Yancey Strickler is a writer and the cofounder and former CEO of Kickstarter, the Public Benefit Company that pioneered crowdfunding and has helped artists and creators bring more than 100,000 creative projects to life. His book, This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World is a vision for building a society that looks beyond money and toward maximizing the values that make life worth living.

Booker T. Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger. Best known as the front man of the band Booker T. & the M.G.’s, He won a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement and along with the band, he was inducted into the Rock and  Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. He continues to record and tour both as a solo artist and as head of the “Booker T’s Stax Revue. Time is Tight is the deeply moving account of how Jones balanced the brutality of the segregationist South with the loving support of his family and community, all while transforming a burgeoning studio into a musical mecca.  He shares about the inner workings of the Stax label, as well as a fascinating portrait of working with many of the era’s most legendary performers-Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and Tom Jones, among them.

Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street is changing the way America cooks for the better—with simpler techniques, fresher flavors, and trustworthy recipes that just work. The result is a growing fan base that loves how Milk Street makes cooking fun again. Now, Kimball returns with a back-to-basics book packed with transformative lessons embedded in everyday recipes that will upgrade the way you cook. In MILK STREET: The New Rules, Kimball defines 75 new rules that will dramatically simplify your time in the kitchen and improve your results. These powerful principles appear in more than 200 recipes that teach you not only how to make your food more delicious and interesting, but precisely whyeach recipe works.

John Hodgman is a writer, comedian, and actor. He is the author of The Areas of My Expertise, More Information Than You Require, That Is All, and Vacationland. He is the host of the popular Judge John Hodgman podcast and also contributes a weekly column under the same name for The New York Times Magazine. His new book, Medallion Status, is a thoughtful examination of status, fame, and identity–and about the way we all deal with those moments when we realize we aren’t platinum status anymore and will have to get comfortable in that middle seat again.

Busy Philipps is an actress best known for roles in cult TV classics like Freaks and Geeks, Dawson’s Creek, Cougar Town, ER, and, most recently, HBO’s Vice Principals. She has appeared in fan-favorite films such as Made of Honor,
I Don’t Know How She Does It, He’s Just Not That Into You, White Chicks, and The Gift. She also was one of the writers of the hit film Blades of Glory and hosted of late-night talk show Busy Tonight, on E!. This Will Only Hurt a Little showcases Busy’s wry wit, skillful storytelling, and an unvarnished perspective that is by turns vulnerable and self-assured.  From (in her mom’s one-of-a-kind words) “acing out in her nudes” as an already headstrong two-year-old, through painful and painfully funny teenage years in Scottsdale, Arizona, to finding her voice and her place as a working actress, wife, mother, and fiercely loyal friend—Busy’s reflections on life, love, and making a living are smart and refreshingly honest.

In her memoir, Tough Love, Ambassador Susan Rice recalls pivotal moments from her dynamic career on the front lines of American diplomacy and foreign policy delivering an inspiring account of a life in service to family and country. She served as National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Mike Isaac, a New York Times technology correspondent presents the dramatic story of Uber, the Silicon Valley startup at the center of one of the great venture capital power struggles of our time. Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped presents the dramatic rise and fall of Uber, set against an era of rapid upheaval in Silicon Valley. Backed by billions in venture capital dollars and led by a brash and ambitious founder, Uber promised to revolutionize the way we move people and goods through the world. A near instant “unicorn,” Uber seemed poised to take its place next to Amazon, Apple, and Google as a technology giant. What followed would become a corporate cautionary tale about the perils of startup culture and a vivid example of how blind worship of startup founders can go wildly wrong. 

Pico Iyer, the acclaimed author of The Art of Stillness--one of our most engaging and discerning travel writers–a unique, indispensable guide to the enigma of contemporary Japan.  Iyer is the author of eight works of nonfiction and two novels. A writer for Time since 1982, he is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, the Los Angeles Times, the Financial Times, and many other magazines and newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific. He splits his time between Japan, and the United States.  His books include Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk,  The Global Soul, The Man Within My Head, The Open Road, The Art of Stillness and Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells.  His novels are Cuba and the Night and Abandon.

Debbie Harry is a musician, actor, activist, and the iconic face of New York City cool. As the frontwoman of Blondie, she and the band forged a new sound that brought together the worlds of rock, punk, disco, reggae and hip-hop to create some of the most beloved pop songs of all time. With Blondie she has sold millions of albums worldwide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Chris Stein is the co-founder, songwriter, and guitarist of the iconic punk band Blondie. His photographic work has been featured in galleries and press around the world.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and one of the tech industry’s broadest thinkers, shares a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates. He leads a team of more than 1,400 business, legal and corporate affairs professionals working in 56 countries. He plays a key role in spearheading the company’s work on critical issues involving the intersection of technology and society, including cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, human rights, immigration, philanthropy and environmental sustainability.