Who

Nick Kristof is a liberal op-ed columnist for the New York Times.

Backstory

Kristof was raised on a sheep and cherry farm near Yamhill, Oregon, where his journalism career started early: He was the editor of his middle school newspaper. After graduating from Harvard (Phi Beta Kappa and in three years, no less), he earned a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford before joining the Times in 1984. Starting out as an economics reporter, he later turned his attention to political affairs both in the U.S. and abroad and spent time living in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo. The winner of a 1990 Pulitzer Prize with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, for their coverage of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square—the first ever awarded to a married couple—he became a regular op-ed columnist for the Times in 2003.

Of note

Do-gooder Kristof has used his op-ed perch to draw attention to humanitarian crises in ignored corners of the globe. He's been one of the loudest and most persistent voices advocating for U.S. intervention in the Darfur conflict, and has spotlighted the scourge of international sex slavery. He actually bought the freedom of two Cambodian sex slaves (for $150 and $203, respectively) in 2004. The sad epilogue: He returned in 2005 to find that while one of the girls had flourished and had opened a small grocery store, the other had returned to prostitution. His "graphic, deeply reported columns" on the genocide in the Sudan earned him his second Pulitzer in 2006.

Grudge

Kristoff has been engaged in a long-running (and amusing) feud with Bill O'Reilly. Kristof took O'Reilly to task for ignoring stories like the Darfur crisis in favor of nonsense like the "War on Christmas." O'Reilly fired back, calling Kristof a "left-wing ideologue," "absolutely clueless," and a "committed secularist." Kristof subsequently challenged O'Reilly to travel with him to Darfur and even offered to raise the scratch to pay for the trip via a pledge drive. O'Reilly demurred, saying that his schedule kept him too busy to travel.

In print

Kristof and wife Sheryl WuDunn have co-authored two books about Asia, China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power and Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia.

Personal

Kristof and WuDunn, who recently left the Times to focus on the couple's next book, married in 1988. They have three kids and live in a seven-bedroom home in Scarsdale.