Pod Save America host Jon Lovett on Animal Crossing, Ronan Farrow, and the 2020 election Entertainment Weekly via Yahoo News 8 months ago. Since 2017, Jon Lovett has been saving us from political-discourse chaos as cohost of Pod Save America and on his own Lovett. Jon Lovett on Twitter: 'Ronan and Remnick and @dfmendelssohn. Emily Favreau on Twitter: 'Guys do we hang the White House. Jon Lovett on Twitter: 'Happy birthday @RonanFarrow. Ronan Farrow has been with Jon Lovett since 2011. Slaven Vlasic/Getty. The two got engaged in October 2019. Farrow creatively popped the question to Lovett in a draft of his book Catch and Kill. Professor Jon Lovett, who is leading the project at the University of Leeds, said today in Brazzaville that ‘There are more than 625 million people with no access to modern energy services in Sub-Saharan Africa, and most African countries – 42 in all – are net energy importers with fossil fuel-fired plants accounting for 81% of total.

• Position: Chair in Global Challenges
• Email:J.Lovett@leeds.ac.uk
• Phone: +44(0)113 343 3327

Profile

I hold the position of Chair in Global Challenges. My research focuses on the institutional economics of natural resource management and takes an interdisciplinary approach bringing together both the natural and social sciences. I am interested in the links between local and international law and policy and the practical aspects of implementation of global agreements. I work in many different countries with recent projects in Nepal, Lebanon, Tanzania and Mexico.

For information about the MOOC that Jon is running which starts on 19 October 2015: 'When Worlds Collide', watch the trailer and visit the teaching section at the bottom right of this page.

My main interest is natural resource management and I maintain a broad collaborative interdisciplinary environmental research programme. In the 1980s my research was on ecology and biography. This work resulted in formulation of the Eastern Arc as a phytogeographic unit and globally recognized biodiversity hotspot; and also led to the development of the ‘stability’ hypothesis explaining high biodiversity and presence of phylogenetic relicts in the forests.

Jon Lovett Twitter

During the 1990s I developed a research group in York working on environment, climate change and natural resource management, particularly in Nepal, Tanzania and Mexico. From 1996-2002 I was the senior environmental advisor on the Lower Kihansi Hydropower Project in Tanzania, leading a team investigating the impact of this major World Bank funded project on an area of high biodiversity. During the project we discovered a number of new species, including the narrowly endemic Kihansi Spray Toad, which was at the centre of an international controversy over loss of its habitat.

From 1999-2006 I was the environmental specialist on the UK Department for International Development Programme Advisory Committee for the Natural Resources Systems Programme. After the long period of fieldwork in Tanzania during the 1980s and early 1990s I developed an interest in institutional economics, and in 1996-1997 I was on the Joint ESRC-NERC committee on environmental economics, and in 2009 I was seconded to Natural England under an ESRC award as the environmental economist on the NE Chief Scientists team.

I am currently a member of the Natural England Science Advisory Committee. My more recent work has been on renewable energy, and whilst working in the Netherlands I advised the Dutch Foreign Ministry on market-based solutions to technology transfer in the run-up to the 2008 UNFCCC CoP in Poznan, drawing attention to the ‘Porter Hypothesis’ and the role of environmental regulation in enhancing competiveness and innovation. In 2011 I was part of the team devising the draft energy strategy for the African Development Bank.

Five universities from across Africa and in the UK came together on 27 september 2013 in Brazzaville to form an African Clean Energy Research Alliance to create a new network for clean energy technologies. The partnership is funded by a grant from the UK Royal Society and Department for International Development awarded to the University of Leeds in collaboration with the Université Marien NGouabi, Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, Makerere University and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Professor Jon Lovett, who is leading the project at the University of Leeds, said today in Brazzaville that ‘There are more than 625 million people with no access to modern energy services in Sub-Saharan Africa, and most African countries – 42 in all – are net energy importers with fossil fuel-fired plants accounting for 81% of total electricity generation’.

The network will focus on capturing and converting solar energy through three different systems: solar photovoltaic, concentrated solar power and biomass from natural photosynthesis. Professeur Bernard M’Passi Mabiala, Université Marien NGouabi, said ‘Africa cannot be developed without cheap clean efficient energy systems, research is needed to enable African countries to manufacture their own appropriate solar power technologies. Training and capacity building through this project will help scientists and graduate students to achieve this goal.’

Dr Richard Opoku, from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana said ‘The sun only shines during the day, so we need to develop storage systems to access the solar energy that has been captured. Concentrated solar power uses heat energy from the sun to generate electricity, and we can store this heat in thermal capacitors using phase change materials. Then we can run the turbines at night using the stored solar energy.’

