Ross Gregory Douthat was born in San Francisco and grew up in New Haven, Connecticut. Douthat attended Harvard University, becoming a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduating magna cum laude. Ross succeeded Bill Kristol as a conservative op-ed writer for The New York Times. Previously Douthat has written for The Atlantic, National Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, GQ, and Slate. He has authored Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (2005), Grand New Party (2008), Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (2012), and his latest, To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism (2018).
Currently, he and his family live in Washington, D.C.