal medicine at

Mount Auburn Hospital Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. It was founded by Civil War nurse and administrator Emily Elizabeth Parsons as the first hospital in Cambridge in 1866. It was reopened in 1886 a ...

. He began a

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgra ...

as a

radiologist Radiology ( ) is the medical discipline that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide their treatment, within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiat ...

at the Medical Center at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

. During his residency, Hamblin trained in improv at the

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (shorter UCB Theatre) is an American improvisational theatre company and training center founded by the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe members Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh. Prior t ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. He says he was regularly mistaken for a student due to looking younger than his age, and has often been compared to the

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

teenage genius Doogie Howser. He later completed a residency in general

preventive medicine Preventive healthcare, or prophylaxis, consists of measures taken for the purposes of disease prevention.Hugh R. Leavell and E. Gurney Clark as "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical and mental hea ...

at Griffin Hospital which is affiliated with Yale University.

Career

In 2012, he chose to pursue a career in media and joined ''

'' and became the editor for its health channel, which had been launched in 2011. In 2013, he created an online comedy video show about health and lifestyle topics on ''The Atlantic'' website called ''If Our Bodies Could Talk'', for which he was a finalist for a

Webby award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...

for Best Web Personality/Host and was last produced in 2017. He has been named among the 140 people to follow on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

by ''Time'', and '' BuzzFeed'' has called him "the most delightful MD ever" in response to his work with that show. He also authored ''If Our Bodies Could Talk'', a nonfiction book about human health published by Doubleday. His second book, ''Clean'', was published by Riverhead.

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

named it an editor's choice and Vanity Fair named among the best books of 2020. Hamblin was a staff writer for ''The Atlantic'' magazine, where he was also a senior editor for five years. He has appeared on ''

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Studios, it is the second ...

''. He has given talks at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

Wharton School of Business The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

, South by Southwest, and

TEDMED TEDMED is an annual conference focusing on health and medicine, with a year-round web-based community. TEDMED is an independent event operating under license from the nonprofit TED (conference), TED conference. Background , TEDMED staff oper ...

. In 2016, he served as moderator at the launch of the White House

Precision Medicine Initiative The All of Us Research Program (previously known as the Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program) is a research program created in 2015 during the tenure of Barack Obama with $130 million in funding that aims to make advances in tailoring med ...

where he interviewed President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

. Hamblin is a past

Poynter Fellow in journalism. He is board certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine.

Personal life

In 2019, Hamblin married Sarah Freeman Yager, a managing editor of ''The Atlantic''. They reside in Brooklyn, New York.

Books

* *

References

External links

Talking simply, not simplistically, about health
a TEDMED talk by James Hamblin * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamblin, James 1982 births Living people American science writers Writers from Brooklyn American Internet celebrities