Steven D. Levitt was born on May 29, 1967. He attended St. Paul Academy and Summit School in St. Paul, Minnesota, followed by undergraduate work at Harvard and doctoral studies at MIT, where he earned his doctorate in economics in 1994. Since then, Levitt has written numerous academic papers related to the application of economic principles in the real world. In 2003, he was chosen by the American Economic Association to receive the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded for outstanding work by an American economist under the age of forty. His research served as the basis for the best-selling book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, which was released in 2005.

In addition to numerous articles for magazines such as the New Yorker and Time, Dubner has also written Turbulent Souls: A Catholic Son's Return to His Jewish Family (1998) and Confessions of a Hero-Worshipper (2003). He is also...