Mark Oppenheimer

Mark Oppenheimer lives in New Haven, Connecticut. He holds a Ph.D. in American religious history from Yale University, and he is the author of Thirteen and a Day: The Bar and Bat Mitzvah Across America and Knocking on Heaven's Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture. He is the former editor of the New Haven Advocate, New Haven's alternative weekly paper, and he writes for Slate, The New York Times Magazine, and The Forward. A former champion debater and coach of the Yale debate team, Oppenheimer is writing a book on oratory and debate in America.

A frequent public speaker at universities, churches, and synagogues, Oppenheimer has been to 47 states, and he regrets that he's missing perhaps the most gorgeous of all: Montana, Colorado, and Hawaii.

He loves his dog, but promises never to write a book about her. Same goes for his wife and daughter.