About
Douglas Rushkoff
Named one of the "world's ten most influential intellectuals" by MIT.
Douglas Rushkoff is an author and documentarian who studies human autonomy in a digital age.
He has written 25 books on media, technology, and culture, including Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, Team Human, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, Program or Be Programmed, Life Inc, and Media Virus. His book Coercion won the Marshall McLuhan Award.
He created the concepts of "viral media," "screenagers," and "social currency," and his PBS Frontline documentaries — Generation Like, The Persuaders, and Merchants of Cool — remain essential viewing on media, marketing, and youth culture. He is also developing original graphic novels.
Rushkoff is Team Human Ambassador at ANDUS Labs, a permanent member of the Club of Rome, a senior research fellow at the Institute for the Future, and a fellow at the Institute for General Semantics. He is Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at CUNY/Queens College and a columnist for Medium.
Roles & Affiliations
Full Bio
Douglas Rushkoff is an author, documentarian, and professor whose work examines the intersections of media, technology, culture, and human well-being. He is widely credited with coining the term "viral media" and popularizing concepts such as "screenagers" and "social currency."
His books span media theory, economics, philosophy, and fiction. Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires (2022) explores how the wealthiest technologists are planning for a world they intend to survive — while abandoning the rest of us. Team Human (2019) makes the case for retrieving the human values lost in the digital landscape. Present Shock (2013) examines what happens when society becomes obsessed with the now. Program or Be Programmed (2010), now in an updated 15th anniversary edition, remains the definitive guide to navigating algorithmic culture with agency.
As a documentarian, his PBS Frontline films — Merchants of Cool, The Persuaders, and Generation Like — have shaped public understanding of marketing, media manipulation, and identity formation in the digital age. His book Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say won the Marshall McLuhan Award.
Rushkoff teaches at CUNY/Queens College, hosts the Team Human podcast, contributes regularly to Medium, and speaks at conferences worldwide on technology, media, and the future of humanity.