Josh Tyrangiel is one of America's most esteemed journalists and documentary producers. He's led the global newsrooms at Bloomberg, Vice, and TIME magazine and spent three decades covering the intersection of technology, culture, and power. A 12-time Emmy Award winner, his book AI for Good will be published by Simon & Schuster on May 12th, 2026. Available at Amazon, Bookshop, IndieBound.
AI for Good
In this bold, funny, deeply reported book, Tyrangiel travels inside the institutions where AI is neither a gold rush nor a sign of the apocalypse, but a tool that people are struggling to put to work. From the Cleveland Clinic to the Internal Revenue Service, from a sprawling public school district in Indiana to a Pentagon war room, he follows the engineers, doctors, teachers, and public servants who are testing AI against the real world, where data is messy, incentives are misaligned, and everything that matters is charged with human emotion.
Along the way, he introduces unforgettable characters: a cardiac MRI pioneer determined to make lifesaving scans available to everyone; a band of government misfits who rewired vaccine distribution in the midst of a national panic; a teacher in a low-income school district who treats AI not as a threat but as a way to make her class more human; and a brilliant scientist racing to decode the hidden patterns of expression in the sounds made by millions of autistic kids who can’t speak—including her own son. Their stories reveal the possibility of a different AI future: one where technology amplifies humanity rather than corrupts it.
"A lively, irreverent, and sharply observed critique of AI hype." —Kirkus Reviews
"AI for Good is prime evidence of what A.I. cannot do: produce a book this wonderfully reported and written with such panache." —Airmail
Buy: Amazon, Bookshop, IndieBound, Simon & Schuster
Upcoming events:
Book signing, Q&A with Ashlee Vance — Kepler's Books, Menlo Park — May 18th, 2026
Book signing, Q&A with Jeffrey Goldberg — Politics & Prose at The Wharf, Washington, DC — May 20th, 2026
Media assets: press kit, book cover, headshots
Biography
Josh Tyrangiel is…
2026 - A staff writer at The Atlantic, a producer of things for Netflix, CEO of Backstory Partners. Great gigs.
2023 - Founder of Backstory Partners, a production company that makes all sorts of things, including TV specials with Oprah Winfrey. He also writes a column for the Washington Post about AI and sits on the board of The Baltimore Banner, his hometown Pulitzer Prize-winning local news startup.
2020 - COO of Kunhardt Films and executive producer of Eden Productions. He makes documentary films and series with great and talented people for Apple TV+.
2016 - EVP of news at Vice. This means building an original nightly news show for HBO—with no anchor, no studio, no staff, a colorfully supportive boss, and orders from the network to, ‘Not fuck one thing up.’ It’s a blur, but there are 41 Emmy nominations, 15 trophies, a Peabody, and some world-changing journalism. There’s also a prestigious weekly series, multiple feature docs, and the arrival of gray hairs.
2009 - Editor of Bloomberg Businesweek. He gets too much credit for making it relevant and good and innovative and sometimes even funny. Bloomberg (the company/the guy) is grudgingly pleased and makes him chief content officer, overseeing digital, conferences, the investigative unit, radio, another magazine, and a TV network.
1999 - the lowest ranking editorial employee at TIME magazine. He writes 50-word obits with no byline. Gradually he gets stories about the living, the music critic job, a London post, the Person of the Year assignment, the national editor job, runs digital, and is made the #2 guy at the whole place. Perks: corporate Amex, front row seat at the AOL/Hindenburg disaster, lifelong friends.
1998 - A grad student in Yale’s American Studies program. Duties include reading six books a week, playing lots of pickup basketball, and hoping no one asks what 'epistemological' means.
1996 - Pretending he knows how to write and produce MTV News. He hits the Presidential campaign trail, reports on the East Coast/West Coast rap wars, and conducts the last interview with Tupac Shakur. He wishes Viacom would give him healthcare.
1995 - Doing whatever they’ll let him do at Vibe magazine, which is joyful chaos.
1994 - A Penn grad who moves to New York City for a fact-checking job at Rolling Stone.
Select Journalism
America Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do to Jobs
The Atlantic, 2026
Is Anthony Weiner Ready to Go Another Round?
The Atlantic, 2025
Let AI Remake the Whole U.S. Government
The Washington Post, 2024
An AI Death Predictor Says More About How We Live
The Washington Post, 2024
I Love it When AI Hallucinates
The Washington Post, 2023
You Have Good Reasons to Hate AI. Now Reconsider
The Washington Post, 2023
How to Fix the State of the Union
The New York Times, 2023
A Quest to Reclaim a Family Home Unearths a Past Buried by the Holocaust
The New York Times, 2021
Speaking
Josh Tyrangiel speaks on artificial intelligence, ethics, and the future of media. His keynotes blend original reporting, sharp analysis, and a sly wit forged by decades in newsrooms, writers’ rooms, and boardrooms.
Topics:
AI & the Future of Information
The Business of Media
Leadership in Newsrooms
Technology, Trust & Society
Building AI for Good
For speaking inquiries, get in touch.
Backstory Partners
A documentary film and television production company that also advises companies and nonprofits on narrative strategy—helping leaders translate complex ideas into stories that influence public understanding and drive meaningful change.
