Alan Jacobs posted his list of top five “public intellectuals.”
Alan’s choices are good. If we are going to take both the words seriously in “public intellectual,” there are others who are not out in public as much as they used to be (Chomsky) or have recently died (Eco). My “on deck” list to complement Alan’s:
Paul Krugman
Thomas Friedman
David Brooks
Fareed Zacharia
Neil deGrasse Tyson