Authors & Speakers

Stimulating the minds and nurturing the souls of readers.

Main Stage

Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende has authored more than twenty-four bestselling and critically acclaimed books. Her most recent book, The Soul of a Woman, explores what feeds the soul of feminists—and all women—today.

Tom Brokaw

Tom Brokaw is one of America’s most trusted and respected journalists.

David Brooks has a gift for bringing audiences face to face with the spirit of our times with humor, insight and quiet passion. He is a keen observer of the American way of life and a savvy analyst of present-day poli...

Jeffrey Brown

In a career spanning more than twenty years at the NewsHour, Brown has interviewed numerous leading American and international newsmakers, moderated studio discussions on a vast array of topics, and reported from acro...

Billy Collins

A Guggenheim fellow and New York Public Library “Literary Lion” dubbed “the most popular poet in America” by Bruce Weber in the New York Times, Billy Collins quirky, tender, profound observations on the everyday...

Wade Davis

Wade Davis is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. Named by the NGS as one of the Explorers for the Millennium, he has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and pass...

Esi Edugyan

Esi Edugyan is the author of two Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning books, Washington Black (2018) and Half-Blood Blues (2011).

James and Deborah Fallows

James Fallows is the author of eleven books, including National Defense (1981), for which he received the 1983 National Book Award, Postcards from Tomorrow Square (2009), and China Airborne (2012). He has been a natio...

Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson, MA, DPhil, FRSE, is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. H...

Anthony Ray Hinton

Anthony Ray Hinton‘s memoir The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (2018) is an extraordinary journey through the traumas of imprisonment, the loss of freedom, and the power of hope.

Philip K. Howard

Philip K. Howard is the author of the bestseller The Death of Common Sense (Random House, 1995), and The Rule of Nobody (W.W. Norton, 2014), which was a finalist for the Hayek Book Prize.

Min Jin Lee

Min Jin Lee is a recipient of fiction fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. A New York Times bestseller, Pachinko i...

Doris Kearns Goodwin

Doris Kearns Goodwin is world-renowned for her five-decade career as a presidential historian and bestselling author. Her seventh book, Leadership in Turbulent Times, was an instant New York Times bestseller, providin...

Captain Scott Kelly

Captain Scott Kelly is a history-making U.S. astronaut & retired U.S. Navy Captain. His epic year in space catapulted him into the select company of Americans who embody a defining moment in the nation’s history.

Roger McNamee

If you had told Roger McNamee even three years ago that he would soon be devoting himself to stopping Facebook from destroying our democracy, he would have howled with laughter.

Lisa See

In her beloved New York Times bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, Dreams of Joy, and, most recently, China Dolls, Lisa See has brilliantly illuminated the strong bonds between wo...

Julia Flynn Siler

Julia Flynn Siler is a New York Times bestselling author and journalist whose latest book, The White Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Against Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown, was named an “Editors’ Choice”...

James Strock

James Strock strives to be a thinker as well as a doer, whose goal is to bridge the realms of thought and action.

Dr. Eric Topol

Eric Topol is the Founder and Director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI), Professor, Molecular Medicine, and Executive Vice-President of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI).

Amor Towles

The author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility has captivated readers around the world. Rules of Civility ( 2011) was a New York Times bestseller and was named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best ...

Jose Antonio Vargas

Vargas won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for his contributions to three Washington Post articles about the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007.

Jesmyn Ward

MacArthur Genius and two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward has been hailed as the standout writer of her generation, proving her “fearless and toughly lyrical” voice in novels, memoir, and nonfiction.

Simon Winchester, O.B.E.

Simon Winchester is the author of several works of travel writing, history, and acclaimed biography, including The Surgeon of Crowthorne (1998).

Speakers

Akbar Ahmed

Akbar Ahmed is Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, DC and former Pakistani High Commissioner to the U.K. and Ireland. Ambassador Ahmed was named “the world’s leading authority on...

Jamie Bernstein

Jamie Bernstein is a writer, broadcaster, concert narrator, and filmmaker who transformed a lifetime of loving music into a career of sharing her knowledge and excitement with others.

Jordan Blashek & Chris Haugh

Jordan Blashek and Chris Haugh‘s just released Union: A Democrat, a Republican, and a Search for Common Ground is the story of the two friends’ three-year journey across America.

Douglas Brinkley

Douglas Brinkley is a bestselling author, professor of history at Rice University, a Grammy-award winning producer and presidential historian for CNN. Eight of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Bo...

