Amanda Ripley is an American journalist and author. She has covered high-profile topics for Time and other outlets, and she 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.

After covering Capitol Hill for Congressional Quarterly, Ripley learned to write long-form feature stories under editor David Carr at the Washington City Paper. She then spent a decade working for Time magazine from New York, Washington and Paris.^[1] She covered the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the anthrax investigation and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, helping 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 conflict differently,^[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.^[7]

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