In our highly polarized political climate, it is rare to find an individual who is as familiar with both sides of the aisle as Arianna Huffington is. A bestselling author, a nationally syndicated columnist, and named by Time magazine as one of the one hundred most influential people in 2006, Huffington’s eclectic career has always defied convention—and partisan categorization. She was once married to a Republican congressman. She ran for governor of California as an independent. And her popular internet newspaper, The Huffington Post, has a decidedly liberal bent. But while we’ve long admired Huffington’s broad political perspective as well as the passionate dedication to political and cultural change that has defined her career, it is her interest in the relationship between spirituality and politics, articulated in her book The Fourth Instinct, that compelled us to take a closer look.
In this interview, Elizabeth Debold speaks with Huffington about her book and asks why she sees political and social activism as a spiritual obligation. Drawing on many years as a devout Christian and as a leading political activist, Huffington suggests that in addition to sex, power, and survival, there is a “fourth instinct,” which she calls “the desire for transcendence,” that has driven political and social change throughout history. Huffington calls for a new form of political leadership that doesn’t play on fear and greed but appeals to what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.”
BIO
Arianna Huffington is the cofounder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that has become one of the most widely read media sources on the internet. Huffington has been involved directly and indirectly in politics for decades as an analyst, a commentator, and a candidate for California governorship in 2003. She is also a nationally syndicated columnist and the author of twelve books, including The Fourth Instinct, Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America, and a popular biography of Pablo Picasso, Picasso: Creator and Destroyer. In addition to her writing, Huffington is cohost of “Left, Right & Center,” a popular political roundtable program on public radio. In 2006, she was named one of Time magazine’s one hundred most influential people in the world.
Originally from Greece, Huffington moved to England when she was sixteen. She attended Cambridge University and graduated with an M.A. in economics. While there she became the first female president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her two daughters.
