Chuck Klosterman is the New Ethicist at The New York Times

Pop culture speaker Chuck Klosterman has taken over the coveted Ethicist role at The New York Times Magazine. Klosterman, who has been called “the new Hunter S. Thompson” by People, also writes for Grantland, and he previously wrote columns for SPIN and Esquire, home of “Chuck Klosterman’s America.” So, what makes someone qualified to give advice to total strangers? In a recent Poynter interview, Klosterman elaborated on the essentially indefinable qualifications for being “The Ethicist”:

Poynter: Do you have any specific training in the field of ethics, or are you winging it?

Klosterman: I don’t really see this job in that way. I mean, who is indisputably qualified to tell other adults how to live? My view is that a given person creates an abstract framework for how to exist, and then he (or she) places tangible problems into that framework to see how they fit. I’m not sure what “specific training” would even constitute. I’m qualified because I’m alive and I’m engaged with the world. But I’m certainly not the only human who fits that criteria.

Whether he's addressing questions about dealing with a loved one's mental health issues, or the difficulty in defining and maintaining half-sibling relationships, Chuck Klosterman provides insight without crossing into personal judgement. As anyone who has seen him speak will tell you, Klosterman's insatiable and infectious intellectual curiosity makes him the perfect fit for his new role.