Mary Suzan Abbo, from the Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation in Uganda said that ‘Increasing access to modern types of energy is critical for rural transformation. Most people in Sub Saharan Africa live in rural areas and are currently without access to grid electricity. This research will enable energy planners and policy makers to consider locally available innovative renewable energy sources to create an energy mix for rural electrification for productive use.’

Dr Consalva Msigwa, from the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, Tanzania, said ‘One of the biggest challenges is integrating electricity from a range of different generating systems. The crucial issue here is the optimization and control of these decentralised renewable energy sources to get a stable and reliable output for scaling up for grid input.’

Sarah Colenbrander, who coordinates the Africa Clean Energy Research Alliance on behalf of the University of Leeds, added, “We will seek support for young African researchers to conduct north-south and south-south collaborative projects to build our partners’ technical capacity. We hope that this consortium provides a long-term research network around the all-important issues of energy access and climate-friendly development.”

Jon is running the University of Leeds' Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for the third time in October 2015 - When Worlds Collide.

For more information about the MOOC and to register click here
Please note the date on the flyer is from the previous MOOC - the start date is 19 October 2015

2012- Chair in Global Challenges, School of Geography, University of Leeds

2007-2012 Professor of Sustainable Development in a North South Perspective, University of Twente, The Netherlands

1994-2009 Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management, University of York and Director, Centre for Ecology, Law and Policy (2002-2009)

1992-1994 Centre for Tropical Biodiversity, University of Copenhagen

1990-1992 Consultant to DANIDA and NORAD, Forest Management, Tanzania

1984-1990 Missouri Botanical Garden Tanzania Programme, Tanzania

1982-1984 WWF Tropical Forests and Primates Programme, Tanzania

1979-1982 Commonwealth Forestry Institute and Botany Department, Oxford University

<h4>Research projects</h4><p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href='https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects'>research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Research groups and institutes

• Ecology and Global Change
• River Basin Processes and Management
• Social Justice, Cities, Citizenship

Lovett in 2017
Born	August 17, 1982 (age 38) Woodbury, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Williams College
Occupation	Speechwriter podcaster television producer screenwriter comedian
Years active	2004–present
Political party	Democratic
Partner(s)	Ronan Farrow (2011–present; engaged)

Jonathan Ira Lovett (born August 17, 1982) is an American podcaster, comedian, and former speechwriter. Lovett is a co-founder of Crooked Media, along with fellow former White House staffers during the Obama administration, Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor.^[1] Lovett is a regular host of the Crooked Media podcasts Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It. As a speechwriter, he worked for President Barack Obama as well as for Hillary Clinton when she was a United States Senator and a 2008 presidential candidate. Lovett also co-created the NBC sitcom 1600 Penn, and was a writer and producer on the third season of HBO's The Newsroom.

Early life and education[edit]

Lovett was born in Woodbury, Long Island^[2] to a Reform Jewish family of Ukrainian ancestry^[3] that operated a box factory started by his grandfather.^[4] He attended Syosset High School. Lovett graduated from Williams College in 2004 with a degree in mathematics.^[5] His senior thesis, Rotating Linkages in a Normed Plane^[6] led to a related publication on the same topic in American Mathematical Monthly.^[7] Lovett was also the 2004 Williams College Class Speaker at his commencement.^[8] After graduation, Lovett spent a year working as a paralegal and doing stand-up comedy on the side.^[5]

Political speechwriter[edit]

In 2004, Lovett volunteered for John Kerry's presidential campaign. He was asked to write a statement for the candidate, and his work led to an offer of a writing internship.^[9] Then, he briefly worked in Jon Corzine'sSenate office.^[6] He was hired in 2005 to assist Sarah Hurwitz as a speechwriter for then-Senator Hillary Clinton,^[6] and he continued to write speeches for her through her 2008 presidential campaign.^[9]

When Clinton lost the 2008 Democratic primary contest, Lovett won an anonymous contest to write speeches for PresidentBarack Obama in the White House.^[9] Lovett wrote speeches in the Obama administration for three years, working closely with Jon Favreau and David Axelrod.^[4] Prominent speeches that he wrote include policy speeches on financial reform and don't ask, don't tell,^[6] as well as remarks at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.^[10]

Lovett secretly officiated the first same-sex marriage in the White House, before the Obama administration supported same-sex marriage.^[10][11][12]

Media career[edit]

Twitter Jonfavs

Television[edit]

Before Barack Obama ran for reelection, Lovett moved to California to become a screenwriter,^[13][14] citing a desire to write independently and focus on creative comedy full-time.^[6] Lovett collaborated with Josh Gad and Jason Winer on the television series 1600 Penn, of which Lovett was a co-creator, executive producer, and writer from 2012 until its cancellation in 2013.^[15] Lovett then worked as a writer, producer, and advisor on season three of HBO's The Newsroom.^[10] From 2012 to 2015, Lovett also contributed opinion pieces to venues like The Atlantic.^[16]

