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.
Award-winning writer, editor and author of Facebook Fairytales: Modern-Day Miracles to Inspire the Human Spirit, Liebert examines the positive power and untapped potential of the social networking revolution, beginning with 25 true stories of hope and triumph reaching across cultures — all resulting from Facebook connections.
Director of the multi-award-winning documentary “Darius Goes West,” which chronicles the epic cross-country road trip he and 10 others took with Darius Weems, a friend stricken with fatal Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Smalley is a change agent for a new generation. He and Darius prove that idealism and creativity can result in tangible progress.
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).
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.
Acclaimed journalist, photographer and author of Wild Planet, Tom Clynes, longtime Contributing Editor at National Geographic Adventure brings audiences along on assignment to the ends of the Earth, telling the stories of individuals who managed to shape once-ordinary lives into extraordinary, world-changing adventures, and how each of us can do the same.
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.
Author of Live From the Campaign Trail: The Greatest Presidential Campaign Speeches of the 20th Century and How They Shaped Modern America, Cohen, a Fellow at the Century Foundation, writes and lectures on wide-ranging political and national security issues, including the war in Afghanistan, the ongoing militarization of American foreign policy.
A writer, scholar, musician, and documentarian, Zweig’s work delves into the connections between our culture and our experiential reality. His acclaimed novel, Swimming Inside the Sun, spawned the groundbreaking theory “Fiction Depersonalization Syndrome,” which addresses our increasing isolation, despite our being more technologically-connected than ever.
Author and staff cartoonist for The New Yorker, Liza Donnelly’s personal journey to success in a field dominated by men fuels her passion to expose cultural stereotypes, working with international cartoonists as editor of World Ink, a site dedicated to political cartoons from around the world.
Award-winning New York Times journalist and author of the bestseller Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen, Drape paints an inspiring portrait of a small town in Kansas that actually believes it takes a village to raise a child, and how its long-undefeated football team (79 games in a row) has embodied this ideal.
Award-winning New York Times columnist, bestselling author of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Black Athlete, and frequent guest on ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters,” Rhoden uses the metaphors of sports to address crucial issues and conflicts in contemporary American society.
Former Executive Director of GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), Garry is widely recognized as one of the most vocal, passionate and effective civil rights leaders in America. She is a featured blogger at The Huffington Post, and frequently contributes commentary to major news publications and TV networks.
In his book Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet, Stibel, a brain scientist, entrepreneur and Chairman and CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp, demonstrates how the Internet has effectively replicated the human brain, and how the future of business lies in leveraging the understanding of these similarly complex networks.
Author of the bestselling book and nationally syndicated column ¡Ask a Mexican!, and Orange County: A Personal History, Arellano, also a contributing editor to the LA Times, addresses immigration, integration and the role of stereotypes in American society, and helps organizations to better connect with Latinos.
Author of the memoir Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army, Williams, a former sergeant and Arabic linguist in a military intelligence unit of the 101st Airborne in Iraq, addresses the shifting role of women in society, the changing demands on today’s military, and the treatment/reintegration of veterans.
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.
Based upon the acclaimed book he co-authored, Separate, But Equal: The Mississippi Photographs of Henry Clay Anderson, filmmaker Shawn D. Wilson’s documentary explores the all black, separate-but-equal town of Greenville, MS in the 1950s-60s, and asks a most provocative question about desegregation: “Did we lose more than we gained?”
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.
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.
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.
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.
Author of the acclaimed memoir, The War I Always Wanted, Friedman is currently Director of New Media at the Department of Veterans Affairs. He served from ’07-’09 as Vice Chairman of VoteVets.org and as editor of the blog VetVoice, and has worked extensively across all media platforms to communicate progressive defense and foreign policy strategies
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.
Author of the acclaimed book Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology, Chiles, a renowned technology and history writer, helps organizations assess risk and avoid catastrophe by examining the repeating patterns of historical and contemporary disasters, and applying the lessons learned to each organization’s daily processes.
Award-winning former LA Times journalist, and author of the memoir Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America, Lobdell shares his spiritual journey investigating and reconciling the many oft-conflicting facets of faith in America, which took him from evangelical Christian to reluctant atheist.
