Cal Fussman

Cal Fussman is a New York Times bestselling author and journalist best known for his What I’ve Learned column for Esquire magazine.He has interviewed numerous politicians, sports stars and A-List celebrities who have helped shaped the last half-century, including Jimmy Carter, Richard Branson, Mikhail Gorbachev, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Pelé, Serena Williams, Muhammad Ali, Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen, Quincy Jones, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bruce Springsteen and Dr. Dre. A popular and dynamic speaker, he draws on his years of experience interviewing famous faces for his column, and he has delivered keynotes for the likes of Twitter, Pixar, Apple Music, Facebook and General Motors.

Fussman won a James Beard Foundation Award for best personal essay for his story detailing his experiences as sommelier at Windows on the World at the top of the World Trade Center just before the 9/11 attacks.

Fussman’s journalism career began at The Miami Herald and The St. Louise Post-Dispatch where he worked as a sportswriter. After moving to New York his work was published in Sports Illustrated and Inside Sports magazines, and he then travelled the world for a decade honing his interviewing skills talking to people from all different kinds of backgrounds and cultures. Fussman first contributed to Esquire in 1997 under Editor in Chief David M. Granger before becoming lead interviewer for the What I’ve Learned column.

He has recently brought his dynamic interviewing style to his own podcast, Big Questions, which hit the iTunes top 50 in its debut week.