Daily Beast columnist and contributor to Forbes, The Atlantic, The Economist, and elsewhere, Poulos has appeared as a commentator on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher and MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes. He earned his PhD from Georgetown University, where he conducted research as a fellow of the Tocqueville Forum and the Bradley Foundation.

One of the nation's most notable music critics, Ann Powers has been writing for The Record, NPR's blog about finding, making, buying, sharing and talking about music, since April 2011. Powers served as chief pop music critic at the Los Angeles Timesfrom 2006 until she joined NPR; prior to the Los Angeles Times, she was senior critic at Blender, a pop critic at The New York Times, and a senior editor at The Village Voice. The co-author of Tori Amos’ New York Times bestselling memoir, she won the 42nd annual ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award in 2010.

Gene Pressman was co-CEO, creative director, and head of merchandising and marketing for Barneys New York, and a veteran of the store for more than 25 years. Under his leadership, Barneys New York emerged as the defining force in retailing for upscale men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, accessories, and home furnishings. He is the author, with Noah Kerner, of Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today’s Cluttered Marketplace.

Alice Quinn has been teaching at Columbia University’s School of the Arts since 1990. She was executive director of the Poetry Society of America from 2001-2018 and poetry editor at The New Yorker from 1987-2007. Earlier in her career she was an editor at Alfred A. Knopf, where she established The Knopf Poetry Series. She is the editor of Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box, Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments by Elizabeth Bishop and The Best of Poetry in Motion: Celebrating Twenty-Five Years on Subways and Buses, with a foreword by Billy Collins.

Nathan Raab, recognized as one of the world’s most knowledgeable and respected experts in historical documents, is the President of the Raab Collection, the sole high-end, old-fashioned, person-to-person dealer in historical documents still in existence in the United States. His column, Historically Speaking, appears frequently on Forbes.com and his articles and opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer among other publications.

A documentary filmmaker and screenwriter, Rader wrote the screenplay for Waterworld.

Bryan Rafanelli is the founder, president, and creative director of Rafanelli Events, a full-service event design, strategy, planning, and production company with more than 100 events annually in venues around the world, and has planned 13 events under the Obama administration at The White House along with numerous charity events and weddings. Headquartered in Boston, Rafanelli Events also has offices in New York City, Washington, DC and Palm Beach.

Emily Ratajkowski is a model, actress, entrepreneur, activist, and writer. She has been photographed for the covers of magazines including Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Vogue Italia, Vogue Australia, Vogue Spain, Vogue Germany, and GQ, and has worked with brands including Versace, Marc Jacobs, and Dolce & Gabbana. She has translated her audience of nearly 27 million Instagram followers into a direct-to-consumer clothing business, Inamorata, and as an actress has appeared in films including I Feel Pretty, We Are Your Friends, and Gone Girl. She campaigned for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020, and her essay “Buying Myself Back” for New York magazine went viral in September 2020.

After graduating from The Juilliard School with a Bachelor degree and Master of Music, Arianna performed as a professional violinist at top venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Boston Symphony Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Blue Note jazz club, and so on. Her writing on music and culture has appeared in outlets such as The Washington Post, Slate, and Bustle.

A writer-at-large for Vanity Fair, Reginato has written for Architectural Digest, Harper’s Bazaar, and Sotheby’s, among other publications. He also worked as Features Director at W Magazine.

The New York Post’s eminent theatre critic since 1998, Riedel co-hosts the weekly talk show Theatre Talk on PBS. He also played himself on the TV show Smash.

Amanda Ripley is a contributing writer at the Atlantic, a senior fellow at the Emerson Collective and the author of The Smartest Kids in the World—and How They Got That Way, a New York Times bestseller. Her first book, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why, was published in 15 countries and turned into a PBS documentary.

Alice Robb is the author of Why We Dream (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018) and has written for The New Republic, New York, The New Statesman, The Atlantic, Elle, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, Vice, The BBC and British Vogue. Her work has been republished by Slate, CNN, The Week, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Town & Country. She graduated from Oxford with a BA in Archaeology and Anthropology.

A multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning music producer, songwriter, and member of Chic, Rodgers has written and produced for Madonna, David Bowie, Diana Ross, Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, Peter Gabriel, Sheena Easton, Jeff Beck, and Mick Jagger, among many others and is a 2014 Grammy Award winner for Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Get Lucky."

