Bill Blakemore became a reporter for ABC News 46 years ago, covering a wide variety of stories. He spearheaded ABC’s coverage of global warming, traveling from the tropics to polar regions to report on its impacts, dangers, and possible remedies.

Gary Small is the co-inventor of the first brain-scanning technology to detect the physical evidence of Alzheimer’s disease in living people. He also led the team of neuroscientists that was the first to reveal that Internet searching may result in rapid and significant alterations in brain neural circuitry.

John Lithgow’s many Broadway appearances include The Changing Room, My Fat Friend, Trelawney of the Wells, Comedians, Anna Christie, Once in a Lifetime, Spokesong, Bedroom Farce, Beyond Therapy, Requiem for a Heavyweight, The Front Page, M. Butterfly, and Sweet Smell of Success.

Emmy Award-winning journalist Elizabeth Vargas has traveled the world covering breaking news stories, reporting in-depth investigations, and conducting newsmaker interviews. She is the host of A&E Investigates.

Robert Anderson has a message that resonates with audiences as he talks of building the smallest team to ascend Everest’s largest face, without oxygen.

Eric DeCamps is the personification of a magician. Every one of his performances is filled with compelling stories and visual artistry, and at every turn, he performs the seemingly impossible. DeCamps has been a serious student of the art of magic for over 30 years.

Chris Eckstrom is a writer, videographer, and producer. Her stories have appeared in National Geographic Magazine, Audubon, International Wildlife, National Geographic Traveler, and other publications. Her Traveler story, “The Last Real Africa,” won a 2007 Lowell Thomas Award for Best Magazine Article on Foreign Travel from the Society of American Travel Writers.

Bill Ritter is a television news anchor and journalist. He began his journalism career as a newspaper reporter, for the Los Angeles Times and others, before moving into television. His work in local and national television has taken him to political conventions for almost 20 years.

Recognized for his contributions to sleep research, Carlos H. Schenck has helped identify a wide range of extreme sleep behaviors known as parasomnias and therapies to treat them, as well as their potential forensic consequences.

Louie Psihoyos (rhymes with Sequoias) has been widely regarded as one of the top photographers in the world. He was hired directly out of college to shoot for National Geographic and created images for the yellow-bordered magazine for 18 years.

Mike Daisey has been called “the master storyteller” and “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by The New York Times for his groundbreaking monologs, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone.

Award-winning broadcaster and author Lynn Sherr spent more than thirty years with ABC News, covering a wide range of stories—from women’s issues and social change to investigative reports, politics and the space program—at 20/20 and World News.

Dan Harris was named co-anchor of ABC News’ weekend edition of Good Morning America in October 2010. Additionally, Harris is a New York-based correspondent for ABC News’ broadcasts and platforms.

Joe Levy is the chief content officer for Maxim. A longtime music journalist, Levy was executive editor of Rolling Stone, where he wrote about Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and the Beastie Boys, as well as other artists whose names do not begin with “b.” Frequently seen as a commentator on VH1, MTV, The Today Show, and Biography, Levy is also an adjunct professor at NYU’s Clive Davis School of Record Music.

Julie Burstein is a Peabody Award-winning radio producer, best-selling author, and public speaker who has spent her working life in conversation with highly creative people. She is the co-author of Spark: How Creativity Works.

Robin Lloyd is responsible for editing and assigning stories for ScientificAmerican.com. She also manages Scientific American’s Twitter feed. Previously, she was a senior editor at LiveScience.com and SPACE.com. She has additional experience in print journalism (Pasadena Star–News); wire journalism (City News Service of Los Angeles); and network online journalism (CNN.com).

Jonathan Gottschall writes books about the intersection of science and art. He is one of the leading figures in a new movement that is trying to bridge the humanities-sciences divide.

Daniela O’Neill has spent more than 20 years researching child psychology, with a focus on how children learn to communicate and understand their own and other people’s minds.

Peter Staley has been a long-term AIDS and gay rights activist, first as a member of ACT UP New York, then as the founding director of TAG, the Treatment Action Group. He served on the board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) for 13 years.

Ophira Eisenberg is a comedian, writer, and host of NPR’s new weekly trivia comedy show, Ask Me Another. Her writing has been published in five anthologies and she is a regular host and teller with The Moth.

Emmy Award-winning journalist David Novarro is co-anchor of Eyewitness News First on Channel 7 WABC-TV in New York. A native of Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Queens, Novarro started his career with Eyewitness News as a college intern and rose through the ranks to become a reporter.

Terry Moran is a co-anchor of ABC News’ Nightline and covers the Supreme Court for the network from his base in Washington, DC. At Nightline Moran has led the program’s distinguished coverage of many of the major news stories over the past several years.

Jami Floyd is an award-winning journalist and national television personality. She is the former anchor of Court TV’s Jami Floyd: Best Defense, a daily live show that tackled the day’s front-page legal stories.

When Danielle Ofri isn’t seeing patients at Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the country, she’s writing about the doctor-patient connection for The New York Times, Slate, and other publications. She’s editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review.

Eddie Goldstein is a science communicator, program developer and performer who specializes in creating dynamic presentations, demonstrations and exhibits for museums and science centers. He also coaches scientists in communication skills to help them better tell the science stories that they want to tell.

Raychelle Burks is an analytical chemist and assistant professor at St. Edward’s University. She has a background in forensic science, having a passion for scientific detection since junior high school. Out of the lab, Dr. Burks specializes in applying scientific principles to stories and trends in popular culture.

Pilobolus is a rebellious dance company. For 45 years, Pilobolus has tested the limits of human physicality to explore the beauty and the power of connected bodies. They continue to bring this tradition to global audiences through our post-disciplinary collaborations with some of the greatest influencers, thinkers, and creators in the world.

Susannah Meadows is a former Senior Writer for Newsweek. She has been a frequent contributor to The New York Times, most recently writing a column for the Arts section about books, along with reviews.

Aneesh Chaganty is a write and director whose two minute short film, a Google Glass spot called “Seeds”, became an internet sensation after garnering more than 1 million YouTube views in 24 hours. He is a recipient of the Future of Storytelling Fellowship.

Leo Lo is a senior at Jericho High School. Lo has conducted nano-optics research at Stony Brook University for 2 years, creating a computer simulation platform that could improve the accuracy of the state-of-the-art optical nano-imaging method.

David Pogue is a four-time Emmy winner for his stories on CBS Sunday Morning, host of 17 science specials on NOVA on PBS, and the “Crowdwise” columnist for The New York Times.

Brian Floca is the author and illustrator of Locomotive, winner of the 2013 Caldecott Medal; Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book; Lightship, also a Sibert Honor Book; and Racecar Alphabet, an ALA Notable Children’s Book.

Rachel Dougherty is the illustrator of three educational picture books, Your Life as a Cabin Attendant on the Titanic, Your Life as a Pioneer on the Oregon Trail, and The Twelve Days of Christmas in Pennsylvania. She is a lifelong history buff and believes that some of the best stories out there are the true ones.

Loren Grush is a senior science reporter for The Verge, the technology and culture brand from Vox Media, where she specializes in all things space—from distant stars and planets to human spaceflight and the commercial space race.