Rob Reid

Author and entrepreneur Rob Reid writes speculative fiction for Random House. In conjunction with his novel, After On, he also launched a podcast with the same name. Its episodes feature interviews with world-class thinkers, founders, and scientist on topics including synthetic biology, super AI risk, Fermi’s paradox, robotics, archaeology, and lone-wolf terrorism. Rob’s earlier work includes the New York Times bestsellerYear Zero, in which an awkward young copyright lawyer has two days to save the Earth from an alien horde, which has been ruined by its addiction to American pop music. He has also written a cover story for Wired, plus major pieces for the New York Times the Wall Street Journal, and others. Earlier, Rob was the founder, CEO, and Chairman of Listen.com – the first online music company to secure full-catalog licenses from all the major labels. Listen created Rhapsody – the world’s first unlimited on- demand streaming music service. Rhapsody’s model was later adopted by Spotify, Apple, and many others. Earlier still, Rob was born into the NYC foster care system, was adopted with merciful speed, then grew up in a peaceful NYC suburb. He studied modern Middle Eastern history and Arabic Stanford, then spent a year in Cairo, Egypt as a Fulbright scholar. He also earned an MBA at Harvard, and worked at Bain, Salomon Brothers, and a venture capital firm you’ve never heard of.