Stephanie Rohr is best known in the craft world as stephXstitch. Stephanie’s designs juxtapose traditional florals and folk-art motifs with a modern twist. Her samplers range from curse words to cheeky sayings, from pop culture quotes to feminist slogans. All of Stephanie’s designs are made to be not only thought-provoking but also visually interesting, intricate, and beautiful. Stephanie lives in Chicago. When not stitching, she works in theatre as an actor and a director. She is also a singer, pianist, musical arranger and vocal coach, and she sings with the bands The Moxie Sisters and The Bangers.

DJ, songwriter, and record producer Mark Ronson has won seven Grammy Awards, including two for his eleven-times platinum single “Uptown Funk” featuring Bruno Mars. In 2019, he received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for the song “Shallow,” which he wrote with Lady Gaga for the film A Star is Born. Mark has collaborated with Amy Winehouse, Miley Cyrus, and Adele, among numerous other artists.

Samantha Paige Rosen writes about chronic illness, mental health, queerness, arts and culture, and social justice for publications including Slate, Washington Post, Electric Literature, BOMB, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. She is editing a literary anthology about building community through shared space and shared values. In addition to creative and content writing, Sam tutors and coaches writing outside of Philadelphia alongside her three cats. She earned an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and is a proud Smith College graduate.

Allegra Rosenberg is a writer and journalist living in Brooklyn. A graduate of NYU's Experimental Humanities MA program, she covers digital culture and fandom for publications such as Polygon, The Verge, and Insider. In her spare time she plays indie rock music, produces alternative comedy, and researches the history of polar exploration.

An american painter and printmaker, Salle has helped define postmodernism. His work can be found at MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, and the Tate Modern, among other places.

Scott Sampson is a dinosaur paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and educator, as well as the host of PBS’s Dinosaur Train show, the Chief Curator of the Denver Museum of Natural History, and the author of How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature (Houghton Mifflin).

Dr. Keith Sawyer is one of the country’s leading experts on the science of creativity and innovation. He is the author of numerous books, the most recent of which are Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration (Basic Books) and Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity (Jossey-Bass).

Kate Schapira is a Senior Lecturer in the English Department at Brown University where she teaches nonfiction writing, with a focus on narrative, diverse formal strategies, and environmental and ecological storytelling. Schapira is the creator of the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth, which offers peer mental health counseling related to climate change.

Stylist, creative director, and illustrator, Schelter’s work has been published in Vogue, Style.com, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, among other publications. She owns Kate Schelter, LLC, a full service agency specializing in branding, creative direction, styling, illustration, events, and image consulting.

The co-author with Sam Kashner of Hollywood Kryptonite: The Bulldog, the Lady, and the Death of Superman – which the movie "Hollywoodland" was based on – and of Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century, Schoenberger is a professor of English and Creative Writing at the College of William and Mary.

Kate Schroeder is an Emmy-nominated Entertainment Producer and Head of Books for Access Hollywood.

A journalist at The New Yorker covering culture and the arts, Michael has written features, reviews, and over 50 "Talk of the Town" pieces. He is the theatre editor of Goings On About Town, and an ongoing contributor to the New York Times.

Erich Schwartzel is an entertainment reporter at the Wall Street Journal’s Los Angeles bureau, where he covers all the major studios and theater chains and focuses on the growing entanglement of China and Hollywood. Before moving west, he spent several years covering fracking in Appalachia for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; his investigative work there won the Scripps Howard Award for Environmental Reporting.

Mark Seliger was Rolling Stone’s Chief Photographer from 1992-2002,where he shot over 150 covers. Seliger now shoots frequently for Vanity Fair, Italian Vogue, and many other magazines; he also shoots advertising work for Adidas, Levi’s, Netflix, and many more. Seliger is the recipient of such esteemed awards as the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, Lucie Award, Clio Grand Prix, Cannes Lions Grand Prix, among others; his photographs are part of the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Tom Selleck is an actor and producer best known for his roles as Thomas Magnum on the original Magnum P.I. television series, Dr. Richard Burke, Monica’s older boyfriend on Friends, and NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan on the hit crime drama Blue Bloods. He has also made numerous films including Three Men and A Baby, in which he played Peter Mitchell, The Closer, and Mr. Baseball.

Variety New York Bureau Chief and former Newsweek Senior Writer, Setoodeh has written more than 20 cover stories on celebrities such as George Clooney, Bill Murray, Jake Gyllenhaal, Barbara Walters, Rosie O’Donnell, and Megyn Kelly.

