Blaise Zerega, CEO of FORA.tv, is a journalist and entrepreneur who has worked for both new and old media. FORA.tv is a leading site for smart video content: programs on the people, issues, and ideas changing the planet, filmed at top universities, conferences, and public forums.

Before joining FORA.tv, Blaise was part of the founding team at Condé Nast Portfolio where he served as managing editor and played a critical role in the high-profile launch of both Portfolio.com and the magazine, before being promoted to deputy editor. Blaise was also the managing editor of WIRED, the editor of Red Herring magazine (once the bible of Silicon Valley), and the news editor at Forbes ASAP.

He traces his entrepreneurial itch to his experience at Reference Software, a startup bought by WordPerfect in the early 1990s. He makes frequent media appearances and has been on such programs as Today and The View as well as on NPR and CNN -- but he’s most proud of his videos on FORA.tv.

Blaise graduated from New York University and received his graduate degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin.

Follow on Twitter: BeeZee

Blog Entries by Blaise Zerega

COP15 Interview: Thom Yorke Slams "G-8 Vibe"

1 Comments | Posted December 19, 2009 | 01:02 PM (EST)


Mr. Yorke goes to Copenhagen and doesn't find much to like.

The Radiohead frontman confesses to being out of his element among the diplomats and business people at COP15. For starters, they're dressed in suits and he is wearing red pants. Of the politicians in attendance Thom Yorke says,...

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Naomi Klein Presents Monsanto Angry Mermaid Award (Video)

Posted December 18, 2009 | 03:39 PM (EST)


Yesterday at COP15, Naomi Klein presented the 2009 Angry Mermaid Award for the worst corporate lobbying group to Monsanto. While the award singles out Monsanto, Klein describes the larger problem posed by corporate lobbying. "There are many sessions about how poor countries should adapt to climate...

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Hugo Chavez Blames Capitalism for Climate Crisis

31 Comments | Posted December 17, 2009 | 10:08 PM (EST)


Venezuela President Hugo Chavez took the stage at COP15 and launched his own protest. He declared, "If the climate was a capitalist bank, the rich governments would have saved it."

Before linking the economic crisis to the climate one, Mr. Chavez's scathing critique invoked the ghost of Karl Marx...

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What Gore Really Said in Copenhagen

2 Comments | Posted December 16, 2009 | 11:01 AM (EST)


Pity Al Gore. And pity those who may suffer from his apparent misquote at COP15 yesterday, where he predicted the melting of Arctic ice over the next 5-7 years.

As is the norm, Gore's misinterpretation of a figure from the melting snow and ice report was immediately

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Google the New Power Utility?

Posted December 2, 2009 | 10:23 AM (EST)


Could Google do for the electrical grid what it's done for the Internet?

"PG&E's greatest fear, and they won't say it publicly, is Google," says VentureBeat's Matt Marshall in his interview of Google's Ed Lu, who oversees the search giant's PowerMeter program. PG&E, of...

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40 Years After Stonewall: No Progress on Gay Rights

11 Comments | Posted October 13, 2009 | 12:28 PM (EST)


"Why should we have to wait one more day?" asks Steve Hildebrand, former deputy national campaign adviser for President Obama, addressing the lack of progress on gay rights in America.

Hildebrand was speaking about two weeks ago -- before the hate crimes legislation was passed and before the President's...

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Will You Really Be Able to Keep Your Current Health Plan? (VIDEO)

7 Comments | Posted September 24, 2009 | 02:52 PM (EST)


As President Obama makes his push for health care reform, one of his key selling points has been that if you're happy with your current insurance plan you can keep it. This message appeals to voters afraid of being forced into coverage from a government program. However, a close...

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Farewell to Van Jones and His Green Jobs Agenda

9 Comments | Posted September 7, 2009 | 01:46 PM (EST)


Saturday night's surprising resignation of Van Jones and the controversy leading up to to it reveals all that is good and great about our political system. It also reveals all that is bad and sad about it.

In the good and great column: Jones's rise from a community...

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Extremely Affordable Healthcare: $25 Incubator

6 Comments | Posted August 24, 2009 | 06:00 PM (EST)


No offense to the medical device manufacturers, but I wonder if $20,000 preemie incubators aren't the equivalent of those mythical $500 hammers purchased by the Department of Defense.

