Allison Pugh is a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on how meaningful emotional connections between people are shaped and impeded by trends such as rationalization, job insecurity and inequalities of gender, race and class.

https://www.allisonpugh.com/

Senior pastor at Calvary Ballard.  

Dr Arik Kershenbaum is a zoologist, College Lecturer, and Fellow at Girton College, University of Cambridge. He has researched animal vocal communication for the past ten years in Europe, Israel and the United States and has published more than twenty academic publications on the topic. He is also a member of the international board of advisors for METI.org, a think tank on the topic of Messaging Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. Arik has done extensive field work on animal communication, following wolves around Yellowstone National Park and the forests of central Wisconsin to uncover the meaning of their different kinds of howls, as well as decoding the whistles of dolphins among the coral reefs of the Red Sea, and the songs of hyraxes in the Galilee

Brian J. McVeigh has an MA and a PhD in anthropology from Princeton University, as well as an MS in counseling. He is interested in how the human mind adapts, both through history and psychotherapeutically. Inspired by and using the theories of Julian Jaynes as a theoretical framework, he has published 16 books on the history of Japanese psychology, the origins of religions, the Bible, spirit possession, art and popular culture, linguistics, nationalism, and changing definitions of self, time, and space. He has lived and worked in Japan and China for many years, taught at the University of Arizona for ten years, and now works in private practice as a licensed mental health counselor.

Carl Zimmer writes the “Origins” column for the New York Times. His writing has earned a number of awards, including the Stephen Jay Gould Prize, awarded by the Society for the Study of Evolution. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he contributed to the coverage that won the New York Times the public service Pulitzer Prize in 2021.  Zimmer is a familiar voice on radio programs such as Radiolab and professor adjunct at Yale University. He is, to his knowledge, the only writer after whom both a species of tapeworm and an asteroid have been named.

Claire Dederer is a memoirist, essayist, and critic. Her books include the national bestseller Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma; the critically acclaimed Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning; and Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses, which was a New York Times bestseller. 

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma is Dederer’s new nonfiction book investigating good art made by bad people. A hybrid of essay, criticism, and memoir, Monsters is based on her globally viral 2017 essay for the Paris Review, “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?”  She began her career as the chief film critic for Seattle Weekly. 

Dederer is the recipient of a Hedgebrook residency and a Lannan Foundation residency. Dederer lives in Seattle.

Past: NFL reporter, radio host. Currently: Narrative non-fiction writer, newsletter operator and aspiring author. Future: Content creator coach.  Subscribe now: youcancoachtalent.com,  grudgery.com 

Pastor for Calvary Chapel Sequim.  Apparently he's also a pretty good musician. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMAKtElcpHU.   David also runs a Ramen restaurant in Sequim called Soup in the Alley.  

Dr. Vora takes a functional medicine approach to mental health, considering the whole person and addressing the problem at the root, rather than reflexively prescribing medication to suppress symptoms.

She takes the whole person into consideration, focusing on everything from physical health, sleep, nutrition, digestion, thought patterns, relationships and community, to our connection with nature, creativity, and purpose.

Jamie Ford, born James Ford (July 9, 1968), is an American author who gained notoriety with his debut novel, "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet." He is ethnically half Chinese, and his first two books focused on the Chinese-American experience and the city of Seattle.

Rock star, basketball enthusiast, avid reader, unabashed liberal in a red state. 

Jim Pattiz is an award-winning filmmaker and conservationist who serves as the co-founder of More Than Just Parks. Jim has spent his career traveling to some of America’s most wild and precious spaces telling the stories of public lands and advocating land conservation. Jim’s favorite National Park is Sequoia & favorite National Forest is the Black Hills.