Crooked Media[edit]

Starting in March 2016, Lovett co-hosted The Ringer's political podcast Keepin' it 1600 with former fellow Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor.^[17] The podcast was intended to cover the 2016 presidential race, and not expected to continue after that.^[18] But after the November 2016 election, Lovett, Favreau and Vietor wished to become engaged in politics again without having to leave Los Angeles or return to political campaigning.^[18] So they founded a liberal media company, Crooked Media, with the flagship podcast Pod Save America.^[19] Crooked Media, and Pod Save America in particular, has been compared to previous left-wing efforts like Air America to match America's Conservative talk radio, and Lovett has been characterized as providing comic relief to the programming.^[18] The company has since launched a range of podcasts, several of which regularly feature Lovett.

In March 2017, Lovett began hosting Lovett or Leave It, a panel show podcast produced by Crooked Media.^[20] The podcast, typically recorded in front of a live audience in Los Angeles, with Lovett and Crooked Media, embarked on national and international tours featuring live versions of both Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It.^[21] Lovett was also involved in launching Crooked Media's voter recruitment and education project, Vote Save America.^[22]

Personal life[edit]

Lovett is gay.^[14] He and investigative journalist and author Ronan Farrow have been romantically involved since 2011.^[23][24] In October 2019, Farrow published Catch and Kill, where he publicly announced their engagement; he had proposed to Lovett in an earlier draft of the book.^[25][26]

References[edit]

1. ^'Team'. Crooked Media. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
2. ^'Dysfunctional first family'. Jewish Journal. February 6, 2013. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
3. ^Jon Lovett (September 28, 2019). 'Lovett or Leave It'. crooked.com (Podcast). Crooked Media. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
4. ^ ^ab'Talking Trump Transition With President Obama Speechwriter Jon Lovett'. Hugh Hewitt. November 22, 2016. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
5. ^ ^ab'Creative Artists Agency Bio'. Creative Artists Agency. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
6. ^ ^abcdeHorowitz, Jason (September 2, 2011). 'Jon Lovett's written for the president, but will that get him to Hollywood?'. The Washington Post. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
7. ^'American Mathematical Monthly August-September 2007'. Mathematical Association of America. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
8. ^'Commencement 2004'. Williams College. June 6, 2004. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
9. ^ ^abc'Jon Lovett speaks on politics, election season'. The Tufts Daily. October 15, 2012. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
10. ^ ^abc'Aspen Ideas Festival Bio'. Aspen Ideas Festival. 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
11. ^'FIREWORKS EDITION – REVEALED: A clandestine gay wedding in the White House during Obama's first term (officiant: Jon Lovett) – CHRISTIE to return to MORNING JOE after 18 months – SCOTT WALKER joins Sn'. POLITICO. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
12. ^'Obama's Former Speechwriter Reportedly Held Secret Same-Sex Marriage at the White House'. July 7, 2015. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
13. ^'Q&A: Jon Lovett, Former Obama Speechwriter, on His NBC Comedy 1600 Penn'. Time Magazine. January 10, 2013. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
14. ^ ^ab'White House Speechwriter Leaving for Hollywood'.
15. ^'Jon Lovett Filmography'. IMDb. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
16. ^'All Stories by Jon Lovett'. 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
17. ^''Obama bros' learn to love Hillary'. Politico. October 6, 2016. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
18. ^ ^abcZengerle, Jason (November 22, 2017). 'The Voices in Blue America's Head'. The New York Times. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
19. ^Rutenberg, Jim, Opposition and a Shave: Former Obama Aides Counter Trump, Media, The New York Times, March 20, 2017
20. ^'Obama's former speechwriter launches new podcast'. iNews. March 22, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
21. ^'Pod Save America announces nationwide tour'. Consequence of Sound. August 16, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
22. ^Lidsky, David (October 13, 2018). 'The Pod Save America TV show is not going to save democracy–or even your Friday nights'. Fast Company. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
23. ^'Full transcript: Journalist Ronan Farrow on Recode Decode'. Vox. Vox Media. May 4, 2019. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
24. ^Lear, Norman (2017). 'Jon Lovett'. All of the Above with Norman Lear. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
25. ^Farrow, Ronan (October 15, 2019). Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators. Little, Brown and Company.
26. ^Arnold, Amanda (October 16, 2019). 'Ronan Farrow Proposed to His Fiancé in a Draft of Catch and Kill'. The Cut. Retrieved October 17, 2019.

External links[edit]

• Appearances on C-SPAN