Jesse Walker is books editor of Reason, where he has written on topics ranging frompirate radio toconspiracy theories and fromcults to copyright law. TheLos Angeles Times has described him as "a writer willing to attack the sacred cows of the right and left with equal amounts of intelligence and flair."

Walker's first book,Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America (New York University Press, 2001), was praised inThe Review of Communication for its "humor and empathy";The American Communication Journal called it "a must read" and "a rare combination of scholarly and recreational writing." His second book,The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory (HarperCollins, 2013), was named one ofAmazon's top 20 nonfiction books of the year and made theChicago Tribune's list of the year's best books.

Walker's articles have appeared inThe New York Times,The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, theLos Angeles Times,The Baltimore Sun,The Boston Globe,The National Post, The Atlantic,Politico,Time,Slate, Salon,The Week,CNN.com,L.A. Weekly, New York,The New Inquiry,The New Republic,National Review,No Depression,Boing Boing,The All-Music Guide,io9,Radio World,Telos,Z, theJournal of American Studies, and many other publications. He has won two Los Angeles Press Club awards, for articles onhate crimes and thebasic income, and he was a finalist for articles onWilliam Burroughs,Merle Haggard,Pappy O'Daniel, and "disaster utopianism."

Walker is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he received a degree in history. He lives in Baltimore with his wife and two daughters.