Jim Thomsen has been a manuscript editor since 2010. He has provided developmental editing, line editing, copy editing and proofreading services to more than three hundred author clients since 2010. Before, he spent more than twenty years as a reporter and copy editor at newspapers all over the West Coast. He is based in his childhood hometown of Bainbridge Island, Washington, and can usually be found wielding his red pen in the island’s coffee shops, pubs and cafés. When not editing, Jim can be found writing and reading hardboiled crime fiction, and taking “Noir Where You Are” photographs for his Instagram page.

Joe Posnanski is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including The Baseball 100, Paterno, and The Secret of Golf. He has written for The Athletic, Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports, and The Kansas City Star and currently writes at JoePosnanski.com. He has been named National Sportswriter of the Year by five different organizations and is the winner of two Emmy Awards. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his family.

Josh Fernandez is an anti-racist organizer, father, runner, fighter, English professor, and a writer, whose stories have appeared in Spin, the Sacramento Bee, The Hard Times, and several alternative news weeklies. He lives in Sacramento, CA.

Meet J.W. Ocker, author of Cult Following. This international compendium of 30 infamous cults “sheds light on the terrifying attraction of cults, demonstrating the elasticity of belief, the desperateness of belonging and the tragedy of trust.” It explores how ordinary people can be duped by extreme and sinister groups — whether they believe in aliens or the apocalypse.

This accessible, engaging collection covers historic cults such as the Breatharians, Heaven’s Gate and NXIVM with Ocker’s characteristic blend of research, curiosity and humor.

Ocker is also the author of Cursed Objects and The United States of Cryptids.

Kasey Meehan is the Freedom to Read Program Director at PEN America, leading our initiatives to protect the right of students to freely access literature in schools. Previously, Kasey served as the Associate Director of Postsecondary Policy at a mission-driven education research organization in Philadelphia, Research for Action. Kasey’s research centers students, educators, and school leaders’ experiences in identifying strategies for reform and capturing emerging best practices and strives to connect research to policy and program change. Kasey holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a MPA from the Fels Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, along with a Certificate in Politics.

Rita Omokha is an award-winning Nigerian American journalist in New York City. 

 Her writing on politics, race, and vulnerable communities has been featured on CNN and in Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast, Elle, Glamour, The Guardian, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, and WIRED, among other publications and outlets.

​

She has written about policing in America, federal inaction on growing numbers of COVID orphans, and missing and murdered Indigenous women. 

​

She's an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she graduated at the top of the 2020 class, receiving some of the institution’s highest awards, including the Pulitzer Prize Traveling Fellowship.

​

Prof Sander van der Linden is a Dutch-Jewish behavioral scientist, Professor of Social Psychology, and popular science writer and author. He is ranked among the top 1% of highly cited social scientists worldwide. His work is regularly featured in outlets such as the New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, and the BBC. He has been described by Wired magazine as one of "15 top thinkers" and by Fast Company Design as one "four heroes who are defending digital democracy online". Before joining Cambridge, he held academic positions at Princeton and Yale. 

Stephanie Land is an American author and public speaker. She is best known for writing Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive, which was adapted to television miniseries Maid for Netflix. Her second memoir, Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education explores the challenges of single parenting and poverty while attending college. Land has also written several articles about maid service work, domestic abuse and poverty in the United States. 

Steve Almond is the author of eleven books of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. His essays and reviews have been published in venues ranging from the New York Times Magazine to Ploughshares to Poets & Writers, and his short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Mysteries, and Best American Erotica. Almond is the recipient of grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. He cohosted the Dear Sugars podcast with his pal Cheryl Strayed for four years, and teaches Creative Writing at the Neiman Fellowship at Harvard and Wesleyan. He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts, with his family and his anxiety.

Mudhoney founder, author, father, folk music enthusiast and vinyl collector.  

Will Pattiz is an award-winning filmmaker & conservationist who serves as the co-founder of More Than Just Parks. Will has spent his entire adult life capturing the beauty of our public lands in an effort to protect them for future generations. 

Will’s favorite National Park (right now) is Olympic & favorite National Forest is the Deschutes.