Consider what happened when a bunch of Stanford d. school students looked at the needs of premature newborns in developing...

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The Power of Language: Dems Failing to Sell Healthcare Reform

22 Comments | Posted August 13, 2009 | 02:50 PM (EST)


Call it Boyle's Law for debate. The lexicon for health care reform has expanded to include the plural noun, town hallers, and it's grown louder as well, increasing in volume from all the shouting. Hot air will expand to fill the available space.

Thus it's refreshing to hear...

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Healthcare's Public Option: Dean vs. Burgess (VID)

2 Comments | Posted August 1, 2009 | 03:32 PM (EST)


Even as it appears that the House of Representatives has reached agreement on healthcare reform, the devil, as always, will be in the details. And in this case, what matters most is what form the so-called "public option" will take.

If approved, as appears likely, legislation that prevents insurance...

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WATCH: Michael Pollan Sees Healthcare Reform Leading to Food System Changes

3 Comments | Posted July 24, 2009 | 06:34 PM (EST)


Call it the 'Omnivore's Health Care Dilemma.'

Michael Pollan wades into the issue of health care reform by looking, not surprisingly, at food. In conversation with journalist and urban farmer Novella Carpenter, he argues that health care reform and changes to American agriculture will go hand-in-hand.

"If we do get...

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If Lewis Black Can't Get Proper Health Insurance, Can You? (VIDEO)

9 Comments | Posted July 23, 2009 | 11:04 AM (EST)


"To make health a profit-making institution is psychotic," rants Lewis Black while discussing his belief in God (or not). He's speaking about his faith with Bob Schieffer at the Aspen Ideas Festival and gets sidetracked when he lists health care that actually pays the doctor's bill.

...

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Carbon Capture a Pipe Dream

19 Comments | Posted July 10, 2009 | 11:34 AM (EST)


The dirty truth about carbon capture: it's very expensive and it's a long way off. Speaking at the World Bank in Sydney, Mark Diesendorf of the Univeristy of New South Wales points to the Bush Administration's shuttering of the FutureGen project as an example of the escalating costs associated...

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Is Cap and Trade Already Corrupt?

10 Comments | Posted July 1, 2009 | 04:45 PM (EST)


Now that the House has passed Waxman-Markey, the stage is set for a much harder look at the actual implementation of cap and trade.

Speaking at an energy conference in San Francisco last week prior to the Congressional vote, negative reactions to the proposed cap and trade system...

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Did Bad Energy Policy Cause the Economic Crisis? (VIDEO)

3 Comments | Posted June 26, 2009 | 05:23 PM (EST)


Here's the thing about the current economic crisis and global warming. For the past decade, there were lots of smart people warning about the housing boom and about climate change, yet they were largely ignored.

We're now being forced to address both these matters -- at last. But rather...

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Federal Benefits, OK. But Still No Gays in the Military. Why Not?

1 Comments | Posted June 18, 2009 | 10:28 AM (EST)


President Obama's announcement extending some benefits to same sex partners of federal employees doesn't go far enough. What of his campaign promise to end the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy? Why the delay? Why not include rights for gay and lesbian members of the military?

A provocative video...

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Painting Their Fingernails Green: Power of Youth Vote in Iran

21 Comments | Posted June 15, 2009 | 03:44 PM (EST)


They're young, they wear green, and they vote.

As disagreement over Iran's presidential election results spreads into the streets, it's worth asking what has changed in Tehran over the past four years to create a situation where a relatively moderate reformer candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, can challenge an...

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How the Catholic Church Fought for Interracial Marriage and What It Means for Gay Rights

15 Comments | Posted June 9, 2009 | 06:45 PM (EST)


Consider that California was the flashpoint for marriage of a different sort in 1948. Then the issue wasn't two men or two women wanting the state's blessing for their matrimony, but couples from different races seeking to be married. According to Reverend Scotty McLennan of Stanford University, author of Finding...

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Civil Rights: Is Gay the New Black?

3 Comments | Posted June 3, 2009 | 09:58 AM (EST)


In California, the battle over Proposition 8 has drawn comparisons to the civil rights movement. San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom has called the ban on same sex marriage a new form of separate but equal. But civil rights for gay, lesbian, and transgender people is more than a Golden...

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