Tim Brown

Tim Brown is CEO and president of IDEO. He frequently speaks about the value of design thinking and innovation to business people and designers around the world. He participates in the World Economic Forum in Davos, S...

Charina Chou, Ph.D.

Charina Chou leads Google’s global public policy strategy for emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and health.

David Crane

David Crane is a lecturer in Public Policy at Stanford University and president of Govern for California.

Lukman Faily

Lukman Faily recently served as Ambassador to the United States for the Republic of Iraq from May 2013 until June 2016. He has been a high-profile spokesperson for his government and Iraqi affairs, engaging with membe...

Lisa Fenn

A three-time winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award and a six-time Emmy Award–winning feature producer with ESPN for thirteen years, Lisa interviewed every big name in sports.

Sally Fernandez

Sally Fernandez, a novelist of provocative political thrillers, wasn’t always twisting facts with fiction. Heavily endowed with skills acquired in banking, she embarked on her writing career.

Alex Filippenko

Alex Filippenko has produced five astronomy video courses with The Great Courses, co-authored an award-winning astronomy textbook (five editions), and appears in more than 120 television documentaries.

Chris Flink

Chris Flink has always found the Exploratorium phenomenally inspiring. He was honored to become its Executive Director in the summer of 2016 and is thrilled to be leading the innovative institution into its next half-...

Robert Franklin

Dr. Robert Michael Franklin, Jr. is the author of three books: Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities (2007); Another Day’s Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis (1997)...

Francis Fukuyama, Ph.D.

Francis Fukuyama is a renowned political scientist and public intellectual.

Adam Hochschild

Adam Hochschild’s latest release, Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, tells the astonishing but forgotten story of an immigrant sweatshop worker who married an heir to a great American fortune and ...

J. Douglas Holladay

J. Douglas Holladay is the author of Rethinking Success: Eight Essential Practices for Finding Meaning in Work and Life in which he shares how to find meaning, balance, and purpose throughout your career while reachin...

Pedro Irazoqui, Ph.D.

Dr. Irazoqui received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire, Durham in 1997 and 1999 respectively, and the Ph.D. in Neuroengineering from the University of Californ...

Steven Johnson

Steven Johnson is a thought leader of today’s interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to innovation.

Hawk Koch

Hawk Koch‘s Magic Time: My Life in Hollywood, is his personal, entertaining, retelling of his long and important career making and celebrating motion pictures.

Gordon Lithgow, Ph.D.

Dr. Lithgow sheds light on the mechanisms of aging by identifying agents that extend lifespan or prevent age-related disease.

Julie Lythcott-Haims

Julie Lythcott-Haims is the author of the New York Times best-selling book How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success (2015), and Real American: A Memoir (2017).

Mack McCarter

Mack McCarter has been on a journey to impact the world his entire life, and he has.

Michael McFaul

McFaul is a leading expert on international relations, Russian politics, American foreign policy, and democratic development around the world.

Mac McQuown

John “Mac” McQuown is a self-described anarchist, a legend in the finance industry, an environmentalist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and creator of the Stone Edge Farm Estate Vineyards and Winery in Sonoma.

John McReynolds

An early interest in food and wine led John McReynolds to the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, where he received a scholarship sponsored by Julia and Paul Child.

Bill Milliken

Bill Milliken, Founder and Vice Chairman of Communities In Schools, Inc., is one of the nation’s foremost pioneers in the movement to give young people the help they need to graduate from high school and go on t...

Alana Nichols

Alana Nichols is a world-class athlete with a passion for challenging herself and others.

Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes.

Colin O’Brady

Colin O’Brady‘s New York Times bestseller The Impossible First: From Fire to Ice – Crossing Antarctica Alone is his story of how he solo-walked 932 miles across Antarctica pulling a sled filled with food that started ...

Caitlin O’Connell, Ph.D.

O’Connell is the co-founder and CEO of the nonprofit organization Utopia Scientific, dedicated to research and science education.

R.J. Palacio

R.J. Palacio took the children’s literature world by storm with the publication of her debut novel, Wonder, a #1 New York Times bestseller that has sold over 1 million copies in North America.

Bill Petrocelli

Bill is the co-owner with his wife, Elaine, of the nationally known-bookstore Book Passage. Book Passage has three bookstores in California in Corte Madera, Sausalito, and at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner

Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner is Director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Professor of Neurology and Biochemistry at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).

Dr. Ramon Resa

Dr. Ramon Resa’s memoir Out of the Fields: My Journey from Farmworker Boy to Pediatrician shares how Ramon found the courage to pursue his vision of becoming a doctor, a healer who could save others from much of the m...

