Past Events

Mary Pipher, Ph.D.

Psychologist, cultural anthropologist, and bestselling author

Nancy Burgoyne, Ph.D.

Chief Clinical Officer, The Family Institute at Northwestern University

Maggie Smith

Award-winning author and poet

Rainesford Stauffer

Writer, essayist, and author

Kelly Cervantes

Award-winning writer, speaker, and advocate

Christie Tate

Writer, essayist, and New York Times bestselling author

Alexandra H. Solomon, Ph.D.

Award-winning author, podcast host, professor, and licensed clinical psychologist, The Family Institute at Northwestern University

Esther Perel

Psychotherapist, podcast host, and New York Times bestselling author

Tariq Trotter, aka Black Thought

Platinum-selling, three-time Grammy-winning co-founder of The Roots

Theaster Gates

Artist, archivist, curator, and professor and Special Advisor to the President at the University of Chicago

Margaret Renkl

Award-winning bestselling author and a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times

Mary Laura Philpott

Bestselling author of "I Miss You When I Blink" and "Bomb Shelter"

Stephanie Land

New York Times bestselling author

Molly Smith Metzler

Award-winning playwright and screenwriter

Ben Wildavsky

Host of the "Higher Ed Spotlight" podcast and visiting scholar at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development

Sara Allan

Incoming president of the Valhalla Foundation and former Director in the U.S. Education Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Mitch Prinstein, Ph.D., ABPP

Chief Science Officer of the American Psychological Association and the John Van Seters Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Eva Telzer, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at UNC Chapel Hill and co-director of the Winston National Center on Technology Use, Brain, and Psychological Development

Claudia Welke, MD

Child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Compass Health Center and Compass Virtual

Devorah Heitner, Ph.D.

Educator, consultant, and author of Growing Up in Public and Screenwise

Heidi Stevens

Chicago-based writer and Director of External Affairs for the University of Chicago’s TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health