Bio: Neil Swidey is a staff writer for The Boston Globe Magazine, where he writes on a variety of topics. He is also the author of The Assist, which was named one of the best books of 2008 by The Washington Post, and a co-author of Last Lion, the Globe's biography of Ted Kennedy published by Simon & Schuster. His magazine writing has won the National Headliner Award two years in a row and been anthologized in The Best American Political Writing, The Best American Crime Reporting, and The Best American Science Writing."