Award-winning author of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, in which she explores one of the most transformative inventions of the 20th century, Freinkel writes about the intersection of science, culture, and the environment, and the issues that arise from humans’ seemingly ceaseless effort to control the natural world.
Economics
Robert Levine
The Internet was going to move us into the “information economy” – but information is worth less than ever. In Free Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back, acclaimed journalist and former Exec. Editor of Billboard, Levine, lays out how the media business can save itself (in spite of itself).
James G. Workman
Award-winning journalist and author of Heart of Dryness, James G. Workman has devoted his life to helping solve the overriding paradox of our time: Water conservation is, ironically, unsustainable. But, why? A former advisor shaping national and global policy under Bruce Babbitt and Nelson Mandela, Workman addresses this riddle in a compelling multimedia program.
Ben Hewitt
Author of the critically acclaimed The Town That Food Saved and the forthcoming Making Supper Safe, Ben Hewitt, a diversified, small-scale farmer, shows how regionalized agriculture and food production holds the potential to reinvigorate our bodies, communities, and economies.
Saleem H. Ali
Author of Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future, Saleem H. Ali is professor of environmental planning and conflict resolution at the University of Vermont. Named one of eight “Revolutionary Minds in the World” by Seed magazine, Dr. Ali is a leading advocate for cross-cultural environmental pragmatism.
Michael A. Cohen
Author of Live From the Campaign Trail: The Greatest Presidential Campaign Speeches of the 20th Century and How They Shaped Modern America, Cohen, a Senior Fellow at the American Security Program, writes and lectures on wide-ranging political and national security issues, including the war in Afghanistan, the ongoing militarization of American foreign policy.
Robert Glennon
Author of Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It, Glennon, the Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Arizona, addresses America’s onrushing water shortage, and provides a provocative solution in the form of a market-based system that values water as both a commodity and a fundamental human right.
Tom Philpott
Food & Agriculture blogger at Mother Jones, and co-founder of Maverick Farms, a center for sustainable-food education, Philpott was named one of Food & Wine’s “ten innovators” who will “continue to shape [America’s] culinary consciousness.” Until recently, he was Food editor at Grist.org, where his biweekly “Victual Reality” column was a must-read on food politics.
Andrew Leonard
A Senior writer at Salon.com, Leonard writes the hybrid blog/column “How the World Works” – a venue for exploring the interconnections between globalization, energy policy, economics, the environment, technology and politics; and, particularly the extent to which these inextricably linked subjects are driven by, and affect, China, India and the U.S.
Edward Miguel
Co-Author of Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence and the Poverty of Nations, and author of Africa’s Turn?, Miguel is the Director of the Center of Evaluations for Global Action at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is an associate professor in economics, with a research focus on African economic development.
John Bowe
Award-winning New Yorker journalist and author of Pulitzer Prize nominee Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy, Bowe examines how outsourcing, subcontracting, immigration fraud, and the relentless pursuit of “everyday low prices” have created a frightening new market for slavery in America.
Raymond Fisman
Co-Author of Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence and the Poverty of Nations, Fisman is the Lambert Family Professor of Social Enterprise and Director of the Social Enterprise Program at the Columbia Business School. He also writes a monthly column for Slate on economics and popular culture.
