Born in Ann Arbor, Pollack attended public schools and graduated from Ann Arbor Huron High School, where he lettered in cross country, track and wrestling. Earlier, while living in England, he attended Durham Johnston Comprehensive School in Durham. In 1988 he graduated with distinction from Stanford University with an Bachelor of Arts in American Studies.
Currently a writer and consultant, Pollack is a noted authority on analogy, wordplay and creativity. Pollack began his career as a journalist at The Hartford Courant, and later spent several years in Spain as a foreign correspondent, freelancing for American media and eventually going to work for the Associated Press in its Madrid bureau. On his return to the United States, he went to work on the United States. Senate campaign of his mother, Lana Pollack, and later for the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village.
Eventually, he moved to Washington, District of Columbia where he became a speechwriter for the Democratic Whip in the United States. House of Representatives, David East. Bonior, and later for President Bill Clinton at The White House.
He is the author of four books: The World On a String: How to Become a Freelance Foreign Correspondent (1997). Cork Boat: A True Story of the Unlikeliest Boat Ever Built (2004).
The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History and Made Wordplay more than Some Antics (2011). And Shortcut: How Analogies Reveal Connections, Spark Innovation and Sell Our Greatest Ideas (2014).
He currently works in New York as a writer and consultant.
The boat and the journey, made possible through the help of hundreds of volunteers, received significant media attention in Portugal and was the subject of his 2004 book Cork Boat. In 2004, Pollack wrote a memoir of the experience entitled Cork Boat.
