CAT BOHANNON is a researcher and author with a Ph.D. from Columbia University in the evolution of narrative and cognition. Her work has appeared in Science, The Atlantic, Scientific American, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Lapham’s Quarterly, The Georgia Review, and Poets Against the War. Her first book, Eve, is a New York Times bestseller and was named a finalist for the Orwell Prize and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-fiction. She lives with her family in Seattle.

Connie Chung, trailblazing news anchor and reporter, shattered glass ceilings, paving the way for those who followed in television news. She was the first women to co-anchor the CBS Evening News and the first Asian to anchor any program on the national networks. Both firsts were milestones in broadcast history.

Connie’s parents and four old sisters, all born in China, came to the U.S. in 1945. She was born a year later in Washington, D.C.

Kathryn Schulz is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. She won a National Magazine Award and a Pulitzer Prize in 2015 for “The Really Big One,” an article about seismic risk in the Pacific Northwest. Lost & Found grew out of “Losing Streak,” which was originally published in The New Yorker and later anthologized in The Best American Essays. Her other essays and reporting have appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Best American Travel Writing, and The Best American Food Writing.

Casey Cep is a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her first book, Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, was an instant New York Times bestseller, and is available in paperback, hardcover, as an e-book, and as an audiobook.

A proud graduate of the Talbot County Public Schools, she has an A.B. from Harvard College and an M.Phil. from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. She was born and raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she still lives with her family.

Ernest Scheyder is a senior correspondent for Reuters covering the green energy transition and the minerals that power it. He previously covered the US shale oil revolution, politics, and the environment, and held roles at the Associated Press and the Bangor Daily News. A native of Maine, Scheyder is a graduate of the University of Maine and Columbia Journalism School. His book, The War Below: Lithium, Copper and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives, was longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award.

Echo Olander has found home and heart in the music clubs, wide bayous and parade routes of New Orleans. Since the 1970’s she has been exploring the intricate layers of New Orleans culture and striving to build creative capacity in the city.  Echo spent many years in the arts field, including 20 years as the leader of KID smART, a nationally recognized arts education organization. She continues to explore the place where self and community find vibrant connection.

Beth Newell is the creator of the satirical website, Reductress. While there, she published a book with Harper Collins, produced a pilot with Comedy Central, and won a Webby Award. In 2020, Beth co-authored, There’s No Manual, a humorous guide to pregnancy, for Penguin Random House. She also hosted the podcast, We Knows Parenting, on iHeartRadio. Beth regularly performs improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in NYC.

#1 NYT-bestselling author, The Small and the Mighty

Founder. The Preamble, a newsletter about history and politics

Host of the award-winning podcast, Here's Where It Gets Interesting

Creator of Sharon Says So

Brett Martin is the author of Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution, a longtime correspondent for GQ Magazine and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and many others. He has won three James Beard Awards for journalism. 

When people think of Archie Manning, they think football. But Archie’s appeal transcends his athletic achievements. People far and wide have been inspired by his warm personality, his drive and sense of humor.

He currently serves in public relations and consulting capacities for several local, regional, and national companies. For 25 years he hosted four Archie Manning Cystic Fibrosis benefit golf tournaments in Louisiana and Mississippi and is active in a wide variety of charitable and civic causes.