Richard Rhodes

Richard Rhodes is the author of twenty-six books including The Making of the Atomic Bomb, which won a Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction, a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award.

Joseph Rodota

Joseph Rodota’s new book The Watergate tells the story of this iconic building and its most famous residents over the span of more than 50 years. The Watergate called itself “a city within a city” and offered resident...

Daniel Rodriguez

At 5-foot-8, 175 pounds, Daniel Rodriguez was an unlikely recruit for gridiron. But on the battlefield, under the daily rain of sniper fire, he made a promise to his best friend. “When I get out of this, I’...

Jeffrey Rosen

Jeffrey Rosen is the author of seven books including, most recently, Conversations with RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and the Law.

Rebecca Rosenberg

Rebecca Rosenberg, author of the new historical novel nominated for the Best New Novel for the Center for Fiction, The Secret Life of Mrs. London, revealing the love triangle between Houdini, Charmian and Jack London.

Darcey Rosenblatt

Darcey Rosenblatt writes for middle grade and teenage people because she believes for them stories can be life changing – they were for her. Her debut novel Lost Boys (Henry Holt for Young Readers) was released in Aug...

Dan Russell

Daniel M. Russell‘s book, The Joy of Search: A Google Insider’s Guide to Going Beyond the Basics, explains how to frame search queries so they will yield information and describes the best ways to use such resources a...

John Burnham Schwartz

What best characterizes a John Burnham Schwartz novel is a quote from Reservation Road, the 1998 novel that cemented his reputation and was made into a screenplay…

Michael Shellenberger

Michael Shellenberger’s just released Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All has been called, “an extremely important book,” by none other than historian Richard Rhodes, who won the Pulitzer Prize f...

Dr. Gary Small

Dr. Gary Small invented the first brain scan that allows doctors to see the physical evidence of brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease in living people.

Anne Snyder

Anne Snyder is determined to make the world a better place through the lost art of building character and encourages us to join her mission.

Claire Spafford

Claire Spafford is the Science Educator at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

Robert Theleen

Robert Theleen was one of the first foreign directors of a major Chinese State-owned industry, the prestigious Beijing Enterprises.

Deepa Thomas

Deepa Thomas combines her passion for journalism with her love of cooking to create New Indian cuisine that can be found in her cookbook, Deepa’s Secrets. She is one of three nominees for the prestigious James B...

Trudi Trueit

“I’m a writer of middle grade fiction because middle school was a tough time for me. I was a brainy, awkward, and shy kid…So if I can make it a bit easier for a reader, if he/she can find something to identify with in...

Les Vadasz

Les was Executive Vice President and President of Intel Capital until his retirement in 2003. With Intel since 1968, Les was part of the founding management team of Andy Grove, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore.

Matthew Walker

Matthew Walker is dead serious about the dangers of sleep deprivation.

Justin Wangler and Tracey Shepos Cemani

Author-chefs Justin Wangler and Tracey Shepos Cemani have partnered with farmer Tucker Taylor, a world-renowned expert in sustainable culinary gardening, to celebrate the simple good taste of the farm-to-table lifesty...

Andy Weinberger

Andy Weinberger is the author of the Amos Parisman mysteries – An Old Man’s Game and the forthcoming Reason to Kill – and a long time bookseller who owns and runs Readers’ Books in Sonoma, California. Reader’s celebra...

Damon West

Damon West‘s memoir The Change Agent: How a Former College QB Sentenced to Life in Prison Transformed His World tells the harrowing story of his sentence to 65 years in a Texas prison after being convicted of drug-rel...

Wells Whitney, Sc.D.

Wells Whitney was born in 1933 and brought up in New York City and Boston. He received his BA from Harvard College and MS and ScD from MIT, and did a Postdoc year in Strasbourg, France.

Dr. R. Sanders Williams

Dr. Williams is President of the Gladstone Institutes & Gladstone’s Robert W. & Linda L. Mahley Distinguished Professor. The Gladstone Institutes have been actively working with Dr. Jennifer Doudna &...

Charles E. Young, Ph.D.

Dr. Charles E. Young is Chancellor Emeritus, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Andrew Zaldivar, Ph.D.

Andrew Zaldivar, Ph.D. is a Developer Advocate for Google AI where his exciting job is to bring the benefits of AI to the world. Zaldivar develops, evaluates and promotes tools and techniques that can help communities...

Legend

Students Day Speaker