Amanda Ripley is an American journalist and author. She has written features for Time magazine, and contributes to The Atlantic. Her book The Smartest Kids in the World was a New York Times bestseller.

Amanda Ripley was born in Arizona and grew up in New Jersey. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University in 1996 with a B.A. in government.^{[citation needed]}

After covering Capitol Hill for Congressional Quarterly, she worked on long-form feature stories for the Washington City Paper under editor David Carr. She then spent a decade working for Time magazine from New York, Washington and Paris.^[1] She covered the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 2001 anthrax investigation, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, helping^{[clarification needed]} Time win two National Magazine Awards.^[2]

Ripley has written three nonfiction books about human behavior, including The Smartest Kids in the World, a New York Times bestseller. In 2018, she became certified in conflict mediation and began training journalists to cover polarizing conflicts,^[3] in partnership with the Solutions Journalism Network. Ripley writes op-eds for The Washington Post,^[4] and feature articles for Politico^[5] and The Atlantic, where she is a contributing writer.^[6] She also hosts the "How To!" show for Slate magazine.^[7]

She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband. Her brother is the screenwriter Ben Ripley.

• 2009. The Unthinkable: Who Survives when Disaster Strikes - and Why. New York: Arrow Books. ISBN 9780099525721, OCLC 972068736.
• 2014. The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. ISBN 9781451654431, OCLC 862348013. NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestseller, September 22, 2013.^[8]
• 2021. High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781982128562, OCLC 10581323837.^[9]

• 2010. "What Makes a Great Teacher?" The Atlantic. January/February issue.
• 2013. "The Case Against High School Sports." The Atlantic. October issue.
• 2016. "How America Outlawed Adolescence." The Atlantic. November issue.
• 2018. "Complicating the Narratives." The Whole Story.
• 2019. "The Least Politically Prejudiced Place in America." The Atlantic.
• 2020. "We've Created Cartoonish Narratives About People in the Opposite Party. They're Not True." The Washington Post.^[10]
• 2022. "I stopped reading the news. Is the problem me — or the product?" The Washington Post.

• Official website
• Amanda Ripley articles in the Atlantic
• Parker-Pope, Tara (August 5, 2008). "Learning to Be Your Own Best Defense in a Disaster". The New York Times.
• Ulaby, Neda (July 22, 2008). "Identifying Who Survives Disasters — And Why". NPR.
• Crampton, Robert (June 21, 2008). "How to survive a disaster". The Times. Archived from the original on 4 May 2009.