Atrios
Duncan Bowen Black, better known by his pseudonym Atrios, is an American liberal blogger living in Philadelphia. His weblog is called Eschaton. Black was also a regular guest economics expert on Air America Radio's The Majority Report and is currently a regular commentator on Sam Seder's internet radio Majority Report and an op-ed contributor to USA Today.
Biography
After obtaining his BA from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Black obtained a PhD in economics from Brown University in 1999. He has worked at the London School of Economics, the Université catholique de Louvain, the University of California, Irvine, and, most recently, Bryn Mawr College. He is now a Senior Fellow at the media research group Media Matters for America.Black began his online political life in Salon magazine's Tabletalk messageboards under the pseudonym of Kurt Foster, then began blogging as Atrios, remaining pseudonymous for several years, and even joking that he was actually a high school gym teacher. According to Black, the name "Atrios" is actually a reference to a character named Antrios in the Yasmina Reza play 'Art' who paints the play's key "white painting on white canvas".
Before starting Eschaton, Black wrote for the webzine Media Whores Online. During the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, he revealed that he had accepted a job at Media Matters for America and allowed his name and photograph to be published. He later said that as an academic he blogged pseudonymously to avoid attacks like those later unleashed on Timothy Shortell. Atrios' blogging has been characterized as encouraging discourse and public deliberation.