Kahn grew up in Los Angeles, the son of Hollywood screenwriter Gordon Kahn and Barbara Brodie Kahn. He joined his family in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where his father had fled in the 1950s during the Red Scare, when he was five years old.[2] Ultimately, the family returned to the United States and Kahn graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where he was also Phi Beta Kappa.[3] Kahn also holds a master's degree in Slavic studies from Columbia University.[2]
Kahn has produced work in various media but is best known for his work in public radio, and is a regular panelist on the public radio quiz show Says You! He produced and directed the WGBH program Morning Stories and hosted its podcast version.,[2] public radio's first. He was the original host of PRI's The World, and a contributor to Minnesota Public Radio's Savvy Traveler. From 1982 to 1985, Kahn hosted a regular social commentary segment on WCVB-TV's nightly newsmagazine Chronicle.
Kahn is also the author and illustrator of two graphic memoirs, "Fugitive: My Boyhood Under the Hollywood Blacklist" and "Walloped: A Story of Father and Sons," and a play, "Hound and Fox: A Cold War Affair."
