11 Facts About Virginia Postrel

1.

Virginia Postrel is a recipient of the Bastiat Prize.

2.

Virginia Postrel's father was an engineer, while her mother was a homemaker turned English professor, returning to school to pursue a Master's degree while Virginia was in high school.

3.

Virginia Postrel was editor-in-chief of Reason from July 1989 to January 2000, and remained on the masthead as editor-at-large through 2001.

4.

Virginia Postrel currently serves on the board of directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

5.

Virginia Postrel is best known for her non-fiction books including The Future and Its Enemies and The Substance of Style.

6.

Virginia Postrel contrasts it with "stasis", a philosophy that favors top-down control and regulation and is marked by desire to maintain the present state of affairs.

7.

Virginia Postrel has written several articles on health care and bioethics, including accounts of her own experiences.

8.

In March 2006 Virginia Postrel donated a kidney to an acquaintance, writer Sally Satel.

9.

Virginia Postrel has recounted the experience, and referred to it in several subsequent articles and blog posts, many of which are critical of legal prohibitions against compensating organ donors.

10.

Virginia Postrel questioned if such a costly treatment would be available to others and if the risky research that makes such innovative treatments possible would be profitable under the proposed health care reforms in the United States.

11.

Virginia Postrel has referred to her experience as a cancer patient in her writing about the importance of design aesthetics in hospitals and the competitive forces that drive them to create more attractive environments for patients.