Jessi Klein is the author of You’ll Grow Out of It and the Emmy and Peabody award-winning head writer and an executive producer of Comedy Central's critically acclaimed series Inside Amy Schumer. She is an actor and consulting producer on the hit Netflix show Big Mouth, and has also written for Netflix’s Dead to Me and Amazon's Transparent as well as Saturday Night Live. Klein has been featured on the popular storytelling series The Moth, and has been a regular panelist on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

Oskar Eustis has served as the Artistic Director of The Public Theater since 2005. He came to The Public from Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI where he served as Artistic Director from 1994 to 2005. Eustis served as Associate Artistic Director at Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum from 1989-1994; and prior to that he was with the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, serving as Resident Director and Dramaturg from 1981-1986 and Artistic Director from 1986-1989.

Gary Phillips (b. 1955) is a critically acclaimed author of mysteries and graphic novels. Raised in South Central Los Angeles, Phillips grew up reading comics, classic pulp and detective fiction, and the likes of Iceberg Slim and took inspiration from all this when he created his first series character, Ivan Monk, in the early 1990s. A private detective adept at navigating the racial tensions of modern L. A. and beyond, Monk has appeared in four novels and one short story collection, Monkology (2011).

Based in New Orleans, Nini Nguyen is a chef, instructor, and recipe developer. After starting her career in some of the country’s most innovative kitchens, such as Eleven Madison Park in New York, she ventured into the culinary spotlight by participating in Top Chef Season 16 and later in Top Chef: All-Stars Los Angeles, earning a dedicated fan following.

Doris is often called upon by the news media and late night TV hosts as well as hundreds of companies, educational institutions and nonprofits to share her vast knowledge of leadership and provide historical context for events of the current day, as our democracy is challenged, international wars rage, we continue to recover from the impacts of COVID intersected with the economic fallout, polarization, and social and racial unrest during a time filled with fear and anxiety about our future both individually as citizens and collectively as a country.

Crystal Hana Kim is the author of the critically acclaimed novels The Stone Home (2024), a current finalist for the Maya Angelou Book Award, and If You Leave Me (2018), which was named a best book of 2018 by over a dozen publications. Kim is the recipient of the 2022 National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award and the winner of a 2017 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her family.

Bob Woodward is the author of three consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers on President Trump—Fear (2018), Rage (2020), and Peril (2021) with Robert Costa—and an audiobook of 20 interviews with Trump. He has authored 22 bestselling books, 15 of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers, covering every president from Nixon to Biden.

Allan Carey is the Director of Sphere Education Initiatives at the Cato Institute where he leads the organization’s efforts to engage grades 5-12 educators, including the annual Sphere Summit, on civic education, civil discourse, and the institutions of civic culture. With nearly two decades of experience in education, Allan has previously taught in high schools, colleges, and nonprofits covering everything from history, philosophy, and economics to management and leadership courses.

Inspired by his grandfather, Link began cooking as a young boy at home. In 1993 he moved to San Francisco to attend the California Culinary Academy and to work at several Bay Area restaurants. During his time on the West Coast, Link’s cooking style became more refined, and his appreciation for raw ingredients and a delicate approach to technique came into focus.

Chelsea Follett is the managing editor of Human​Progress​.org, a project of the Cato Institute that seeks to educate the public on the global improvements in well-being by providing free empirical data on long-term developments, and a policy analyst in Cato's Center for Global Liberty & Prosperity. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Newsweek, Forbes, The Hill, Business Insider, and many other outlets. She was named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 list for 2018 in the category of Law & Policy.