Jack Shoulder and Mark Small are the curators of MuseumBums, a celebration of butts in fine art and beyond. Jack has worked in heritage education to make the past come to life for children of all ages for organisations like the British Museum, the V&A and English Heritage. Mark’s background is in archives; researching, cataloguing and making history accessible for those interested in what came before. They were both brought up on a diet of museums, castles, cathedrals and galleries and now do their best to encourage everyone else to visit them.

Sylvie Simmons is a widely regarded writer and rock historian. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Times, The Guardian, The Mirror, Rolling Stone, The Independent, The Radio Times, Harp, Blender, San Francisco Chronicle, Americana, and MOJO. Simmons has appeared in several radio, television, and film documentaries and has written a number of liner notes for artists ranging from David Bowie to Emmylou Harris, Leonard Cohen to the Red Hot Chili Peppers; she is a recipient of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award.

Safiya Sinclair is the author of the memoir How to Say Babylon, winner of the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award and a Read with Jenna BookClub/Today Show pick.  It was named a A Best Book of 2023 by The Washington Post, The New Yorker, TIME, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Harper’s Bazaar, Vulture, Town & Country, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, Mother Jones, and Barack Obama. Tara Westover, bestselling author of Educated called it, "Dazzling. Potent. Vital. A light shining on the path of self-deliverance." How to Say Babylon is a shortlist finalist for the inaugural Women's Prize for Nonfiction, formerly the Orange Prize awarded for fiction.

Sinclair's debut poetry collection, Cannibal, won a Whiting Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Metcalf Award, the OCM Boca Prize for Caribbean Poetry, and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry.

Sinclair received her MFA in Poetry from the University of Virginia, where she studied with Rita Dove, and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California.  She is currently Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Arizona State University.

Anne-Marie Slaughter is CEO of New America, a think and action tank dedicated to renewing America in the Digital Age. In 2012 she published the article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” in The Atlantic, which quickly became the most read article in the history of the magazine and helped spawn a renewed national debate on the continued obstacles to genuine full male-female equality.

Switched on Pop is a podcast on the Vox Media Podcast Network analyzing contemporary pop music. It has been listed as a top music podcast by NPR, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, Forbes, Entertainment Weekly, Christian Science Monitor, AV Club, and Chicago Reader. Switched on Pop has been cited, and its creators Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan have appeared as experts, in The Atlantic, VICE, Houston Press, Fuse, The Stranger, OZY, Portland Mercury, and Billboard.

Jack Shoulder and Mark Small are the curators of MuseumBums, a celebration of butts in fine art and beyond. Jack has worked in heritage education to make the past come to life for children of all ages for organisations like the British Museum, the V&A and English Heritage. Mark’s background is in archives; researching, cataloguing and making history accessible for those interested in what came before. They were both brought up on a diet of museums, castles, cathedrals and galleries and now do their best to encourage everyone else to visit them.

Mercury Stardust is a Trans advocate, TikTok sensation know by her moniker, “The Trans Handy Ma’am,” and the bestselling author of Safe & Sound: A Renter Friendly Guide to Home Repair.  With over 14 years of experience as a home repair technician, Mercury helps her audience build the confidence, self-sufficiency, and foundational knowledge necessary to care for and maintain their homes.Has use of 10% verbatim material from the book in

A writer and independent curator who specializes in postwar American art, Stein is a former arts reviewer for NPR’s Fresh Air and Morning Edition, and she writes regularly for Art in America. She has also written for The New York Times Book Review and other publications, and her work on Richard Bellamy earned a Warhol Foundation/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant.

Alexandra Steinacker-Clark is an American-Austrian art historian, curator, writer and podcaster. She lives and works in London, UK. She obtained her BA in History of Art at University College London and continued her education at Goldsmiths University with an MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy. Her specializations are in contemporary art and the contemporary art market along with accessibility, engagement, and the demystification of the professional art sector. She is the founder and host of the 'All About Art' Podcast, Board Member of SALOON Network, and a TEDx speaker. She is the co-director of NXT GEN: AWITA x All About Art Programme and has previously worked at Gallery Max Hetzler, Skarstedt Gallery, Shezad Dawood Studio, and Sotheby’s Auction House.

The agent and professional partner of legendary photographer Richard Avedon, Norma Stevens, in collaboration with journalist Steven M. L. Aronson, tells the compelling story of Avedon's life and career.

Susan Stryker is an historian and award-winning author, editor, and filmmaker whose credits include the Emmy-winning documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria and the two-volume Transgender Studies Reader. She is the recipient of Yale University’s 2015 Michael J. Brudner Memorial Prize and the City University of New York’s Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies’ 2009 David Kessler Award for her contributions to the field of LGBT Studies.

