ABOUT FAREED ZAKARIA

Fareed Zakaria is the host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN, a columnist for The Washington Post, and a bestselling author.

Fareed Zakaria GPS is a weekly international and domestic affairs program that airs around the world on CNN. Since its debut in 2008, it has featured interviews with Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Emmanuel Macron, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Condoleezza Rice, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Greta Thunberg, and the Dalai Lama, among others. 

Zakaria has regularly hosted primetime specials for CNN. They include documentaries on U.S. history and foreign leaders, as well as profiles of extraordinary creators such as Billy Joel and Francis Ford Coppola.

For his television work, he has won a Peabody Award and two Emmys.

Fareed’s Global Briefing, a daily digital newsletter, is one of the most widely read of CNN's newsletters. His column for The Washington Post remains one of the longest-running for that newspaper. 

Zakaria is the author of five highly-regarded New York Times bestselling books: Age of Revolutions (2024), an analysis of progress and backlash throughout history; The Post-American World (2008), a discussion of the rise of non-Western powers; The Future of Freedom (2003), a study of “illiberal democracy” in various countries; Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World (2020), on how the pandemic reshaped society; and In Defense of a Liberal Education (2015), a commentary on the importance of a well-rounded education.

Zakaria was named a “Top 10 Global Thinker of the Last 10 Years” by Foreign Policy magazine in 2019, and Esquire called him “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation.” He has received a National Magazine Award, the Arthur Ross Media Award from the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the Deadline Club Award. In 2010, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, one of its highest civilian honors, and in 2022, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded him the Order of Merit.

Prior to his tenure at CNN, Zakaria was editor of Newsweek International, managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a columnist for Time, an analyst for ABC News, and the host of Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS.

Zakaria earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, a doctorate in political science from Harvard University, and has received numerous honorary degrees.