Paul Lukas is a storyteller whose work has appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Fortune, Gourmet, ESPN The Magazine, Spin, and The Financial Times, among many other publications. He currently works as a columnist for ESPN.com, where he writes “Uni Watch,” the nation’s foremost (okay, only) sports column devoted to uniform design. He also maintains a daily Uni Watch blog and performs as one half of the lecture/slideshow act the Forewords.

Lukas has been described as “a minutiae fetishist” and “an obsessive esotericist,” descriptions that refer to his penchant for finding unlikely topics, deconstructing them in excruciating detail, and sussing out surprisingly engaging storylines along the way. Whereas most people see the Wizard of Oz, Lukas is much more interested in the man behind the curtain.

Over the past 15 years, Lukas has used this sensibility to create media projects covering a wide variety of subject areas, including food, travel, consumer culture, marketing, business history, music, and design. He’s also appeared extensively on TV and radio (including two appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien), authored a book, and made numerous live presentations.

Lukas lives in Brooklyn, New York, with Caitlin and Tucker. He is left-handed, does not have a middle name, and is near-pathologically averse to the color purple.

(Photo by the wonderful Lori Baker.)