Andrew Solomon, PhD is a writer and lecturer on politics, culture and psychology; winner of the National Book Award; and an activist in LGBTQ rights, mental health, and the arts. He is Professor of Clinical Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry) at Columbia University Medical Center, Lecturer in Psychiatry at Yale University, and a former President of PEN American Center. He has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and other publications on a range of subjects, including depression, Soviet artists, the cultural rebirth of Afghanistan, Libyan politics, and Deaf politics. Solomon's book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression  won the 2001 National Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize.  His other books include the Irony Tower and Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity.  He divides between between New York City and Rhinebeck NY. Support the show