William Sturkey is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. His book Hattiesburg won the Zocalo Book Prize, and his work has been featured in The New York Times, on NBC News, and elsewhere.

Ericka Suzanne, a graduate of Spelman College, has spent more than a decade working in the arts. The daughter of two leading members of the Black Panther Party, Elaine Brown and Raymond Masai Hewitt, Ericka is under contract as co-executive producer with Laurence Fishburne for Party Girls, a Freeform network show based on her childhood.

John Szwed was director of the Center for Jazz Studies and is a former professor of Music and Jazz Studies at Columbia University in New York; he is also the former John M. Musser Professor of Anthropology, African American Studies, and Film Studies at Yale University. He has authored or edited eighteen books and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post,TheVillage Voice, and many other publications. He has received fellowships from the John M. Guggenheim Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. He has produced several recordings and has appeared in a number of documentaries and television specials; as a jazz musician, he played the bass and trombone professionally for over a decade.

Souvankham Thammavongsa is a prize-winning poet and fiction writer, and author of three books of poetry, Light (2013) which received the Trillium Book Award, Found (2007), and Small Arguments (2003) which won the re-Lit Prize. Her stories have been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Harper’s, Granta, Ploughshares, NOON, and Best American Non-Required Reading. Her newest collection of poems, Cluster, was published by McClelland & Stewart in Canada in 2019 and her collection of stories, How to Pronounce Knife, is out now from McClelland & Stewart and Little, Brown.

Established in 1872, The Boston Globe is Boston and New England’s leading source for breaking news and analysis, with coverage from across the world. The Boston Globe has been awarded 26 Pulitzer Prizes throughout its history.

An ethnographer and arts journalist, Thornton has contributed to Artforum, The New Yorker, and The Economist, among other publications.

Tourmaline is an artist, activist, writer, and filmmaker whose work is dedicated to aestheticizing Black trans survival, beauty, and liberation. In addition to her prison abolition, Black liberation, and trans rights activism, she was featured in the Time 100 list in 2020, has directed several award-winning films and advertising campaigns, and has had her artwork acquired by MoMA, The Whitney, and The Tate.

Gayla Trail is the author, photographer, and designer of best-selling books on gardening, garden to table cooking, and preserving including: You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening, Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces and Easy Growing: Organic Herbs and Edible Flowers from Small Spaces.

Quincy Troupe is an awarding-winning author of ten volumes of poetry, three children’s books, and six non-fiction works.

Academy Award nominated writer and actress, Vardalos is best known for her films My Big Fat Greek Wedding, My Life in Ruins, and for her work as co-writer with Tom Hanks for Larry Crowne.

Senior Vice President and Creative Director of Jujamcyn Theaters, and Artistic Director of Encores!, Viertel has worked on such acclaimed shows as Jersey Boys, Fela!, and The Book Of Mormon. He also teaches at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Jessica Vitkus is a writer and television producer living in New York City. She has written craft stories and developed craft projects for Martha Stewart magazines and television, and has worked as a writer/producer for MTV News, Pop-Up Video,The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, andLate Night with Stephen Colbert.

Martha Wainwright is an internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter based in Montreal. She is the daughter of folk legends Loudon Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle and the sister of Rufus Wainwright.

Elijah Wald has been a folk blues guitarist since childhood and a writer for more than thirty years, and his work has appeared in publications such as the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, TheTower Pulse, Songlines, Sing Out, Living Blues, and The Boston Globe, where he served as world music critic throughout the 1990s. He won a Grammy in 2002 for his album notes for The Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Box, and has produced several albums and recorded two of his own. He has taught blues history at UCLA and lectured widely on American, Mexican, and world music.

Darren Walker is president of the Ford Foundation, an international social justice philanthropy with a $13 billion endowment and $600 million in annual grant making. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been included on numerous annual media lists, including Time’s annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, Rolling Stone’s 25 People Shaping the Future, Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative People, and OUT Magazine’s Power 50.

WSJ. Magazine is The Wall Street Journal’s award-winning luxury lifestyle magazine, published twelve times a year. WSJ. covers a wide range of cultural topics, from fashion and food to architecture and design and will celebrate its 10th anniversary in the Fall of 2018.

Lead singer of 5-time Grammy Award-winning girl-group TLC, Watkins is also the national spokesperson for sickle cell disease.