Julia Allison is having another 15 minutes

On the surface, it was an unlikely match. Ms. Allison, 42, is a 10-time Burning Man attendee who had lived in California for a decade; her friends include start-up chief executives and psychedelic psychotherapists; she considers Bali her spiritual home. Ms. Allison described a period of her dating history as “10 years of relationships with polyamorous D.J.s.” (Ms. Allison said she also dated the former Democratic congressman Harold Ford Jr. when she was a college student at Georgetown.)

Mr. Feldman, meanwhile, embodies the East Coast establishment. The son of an M.I.T. professor and a Harvard lecturer who graduated first in his class from Harvard, Mr. Feldman, 53, speaks five languages, has written nine books and is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. (Mr. Feldman has also been a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine.) His first wife, Jeannie Suk Gersen, with whom he has two teenage children, is also a professor at Harvard Law School and a public intellectual. “People I dated seriously, subsequently, were people of substance,” Mr. Feldman said in a recent interview in his office. “Distinguished in their professions.”

Ms. Allison, sitting arm in arm with Mr. Feldman, smiled.

“Serious people,” she said in a stage whisper.

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