Cohen’s Diverse Talent Takes Him Interesting Places

An exclusive Authorlink interview
with Randy Cohen, author of Be Good

By Ellen Birkett Morris
January, 2013

For most people, the word ethics summons up images of a staid authority figure sternly judging your every action. But from 1999 to 2011, Randy Cohen brought common sense, compassion, and humor to “The Ethicist” column in the New York Times Magazine. That work has yielded his second book on ethics Be Good: How to Navigate the Ethics of Everything.

In Be Good Cohen reflects on his twelve years writing the column and takes a long view look at changes in questions of ethics, the moral landscape and his approach to addressing ethical dilemmas.

“I wanted to see the longer trends. I asked myself if there were consistent and coherent principles of moral thought and if the same principles should apply to decisions of public policy that have a moral element,” said Cohen.

The book is divided into categories including family, technology, arts, money, animals and love and sex. Each section begins with a preface that puts the issues discussed into a broader cultural and historical context. Be Good uses columns as they appeared in the New York Times Magazine, but includes additional material such as an intriguing e-mail exchange between Cohen and the playwright John Patrick Shanley on the question of intellectual property.

Cohen leavens his opinions with humor, a skill that he cultivated early in his career writing humorous essays for magazines and working as a comedy writer. Cohen studied music as an undergraduate at State University of New York at Albany and received an MFA in music composition from the California Institute of the Arts.

He ventured into stand-up comedy and decided to pursue a career penning humorous essays.

“I was a little naive thinking I could make a living writing for newspapers and magazines. It shows you how dimwitted persistence can compensate for limitations in talent,” said Cohen.

He worked and reworked humor pieces and found that he was getting published in better and better venues. His humor writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harpers, the Atlantic, and Young Love Comics. Cohen said he was buoyed by the encouragement of New Yorker editor Daniel Menaker, who though he never bought a piece from Cohen would send him edited versions of his submissions.

“It meant a lot to me that he’d take the time to edit it and teach me how to be a better writer,” said Cohen.

Cohen was looking for a change of pace when he sent a ten page writing sample to Late Night with David Letterman. He got the job.

“I had never seen the show. I watched it for a week, sent in my sample and got called in for an interview with Dave. It was dumb luck. They were actively looking to fill four writing slots. It was like being a big, dumb rookie drafted by a World Series team,” said Cohen.

He calls the seven years he spent on the show a “comedy writing apprenticeship.” Cohen honed his writing skills and learned how to edit pieces.

He also learned a vital skill for all writers, how to live with rejection. Along with the rest of the writing staff, Cohen wrote vast amounts of material that never made it on air. “The rejection rate on Late Night was around 90 percent,” said Cohen.

He won three Emmy Awards for his work there and a forth for his work on Michael Moore’s “TV Nation.”

Before taking on the column for the New York Times, Cohen was also head writer on the “The Rosie O’Donnell Show.”

“People who didn’t like the column would say the Times ‘hired some joke writer.’ Why me? There is no straight answer. I had no philosophy background, but I think my ability to write a humorous line was an asset. I tried to offer a fresh view of the culture.”

While he did the column Cohen also worked in a new genre, drama. In 2010, his first play, “The Punishing Blow,” ran at New York’s Clurman Theater.

A man used to writing challenges, Cohen’s challenge in writing “Be Good” was to make it more than just a collection of columns.

“My agent Lydia Wills said ‘If you do a greatest hits collection it will only appeal to those who already like you,’” said Cohen.

He took eight months and developed a book that was 60 percent columns (reprinted as they first appeared) and forty percent new material. He strove to pick columns that offered a wide range of examples related to ethics including a question sent in the early years of the internet about whether Googling a blind date constitutes an invasion of privacy.

“Years later that just seems quaint,” said Cohen.

He worked with Chronicle Editor Leigh Haber to hone the book.

“I love editors. Who wouldn’t like someone to apply all her intelligence to make their work better?” asked Cohen.

He said writing and rewriting alone is necessary but not sufficient for a writer to hone their skills.

“I was able to get better at writing because of that relationship with editors over the years. It is gold. It is rubies. Cultivate that,” said Cohen.

He urged writers hoping to break into doing articles or humor pieces to go to their local bookstore and get the names of editors off the masthead of publications and submit their best work.

As for the ethics of modern America, Cohen is largely optimistic saying he doesn’t think we live in a particularly evil era.

“You can look at the gilded age and see the challenges they faced in issues of race, social justice, government corruption and the distribution of wealth.”

Having offered a guide to modern ethics, Cohen has turned his attention to other projects. He is currently the creator and host of “Person Place Thing,” a public radio program produced by WAMC. He is also working on a play based on little known episode in the life of James Boswell, his affair with the mistress of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Randy Cohen was the original writer of “The Ethicist,” a weekly column for the New York Times Magazine, a job he held for twelve years. He is the author of two books on ethics, including “Be Good: How to Navigate the Ethics of Everything”. He is the creator and host of Person Place Thing, a public radio program for WAMC. Cohen lives in New York City.