Rick Kogan was born in Chicago and raised in the city's Old Town neighborhood. At age 16, Kogan launched his newspaper career by writing a story about the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention. Kogan has written for the Chicago Daily News, Chicago Sun-Times, and Chicago Tribune, where he is now a senior writer and columnist for the Sunday magazine. Kogan has been named Chicago's Best Reporter, Chicago's Greatest Living Journalist, and in 2003, he was inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame. He is the author of ten books, including Yesterday's Chicago (in collaboration with his father, Herman); Everybody Pays: Two Men, One Murder, and the Price of Truth (in collaboration with Maurice Possley); America's Mom: The Life, Lessons, and Legacy of Ann Landers; and A Chicago Tavern: A Goat, a Curse, and the American Dream, the History of the Billy Goat. He is also the creator and host of WGN Radio's Sunday Papers with Rick Kogan.