Joshua Foer (born Sept. 23, 1982) is a freelance journalist living in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, with a primary focus on science. He was the 2006 U.S.A. Memory Champion, which was described in his 2011 book, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.

Foer is the younger brother of former New Republic editor Franklin Foer and novelist Jonathan Safran Foer. He is the son of Esther Foer, president of a public relations firm, and Albert Foer, a think-tank president. He was born in Washington, D.C. and attended Georgetown Day School. In 2004, he graduated from Yale University, where he lived in Silliman College and then Trumbull College.

Foer is married to Dinah Herlands, a medical student he met while studying at Yale.

Foer sold his first book, Moonwalking with Einstein|Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, to Penguin for publication in March 2011. He received a $1.2 million advance for the book when he was 24. Film rights were optioned by Columbia Pictures shortly after publication.

Gretchen Craft Rubin (born Kansas City, Missouri) is an American author and blogger. She is author of The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, along with her soon to to be released follow up Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life. Her first book, Power Money Fame Sex: A User’s Guide, parodied self-help books by analyzing and exposing the techniques used to exploit those who strive for those worldly ambitions.

Rubin is also the author and creator of the popular blog The Happiness Project where she writes about her adventures as she test-drives the studies and theories about how to be happier.

Her soon to be released follow up to The Happiness Project, Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life, comes out September 4, 2012.

Simon O. Sinek (born October 9, 1973) is an author and best known for developing "The Golden Circle" and popularizing a concept of human motivation. He joined the RAND Corporation in 2010 as an adjunct staff member, where he advises on matters of military innovation and planning. His first TEDx Talk on "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" is the 19th most viewed video on TED.com. His book on the same subject, "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action," (2009) delves into a naturally occurring pattern, grounded in the biology of human decision-making, that explains why we are inspired by some people, leaders, messages and organizations over others.

He writes for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, FastCompany, CMO Magazine, NPR and BusinessWeek, and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post, BrandWeek, IncBizNet.

Sinek was born in Wimbledon, England; at a young age he moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, then to London, then to Hong Kong, before settling in New Jersey. He earned a BA degree in cultural anthropology from Brandeis University; he attended City University in London with the intention of becoming a barrister, but left law school to go into advertising.

Heather Lynaye Floyd Payne (born January 18, 1970) is a solo Contemporary Christian music artist and founding member of group Point of Grace. She announced her retirement from the group in June 2008. She has won 8 Dove Awards with Point of Grace.

Payne was born in Texas, but attended middle school and high school in Norman, Oklahoma, where she met Denise Masters and Terry Lang. She developed her vocal abilities at an early age; her first solo was in church when she was three years old. Her mother accompanied her as she sang the old hymn "Fill Me Jesus." In high school, she sang in the show choir, which required dancing as well as singing. She was also reunited with Terry and Denise during her first year at Ouachita. The three of them sang together in the Ouachitones, a group made up of fourteen women. Within the group, the girls performed as a trio. One night, they decided to spend their summer vacation driving around and singing in churches. After Denise's roommate Shelley Phillips joined, Say So was born. They travelled all summer, and sang together during the weekends while in school. They recorded an independent album, and really did not have any plans of pursuing a record deal, but after one member's grandparents signed them up to go to the Christian Artists Seminar in Estes Park, CO, they ended up winning the Overall Grand Prize in the Group competition and caught the ear of several record companies. They ended up signing with Word Records and moved to Nashville, TN to begin work on their debut album.

Baratunde Rafiq Thurston (born September 11, 1977 in Washington, D.C.) is an American comedian based in Boston and New York City.

Thurston grew up on Newton Street in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington. His father was killed when he was young and his mother worked in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. In junior high, his mother and he moved to a suburban black neighborhood in Maryland. He attended the Sidwell Friends School and Harvard University. Baratunde was still a virgin when he graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Philosophy.

Thurston is the author of three self-published books:

As part of Laughing Liberally, Thurston emceed the YearlyKos convention in 2006 and also appeared in 2007.

Thurston has contributed to the Huffington Post and the Weekly Dig. More recently Thurston has become a semi-regular panelist on the podcast this Week in Tech with Leo Laporte.

Thurston began hosting the Popular Science's Future Of television show on the Science Channel in August 2009.