Jane McAlevey
Power, Participation and Democracy: As a labor organizer, author and scholar, her work and activism focus on the intersection of power and strategy.
Society & Culture
Insightful and compelling lectures from leading figures in print and broadcast media
David Quammen
Quammen’s science journalism creates a fascinating blend of exploration and storytelling. He brilliantly explains complicated science concepts to his audiences. Three-time recipient of the National Magazine Award and long-time contributing writer for National Geographic.
Richard Rodriguez
An award–winning, thought provoking writer, hailed in The Washington Post as “one of the most eloquent and probing public intellectuals in America”.
Video: Richard Rodriguez at the Library of Congress
Jessica Valenti
Valenti is one of the Top 100 Inspiring Women in the world. Bestselling author and co-founder of award-winning blog, Feminsting.com, she speaks on feminism, politics and defying gender norms. A leading voice in the #MeToo movement.
Charles C. Mann
Offering valuable insights into the most significant events, from the European discovery of the Americas to the rise of the digital age, Charles Mann transforms our views of history. His book, The Wizard And The Prophet, asks the question “Can Earth support 10 billion people?”
Video: Charles Mann on how we will survive when the population hits 10 billion
Shola Lynch
Award-winning filmmaker, scholar, and prominent film curator known for the documentaries FREE ANGELA And All Political Prisoners, and Chisolm ’72-Unbought and Unbossed.
Video: Toronto International Film Festival Interview with Shola Lynch
Daisy Hernández
Award winning author, Hernandez crosses the barriers between race, gender, and media representation. Her bold insight emphasizes current disparities in today’s culture.
Arsalan Iftikhar
Islamic Human Rights attorney, media commentator, and founder of TheMuslimGuy.com, Iftikhar is an articulate voice in the battle against growing ‘Islamophobia’ in America.
Andres Oppenheimer
Pulitzer Prize winning Latin American journalist, and international authority on the growing dominance of Latin America in the global economy.
Bob Reiss
With climate change creating new access to the Arctic, “the region is in danger of becoming a 21st-century Wild West—a free-for-all for power and riches opening up at the top of the planet.”
Ted Conover
Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Award winning author who has worked as a correctional officer in a prison, and traveled from Mexico to the US with migrants crossing the border.
Video: Ted Conover at Whittier College
Michael Mann
Recognized as one of our planet’s heroes & part of the IPCC team that won the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Mann is an award-winning climate scientist and expert on climate change.
Charles Kimball
Middle East expert and analyst on world religions, Islam, Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations, and the intersection of religion and politics in America.
Urvashi Vaid
Nationally acclaimed LGBT leader, attorney, community organizer throughout her entire professional career. She offers an insightful analysis of the gay rights movement, past and future.
Video: Urvashi Vaid addresses the Fenway Health Women’s Dinner Party
Jianying Zha
Born in Beijing, educated in the West, journalist and author Jianying Zha brings unique insight into the rapid changes and movement in Chinese culture, politics, and economics.
Spencer Overton
Author of Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression, President of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and former Justice Department official.
Video: Spencer Overton on Voting Rights in the Age of Black Lives Matter
Lewis Hyde
Essayist, translator, scholar and poet whose work focuses on the nature of imagination, creativity, the “cultural commons” and, most recently, “the art of forgetting” as it appears in myth, politics, art and spiritual life. A true “writer’s writer.”
Warren Faidley
Take the ride of your life as this original Storm Chaser, full time extreme weather journalist and storm survival expert shares his life search of the perfect storm.