Courtesy Columbia University

Ari L. Goldman, a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, is the author of four books, including the best-selling memoir, The Search for God at Harvard. His new book, The Late Starters Orchestra, will be published in June 2014. At Columbia, Goldman is the director of the Scripps Howard Program in Religion, Journalism and the Spiritual Life. The program has enabled Goldman to lead his “Covering Religion” seminar on study tours to numerous countries, including Israel, Jordan, Ireland, India, Russia, Ukraine and Italy. Goldman is also on the faculty of a program called Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics and has led journalism students on tours of Germany and Poland. Before coming to Columbia, Goldman was a reporter for The New York Times, where he covered education, politics, transportation and religion. He is an amateur cellist and plays with the New York Late Starters Orchestra.